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EUGENE, Ore. – 17 current or former Pac-12 track and field athletes have punched their tickets to the 2016 Olympic Games over the past 10 days. Seven of those qualifications happened in the final two days of competition.
Washington State alum Bernard Lagat proved that age is just a number on Saturday. At 41 years old, many expected his career to be fading. However, after winning the United State Olympic Trials 5,000m in 13:35.50, he proved them wrong.
“All I had to do was concentrate, be patient, and wait until there was 100 meters to go,” says Lagat. He did just that and gave the nearly 23,000 fans in attendance quite the show as he kicked down the leader. Lagat’s last lap was clocked at 52.82 seconds.
While a Cougar, Lagat was a three-time Pac-10 champion, 11-time All-American and three-time NCAA Champion. In 1999, he was named the Pac-10 Men’s Track & Field Co-Athlete of the Year.
Current Oregon Duck Devon Allen also gave the crowds what they wanted. The dual sport star ran a lifetime best 13.03 in the men’s 110m hurdles to win the meet and earn a spot on the United States team.
Allen, also a member of the Oregon football team, was injured during the 2015 Rose Bowl game. He was determined to come back from his injury better than ever. After earning a spot on one of the world's most competitive teams, it seems safe to say that he has done just that.
In Sunday's action, Arizona State alumna Shelby Houlihan ran 15:06.14 in the women’s 5000m to finish second and earn her spot on the Olympic team.
While a Sun Devil, Houlihan was a seven-time All-Academic honoree and 12-time All-American. She also set four school records for the Sun Devils in the 800m, 1500m, mile and 3000m. She now lives and trains in Portland, Oregon with the Bowerman Track Club.
Another Pac-12 alumna was crowned a champion in the women’s 1,500m. Colorado’s Jenny Simpson won the meet in 4:04.74 to earn a spot on her third Olympic team.
While a Buff, Simpson was a seven-time All-American and four-time NCAA Champion. Simpson also set four collegiate records in the indoor mile, 1500m, 3000m and 5000m.
The men’s side of the event also saw a Pac-12 alum crowned champion. Oregon’s Matthew Centrowitz won the event and set a new Olympic Trials record, running 3:34.09 over 1500m. This is his second Olympic team.
As a Duck, Centrowitz was a three-time Pac-12 Champion, seven-time All-American and the NCAA Champion in the 1500m. He also set two school records in the 1500m and indoor distance medley relay.
Perhaps where Pac-12 athletes shined brightest was in the women’s 200m. Half of the athletes who made up the final field hail from Pac-12 schools: Allyson Felix (USC), Ariana Washington (Oregon), Deajah Stevens (Oregon), and Jenna Prandini (Oregon). Of those four women, two are now Olympians.
Oregon Ducks Deajah Stevens and Jenna Prandini finished in second and third places, respectively, to earn their Olympic berth. Stevens ran 22.30 seconds and Prandini ran 22.53 seconds over the distance. Prandini earned her spot by just .01 seconds, dipping over the line just before USC alumna and defending Olympic 200m champion Allyson Felix.
Here's a full list of Pac-12 athletes and what you can watch them compete in at the 2016 Olympic Games:
Inika McPherson (California), Women’s High Jump
Allyson Felix (USC), Women’s 400m
Phyllis Francis (Oregon), Women’s 400m
Ashton Eaton (Oregon), Decathlon
Jeremy Taiwo (Washington), Decathlon
English Gardner (Oregon), Women’s 100m
Cyrus Hostetler (Oregon), Men’s Javelin
Sam Crouser (Oregon), Men’s Javelin
Conor McCullough (USC), Men’s Hammer*
Emma Coburn (Colorado), Women’s 3000m Steeplechase
Bernard Lagat (Washington State), Men’s 5000m
Devon Allen (Oregon), Men’s 110m Hurdles
Dalilah Muhammad (USC), Women's 400m Hurdles
Shelby Houlihan (ASU), Women’s 5000m
Jenny Simpson (Colorado), Women’s 1500m
Jenna Prandini (Oregon), Women’s 200m
Deajah Stevens (Oregon), Women’s 200m
Matthew Centrowitz (Oregon), Men’s 1500m
#BackThePac has never been so strong.
*Though Conor McCullough qualified for the Olympic Games by place, he does not have the Olympic “A” standard needed to compete. However, the field is not yet full with athletes who have achieved it, so it is likely he will still be invited to compete. |
Microcontrollers are well suited to display information on analog VGA monitors
If you have been working on microcontroller projects for any length of time, then you know that it can be difficult to display a large amount of data, especially when it contains more than just plain text. There are limits to how much useful information you can display on a basic character LCD, or even a dot matrix LCD, since most have low resolution, no color, and a poor refresh rate. I came up against this problem when working on a robotics project that needed to display a color image captured from a small camera and decided to see how much effort it would take to create an image on a VGA monitor using only a microcontroller to "bit bang" all of the necessary signals.
It took some time to learn how the five signals used on an analog VGA connection made an image appear on the screen, but the end results were much better than anticipated, providing a crisp 256 by 240 image on the monitor in 256 colors. Although it does take some intensive cycle accurate assembly programming, the basic coding is not very difficult to understand once you have learned what the monitor expects. In fact, making a microcontroller drive a VGA monitor is much easier than creating a video signal for a television because the VGA monitor does all of the difficult color coding for you as long as you send the video signals and sync pulses at precisely the right time. "Precisely" is the key!
This project is more like a tutorial, and is far from being perfect. The idea is to show how any microcontroller can be made to create a rock solid VGA image once timing parameters have been calculated properly. I am using an Atmel ATMega644 for this project because it has a large program memory to allow the storing of image data, but just about any microcontroller will work, once you understand the basics and decide on what type of image you want to display. This project will start off with a very minimal display system running from a single microcontroller and will progress up to a fully double buffered system that will display flicker free animations with a resolution of 256 by 240 and with 256 colors. Any VGA monitor with a 15 pin analog connector will work, but the old-school glass CRT monitors will probably display the "nicest" image due to having round pixels and a truly analog horizontal line. Newer LCD monitors will work just fine, but there may be a slight "banding" effect on horizontal lines if you cannot adjust a setting called "pixel" clock. Nonetheless, the image will be very clean, crisp, and colorful on any VGA monitor.
I would like to thank the community on the AVRFreaks Forum for suggesting this tutorial and for all of the help that has been offered over the years by the many knowledgeable members. I hope this small project inspires those who want to generate video with a microcontroller and look forward to seeing what others can do to improve and modify these ideas!
Figure 1 - You will need a female VGA connector to hook up to your monitor cable
You can either order a new 15 pin female D-Sub VGA connector such as the Digikey (A35116-ND), or simply salvage one by unsoldering it from an old VGA card. Cutting a VGA cable extender would also work, but then you will have to decide the wiring and solder the ends for use on your breadboard as you prototype this project. Old VGA cards are a dime-a-dozen at most surplus electronics shops. You can probably ask a computer repair shop for a fried VGA card to hack for parts. All you need is the female 15 pin VGA connector so that you can solder the necessary wires to connect to your breadboard.
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With most mammals, the biggest and most aggressive male claims the alpha male role and gets his choice of food and females. But a new study from the University of Minnesota suggests that at least among chimpanzees, smaller, more mild-mannered males can also use political behavior to secure the top position.
The finding was gleaned from 10 years of observing dominant male chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, looking at behaviors they used to compete for alpha male status relative to their size. Analysis showed that larger males relied more on physical attacks to dominate while smaller, gentler males groomed other chimpanzees, both male and female, to gain broad support.
The study focused on three alpha males who reigned between 1989 and 2003. Frodo, one of the largest and most aggressive male chimpanzees ever observed at Gombe, weighed 51.2 kg (112.6 lbs.) at his peak. He relied on his size and aggression to rule. While he allowed other chimpanzees to groom him, he seldom returned the favor. At the other end of the spectrum, Wilkie, who weighed only 37 kg (81.4 lbs.), obsessively groomed both male and female chimpanzees to maintain his top position. And Freud, who weighed 44.8 kg (98.6 lbs.), used a combination of the two strategies. (The average male chimp in Gombe weighs about 39 kg (85.8 lbs.).
The findings are reported in the February issue of the American Journal of Primatology. While it's widely known that grooming plays an important role in chimpanzee social interaction, this study is the first to show that it can be a strategy for achieving dominance.
Mark Foster, who was an undergraduate pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology and a B.F.A. in acting when the research was conducted, was the study's lead author of the study. As a recipient of a Katherine E. Sullivan Fellowship he later spent six months in Tanzania and Gombe and then became an educational assistant at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
"Mark showed extraordinary creativity and tenacity in pulling together this study while still an undergraduate and then seeing it through to publication," said Anne Pusey, who was senior author. Pusey is director of the Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies at the University of Minnesota and a University McKnight Distinguished Professor in the College of Biological Sciences' department of ecology, evolution and behavior (EEB).
Other collaborators included EEB graduate students Ian Gilby, who guided Foster in the initial outline of the question and in data extraction; Carson Murray, who guided data analysis; and Emily Wroblewski, who analyzed data on male dominance hierarchies. Statistics graduate student Alicia Johnson of the U of M Statistics Clinic guided the statistical analysis. Gilby is now a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard, and Murray a post-doctoral fellow at Lincoln Park Zoo.
"We were aware that Frodo was a bully and a stingy groomer, but we did not know how closely grooming patterns would correlate with body size," Pusey said. "We plan to study more alpha males to determine if grooming is a common strategy that small-bodied males use to placate rivals or cultivate cooperative alliances."
The Jane Goodall Institute's Center for Primate Studies was established in 1995 at the College of Biological Sciences by Pusey, a former student of Goodall's. Pusey brought all of Goodall's field notes and photographs from 48 years in Gombe to the University of Minnesota. She is overseeing the creation of a searchable, online database providing access to Goodall's research material. |
CHICAGO (STMW) — A 50-year-old woman convicted of killing a Chicago Police officer with his own gun during a disturbance on a CTA bus will spend the rest of her life in prison.
Robin Johnson was sentenced to natural life plus 15 years for the fatal shooting of Officer Robert Francis in the early morning hours of July 2, 2008, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. She was convicted of murder by a jury in October 2012.
Francis, 60, was responding to a call of a disturbance on a bus at Belmont and Western. Prosecutors said he responded to the call alone, not realizing the danger.
Within seconds, the 27-year Chicago Police veteran was dead.
Johnson disarmed and shot the uniformed officer after he confronted her for the run-in she’d had with another woman on a CTA bus.
Johnson was “aggressive, hostile and angry,” prosecutors told jurors during her trial.
Before Francis arrived, Johnson was seen holding her own breast, telling the commuter, whom she didn’t know, “You made me this way,” prosecutors said.
Johnson was pacing back and forth, stomping her feet and talking to herself outside the bus, which witnesses saw her getting in and out of, while pressing up against the other woman, prosecutors said.
When the officer arrived, he was flagged down by the bus driver, and attempted to calm Johnson down, prosecutors said. But she became combative and attacked the officer.
Both fell to the ground, Johnson grabbed Francis’ gun, and though he had his hands up in the form of “a surrender,” she shot him in the face at point-blank range, prosecutors said.
A defense attorney implied that Johnson may not have had her finger on the trigger and the gun could have went off during the tussle, but witnesses said they saw Johnson with the weapon and that she knew what she was doing.
Johnson allegedly shot Francis two more times while he lay motionless on the pavement.
She was also convicted of one count of aggravated discharge of a firearm, which resulted in the additional 15 years, prosecutors said. She was acquitted of attempted murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm for allegedly shooting at Francis’ colleagues, who returned fire and wounded Johnson.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2014. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) |
Current version 1.2.0 See updates and changelog Current version
Now UI Kit is a responsive Bootstrap 4 kit provided for free by Invision and Creative Tim. It is a beautiful cross-platform UI kit featuring over 50 elements and 3 templates.Now UI Kit is one of the most popular UI Kits online, provided in PSD and Sketch formats by Invision. We wanted to find a way for developers worldwide to benefit from using it. So, in collaboration with Invision, we are launching the HTML version for it!Now UI Kit will help you create a clean and simple website that is a perfect fit for today's flat design. It is built using the 12 column grid system, with components designed to fit together perfectly. It makes use of bold colours, beautiful typography, clear photography and spacious arrangements.Create awesome, lifelike prototypes with InVision and Now so your users can experience and give feedback on your vision!To get the PSD and Sketch files, please visit Invision . We used 100 Icons from our friends from Nucleo Icons, check their 12.000 icons here Now UI Kit is built on top of the much awaited Bootstrap 4. This makes starting a new project very simple. It also provides benefits if you are already working on a Bootstrap 4 project; you can just import the Now UI Kit style over it. Most of the elements have been redesigned; but if you are using an element we have not touched, it will fall back to the Bootstrap default.We wanted to fully display the power of this kit, so the kit comes packed with examples showing you how to use the components. Inside the product you will find:In order for you to easily be able to use the Now UI kit, we have created a tutorial page. It shows the structure for the files inside the archive and how to import them. It then features every components with a description and example fr how to use it. You can see the details here |
By Jeremy Page
This article orginally appeared in Wednesday's The Wall Street Journal.
His popularity in China has risen 30% since standing up to the US over Ukraine
BEIJING—In the recommended-reading section of Beijing's Wangfujing bookstore, staff members have no doubt which foreign leader customers are most interested in: President Vladimir Putin, or "Putin the Great" as some Chinese call him.
Books on Mr. Putin have been flying off shelves since the crisis in Ukraine began, far outselling those on other world leaders, sales staff say. One book, "Putin Biography: He is Born for Russia," made the list of top 10 nonfiction best sellers at the Beijing News newspaper in September.
China's fascination with Mr. Putin is more than literary, marking a shift in the post-Cold War order and in Chinese politics. After decades of mutual suspicion—and one short border conflict—Beijing and Moscow are drawing closer as they simultaneously challenge the U.S.-led security architecture that has prevailed since the Soviet collapse, diplomats and analysts say.
The former rivals for leadership of the Communist world also increasingly share a brand of anti-Western nationalism that could color President Xi Jinping's view of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. Beijing accuses Western governments of stirring unrest there, much as Mr. Putin blamed the West for the pro-democracy protests in Kiev that began late last year.
Russia has begun portraying the Hong Kong protests, too, as U.S.-inspired. Russian state-controlled television channels this week claimed that Hong Kong protest leaders had received American training.
The Pew Research Center says China is one of the few countries where popular support for Russia has risen since Moscow's confrontation with the West over Ukraine—rising to 66% in July from 47% a year earlier.
A poll by In Touch Today, an online news service run by China's Tencent Holdings Ltd., put Mr. Putin's approval rating at 92% after Russia annexed Crimea in March.
"Putin's personality is impressive—as a man, as a leader. Chinese people find that attractive. He defends Russia's interests," says Zhao Huasheng, an expert on China-Russia relations at Shanghai's Fudan University. "Russia and China can learn a lot from each other."
It is partly realpolitik. Russia needs China's market and capital, especially as Western sanctions over Ukraine bite, the analysts say, while Beijing sees Moscow as a source of diplomatic support and vital energy resources.
The countries concluded a long-awaited deal in May for Russia to supply $400 billion of gas to China over 30 years. They have forged agreements to build a railway bridge over their common border and an ice-free port in Russia's far east. They have also unveiled plans to set up ground stations on each other's land for their satellite global-positioning navigation systems.
Also driving the realignment is rapport between Mr. Putin and Mr. Xi, whose leadership increasingly resembles his Russian counterpart's charismatic nationalist authoritarianism.
"Putin and Xi Jinping are quite similar," says Yu Bin, an expert on China-Russia relations at Wittenberg University in Ohio. The leaders are from the same generation—they are both 61—and both want to re-establish their countries as world powers and challenge Western dominance following periods of perceived national humiliation.
Xi Jinping, left, and Vladimir Putin increasingly share a similar brand of anti-Western nationalism. Above, the two leaders are seen together in Shanghai in May. ZUMAPRESS.com
Mr. Xi came to power two years ago succeeding Hu Jintao, whom party insiders saw as an uncharismatic leader unable to inspire popular support or defend China's national interests. "I think China, after 10 years of Hu Jintao, started to look for a strong leader," says Mr. Yu. "In that context, the Chinese leadership does look to Putin. There's a parallel experience."
Mr. Xi has since made his relationship with Mr. Putin a priority. He chose Russia for his first foreign visit as Chinese president and was one of the few world leaders to attend the Sochi Winter Olympics. Mr. Xi has met Mr. Putin nine times since taking office, most recently at a Central Asian security forum in Tajikistan last month.
"I have the impression we always treat each other as friends, with full and open hearts," Mr. Xi told Mr. Putin in Moscow last year, according to an official Kremlin transcript. "We are similar in character."
He told Russian students later that China and Russia were both going through "an important period of national rejuvenation" and had "the best great-power relationship" in the world.
Mr. Xi has established himself as a political strongman by outlining a "China Dream" of national rejuvenation, by overseeing a sustained anticorruption campaign and by using China's military muscle to enforce territorial claims around its coast.
He has also tightened controls on the media and political dissent and has launched a campaign against Western ideological influence, such as through foreign-funded NGOs.
Some Chinese and Western scholars see parallels in Mr. Putin's early onslaught against Russia's oligarchs, his appeals for national revival, his crackdown on independent news media and his willingness to use military force to defend Russia's interests around its borders. Mr. Putin has also overseen a gradual rehabilitation of Joseph Stalin. Mr. Xi praises the achievements of Chairman Mao Zedong.
Both men play on their countries' wartime pasts. Mr. Xi has introduced three war-related national holidays, including a "Martyrs' Day," marked for the first time Tuesday. Mr. Putin just opened a new World War I memorial. They plan to hold joint celebrations next year for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Both men, scholars say, rely heavily on state-controlled media to tap into a popular admiration for strong leaders that is widespread in Russia and China, former empires that for most of their histories have been ruled by autocrats.
Zheng Wenyang, the 30-year-old author of "He is Born for Russia," says the biography, which came out in 2012, has sold far more copies than his earlier works onBarack Obama, Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela.
He says Mr. Putin's popularity, while inflated by glowing reports in Chinese state media, feeds off a deeply held conviction in Chinese society: "If a leader is weak and allows himself to be bullied, then people won't respect him."
Russia's pushback against Western-leaning governments in Georgia in 2008 and more recently Ukraine has been popular in China. Some say Beijing should draw lessons from those experiences as it jostles for control over waters in the East and South China seas with the U.S., Japan, Philippines and Vietnam.
"Putin is a bold and decisive leader of a great power, who's good at achieving victory in a dangerous situation," said Maj. Gen. Wang Haiyun, a former military attaché to Moscow, in an interview with the Chinese website of the Global Times newspaper.
"These features are worthy of our praise and learning. Russia has been a great world power for hundreds of years and a superpower in the bi-polar order: It's much more skilled than us at playing great power games."
In the crisis over Ukraine—a supplier of corn and armaments to China—Beijing has stayed on the sidelines, calling repeatedly for a political solution and withholding support for Western sanctions against Russia.
Some Chinese experts argue that China risks damaging its relationships with the U.S. and the European Union, still its biggest trading partners. Moscow's and Beijing's interests aren't always aligned.
Older Chinese fondly recall Soviet support for China in the 1950s but also remember the bitter ideological split in 1960 and border conflict in 1969. Though the two sides formed a new strategic partnership in 1996, only recently did they find common ground beyond supporting one another in the United Nations Security Council.
New tensions could arise over China's expanding influence in Central Asian lands that once were part of the Soviet Union, and over Russian arms sales to India and Vietnam, neighbors of China that have boundary disputes with it.
Still, some analysts say that by staying out of the way in Ukraine, Beijing has ensured that Moscow will remain neutral over China's flaring territorial disputes in Asia. And for the moment, both sides have an interest in playing up the merits of their governance models.
Liu Xiaohu, the 28-year-old author of another biography, "Putin's Iron Fist," which came out this year, says many young Chinese feel frustrated by what they see as their government's failure to respond to past foreign provocations, such as the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999.
"It's not that Chinese people instinctively want or need a strong leader: It's that the country needs one at this period of time," he says. |
Star: Ian Hislop refused to sign a letter in support of the BBC because he thought it was 'inappropriate'
Ian Hislop refused to sign the BBC’s controversial ‘luvvies’ letter’ because he didn’t want to appear like an ‘overpaid w*****’, he has revealed.
The Have I Got News For You presenter said the BBC asked him to put his name to the lobbying letter, but that he thought a missive from a ‘load of famous people’ paid by the Corporation was ‘entirely inappropriate’.
A string of writers, actors and presenters, including JK Rowling, Sir David Attenborough and Stephen Fry, signed the open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron in July, telling him that the Government’s plan to reform the BBC would damage Britain.
‘If there was a letter from 50 midwives saying: “The only thing that makes our lives bearable is watching Poldark” – that’s a worthwhile letter. To have a letter from a load of famous people saying, “I like the BBC and I get paid by them”, I mean, so what?’ Mr Hislop said in an interview with Press Gazette magazine.
‘Had I seen my name on the list, I would have thought: “You overpaid w***** – why should I care what you say?"
‘God no – entirely inappropriate,’ he added.
In the end, the lobbying effort severely backfired, after it emerged that the BBC had secretly organised the letter.
Director of television Danny Cohen personally telephoned Michael Palin and other stars to ask them to put their names to the letter. One of the 29 signatories, the Radio 1 DJ Annie Nightingale, even admitted that she did not read the letter before it was made public.
It is thought that Mr Cohen's wife, the glamorous Cambridge professor Noreena Hertz, put him up to it, after organising a similar letter on behalf of the Liberal Democrats in 2010.
However, many of the stars who signed the luvvies' letter faced a backlash from MPs and licence fee payers, who accused them of behaving like greedy bankers.
Conservative MP Andrew Percy said it was 'a bit rich and self-serving', whilst viewers attacked Gary Lineker on Twitter.
MPs have now asked the BBC director general to investigate Mr Cohen’s behaviour, amid concerns that he broke the BBC’s own editorial rules with this ‘direct attempt by proxy to influence a government initiative’.
Organisers: The letter was arranged by BBC head of television Danny Cohen and his wife Noreena Hertz
Conservative MP Jesse Norman, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, told BBC boss Lord Tony Hall this week: ‘I put it to you that the Corporation’s editorial policy says that the BBC must be independent and – I quote – “distanced from government initiatives, campaigns, charities and other agendas".'
The BBC has repeatedly defended the lobbying initiative as ‘perfectly proper’.
The Corporation initially denied having ‘anything’ to do with the letter, and then issued a carefully worded statement insisting that it was ‘from the signatories [and] speaks for itself.’
However, BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead appeared to re-write history earlier this week, when she told MPs that ‘the BBC made it clear that they were involved, so none of the public will have been under any illusion that there had been some BBC participation.’
Controversy: Stars such as Gary Lineker and David Attenborough were among those who signed the letter
Mr Hislop refused to reveal who asked him to sign the controversial letter, but told Press Gazette that he though the BBC was ‘playing all its cards very, very badly’.
The presenter, who also edits Private Eye magazine, said that he thinks the BBC produces high quality programmes, but that it is damaged by its own management and the ‘cackhandedness’ of some of its decisions.
He said: ‘I think it’s playing all its cards very, very badly at the moment... there’s a feebleness and a lack of robustness about the Beeb – and obviously cackhandedness – hat has allowed it to be in this position of going, “Oh the BBC, it’s a big worry.” |
Although many fans of The Walking Dead weren't that thrilled with the sixth season of the AMC series, most were happy with the casting of Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan. The character's appearance in the comics is based on former Black Flag frontman and actor Henry Rollins, who recently told Forbes that he was actually up for the role of the bat-wielding villain.
Since I didn’t get the part I can tell you this. I was up for the role of Negan because Charlie Adlard, who worked on the comic book, based that guy on me and so I was a shoo-in for an audition. The internet was wild with speculation because in the upcoming season they were going to introduce the character. A woman that works in my office put my name and the character’s name into an internet search and all this speculation came up. I went for the audition and there were five pages of really cool dialogue with all these curses and it was beautiful, but I didn’t get it. I later saw a photograph of the guy who did get it and he looks almost exactly like the comic book rendering. The woman at my office watched the episode where he turns up, the dialogue that I auditioned with was in the show and she said, ‘It should have been you.’ Obviously it wasn’t or this conversation would be very different but that happened. I had to sign one of those documents where you can’t talk about it but now it’s over and done with… so yeah, I was up for that part. I get great auditions, I auditioned for stuff like Narcos too, but rarely does anything come my way. What usually comes my way is a no audition thing like The Last Heist or He Never Died that the film’s writer, Jason Krawczyk, wrote with me in mind.
I wonder if Rollins feels a bit like Lewis Black, who once auditioned to play a character based on himself in a sitcom pilot, but didn't get the part. Personally I have nothing against Rollins, and he's a decent enough actor, however I think Morgan is going to do a fantastic job with the role.
The Walking Dead will return to AMC for its seventh season in October. |
Speaking to constituents in Kentucky this week, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that he would use his executive power to reverse the damage done by his predecessors’ propensity for legislating by fiat if he were elected President.
Paul’s statement came in response to a direct question about whether he’d embrace the power of executive orders if he found himself in the Oval Office, pen and phone at arm’s length.
“Only to undo executive orders. There’s thousands of them that can be undone,” said Paul. “And I would use executive orders to undo executive orders that have encroached on our jurisprudence, our ability to defend ourselves, the right to a trial, all of those I would undo through executive order.”
President Barack Obama has become notorious for flaunting his ability to legislate via executive order, each time claiming that Congressional gridlock has forced his hand. Paul contends that the President ought to simply try harder to work with the Nation’s lawmakers.
“You got to try harder because it’s not easy to get people to agree, but democracy’s messy,” he said. “You can’t just say because it’s messy, I’m going to do whatever I want. And that’s my real objection to his president.”
According to WFPL, however, Paul later “appeared to soften” his position as he spoke with local reporters.
“It wasn’t sort of a response of exactness. My inclination would be that there have too many executive orders and that really you shouldn’t legislate through executive orders.”
“I never want to make a blanket statement without looking at everything. My general inclination is you should have less executive orders but that the executive orders could be used to undo a lot of executive orders that have overstepped their bounds.”
Whether Paul will get the opportunity to back up his claims in 2016 is still unknown. While many of the Senator’s actions of late appear to indicate that he is positioning himself for a Presidential bid, recent polling data could put a damper on exploratory efforts.
According to numbers out from Public Policy Polling, half of likely voters in Paul’s home State of Kentucky say that the Senator should not run in 2016. Though, for his work in the Senate, Paul continues to enjoy approval ratings hovering around 47 percent. |
Primitive Homo sapiens and Neanderthals didn't produce children together despite swaths of shared DNA, some scientists say, casting doubt in a new study on a contentious idea about the origin of modern humans.
Anthropologists who found that humans with non-African lineage shared up to four per cent of their DNA with the long-extinct Neanderthals concluded in 2010 that the link was likely due to hybridization — or sex between the two hominid species.
But researchers at the University of Cambridge said this week that computer models simulating the last 500,000 years of population migration offered a different interpretation of how we came to share DNA with our ancient cousins.
The researchers say the DNA crossover is actually a remnant from a common ancestor from half a million years ago, not a result of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals interbreeding.
This common ancestor lived in parts of Africa and Europe, but divided into separate populations in Europe and Africa around 300,000 to 500,000 years ago, according to the latest study.
2 divergent groups from common ancestor
The researchers theorize that once both ancient groups were geographically isolated, the African population evolved into Homo sapiens while the European range eventually became Neanderthals.
Homo sapiens were believed to have emerged from Africa around 70,000 years ago.
Based on the computer models, Cambridge evolutionary biologists Dr. Anders Eriksson and Dr. Andrea Manica concluded there was no compelling evidence to suggest any sort of fling between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
"Our work shows clearly that the patterns currently seen in the Neanderthal genome are not exceptional, and are in line with our expectations of what we would see without hybridization," Manica said in a news release.
"So, if any hybridization occurred — it's difficult to conclusively prove it never happened — then it would have been minimal and much less than what people are claiming now."
That hasn't put the debate to rest, however. David Reich, a Harvard Medical School professor of genetics who co-authored the 2010 study supporting hybridization, argued that population diversity isn't enough to explain the shared genes.
Last week, Reich and his colleagues even published a draft paper that further analyzed the genetic variants shared between Neanderthals and non-African humans.
The analysis put the introduction of Neanderthal DNA at just a few tens of thousands of years ago. If the dates are correct, that would mean that the emergence of the DNA was so recent it could only have showed up after modern humans migrated from Africa, and after the origin of Neanderthals 320,000 years ago.
The paper supporting interbreeding is scheduled for publication in the journal PLoS Genetics, while the University of Cambridge study is published in the latest edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. |
A couple in Portland, Maine, celebrates. It's time Portland, Oregon, couples can, too.
A couple in Portland, Maine, celebrates. It's time Portland, Oregon, couples can, too.
“It's been just four months since we started gathering signatures on the Freedom to Marry and Religious Protection Initiative,” said Ryan Brown, the group's field director. “Thanks to volunteer signature gatherers in every Oregon county, I have some amazing news to share: We have over 116,284 signatures in hand!”
Signature gathering will continue to guard against failing to qualify due to invalid or duplicate signatures.
Happy news from Oregon, where this weekend Oregon United for Marriage announced that it had gotten enough signatures to qualify for the November 2014 ballot. The news came in an email announcement.Oregon has the chance to make history by becoming the first state to repeal a marriage ban. In 2004, the state's voters approved a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Now's their chance to rectify that big mistake. The prospects for that look good at this point, with the phenomenal success of the petition drive so far. But the fact that Oregon would be the first to repeal means that the bigots are going to be out in full force and with lots of money to fight.
Opponents to equality are well-organized there because of their win a decade ago, and will keep fighting. Please contribute now to Oregon United for Marriage. |
Want to write for us? We are always looking for interrogative and reliable writers who are interested in contributing to GUTS!
GUTS magazine publishes literary essays and reviews, long-form journalism, interviews, fiction, and new media that further feminist correspondence, criticism, and community in Canada. The content we publish is typically informal and accessible. Depending on the form, pieces could range from 500 to 3,000 words. You can visit our back issues and previously published work to get a better idea of what we are looking for.
Send a short pitch (100-300 words) to [email protected] outlining your idea, and giving us a sense of your ability to execute it. Please also include a writing sample or links to your previous work. Our editorial board reviews all submissions to the magazine, and we do our best to respond to all inquiries and pitches.
We are currently accepting and publishing pieces on an ongoing basis, rather than working on themed issues.
Here are a few of the ideas we’d love to pursue this season:
trans and gender nonconforming icons, trans resilience; work by and about Black people and Black art/ film/ music/ thought, especially in a Canadian context; reviews or writing engaging with Lindsay Nixon’s nîtisânak and Teresa Wong’s Dear Scarlet; new beginnings; siblings; work by and about Deaf artists and cultural creators; your brilliant ideas
Work We’re Proud of // Getting an Idea of What we Publish
To get a sense of what we are looking for, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the kinds of work we publish. Here, referencing some of our favourite pieces, we explain the kinds of writing we want to publish:
Politics: We want pieces that engage with Canadian policy, law, politics, labour, or activism in relation to feminist praxis. This has looked like Ontario Midwives Demand Pay Equity by Cynthia Spring and A Real Estate Ghost Story by Nisa Malli. We are not usually able to respond to news events immediately, so we are especially interested in pieces that contextualize current political happenings in a historical context or through personal narrative. Kai Cheng Thom’s piece Not Yet is a great example of this kind of work.
Culture: We are looking for timely, accessible, playful-but-critical reflections on television, film, literature, memes, and other cultural phenomena, much like Sally Yue Lin’s Laughing in the Dark: Watching Melanated Films with White People, Jessica Johns’s Interview with Evan Ducharme, and Cheryl Thompson’s Canada’s Black Beauty Culture is More than a Politics.
Lives: We love the stories only you can tell, told in the way that makes sense to you. We publish short, critical memoirs, reflections, and personal essays that build connections between personal experiences and larger social forces. Gwen Benaway’s Dreaming of Home and Almah LaVon Rice’s Watcher Within Watchers Without: My Black OCD Story are really strong examples of this kind of work.
Poetry, Fiction, and Comics:
We love artistic work that offers innovative ways of seeing the world. That can include short fiction, poetry, comics, video art, and more. Francesca Ekwuyasi’s Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer, Samantha Marie Nock’s poems, and the My Gender is Saturn Return comic series from JB Brager and Cee Lavery are all strong examples of art that gave us new frames of reference.
If your idea doesn’t fall within these categories, but you think it’s a good fit for GUTS, pitch us anyway!
Compensation
Compensation will be provided for contributors selected and ranges from $50 to $200, depending on length and depth of the work. We will provide a quote upon acceptance of your pitch. We acknowledge this amount is not commensurate with the involved labour, and we are working on it. |
The LA Kings have activated defenseman Alec Martinez from injured reserve, Kings Vice President and General Manager Rob Blake announced today. Also, forward Kyle Clifford has been placed on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 11. Clifford is considered week-to-week.
The 6-0, 208-pound native of Rochester Hills, Mich. has not appeared in a game yet this season. Last season he played in a career-high 82 games and registered 39 points (9-30=39) and 24 penalty minutes. He set career-highs in points and assists.
Selected by the Kings in the fourth-round (95th overall) of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, Martinez has appeared in 419 career NHL games, collecting 147 points (48-99=147), a plus-31 rating and 126 penalty minutes.
The Kings continue a four-game home stand tonight against the Buffalo Sabres at 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on FOX Sports West and KABC Radio 790.
Join the LA Kings for the 2017-18 Season! Being an LA Kings Season Ticket Member means more than going to every home game. Save on ticket fees, attend exclusive events, unlock TeamLA discounts, get VIP access to playoff tickets, and more incredible entertainment opportunities! Full season memberships to mini-plan packages are available, starting at just $40 per game. Visit lakings.com/tickets or call 1.888.KINGS.LA for more information. |
A bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics in Boston, which includes Franklin Park on the venue list, was submitted this week by a private committee that held no community meetings and never notified park advocates. Meanwhile, Jamaica Plain activists began organizing an anti-Olympics protest movement.
Boston 2024, the group backing a local Olympics, submitted its bid Dec. 1 to the U.S. Olympics Committee. Boston 2024 spokesperson Dave Wedge told the Gazette it is still early and JP will have a say.
“If Boston does move forward in this process, before any final decisions are made relative to venues, there will be a full and active community engagement,” Wedge said. “If the people of Jamaica Plain do not support a proposal for potential uses of Franklin Park after full community engagement, then we would not propose Franklin Park as an Olympic site.”
But critics—including a group called No Boston Olympics—have blasted Boston 2024’s secretive planning and lack of input on everything from costs to taxpayers to security impacts. JP activists held a Nov. 24 meeting at First Baptist Church to begin organizing against a Boston Olympics. It was the first community meeting of any kind about the Boston bid, and drew more than 50 attendees.
“The community response was exactly how one would expect it to be: outrage at all these decisions being made behind closed doors, and that it’s happening without our consent,” said JP resident Robin Jacks, one of the local protest organizers. “At the same time, people seem ready to work within a really short time frame, which is promising.”
Doug Rubin, a Boston 2024 marketing official, attended the meeting. “I think issues raised in there were legitimate. We’re glad to have the conversation,” he told the Gazette. And in response to an audience question, he said, “We are committed to having open community meetings” and would soon schedule them. In a press release late this week, Boston 2024 said it will form a “citizens advisory group,” though it remains unclear what its responsibilities and membership will be.
However, Rubin did not mention that the initial bid was being submitted within days, and the schedule of Boston 2024 meetings has yet to materialize. The bid has not been released to the public in written form.
“Despite having more than a year to prepare its bid, Boston 2024 has not held a single public meeting or provided other opportunities for meaningful public input,” the No Boston Olympics group announced this week in a newsletter. “The Commonwealth’s citizens and taxpayers have been entirely shut out of the process.”
Boston 2024 is mostly composed of representatives of major corporations and large colleges, including Suffolk Construction and Harvard University. It does have one JP resident among its subgroup of athlete members—Nicole Freedman, a former Olympic cyclist and current head of the City’s bicycle program. Freedman declined to comment to the Gazette.
The U.S. Olympic Committee early next year will decide whether to move forward with a bid from one of four U.S. cities: Boston; Los Angeles; San Francisco and Washington, D.C. If the USOC approves one of those bids, it will be forwarded to the International Olympic Committee and put into competition with cities in other countries. In 2017, the IOC will make the final decision on which city will host the Games.
Potential venues are among the factors considered in the bidding process. But a list of venues would only become final in later stages, when the IOC gets involved.
Boston 2024 and No Boston Olympics are slated to square off in a public discussion sponsored by the Boston Globe on Mon., Dec. 8 at the Institute of Contemporary Art on the Waterfront. JP’s anti-Olympics activists say they will stage a protest outside the event. They also have begun a letter-writing campaign to the USOC.
The Boston 2024 committee’s website is 2024boston.org and it is on Twitter at @Boston2024. No Boston Olympics has its website at nobostonolympics.org and its Twitter account at @NoBosOlympics. JP’s anti-Olympics activists have a website at bostonagainstolympics.bid and are on Twitter at @no_boston2024. |
Bongeunsa Station vs. COEX Station. March. 05, 2015 07:21. [email protected].
A video clip capturing the trainees of a mission praying for the collapse of a Buddhist temple in the Gangnam district of Seoul was posted on YouTube in October 2010. The temple is Bongeunsa, which has a long tradition of producing high priests such as Great Buddhist Monk Seosan and Samyeong since its construction under King Wonseong of the Shilla Dynasty in 794. The video was criticized particularly by the Buddhist community. After the mission trainees` prayer while walking around the temple became controversial, they made an apology at the temple. Monk Myeongjin, the chief monk of the temple, proposed a discussion to promote communication between different religions.
Protestants strongly oppose the name of a subway station on line 9 to be opened soon Bongeunsa station. They claim that the name should be changed to COEX Station, which includes a building close to the station, instead of using the name of the temple. Some church groups decided to file a petition for a provisional injunction to ban the use of the name and start a drive of collecting signatures for opposition. The Buddhist community seems to be puzzled, saying, COEX is less than 30 years old but Bongeunsa is over 1,200-year-old cultural heritage. The community says why people take issue only with Bongeunsa despite many other station names, which were named after temples such as Mangwolsa, Baekyangsa, Huibangsa and Jikjisa.
Protestant groups argue that Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon who is pro-Buddhist might have intervened. Mayor Park served as a future committee chairman of the temple from 2007 to 2010 before his inauguration as a mayor.
The Seoul metropolitan city said, The name was decided after three meetings based on the idea that the name of a station is considered in the order of an old place name, cultural heritage and a public building becoming a proper noun. A website poll found on Tuesday that COEX beat Bongeunsa 52 to 48. Some claim that the change of the result -- Bongeunsa was leading 70 to 30 until in the morning was due to the mobilization of pollsters by some groups. The temple also appealed its believers to participate in an Internet survey before the station name was determined. They are even now.
Bongeunsa is part of Buddhist culture but is also part of our traditional culture. It used to own the land where COEX stands and the land that Hyundai Motor Company purchased from KEPCO, which were later expropriated for the development of the Gangnam district. If the station name is changed, the Buddhist community will strongly oppose it. It is not desirable that this issue is escalated into a conflict between religions. Wouldnt it be a compromise to name it Bongeunsa Station (COEX)? |
Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2009 December 17
Explanation: Monstrously bright, this fireball meteor lit up the Mojave Desert sky Monday morning, part of this year's impressive Geminid meteor shower. Seen toward the southwest over rock formations near Victorville, California, a more familiar celestial background was momentarily washed out by the meteor's flash. The background includes bright star Sirius at the left, and Aldebaran and the Pleaides star cluster at the right side of the image. The meteor itself blazes through the constellation Orion. Its greenish trail begins just left of a yellow-tinted Betelgeuse and points back to the shower's radiant in Gemini, just off the top of the frame. A rewarding catch for photographer Wally Pacholka, the spectacular image is one of over 1500 frames that he reports captured 48, mostly faint, Geminid meteors. |
Sen. Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway LeePush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times MORE (R-Utah), a founding member of the Senate's Tea Party Caucus, has pledged to filibuster legislation to increase the debt ceiling.
Lee said a filibuster could be averted only if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidBottom Line Brennan fires back at 'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview MORE (D-Nev.) and GOP leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (Ky.) reach an agreement to pass a balanced-budget amendment through the Senate.
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"I'm against raising the debt ceiling and so I'm resisting it," Lee said after the inaugural meeting of the Senate Tea Party Caucus in the Hart building on Thursday morning.
"The only scenario in which I can imagine not using the filibuster is if the leadership of both parties agree that as a condition of that they would first pass out a balanced-budget amendment."
A senior Senate Republican aide said unless Congress votes to increase the debt limit by $2 trillion next month, Congress may have to vote two more times this year to increase the federal government's authority to borrow.
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has also said he will oppose legislation to raise the debt limit unless the Senate first passes a balanced-budget amendment. Passage of the amendment would need support from two-thirds of the Senate.
Such an amendment, which would require the federal government to balance its books annually, would not take effect for several years in order to give states time to ratify the amendment.
Senate aides say they expect a balanced-budget amendment could pass the House. It failed to pass the Senate by a single vote in the past.
Senate GOP aides say a promise from leaders to merely allow a vote on the balanced budget amendment would not be sufficient to win over conservatives such as DeMint and Lee. |
The “Go to Hell!” walking tour of Hell’s Kitchen appeals to just about anyone: history buffs, locals, foodies, mafia enthusiasts, photographers, even accountants.
As tourism businesses continue to expand and evolve, so does the demand for authentic experiences. Big cities like New York offer loads of tour options for travelers, but smaller companies are often overshadowed by double-decker buses and large group tours that gloss over some of the city’s best out-of-the-way spots.
To dig deeper and supply more personal perspectives on the big-city experience, travelers now can turn to Local Expeditions (www.local-expeditions.com). Launched in late 2015, it’s redefining the standard tour-company business model, all with a savvy, queer New Yorker at the helm.
The way Local Expeditions’ founder Nancy Blaine, explains her idea for the business, it sounds a lot like the way many of us host visiting friends. She recounts how she brought a group of colleagues for a walk on Manhattan’s High Line elevated park, with a break for wine in a friend’s garden apartment, followed by an intimate dinner at a small, favorite SoHo restaurant. She colored the walkabout with her own tips, anecdotes, and insights, inspiring them with an insider’s take on the Big Apple.
In effect, she’d taken them on her first Local Expeditions outing. An avid traveler herself, Blaine decided to venture into the tourism realm with a new kind of company that leads “anti-tours.” That is, she want- ed local residents to curate and steer their own expeditions based entirely on their own interests, passions, and unique expertise.
She came up with a sharing-economy business model inspired by that of Airbnb, offering direct benefits to the guide, the guest, the company, and for her venture, a charitable organization. The breakdown is totally transparent so potential guides and guests understand the deal. The company website breaks it down: A tour costs $40 per adult (free or discounted for kids), with a maximum of ten guests per tour. Fifteen percent goes to Local Expeditions, five percent to a local non-prof it (chosen by the guide), about ten percent spent on a mid-tour refreshment; the rest (70 percent) belongs to the guide.
Tours run two to three hours, and are now covering parts of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, though Blaine plans to keep rolling out new tours to other boroughs, New Jersey, and, eventually, more cities, parks, and attractions outside the Northeast.
What most sets apart Blaine’s “expeditions”—the term she prefers instead of “tours”—are the small-scale journeys that make out-of-towners enjoy New York like locals do. But Blaine says about half of all Local Expeditions’s guests are New Yorkers themselves, which means her self-starting guides are revealing pockets of Gotham even residents are curious to learn about.
The intimate nature of a smaller tour holds plenty of appeal for most. Ultimately, however, it’s the private access or specialized viewpoints that are attracting a growing number of guests which is a direct result of guides injecting their own creativity and enthusiasm.
“I actually don’t like tours that much,” says Blaine. “They feel like memorization. What I want our guides to be doing is talking more about what they love. So the experience is much more relaxed. It’s much more personal.”
For example, Blaine explains why her two top expeditions are such big hits. One is the “Go to Hell!” walking tour of Hell’s Kitchen. A licensed guide and popular food blogger named Ziggy, whose large following helps promote his frequently sold-out tours, lead it. His humor and personal knowledge of the Midtown-Manhattan neighborhood appeals to “just about anyone: history buffs, locals, foodies, mafia enthusiasts, photogra- phers, even accountants,” reads his expedition description.
The other hit tour is a testament to Local Expeditions’ real-deal NYC connections. “SoGo Gardens” is a spring/summer seasonal expe- dition led by SoHo resident and award-winning landscape designer-builder Rebecca Cole. For it, Cole leads her group on a leisurely walk to view the lovely gardens (plus one dog park) she’s designed at sever- al boutique hotels in the neighborhood.
“To me that’s the best of Local Expeditions, when somebody can say, ‘I do this thing, and now am going to show you what it’s all about,’” explains Blaine. “And [Cole] is a really successful designer. She’s not talking about history; she’s not talking about anything except the work that she does. So I wouldn’t call hers a typical tour—it’s an expedition.”
New York, like many cities, requires a tour-guide license for indus- try professionals. Blaine says about 95 percent are her guides are licensed. However, she does not recruit guides, and encourages ama- teurs to join the Local Expeditions team and share their one-of-a-kind perspectives. If they’re not licensed, she’ll often help get them certified.
“Licensing makes anybody a better tour guide, but I want people to sign up with a passion,” she says. “I don’t want people to just sign up to make money and be a tour guide. I make it very clear that we are not tour specialists.”
She points out that most other tour companies (many of them with taglines like “tour like a local”) are led by company managers who direct what their guides show, do, or say. Some of those packaged tour- company guides, by contrast, also curate and lead their own tours for Local Expeditions.
For the most part, Blaine tends to stay out of her guides’ way, con- sulting only on an expedition’s logistics. She prefers to tell potential new guides, “This is your flexible income, and you get to choose your schedule, but you also get to design your tour.” Blaine emphasizes, “It’s up to them, and they follow their own passions.”
The result is a brilliantly diverse assortment of ways to better under- stand New York as a fantastically rich, wild, often surprising metropolis. One month’s Local Expeditions calendar is loaded with an array of choices, like Blaine’s own “Ferry to DUMBO” expedition that starts aboard an East River Ferry, followed by a CitiBike ride, then a walking tour of Brooklyn’s DUMBO historic district.
Other expeditions explore the Victorian architecture of the Flatbush neighborhood, some of the secrets of Central Park, an enlightening stroll across the 59th Street Bridge, a photography walk in Coney Island, and why Queens is “the world’s borough.”
Born in Connecticut, today Blaine is a three-decades-strong New Yorker, avid traveler, and an out-and-proud lesbian who says diversity and open-mindedness are inherent to her growing business. Some of her guides are queer, and for June Pride month, one of Blaine’s comedian friends launched a weekly LGBT tour of the Village called “This Used to Be Gay.” More gay-centric tours may join the calendar.
Blaine reiterates that the individual talent leading Local Expeditions is a lot of what makes it special.
“My favorite part of watching this company grow has been the quality of guides we have attracted,” says Blaine. “Because of the flexibility this platform offers, many of our guides are actors and actresses. We’ve been very lucky to catch the attention of a recruiter at the career center at the Actors Fund, who promotes us to actors who are looking for part-time work. It’s such a win-win situation. Who is more comfortable in front of an audience than an actor?
“We’ve also attracted artists and writers. When I imagined this company in my head years ago, I always hoped the guides would be New York City artists, in all their many forms. I think it really exemplifies New York. I also think they tend to be wonderful and quirky story- tellers, which is what we are looking for.”
Blaine expects her guides to reveal hidden corners of New York that would not make it into an average (or any) guidebook, and to impart their knowledge without an agenda or a script. The goal is to illuminate and inspire guests whether they’re from the other side of the neighborhood or the other side of the globe. In a poetic turn, the company goal now applies to its founder.
“I think the biggest surprise for me is that the entire way I look at the city has changed,” she says. “It’s really quite remarkable, especially for somebody who’s been here 30 years. But I look at these buildings, and notice in photographs [that we use for social-media promotion] certain things I haven’t noticed—ever. I’ve always believed that the more you learn the history of something, the more you love it.
“[Through expeditions] I see things all the time that always existed, but are completely new to me. It opens my eyes even more to a great city with a huge past,” she says. “It’s given me a way to fall back in love with the city.” |
Minn. companies embrace a 'circular economy' to boost recycling, reduce waste
Imagine yourself in a native prairie. Birds and insects feed on plants. When they die, they decompose and nourish the soil. The prairie lifecycle forms a circle, where waste from one species is used by another, year after year.
Now, take a walk on a busy city street. Cars and trucks spit out pollution from their tailpipes. Disposable cups, plastic bags and the occasional broken umbrella fill up garbage cans. In the distance, a coal-fired power plant spews carbon pollution while sending out electrons to keep the economy humming. A sprinkler system keeps grass and petunia plantings hydrated — with drinking water, and any overflow trickles through storm sewers and down the Mississippi.
"Most of the industrial revolution we have essentially extracted raw materials, used them, sold what we can and got rid of what we couldn't sell," said Raj Rajan, the technical lead for sustainability efforts at Ecolab, one of the companies involved in the new Minnesota Sustainable Growth Coalition. He says the idea behind the coalition is to identify solutions that no individual company could pursue on its own.
"It's quite exciting, because we're seeing a lot of opportunities to actually move the needle as opposed to do one-off things that might look good on paper but really aren't having as much of an impact," he said.
Besides Ecolab, the coalition includes some of Minnesota's biggest names: 3M, Best Buy, Cargill, General Mills, Medtronic and Target. Several nonprofits, government agencies and a University of Minnesota institute are also involved.
They're looking to embrace a concept called the circular economy, which is inspired by nature.
"What we're striving for here is behaving like nature does where there's no such thing as waste," says Dave Rapaport, vice president of Earth and community care for Aveda, which is part of the coalition.
For his company, it means using natural ingredients and renewable energy to create products that are packaged in materials that have been, and will continue to be, recycled over and over again. Some years ago, Aveda discovered there wasn't enough recycled material available to package its products. So it started a campaign with schools to collect caps made of the high-quality recyclable plastic it needed.
He says there's value to capturing or preventing waste, and he's hopeful the coalition will contribute something significant.
"I think it's not a foreign business concept to want to not let those resources go, to try to capture all the value you can out of the resources you're using and generate new resources in the process. We're talking about an evolution in business thinking, not really a departure from what we were taught in business school," he said. "People are really committed to making this real."
The circular economy concept isn't new. It's taken off in Europe, and many companies in the U.S. are warming to the idea. Climate change and a growing world population are driving the change in thinking.
"The systems as we have evolved them over time are no longer cutting it," said Helga Vanthournout of the global consulting firm McKinsey and Company. She says efforts to transition to a circular economy are only getting started, but interest is growing fast.
Vanthournout says companies that have already adopted some circular economy business models include Philips, which makes medical devices, lighting and a variety of consumer goods. She says the company's program that refurbishes medical devices is better for the environment, the company and its customers.
"You are providing access to top-notch medical equipment at a fraction of the price," she said. "How can you not be excited about that?"
She says another important piece of a circular economy is redesigning products so they last longer or can be fixed easily. "That's where you would say, hey, if I would move that screw a centimeter to the left instead of messing around for a minute to open up that part of the equipment and now it's going to take me 10 seconds because I can actually access it, that's terrific."
The Minnesota Sustainable Growth Coalition plans to initially focus on three areas — energy, water and organic recycling.
Mike Harley, executive director of the Environmental Initiative, which is facilitating the coalition's work, said the effort is unique in the U.S.
"The frame that the businesses and their public and nonprofit partners have chosen is a really ambitious one," he said. "Over time we are building all kinds of capital rather than drawing it down, so that the action of the economy is restorative versus destructive." |
Sixteen games may not be enough time for Kirk Cousins to disprove his critics’ skepticism, neither in how he came to be the Redskins starting quarterback this season nor why he remains.
For some, the argument against Cousins is as plain as a preference toward Robert Griffin III, the former face-of-the-franchise who’s been humbled by dressing only once since being deposed as the starter in preseason.
Others point to Cousins’ inconsistency, an argument one has to look no further than to his past four games to validate. Against the Jets, Buccaneers, Patriots and Saints, Cousins has passer ratings of 57.9, 124.7, 68.4 and a perfect 158.3, respectively.
They can look to his interceptions, of which he’s thrown nine in 2015, to argue — albeit possibly lacking total context of each game — the Redskins have lost every game in which Cousins has thrown at least one interception.
And yet, the 4-5 Redskins are second in the NFC East — holding a tie-break advantage over the also 4-5 Eagles — a feather in the cap for those who say Cousins gives Washington a chance to compete each week.
For ESPN’s Bomani Jones, his argument is a bit more nuanced. He’s been critical of D.C. media’s coverage of Cousins all season, even before then, really, questioning why Cousins, in his opinion, has received softer treatment than Griffin and — perhaps more importantly — wondering why?
And Jones shows no signs of letting up.
i just wanna know if the talk show hosts in d.c. have started saying they have the better qb. my guess is that starts wednesday or so. —
El Flaco (@bomani_jones) November 17, 2015
As the Redskins fell to 2-3 coming off an overtime loss to the Falcons, Jones explained to The Post’s Dan Steinberg his skepticism is rooted in that coverage, asserting a multi-layered position which touched on the manner in which Griffin lost the starting job, how Griffin was seemingly vilified as Cousins was praised, and surmised a racial undertone may be at play.
The part that got me, though, was how Griffin became the villain, primarily for not being the same after a catastrophic injury that seemed to be preventable. It’s an odd reason to hate someone so much, but here we are. Now, when Griffin was rushing back, my guess was he thought the head coach was looking for a reason to start his backup. Some argued that was paranoid thinking from Griffin, as the team had mortgaged its future to trade for him, so there was no chance Mike Shanahan or anyone else would not give Griffin his job back when he was ready. Fast forward to 2015, where the deposed Shanahan tells the world Kirk Cousins might become a Top 10 quarterback, and it looks like Griffin had the right idea. So most of my interest started there. … It now continues because, other than the Tebowmania epidemic of 2011, I’ve never seen fans and media root so hard for someone as mediocre as Cousins. And as someone who is willing to acknowledge the fact that the black quarterback, even in 2015, remains a provocative notion, I can’t pass up the chance to explore why, in 2015, things look so similar to how they did when the Oilers ran Warren Moon out of town for “Commander” Cody Carlson.
After the Redskins’ 47-14 dismantling of the Saints on Sunday, a game in which Cousins completed 20 of 25 passes (80%) for 324 yards and four touchdowns, one might understandably ask critics if they are willing to reconsider their positions on Cousins.
This was a topic of a conversation between Jones, Dan Le Batard and Le Batard’s father (affectionately called “Papi”) on ESPN’s “Highly Questionable” on Monday afternoon.
Papi: So which one of you experts would like to apologize to Kirk Cousins first? Jones: I mean, maybe it’s going to be that guy. Now, look, we’re not going to knock a guy for playing against the defense that was in front of him. However, when Marcus Mariota lit up the Saints, we said, ‘Wow. The Saints are bad.’ When Eli Manning lit up the Saints, we said, ‘Wow. The Saints are bad.’ When Kirk Cousins does it, that doesn’t mean we turn around and say, ‘Wow. Kirk Cousins is good.’ Especially not in a game where, out of his 324 passing yards, 263 came after contact — it was like layup lines out there. You can’t say anything bad about Kirk Cousins, but this doesn’t change very much. Le Batard: This is the first time in the history of the league that any defense entrusted with stopping people has allowed three consecutive weeks of four touchdown passes and zero interceptions, and he just mentioned the names that have done it: Eli Manning, throws a lot of interceptions; Kirk Cousins, throws a lot of interceptions; Mariota is a rookie. Everyone is doing it to these guys. Papi: Kirk, they’re not going to give you the credit until you get to the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl, then they’ll find an excuse. They’ll say, ‘Well, he got lucky,’ you know. ‘He doesn’t deserve to be there, but he got lucky.’
The Redskins are 4-1 against teams currently with losing records, 0-3 against teams with winning records and lost to the 5-5 Giants. Four of their seven remaining games are against teams who currently have losing records — they also play the Panthers (9-0), Bills (5-4) and Giants.
A lot of clarity could come from those final games, to all sides of the Redskins QB argument. Until then, one would be wise to assume Jones will stand firmly in the pocket delivering criticism, taking on any and all defenders.
Follow @ChrisLingebach and @1067TheFanDC on Twitter. |
As reported by the Tampa Bay Times in September of 2010.
Trevor Dooley walked out of his suburban house Sunday afternoon, past his trimmed lawn and nice landscaping, to confront a boy riding a skateboard on the basketball court across the street. That's against the rules in this neighborhood, and Dooley, 69, was carrying a gun. David James, 41, with 20 years in the Air Force, was playing basketball with his 8-year-old daughter. They played every Sunday. James stood up for the skateboarder, neighbors said. The men argued and got into a "physical confrontation," the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said. Then, in front of his daughter, James was shot dead. What authorities don't know is who pulled the trigger, or whether it was justified.
Mark Cox, a State Attorney's Office spokesman, said he couldn't yet explain why no charges have been filed. "It's still very much a pending investigation," he said. "We're working on it diligently." Neighbors said James was defending skateboarders, who they said have had multiple run-ins with Dooley. "We've gone off on each other before," said James' stepson, 17-year-old Garrett James. James' wife, Kanina James, can't understand why Dooley is free. "It's over and it's done and it can't be undone," she said on the phone to a friend Monday morning. "Yeah, they caught him and they let him go. I don't know why."
Dooley was not arrested on the spot as several of the witness statements were conflicting."Why" would apparently be the "Stand Your Ground" law.
Eventually though, he was arrested and is now on trail awaiting the judges decision on a manslaughter charge.
Now we see what happens when a Black Man kills a White Man then asserts "Self Defense". He has to prove it. Other people in the opposite situation, not so much. At least not yet, even when the relevant Police Chief "Temporarily Steps Down".
Seems to me the victim isn't "Temporarily" Dead in either case - but in one case Justice just might be done, while in the other....
Vyan |
An interesting statement was posted on Twitter by Olivier Janssens, as he explained an upcoming change in the Bitcoin Core client software. A patented optimization for ASIC mining – called AsicBoost – will be made obsolete in the next client update. That news did not go over well with a lot of members for sure.
Bitcoin Core Developers Dislike AsicBoost
This news is part of a substantial debate on Reddit for the past few days, as the AsicBoost optimization lets Bitcoin miners save roughly 10% on electricity usage and costs. Given the right rates of electricity costs in most parts of the world, a 10% different can make mining more profitable for some users, adding to the decentralisation of this concept.
Note to miners: We, the core devs, discovered a patented optimization in your ASIC. We will make it obsolete in the next update. Thank you. — Olivier Janssens (@olivierjanss) May 13, 2016
At the same time, this announcement begs the question as to why Bitcoin Core developers want to remove such a feature, as that seems to have an adverse effect. There are some questions asked on Reddit as to why is behind this decision, and the name Blockstream is coming up several times as the potential instigators of this upcoming change.
People who have been mining Bitcoin for some time now will know how the mining difficulty has gone up by a significant margin in the past few months. The apparent reason for this ramping difficulty spike is due to more people mining, or at least more hardware being deployed. Still, a 10% boost to require less electricity while mining is nothing to sneeze at.
According to the statement posted by one of the Bitcoin Core developers, this change will be made to fight the centralization of Bitcoin mining. However, AsicBoost is a patented technology available to only some users, which gives them a somewhat unfair advantage for using the “right” hardware. Given the decentralised nature of Bitcoin and mining, such an advantage should be rooted out, so it would make some sense in this regard.
Then again, some ASIC manufacturers already produce far more efficient chips which are not made available to the public yet. This gives these companies an unfair advantage as well, and this has nothing to do with patented technology. Stopping such an improvement is all but impossible, which begs the question whether or not only completely open-source ASIC hardware should be allowed to mine Bitcoin.
In the end, there are advantages to the Bitcoin Core decision, and some people will disagree with removing AsicBoost as well. Bitcoin is designed to be a fair market where no one has a competitive advantage over everyone else, but enforcing that rule is a lot harder than it seems. Bitcoin mining will never be fair for everyone as this is determined by external factors beyond the control of developers.
Source: Reddit
Header image courtesy of NewsBTC |
On Today's Menus, Adjectives Overpower The Entrees
Enlarge this image toggle caption iStockphoto.com iStockphoto.com
Have you looked at a restaurant menu lately?
At Per Se in New York, a three-star eatery, according to the Michelin Guide, a cauliflower dish contains "English cucumber," "Meyer Lemon" and "Young Mint." The asparagus is made with "Cherry Belle Radishes."
Cheeses are "Artisanal Cheeses" at The French Room in Dallas. And at The Herbfarm near Seattle, the salmon is "Lummi Island Reefnetted Sockeye."
Since when did oatmeal become “Irish Steel Cut Oatmeal,” as it is on the breakfast menu at The Henley Park Hotel in downtown Washington?
The trend is not just relegated to the snootier cafes. The gravy that you ladle on biscuits at Cracker Barrel restaurants is not just any old gravy. It's "Sawmill Gravy." Bob Evans offers "Wildfire fried chicken." Denny's advertises "fire-roasted peppers" in certain breakfast dishes and, in an adjectival frenzy, "succulent shrimp," "savory vegetable rice pilaf" and "tangy lemon pepper butter sauce" in its dinner offerings.
It is the tyranny of the ingredient. No longer is a successful dish on the American menu about a successful sum of its parts; it is about the parts themselves. Each ingredient is held up and examined like a precisely cut diamond.
Perhaps this is happening because it's the era of free agency, in which star players are more important than the team itself. Maybe this ingredient mania mirrors the trend of deconstructionism in literary criticism. Or the rise of the cult of the individual in society at large.
A Brief History Of 'Ingredientism'
Whatever is behind the phenomenon, it arose amid a broader social context. First there were celebrity chefs such as James Beard and Julia Child. They wrote best-selling books and created meals on TV. Then came the Slow Food movement, which began in Europe in the 1980s as a backlash against American fast food and reached a rolling boil in this country in the late 1990s. The New York office of Slow Food USA opened in 2000. This push for eco-gastronomy -- linking what we eat to the health of the planet -- was championed by foodie pioneers such as Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, co-owner of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif. The menu at Chez Panisse proffers "Devils Gulch rabbit ragout" and "Sonoma Liberty duck breast."
Enlarge this image toggle caption David Bookstaver/AP David Bookstaver/AP
As the national obsession with noshing intensified, whole industries and TV networks sprang up like Vidalia onions. With shows like "Hell's Kitchen" and "America's Test Kitchen," the Food Network, HGTV and other purveyors of edible entertainment turned ingredientism into religion, with televangelistic characters called "top chefs" and "iron chefs."
When asked about the origins of ingredient-centric menus, Gael Greene, the venerable New York victuals critic who oversees the Insatiable Critic website, harks back to the early 1980s and restaurants such as Brooklyn's River Cafe. "With Larry Forgione as chef," Greene says, "geographical credits filled the menu." (The French-trained Forgione is often referred to as "the godfather of American cuisine" by food writers.)
In 1981, River Cafe offered "Bellingham Bay smoked salmon" from Washington state, "New Jersey quail" and "Maine periwinkles." That was the beginning, Greene says, "of chefs seeking out special products in a concerted way and giving credits on the menu. Forgione argued that really good food comes from really good ingredients. It was Forgione who persuaded River Cafe owner Michael O'Keefe to invest in a chicken farm that would raise chickens that would not be caged. Forgione called them "free range chicken."
And so it continued. Before long, menus overflowed with Hawaiian sea bass, Tahitian vanilla creme brulee and baby iceberg lettuce.
The practice, which now extends to supermarket shelves, sparked a scandal recently when the Food and Drug Administration launched an investigation into, and crackdown on, so-called food fraud. A jar of "Sturgeon caviar" found on a grocery store shelf, according to a report in The Washington Post, was actually paddlefish from Mississippi. And cheese made of sheep's milk -- so said the label -- was really made from cow's milk.
"We put so much emphasis on food and purity of ingredients and where they come from," Mark Stoeckle, a physician and DNA expert at Rockefeller University, told the Post. "But then there are things selling that are not what they say on the label. There's an important issue here in terms of economics and consumer safety."
Black Winter Truffles
The competition to overdescribe delectables is fierce. Scallops on the menu at Boondocks in Sunriver, Ore., are "Seared Diver Scallops." The tenderloin at New City in Topeka, Kan., is "Hand Trimmed and Hand Cut." And the pork at Soby's in Greenville, S.C., is "Local Heritage BBQ Pork."
Of course, Greene points out, this movement toward showcasing the ingredient has proved a boon to small farms and heirloom farm products. And sometimes menus just sound overwritten and overwrought even when they actually provide valuable information to the consuming cognoscenti. For instance, when Greene is told that the asparagus at Per Se in New York is not made with simple mayonnaise, but with "Black Winter Truffle Mayonnaise," she says that the difference between white truffles and black truffles and the difference between winter truffles and summer truffles is significant to the discerning diner. "Not everyone who reads the menu will know this," she says. "But those that do are informed."
Still, there are those who are satisfied with a basic meat-and-potatoes approach to menus. For $22 at the recently hatched Tasting Kitchen in Venice, Calif., for instance, you can get this: pork. polenta. leeks. |
Third Point LLC, the hedge fund run by Daniel Loeb, amassed new stakes in BlackBerry Ltd., T-Mobile US Inc. and Apple Inc.
The fund bought about 1.9% of BlackBerry’s shares, almost 1% of T-Mobile’s stock, and 100,000 Apple shares during the fourth quarter, according to a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Third Point also revealed a 1.3% stake in Hertz Global Holdings Inc. among other new positions.
While most of New York-based Third Point’s investments aren’t activist — where try to force management and boards to make changes that boost shares and returns — it’s those campaigns that attract the most attention. Loeb last year targeted Dow Chemical Co., Sony Corp., CF Industries Holdings Inc., and Sotheby’s.
In July, billionaire Loeb sold most of his stake in Yahoo! Inc. back to the company and left the board after an almost two- year effort to revamp the Web portal. Loeb became a director in May 2012 in a shakeup tied to the ouster of former Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Scott Thompson. Loeb helped bring in Google Inc. executive Marissa Mayer as CEO.
Bloomberg.com |
Two 'Israelis' arrested at Heathrow after making 'inappropriate comments about Iran' during flight from Las Vegas
Two men accused of being disruptive on a plane were arrested at Heathrow Airport, police said today.
The pair, who are believed to be Israeli, were passengers on a British Airways flight from Las Vegas to London, flying into Terminal 5.
The men, aged 28 and 33, were alleged to be making repeated comments about Iran.
Two men have been arrested aboard at British Airways flight landing at Heathrow
A source told Sky News the men had been 'repeatedly disruptive during the flight and had made inappropriate and potentially threatening comments regarding Iran and the possible route of the aircraft.'
The pilot became concerned and contacted London and the police met the plane when it landed.
Armed police boarded the plane to arrest the men, at around 3pm and remain in custody being questioned. |
(If you enjoy our website and our blog updates about Isildur1, and want more daily updates, feel free to donate a dollar or two through PokerStars,
by sending a small donation to PokerStars username Markelon900. )
That would be highly appreciated.
Pokerstars -> Player transaction -> Markelon900
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Viktor “Isildur1” Blom has been very absent on the tables for the most recent time. Just after the start of 2016, we saw him continuing playing on MicroGaming under the nickname “hrskar”, but he never really came back to PokerStars, until today. This was the day of reckoning, this was the day of the comeback.
A lot of players around the world (probably mostly from Sweden) were worried that Isildur1 would take a long break from Poker in 2016, after having such a blast in 2015 with the massive upswings
that we reported on during 2015, something that you can read about more in the blog posts below if you are interested in reading that.
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It was not a comeback on the cashgame tables, however, it was a comeback on the tournament tables on PokerStars. After registering into the TCOOP-26 $700 NL Hold’em tournament with $161k for 1st place, the action was back on PokerStars, with a fresh, and clean, Viktor.
In the beginning of the tournament it barely looked like it was Isildur1 playing, sure, Viktor is an extremely good MTT player, and sure, he had some time off from the tables, but the level of tightness in the beginning of the tournament was insane, and that’s mildly speaking. With 50k starting stack in the tournament, Viktor decided to play extremely tight and almost folded all the way down to 17k, after playing just some minor hands without getting any real good run going. Viktor pretty much folded all the way down to a 12k stack, probably because the cards he was dealt probably wasnt good enough.
But then it was time for Isildur1 to start getting heated up, and it was time to get involved in some huge action on the table. The first hand that went to showdown, was a really good
starting hand for Viktor, in fact, he couldn’t get a better pocket pair to get it all in with. Yep, it was the pocket aces, only the best is good enough for the King, ya dig?
After the pocket AA’s hand, Isildur1 was suddenly up to a 56k stack, from being down to just 17k after playing very tight. Viktor was wet, slick, and ready to go, and decided to go all in
on the very next hand, with another pocket pair, pocket 77’s. Here he was up against A4 offsuit and pocket QQ’s, and Viktor managed to hit a seven on the flop making what John Juanda would have said:
“I had twips”, taking down a massive 150k pot in the tournament.
The pocket 77’s showed up again on the very next hand, and yep, it was yet again time to get the chips in the middle, against a short stacked danish player named “moumaife84” (probably drunk
after seeing his beloved Denmark only drawing to Sweden in the Handball Euro 2016 tournament). The danish dude showed the AJ offsuit, flop came K54, turn 3, river 9, and Viktor ends up taking
it down with a 9 high flush, he would however have won the hand even without the flush, considering he had the pocket pair, while the danish had nothing, nothing at all, just a happy unsuited AJ.
It then took the King 19 hands until he was back in action again, this time with a happy pocket 10’s, against the Canadian player holla@yoboy, flop came JQ7, turn 4, river, a happy little ace. In this pot Viktor
went from a 200k stack, to a massive 367k stack.
At this time the tournament had already been going on for just over 2 hours and 40 minutes, and the blinds had gone all the way up to 5k/10k, meaning Isildur1 right in this very moment sat with a hefty 36 big blind stack. It didn’t take long for more players to bust, and 00:44 (CET) Viktor was in place 45/317 players, out of 1377 registered players, pretty insane when you think about the fact that he just a couple of hands ago only had a 17k stack, but we all know Viktor can turn dirt into gold in just a millisecond, so I don’t think that we are surprised that the King wins the happy pots.
Then it was back to playing tight, and after folding a lot of hands, Viktor was now down to a 312k stack, and the blinds had now raised to 6k/12k, and Isildur1 was the next player to get the big blind, and for those of you out there who don’t understand what that means, is that Viktor now has to put in 12k of his chips into the table, even if he want’s to or not, thats why it’s called the blinds.
After the player saladinhoo raised to 24k preflop, with the player pete_tuga from United Kingdom going all in with his 204k stack, Viktor decided to call it down with a all-in shove of his own. pete_tuga had pocket 99’s, the King had AQ offsuit. Flop came down 3AK, turn 4, river, another happy 4, giving Isildur1 the massive 441k pot with a two pair, of aces and fours. At this time Viktor’s stack was a massive 549k. Viktor then decided to call the all in from the player ouchbadbeat in the very next hand, ouchbadbeat had the 67 suited, while Isildur1 had the JQ suited. After the flop the hand still looked pretty promising for Viktor, considering he only had to fade the flush, and of course the 6 and the 7, the turn came down with a 5, it all looked good, Viktor was probably cheering, but then the sadness came, then it all turned on Isildur1, the 6 came down on the river. Ouch, 362k going to ouchbadbeat, while Viktor is still in the tournament with a 382k stack. Now that’s a bad beat, ya dig?
After that Viktor decided to take it easy for a couple of hands, and now it was also time for a needed 5 minutes break. During the time of the break, Isildur1 had a 347k stack, which at this time putted him in place 73/232 players, a pretty promising stack to start off the action with after the break.
Note that this is the first tournament on PokerStars that Viktor registered into, going all the way back to 11/10/2015, where he registered in to the $1,050 Super Tuesday with $450K guaranteed up top, sadly he busted that tournament in place 223/552 without any cash.
The break has now ended, and the blinds are now up to level 34, with 10K in the small blind, and a hefty 20k in the big blind, giving Viktor rougly 17 big blinds to play with to start it off after the break.
After the 5 minute break, the action now continued, and we are pretty sure that there is a lot of railers there at home eagerly waiting for what’s waiting around the corner, what hands are waiting in the TCOOP-27 $700 NL’Holdem tournament for Viktor “Isildur1” Blom? Some of you out there might think that most of the railers are from Sweden, thinking:
“Hey, the time is now 01:01 in the middle of the freakin’ NIGHT in Sweden, go to bed, don’t you people have jobs to go to in the morning?”
Yeah, i’m pretty sure a lot of us are, but is that really relevant? Is that really of any concerns? No. This is the comeback of Isildur1, and as long as you’re not a doctor or something else where other people might be in danger if you come to work tired, you have every single right in the world to stay up and watch this amazing action, cause Viktor deserves it, he deserves the support, he deserves the love, and he deserves to be remembered as the King of Online Poker. This is not your Average Joe, this is Viktor Blom, and the action is here and now.
It then took a couple of folding hands for Viktor until the action was back again, this on a hand where the player saladinhoo was all in for his 120k stack, where Isildur1 was thinking for roughly 15 seconds until he ended up folding it preflop. On the very next hand, saladinhoo decided to shove his stack all in again, now with a 158k stack. Was Viktor going to finally call it off here and take the whole lot from the dude? No, Viktor folded and sat carefully down with his now 315k stack, waiting for a good hand to get it in with. Remember, the blinds are now 10k/20k, so when Viktor finally does decide to get involved in the action, he better have a good starting hand, or else it might get very dangerous putting the chips in the middle.
Viktor decided to fold once again, and now had another 4 hands left until he was back on the big blind, which is now on 20k. A duck mother hates to lose her babies, in the same way as Isildur1 hates to just give away his blinds, meaning the upcoming hands are very important for this particular tournament for the King.
At this very moment the tournament was down to 200 players, with Viktor currently sitting in 89th place, with his 305k stack, he is now just 2 hands away from the big blind. This is it, this time I know it’s the real thing, and I cant explain how im feeling. Viktor decided to fold once again, and the next hand is the last one until he has to put in those 20k into the middle, wether if he want’s to or not, it’s the big blind. Just in the hand before the hand he was big blind in, the blinds raised, to a massive 12.5k for the small blind, and 25k for the big blind, meaning Viktor now currently has 12 big blinds left in the tournament, meaning the next hand he get’s involved in will probably be a all-in shove from the master.
The level of entertainment was very high, and we were very eager to see what Viktor was going to do, he is now in the big blind. This is it. elio2405 raises to 62,5k preflop, saladinhoo casually folds, chik12xa joins saladinhoo in the folding department, ouchbadbeat does that as well, now down to I Play Cash in the small blind, folding as well.
Now, time for the master to take his action. What is Viktor going to do? He thinks for a couple of seconds, until he finally decides to just casually fold it, like a champ, leaving him with a 258k stack after putting the small blind of 12.5k down at the table. Is he going to get involved in this hand, is this the time to double up? There is now 186 players left, 176 players gets to cash, the other ones goes home with empty pockets and som cab fare.
I Play Cash decides to shove, and Viktor decides to call, I Play Cash has Isildur1 covered, the pot is a massive 592k. I Play Cash shows pocket QQ’s, Viktor shows the A9 offsuit. Flop comes down AQJ, turn comes down with the King of hearts, no help to Isildur1, and then finally the river comes down, 6 of hearts. I Play Cash takes the massive 592k pot down, Isildur1 busts before the money.
The tournament journey is over.
We will of course keep all of you happy railers out there covered with what’s waiting around the corner, so make
sure you tune back in to the blog for the latest news from Viktor “Isildur1” Blom.
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Until then, stay healthy, happy railing, and God Bless my friend’s.
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Co-founders Kurt Refsnider and Kaitlyn Boyle were bikepacking in Patagonia when they decided to form Bikepacking Roots.
Their concept for a nonprofit that seeks to make bikepacking more accessible through route creation–and in doing so turns riders into conservationists–was not entirely new. It wasn't originally theirs, either.
The concept can be attributed at least partially to Casey Greene–the Montana-based endurance adventurer and advocate who's become known for pioneering "packbiking." Working alongside a few other bikepackers, Greene came up with a similar idea almost four years ago. But the group found a lack of buy-in from the then-Lilliputian bikepacking community, and the idea never got past the first few brainstorming sessions.
Now, with bikepacking on the rise, Refsnider, Boyle and their board of directors–which includes Greene–believe that the iron is hot.
"It really developed out of thinking about how much work goes into putting together long-distance routes," said Refsnider. "It takes weeks and weeks of planning to put something like that Patagonia trip together and then you get out there and suddenly things are not at all what you expect. It's that sort of thing–whether it's for a month-long trip or a five-day trip–that's really a barrier to getting more people into the activity of bikepacking."
Refsnider says Bikpacking Roots will work to lower those barriers by publishing carefully planned, extensively researched and thoroughly reconnoitered routes that are consistent in character and tailored to a specific riding experience.
Refsnider contends that many of the routes posted on various websites aren't updated after being published. That can create problems (or adventures, depending on your point of view) for those who attempt them. Bikepacking Roots aims to publish a modest three or four routes per year, but all of them will be monitored by a network of riders and regional advisers, and updated accordingly.
The guides will also include detailed segment information so that riders will know what to expect along the way, and have the information they need to tackle the logistical questions that come with planning multi-day rides in remote areas.
But the organization's mission goes beyond simply making it easier for people to get out and experience remote landscapes. "Actually getting people out there to feel how remote that country is and how unique it is helps develop that conservation ethic in people,” said Refsnider. "Our goal is to use the bikepacking experience as a way to help people connect to place." One way the nonprofit will work to achieve that connection is by providing route guides with conservation and environmental education materials so that bikepackers can learn about and connect to the landscapes they're traveling through.
Refsnider is a strong supporter of public lands, and says that Bikepacking Roots supports a common-sense approach to bike access in Wilderness areas.
"There definitely needs to be compromise and understanding between different user groups and land management agencies," he said. "We don't want to support Wilderness bills that would really threaten the bikepacking experience and mountain-bike access. But at the same time, we're very much in favor of Wilderness where it's the most appropriate designation and will have a positive effect on conservation."
Signing up for a free membership is the surest way to get involved and stay updated with Bikepacking Roots. The organization does accept donations, which it says will go to route development and advocacy efforts.
There are currently three routes available from Bikpacking Roots, two of which–the Plateau Passage and the Colorado 14ers Loop–have been detailed by Refsnider in his 'Fully Loaded' series. New rides will be published to Bikepackingroots.org, Bikepacking.com and MTBProject.com. A 4,500-mile trip from Florida to Newfoundland is among the routes currently in the works.
Related
Fully Loaded: The Beauty of Bikepacking
Fully Loaded: How To Set Up a Trail Bike for Bikepacking |
In May, I listened to JD Vance — the media-anointed white-people whisperer from southeast Ohio — open a City Club event at Cleveland’s Global Center for Health Innovation. The Global Center is an outsized, glassy gamble by Cuyahoga County: a conference and meeting facility intended to attract health and biotech companies to showcase their products, which, theoretically, will bolster Cleveland’s economy. It has stood grotesquely empty since its completion.
It was an appropriate forum for this $35-per-ticket event, which, in addition to Vance, featured the New America Foundation’s Michael Lind. Lind is the co-author, with Joel Kotkin, of a report called “The New American Heartland: Renewing the Middle Class by Revitalizing Middle America.” The report, which expands the Rust Belt’s geography to encompass the also-economically-flagging Deep South and lent its name to the panel I attended, was released by Kotkin’s Center for Opportunity Urbanism, a right-leaning, Houston-based think tank that fetishizes business-friendly policies, deregulation, and decentralization as the keys to helping American cities compete on a global scale.
The postulating on how to revive post-industrial cities, what that revival should look like, and who it should benefit is a tangled web of ideologies that’s been spun time and again since the collapse of heavy manufacturing in the 1970s. Kotkin’s ideas have long been popular among right- and libertarian-leaning urbanists, and people who wouldn’t dare to call themselves urbanists at all, because they’re essentially odes to the free market. Now, five months after the City Club panel, he — alongside Richard Florida, whose Teflonesque creative-class theory persists even despite Florida’s attempts to dismantle it — is on retainer with Kansas City as part of that town’s bid to attract every American metropolis’ white whale of the moment, the second Amazon headquarters. (Vance, too, is back in the news, for an odious association with Steve Bannon.)
At the City Club event, Kotkin moderated an overstuffed discussion between Michael Hecht, president and CEO of Greater New Orleans; India Pierce Lee, a senior vice president at the Cleveland Foundation and chair of the visiting committee at Cleveland State University Levin College of Urban Affairs; Rick Platt, the president and CEO of the Heath-Newark-Licking Port Authority in central Ohio; Manhattan Institute senior fellow Aaron M. Renn; Pete Saunders, a Chicago-based Forbes urban affairs contributor and longitme blogger at The Corner Side Yard; and Mark Schill, vice-president for research at the Praxis Strategy Group, which has offices in North Dakota and California (Schill also edits NewGeography.com, a joint venture between Praxis and Kotkin).
It was a convenient assembly of several perpetrators of the corporate-urbanism strain of thought; from my view in the audience, the only possible conclusion of a panel as sprawled-out as the built environment of northeast Ohio was no conclusion at all. Following Vance’s opener, the panelists volleyed back and forth in a technocratic patter, but gave no insight on useful economic development strategies. Platt claimed that putting the label “Rust Belt” to rest would save the region; Hecht called pre-Katrina New Orleans a “crappy company” and the hurricane the “investment strategy” that propelled its latest iteration. Only Saunders and Lee, the panel’s sole person of color and woman, respectively, deigned to speak about the growing equity gaps — in health, job access, housing, and generational wealth — in the states in question.
That mind-meld of Vance, Kotkin, Hecht, Platt, Renn, and Schill at the Global Center is still resonant: The stampede of cities, small and large, to hire consultants, identify sites, and assemble proposals all in the name of Amazon is yet another entry into the same ideological cannon to which “The New American Heartland” belongs. Politicians and CEOs like this framing of economic development — one based nearly entirely on attracting businesses and certain types of residents — because it doesn’t require raising taxes to pay for services. Instead, it suggests tax cuts will save places like Cleveland, Lima, and Dayton by making them more attractive to, if not Amazon, then perhaps the creative class, or something like it. Plus, the assumption that development will trickle down eliminates the need to talk about unpleasant categorical racial and class inequities.
So as populations continue to bleed out, and as the dynamics of global trade and automation become even more confusing, why not double-down on cutting red tape to encourage homegrown innovation and investment? Why not encourage public-private partnerships, given declining tax revenue? Why not try to attract corporations as anchor institutions (never mind that Amazon has effectively refereed a nationwide race to the bottom)? Why not reject the faceless administrators in Washington who tell us how to run our communities, and focus instead on local economic development?
Alternatively, why not let the vacant Global Center for Health Innovation show you how those sorts of strategies are working out?
The greatest trick “The New American Heartland” report, and its disciples, attempts to pull is convincing its intended audience that cities haven’t been embracing deregulation and corporate-friendly tax incentives for decades. Declining Rust Belt towns have continually plowed their faith, funds, and political willpower into downtown developments and amenity attraction, with the hope that doing so will somehow drive enough investment to boost neighborhoods distressed by decades of racist land-use planning. But tax breaks for individuals or corporations don’t work, and Cleveland’s recent history is littered with moonshot megaprojects that have failed to staunch the population exodus. Any Amazon proposal in any Cleveland-esque city, no matter how propped up by big-name consultants, will only encourage more of the same.
The “New American Heartland” report does acknowledge this — indirectly. After pages of text prescribing deregulation and decentralization to jumpstart industrial job creation, it abruptly tacks to infrastructure, claiming that seaports and inland waterways will be the “key link between the New American Heartland and foreign markets”:
From a broad historical perspective, neither industry-chasing at the municipal level nor top-down government industrial or procurement policies have played the major role in U.S. industrial development. The most important part has been played by infrastructure investment, which precedes and enables new development in the productive economy. This is best driven by the region’s local economies, and by ad hoc arrangements to meet specific goals.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Steve Litt summarized the report like this:
[The New American Heartland] argues that the heartland could unleash a blue-collar jobs boom through lighter regulation on fossil fuel production and consumption, and through ‘bottom-up’ economic development guided at the state and local level rather than from Washington…[that] the region “may be helped by the presence of a new administration whose rhetoric has focused on a broad-based industrial revival and, perhaps equally important, owes its existence largely to the voters of this region.”
It’s zeitgeisty, still, nearly a year after Donald Trump’s ascension, to talk about poor, mostly rural white people as if they hold the key to the political hellscape in which we’ve found ourselves. JD Vance’s memoir has become a policy prescription for pundits all over the political spectrum who find a narrative of personal fortitude, particularly as executed by upwardly mobile whites, more compelling than peer-reviewed research. But this argument ignores the evidence that wealthier Americans elected Donald Trump, as well as that we’re losing jobs to automation and shifting industries rather than globalization. Ultimately, it obscures that the heartland is responsible to its cities, too, even if they are denser, browner, and blacker than the common conception of the Midwest.
Those cities have been cannibalized by America’s grand suburban experiment, which has invisibly subsidized unchecked outward growth. Cities are natural sites for clustered innovation, and even as they’ve been eaten away by exurbs, they still retain much of their firepower, despite Kotkin’s conviction that the suburbs need defending. That’s why Amazon is prioritizing proximity to an actual population center. Vance, for his part, at least implicitly understands the usefulness of urban cores. Much has been made of his decision to “move home,” but he’s not moving back to southeast Ohio — he’s moving to the 15th largest metro in America, the state’s capital, and one of the few cities in the state experiencing population gains. Perhaps living there, and working in venture capital, will compel him to bridge the gap between Ohio’s rural and urban interests, which have more in common than metanarratives would have us believe.
The opioid crisis — Vance’s chosen policy issue — is not exclusive to the hollers, and never has been. Cuyahoga County is predicting 775 opioid-related deaths this year, but state Republicans proposed to cut $35 million from a city-specific funding stream to redirect that money to a statewide drug-fighting initiative. Cities are not inherently more deserving of this money than rural and suburban communities in a state that’s leading the nation in opioid deaths, but this instance of robbing Peter to pay Paul favors rural areas over urban. More people are affected by opioids in urban areas; despite an outsized political fixation with the state’s rural expanses, more people live in Ohio’s cities than anywhere else. No amount of deregulation and innovation can “fix” them when their citizens are starved of resources that could keep them alive.
The cities of “the New American Heartland” do not deserve to be a testing ground for this super-strain of technocratic economic and urban policy. Frankly, they may not survive it. Ohio Governor John Kasich’s preferred growth strategy — cutting income taxes and public services while raising sales taxes — favors the finances of the wealthy exurban voters that delivered Ohio to Donald Trump, and disproportionately harms the middle class and racial minorities. We do not have the luxury of slashing regulations and waiting for private capital to save us; a Vance-esque method of bootstrapping is nearly impossible to achieve at scale when escaping poverty requires 20 years of luck.
The 2016 election pitted a myth of “real America” against the perceived elitism of effete-liberal coastal cities. It told the story of an economically anxious white working class that figured larger in our imaginations than it does in reality. In its aftermath, urban municipalities, already starved by decades of Nixonian New Federalism, will have to go it alone in unprecedented ways. Lukewarm policy proposals like “The New American Heartland,” and clamoring to attract a one-time golden goose like Amazon by severing as many financial and regulatory strings as possible, will not help this new American reality. Yet, unsurprisingly, the Kotkins, Vances, Platts, and Hechts — who are more likely than the average citizen to benefit personally from corporate-friendly urbanism and deregulated industries — are continuing to tell us otherwise.
A more sobering analysis of what our future might look like is Robert Gordon’s heavyweight, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, which stands resolutely against “techno-optimism.” In it, Gordon argues we are not simply one wave of innovation away from another transformation of American life and wealth. Rather, “headwinds” — rising inequality, flatlining education levels, an aging populace, and no right to health care as American citizens — will slow the progress we’ve come to associate with our country.
Gordon is likely chastising his fellow ivory-tower economists when he deconstructs that techno-optimist assumption that continued growth, invention, and innovation are smoothly running devices that will continue to improve American life. But I like to imagine that he’s also speaking to slick idea-peddlers like Kotkin, who have made careers out of claiming that deeply entrenched, hopelessly complex structural issues can be mitigated by deregulation, tax cuts, infrastructure, and a greater instillation of personal responsibility in American citizens. The opioid crisis and all it represents — a grossly widening gap in equality and access to resources, abetted by government policies that favor corporations over individuals — will not be helped by rebranding swaths of the country so that it looks better on a pitch deck.
Accepting that Gordon’s headwinds are real and true is not something that any city wants to face, certainly not within the week that proposals to Amazon are due. And it’s not in the self-interest of the majority of the City Club’s heartland-busting panelists to consider them, either. After all, as investors and consultants, they’ve benefited greatly from the flow of capital from municipalities to public-private partnerships.
Taking Gordon’s argument seriously—and moving forward with specific policies that could help heal what we have already—would first necessitate an admittance that deregulation; its assumed cousin, innovation; and their most current physical embodiment, Amazon, may not save us. And what declining city wants to reckon with what it will see in the mirror? |
ELTVILLE, Germany (Reuters) - Euro zone banks are benefiting from the European Central Bank’s sub-zero interest rates and they are “really far” from converting their deposits to cash, ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said on Friday.
European Central Bank Vice President Vitor Constancio speaks during a Reuters Newsmaker event in New York February 19, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid - RTX27Q37
Banks, particularly in Germany, have complained that the ECB’s charge on deposits is eating deep into their profits and sources told Reuters earlier this week Commerzbank is even considering storing euro notes to avoid parking money with the ECB at a penalty rate.
Constancio, however dismissed the chance that lenders would switch to cash en masse, arguing that even banks in Switzerland, where the charge on bank deposits is even higher, have not cut their deposits.
Still, he accepted that the ECB’s negative deposit rate policy had its limits because banks could “at a certain point” start storing cash to avoid the penalty rate.
“The policy has costs... and limits are related to cash preference, which could start at a certain point,” Constancio told a conference in Germany. “But we are really very far away from those levels.”
The ECB has charged banks for depositing cash for the past two years and bought 1 trillion euros worth of assets to boost inflation, which has undershot its target for 3 straight years with forecasts suggesting several more years of misses.
Constancio argued that declining funding costs, stable interest margins, one-off capital gains and rising volumes have more than offset the negative impact of ultra low rates.
“So far so good, in the sense that the overall impact of our policies on profitability of banks has been positive, even in net interest income,” he said.
Constancio also defended the ECB’s policy of focusing on inflation given that price stability is its primary mandate and rejected calls, including from Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann, to focus on broader financial stability risks.
“We think that financial stability cannot be and should not be a priority for monetary policy,” Constancio added. |
President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi of Yemen opened his speech on Wednesday by demanding curbs on freedom of speech that insults religion.
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“These behaviors find people who defend them under the justification of the freedom of expression,” he said. “These people overlook the fact that there should be limits for the freedom of expression, especially if such freedom blasphemes the beliefs of nations and defames their figures.”
But Mr. Hadi also noted that expressions of opinion should be peaceful, denouncing “violence and incitement of hatred, which is contradictory to the values of the true Islamic religion.”
Other leaders have spoken out on the issue at the United Nations. President Asif A. Zardari of Pakistan, a country that experienced some of the most violent riots as a result of the film, went furthest in arguing against freedom of expression on religious matters, using his address on Tuesday to demand that insults to religion be criminalized.
“Before I take up my speech, I want to express the strongest condemnation for acts of incitement of hate against the faith of billions of Muslims of the world and our beloved prophet, Muhammad,” Mr. Zardari said, going on to enumerate the suffering caused in Pakistan by extremism, including the 2007 assassination of his wife, Benazir Bhutto.
“The international community must not become silent observers and should criminalize such acts that destroy the peace of the world and endanger world security by misusing freedom of expression,” he said. The United Nations should take up the issue immediately, he added.
Past United Nations attempts to address the issue, summarized in a general Human Rights Council agreement, have been deemed insufficient.
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Nabil Elaraby, the secretary general of the 21-member Arab League, added his voice to the issue, saying that spiritual harm should be treated as a crime, even as he condemned the recent riots. “If the international community has criminalized bodily harm, it must just as well criminalize psychological and spiritual harm,” Mr. Elaraby told a special session about Syria of the Security Council, saying it was a serious enough problem to warrant Council attention.
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The Arab League will pursue an international legal framework to confront insults to religion and to ensure respect for all faiths and their symbols, he said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, in a speech on Monday at a high-level meeting on legal standards, indirectly attacked the United States and others for defending freedom of speech when it came to defaming religion, but there was no direct reference to this in his main address on Wednesday. He stuck largely to spiritual and moral themes, rather than presenting his usual annual broadside against Israel, the lack of peace in the Middle East and international efforts to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program.
Mr. Ahmadinejad did say that Iran was being threatened with military action by “uncivilized Zionists” and criticized the enormous amount of money spent on American elections, without naming the United States. He aligned himself indirectly with Occupy Wall Street and similar protest movements, saying the voices of the “99 percent” were not heard in policy making decisions.
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But otherwise the 35-minute appearance was a lecture about the need for a fairer world order. As an example, he said later, Iran would soon form a working group to tackle the Syria problem. He concluded by forecasting at length about the peace that will prevail with the appearance of the religious savior awaited by many faiths.
“The current abysmal situation of the world and the bitter incidents of history are due mainly to the wrong management of the world, and the self-proclaimed centers of power who have entrusted themselves to the devil,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said.
But he said nothing to prompt what had become an annual walkout by European nations over Holocaust denials and other subjects.
“Ahmadinejad gave a long, rambling speech,” said one European Union diplomat, speaking anonymously according to his ministry’s guidelines. “Previously we’ve walked out because of his anti-Semitism, threats against Israel and 9/11 conspiracies. This year his only crime was incoherence.”
Other critics noted that Mr. Ahmadinejad made laudatory remarks about the young people who are seeking change around the world, even though Iran crushed its own youth-fueled pro-democracy movement that contested his re-election in 2009. |
The well-heeled crowd at Winspear Opera House this Friday is going to get the chance to be offended by Dallas Opera’s production of Show Boat. The first-ever opening night audience on Broadway 90 years ago may have had a little jolt at seeing an all-black chorus, including women, onstage as the curtain went up, but apparently had little trouble accepting the opening lines, “Niggers all work on the Mississippi; Niggers all work while the white folks play..."
This Friday, the audience in Dallas instead will hear, “Colored folks work on the Mississippi; Colored folks work while the white folks play ...”
There are, obviously, plenty of good reasons to avoid the word “nigger” in the opening moments of an opera production in a world charged with racial tensions. And there are plenty of arguments for sticking with the author’s original intent, in a world that values historical accuracy and frank discussion of unpleasant truths. And there’s even the whole question of whether the term “colored folks” is much less offensive than “nigger.”
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But the performers, director and opera officials are standing by their choices. “I had no concerns about participating,” says Nycole Ray, artistic director of Dallas Black Dance Theatre, who provided dancers from the group to support the production. “What is presented in Show Boat is real history. There are negative stereotypes, but it’s something that was there, as part of the culture, and people need to know this and realize it.”
Show Boat is a product of its era. The show began its life on the Broadway stage, as a commercial venture, in 1927. Playwright and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein (later of “Rogers and”) and his pre-Rogers collaborator, Jerome Kern, convinced the leading Broadway producer of the 1920s, Florenz Ziegfield, to let them push the envelope on the standard “boy meets girl” formula to make a show out of that year’s best selling novel, Edna Ferber’s Show Boat.
With profit-focused Ziegfield looking on nervously, Kern and Hammerstein came up with a show that, while preserving the tried-and-true boy-meets-girl strategy of every previous Broadway show, dealt, like Ferber’s novel, with themes of racial identity, discrimination, gender roles, economic inequality, generational conflict, the emergence of consumer society and addiction. (Ferber had included hints of homosexuality and references to prostitution in the novel, but Kern and Hammerstein weren’t quite ready to push the Broadway audience that far in 1927.)
The Dallas Opera had not yet produced a Broadway musical until Show Boat. The current production, including sets and costumes, was originally produced for Chicago Lyric Opera under director Francesca Zambello. Although the onsite direction for the show in Dallas is handled by E. Loren Meeker, Zambello’s conception is the guiding force.
While the initial appearance of “nigger” in the opening chorus was eliminated, the Dallas Opera has opted to continue stage director Zambello’s practice of keeping with the original script, where two of the white characters use the word — in one case, almost immediately after the opening chorus, in the first scene.
Soprano Alyson Cambridge, who plays the doomed, mixed-race character Julie, says she appeared recently in a different production in Louisville with Kentucky Opera, in which the word “nigger” was entirely omitted from the script. While she of course supports the practice of the current production in Dallas, Cambridge says that, ultimately, in her opinion, the original use of the word "nigger" should be restored entirely, including in the opening chorus.
Show Boat still raises questions of racial identity, nine decades after its first run. AngelaReneeSimpson.com
“I relate to Julie,” Cambridge says of the role, vouching for the authenticity of what Julie represents. “My mother is white and my father is black. I haven’t experienced the pain of ‘passing’ that someone like Julie would have experienced in those days. But I know what it is to be a bi-racial woman in 2016, and I know the experience of inadvertently ‘passing’ without intending to.”
The very idea of miscegenation laws forbidding interracial marriage, a key element in the plot, may seem bizarre to anyone who grew up after the Supreme Court ruling on Loving v. Virginia in 1967. But for anyone who remembers pre-civil rights America, the subplot of mixed-race Julie and her unsuccessful efforts to remain in a marriage with a white man rings painfully and profoundly true.
Less easy to swallow is the authenticity of two of the central characters, the African American cook Queenie and her husband Joe. Queenie is the epitome of the Aunt Jemima stereotype, ruling the roost in the kitchen, while Joe is described as lazy and unfocused. “I considered for months before taking the role, based on the stereotypes,” says bass Morris Robinson, who sings the role of Joe.
But the song “Ol' Man River,” which is both one of the great bass arias of all time as well as an iconic piece of American culture, finally lured Robinson. He adopted the somewhat revised text as sung by the great African American actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson, which Robinson says gives “Ol' Man River” the character of “a protest song, with the river as a representation of the dream Joe can’t achieve.”
“Morris and I could have let the stereotypes take over,” says soprano Andel Renée Simpson, who plays the role of Queenie, “But we didn’t.”
Simpson explains, in support of her take on the script, that it’s clear that Queenie and Joe are the people who keep the show boat running smoothly, and that Queenie’s kitchen is the heart of life on the Cotton Blossom.
There can be little doubt that Ferber, Kern and Hammerstein recognized discrimination for what it was. And there can be little doubt that they simply practiced the vernacular of their day when they put racial slurs in the mouths of their characters.
In choosing to employ the word “nigger” from the original text in some instances and bowdlerize it in others, Dallas Opera has chosen a middle ground, bound to annoy those who want a historically accurate text on one hand and those who prefer not to hear the word “nigger” in an operatic venue on the other.
Whether or not an audience member chooses to view certain aspects of Show Boat as part of the historical record or to see those aspects as a reinforcement of outdated stereotypes will depend on the individual. What is certain is that, almost a century later, Show Boat continues to entertain, to inform in unexpected ways, and to force audience members to think, in the midst of beautiful music and spectacle, about the intertwined hopes and failures of America. |
Buncombe County Republican Chairman Nathan West (Photo: Citizen-Times photo)
There are a "plethora" of potential candidates coming forward, a top Buncombe County Republican said, to fill the spot in the November Board of Commissioners's chairman's race that will be left vacant by GOP Commissioner Miranda DeBruhl, who Monday said she will drop out the race and resign from the county's governing body.
County Republican Chairman Nathan West said he had spoken with eight people who want to take DeBruhl's place on the ballot and it's likely that more are interested. The eventual appointee will face Democrat Brownie Newman, vice chairman on the board of commissioners.
"I think we’ll have people coming out of the woodwork before too long," West said. He added it was still early in the process "given that we’re a little over 48 hours into it now."
He declined to give names but characterized the group as a mix of "old and new."
"I don’t mean age-wise. It's people who have been involved in the past and people who are just now becoming active in the party."
Only one is a former elected official, Carl Mumpower, who served on the City Council and as Asheville vice mayor. Mumpower ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008 and lost a 2015 attempt to rejoin the council.
State law says the party of the candidate who drops out of the race can name a replacement up to 75 days before the election, which this year is Nov. 8. West said the county GOP executive committee doesn't want to wait that long given the cost of the race, which he said could see spending total $100,000.
DeBruhl's campaign finance reports show she raised more than $25,000 through March 3, while Newman has raised almost $7,000 through Feb. 29. It's not clear what DeBruhl will do with that cash, and West said he would not request any of her funds be given to the new candidate and would leave any such arrangement to the new candidate and DeBruhl.
Democrats hold a large advantage in terms of sheer numbers with 40 percent of the county's 183,342 registered voters, according to a Jan. 17 county election services report. Unaffiliated voters make up 35 percent of voters with 25 percent registered Republican.
But Republicans hold three of seven commissioner seats, and a win in the chair's race would give the party a chance at a majority.
DeBruhl, who was elected in 2014 made the abrupt announcement to pull out of the race just two months after winning the March 15 primary. She said she and her husband, Kelly, who run an RV dealership in Fletcher, had a business opportunity that would require her to be out of the county and state for long periods of time and she thought it was wrong to continue serving and running in the election.
She gained attention most recently for her role in opposing a $6.8 million land purchase to lure Deschutes Brewery to the county, a deal that failed and that Democrats say she played a role in scuttling.
Not only will a replacement have to be found in the chair's race, but Republicans will also need to name someone to take her District 3 seat until Dec. 1. Several people have also come forward for that spot, including Chad Nesbitt, who lost in the chair primary race to DeBruhl. West also declined to name those potential candidates, but said none of them were former elected officials. The appointee would have to come from District 3, which covers the west and southwest of the county. GOP executive committee members living in that district must make that choice within 30 days of her resignation.
After that, a nominee must be picked to run in November for the remaining two years of DeBruhl's District 3 term. It's possible that would be the same person Republicans appoint in the next 30 days. Democrats will also get to nominate someone to run for the remaining two years. Party Chairwoman Kathy Sinclair said it was "too early" to suggest any names.
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This year, the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) is set to unleash several new cars into our world with teasers being thrown around all over the internet. This post is meant to be a primer and one-stop-shop for the whole show including reveals, schedules, awards, and anything that would be of interest during press days (4/1 & 4/2). Be sure to come back to the main Shifting Lanes home page on both of those days as we’ll be having another live blog experience as we go through each booth and press conference.
Schedule of Press Conferences:
With auto shows and auto makers becoming more and more digital, most usually have a live stream of their major auto show press conferences on their websites. Be sure to check each automakers website along with the NYIAS website when your favorite company has their conference to be able to check out the new reveals or announcements.
4/1
9:10am-9:35am Lexus
9:45am-10:10am Chevrolet
10:15am-10:40am Jaguar Land Rover
10:45am-11:10am Lincoln
11:15am-11:40am Porsche
11:45am-12:15pm Mercedes-Benz/smart
12:25pm-1:10pm Subaru
1:20pm-1:45pm Kia
1:55pm-2:20pm Honda
2:25pm-2:50pm Cadillac
2:55pm-3:20pm McLaren
3:25pm-3:50pm Infiniti
3:55pm-4:15pm Hyundai
4:20pm-5:00pm Rolls-Royce
4/2
8:45am-9:45am World Car Awards Press Conference
9:55am-10:20am Nissan
10:25am-10:50am Volkswagen
10:55am-11:20am Chevrolet
11:30am-12:20pm Mitsubishi
12:30pm-12:55pm Toyota
1:05pm-1:25pm Lyons Motor Car
Having a press conference doesn’t necessarily mean revealing a new vehicle, but it does mean that we’ll get a plethora of information on existing vehicles, possible updates to vehicles, new campaign strategies, or new company heads and everything in between. I mean John Hamm revealed the AMG S63 Coupe last year for Mercedes so there are bound to be a few surprises.
Announced Reveals:
Chevrolet Malibu
Chevy is set to unveil a newly redesigned Malibu at this year’s show and judging by the silhouette, it’s looking quite nice. Last generation was a step in the right direction. Looks a bit Chrysler 200ish in the back.
Chevrolet Spark
This teaser shot of the new Spark looks a lot like the last one, but this compact hatch has proven to be popular and pretty fun.
Hyundai Tuscon
The popular small ‘ute made it’s European debut last month, but it’ll hop the pond and make it’s NA debt at NYIAS. And judging by the picture it’s going to look VASTLY superior to its predecessor.
Jaguar XF
With all the fanfare the F-type has received and with the XE coming out soon, it feels as though other JLR models have become an afterthought. But the reality is JLR has a bunch of other very handsome cars in their fleet. One shining example is the XF and it’s set for a refresh, making it’s public debut at NYIAS.
Kia Optima
Well now. What have we here? The hugely popular Kia Optima is going to be redesigned and it was just announced that we’ll get a sneak peek at what the future Kia flagship will look like. Our review of the last Optima was not favorable even though we did really like the exterior styling, but if this picture is even a small glimpse as to what we might be getting, it gives the new version exponential hope.
McLaren Sports Series (!!!)
Apologies to all other car companies having reveals at NYIAS, but this is enormous news. Rarely do you see a major super/hypercar manufacturer have a mega, new model reveal outside of Geneva, Tokyo, Frankfurt, or Detriot. So pardon us when we say, “Holy crap!” We’re eagerly anticipating the new Sports Series (possibly named the 570S?) and will bring full coverage when debuted, we’re assuming, during the McLaren Press Conference @ ~3:00pm on Wednesday 4/1.
Nissan Maxima
This debuted during the superbowl ad, but we’ll get to see the refresh live in person with all it’s swoopy glory.
Scion iA sedan and iM 5-door hatchback
Scion is making some noise recently with it’s bonkers and hot looking iM hatch concept, but will the real thing hold up to be as aggressive and cool looking? We predict no, but it does generate some discussion. Also, the iA sedan will finally be revealed and the question will then become, “Is Scion set to be come more than Toyota Lite?”
UPDATE: 2016 Lexus RX to debut
The Lexus Rx series of autos are a massive draw for Lexus, accounting for nearly 40% of all Lexus sales. The new 2016 Rx is set to bow at NYIAS. This teaser looks a lot like a sedan so this is going to be very interesting to see what waspy soccer moms will be driving in 2 years.
UPDATE: Mitsubishi Outlander
This is looking promising for Mitsubishi. The last outlander looks hideous, but this teaser shot hold a lot of promise. Now if they only had a surprise performance car reveal like Ford did with the GT…
UPDATE: Range Rover Sport HST
The Range Rover Sport had been out for a while, but this new HST variant will give a gloriously supercharged V6 along with a Gesture Tailgate and the introduction of Automatic Access Height. Full details at the show.
UPDATE: Infiniti QX50
Infiniti has made some excellent crossovers in recent years and now with the new nomenclature is set to unveil it’s updated QX50 (formerly known as the Ex37) and hope to have the same sort of success. With possibly more confusion. Can’t keep these names straight.
UPDATE: Lyons Motor Car
While totally weird looking from the teaser, Lyons Motor Car, a hypercar company in its infancy, will debut their first car directly following the Toyota press conference on April 2nd @ ~1:05pm. This should be very interesting as the car is rumored to have a Nelson racing engine and these engines are capable of producing between 1700 and 2500hp. Good lord. I hope they start it up for us to hear.
UPDATE: Aston Martin Vulcan
Aston’s Vulcan made it’s debut in Geneva, but they’re bringing it to NYIAS for it’s NA debut and what a debut it will be. This track only monster (not road legal) is built for the sole purpose of destroying anything that it comes in contact with at, say, your favorite track day event. And it should with an 800hp, 7.0L, V12 engine. And of course you’ll find carbon fiber all over the place to reduce weight. All this can be yours, if the price is right ($2.3million).
UPDATE: Ford Focus RS
Our article on the new Focus RS has all the details you might need on the car before anything is officially announced for the production version, but this car can be seen, by you, in the US, for its NA debut at the NYIAS. This is very exciting news and we’ll be sure to being you tons of pictures and any info we can pry from the Ford reps.
UPDATE: Lincoln Continental Concept
Lincoln just blasted this reveal out ahead of the show ~10 hours ago. Man this looks nice! It seems as though Lincoln is going directly after the germans and Jag with this look. Can’t say I don’t blame them as they have been the standard for the past 3 decades. Can this concept develop into something that brings Lincoln back from the dead? Only time will tell, but this is one giant step in the right direction.
Other News:
World Car of the Year Awards
Per the schedule above, the WCOTY will be awarded on Thursday 4/2 and there are several categories where automakers can get some nice NYIAS hardware. Categories include: World Car Design Award, World Luxury Car Award, World Green Car Award, World Performance Car Award, and World Car of the Year Award. Last year’s winners were some big names including the BMW i3, Porsche 911 GT3, and Audi A3. This year promises to showcase more incredible cars vying for the crown.
Booths
Last year’s booths were breathtaking. From Bentley hosting their own GT3 team with a full on wine bar to Lincoln having a gorgeous honeycomb wall design to Mazda rolling out 25 years of the Miata for it’s 25th annivarsary edition, there will be some glorious sights to behold and we will bring you exceptional pictures as we walk through the showroom floor.
Experiences
More games? Another F1 car racing experience? Off roading in a Jeep? Who knows what could be around the next corner. All we know is that we’re going to do it ALL this year. No stone left unturned.
That’s it for now, stay tuned as we update this page with more reveals and information as we get it leading up to the show.
Cheers! |
Hello, Berlin! Thank you, Chancellor Merkel, for your leadership, your friendship, and the example of your life – from a child of the East to the leader of a free and united Germany.
As I've said, Angela and I don't exactly look like previous German and American leaders. But the fact that we can stand here today, along the fault line where a city was divided, speaks to an eternal truth: No wall can stand against the yearning of justice, the yearnings for freedom, the yearnings for peace that burns in the human heart.
Mayor Wowereit, distinguished guests, and especially the people of Berlin and of Germany – thank you for this extraordinarily warm welcome. In fact, it's so warm and I feel so good that I'm actually going to take off my jacket, and anybody else who wants to, feel free to. We can be a little more informal among friends.
As your Chancellor mentioned, five years ago I had the privilege to address this city as senator. Today, I'm proud to return as President of the United States. And I bring with me the enduring friendship of the American people, as well as my wife, Michelle, and Malia and Sasha. You may notice that they're not here. The last thing they want to do is to listen to another speech from me. So they're out experiencing the beauty and the history of Berlin. And this history speaks to us today.
Here, for thousands of years, the people of this land have journeyed from tribe to principality to nation-state; through Reformation and Enlightenment, renowned as a "land of poets and thinkers," among them Immanuel Kant, who taught us that freedom is the "unoriginated birthright of man, and it belongs to him by force of his humanity."
Here, for two centuries, this gate stood tall as the world around it convulsed – through the rise and fall of empires; through revolutions and republics; art and music and science that reflected the height of human endeavor, but also war and carnage that exposed the depths of man's cruelty to man.
It was here that Berliners carved out an island of democracy against the greatest of odds. As has already been mentioned, they were supported by an airlift of hope, and we are so honored to be joined by Colonel Halvorsen, 92 years old – the original "candy bomber." We could not be prouder of him. I hope I look that good, by the way, when I'm 92.
During that time, a Marshall Plan seeded a miracle, and a North Atlantic Alliance protected our people. And those in the neighborhoods and nations to the East drew strength from the knowledge that freedom was possible here, in Berlin – that the waves of crackdowns and suppressions might therefore someday be overcome.
Today, 60 years after they rose up against oppression, we remember the East German heroes of June 17th. When the wall finally came down, it was their dreams that were fulfilled. Their strength and their passion, their enduring example remind us that for all the power of militaries, for all the authority of governments, it is citizens who choose whether to be defined by a wall, or whether to tear it down.
And we're now surrounded by the symbols of a Germany reborn. A rebuilt Reichstag and its glistening glass dome. An American embassy back at its historic home on Pariser Platz. And this square itself, once a desolate no man's land, is now open to all. So while I am not the first American President to come to this gate, I am proud to stand on its Eastern side to pay tribute to the past.
For throughout all this history, the fate of this city came down to a simple question: Will we live free or in chains? Under governments that uphold our universal rights, or regimes that suppress them? In open societies that respect the sanctity of the individual and our free will, or in closed societies that suffocate the soul?
As free peoples, we stated our convictions long ago. As Americans, we believe that "all men are created equal" with the right to life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And as Germans, you declared in your Basic Law that "the dignity of man is inviolable." Around the world, nations have pledged themselves to a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the inherent dignity and rights of all members of our human family.
And this is what was at stake here in Berlin all those years. And because courageous crowds climbed atop that wall, because corrupt dictatorships gave way to new democracies, because millions across this continent now breathe the fresh air of freedom, we can say, here in Berlin, here in Europe – our values won. Openness won. Tolerance won. And freedom won here in Berlin.
And yet, more than two decades after that triumph, we must acknowledge that there can, at times, be a complacency among our Western democracies. Today, people often come together in places like this to remember history – not to make it. After all, we face no concrete walls, no barbed wire. There are no tanks poised across a border. There are no visits to fallout shelters. And so sometimes there can be a sense that the great challenges have somehow passed. And that brings with it a temptation to turn inward – to think of our own pursuits, and not the sweep of history; to believe that we've settled history's accounts, that we can simply enjoy the fruits won by our forebears.
But I come here today, Berlin, to say complacency is not the character of great nations. Today's threats are not as stark as they were half a century ago, but the struggle for freedom and security and human dignity – that struggle goes on. And I've come here, to this city of hope, because the tests of our time demand the same fighting spirit that defined Berlin a half-century ago.
Chancellor Merkel mentioned that we mark the anniversary of President John F Kennedy's stirring defense of freedom, embodied in the people of this great city. His pledge of solidarity – "Ich bin ein Berliner" – echoes through the ages. But that's not all that he said that day. Less remembered is the challenge that he issued to the crowd before him: "Let me ask you," he said to those Berliners, "let me ask you to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today" and "beyond the freedom of merely this city." Look, he said, "to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind."
President Kennedy was taken from us less than six months after he spoke those words. And like so many who died in those decades of division, he did not live to see Berlin united and free. Instead, he lives forever as a young man in our memory. But his words are timeless because they call upon us to care more about things than just our own self-comfort, about our own city, about our own country. They demand that we embrace the common endeavor of all humanity.
And if we lift our eyes, as President Kennedy called us to do, then we'll recognize that our work is not yet done. For we are not only citizens of America or Germany – we are also citizens of the world. And our fates and fortunes are linked like never before.
We may no longer live in fear of global annihilation, but so long as nuclear weapons exist, we are not truly safe. We may strike blows against terrorist networks, but if we ignore the instability and intolerance that fuels extremism, our own freedom will eventually be endangered. We may enjoy a standard of living that is the envy of the world, but so long as hundreds of millions endure the agony of an empty stomach or the anguish of unemployment, we're not truly prosperous.
I say all this here, in the heart of Europe, because our shared past shows that none of these challenges can be met unless we see ourselves as part of something bigger than our own experience. Our alliance is the foundation of global security. Our trade and our commerce is the engine of our global economy. Our values call upon us to care about the lives of people we will never meet. When Europe and America lead with our hopes instead of our fears,we do things that no other nations can do, no other nations will do. So we have to lift up our eyes today and consider the day of peace with justice that our generation wants for this world.
I'd suggest that peace with justice begins with the example we set here at home, for we know from our own histories that intolerance breeds injustice. Whether it's based on race, or religion, gender or sexual orientation, we are stronger when all our people – no matter who they are or what they look like – are granted opportunity, and when our wives and our daughters have the same opportunities as our husbands and our sons.
When we respect the faiths practiced in our churches and synagogues, our mosques and our temples, we're more secure. When we welcome the immigrant with his talents or her dreams, we are renewed. When we stand up for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters and treat their love and their rights equally under the law, we defend our own liberty as well. We are more free when all people can pursue their own happiness. And as long as walls exist in our hearts to separate us from those who don't look like us, or think like us, or worship as we do, then we're going to have to work harder, together, to bring those walls of division down.
Peace with justice means free enterprise that unleashes the talents and creativity that reside in each of us; in other models, direct economic growth from the top down or relies solely on the resources extracted from the earth. But we believe that real prosperity comes from our most precious resource – our people. And that's why we choose to invest in education, and science and research.
And now, as we emerge from recession, we must not avert our eyes from the insult of widening inequality, or the pain of youth who are unemployed. We have to build new ladders of opportunity in our own societies that – even as we pursue new trade and investment that fuels growth across the Atlantic.
America will stand with Europe as you strengthen your union. And we want to work with you to make sure that every person can enjoy the dignity that comes from work – whether they live in Chicago or Cleveland or Belfast or Berlin, in Athens or Madrid, everybody deserves opportunity. We have to have economies that are working for all people, not just those at the very top.
Peace with justice means extending a hand to those who reach for freedom, wherever they live. Different peoples and cultures will follow their own path, but we must reject the lie that those who live in distant places don't yearn for freedom and self-determination just like we do; that they don't somehow yearn for dignity and rule of law just like we do. We cannot dictate the pace of change in places like the Arab world, but we must reject the excuse that we can do nothing to support it.
We cannot shrink from our role of advancing the values we believe in – whether it's supporting Afghans as they take responsibility for their future, or working for an Israeli-Palestinian peace – or engaging as we've done in Burma to help create space for brave people to emerge from decades of dictatorship. In this century, these are the citizens who long to join the free world. They are who you were. They deserve our support, for they too, in their own way, are citizens of Berlin. And we have to help them every day.
Peace with justice means pursuing the security of a world without nuclear weapons – no matter how distant that dream may be. And so, as President, I've strengthened our efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, and reduced the number and role of America's nuclear weapons. Because of the New START Treaty, we're on track to cut American and Russian deployed nuclear warheads to their lowest levels since the 1950s.
But we have more work to do. So today, I'm announcing additional steps forward. After a comprehensive review, I've determined that we can ensure the security of America and our allies, and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent, while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third. And I intend to seek negotiated cuts with Russia to move beyond Cold War nuclear postures.
At the same time, we'll work with our NATO allies to seek bold reductions in U.S. and Russian tactical weapons in Europe. And we can forge a new international framework for peaceful nuclear power, and reject the nuclear weaponization that North Korea and Iran may be seeking.
America will host a summit in 2016 to continue our efforts to secure nuclear materials around the world, and we will work to build support in the United States to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and call on all nations to begin negotiations on a treaty that ends the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons. These are steps we can take to create a world of peace with justice.
Peace with justice means refusing to condemn our children to a harsher, less hospitable planet. The effort to slow climate change requires bold action. And on this, Germany and Europe have led.
In the United States, we have recently doubled our renewable energy from clean sources like wind and solar power. We're doubling fuel efficiency on our cars Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down. But we know we have to do more -- and we will do more.
With a global middle class consuming more energy every day, this must now be an effort of all nations, not just some. For the grim alternative affects all nations – more severe storms, more famine and floods, new waves of refugees, coastlines that vanish, oceans that rise. This is the future we must avert. This is the global threat of our time. And for the sake of future generations, our generation must move toward a global compact to confront a changing climate before it is too late. That is our job. That is our task. We have to get to work.
Peace with justice means meeting our moral obligations. And we have a moral obligation and a profound interest in helping lift the impoverished corners of the world. By promoting growth so we spare a child born today a lifetime of extreme poverty. By investing in agriculture, so we aren't just sending food, but also teaching farmers to grow food. By strengthening public health, so we're not just sending medicine, but training doctors and nurses who will help end the outrage of children dying from preventable diseases. Making sure that we do everything we can to realize the promise – an achievable promise – of the first AIDS-free generation. That is something that is possible if we feel a sufficient sense of urgency.
Our efforts have to be about more than just charity. They're about new models of empowering people – to build institutions; to abandon the rot of corruption; to create ties of trade, not just aid, both with the West and among the nations they're seeking to rise and increase their capacity. Because when they succeed, we will be more successful as well. Our fates are linked, and we cannot ignore those who are yearning not only for freedom but also prosperity.
And finally, let's remember that peace with justice depends on our ability to sustain both the security of our societies and the openness that defines them. Threats to freedom don't merely come from the outside. They can emerge from within – from our own fears, from the disengagement of our citizens.
For over a decade, America has been at war. Yet much has now changed over the five years since I last spoke here in Berlin. The Iraq war is now over. The Afghan war is coming to an end. Osama bin Laden is no more. Our efforts against al Qaeda are evolving.
And given these changes, last month, I spoke about America's efforts against terrorism. And I drew inspiration from one of our founding fathers, James Madison, who wrote, "No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." James Madison is right – which is why, even as we remain vigilant about the threat of terrorism, we must move beyond a mindset of perpetual war. And in America, that means redoubling our efforts to close the prison at Guantanamo. It means tightly controlling our use of new technologies like drones. It means balancing the pursuit of security with the protection of privacy.
And I'm confident that that balance can be struck. I'm confident of that, and I'm confident that working with Germany, we can keep each other safe while at the same time maintaining those essential values for which we fought for.
Our current programs are bound by the rule of law, and they're focused on threats to our security – not the communications of ordinary persons. They help confront real dangers, and they keep people safe here in the United States and here in Europe. But we must accept the challenge that all of us in democratic governments face: to listen to the voices who disagree with us; to have an open debate about how we use our powers and how we must constrain them; and to always remember that government exists to serve the power of the individual, and not the other way around. That's what makes us who we are, and that's what makes us different from those on the other side of the wall.
That is how we'll stay true to our better history while reaching for the day of peace and justice that is to come. These are the beliefs that guide us, the values that inspire us, the principles that bind us together as free peoples who still believe the words of Dr Martin Luther King Jr – that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
And we should ask, should anyone ask if our generation has the courage to meet these tests? If anybody asks if President Kennedy's words ring true today, let them come to Berlin, for here they will find the people who emerged from the ruins of war to reap the blessings of peace; from the pain of division to the joy of reunification. And here, they will recall how people trapped behind a wall braved bullets, and jumped barbed wire, and dashed across minefields, and dug through tunnels, and leapt from buildings, and swam across the Spree to claim their most basic right of freedom.
The wall belongs to history. But we have history to make as well. And the heroes that came before us now call to us to live up to those highest ideals – to care for the young people who can't find a job in our own countries, and the girls who aren't allowed to go to school overseas; to be vigilant in safeguarding our own freedoms, but also to extend a hand to those who are reaching for freedom abroad.
This is the lesson of the ages. This is the spirit of Berlin. And the greatest tribute that we can pay to those who came before us is by carrying on their work to pursue peace and justice not only in our countries but for all mankind.
Vielen Dank. God bless you. God bless the peoples of Germany. And God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. |
Oh dear, someone has their mouse ears all in a twist.
You know all those knock-off movies that come out right around the same time as a mega Hollywood hits, so they can piggy back off the name recognition? They call them "mockbusters" in the biz (that's how we show business people refer to it—"the biz.") Say you're not ready to commit just yet to the awesomeness of Pacific Rim. Well, you can opt for Atlantic Rim and see a movie that was made for 1/8000000 of the cost and hope that it is a giant piece of steaming shit (which those movies usually are). Well, turns out, Disney has finally had enough of being flattered by imitation and has filed a huge ass lawsuit over a new film released by Phase 4 (who have kind of a history of doing things like this) called Frozen Land:
Frozen Land is, in fact, the French-Canadian animated film The Legend of Sarila, that was released earlier in 2013. After being picked up for distribution by Phase 4, its name, logo, and branding was suddenly switched to Frozen Land,allegedly to capitalize on Disney's latest hit Frozen (and perhaps trick parents into buying the DVD). Considering that the actual content of the film had nothing to do with Frozen, Phase 4 could have saved itself a lot of headache had it not borrowed wholesale the Frozen name and visual design of the Disney film logo.
Disney wants the court to stop them from using the lookalike logo. Check out the trailer for Frozen Land down below. The two films basically have nothing in common with each other except shit looks cold in both of them.
Oh no. If this lawsuit is successful and it prompts a crackdown of this practice, what will become of beloved movies I have begrudgingly rented from Redbox because I had literally seen all the other movies they offered up? Sunday School Musical changed my life, OK?
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Images via Disney, Amazon |
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- After a training camp filled with scraps that at first highlighted competitiveness but then grew into more of a concern, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick reached his breaking point on Thursday and kicked punt returner Julian Edelman and special-teamer Niko Koutouvides out of practice.
It was unusual, to say the least. Longtime observers couldn't recall a time when Belichick did something similar.
Julian Edelman (11) and Niko Koutouvides (90) get tangled up, sparking a brief scuffle. Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
The play that sparked it all seemed innocent enough -- a punt that Edelman was returning -- but things got testy when the two collided. There was some pushing, and the potential was there for another full-team scrap until Belichick stepped in with authority, essentially telling both players to knock it off and leave the field.
Initially, it seemed like Edelman, 26, and Koutouvides, 31, thought that meant a trip to the sideline. But Belichick, playing the role of home-plate umpire, informed them that their day was finished. He sent them straight to the locker room -- Edelman walking off first, then Koutouvides about 20-25 yards behind.
It was a surreal scene in the sense that two players who looked like they were about to come to blows were both headed to the same place, while seemingly everyone else on the team was elsewhere.
If Belichick was attempting to send a message, it was received by veteran defensive end Rob Ninkovich, among others.
"Just don't fight," the 28-year-old Ninkovich said of what he took from Belichick's no-nonsense approach. "This is training camp, things happen. But, you know Bill sometimes; that's Bill trying to make sure everybody is on the same page and those guys, they're fine. They'll be back (Friday)."
Added receiver Deion Branch: "It's just football. It's just football. Trust me, we got a lot of love for each other. We love competing. And that's what we are doing. Guys out here are competing, working hard. We tired, but most importantly, we are still coming out here and getting the job done."
Past events during this training camp probably explain why Belichick took such a hard-line approach.
On Aug. 1, offensive lineman Nate Solder and linebacker Brandon Spikes were at the heart of a scuffle that involved seemingly every player on the team. While many players were peacemakers that night at Gillette Stadium, where the practice was held in front of more than 20,000 season-ticket holders, there was still some uncomfortable jawing between teammates. |
On December 3rd, 2009, Marshall "Eminem" Mathers made the following tweet:
"I just want everyone to see my actual new high Donkey Kong score. Wiebe beware!"
Out of nowhere, one of the most famous rappers in the world—one of the most famous entertainers in the world—had proudly announced that not only did he play Donkey Kong, but that he possessed abilities well above that of the common player. Even further, he alluded to competitive ambitions.
This was all a surprise, to say the least, to both his fans and to the Donkey Kong community.
On March 30th, 2010, four months after his original Donkey Kong tweet, Eminem followed it up with another:
"To my fellow Kongers, peep the new high score. Just imagine if I had more free time... "
If the first tweet was a surprise, this one was downright shocking. 272,300 is a great score, but 465,800 is no less than world class—close to the top 30 on the Twin Galaxies leaderboard (though, to be fair, the true elite scores in the top 10 are more than double this).
Patrick Scott Patterson, writing for Examiner.com, proposed that readers and Eminem fans should urge the star to make an official submission, but one was not forthcoming.
In November 2010, a Rolling Stone cover story interview with Eminem shed more light on the basis of his Donkey Kong fixation, and on his goals:
Eminem is a vintage video-game fiend. The studio lobby is filled with arcade classics: Donkey Kong, Frogger, Space Invaders. His interest grew after seeing a documentary called The King of Kong, about a mild-mannered engineer named Steve Wiebe and his quest to capture the world Donkey Kong record. (Two of Eminem's machines are autographed by Wiebe.) He says he's also trying to break Wiebe's record, and on one of his Donkey Kong games, all six high scores belong to MBM – Marshall Bruce Mathers. The bad guy in The King of Kong is named Billy Mitchell, a loudmouthed jerk not entirely unlike a certain white rapper. Cocky and snide, he's an ideal dramatic foil for the sweet, modest family man Wiebe. "It's a perfect contrast," Eminem says of the pairing. "A hero and a villain." Just which of those two he himself wants to be is one of the many things Eminem is trying to figure out.
It would appear that "Wiebe beware" was no idle threat, and that Eminem is indeed pursuing the record. We can only assume that, if he hasn't lost interest, his game has improved since the interview.
Analysis
So just how good is Eminem, and how does he approach the game on a strategic basis? It's hard to say from just one photo, but we can deduce at least a few things.
A score of 465,800, anywhere on level 13, is a game on pace to reach the kill screen with no more than 875,000 points.
This, in turn, suggests a conservative playing style that generally eschews point pressing (specifically, the lower hammer on the barrel boards). That strategy would be consistent with what many (including myself) recommend to a pre-kill screen player: avoid the lower hammer until you can break the game.
We see other, much lower scores (but still strong ones) in the photo, with Eminem's initials attached to two of them. This suggests that the 465,800 game may have been an "outlier"—a known phenomenon in Donkey Kong where one particular game presents the player with much better-than-average luck relative to his weaknesses.
The biggest question of all relates to the dipswitch settings on Eminem's machine. Dipswitch options are limited for Donkey Kong, and most are irrelevant to a high score, but the player can choose to start the game with anywhere between three and six lives (three is the standard for tournament settings). Might Eminem play with a "life boost"? It would certainly put his score in an entirely different context, but even with a six-life game (seven including the extra life), a score nearing 500,000 takes serious ability.
We must also bear in mind, for what it's worth, that Fitty Cent has accused Eminem of being a video game cheat.
What's Next?
We can see that Eminem's game ended on level 13. We don't know which specific screen, but the following can be asserted in any case:
Eminem's music and career demonstrate clearly that he possesses great cognitive and manual dexterity—not to mention strong obsessive/addictive tendencies—all of which are ingredients in the recipe for high-level Donkey Kong play.
Will Eminem ever achieve the world record? He has quite a difficult job ahead of him, though it would be wondrously bizarre if such a thing came to pass. We can hope, at the very least, that another high score is coming, and that we haven't heard the end of this story. |
File pic: Garba celebrations
A lawmaker of the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh says she wants Muslims barred from the "Garba" or a Gujarati dance festival to be held in several northern states in October.Usha Thakur, a legislator from Indore and the BJP's state vice president, is preparing to write to Garba organisers in her constituency, asking them to stop Muslim men from entering the dance venues and seducing women.The decision, she claims, is based on a meeting of "intellectuals" - including doctors, engineers and a senior police officer - during the festival season last year."We have got data that during the Garba, on an average, four lakh girls convert to Islam every year. So we have started this awareness drive. It has been seen that people who have no faith or devotion to the festival put tilak and wear sacred thread and practice Garba and during that time woo our girls," Ms Thakur told NDTV.She says to stop this alleged "Love Jihad", festival organisers must check IDs at the gates.The BJP has distanced itself from Ms Thakur's controversial move, which has been condemned by the opposition Congress.State home minister Babulal Gaur refused to comment. "No, I will not react. Usha Thakur will know about this, not me," Mr Gaur told NDTV.Congress leader Satyadev Katere said, "The idea is absurd. You cannot force things on society like this."Ahead of by-polls on Saturday in key states including Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, pro-Hindu groups linked to the BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have stepped up their campaign against "Love Jihad" - a term for what they consider an Islamist strategy to convert Hindu women. The BJP avoided the term "Love Jihad" last month when it adopted the subject of forced conversions as a campaign issue for the by-elections. But some of the party's leaders and its affiliates have been less circumspect. |
Cork City FC are pleased to announce the signing of Gavin Kavanagh.
The 26 year old defender has returned to the club after a spell with Waterford United, and he told CorkCityFC.ie that he is happy to have rejoined the club: “I’m delighted to be back at the club. There’s a great buzz around the place, the lads are performing well and I’m looking forward to being part of it. I know most of the lads, they are putting in some great performances and we are getting great crowds as well, so hopefully we can push on now in the second half of the season and try to pick up some silverware.”
Commenting on the signing, manager John Caulfield said: “Gavin can play in right across the back four and provides good cover in that part of the pitch. He has been living in Cork since he originally joined the club back in 2010, so he’s like another local lad in that sense. He knows all of the players at the club and has been training with us for a number of weeks. He knows the league, he has settled in brilliantly and he has a fantastic attitude, so I am very pleased to have added him to the squad.” |
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins have promoted one of their top hitting prospects from Double-A for the stretch drive.
Willkommen, Max Kepler.
Kepler joined the wild-card-chasing Twins on Tuesday for their game against Cleveland, the day after the 22-year-old native of Germany helped lead Chattanooga to the Southern League championship. Following an emotional whirlwind of an evening that featured the familiar champagne showers with his teammates plus phone calls to his sister in Florida and his mother in Berlin, Kepler was at Target Field for orientation, batting practice and interviews.
"I was speechless, but at the same time I was about to cry," Kepler said, reflecting on his reception of the news from Chattanooga manager Doug Mientkiewicz. "I don't cry much, but I almost teared up. I got to celebrate with my team last night, and it was amazing."
Kepler batted .322 with 32 doubles, 13 triples, nine home runs and 71 RBI in 112 games for Chattanooga, winning the league MVP award. With only 13 games left in the regular season and a crowd ahead of him in the outfield and at first base, Twins manager Paul Molitor won't play Kepler much at all.
"But I know he can run and I know he can play defense and I know that he can put together a good at-bat against right and left," Molitor said. "I'd love to give him a chance to get exposed up here. I just can't predict how it's going to play out."
Kepler was signed by the Twins in 2009 and moved as a senior in high school to Fort Myers, Florida, across the street from the team's minor league and spring training headquarters. His English is flawless, with hardly even a hint of an accent.
He's still a proud German, though, with his parents living in Berlin. He typically returns around Christmastime and often conducts youth clinics to help teach kids about a game that's largely overshadowed in popularity by soccer and even basketball. According to data on the website baseball-reference.com, there have been 42 major league players born in Germany, though several of those were Americans born on military bases there.
"It's growing. I'm just doing my best to have it evolve over there," Kepler said. "I've already heard that everybody in Berlin's happy for me, when they woke up and saw the news. I'm trying to get transfer from soccer to play baseball overseas."
Kepler's father is a ballet school director, currently on the road on a scouting trip. But his mother was expected to make it to the ballpark in time for the game. His sister, too.
The Twins also summoned Class A Cedar Rapids manager Jake Mauer, the older brother of first baseman Joe Mauer, to join the coaching staff for the rest of the season. |
Recent news about Project NOAH’s reported struggles highlights the sorry state of our country’s science and technology sector. Much of this has to do with the limited funding the government allocates for research and development, but if we look closely and read between the lines, we will see that funding is the least of our problems.
The Project NOAH initiative hinged on the idea that for us to prepare and mitigate the effects of natural hazards, we needed to improve our capability to create scientific knowledge and integrate it to daily operations. At the time, we already had institutions tasked to do these. But by starting Project NOAH, the then-administration had implicitly admitted that the existing scientific establishment is sorely lacking; in fact, the ad hoc nature by which Project NOAH was setup was indicative of the gaping holes in our institutions. The ambitious scale of the program was unprecedented. Research projects related to natural hazards and disasters were loosely brought together and branded as part of the NOAH program. Although DOST funds the research projects, most were implemented by scientists from the University of the Philippines.
If we were to progress, the government needed to infuse fresh ideas from people outside of the system, people who think outside the box. The establishment did not take too kindly to this; indeed, Project NOAH was met with vigorous opposition. Those against it used—misused, really—the word “mandate” to justify why no one should encroach on their scientific “turfs.” They had drawn lines in their sandboxes, but the winds of change had begun to blow those away.
Who are these people anyway, that had the audacity to challenge the system? Front and center were scientists and engineers from the University of the Philippines and the Department of Science and Technology. The objectives laid out were simple and straightforward: provide state-of-the-art maps to aid disaster risk reduction efforts, identify gaps in the government’s operational procedures and then figure out how to bridge it. But the scale and complexity, not to mention the urgency, of these tasks meant that those handful of people could not humanly accomplish what they were asked to do. They needed vast resources: funds to acquire high-tech equipment and get the necessary human resources. Getting the equipment was easy enough. Despite a mindbogglingly complicated and inefficient government procurement system, at least all one needed to know were the specifications. Getting people on board, however, is another story.
That’s where we come in. From a motley crew of project staffs, our numbers grew to eventually become the band of misfits who make up Project NOAH. The thing is, Project NOAH didn’t really exist. It had no funding, nor did it have an infrastructure for its operations. What did have funding were the many different research projects placed under the umbrella of Project NOAH. The integration of all the efforts are visualized mostly through the NOAH web portal, but this only represents a portion of the total work done. So, without any system in place to absorb the manpower for a nationwide-scale research program, the government had to improvise. The common practice then was to hire people as contractuals with a no “employer-employee relationship” provision in the contracts, putting us in a gray area between being a consultant and an employee. This meant that they didn’t want us to be employees so they could deny us whatever benefits the law had prescribed for employees. But then our day-to-day work was directly managed by our supervisors, so we weren’t really consultants. It was a blatant violation of our labor rights, even more so for the people who go out to the field in extreme weather conditions, and to those fly in cramped airplanes to operate the high-tech mapping equipment; they go out without the benefit of any hazard pay. The institutions that funded and housed us had skirted their obligations, getting all the benefits from our work without giving back anything. Worst of all, this has been a rampant practice among many government agencies long before Project NOAH even started.
Despite this, in some ways it still felt like things were finally looking up. The national government appeared very willing to invest heavily on scientific research and development. Major funding was made available, and government executives were forcing the release of erstwhile inaccessible government scientific data, much to the chagrin of those in the establishment.
At the time, we didn’t have the people with technical skills to do a lot of what had to be done, so they had to be trained. The collective knowledge and experiences gained were invaluable. It meant that, as a nation, we were actually getting back a lot more from what had been spent. Sobrang sulit na, ‘ika nga.
These people were not mere machine operators. They gather data using sophisticated technologies and techniques, then turn these to useful information. Unfortunately, these high-tech and specialized skills have no room in the industrial sector because the Philippines doesn’t have industries that can take them in. We were building a mass of highly skilled people with nowhere to go to.
What our country sorely need are scientists and engineers, people who can create new knowledge and build new technologies. But when an employee of our government’s science and technology department declares that these people are merely “project staffs” and not “scientists,” it puts a damper on our young people’s aspirations to have a career in science in this country. Indeed, if people from an institution that is supposed to promote science and technology doesn’t respect the people who actually do science and technology simply because they aren’t “regular employees,” then where does that leave us? This may not be the official policy, and this may even be a view shared by the minority, but the mere presence of such attitude in a scientific institution is simply befuddling. If we weren’t, who then can be scientists? Only those with titles appended to their names? Or those with official-sounding designations? This is such an elitist worldview.
Sadly, this culture and mentality permeates deeply in our institutions, and the factitious nature of our science community—particularly magnified in the geosciences—exacerbates this problem. “Membership” in a “mandated” institution provides one with an aura of exclusivity, as if it gives one exclusive rights to do scientific research. With a virtual stranglehold on government funding, they are very capable of exercising this “authority.” Science to them is a zero-sum game. No one is “allowed” to do any research without their blessing, especially if it’s within their designated “mandate.” Data is not released to the public because they think “panic” might ensue, therefore, people have to be “vetted” before they can be allowed such privilege. How then can those who live far away from Imperial Manila access these knowledge? Do they need to go to the Capital, bend a knee and swear fealty first?
Such is the life of a common-folk in the science community. There is no proper employment status, and no prospects of having one unless we swear fealty to one of the fiefdoms. University employment is also bleak, as there are limited spots for professorships and even fewer for research positions. The only other options are the private sector businesses and industries, or jobs overseas. We do scholarly work, gather and process data, and publish in scientific journals. In short, most of us pretty much do the work of scientists. What else does one have to do to be a “scientist?” Does a king have to put a sword over one’s shoulders first?
One does not need a job in science to be a scientist. Unless you have a billion peso trust fund at your disposal, a career in science is needed to sustain such work. That being said, having a job in science doesn’t make one a scientist. A lot of people confuse the two. Just because someone may be employed as a faculty in a university, or has a research position in a science agency, it doesn’t mean they can claim to be scientists. In an ideal world, these job items are filled with people doing actual science work. Unfortunately, ours is a world far from ideal. A lot of things prevent people from doing their work, either because of limited resources and funding, restricted access to scientific data, institutional rivalries, or a combination of these. Ultimately, our society suffers.
Technological advancement alone is not progress. Attitudes have to change with it. We need an egalitarian society that distributes resources equally, one that is not beholden to the whims of a few technocrats, acting like the colonial masters of old who think that knowledge is theirs to give or withhold. These antiquated views have no room in our institutions already struggling in their transition to modernity.
Perhaps one day, ours will be a society that welcomes wide-eyed kids from the countryside who dream of having careers as scientists. |
PROVIDENCE — A $6.9-million upgrade of the Amtrak station is expected to be finished next spring, opening the door to a city that will find public transportation easier to take.
For now, though, construction has restricted parking on Gaspee Street, between the State House and the Amtrak station, relocated the taxi stand, rerouted pedestrians, shut down one level of the parking garage under the train station, temporarily closed Railroad Street and will close Park Row West in October.
Because of the impediments, rail passengers are advised to allow an extra 45 minutes, arrange to be dropped off or picked up at the Gaspee Street entrance and seek alternative parking in the GTECH building or Providence Place mall on Francis Street or in surface lots around the city.
The work is designed to make it easier for people on foot or bicycles and in private vehicles, buses or taxis to use the train station, which is the 15th busiest of 500 Amtrak stations in the country, and third busiest in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority network.
"These improvements will help make transit a more appealing choice to commuters in Providence," said Charles St. Martin, a spokesman for the R.I. Department of Transportation. Rhode Island is the second most densely populated state, yet its transit use is well below the national average, he said Friday.
Most of the work focuses on the south entrance, which faces the downtown, although the entrance on Gaspee Street will get pedestrian enhancements.
The roof of the underground parking garage is getting a waterproof layer installed, St. Martin said.
One objective of the work is to create an inviting outdoor civic space. Curved benches will surround the circular center of a landscaped plaza between Railroad Street and Park Row West, echoing the circular waiting area inside, under the station's dome.
The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, St. Martin said, has contributed a $500,000 Bus Livability Grant to help reconnect the train station with Kennedy Plaza. That connection was broken in 1986, when the underground tracks began serving the current station instead of Union Station on Exchange Terrace, one edge of Kennedy Plaza.
Plans for the Providence Station upgrade, still in the design stage, will add an R-Line bus shelter at the station and improve Exchange Street, the most direct route for vehicles and pedestrians between Kennedy Plaza and Providence Station.
Bids for that work will be advertised in 2018, St. Martin said.
Voters in 2014 approved a $35-million bond issue to help finance two bus hubs in addition to the main hub at Kennedy Plaza. One would be at the train station and the other at a 1,250-space parking garage envisioned for state land behind the Garrahy Judicicial Complex.
According to a YouTube video on Rhode Island's Transit Future, the intermodal hub at Providence Station could include a covered bus station with an indoor waiting area, restrooms, ticketing, food vendors and retail kiosks, as well as free wifi and screens giving bus arrival times.
The bus hub could be built on a structure over the tracks, although "the final configuration has not been determined," St. Martin said. The transportation department will advertise soon for a consultant to conduct the studies that will help determine the configuration, he said.
Planning costs will be paid with a $1.2-million TIGER grant, St. Martin said. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the federal discretionary grants from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery are awarded to multimodal and multijusisdictional projects to help achieve national objectives such as livability and sustainability.
Unlike the rail station intermodal center, which is being developed by RIDOT, the mini-hub near the Garrahy courthouse is part of a parking garage being developed by the R.I. Convention Center Authority.
The garage, which would cost $43 million to $45 million, said James McCarvill, executive director of the Convention Center Authority, is planned partly to address the lack of parking for the courthouse and partly to make the 195 Redevelopment District more attractive.
The mix of people needed to fill the laboratory, residential, retail and office spaces, he said, will include the kind of commuters who work on the cutting edge and value public transportation.
If all the parcels opened up by the relocation of Route 195 are sold and developed, McCarvill said, "there's going to be a lot of activity at that end of the city."
In a report for RIPTA, by NelsonNygaard Consulting Associates, a proposal for the two mini-hubs said that 27 bus routes would serve the transit center at the train station and 34 routes would serve the center near the Garrahy courthouse, without changing the number of routes serving Kennedy Plaza.
All RIPTA routes would serve at least two transit centers downtown, the report said.
The video on the state's transit future said that with traffic congestion on the rise and the highway system at capacity, an estimated one million more people are expected to use public transportation in the short term, a number that would rise in the long term.
A page on the RIPTA website compares the average annual cost, calculated by AAA for 2013, of owning and operating a private vehicle, at $9,122, to the cost of an annual RIPTA pass, at $744.
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On Twitter: @donita22 |
MUMBAI: In Modi sarkar, ministers and bureaucrats have it easy. They are only required to work 18 hours a day and keep their mouths shut when the media calls. Citizens have a tougher job, however.They will not only be required to brave all the price increases that the Modi government is dishing out but will also be subjected to a government sponsored, taxpayer-funded ad blitz that will extol the virtues of marital fidelity in an attempt to combat the dreaded AIDS disease.Health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan is an ear, nose, throat (ENT) specialist. So he sure knows how to pry out secrets of ill-health and treat patients. His diagnosis of India's battle with AIDS so far is that its citizens' moral fibre will have to strengthened if the disease has to be brought under control.In an interview to The New York Times, the health minister has said that the thrust of the AIDS campaign should not be only on the use of condoms as it sends the wrong message that "you can have any kind of illicit sexual relationship, but as long as you're using a condom, it's fine."He added that the national campaign should also promote integrity of sexual relationship between husband and wife — "a part of Indian culture." The emphasis on Indian culture is in keeping with the BJP's emphasis on highlighting what it calls positive aspects of Indian culture to combat lifestyle problems caused by excessive or socalled reckless adoption of western culture.Right-wing Hindu organisations have been know to use force to shut down pubs and rail against 'indecent' dressing among women. This is, however, the first time since the government formation in May that a high-ranking minister has publicly endorsed cultural attributes in the fight against a major disease.Dr Harsh Vardhan, who was the BJP's chief ministerial candidate in the Delhi 2013 assembly elections, has already issued orders to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), which is responsible for running the HIV prevention programme in the country. It has been advised to tone down the emphasis on use of condoms and instead promote morals to tackle the disease."For high-risk groups like sex workers and men who have sex with men, we will continue the emphasis on condoms as morals won't catch their attention," V K Subburaj of NACO told ET."However, for the general public the minister has asked to stress on morals like being faithful, not indulging in pre-marital and extra-marital sex," he added."The minister wants us to emphasise that just because condoms are available, one should not indulge in illegal sex," he added. This culture vs condom comment by the health minister has not gone down too well with HIV activists who believe that such statements defeat the purpose of years of efforts in tackling the disease.And it comes when the country is making headway in bringing down the number of HIV+ cases in India. Dr Harsh Vardhan remained unavailable on phone and an email sent to his official ID remained unanswered. NACO figures show that the rate of HIV in India has halved in the last decade.However, what remains a concern is the resurgence of the deadly disease in low prevalence states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, and Uttar Pradesh among others.They further say that half-baked information based on morality does more harm than educating people about safer sex. Anjali Gopalan of Naz foundation, an organisation that works with HIV patients, said that the idea of Abstinence, Be faithful, Use a condom (ABC) approach has been around for long, but doesn't always work."Just because condom is available, not everyone starts having sex," she said. "Either ways you need to promote condom use." "Sex happens in India irrespective of cultural taboos as we have found in our work, especially the helpline that ran for 13 years (1996-2009) and attended to over 60,000 calls," said Prabha Nagaraja, Executive Director, TARSHI, an organisation that works on reproductive and sexual health issues.She also pointed to a study done by the organisation, Population Council, in 2010 which showed that a large number of youth in both urban and rural India indulge in premarital sex and are often poorly educated about the risks associated with unprotected sex."So it is better to inform people about safe sex, including use of condoms instead of letting them rely on incomplete/misleading information," she added. |
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LegendaryActivity: 1312Merit: 1000 Re: NEM (XEM) Official Thread -100% Original Codebase - Over 70 Active Team Members May 10, 2015, 06:24:09 AM #17306
Quote from: smaragda on May 09, 2015, 10:35:56 PM Quote from: dadingsda on May 09, 2015, 10:14:44 PM Or i´m wrong (serious question!)?
What kind of logic is that and why should NEM be held accountable for decreases in the NXT/USD rate?
Check the logic out for a sec... you're saying that if someone bought 1 NEMstake for 40000 NXT but had bought his/her NXT in November 2013... he/she only paid ~0.04 BTC for it.
What kind of logic is that and why should NEM be held accountable for decreases in the NXT/USD rate?Check the logic out for a sec... you're saying that if someone bought 1 NEMstake for 40000 NXT but had bought his/her NXT in November 2013... he/she only paid ~0.04 BTC for it.
Your logic is wrong! NEM was only available on NXT AE. And on NXT AE you only can buy with.....NXT. And most (?) of people didn´t hold NXT since nov 2013.
But anyway and sorry for my conclusion but it looks like you are a fanboy who feels pissed off about every "bad" word about NEM. And that´s not really helpfull. Neither for NEM nor for a good conversation.
Quote from: kodtycoon on May 09, 2015, 10:46:18 PM Guys give it a rest... Some people won some lost.. Nothing can be done about that now and looking at historical data is pointless when trying to gauge potential.
Why not sit tight for a while and let the devs work their magic. There's a bright future ahead so there is no reason to dwell on or debate the past.
Please take this to pm if you wish to continue the debate as its not helping anyone doing it here. Thanks.
+1 !!! Last post about prices:Your logic is wrong! NEM was only available on NXT AE. And on NXT AE you only can buy with.....NXT. And most (?) of people didn´t hold NXT since nov 2013.But anyway and sorry for my conclusion but it looks like you are a fanboy who feels pissed off about every "bad" word about NEM. And that´s not really helpfull. Neither for NEM nor for a good conversation.+1 !!! INVALID BBCODE: close of unopened tag in table (1) |
Shaun O'Hara was stunned and "sick to his stomach."
His good friend Rich Seubert had called on Tuesday to tell the veteran center the New York Giants were going to release Seubert after 10 seasons.
"I was so upset I really wasn't thinking about myself," O'Hara said on a conference call with reporters on Thursday. "It was like Richie fell in a hole and I was so worried about him that I fell in the same one."
The Giants said a painful farewell to two longtime favorites on the offensive line when they released O'Hara and Seubert, a guard. The Giants also officially cut left tackle Shawn Andrews, fullback Madison Hedgecock and running back Tiki Barber, who was on the reserve/retired list, on Thursday. Defensive tackle Rocky Bernard is expected to be released Friday after being unable to come to an agreement to restructure his contract.
Cuts are always difficult. But they are particularly gut-wrenching when a team has to sever ties with two players who have been fixtures on the offensive line.
"I love those two guys," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. "Both will go down in Giants history. They are two unique, highly competitive personalities who were superior in the locker room. Rich has the ability to stir it up, and Shaun has a great ability to counter Rich.
"They are great friends, but there have been times when they got going, that it nearly ended up in a fight. They are two men with unique and different abilities, but as an offensive line, you have to operate as one, and these two guys are the most competitive, tough and efficient players as I have ever had the honor and privilege to coach. They both will be missed around here."
O'Hara had been the Giants' starting center since 2004. In Seubert's 10 years with the Giants, the gritty guard played in 104 regular-season games and overcame numerous injuries, including a triple fracture to his right leg suffered against Philadelphia on Oct. 19, 2003. Seubert missed all of 2004 but returned in 2005.
"We were both pretty emotional about it when it happened," O'Hara said. "I don't think either one of us want to see the other guy go through it but we do have a drinking buddy right now."
The Giants have been trying to free up salary-cap space to re-sign their own free agents like running back Ahmad Bradshaw, wide receiver Steve Smith and tight end Kevin Boss.
The Giants were having discussions with running back Brandon Jacobs about restructuring his deal, which has a base number of $4.65 million this season.
They did agree to terms to bring back defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka and exchanged contract proposals with Boss, according to league sources.
"We are trying to re-sign as many of our free agents as we can and we are looking to the free-agent market for other needs that we have," team CEO and co-owner John Mara said on the Mike Lupica show on ESPN New York 1050. "And I am not entirely convinced at all that is going to work at this point either. So we got a long way to go. |
Given his evident difficulties with basic foreign affairs knowledge, it's unlikely that President Donald Trump had heard of the Britain First political party when he decided on Wednesday morning to promote three anti-Muslim videos the group posted to Twitter. Nonetheless, his retweets cast a light on the central role that hostility to Islam now occupies in far-right movements worldwide.
In essence, antipathy and fear of Muslims has become the ideological glue that is allowing more secular forms of white nationalism to fuse with Christian supremacism in many countries, including the United States.
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Britain First is perhaps one of the best examples of this trend. The group is an offshoot of the British National Party, a right-wing extremist group with fascist overtones that formally banned nonwhite people from joining until it was forced in court to rescind that policy in 2009. Britain First was founded in 2010 by Jim Dowson, a former fundamentalist Calvinist who was ejected from the BNP after he was accused of groping a fellow party member. The group deliberately patterned itself after the Irish Republican Army and even has its own paramilitary wing which trains members in "knife defense."
The party has become even more notorious in recent years, after Thomas Alexander Mair, the convicted murderer of Jo Cox, a Labour Party member of Parliament, was reported by multiple witnesses to have screamed "Britain First" before he shot and stabbed Cox in June of 2016. Britain First disavowed Mair and denied any connection to the act, although it had boasted of its knife training just four days earlier.
The controversy over Cox's death has not stopped the party from engaging in repeated "Christian patrols," in which members burst into mosques screaming and passing out Bibles. Britain First has also publicly boasted that its members would stalk public officials and political candidates who are Muslim, supposedly to determine if they have ties to terrorist organizations.
"Our intelligence led operations will focus on all aspects of their day-to-day lives and official functions, including where they live, work, pray and so on," the party wrote on its website, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Despite its failure to win any of the elections for which it has fielded candidates, and its tiny dues-paying membership, Britain First has developed a large online following. Nearly 2 million people have "liked" the group on Facebook as of this writing, a direct parallel to the small but web-savvy "alt-right" movement of white nationalists in the United States.
Trump does not follow Britain First or Jayda Fransen, its most prominent representative and the source of the tweets he quoted. Far-right columnist Ann Coulter does, however, and hers is one of the few Twitter accounts that Trump personally follows. Just a few hours before Trump promoted Fransen's clips, Coulter had retweeted one of them.
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That Coulter would promote something from Fransen is no surprise, considering that Coulter has frequently attended white nationalist events in recent years. She has also been increasingly open about sharing opinions that are difficult not to characterize as anti-Semitic. Coulter's repeated expressions of bigotry against Muslims predates all of that, however. Her post-9/11 opinion column urging President George W. Bush to "invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity" while avoiding "punctilious" concerns about carpet-bombing civilians is still her most infamous example of this tendency.
Trump's own antipathy toward Islam is also no secret. "Islam hates us," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper in March of 2016. After claiming that he was actually opposed to "radical Islam," Trump went on to say that he didn't think one could really differentiate between a Muslim who was violent and one who wasn't. "It's very hard to define," he said later. "It's very hard to separate. Because you don't know who's who."
That logic appears to have been the basis for Trump's December 2015 call for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," a proposal he repeatedly described as a "Muslim ban," until his attorneys told him that doing so lessened the chances that his proscription on travel or immigration from several Muslim-majority countries would survive in court. Shortly thereafter, he began calling it a "travel ban" instead.
Judging from his numerous statements against Islam, it would appear that Trump believes his own anti-Muslim rhetoric. His passion for bigoted statements against a major world religion and the roughly 1.8 billion people who practice it is clearly in line with the viewpoints of his former strategic adviser and campaign CEO, Steve Bannon, who has repeatedly warned that the "Judeo-Christian" world is in a "clash of civilizations" against Islam.
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Whether motivated by Christian fanaticism, racism, hawkish foreign policy views or a simple desire to find a replacement for the role of global villain once played by the Soviet Union, right-wing politicians worldwide have latched on to the idea of attacking Muslims for electoral gain.
“There is a major war brewing, a war that’s already global,” Bannon said in a 2014 speech. “Every day that we refuse to look at this as what it is . . . will be a day where you will rue that we didn’t act.”
While Trump, Britain First and Coulter have used exceptionally coarse language about Islam, their view that Western nations are in a worldwide death struggle with followers of Muhammad is mainstream among many on the political right. Promoting fear of Muslims and terrorism has been a staple of far-right parties in many European countries, including France's National Front, the Alternative for Germany Party, the Freedom Party of Austria, the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands and numerous others.
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This apocalyptic vision is also extremely common among many Republicans in the United States, even if Trump's blatant bigotry often overshadows theirs.
“This is a clash of civilizations and either they win or we win," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said in November of 2015, as he challenged Trump for the GOP nomination. "They hate us because of our values. They hate us because young girls here go to school. They hate us because women drive. They hate us because we have freedom of speech, because we have diversity in our religious beliefs. They hate us because we’re a tolerant society."
While Rubio and others, with varying degrees of sincerity, cite Western-style societies' greater freedoms for women and minority groups as justification for military interventions in Islamic countries, many within the global Christian nationalist movement have begun to cite religious and racial justifications.
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For several years now, many members of the religious right have hyped concerns about "demographic winter," the hypothesis that Christianity will die out in the Western world due to low birthrates and high immigration from Islamic countries. More recently, the idea has been recycled by the more secular "alt-right" under the concept of "white genocide." Trump himself toyed with the notion in February of 2016, when he retweeted a white nationalist account with the name "WhiteGenocideTM" which claimed to be posting from "Jewmerica."
As with other white nationalists Trump has promoted on Twitter, Fransen of Britain First responded ecstatically to her moment in the spotlight in an all-caps post referring to herself in the third person: "THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DONALD TRUMP, HAS RETWEETED THREE OF DEPUTY LEADER JAYDA FRANSEN'S TWITTER VIDEOS! DONALD TRUMP HIMSELF HAS RETWEETED THESE VIDEOS AND HAS AROUND 44 MILLION FOLLOWERS! GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA! OCS"
The "OCS" reference at the end of her tweet is an abbreviation for "Onward Christian Soldiers," according to the British newspaper the Independent.
Not all conservatives are comfortable with such rhetoric, it must be pointed out. British Prime Minister Theresa May, leader of the U.K.'s Conservative Party, strongly condemned Trump for sharing Fransen's tweets.
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"British people overwhelmingly reject the prejudiced rhetoric of the far right which is the antithesis of the values that this country represents -- decency, tolerance and respect," she said through a representative. "It is wrong for the president to have done this." |
High winds didn't just knock down power lines in Pittsburgh, they also knocked down a tree that was home to an eagle's nest.
The Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania has a camera that live streams video of the nest. But on Monday morning, all it was showing was the downed tree where the nest had been.
Winds that gusted up to 60 mph Sunday knocked over the tree about 9:45 p.m.
Bill Powers, CEO of PixController, a company that worked with the Pennsylvania Game Commission to install the camera four years ago, says one of the eagles was sitting on an egg in the nest when the winds toppled the tree.
Audubon Society director Jim Bonner is hopeful that the birds will nest again in the area if they survived the storm.
Copyright Associated Press |
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act is a new law that provides companies with more access to fundraising, new kinds of investors and fewer regulatory burdens.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- It will soon be easier for small companies to raise money just like behemoths on Wall Street.
More access to fundraising, new investors and fewer regulatory burdens are all part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups bill, which President Obama signed into law Thursday.
The JOBS Act, which received bipartisan congressional support, provides small businesses that need capital with many options that were previously out of reach. The provisions are aimed at helping fast-growing operations like biotech and tech companies, but mom and pop shops may benefit as well.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has several months to pass regulations fully implementing the law.
For startups or entrepreneurs in need of initial funds to launch an idea, the law redefines crowdfunding.
Previously, platforms like Indiegogo or Kickstarter offered companies a way to raise money from everyday folks. But contributors couldn't buy shares in a company itself and take part in its profits and losses.
The new law allows a company to use crowdfunding for seeking actual investors. It can raise up to $1 million this way. To protect investors, those with a net worth of less than $100,000 may now invest 5% of their yearly income or $2,000, whichever is higher. Wealthier types can invest up to 10% of their income.
"There's more reason for an investor to give them money," said Matthew Kaplan, a capital markets lawyer in New York. "They'll get a piece of the upside."
Crowdfunding helped San Francisco clothing and accessories company Solz raise thousands in donations in the past. CEO Brad Carrick expects the new law will open up the possibility to sell small shares of his company for $1,000 to $10,000.
"When you pull these people together, you can get a mini-angel investment round," said Carrick, referring to venture capital that plays a crucial role in funding startups.
Several parts of the law are also aimed at helping a well-established small business more easily find accredited investors, those with a net worth of $1 million excluding the value of their primary residence. The law lifts a ban on advertising to the general public about investment opportunities, no longer forcing companies to hire brokers.
"That's huge. When you're talking about a small business with 30 employees, you don't have time to establish those connections to bring in chunks of money," said Molly Brogan, spokeswoman for the National Small Business Association, which lobbied for the law's passage.
Meanwhile, critics such as the AARP, a lobbying group for seniors, oppose lifting the advertising ban, worried it will lure in unprepared investors and lead to fraud.
Finally, for companies in later growth stages, the law eases the process for publicly selling stock.
Having 500 investors or raising $5 million previously forced a company to register with the SEC -- a costly endeavor. Filling out stacks of legal forms and undergoing independent accounting audits can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The law loosens requirements for most companies by raising several thresholds.
A company with $10 million in assets will now have to register with the SEC when its number of investors reaches 2,000, including 500 who don't meet the "accredited" wealth requirement. And companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenue can enter a five-year phase-in plan with the SEC.
Kaplan said that will let small companies on their way up retain the strength they need to survive the trip.
"It enables you to gestate longer," Kaplan said. "History is littered with examples of startups that went public and crashed and burned, because they didn't have time to develop processes or market presence to sustain themselves as a public company."
That provision is welcomed by Boulder, Colo., software developer Rally Software, which has spent more than $1 million in accounting fees since 2010 to maintain the option of going public. The CEO of the 300-employee company, Tim Miller, said the JOBS Act would make the process less expensive. |
An icon of St. John the Baptist in Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Homer Glen, IL is apparently miraculously producing oil – and some say it has healing powers.
“I see a blessing from God,” Fr. Sam Dimitriou, pastor of the church, told CBS Chicago. “There’s a sweet fragrance that’s coming from this oil.”
The oil was first noticed in July of 2015 by two parishioners and an altar boy, but the small congregation of just 200 families decided to keep it quiet – until a local news report spread the news. Since then, the church has been inundated with visitors, some coming from as far away as Greece.
The oil is “not a heavy stream, but it is a consistent stream,” John Ackerman, spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, told the National Catholic Register. “And unlike other ones [icons], this is not from the eyes. It is emitting fluid from wings, the halo, hands and feet, but not the eyes.”
The church catches the oil with cotton balls, which they hand out to pilgrims. They estimate they’ve given away around 5,000 of them so far.
Some say the oil has had healing powers for them. “They’ve been healed, to a degree,” Fr. Dimitriou says of some pilgrims – including himself. Ackerman says the priest stopped needing to take medication for nerve damage a few months and attributes his improvement to the oil.
Kathy Limber is another example, who told ABC 7 Chicago she thinks the oil has helped her fight her leukemia. “Ever since I’ve gotten anointed by the oil,” she told them, “… [m]y numbers have just gotten better and I just have more energy. I just feel amazing”
Here’s a local news report on the miraculous icon:
If the video isn’t loading, you may need to allow certain scripts in your browser.
[See also: The Lord of Miracles: The Amazing Story of Peru’s Indestructible Sacred Image]
[See also: The Great Ash Wednesday Miracle of 1218] |
CINCINNATI -- If Sunday night's hard freeze was a shock to your system consider this: Cincinnati's winter shelter has less than half the money it needs this year.
The shelter is usually open mid-December to February. Strategies to End Homelessness hoped to open it early as temperatures drop. But, the organization isn't sure it even has enough for its usual three-month run.
Experts say it's a critical service, because winter temperatures can be deadly.
Shelterhouse , formerly called the Drop Inn Center, operates the winter shelter each year. It gets support from Strategies to End Homelessness, the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and the city of Cincinnati.
The city has kicked in $45,000, and the nonprofits have raised $10,000.
The total costs are $120,000. That leaves a gap of $65,000.
Nearly 7,200 people -- including 1,700 children -- lived in emergency shelters or were found sleeping on the streets of Hamilton County last year.
The winter shelter can serve up to 200 people per night over and above Hamilton County's 675 year-round shelter beds.
"As a community, we need to make sure everyone has a place where they can come in from the cold," said Kevin Finn, president and CEO for Strategies to End Homelessness.
The shelter is on the lower level of the David and Rebecca Barron Center for Men, at 411 Gest St., in the Queensgate neighborhood.
To make a donation, visit strategiestoendhomelessness.org . |
The Flash Casts Bi Actor to Play Gay DC Comics Villain
The superhero series has announced the actor who will fill the boots of DC Comics’ first gay villain and go toe-to-toe with the fastest man alive.
alum Andy Mientus has been pegged to play the part of The Flash’s hearing- impaired and openly gay villain Hartley Rathaway, a.k.a. the Pied Piper, reports TV Line.
A member of the Scarlet Speedster’s original rogues gallery, Rathaway has worked on both sides of the law throughout his comic book history as both the sonic weapon-wielding villain Pied Piper and as a reformed friend and sometimes assistant to the Flash.
In the new series, Rathaway is a former S.T.A.R. Labs employee who left the company after a falling-out with his mentor, Harrison Wells (played by Tom Cavanagh). When the same particle accelerator that gave Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) his powers robs Rathaway of his hearing, he creates a series of sonic weapons and sets his sights on destroying his former mentor’s new protégé, the Flash.
Rathaway is not only one of the first out gay characters to appear in the pages of a DC Comic, he is also one of the first gay male characters to appear on any mainstream superhero TV series — along with out CCPD director David Singh (played by Patrick Sabongui).
Mientus, who is bisexual and engaged to Broadway actor Michael Arden, is one of three recently announced out LGBT actors to be cast on the CW’s small-screen adventures of DC’s fastest man alive.
Gay actor Victor Garber (Alias) will be teaming up with Robbie Amell as the heroic duo who combine to create Firestorm: The Nuclear Man later this season.
Also, Wentworth Miller — who came out publicly in August last year to protest Russia’s treatment of LGBT people after he had been invited to a film festival in the country — will be sending a chill down the spine of the Scarlet Speedster when he appears as the villainous Captain Cold in an upcoming episode.
Catch the latest trailer, which includes a preview of Miller as Cold, in the video below. |
Prime minister admits he did not expect the budget sell to be easy ‘but we are on the right track’
Tony Abbott says 2014 was always going to be difficult for the Coalition
Prime minister Tony Abbott has acknowledged that 2014 was always going to be difficult for the Coalition, as it floundered in the polls following May’s tough budget.
Abbott spoke to 2GB radio on Monday afternoon, saying he did not expect the budget sell to be easy.
“We always thought 2014 was going to be a tough year because we always thought that the job of budget repair would be incredibly difficult. It’s proven to be every bit as difficult as we expected, but we are on the right track,” Abbott said.
Newspoll surveys show support for the Coalition has tumbled from nearly 46% at the last federal election to 37% now. Primary support for Labor is up five points to 38%.
“It’s always better to be up than down in the polls. Any politician who says he or she doesn’t look at the polls is telling a fib,” Abbott said.
“In the end, what’s important to me and my ministers is not passing popularity, but doing the best job by the people of Australia.”
He has accused Labor of sabotaging budget measures, and said crossbenchers are being “populist”.
“My message to the crossbenchers is, sure there might be individual measures that you don’t like, but you’ve got to look at the big picture as well as the small picture. If all you’re willing to do is point to small things you don’t like, and reject the message of budget repair, you’re part of the problem, you’re not part of the solution.
“I don’t think the Australian people want to surrender when it comes to the task of fixing our economy and strengthening our budget. And to go back to Labor would be a surrender.”
Abbott points to the recent ministerial reshuffle as a sign of good things to come in 2015.
“Every day I’m trying to be the best prime minister I can be, my ministers are trying to be the best they can be, and collectively we’re trying to be the best government we can be,” Abbott said.
Abbott will go on leave from early January, leaving deputy prime minister Warren Truss to hold the fort until his return. |
The Yarjau family of Campbell River, B.C., is getting a little irritated with whoever is shaving their cat.
Tabby has come back home from outdoor jaunts partially shaved for the fifth time now, and the family has no idea who is doing it or why.
"It’s a pretty clean shave," 18-year-old Jo Jo Yarjau told the local Campbell River Mirror newspaper. "They did a pretty good job holding my cat down. It must’ve been, like, a two-man job."
Tabby isn’t the only cat in the neighbourhood victimized by this alleged mystery shaving team.
After Tabby came home with a perfect square shaved on its belly, and another time with the base of its tail shaved, and then its upper legs, Jo Jo put out a call on social media.
She heard from a neighbour who lived around the corner who said his cat has also come home partially shaved a few times.
For now, The Yarjau’s have said they’ll only let Tabby out at night.
"Because it’s never happened at night," Jo Jo told the Mirror. "She’s not allowed to wander during the day anymore, because one day she just might not come back." |
Since former Miss Universe (1997) Alicia Machado came forward with allegations about things Donald Trump said to her after she reportedly gained weight following her pageant win, Trump’s treatment of women — specifically those who have competed in his pageants — has been called into question.
But then Madison Gesiotto, Miss Ohio 2014, claimed that Trump was nothing but kind and professional:
For the record: I competed in @MissUSA & @realDonaldTrump treated me w/ nothing but the upmost support &respect, both during& after my reign — Madison Gesiotto (@madisongesiotto) September 28, 2016
And America soon learned that she wasn’t alone:
For the record, I'm with @madisongesiotto . I competed in #MissUSA and @realDonaldTrump treated me w/ nothing but the utmost respect. #MAGA — Kristy L. Niedenfuer (@KristyLanders) September 28, 2016
Kristi Landers Niedenfuer competed in the Miss USA pageant in 2014 as well, as Miss Tennessee USA.
Independent Journal Review spoke to her about her interactions with the Republican Presidential candidate, and she held nothing back.
She discussed her first meeting with Donald Trump:
“I spoke personally with Donald Trump for the first time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, before the Miss USA pageant. Being that he is one of the most successful businessmen in history, it goes without saying that I was nervous to meet Mr. Trump in person. However, within a few seconds of our initial introduction, I was pleasantly surprised and utterly inspired to see that Donald Trump is frankly a really cool guy! We talked about the great state of Tennessee and how there’s great golf in Memphis; we talked about the (then) breaking news of Sgt. Bowe Bergdhal’s release; we talked about my involvement with the USO and my wholehearted support of our men and women in uniform. We even talked about my time performing with a youth circus and he seemed particularly impressed when I mentioned that I attended a school for intellectually gifted students. By the end of my brief conversation with Mr. Trump, I was quite proud to have him as a part of my support team, as the owner of the Miss Universe Organization.”
And when we asked whether she had ever seen Trump treat contestants differently — either favorably or unfavorably — because of their appearance, her response was quick:
“This interview would probably be a lot more exciting for your readers if I said yes, but the truth is that every encounter I have ever had with Donald Trump has been 100% professional. I have had the honor of meeting quite a few of our world’s great leaders including President George W. Bush, Vice President Joe Biden and His Royal Highness Prince Harry; and I can tell you with absolute certainty that Donald J. Trump treated me with the exact same respect and professionalism as each of them did.”
Niedenfuer also addressed the controversy surrounding Alicia Machado and her alleged weight gain during her reign as Miss Universe:
“After Ms. Machado’s story surfaced, I revisited my contract out of curiosity to see if there are any contractual obligations relating to physical appearance and this is what I found: ‘(h) (1) An event of incapacity shall be deemed to exist hereunder if I become incapacitated or prevented from fully performing hereunder or from fully complying with my obligations hereunder by reason of my illness, my mental, physical or other incapacity, my facial or physical disfigurement, or any impairment or material alteration in my present facial or physical appearance or in my voice or my failure to comply with any obligation hereunder by reason of any cause rendering such non-compliance excusable at law.’ The truth is, whether or not it is a contractual obligation, every Miss USA or Miss Universe contestant or titleholder is well aware that they are expected to maintain their physical appearance and mental well-being throughout their reign. I didn’t grow up competing in pageants. In fact, Miss Tennessee USA was my first pageant…nevertheless, it’s only common sense to expect a high standard of beauty to be a part of the deal when you are representing your state or country, let alone the universe.”
But she also noted that it wasn’t the sudden publicity surrounding Machado that made her speak out:
“To be frankly honest, I am not the type who can be baited by publicity. Both of my parents had careers in the public eye (my mom, an actress and my dad, an MLB player) and they have always taught me that it’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice. Self-promotion and infamy are not where I place my value. What matters to me is standing up for what is right. The media likes to exploit propaganda and portray Donald Trump as a sexist, racist agitator. As a woman who has worked personally with Mr. Trump, I feel the need to defend a good man’s honor and tell the American public the unadulterated truth.”
She explained that she had been a longtime supporter of Donald Trump — and that she’d been hoping for a presidential run since 2012:
“I have been a supporter of Donald Trump since I attended a speech he gave in 2012. During that speech he said something that was truly eye-opening for me. He said ‘maybe it’s time America was run like a business.’ Donald Trump worked his way up and turned his business into an empire. He has the knowledge, power and experience needed to re-shape our nation; and I feel under that his guidance, the U.S. would once again be the land of opportunity, prosperity and strength. I formally endorsed Donald Trump in March 2015.”
And she offered advice to the young women who will be headed to the polls this November:
“I’m all about girl power and I hope every woman reading this recognizes the immense power that she has! Your vote matters. Your voice matters. Don’t let the media dictate your choice. Don’t let liberal extremists and far-left feminists shame you into voting for a woman simply because you are more anatomically similar. If you ask me, America does not need another manipulable political puppet. America needs a strong, wise leader who is capable of implementing serious, positive change. America needs a leader who will bring back jobs, restore the middle class, simplify the tax code and protect our great nation and her citizens.”
But her final words were perhaps the most important of all: “do your research and vote for the candidate who you think will best protect our great nation.” |
Wonderful Wellbutrin? Most antidepressants suppress sex drive, but some new evidence suggests this one might be different.
In the dozen years since it was first introduced, Prozac and its close chemical relatives, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs (Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox and Celexa), have become the nation's most popular antidepressants. They do a great job of parting the black clouds of depression, and many people swear that SSRIs have improved their lives dramatically.
But in addition to typical antidepressant side effects -- nausea, nervousness, insomnia, diarrhea, dry mouth and tremor (hand shaking) -- the SSRIs have become notorious for causing sex problems: libido loss, weak orgasms, difficulty in reaching or inability to reach orgasm and, in men, erection impairment. Depending on the study, 50 to 80 percent of SSRI users report at least one sexual side effect. Many SSRI users insist they are willing to forgo sexual satisfaction to escape from the horrors of depression. But others are unhappy about SSRI-induced sex problems.
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Unfortunately, few people know that another antidepressant, Wellbutrin (chemical name: bupropion), is as effective as the SSRIs -- but much less likely to cause sexual side effects. And most don't know that several studies have shown that Wellbutrin has sex-enhancing effects.
"I've never seen a study showing that any SSRI is significantly superior to Wellbutrin as a treatment for depression," says drug expert Joe Graedon, coauthor with his wife, Teresa, of the "People's Pharmacy" books, syndicated newspaper column and syndicated radio program. "And like the SSRIs', Wellbutrin's nonsexual side effects are pretty mild and often transient. But in terms of sexual side effects, we're talking night and day. The SSRIs send your sex life down the toilet, but sex problems with Wellbutrin are rare. It's more likely to improve your sex life than hurt it."
So why are so few people familiar with Wellbutrin? Why does it languish in the long shadow cast by the vastly more popular -- yet sex-killing -- SSRIs? The answer involves a strange, ill-starred combination of bad luck, bad press and drug industry prudery back in the days before Viagra proved that there was gold below the belt. Two recent studies may begin to turn things around (except for the fact that they have received no press coverage).
In the mid-1980s, when Burroughs-Wellcome (now GlaxoWellcome) in North Carolina was working its way through the tedious process of demonstrating that Wellbutrin was safe and effective enough to win Food and Drug Administration approval, the company contracted with several laboratories to study the drug's side effects. (Wellbutrin is not an SSRI and is chemically unrelated to every other antidepressant medication; researchers are still not sure how it works.)
One safety study raised a major red flag. At high doses, about twice the recommended maximum, the original formulation of Wellbutrin triggered seizures in 0.4 percent of those who took it -- four people per 1,000. That may not sound like much of a hazard, but it was two to four times the seizure risk of other antidepressants, and it doesn't take too many car wrecks caused by seizures behind the wheel to cause sweaty palms at the FDA.
The study results were reported in the medical trade press, and you could almost hear the prescription pads snapping shut from coast to coast.
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Burroughs-Wellcome scrambled to save its multimillion-dollar investment in Wellbutrin, and came up with a new slow-release (SR) formulation, now the standard prescription. Wellbutrin-SR caused seizures in only 0.1 percent of users, comparable to the seizure risk of Prozac and Paxil, and lower than the risk associated with Zoloft (0.2 percent), Luvox (0.2 percent) and Celexa (0.3 percent), according to the 2000 edition of the standard drug reference "Drug Facts and Comparisons."
But the damage had been done. Wellbutrin was a seizure-tainted drug. Today, a dozen years after its release, with no evidence of unusually high seizure risk, "Drug Facts and Comparisons" still includes a warning about its seizure risk. But there is no such warning for Zoloft, Luvox and Celexa, all of which cause seizures at a higher rate.
"Wellbutrin is an excellent antidepressant that has no more seizure potential then other antidepressants," says Roberta May, director of the Office of Psychiatric Research and an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, "but doctors still think it's dangerous. The exact same drug is now prescribed to help people quit smoking, but GlaxoWellcome changed its name to Zyban to get out from under Wellbutrin's bad reputation."
At the same time Burroughs-Wellcome was hip-deep in damage control over the seizure report, the company also contracted with the Crenshaw Clinic in San Diego to study Wellbutrin's sexual side effects. The Crenshaw Clinic (now closed) was operated by Theresa Crenshaw, M.D. (now retired), one of the nation's most prominent sex and drug researchers and coauthor of the medical text "Sexual Pharmacology." Crenshaw and her colleagues gave 60 men and women suffering from low libido and difficulty with orgasm either a placebo or Wellbutrin. Crenshaw knew that the SSRIs and most other antidepressants cause sex problems. She expected the placebo group's sex problems to improve a little, and the Wellbutrin group's to get worse. But a strange thing happened: In the placebo group, 3 percent reported improved sexual functioning, but in the Wellbutrin group, the figure was an astonishing 63 percent. "To our knowledge," Crenshaw concluded in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy (1987), "these results represent the first demonstration in a well-controlled clinical trial of an improvement in sexual dysfunction due to drug treatment."
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An astonished Crenshaw rushed to tell Burroughs-Wellcome that Wellbutrin was more than just another antidepressant. It looked promising as the first effective drug treatment for sex problems. But oddly, Burroughs-Wellcome showed no interest in what Crenshaw considered a potential medical breakthrough, not to mention a commercial bonanza. "I knew they were preoccupied with the seizure business," she said, "but still, you'd think they would want to pursue my findings. They didn't. I got the feeling that they'd rather not know if their drug was a sex stimulant. I got the feeling they were prudes."
"The drug companies have had a historical anti-sexual bias," says Eli Coleman, professor and director of the Human Sexuality Program at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. "Of course, Viagra has changed that," but Crenshaw's study took place a decade before the erection pill was approved.
"Burroughs-Wellcome wanted only one thing," drug expert Joe Graedon says, and that was "to put the seizure problem behind them and persuade the FDA to approve Wellbutrin. I think they ignored Crenshaw's findings for fear of rocking the boat at the FDA."
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In 1987, when Crenshaw's study was published, the Graedons publicized Wellbutrin's apparent pro-sexual (i.e. sex-enhancing) effects in their column. But few people noticed, least of all doctors, who continued to get writer's cramp from jotting SSRI prescriptions while largely ignoring an equally effective alternative that left sexuality intact -- or even improved it.
GlaxoWellcome spokeswoman Holly Russell says the company considered Wellbutrin an antidepressant, and was not particularly interested in its sexual effects beyond its low risk of sexual side effects. Once Wellbutrin was approved, company advertising simply said that compared with SSRIs, it was less likely to cause sex problems.
Wellbutrin languished both on pharmacy shelves and as a focus of research. But in the mid-1990s, as the predecessors of Viagra demonstrated the market potential of pro-sexual medications, researchers showed renewed interest in Crenshaw's report. In the past few years, several studies published in respected journals -- but ignored by the mass media -- have confirmed Crenshaw's findings and extended them.
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In a 1997 report, published in Clinical Pharmacological Therapies, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham gave 107 depression sufferers one of four antidepressants: Wellbutrin or three SSRIs -- Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft. Among those taking the SSRIs, 73 percent complained of sex-impairing side effects. Only 14 percent of the Wellbutrin group reported sex problems, while 77 percent said the drug "heightened sexual function."
That same year, in a pilot study at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, eight people who complained of sex-impairing SSRI side effects were told to take a low dose of Wellbutrin in addition. After one month, half reported "marked improvement" in their sex problems. The results were published in Annals of Clinical Psychiatry.
In another 1997 study, reported in Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, researchers at Valparaiso University in Indiana gave Wellbutrin to 14 nondepressed diabetic men with erection problems caused by diabetes. After 10 weeks, they showed improved sexual functioning.
In a 1998 study, researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo repeated the South Carolina study, but on a larger scale. They tested Wellbutrin as an antidote for SSRI-induced sexual impairment in 47 depressed individuals who were told to take the drug an hour or two before sex. Wellbutrin successfully reversed the sex problems in 66 percent of them. The only significant side effect was tremor (in 15 percent).
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Wellbutrin watcher Joe Graedon found these studies tantalizing. "There was mounting evidence that Wellbrutrin has a significant pro-sexual effect for people with a variety of conditions. No other drug had ever done that."
But the studies also left him frustrated. "One key question remained unanswered: Is Wellbutrin truly sex enhancing? Or is its ability to improve sexual function simply a result of mood elevation in formerly depressed people taking a drug that didn't kill sexuality? No one had nailed that down."
This year, two studies have focused on this question by testing Wellbutrin as a treatment for sexual dysfunction in people not suffering from depression or any other serious medical condition. Both studies used placebos that looked identical to Wellbutrin pills so subjects could not tell the difference.
At Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, a team led by R. Taylor Seagraves, M.D., a professor of psychiatry, gave Wellbutrin to 66 women, ages 23 to 65, who had experienced low or no libido for an average of six years. All 66 took a placebo for six weeks, then the drug for eight weeks. At the end of the placebo phase of the study, the group averaged 0.9 sexual encounters. But by the end of treatment with Wellbutrin, the figure had more than doubled to 2.3. Extent of sexual arousal also increased significantly, and number of sexual fantasies more than doubled (0.7 to 1.8). "Before starting treatment," Seagraves says, "100 percent of the women were dissatisfied with their level of sexual desire, but by the end of the [Wellbutrin] treatment phase, 40 percent reported feeling satisfied." The drug's only signficant side effects were insomnia (18 percent), tremor (6 percent) and rash (6 percent).
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At the University of Alabama, in a study reported in the Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, a team led by Jack Modell, M.D., a professor of psychiatry, worked with 30 adults (20 women, 10 men), ages 21 to 54, who complained of low libido, poor sexual satisfaction, difficulty reaching orgasm and, among the men, premature ejaculation and erection problems. The researchers asked the participants to have sex at least twice a week for the duration of the study, and to keep detailed diaries of their erotic experiences. For three weeks, the participants had sex with no treatment at all to establish sexual base lines. Then for three weeks, they took a placebo, followed by three weeks of Wellbutrin. The placebo improved sexual function over base line, but Wellbutrin treatment "significantly improved" sexual functioning over the placebo. The women recorded highly statistically significant improvement in ability to reach orgasm and orgasmic pleasure, and the men reported highly significant improvement in ability to raise and maintain erection and experience orgasm/ejaculation. The only sex problem that did not respond to Wellbutrin was the men's premature ejaculation . In addition to overall improvement in their sexual functioning, one woman reported the first orgasm of her life, and another woman experienced her first multiple orgasms. Wellbutrin side effects were mild -- some headache, anxiety, irritability and insomnia -- but no one dropped out because of them.
"In our study, Wellbutrin had a definite pro-sexual effect in people with sexual dysfunction," Alabama researcher Roberta May explains. "Our study -- and the others to date -- are not enough to establish Wellbutrin as a routine treatment for sex problems, but I see no reason not to try it. As medications go, it's a pretty benign drug."
The University of Minnesota's Coleman agrees: "There is now enough research to suggest that Wellbutrin might be a useful treatment for sexual dysfunction."
But David Rowland, coauthor of the Valparaiso University study of diabetic men, is more cautious. "I don't think there's enough evidence to warrant Wellbutrin as a treatment for sexual dysfunction. But I think it should be a strong contender for first-line treatment of depression because it causes fewer sex problems than the SSRIs."
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According to May, patients on SSRIs who are suffering sex problems because of it can ask their doctors about using a low dose of Wellbutrin (75 milligrams) in addition to their SSRI two hours before sex to mitigate SSRI-induced sexual impairment. And if they switch to Wellbutrin, or add it to their treatment regimen, its side effects are likely to be similar to those caused by SSRIs. "But there's somewhat more likelihood of tremor," May explains. "The tremors usually go away after a while, but at first they can be scary."
Because Wellbutrin is already an approved antidepressant, doctors are free to prescribe it for sex problems without the FDA's specific approval. But approval would allow advertising and would certainly boost sales, especially to women, who have not shown benefit from Viagra, and to men with sex problems unrelated to erection, who also don't benefit from Viagra.
GlaxoWellcome's Russell says the company has no current plans to fund studies that might persuade the FDA to approve Wellbutrin as a treatment for sex problems. "But since Viagra, there's been more interest in treatments for sexual dysfunction. We funded both the Seagraves study at Case Western and the Modell study at Alabama. We might fund a few more. I just can't say at this time."
Joe Graedon doubts GlaxoWellcome will fund enough studies to illuminate the extent of Wellbutrin's pro-sexual action. "Wellbutrin has been around for a good 10 years," he explains. "It's getting to be an old drug. It's almost off patent. Drug companies rarely invest research dollars in drugs that are close to going generic, because the patent expires [and] they can't recoup their investment."
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So far, Wellbutrin has not been studied in healthy people who are not depressed and don't have sex problems. As a result, there's no way to know if it's generally sex enhancing, or to use a somewhat more loaded term, an aphrodisiac. No one interviewed for this article called Wellbutrin an aphrodisiac. But some conceded that it might be.
"If it is," Joe Graedon explains, "you can't drop it into someone's martini and an hour later have them beg you for sex. It takes several weeks of regular use for Wellbutrin's pro-sexual effects to appear. At this point, it's most appropriate as a treatment for sex problems in those under the care of a physician or sex therapist."
But Graedon wishes someone would study the possibility that Wellbutrin might be a sex enhancer in healthy individuals. "If it turns out to be an aphrodisiac -- even one that takes several weeks to kick in -- it would almost certainly become a billion-dollar drug. It's a mystery to me why GlaxoWellcome has seemed so uninterested all these years." |
BALTIMORE (WJZ)—Baltimore’s Inner Harbor has some of Maryland’s most polluted water. Ongoing efforts to clean it will cost millions.
Alex DeMetrick reports pointing out what’s been lost might help find a way forward.
When things get really bad in the Inner Harbor, there’s no missing it: dead fish, killed by dead water. The oxygen is choked out of it by the mahogany tides of algae blooms.
There is a cure in the grasses found in marshes and wetlands.
“These wetlands actually feed and grow on the pollution that comes into the harbor. So they’re a way of removing stormwater pollution from the waterway,” said Adam Lindquist, Healthy Harbor Initiative.
The problem is the Inner Harbor no longer has wetlands to act as a filter between land and water. It’s all been paved over.
So for the past few years, the Healthy Harbor Initiative has been building and planting small islands of grass to float in the harbor.
These are being readied to replace the ones that didn’t make it through winter. And they do support life.
“In these floating islands you’ll see crabs. You’ll see eels. You’ll see blue heron. Ducks love them,” Lindquist said.
No one expects floating islands will clean the harbor. It’s more of an education campaign about the pollution upstream–the kind you can see every time it rains, and the nutrient pollution you can’t see from sewage, air pollution and fertilizer that washes off hard surfaces and feeds algae blooms.
The floating wetlands point out what could thrive if that source is reduced.
“To really help support the Healthy Harbor Initiative is something that all of Baltimore can appreciate going forward,” said Shannon Landwehr, Morgan Stanley Volunteers.
The Healthy Harbor Initiative believes the harbor can become safe enough to swim in if infrastructure projects to reduce stormwater runoff go forward.
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Dead On Arrival
The NIST 9/11 Report on the WTC Collapse
By Mark H. Gaffney
Note to the reader: The following is a critique of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) report on the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse. The 43 volume NIST report was the result of a 3 year investigation, and was released in September 2005. It remains the official US government explanation for why the WTC collapsed on 9/11. As you are about to discover, the report itself collapses under scrutiny. There is no doubt that the NIST investigation was politically controlled by limiting its scope, thereby making the truth unobtainable. This is one way to neuter an investigation.
12/21/06 "Information Clearing Hous" -- -- Fires raged at ground zero for many weeks after 9/11. In fact, it was not until December 19, 2001 that the NYC fire marshall declared the fires extinguished.
The fires burned long into the cleanup. The removal of steel beams and debris from the top of the pile allowed oxygen to reach the fires smoldering below. As a result, the flames often flared up, hampering workers on site. Joel Meyerowitz, a photographer, made note of this in his 2006 retrospective book, Aftermath. Armed with his trusty camera Meyerowitz roamed ground zero for months following the attack. Police repeatedly ejected him, but he kept returning in order to document what had happened. Eventually Meyerowitz amassed an impressive photographic record. In his fine book he remarks that the ground in places was so hot it melted the workmen’s rubber boots.
But Meyerowitz was hardly the first to comment on the pile’s incredible residual heat. The first accounts of molten steel came just hours after the attack: from the search and rescue teams who were among the first on the scene. Sarah Atlas, a member of New Jersey Task Force One Search and Rescue, was one of these emergency responders. Sarah reported seeing molten steel in the pile even as she searched in vain for survivors.[1]
Many have denied the existence of molten steel at ground zero. But there are too many eyewitness accounts to dismiss, including the testimony of engineers, city officials and other competent professionals who toured the ruin. One of these, Dr Keith Eaton, Chief Executive of the London-based Institution of Structural Engineers, later wrote in The Structural Engineer about what he had seen, namely: “molten metal which was still red-hot weeks after the event,” as well as “four-inch thick steel plates sheered and bent in the disaster.”[2]
A similar account came from Leslie E. Robertson, an engineer who helped design the WTC. He is currently a partner at Leslie E. Robertson Associates, a structural consulting firm that was under contract to the WTC at the time of the tragedy. In a keynote address Robertson reportedly told the Structural Engineers Association of Utah that: “...as of 21 days after the attack the fires were still burning and molten steel still running.”[3] Public health officials/experts also toured the scene of destruction. Alison Geyh Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of Environmental Health at Johns Hopkins, was with one of these teams. She wrote that “In some pockets now being uncovered they are finding molten steel.”[4] The fact was even reported to the 9/11 Commission by Kenneth Holden, Commissioner of the city of New York. He told the panel about seeing “molten metal” during a walkthrough.[5]
The evidence accumulated even as the cleanup progressed. Work crews removing the mountain of debris, piece by piece, discovered pools of molten steel beneath the pile, where the towers had stood. One pool was found at the bottom of the elevator shafts. Some of the pools were not found until 3, 4, even 5 weeks after 9/11.
Contractors working on site confirmed these discoveries. Such as Peter Tully, president of Tully Construction of Flushing New York, who was one of four contractors engaged by New York City to handle the cleanup. During an August 2002 interview Tully told the American Free Press that indeed workmen had seen the molten pools.[6] The same interview included a statement by Mark Loizeaux, president of Controlled Demolition, Inc., who, years before, ramrodded the cleanup of the bombed Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Loizeaux was called in by Tully to draft the cleanup plan for the WTC site. Loizeaux said, “Yes, hot spots of molten steel were seen in the basements.” Molten steel was also found under WTC 7.
These pools of molten metal have never been explained. Loizeaux told the American Free Press that the continuing fires were fueled by “paper, carpet and other combustibles packed down the elevator shafts by the tower floors as they ‘pancaked’ into the basement.” Manuel Garcia, a physicist, has suggested that cars left in parking garages under the WTC contained gasoline that may have fueled the fires.[7] Both are probably correct. But none of these fires were hot enough to melt steel. Indeed, none of the combustibles in the wreckage burned anywhere near the melting point of construction grade steel beams (2800 °F). As noted, the smoldering fires for the most part were oxygen-starved.
The persistence of molten steel under the WTC for many weeks is extraordinary–––and anomalous. Evidently, the hot spots under the wreckage were not in the least fazed by heavy rain on September 14-15, nor by the millions of gallons of water that firemen and cleanup crews sprayed on the smoking ruins. Five days after the attack the US Geological Survey (USGS) found dozens of “hot spots” in the wreckage via remote sensing, i.e., an infrared spectrometer (AVIRIS). The two hottest spots were under WTC 2 and WTC 7. The USGS recorded surface temperatures as high as 747°C (1376°F)).[8] The molten pools below the pile must have been at least twice as hot––––hot enough to evaporate rain and the water sprayed on the pile, long before it reached the bottom.
The Official Reports
In its official report the 9/11 Commission never once mentions the molten pools–––despite the testimony of the New York City commissioner.
In its 43-volume report about the WTC collapse released in September 2005, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) does indeed mention the molten pools, but only in passing, to dismiss them. The NIST report not only fails to identify the energy source that melted steel beams and piers under the WTC, it states categorically that NIST inspectors found no evidence of any molten steel at ground zero–––a dismissal that is directly contradicted by the eyewitness accounts of the emergency responders, engineers, officials, and health experts already cited, not to mention the lead contractors who accomplished the cleanup.[9] After brushing aside the issue as irrelevant to the WTC collapse, the NIST report then suggests that:
“Under certain circumstances it is conceivable for some of the steel in the wreckage to have melted after the buildings collapsed. Any molten steel in the wreckage was more likely due to the high temperature resulting from long exposure to combustion within the pile than to short exposure to fires or explosions while the buildings were standing.” [my emphasis] [10]
The NIST never clarifies what the “certain circumstances” might be that produced molten steel after the collapse. Its statement about “long exposure to combustion” is absurd on its face, given that there was no energy source in the pile of wreckage remotely capable of melting steel. In fact, the NIST’s above statement is an affront to our intelligence, since the hot spots identified by the US Geological Survey immediately after 9/11 and the molten pools were surely one and the same. There is no way to avoid the conclusion that the molten materials under the wreckage, as well as the smoldering fires, were a residual product of whatever caused the collapse of the WTC. Something on September 11, 2001 burned hot enough to melt steel in the basement of both towers. But such a deduction is too simple, evidently, or too provocative for the NIST, which made a decision not to go there.
When asked about what caused the molten pools Peter Tully suggested that perhaps jet fuel was responsible. But on this point, at least, the NIST report is surely correct. It’s easy to show that jet fuel was not the causative agent. There were reports that burning jet fuel leaked into the WTC elevators moments after the first impact. A descending fireball possibly caused explosions many floors below. Witnesses saw critically burned people emerging from elevators. Something ripped through the WTC 1 concourse lobby at about the time of the impact, blowing out windows and crumpling steel doors like they were paper. The same blast even knocked marble slabs off the walls in the lobby. Custodians also heard explosions in the WTC 1 basement. A machine shop was wrecked, as well as a car garage.[11]
But as serious as these explosions and fires were, jet fuel simply does not burn with sufficient energy to melt steel–––not even close. Many of the early reports by the US and world press erred in this respect. Indeed, in the emotional aftermath of the 9/11 attack the press often mangled the science as badly as the twisted steel beams of the WTC. One report posted by the BBC on September 13, 2001 quoted experts who stated matter-of-factly that the burning jet fuel actually melted the central columns, leading to the collapse.[12] Another report on The History Channel, The Anatomy of September 11th, claimed that the inferno turned the steel piers in in the WTC to “licorice.” A 2002 PBS NOVA special “Why the Towers Fell” showcased a similar theory, and suggested that the fires reached 2000°F, which caused the steel columns to lose 80% of their strength.[13]
Even trained professionals jumped on the bandwagon–––and got it wrong. The day after the attack the Sunday Times interviewed Hyman Brown, a civil engineering professor at the University of Colorado: “Steel melts,” Brown said, “90,850 liters of aviation fluid melted the steel. Nothing is designed....to withstand that fire.” Years before, Brown had been involved in the construction of the WTC as a project engineer.[14] (He was later shown to be wrong about the amount of jet fuel. The NIST determined that the planes actually carried no more than 10,000 gallons–––about 40,000 liters).
The same day NewScientist.com asserted that “raging fires melted the supporting steel struts.”[15] On September 13, 2001 BBC radio interviewed Chris Wise, an engineer who explained that...
"It was the fire that killed the buildings. There’s nothing on earth that could survive those temperatures with that amount of fuel burning. The columns would have melted, the floors would have melted, and eventually they would have collapsed one on top of the other."[16]
Elmer Obermeyer, the president of an Ohio engineering firm, also endorsed the meltdown theory in a story in the Cincinnati Business Courier. The paper noted that Obermeyer was a “guru in his field.”[17] In October 2001 Scientific American.com posted an article summarizing the results of a 9/11 panel of MIT experts, one of whom, Eduardo Kausel, stated “that the intense heat softened or melted the structural elements—–floor trusses and columns–—so that they became like chewing gum, and that was enough to trigger the collapse.[18]
This is but a small sampling of many such reports that appeared in those first days. All of them were wrong. As Frank Gayle, one of the NIST’s lead scientists, later pointed out: “Your gut reaction would be [that] the jet fuel is what made the [WTC] fire so very intense. A lot of people figured that’s what melted the steel. Indeed, it did not, the steel did not melt.”[19] Gayle was seconded by Thomas Eagar, a professor of materials engineering at MIT:
"The Fire is the most misunderstood part of the WTC collapse. Even today the media report (and many scientists believe) that the steel melted. It is argued that the jet fuel burns very hot, especially with so much fuel present. This is not true....The temperatures of the fire at the WTC were not unusual, and it was most definitely not capable of melting steel."[20]
When trained professionals get it wrong we should not be surprised by the mistakes of journalists, few of whom are trained in physics. The fact is that jet fuel, which is essentially kerosene, will not burn in air in excess of about 1,000°C (1,832°F)–––nowhere near the 2,800°F melting point of steel. Even this 1,000°C upper limit is very difficult to achieve, since, as Thomas Eagar pointed out, it requires the optimal mixing of fuel with oxygen during combustion, which can only be achieved in a laboratory. In fact, the clouds of black smoke that poured out of the twin towers on 9/11 were an obvious sign that the WTC fire burned at much lower temperatures, probably around 650°C (1,202°F) range, or even lower. This was due to the inefficient mixing of oxygen. It’s why most building fires burn no hotter than around 500-650°C. (932 -1,202°F)
To date, no one, including the NIST, has identified an energy source in the WTC–––or in the Boeing 767s–––capable of melting steel.
The NIST Report
Since the primary stated objective of the NIST 9/11 investigation was to determine the cause of the WTC collapse, the NIST should have conducted a forensic examination of the full spectrum of evidence.[21] Ground zero was a crime scene, was it not? Yes, and because many credible eyewitnesses, including firemen who were on duty that fateful day, reported that they heard and/or saw explosions, the NIST should have investigated this without bias.[22] It should have viewed their testimony as hard evidence: a starting point in its investigation. Instead, the NIST did a gloss. It posted a statement on its web site asserting that it had considered a number of hypotheses, including a planned demolition, but had found no corroborating evidence.[23] This disclaimer was no more than a last-minute attempt to deflect criticism, since a close reading of the NIST report shows that the agency never entertained other alternatives. It certainly never investigated the eyewitness accounts of explosions.
The NIST report assumes, start to finish, that the Boeing 767s were responsible for the collapse of the twin towers. The agency took it for granted that the impacts set in motion a chain of events leading to catastrophic structural failure. The assumption is even stated explicitly in the Executive Summary:
“The tragic consequences of the September 11, 2001 attacks were directly attributable to the fact that terrorists flew large jet-fuel laden commercial airliners into the WTC towers. Buildings for use by the general population are not designed to withstand attacks of such severity; building codes do not require building designs to consider aircraft impact.”[24]
The 43 volume NIST report confines itself to the sequence of events from the first plane impacts to the onset of collapse; and is governed throughout by ipso facto reasoning. Because the agency never entertained the possibility of a planned demolition, it never bothered to look for evidence of same. For example, it never tested steel samples recovered from ground zero for telltale traces of explosives. These omissions were irresponsible and smack of political interference, since in addition to the eyewitness accounts two scientific papers, one published in 2001, and another by FEMA in May 2002, had already detected sulfur residues on samples of WTC steel.[25] As Dr. Steven Jones, a physics professor at BYU, has pointed out, sulfidation of steel can be an indicator of the use of thermate (or other closely related compounds) developed by the military and commonly used to cut steel in demolitions work.[26] The possibility needed to be checked, if only to rule it out; but the agency, again, chose not to go there.
Let us now examine the NIST report in detail.
Why the WTC Survived the 767 Impacts
Everyone, including the NIST, agrees that the twin towers survived the initial Boeing 767 impacts on September 11, 2001–––despite serious damage. The buildings survived because the WTC was hugely overbuilt: redundant by design. The towers simply transferred the load from the severed/damaged members to other undamaged columns.
Upon its completion in 1970 the World Trade Center was not only the world’s tallest twin-skyscraper (1,368 feet), it was also a state-of-the-art achievement of modern construction.[27] Although the WTC’s soaring lines gave the impression of a relatively light frame, in fact, the towers were extremely rugged, engineered to withstand hurricane-force winds and to survive a direct hit by a Boeing 707, the largest commercial jetliner of the day. In a 1993 interview the WTC’s principal structural engineer, John Skilling, stated that prior to construction he performed an impact analysis of a 600 mph Boeing 707 impact, and concluded “that the building structure would still be there.”[28] The architectural firm that worked with Skilling described his 1,200 page structural analysis as “the most complete and detailed ever made for any building structure.”[29] Frank A. Demartini, onsite manager during the construction of the WTC, seconded this view during a January 25, 2001 interview, in which he noted that the study involved “a fully loaded 707.” Demartini even declared that “the building probably could sustain multiple impacts of jetliners because this structure is like the mosquito netting on your screen door, this intense grid, and the jet plane is just a pencil puncturing that screen netting.”[30] Demartini kept an office in the North Tower and was last seen on 9/11 assisting evacuees on the 78th floor.[31]
The original WTC design, the work of architect Minoru Yamasaki, was one of the first architectural plans to call for open space within a steel-frame building. This meant doing away with the forest of columns so typical of the steel high-rise buildings of former years. Chief engineer Skilling achieved the objective with a double support system: a dense array of 236 columns around the perimeter, and a network of 47 massive piers at the core. The creation of large expanses of unobstructed floor space within the WTC was a novel idea in the 1960s, but is commonplace today.[32]
The weight of each building was distributed about equally between the two sets of columns. The outer wall shielded the building from high winds, and was reinforced with broad steel plates known as “spandrels,” which girdled the building, like ribs, at every floor. The core contained the elevators, stairwells, and utility shafts. Both sets of columns were joined together by an innovative system of lightweight steel trusses. Each story was supported by a truss assembly covered with a corrugated steel deck–––the bed for a poured slab of lightweight concrete. Probably Skilling’s greatest innovation was to extend the truss diagonals up into the concrete floor, which added stiffness and strength. Each truss assembly/concrete floor behaved as a single unit.
Prefabrication and the overall modular design were other innovations that allowed for speedy construction–––and kept costs down. The advent of new high-strength steels made it all possible. In fact, the WTC had tremendous reserve capacity. An early article about the project in the Engineering News-Record declared that “live loads on these [perimeter] columns can be increased more than 2,000 percent before failure occurs.”[33]
After a three-year investigation the NIST concluded that the World Trade Center would have survived on 9/11 if the impacts had not dislodged the buildings’ protective fireproofing–––installed at the time of construction to protect the steel columns from fire-generated heat. Construction-grade steel begins to lose its tensile strength at 425°C (~800°F), and is only about half as strong at 650°C (1,202°F). The lightweight truss assemblies were especially vulnerable, since they consisted of rather thin steel members. During construction they were coated with spray-applied insulation. The much larger steel piers and columns had a fire-barrier of gypsum wallboard.
NIST’s Official Explanation
The NIST concluded that the impact of the jetliners damaged or dislodged 100% of the protective insulation within the impact zone, while also spilling many thousands of gallons of jet fuel over multiple floors. The resulting 800-1,000°C (1,440-1,800°F ) blaze seriously weakened the now-exposed steel trusses. The trusses and floors sagged–––they argued–––which pulled the perimeter columns inward, causing them to buckle. The fires also weakened the central piers. The combination of these effects destabilized the structures and at a critical point the towers simply collapsed. The NIST concluded that the WTC would have survived the fires if the Boeing 767 impacts had not dislodged/damaged the fireproofing material, which, therefore, according to the NIST, was the critical factor on 9/11.
There are a number of serious problems, however, with this official narrative. In the first place, it is sharply at odds with the video record, which plainly shows that during each collapse perimeter columns and other structural members didn’t simply fall to the ground. In many cases they were ejected up and out of the disintegrating structure at nearly a 45 degree angle: a cascade that hurled steel beams weighing 20 tons or more as much as 600 feet from the base of the buildings. One remarkable photo of ground zero taken from above shows that entire sections of WTC 1’s western perimeter wall were thrown 500+ feet toward the Winter Garden.[34] Could a gravitational collapse do this?
Pulverization
Photos of the mountain of wreckage taken by Joel Meyerowitz and others also show very few, if any, large chunks of concrete. The rubble pile almost exclusively consisted of twisted steel beams, pipes, aluminum, etc. Concrete was conspicuous in its absence. This is remarkable when you consider that the 500,000 ton towers were made up largely of concrete. Each floor of the 110-story WTC, roughly one acre in size, consisted of a 4-inch thick slab of poured concrete on a deck of 22-gauge steel. During the collapse something–––some force–––pulverized nearly all of this concrete into fine dust. Many have attributed this to the brute hammer of gravity, but the videos clearly dispute this. The buildings weren’t pulverized as they hit the ground, but rather, in midair as the buildings disintegrated. Much of the dust settled a foot or more deep on the 16-acre WTC site. The rest was deposited across lower Manhattan. Nor was this pulverization limited to concrete. Many other materials also disappeared without a trace on 9/11; such as office furniture and thousands of computers, not to mention the many victims who died in the collapse. It’s a fact that less than 300 corpses were recovered in the wreckage. Yet, strangely, many months later, during the demolition of the Deutsch Bank–––badly damaged in the 9/11 attack–––workers found more than 700 body parts, e.g., slivers of bone, on the roof and within the doomed structure.[35] The question is: why? This bizarre report remains a mystery.
The videos of the collapse also reveal another anomaly, one that I find personally disturbing. The towers did not pancake in the usual fashion of concrete buildings. When large buildings drop during powerful earthquakes each story tends to fall more or less intact upon the floors beneath. The building itself serves to brake the fall from above. Photographs taken after earthquakes typically show a succession of concrete slabs piled one on top of another, each plainly discernible in the rubble. But nothing like this happened on 9/11. The collapse of WTC 1 and WTC 2 were nearly a free-fall. If the towers had pancaked from above the inertial mass of the lower floors would have resisted and slowed the fall considerably–––even arrested it. But this didn’t happen. The towers plummeted as if there were no resistance whatsoever. From start to finish they fell in only about 12 seconds, just 2 seconds longer than the time for a billiard ball to drop from the WTC roof to the plaza below. The question is why?
The NIST investigation failed to address any of these anomalies. In fact, it didn’t even try. The NIST sidestepped the ejection of material, the vast pulverization of concrete, the many testimonials and other evidence of explosions, and the near-free fall by limiting its investigation to the sequence of events from the Boeing 767 impacts to the onset of the collapse. Incredibly, the NIST chose not to examine the collapse itself. The report makes reference to the “global collapse” of the WTC, but we never learn what this means because the NIST report never tells us. Once again, the agency decided not to go there. Evidently we are supposed to assume that gravity alone was responsible. But could gravity transform enormous slabs of concrete, hundreds of thousands of tons of material, into fine dust, in midair? Extremely doubtful. The NIST’s decision not to investigate these important questions add up to more grave omissions.
But we haven’t yet examined the NIST report itself. Let’s do that, now.
The Special Projects
The NIST investigation incorporated eight separate projects, all of which, together, produced 42 volumes of supporting documentation; all told, some 10,000 pages. The projects included an impact analysis, metallurgical studies, a reconstruction of the fires, and a computer model of the probable sequence of events leading up to collapse of each tower. Some of the agency’s investigative work was of excellent quality–––some wasn’t–––but very little of it lends credence to the NIST’s final, and official, explanation of the cause of the WTC collapse.
One of the most serious and persistent problems NIST investigators faced was the admitted lack of information about conditions at the core of the towers.[36] To be sure, thousands of photographs and hundreds of hours of videotape made it possible to study in detail the damage to the WTC exterior, and to gain a reasonable understanding about conditions in the outer offices. Fires were often visible through the windows, despite dense smoke, and sagging floors and other structural damage was discernible through gaping holes in the damaged exterior. However, as the NIST report states, “Fires deeper than a few meters inside the building could not be seen because of the smoke obscuration [sic] and the steep viewing angle of nearly all the photographs.”[37] Thus, except for steel samples gathered after the fact the NIST had almost no other information about the dynamic conditions at the core of the WTC on 9/11.[38]
The agency sought to overcome this shortfall of information with computer simulations. This was problematic from the outset, since computer models are no better than the quality of input and the accuracy of the programmer’s assumptions. As architect and critic Eric Douglas points out in his 2006 analysis of the NIST report: “a fundamental problem with....computer simulation is the overwhelming temptation to manipulate the input data until one achieves the desired results.”[39] Did the NIST investigators fall prey to this insidious tendency? And did this lead them to overestimate the impact damage to the WTC interior? Let us now consider this question.
NIST’s Global Impact/Collapse Analyses
In one of its most important projects (NCSTAR 1-2), NIST scientists developed a global impact analysis: to estimate the structural damage to the WTC caused by the Boeing 767s. In this study the NIST considered three different scenarios. These ranged from less damage to extreme damage, with a moderate alternative (described as “the base”) in the middle. As it happened, all three scenarios accurately predicted the impact damage to the WTC exterior at the point of entry; although with regard to WTC 1 the moderate case was a slightly better match.[40] The three differed greatly, however, in predicting the number of severed columns at the WTC core, a datum obviously of great importance. In the case of WTC 1 the lesser alternative predicted only one severed core column, the moderate alternative predicted three, while the extreme alternative predicted five to six. In the case of WTC 2 the disparity was even greater: The lesser alternative predicted three severed columns, the moderate five, and the extreme case no less than ten.[41]
Although the NIST never satisfactorily resolved these differences, it immediately threw out the less severe alternatives, citing two reasons in the summary report: first, because they failed to predict observable damage to the far exterior walls; and second, because they did not lead to a global collapse.[42]
On 9/11 the first tower sustained visible damage to its opposite. i.e., south wall, caused by an errant landing gear and by a piece of the fuselage, which were later recovered from below. Also, at the time of the second impact a jet engine was seen exiting WTC 2’s opposite wall at high speed, after passing straight through the building. It was later found on Murray Street, several blocks northeast of the WTC. In its summary report the NIST leads us to believe that it used the observable damage to the far walls caused by these ejected jet plane parts to validate its simulations. Yet, in one of its supplementary documents the NIST admits that “because of [computer] model size constraints, the panels on the south side of WTC 1 were modeled with a coarse resolution...[and for this reason] The model....underestimates the damage to the tower on this face.”[43] But–––notice–––this means that none of the alternatives accurately predicted the exit damage.[44]
This admission, deeply buried in the 43 volume report, is fatal to the NIST’s first rationale for rejecting the lesser alternative, since it was no less accurate than the moderate and extreme cases. (Or, put differently: It was no more inaccurate.) Which, of course, means that the NIST rejected the lesser alternative for only one reason: because it failed to predict a global collapse. The simulations for WTC 2 suffered from the same modeling defect. As the supplementary documentation states, “None of the three WTC 2 global impact simulations resulted in a large engine fragment exiting the tower.”[45] Yet, here again, the NIST rejected the lesser alternative. We can thank researcher Eric Douglas for digging deeper than the summary report. Otherwise, this flaw, tantamount to the devil lurking in the fine print, might never have come to light.
But the NIST was not deterred by its own biased reasoning. Later, it also tossed out the moderate (base) alternatives, ultimately adopting the most extreme scenarios in its subsequent global collapse analysis–––even though, as noted, the moderate alternatives were no less accurate, from a predictive standpoint, than the extreme cases. In fact, with regard to predicting the entry damage to WTC 1, as noted, the moderate alternative was actually a better match. The NIST report offers no scientific rationale for this decision, only the pithy comment that the moderate alternatives “were discarded after the structural response analysis of major subsystems were compared with observed events.”[46] Here, of course, “observed events” refers to the ultimate collapse of the tower. The NIST, though oblique, is at least more forthright than in the case of the lesser alternatives. Things get worse.
As it happened, even the extreme alternatives required further tinkering to be acceptable. The report informs us that “Complete sets of simulations were then performed for cases B and D [the extreme alternatives]. To the extent that the simulations deviated from the photographic evidence or eyewitness reports, the investigators adjusted the input, but only within the range of physical reality.” [my emphasis][47] In other words, NIST scientists worked backwards from the collapse, tweaking the extreme alternatives until their computer model spat out the desired result consistent with their assumption, which never wavered, that the 767 impacts ultimately were at the root of everything on 9/11. Of course, the NIST report never tells us what the “additional inputs” were.
That the NIST’s impact study and subsequent global collapse analysis were biased, hence, unscientific, ought to be obvious. But I will go even further: The impact simulations were very nearly a waste of time, since the NIST had almost no information about the actual conditions at the WTC core. Had the computer model been robust enough to properly characterize the far walls, things might have been very different. In that case investigators could have used the observable damage to the exterior of those walls to discriminate between the three alternatives, hence to select the best choice, validating the model. As it was, the NIST had no sound basis for rejecting the lesser and moderate impact alternatives. Both were at least as plausible as the extreme alternative. Why were they not given equal weight? The reason is obvious: That would have compelled NIST investigators to entertain the unthinkable, i.e., the possibility that some other causative agent was responsible for the WTC collapse. Still, one has to admire, in a perverse sort of way, the NIST’s triumph of circular reasoning.
The Metallurgical Studies
The NIST’s metallurgical and fire studies were among the most important projects, and involved testing 236 samples of steel columns, panels, trusses, and other smaller parts recovered from ground zero. Thanks to the original labeling system used during the construction of the WTC, the NIST was able in many cases to identify individual steel members, and thus to determine their exact locations in the WTC. As it happened, some of the samples were from the impact zones and fire-damaged areas.[48] The collection represented only 0.25 - 0.5 % of the 200,000 total tons of structural steel used the two towers. But the NIST believed it had enough samples to determine the quality of the steel and evaluate its performance on 9/11.[49]
The NIST’s findings decisively refuted the pancake theory of collapse that had been widely reported in the media. According to this theory the WTC collapse on 9/11 was due to failure of the WTC truss assemblies. A number of vocal experts had claimed that the weak link was the point of attachment: where the trusses connected with the inner and outer columns. These junctions, often referred to as angle-clips, were made of relatively lightweight steel and were secured by steel bolts. During a 2002 NOVA special–––before the NIST ran its metallurgical/fire tests–––Thomas Eagar, the MIT engineer already cited, summed up the view of many about how and why the trusses failed on 9/11:
"...the steel had plenty of strength, until it reached temperatures of 1,100º to 1,300ºF. In this range, the steel started losing a lot of strength, and the bending became greater. Eventually the steel lost 80 percent of its strength, because of this fire that consumed the whole floor....then you got this domino effect. Once you started to get angle-clips to fail in one area, it put extra load on other angle-clips, and then it unzipped around the building on that floor in a matter of seconds. If you look at the whole structure, they are the smallest piece of steel. As everything begins to distort, the smallest piece is going to become the weak link in the chain. They were plenty strong for holding up one truss, but when you lost several trusses, the trusses adjacent to those had to hold two or three times what they were expected to hold."[50]
Eagar’s collapse model sounded plausible enough–––but the NIST investigation didn’t bear it out.
Because the NIST did not have the necessary facilities, it contracted Underwriter Laboratories to conduct a series of fire endurance tests on trusses like those in the WTC. (The recovered truss samples were too badly deformed during the collapse to test them directly, so NIST fabricated new trusses identical in design.) The purpose of the tests was to establish a baseline, and the results were surprising. Not one of the truss assemblies failed during a series of four tests, not even the truss sprayed with the minimum amount of fireproofing. “The floors continued to support the full design load without collapse for over two hours.”[51] The investigative team cautiously noted that the exposure of the floor systems to fire on 9/11 was “substantially different” than the conditions in the test furnaces, which was true enough. Yet, the team noted that “this type of assembly was capable of sustaining a large gravity load without collapsing for a substantial period of time relative to the duration of the fires in any given location on September 11.”[52] The UL tests not only laid to rest the theory that the trusses were the cause of the collapse on 9/11, if anything, the tests demonstrated the fundamental soundness of the WTC truss design.
Another finding: The WTC steel turned out to be significantly stronger than expected. Tests showed that the yield strengths of 87% of the perimeter/core columns, and all of the floor trusses samples, exceeded the original specifications by as much as 20%. “The yield strengths of many of the steels in the floor trusses were above 50 ksi, even when specifications required 36 ksi.”[53] (1 ksi = 1,000 lb/per square inch) The NIST performed similar tests on a number of recovered bolts, and found that these too were “much stronger than expected, based on reports from the contemporaneous literature.”[54] Notice, none of these findings support the NIST’s official explanation for the WTC collapse. On the contrary.
The Fire Tests:
Core Weakening?
Another series of tests sought to address the alleged weakening of the WTC support columns. During a first-run investigators placed an uninsulated steel column in a 2,012ºF (1,100ºC) furnace and measured the rise in its surface temperature. Notice, this laboratory furnace was significantly hotter than the fires on 9/11 caused by jet fuel or any other combustible in the WTC. The column reached 600ºC in just 13 minutes, the temperature range where significant loss of strength occurs. When the test was repeated again with an insulated column, the steel did not reach 600ºC even after ten hours. The NIST concluded that “the fires in WTC 1 and WTC 2 would not be able to significantly weaken the insulated....columns within the 102 minutes and 56 minutes, respectively, after impact and prior to collapse.”[55]
The NIST interpreted these results as validating its favored hypothesis that the critical factor on 9/11 leading to the global failure of the WTC’s support columns was the damage to the fireproofing insulation caused by the Boeing 767 impacts. But was this an unwarranted leap? It certainly was not supported by the NIST’s metallurgical analyses, which showed that not even one of the 236 steel samples, including those from the impact areas and fire-damaged floors, showed evidence of exposure to temperatures in excess of 1,110ºF (600ºC) for as long as 15 minutes.[56] In fact, out of more than 170 areas examined on 16 recovered perimeter columns, only 3 reached temperatures in excess of 250ºC (450ºF) during the fires.[57] And why ? Well, perhaps, in part, because, as Shyam Sunder, the lead NIST investigator, admitted, “the jet fuel....burned out in less than ten minutes.”[58] Also, NIST scientists made another surprising discovery: The actual amount of combustibles on a typical floor of the WTC turned out to be less than expected: only about 4 lbs./sq. foot. Furthermore, “the fuel loading in the core areas....was negligible.”[59] The shocking fact is that the World Trade Center was fuel-poor, compared with most other buildings. The NIST estimated that a fire in a typical area of the building would have burned through the available combustibles at maximum temperatures (1,000ºC) in about 15-20 minutes.[60] Not nearly long enough even at that temperature to cause exposed steel to lose 80% of its strength.
Nor is this all. I searched the NIST report in vain for any acknowledgment that here, as in the case of the truss assembly test, the actual fire conditions on 9/11 were substantially different from the UL laboratory furnace. In fact, with respect to the columns the differences were at least as significant as with the truss assembly test, and call into sharp question the NIST’s conclusion that damaged insulation was the critical factor. Although the NIST took the position that “temperatures and stresses were high in the core area,”[61] as I’ve noted the investigation suffered from a persistent lack of information about real conditions at the core. The NIST had no hard evidence about the actual amount of protective insulation damaged/dislodged during the impacts. The NIST report acknowledges this,[62] then goes on to assume that all structural members in the debris path at the time of impact suffered 100% loss of insulation.[63] Surely, we are safe to conclude that the Boeing 767 impacts did cause damage to, or strip away, a substantial portion of the fireproofing material. Exactly how much is not knowable. But even if the NIST estimate of total loss of fireproofing is correct, there is virtually no chance that the fires on 9/11 weakened the WTC’s core piers within the allotted span of time: 56/103 minutes.
A Vast Heat Sink
The reason for this, nowhere acknowledged in the NIST report, ought to be obvious: The WTC’s support columns did not exist in isolation. This was no laboratory furnace. The columns in each tower were part of an interconnected steel framework that weighed at least 100,000 tons; and because steel is known to be an excellent conductor of heat this massive steel superstructure functioned on 9/11 as an enormous energy sink. The total volume of the steel framework was vast compared with the relatively small area of exposed steel, and would have wicked away much the fire-caused heat. Anyone who has repaired a copper water pipe with a propane torch is familiar with the principle. One must sit and wait patiently for the pipe temperature to rise to the point where the copper finally draws the solder into the fitting. While it is true that copper is more conductive than steel, the analogy holds, regardless. The fact that only three recovered steel samples showed exposure to temperatures above 250ºC indicates that the steel superstructure was indeed behaving as a heat sink. The fires on 9/11 would have taken many hours, in any event, much longer than the brief allotted span of 56/103 minutes respectively, to slowly raise the temperature of the steel framework as a whole to the point of weakening the exposed members.
And there are other problems. Since in a global collapse all of the columns by definition must fail at once, this implies a more or less constant blaze across a wide area. But this was not the case on 9/11. As already noted, the NIST’s lead investigator, Shyam Sunder, admitted that the jet fuel was consumed within minutes. Also, the NIST found that the unexpectedly light combustibles in any given area of the WTC were mostly consumed in about 15-20 minutes. At no point on 9/11 did the fires rage through an entire floor of the WTC at the same time–––as Thomas Eagar implied in his interview. The fires in WTC 1 were transient.[64] They flared up in a given area, reached a maximum intensity within about 10 minutes, then gradually died down as the fire front moved on to consume combustibles in other areas. But notice what this means: As the fires moved away from the impact zone to areas with little or no damage to the fireproofing, the heating of the steel columns and trusses in those areas would have been negligible. The NIST’s own data showed that, overall, the fires on floor 96–––where the collapse began–––reached a peak 30-45 minutes after the impact and waned thereafter. Temperatures were actually cooling across most of floor 96, including the core, at the moment of the collapse. But if this is true, the central piers were not losing strength at that point but regaining it.[65] How, then, did they collapse? Finally, the NIST’s insistence that “temperatures and stresses were high in the core area” is not consistent with their finding that the fuel load of combustibles in the core was negligible.[66] On this point the NIST contradicts itself.
In short, the NIST report fails to explain how transient fires weakened WTC 1’s enormous central piers in the allotted span of 103 minutes and triggered a global collapse.
The Fires in the Second Tower
The NIST concluded that in WTC 2 the fire behavior was substantially different: more continuous (rather than transient), especially on the east side of the building where the impacting Flight 175 allegedly piled up combustibles. This–––we are informed–––in addition to more extensive impact damage of the core columns, helps to explain why WTC 2 fell first, even though it was impacted after WTC 1. Videos filmed on 9/11 do show inward bowing of WTC 2’s eastern wall, although its actual extent and significance remain disputed. But perhaps the most serious challenge to the official view that fires were gravely weakening WTC 2 comes from an audiotape released in August 2002 by the Port Authority of New York. The tape, which was lost or neglected for more than a year, is the only known recording of firefighters inside the towers. When city fire officials belatedly listened to it they were surprised to discover that firemen actually reached the impact/fire zone of WTC 2 about 14 minutes before the building collapsed. On climbing to the 78th floor sky lobby Battalion Chief Orlo J. Palmer and Fire Marshall Ronald P. Bucca found many dead or seriously injured people, but no raging inferno. The audio transmission between Palmer and another fireman shows no hint of panic or fear, as the following transcript shows:
Battalion Seven Chief: "Battalion Seven ... Ladder 15, we've got two isolated pockets of fire. We should be able to knock it down with two lines. Radio that, 78th floor numerous 10-45 Code Ones.
Ladder 15: "Chief, what stair you in?"
Battalion Seven Chief: "South stairway Adam, South Tower."
Ladder 15: "Floor 78?"
Battalion Seven Chief: "Ten-four, numerous civilians, we gonna need two engines up here."
Battalion Seven Chief: "Tower one. Battalion Seven to Ladder 15."
Battalion Seven Chief: "I'm going to need two of your firefighters Adam stairway to knock down two fires. We have a house line stretched we could use some water on it, knock it down, okay."
Ladder 15: "Alright ten-four, we're coming up the stairs. We're on 77 now in the B stair, I'll be right to you."
Battalion Seven Operations Tower One: "Battalion Seven Operations Tower One to Battalion Nine, need you on floor above 79. We have access stairs going up to 79, kay."
Battalion Nine: "Alright, I'm on my way up, Orio."[67]
Here, Battalion Chief Orlo Palmer calls for hoses to be brought up to put out the fires. His expression “10-45 Code Ones” refers to dead bodies, of which, evidently, there were many. The tape shows that the firemen were not turned back by heat, smoke, or a wall of flames. They were able to function within the impact zone and were prepared to help the injured and combat the small fires they found. Palmer even mentions that the stairwell up to the next floor, i.e., 79, was passable. Minutes later the building came down on their heads.
Inexplicably, the NIST never considered this important evidence. The question is why? Their omission is especially damning, since, as I’ve stressed, the NIST investigation suffered from a persistent lack of information about actual conditions at the core.[68] Here was real-time testimony from firefighters who were on the scene, and the NIST simply ignored it.
Of course, it’s possible that more intense fires were raging several floors above the two brave firemen–––fires that did cause fatal weakening of columns. This is possible, but the available evidence does not support it. Among the steel samples recovered by NIST investigators were two core columns (C-88a and C-88b) from higher up in the impact zone. Actually, these were two different pieces from the same column (801). The NIST pinpointed their location on floors 80 and 81, several floors above the firemen–––very near but just outside the path of Flight 175. Both samples were physically damaged, but the NIST reported no evidence of the kinds of distortion, i.e., bowing, slumping, or sagging that are typical of heat-weakened steel. Nor was the NIST able to glean any evidence of high temperatures from the columns.[69] On what, then, do they base their conclusion that “Dire structural changes were occurring in the building interior”?[71] If anything, the paucity of evidence calls into question the NIST’s declaration that their sampling effort was adequate.
Moreover, as we’ve already noted, the NIST’s computer simulation predicting extreme damage to the core of WTC 2 is dubious, since it is also unsupported by hard evidence. In fact, the NIST’s preferred extreme alternative was, from a predictive standpoint, no better than the lesser alternatives, which the NIST rejected. Even the extreme alternative failed to predict a global collapse, without “additional inputs.” As for the inputs, it would be interesting to know more about them. Unfortunately, the NIST’s global collapse analysis is so highly technical as to be almost incomprehensible to a non programmer. I was struck by the number of assumptions it makes, one piled on another.
The Issue of Reserve Capacity
In order to show just how weak the official 9/11 narrative is, let us assume, for the sake of argument, that local fires did burn long and hot enough to weaken exposed columns in the impact zone of WTC 2. As I will now show, even if this did occur it still fails to account for the global collapse of the second tower. As the NIST report states,
‘both towers had considerable reserve capacity. This was confirmed by analysis of the post-impact vibration of WTC 2, the more severely damaged building, where the damaged tower oscillated at a period nearly equal to the first mode period calculated for the undamaged structure.’[my emphasis][71]
The data showed that WTC 2, the more seriously damaged tower, gave no hint of instability after the initial impact. Unfortunately, although the NIST summary report provides a wealth of information it fails to clarify this important matter of the WTC’s “considerable reserve capacity.” I scoured the full summary report, as well as the preliminary 2004 report–––in vain–––for any discussion of the issue. I then called the NIST for assistance and was guided to several of the project reports and supplementary documents. I also consulted with experts at the International Code Council (ICC) and with a leading structural engineer. I learned that estimating the overall reserve capacity of a steel structure is no simple task. Numerous factors are involved. Moreover, there are different ways to approach the problem.
Perhaps the simplest measure of reserve capacity are the standards for the material components of a building. In the late 1960s when the WTC was constructed the applicable standard was the New York City Building Code, which required a builder to execute computations for the various structural members to show that they met the specified requirements. However, the code also allowed for actual testing of members, in the event that computations were impractical. The testing standards applicable in 1968 give a good idea of the required level of reserve strength in the steel columns and other materials used in the WTC. For example, in the most stringent test a steel member had to withstand 250% of the design load, plus half again its own weight, for a period of a week, without collapse.[72]
Factor of Safety
Another widely used measure of reserve capacity is the so called “factor of safety.” This varies for different structural elements, but for steel columns and beams typically ranges from 1.75-2.0.[73] The NIST report actually breaks this more general figure down into two separate and slightly different measurements for stress: yielding strength (1.67) and buckling (1.92).[74] For our purposes, however, the more general figure is adequate. So, for example, a steel column with a factor of safety of 1.75 must support 1.75 times the anticipated design load before it begins to incur damage. While this value is typical of steel beams in general, the actual reserve strength of the steel columns in the WTC was higher. When the NIST crunched the numbers for the 47 core columns of WTC 1 (between the 93rd and 98th floors) it found that the factor of safety ranged from 1.6 to 2.8, the average value being 2.1.[75] This means that the average core column in WTC 1 could support more than twice its design load before reaching the yield strength, i.e., the point where damage may begin to occur.
Notice, the factor of safety is not a threshold for collapse, but a value beyond which permanent damage may occur. As the NIST report states, even “after reaching the yield strength, structural steel components continue to possess considerable reserve capacity.”[76] This is why steel beams and columns do not typically fail in sudden fashion. The loss of strength is gradual. No doubt, this helps to explain why, although fires have ravaged many steel frame buildings over history, not a one had ever collapsed, until 9/11, nor has any since. So we see–––it should be obvious–––that even in the highly improbable worst case, in which many of the WTC columns lost half of their strength, there was still plenty of reserve capacity to support the building.
The Perimeter Wall
With regard to the WTC’s perimeter columns, the factor of safety varied from day to day and even from hour to hour, because, in addition to supporting about half of the WTC’s gravity load, the perimeter wall had to withstand the force of wind–––which is highly variable given the whims of Mother Nature. A single face of the WTC presented an enormous “sail” to the elements, which is why John Shilling vastly overbuilt this part of the structure. According to the NIST report, the wall’s factor of safety against wind shear on 9/11 was extremely high, i.e., 10-11.[77] Why so high? The reason is simple: On the day of the attack there was little wind.[78] As a result, most of the perimeter wall’s design capacity was available to help support the gravity load. As the NIST report states, “On September 11, 2001 the wind loads were minimal, thus providing significantly more reserve for the exterior walls.”[79] Of course, because wind is mostly a lateral force the additional capacity that was available to help support the gravity load was less than one-to-one. When the NIST crunched the numbers for a representative perimeter column in WTC 1 (column 151 -- between the 93rd and 98th floors), they arrived at a factor of safety of 5.7.[80] If we take this average figure as a typical value we arrive at an accurate estimate of the perimeter wall’s amazing reserve strength. Even if we subtract the columns severed/damaged by the impact of Flight 175, and the lost capacity due to buckling along one perimeter wall, there was still a wide margin of safety–––more than enough by several times over to support half of the structure’s gravity load, which overall did not change. Of course, the wrecked jetliner added substantial mass. On the other hand, due to the successful evacuation of people the live load, i.e., the total body mass of the occupants, was reduced by 75%.[81]
I have just shown that the NIST’s own data casts grave doubt on its conclusions about the cause of the global collapse of WTC 2. The official theory requires the fatal weakening of both sets of columns: at the core and along the perimeter wall–––and falls short on both counts, due to insufficient evidence. Indeed, I would go further and call the evidence woefully insufficient.
Some Fire History:
For Sake of Comparison
As mentioned, fires have ravaged many steel frame structures in the past–––and in some cases these fires were much more severe than on 9/11. Even so, not a one of them produced a global collapse. Let us briefly consider one example. In February 2005, the 32-story Edificio Windsor in Madrid was destroyed by a disastrous fire that burned out of control for 18-20 hours–––notice–––much longer than the WTC fire on 9/11. The Edificio Windsor was a ferro-concrete structure, thus, was different in design, but it had a perimeter of steel columns and floors supported by steel beams. The blaze started on the 21st floor, spread to the entire building, and left the superstructure gutted. The Windsor was in compliance with the Spanish building code when constructed in the 1970s, but the code in those days did not require fireproofing. In fact, at the time of the disaster the building’s steel beams and columns were being retrofitted with fireproofing insulation. However, only the bottom 17 floors had been completed at the time of the blaze. The upper 15 floors had no fire protection whatsoever. According to Javier Sanz, the Madrid fire chief, the fire reached temperatures of 800°C (1,472°F)–––sufficient to collapse the upper concrete floors. Numerous steel beams also sagged and columns buckled.[82] But the overall superstructure, which was largely unprotected, never collapsed. The steel framework withstood the disaster, though gravely weakened. By contrast, most of the WTC’s massive central piers and perimeter columns were never even touched by the fires of 9/11, which were confined to a few upper floors.
The Cardington Fire Tests
There are good reasons why fire-ravaged steel buildings typically do not collapse. In a series of fire tests completed in 1996 at the Cardington Lab in the UK the Building Research Establishment (BRE) showed that even unprotected steel frame buildings have large reserves of stability during extreme fire events.[83] In physical tests lasting 2-4 hours–––considerably longer than the fires of 9/11–––lab scientists subjected steel beams, columns and composite steel/concrete floors to fires that at times exceeded 1,000°C. In test after test the unprotected steel beams or columns bowed, buckled and sagged, but not a one of them collapsed. The tests demonstrated that steel buildings are more than the sum of their parts. The lab found that fire resistance is not only a property of individual members, but of the interconnected structure as a whole: For most of the duration of exposure thermal expansion and warping–––and not material degradation–––governed the steel’s response to heat. The Cardington lab fire tests had relevance to the WTC collapse. The results were readily available and might have informed the NIST investigation. But to the best of my knowledge NIST scientists never considered the Cardington test data.
Conclusion:
Back to the Future
The Cardington fire tests help to explain why no steel frame structures had collapsed, before 9/11–––nor since. Yet, we are expected to believe such a scenario unfolded three times on a single day. I say “three times” because, notice, I have not even discussed the case of WTC 7, which was not hit by a plane, hence, had no spillage of jet fuel, and suffered only some exterior damage and relatively minor fires. Yet, at 5:20 PM on the afternoon of 9/11 the building suddenly collapsed in the manner of a controlled demolition. The video of this, captured on film for the world to see, clearly shows that the 47-story steel-frame structure dropped from the bottom up, into its own footprint. The collapse has never been explained, certainly not by the NIST, which has yet to release a final report about WTC 7.
In conclusion, my reading of the NIST report left me slightly agog, in a state of mild shock at the disparity between the NIST’s research and its conclusions. I agree with whistleblower Kevin Ryan that the report simply does not add up.[84] Notice, this brings us back to the beginning–––hopefully a little wiser. I hereby join with Kevin Ryan, Dr. Steven Jones, and others who have called for a NEW and truly independent 9/11 investigation, one empowered with the necessary resources and with subpoena authority. It’s the only way we will ever finally answer the important question: Why did the WTC collapse? Only the truth about 9/11 can free us from the current tyranny of secrecy and lies which today is a far greater threat to our liberty than any foreign enemy.
Mark H. Gaffney’s first book, Dimona the Third Temple (1989), was a pioneering study of the Israeli nuclear weapons program.
<http://www.gnosticsecrets.com/pages/dimona.htm> Mark’s latest is Gnostic Secrets of the Naassenes (2004). Mark can be reached for comment at [email protected] Or: visit his web site at <www.gnosticsecrets.com>
Notes
1. Penn Arts and Sciences, Summer 2002. <www.sas.upenn.edu/sasalum/newsltr/summer2002/k911.html>
2. Dr Keith Eaton, The Structural Engineer 3, September 2002, #6.
3. James Williams, “WTC a Structural Success,” SEAU NEWS, The Newsletter of the Structural Engineers Association of Utah, October 2001, #3.
4. Magazine of Johns Hopkins Public Health, late fall, 2001. When I contacted Dr Geyh she confirmed the report. She stated that people involved in the clean up effort told her they had seen molten steel in the debris.
5. Commissioner Holden’s testimony before the 911 Commission is posted at http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/congress/9-11_commission/030401-holden.htm
6. Christopher Bollyn, “Seismic Evidence Points to Underground
Explosions Causing WTC Collapse” American Free Press, August 28, 2002.
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/bollyn2.htm
7. Manuel Garcia, “The Thermodynamics of 9/11,” November 28, 2006. posted at http://www.counterpunch.org/thermo11282006.html
8. The results are posted at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-0429/thermal.r09.html
9. NIST is a nonregulatory agency of the Department of Commerce. The NIST investigation/report of the WTC collapse was conducted under the authority of the National Construction Safety Team Act, which was signed into law on October 1, 2002.
10. See question 13, Frequently Aasked Questions, posted at http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/factsheets/faqs_8_2006.htm
11.“We Will Not Forget, A Day of Terror”, The Chief Engineer, October 26, 2006. http://www.chiefengineer.org/article.cfm?seqnum1=1029
12. Sheila Barter, “How the World Trade Center Fell”, BBC news, September 13, 2001. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1540044.stm>
13. A summary of the points presented in the NOVA special are still posted at PBS. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wtc/dyk.html>
14 Kamikaze attackers may have known twin sisters’ weak spot,” Sundaytimes.com posted at <http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/disinfo/collapse/sundaytimes_kamikaze.html>
15. Kamikaze attackers may have known twin sisters’ weak spot,” Sundaytimes.com posted at <http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/disinfo/collapse/sundaytimes_kamikaze.html>
16. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1604348.stm
17. “Carew Tower couldn't tolerate similar strike”, Business Courier, September 14, 2001. <http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2001/09/17/story6.html>
18. Steven Ashley, “When the Twin Towers Fell”, October 09, 2001, originally posted at www.Scientific American.com. See the annotated version posted at <http://911research.wtc7.net/disinfo/experts/articles/sciam01/sci_am1.html>
19. Andy Field, “A Look Inside a Radical New Theory of the WTC Collapse,” Fire/Rescue News, February 7, 2004.
20. T.W. Eagar and C. Musso, “Why Did the WTC Collapse? Science, Engineering and Speculation,” Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, 53/12 (2001): 8-11. This paper is also posted at http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0112/Eagar/Eagar-0112.html
21. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, Preface, xxxi.
22. After a FOIA request advanced by the New York Times the City of New York had to release the FDNY testimonials, which are posted as pdf files at http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html For a convenient look at some of them go to http://www.911review.com/coverup/oralhistories.html
23. See the NIST response to question two at http://wtc.nist.gov/pubs/factsheets/faqs_8_2006.htm
24. NIST NCSTAR, Executive Summary, p. xlvii.
25. J.R., Barnett, R.R. Biederman, and R.D. Sisson Jr., “An Initial Microstructural Analysis of A36 Steel from WTC Building 7,” Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, 53/12 (2001): 18; also see FEMA, “World Trade Center Building Performance Study,” May 2002, Appendix C.
26. Steven E. Jones, “Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?”, in 911 and American Empire, edited by David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott, Olive Branch Press, Northhampton, Mass., 2006.
27. In July 1971 the WRC won a national award when the Amercan Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) named it “the engineering project that demonstrates the greatest engineering skills and represents the greatest contribution to engineering progress and mankind.” in Angus K. Gillespie, Twin Towers: The Life of New York City’s World Trade Center, New Brunswick, Rutger’s University Press, 1999, p. 117.
28. James Glanz and Eric Lipton, City in the Sky: The Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center, New York, Times Books, 2003, p. 138.
29. City in the Sky, p. 134-136.
30. cited at http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/design.html
31. Richard Korman and Debra Rubin, “Painful Losses Mount in the Construction ‘Family’”, posted at http://www.construction.com/NewsCenter/Headlines/ENR/20011001a.asp
32. The WTC was not the first of its kind. A similar design had been used in 43-story DeWitt-Chestnut and the 38-story Brunswick buildings, both in Chicago–––both completed in 1965.
33. “How Columnss Will be Designed for 110-Story Buildings,” Engineering News-Record, April 2, 1964, p. 48-49.
34. The photo is posted at http://www.geocities.com/debunking911/columnd.jpg
35. This strange development came to light in July 2006, long after the cleanup of the Deutsche Bank had supposedly been completed. The announcement prompted a sharp letter of protest from the attorney representing the families of the victims. For more details go to http://www.911citizenswatch.org/print.php?sid=906
36. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 118; also see NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, Executive Summary, p. xli.
37. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 124.
38. The NIST recovered 12 core columns from the WTC, but only one (in two separate pieces) from WTC 2 turned out to be from the area affected by the impacts/fires. A number of flanges from the core were also recovered. See Table 5-2 in NIST NCSTAR 1-3, WTC Investigation, p. 35.
39. Eric Douglas, R.A., “The NIST WTC Investigation -- How Real Was The Simulation?”, A review of NIST NCSTAR 1, October 2006, p. 8. Posted at www.nistreview.org
40. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, Executive Sumary, p. lxxxvii. The NIST also admitted this in its global impact study., which states “in terms of structural damage condition in exterior columns, Case Ai and Case Bi and similarly Case Ci and Case Di damage sets were identical.” NIST NCSTAR 1-6D, WTC Investigation, p. 10.
41. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, Executive Summary, p. lxxv.
42. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, p. lxxv.
43. NIST NCSTAR 1-2B, WTC Investigation, p. 344.
44. NIST NCSTAR 1-2B , WTC Investigation, p. 345.
45. NIST NCSTAR 1-2B, WTC Investigation, p. 353.
46. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 142; also see NIST NCSTAR 1-6D, WTC Investigation, pp. 131, 174, 150 and 239.
47. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 142
48. NIST NCSTAR 1-3, WTC Investigation, p. 39.
49. NIST NCSTAR 1-3, WTC Investigation p. 39.
50. The NOVA special “Why the Towers Fell” aired in 2002. The text of the NOVA interview with Thomas Eagar is posted at http://911research.wtc7.net/disinfo/experts/articles/eagar_nova/nova_eagar2.html
51. NIST NCSTAR 1, Executive Summary, p. xlvi.
52. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 141.
53. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 67.
54. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 67.
55. NIST NCSTAR 1, WRC Investigation p. 130.
56. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation p. 88.
57. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation p. 176.
58. Andy Field, “A Look Inside a Radical new Theory of the WTC Collapse,” Fire/Rescue News, February 7, 2004. Sunder made a similar statement during an October 19, 2004 presentation. See “World Trade Center Investigation Status,” S. Shyam Sunder, lead investigator, Building and Fire Research Laboratory, NIST. This paper can be downloaded as a pdf file at http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/agenda_oct192004.htm
59. The NIST makes this important point in two seperate places in the text. NIST NCSTAR 1-5, WTC Investigation, pp. 49 and 51.
60. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation p. 127.
61. NIST NCSTAR 1-6, WTC Investigation, p. lxvix.
62. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, Executive Summary, p. xli.
63. NIST NCSTAR 1-5, WTC Investigation, p. xliv.
64. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 126-127.
65. NIST NCSTAR 1-5, WTC Investigation, p. 121.
66. NIST NCSTAR 1-6, WTC Investigation, p. lxvix; also see NIST NCSTAR 1-5, WTC Investigation, p. 51.
67. Jim Dwyer and Ksvin Flynn, 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers, Times Books, 2005, p. 206; also see Jim Dwyer and Ford fessenden, “Lost Voices of Firefighters, Some on 78th Floor,” New York Times, August 4, 2002; Christopher Bollyn, “Feds Withhold Crucial WTC Evidence,” American Free Press, August 8, 2002.
68. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, p. 5.
69. NIST NCSTAR 1-3, WTC Investigation, p. 95.
70. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation, p. 43.
71. NIST NCSTAR 1, WTC Investigation p. 144.
72. In the code his was sub-article 1002.0, adequacy of the structural design. See NIST NCSTAR 1-1A, WTC Investigation, p. 32.
73. Conversation with Ron Hamburger, structural engineer, Dec 7, 2006.
74. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, p. 66.
75. My thanks to the NIST WTC Investigative Team for helping me to understand the numbers. Although the calculations are expressed as demand/capacity ratios in the NIST report, this easily translates into a value, i.e., factor of safety, which is more comprehensible to the average lay person, which is why I’m stayed with factor of safety. Personal communication, December 14, 2006. See NIST NCSTAR WTC Investigation 1-6, Figure 8-9, p. 233.
76. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, p. 66.
77. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, p. cxii; also see NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, p. 84.
78. The NIST report states: “on the day of the attack the towers were subjected to in-service live loads (a fraction of the design live loads) and minimal wind loads.” NIST NCSTAR 1-2 WTC Investigation, p. liv.
79. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, p. 66.
80. I received clarification about this from the NIST WTC Investigation Team. Personal communication, December 14, 2006. The number 5.7 is derived from values presented in Figure 4-35, NIST NCSTAR 1-6, WTC Investigation, p. 101.
81. NIST NCSTAR 1-2, WTC Investigation, p. 66.
82. Al Goodman, “The Windsor Tower Fire, Madrid,” posted at http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/project/research/structures/strucfire/CaseStudy/HistoricFires/BuildingFires/default.htm
83. For more about the Cardington lab tests go to: http://guardian.150m.com/fire/SCI.htm Also see http://guardian.150m.com/fire/small/cardington.htm
84. Kevin Ryan, a site manager for Underwriter Labs, was terminated after publicly questioning the conclusions of the NIST report. Click on "comments" below to read or post comments In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information ClearingHouse endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) |
WIKIMEDIA, WALTER HOLBROOK GASKELLResearchers have shot out and arranged two types of neurons from the retina of rats using an inkjet printer. The demonstration marks another advance in the march toward custom-made tissues. “Although our results are preliminary and much more work is still required, the aim is to develop this technology for use in retinal repair in the future,” co-authors Keith Martin and Barbara Lorber from the University of Cambridge said in a press release .
Printing the cells allows tight control over the arrangement of the neurons, an important step in developing a tissue graft. The research team showed that after printing, the cells remained in good shape. For instance, printed retinal ganglion cells and glia were just as likely to survive as non-printed cells, the authors reported in Biofabrication this month (December 17).
Jim Bainbridge of London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital told the BBC : “The finding that eye cells can survive the printing process suggests the exciting possibility that this technique could be used in the future to create organised tissues for regeneration of the eye and restoration of sight.”
The authors said they’d like to explore the possibility of printing photoreceptors and other types of cells. “In addition, we would like to further develop our printing process to be suitable for commercial, multi-nozzle print heads,” said Martin. |
Hey all,
Schedule for 2 November:
19:15 Doors open
19:30 SISCOG: a story written in Lisp (Rudi Araujo)
In this talk, I will present the story of SISCOG, giving a short overview of the company's history, and how Lisp was and still is crucial to the success of one of the largest employers of Lispers in Europe. SISCOG is a Lisbon-based company which secured its status as one of the world's major players in transportation optimisation software, providing efficient solutions to railway timetabling, rolling stock, and crew planning. A Q&A will follow.
20:30 Basic sound processing in Common Lisp (Dmitry Petrov)
In this talk I'll talk about my experience in doing sound processing in common lisp - from loading the sound, to visualization of wave and some basic analysis.
Location kindly asked everyone to come after 19:00 to avoid disrupting events that happen there earlier, so please do not come too early :)
See you there! Dmitry |
I listened to a lot of metal this year, and these are the albums I liked the most. To shift things up from previous round-ups, I've included my personal Top 25, along with separate selections from Pitchfork's metal contributors. At this point I'm hardly the only person covering metal at the site, so I thought it would be worthwhile letting those other voices have their say.
I also included a list from Saint Vitus bar's Dave Castillo. I asked Dave, a close friend, to submit something because he's booked hundreds of metal and hardcore shows, and I was curious what stood out the most for someone in that position. Plus, I live in NYC, and his venue has provided a center for the metal scene here: Sometimes it's nice to step away from the laptop and remember the physical spaces that lured me to this world in the first place.
Speaking of which, I don't usually include books on these lists, but you should check out No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes, an excellent oral history of City Gardens that came out earlier this year. The now-shuttered Trenton venue was important to me as a teenager—I saw a ton of shows there, including the Ramones (my first non-backyard hardcore show), an unexpected Descendents reunion, early Green Day sets, Bad Brains, Butthole Surfers, My Bloody Valentine with Dinosaur, Fugazi, countless hardcore gigs, Gwar (with my frightened kid brother), Skinny Puppy with Pigface and a bunch of goth kids from my college, a few too many ska-punk shows (for unexplained reasons), Shelter somehow, and dozens upon dozens of others.
That space, and its no-bullshit construction and philosophy, helped shape my life and the way I approached doing shows, and things in general. In 2014, I'm especially interested in these kinds of underdog spots—you've already read enough about CBGB's and the like, and it's worth exploring scenes that existed outside of major urban centers, the locales that held scenes together under one roof. This is one of those, the stories are insane, and the book's a treat.
Onto the records.
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25. Planning for Burial: Desideratum [The Flenser]
__Planning for Burial is the project of Matawan, NJ's Thom Wasluck. The mix of highly personalized doom, noise pop, and lo-fi post-metal on his second album brings to mind the '90s under-the-pillow noise of Twisted Village regular Luxurious Bags and the quieter, fuzzier work of Justin Broadrick's Jesu. As his moniker suggests, Wasluck goes into darker spaces, dealing with things like depression, loneliness, and jealousy—subjects you'd expect from music that sounds like it was recorded alone in a bedroom. On "Golden", the 16-minute closer, he offers a prime example of how to move from gentle acoustic strums to room-filling noise without hurting anyone's eardrums. It's like he was afraid to wake up his housemates.
Planning For Burial: "Golden" (via Bandcamp)
__24. Thantifaxath: Sacred White Noise [Dark Descent]
__On their ambitious, abstracted debut, the hooded Toronto trio play complex black metal that feels like it was recorded in a hall of mirrors—tones are extended and distorted, rhythms shattered and frayed, the overall atmosphere like a twisted carnival. Think a street-punk version of Deathspell Omega or Blut Aus Nord or, maybe, a creepier Krallice with a penchant for flights into new classical. For all the layers of atmosphere and technical chops, though, this is immediate, melodic music: It's enjoyable getting lost in Sacred White Noise, then using the surprise hooks to pull you out of the insanity.
Thantifaxath: "The Bright White Nothing at the End of the Tunnel" (via SoundCloud)
__23. Lantlôs: Melting Sun [Prophecy]
__German multi-instrumentalist Markus Siegenhort split vocals with Alcest's Neige on previous Lantlôs records; he goes it alone on album four, a pretty and still very sturdy collection that blends gorgeous, airy post-rock guitars and heavier, molasses drums with Siegenhort's bright, clear voice. Unlike Neige's flimsier recent work, Siegenhort maintains enough grit here (mostly in the drums) to remind you where the project originated. Ultimately, it's kaleidoscopic and progressive dream pop that often does sound like a sun melting. (Note: Despite the evocative album title, and the mention of post-rock, it sounds nothing like Sunbather.)
Lantlôs: "Melting Sun I: Azure Chimes"
22. Wreck & Reference: Want [The Flenser__]
__The Los Angeles duo Wreck & Reference use a sampler, drums, and voice to express immense, apocalyptic rage. On Want they sometimes hint at a more fucked up and heavy Xiu Xiu, other times Prurient screaming at a wall, and now and again an elegant Godflesh. You even get what might be best described as "Big Black-esque spoken word." Importantly, though, across these 11 spartan songs, they basically sound like no one else. (Of note: They have an entertaining Twitter feed, if you're into those sorts of things.)
Wreck & Reference: "Corpse Museum" (via SoundCloud)
21. Mutilation Rites:__ Harbinger [Prosthetic]
__On their second album, and first with Ryan Jones (ex-Today Is the Day, and a very good sound man/producer) on bass and second vocals, the gnarled New York band continued finding a way to cram raw black metal with considerably more hooks, swing, and overall compositional know-how than your average Darkthrone worshippers. (Like Jones, drummer Justin Ennis is also an accomplished professional sound person—I figure this is how they manage to play so loud without losing definition.) Where a lot of black metal in 2014 felt rote, Harbinger is more life-affirming than a suffocating collection with song titles like "Suffer the Children" and "Gravitational Collapse" should be.
Mutilation Rites: "Contaminate" (via SoundCloud)
__20. Atriarch: An Unending Pathway [Relapse]
__
The Portland band, fronted by shape-shifting vocalist Lenny Smith (the guy should have his own reality show), play forward-marching death rock that also cycles into doom, black metal, and punk. (There are dark, catchy songs here you could imagine hearing on vintage 120 Minutes.) At one point on their third album, An Unending Pathway, Smith sings: "When I'm dead, bury me here with no casket or trinkets from life/ I’ll decompose into the Earth so the cycle is whole." It's a beautiful sentiment, and, importantly, you know he's not bullshitting.
Atriarch: "Entropy" (via Bandcamp)
19. Teitanblood: Death [Norma Evangelium Diaboli]
The chaotic Spanish duo Teitanblood's second collection of wall-of-noise blackened death metal (or whatever you decide to label a maelstrom) is satisfyingly overwhelming, but also entirely to the point: each track is akin to an uphill life/death struggle, with all the violent flailing you'd assume comes with that sort of experience. In this context, the occasional Tom G. Warrior-style death grunt rings like an actual death rattle, now and then a thrashy solo surfaces from the clamoring muck like an outstretched hand, and sometimes when a song ends you feel like you're the one who needs that sort of assistance. Honestly, it's difficult imagining the guys playing these shambling, suffocating songs more than once, but it's very enjoyable trying to figure out how they do.
Teitanblood: "Anteinfierno" (via SoundCloud)
18. Gridlink: Longhena [Handshake Inc]
Led by the shredded yowl of Jon Chang and Takafumi Matsubara's artfully complex guitar decompositions, the NJ/Tex./Japan grindcore group's swan song, like their previous salvos, found a way to locate a spot between chiseled violence and spit-shine beauty. On Longhena, 14 songs clock in at 22 minutes, but that doesn't mean there isn't time for a pensive ambient string piece amid the complex explosions. For some reason when I think of Longhena, I imagine it being placed somewhere in an art gallery.
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__17. Krieg: Transient [Candlelight]
__Krieg's Neill Jameson is a prolific NJ-based American black metal lifer, a brainy former record store clerk writer who's made songs about American Psycho's Patrick Bateman and covered the Velvet Underground. He's been around for ages, seemingly always on the periphery. So it was kind of a surprise that his seventh album as Krieg, and first in four years, is a USBM masterpiece, one that comes almost 20 years into his discography. In part this is because Transient feels like a first. There's a punk black'n'roll feel—confirmed by a rollicking cover of Amebix's "Winter"—and an energy that eclipses anything he's done previously. But it's buttressed by his boundless invention—swirling power electronics before a massive hardcore breakdown, boozy post-punk, and, hey, a spoken word piece that pairs his Twilight cohort Thurston Moore with Integrity’s Dwid Hellion. I've booked a few Krieg shows over the years, and remember one time, ages ago, when I paired him with a nascent Liturgy, and watched Jameson down a bottle of honey before the show. That's always informed the way I heard his voice, and how he's figured out what he needs to do to keep things going.
Krieg: "Return Fire" (via SoundCloud)
__16. Agalloch: The Serpent & the Sphere [Profound Lore]
__Agalloch's fifth album is the Oregon dark metal group's gentlest—it takes its time with the hushed 10-minute opener and a three-minute classical guitar piece, and remains controlled and unhurried throughout. The record is definitely grand—there are dramatic upswings and echoes and double drumming—but in tone, an often whispering John Haughm and company are pensive, allowing more room for folk and less for blackened whatever. But, of course, when they do decide to howl into the wind, the shivers are even more pronounced, and Serpent suggests an elegant way for these guys to continue mutating around their central conceit for years to come.
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__15. Diocletian: Gesundrian [Osmose Productions]
__The long-running New Zealand war metal outfit Diocletian's third full length features what sounds like air raid sirens emerging from the black/death muck of the second to last track "Beast Atop the Trapezoid". It's a calming moment on an otherwise buzzing, blistering assault of a record.
Diocletian: "Steel Jaws" (via SoundCloud)
__14. Eyehategod: *
Eyehategod* [Housecore]
__
The classic New Orleans group's first record in 14 years, which comes after Katrina and various personal tragedies, ranks with the best of their over-driven punked-up sludge blues. It's also the last record to feature drummer Joe LaCaze, who passed away in August of this year, a fact that's hard to grasp when you hear how alive he is on these recordings.
Eyehategod: "Robitussin and Rejection" (via SoundCloud)
__13. Inter Arma: The Cavern EP [Relapse]
__Last year Richmond, Virginia's Inter Arma turned heads with their second album, Sky Burial, a collection that offered a gimmick-free mix of doom, Americana, sludge, groove metal, Southern acoustic ambiance, and filthy crust psychedelia. This year they packed all of that, and more, into one 40 minute song that will keep you glued to your stereo from start to finish. A very exciting band who'll hopefully continue with these sorts of curveballs.
Inter Arma: "The Cavern" (via Bandcamp)
__12. Morbus Chron: Sweven [Century Media]
__The Swedish band's adventurous second collection features 10 songs focusing in one way or another on being stuck in an extended nightmare or astral projection...or something. It's not all that important you decipher that aspect of Sweven—the music's rich enough on its own. The patient, brainy, knotty collection finds the group moving away from their 2011 debut's old-school Autopsy nods to progressive death metal complete with mathy breakdowns, a black metal interlude or two, blazing solos, and tons of atmosphere. Because of the care in these compositions, it's an album best experienced whole, and it's one you can listen to a dozen times a day and continue unpacking. (If you end up being a fan, check out Tribulation from last year's list.)
Morbus Chron: "It Stretches in the Hollow" (via SoundCloud)
__11. Primordial: Where Greater Men Have Fallen [Metal Blade]
__On their eighth album, the Irish epic metal band's vocalist/iconic frontman A.A. Nemtheanga chews the vast soundscapes his band lays down behind him. You get eight songs stretching to more than an hour, and he never lags or phones anything in as he intones about Ireland's history, tyrants that oppress the common man, and giving your life for what you love, among other things (hell, there's a song called "Wield Lightning to Split the Sun"). It's a fist-pumping, call-to-arms performance that's made me think of a blackened folk metal Freddie Mercury now and again (why not?). If you at all care about nations and the people working hard to survive in them, this stuff will give you chills.
Primordial: "Where Greater Men Have Fallen" (via SoundCloud)
__10. Dead Congregation: Promulgation of the Fall [Profound Lore]
__The Greek band's second full-length channels the old school death metal of Incantation and Immolation and makes it new. They're not rewriting the book, but they've managed to create another masterpiece of the form. They're a band as technically sick as they are able to create sick atmospheres, and when I saw them live recently, I caught myself staring with my mouth open, a dumfounded witness.
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__9. Indian: From All Purity [Relapse]
__The Chicago doomed sludge band's fifth record features even more feedback and noise than usual, courtesy of Chicago mainstay, Bloodyminded/Anatomy of Habit's Mark Solotroff. Otherwise they remain as single-mindedly focused (and as blown-out and nihilistic) as ever. On the back of 2011's great Guiltless and this record, I asked the quartet to headline my Show No Mercy showcase at SXSW last year—watching them live was like watching four very focused men beat something until it died.
Indian: "Directional" (via SoundCloud)
__8. Woods of Desolation: As the Stars [Northern Silence Productions]
__Woods of Desolation is the ongoing project of guitarist/bassist D. and a revolving cast of players. For his excellent third album as WoD, he got help from drummer Vlad (Drudkh) and fellow Australians, bassist Luke Mills (Nazxul, Pestilential Shadows) and vocalist Drohtnung (Old). On paper, the combination of pretty sky-melting guitars and depressive black metal vocals may bring to mind early Alcest and Deafheaven, but this is actually more reminiscent of vintage Katatonia, albeit recorded somewhere deep in the forest and after they somehow got into Explosions in the Sky.
Woods of Desolation: "This Autumn Light" (via Bandcamp)
__7. Godflesh: A World Lit Only By Fire [Avalanche]
__The best thing you can say about industrial metal giants Godflesh's first album in 13 years is that it sounds like a record they made more than 20 years ago. On it, Justin Broadrick and G.C. Green returned to their roots—1988’s Godflesh EP, 1989’s Streetcleaner, and 1992’s Pure—and managed to expand upon what they did best without losing any of the original burn.
Godflesh: "New Dark Ages" (via SoundCloud)
__6. Blut Aus Nord: Memoria Vetusta III - Saturnian Poetry [Debemur Morti]
__Each year Blut Aus Nord release a record they show up somewhere on my year-end list with a description about how the project of French multi-instrumentalist Vindsval continues pushing boundaries. On his 11th full-length, this one featuring the live drumming of Thorns (Frostmoon Eclipse, Glorior Belli, Deathrow), he returns from the dark ambient and industrial offerings of the 777 trilogy with a proper black metal record—albeit, one clearly from the mind of a guy who's also made dark ambient and industrial albums. Every element, down to the light in the landscape on the cover, is in the right place.
Blut Aus Nord: "Paien" (via SoundCloud)
__5. Nux Vomica: Nux Vomica [Relapse]
__For their first record in five years, and first for Relapse, the crusty Portland-via-Baltimore doom band give us three punked-up, politically minded songs that reminded me of the best of Dystopia and Nausea while adding in unexpected elements (the fluttering guitar beauty of "Reeling," the soaring ambient section of "Choked at the Roots") and stretching to 45 minutes. These very catchy, very inspired tracks already have the feel of classic anthems, and when vocalist Just Dave yells "We must resist!" or "We stopped watching the news/ cause we couldn't take it anymore," it's very easy not only to yell along, but to remember that thoughts like this are what got you here initially.
Nux Vomica: "Sanity Is for the Passive" (via Bandcamp)
__4. Tombs: Savage Gold [Relapse]
__
From intense frontman/band leader Mike Hill and on, the Brooklyn band Tombs is best described as “muscular,” but are otherwise difficult to pin down. The music is precise, heavy, and powerful, and they mix black metal, post-rock, noise rock, straight-up rock, and other elements into a specific, identifiable sound. (Imagine Unsane discovering black metal and copping to an interest in Joy Division.) It’s a style that's buffed to a shine on their third album, Savage Gold, which was recorded and produced by death metal legend Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal, ex-Morbid Angel). There’s a coiled intensity to these 10 songs, and Savage manages to feel both more stripped back and deeper than their also excellent previous work.
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__3. YOB: Clearing the Path to Ascend [Neurot]
__
The Eugene, Oregon doom band and year-end list-regulars' seventh album consists of four instant classics clocking in at more than an hour. Their humble, shamanistic frontman and guitarist Mike Scheidt, who wrote this material after a divorce and decision to go off antidepressants, reminds me of J Mascis in his off-stage soft-spoken manner and on-stage six-string theatrics. The music itself is the usual blend of psychedelic and stoner rock, blues, and something more blackened, capped by Scheidt's powerful vocals. But this time out, the material feels especially classic (especially closer "Marrow"), and it's clear that Yob truly are one of America's great heavy bands, a group that should be much bigger than they are.
YOB: "Unmask the Spectre" (via SoundCloud)
__2. Pallbearer: Foundations of Burden [Profound Lore]
__For their second album, the Arkansas doom band recorded with Billy Anderson, who sat behind the controls for the classic Sleep oeuvre and has recorded seminal works for High on Fire, Melvins, Jawbreaker, and others. In an interview I did with Pallbearer co-founder/co-lyricist/bassist Joseph D. Rowland, he said Anderson told them he's never recorded a band that used so many guitar tracks—an element of Pallbearer's sound that explains the massiveness of Foundations, as well as how they saw Sorrow and Extinction's successes as an opportunity to deepen and strengthen their craft. This is an ambitious record that doesn't feel at all over-worked or stale, and while Extinction holds up beautifully two years later, Foundations is the stronger collection to the point that it almost comes across as demos for this new material. And where Extinction often felt like a solitary album—especially in its focus on death and mortality—Foundations is built for larger communal spaces.
Pallbearer: "The Ghost I Used To Be" (via SoundCloud)
__1. Thou: Heathen [Gilead Media/Vendetta/Howling Mine]
__
With their fourth full-length, the first since 2010's great Summit, the prolific Baton Rouge band Thou continue putting out important, enthralling music that combines their DIY approach with sludge, doom, and punk. (It's their fourth LP, but they've released more than 20 records when you count the EPs and splits.) Heathen is painful and raw, but melodic and transportive. There are throat-shredders like the 15-minute opener "Free Will", moody acoustic interludes (one's called "Take Off Your Skin and Dance in Your Bones"), and ghostly female vocals (courtesy of Emily McWilliams),
On their label's site, they mention that it's recommended if you like "nature, the sensual world, sexual decadence, pain and ecstasy, actively experiencing the present." Summit reminded me of my mother's death, largely because she passed away the year it was released, but also because of the subtle funereal horns and its overall darkness. Heathen, though, for all its intensity, feels to me like an affirmation.
Thou: "Free Will" (via Bandcamp)
____Honorable Mention: The Soft Pink Truth: Why Do the Heathen Rage? [Thrill Jockey]
____On Why Do the Heathen Rage?, Matmos' Drew Daniel applies his experimental house project Soft Pink Truth's lusty style to songs by Darkthrone, Venom, Beherit, Mayhem, Hellhammer, and other black metal outfits, incorporating guests like Antony, Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner, David Serrotte of the Baltimore vogue ball crew House of Revlon, and Locrian’s Terence Hannum. Snippets from gay house classics (and porn) also play a part.
As Daniel’s made clear in the past, SPT is a queer-focused project, as shown on this LP by his cover of Seth Putnam/Impaled Northern Moonforest’s “Grim and Frostbitten Gay Bar” and artist Mavado Charon’s cover illustration of corpse-painted men fucking and murdering each other. The liner notes feature a piece called “Confessions of a Former Burzum T-Shirt Wearer”, where Daniel talks about what it means to be a gay man as well as a fan of black metal—a genre with a sketchy, violent history that includes the murder of a gay man by Emperor’s Bård “Faust”, as well as the fascism of Burzum’s Varg Vikernes. As Daniel puts it, “Just as blasphemy both affirms and assaults the sacred powers it invokes and inverts, so too this record celebrates black metal and offers queer critique, mockery, and profanation of its ideological morass in equal measure.”
It's an album inspired by metal, yes, but it's also a metal album. Sort of. I gave it Honorable Mention because it feels like it deserves its own space. I did the same thing with Liturgy a few years back when they released Aesthethica. Sometimes an album feel too singular to add to a list. At least to me.
The Soft Pink Truth: "Black Metal" (Venom cover) (via SoundCloud)
I was also into Cult of Fire's मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान (Iron Bonehead) this year. I discovered it in 2014, but it came out last December, so I didn't include it. Here's a track:
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Here are the rest of the lists... |
Syfy has picked up second seasons of dramas Killjoys and Dark Matter. The press releases for each show’s renewal are below.
via press release:
THE WARRANT IS ALL: KILLJOYS RENEWED FOR SECOND SEASON ON SYFY
— Produced by Temple Street Productions in Association with Space —
— Distributed Worldwide by Universal Cable Productions —
NEW YORK – September 1, 2015 – Syfy announced today that the acclaimed series Killjoys has been renewed for a second 10-episode season, scheduled to air in 2016. From Temple Street Productions (Orphan Black) and Michelle Lovretta, the creator of Lost Girl, Killjoys averaged 1.5 million viewers (L3) in its first season.
Produced in association with Space and distributed worldwide by Universal Cable Productions, Killjoys follows a trio of interplanetary bounty hunters who chase deadly Warrants (fugitives) throughout the Quad, a distant planetary system on the brink of a bloody class war. The series stars Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch, Luke Macfarlane as D’avin and Aaron Ashmore as John.
“With exciting space-based action, deep world building, and a standout cast, Killjoys has struck a nerve with viewers and critics alike,” said Bill McGoldrick, Executive Vice President, Original Content, Syfy. “We can’t wait to see what adventures Michelle Lovretta and Temple Street take Dutch, John and D’avin on in season two.”
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring back Killjoys and its stellar cast to audiences across the U.S.,” said David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg, co-Presidents of Temple Street Productions and Executive Producers of Killjoys. “We look forward to working with the team at Syfy for a thrilling second season.”
Killjoys is produced by Temple Street Productions in association with Space and Syfy. Creator and showrunner Lovretta serves as executive producer and writer. Executive producers are David Fortier, Ivan Schneeberg and Karen Troubetzkoy.
Production Executives for Bell Media are Rebecca DiPasquale and Kathleen Meek. Tom Hastings is Director, Independent Production, Bell Media. Corrie Coe is Senior Vice President, Independent Production, Bell Media. Tracey Pearce is Head, Specialty and Pay. Randy Lennox is President, Entertainment Production and Broadcasting.
The second season of Killjoys will join a rich 2016 Syfy lineup that includes previously announced scripted series The Magicians, based on Lev Grossman’s bestselling novels; Gale Anne Hurd’s thriller Hunters, the epic 10-part drama The Expanse (premiering December 14), and new seasons of 12 Monkeys and Dark Matter, also announced today.
Additional high profile scripted projects in development at Syfy include Incorporated, a futuristic espionage pilot from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Pearl Street Films; Hyperion, an adaptation of Dan Simmons’ Hugo Award-winning best-selling novel; Aldous Huxley’s classic novel Brave New World with Amblin Television; David Goyer’s Superman prequel, Krypton; and Frederik Pohl’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel Gateway.
SYFY ORDERS SECOND SEASON OF DARK MATTER FROM PRODIGY PICTURES
— From the Writers of Stargate, Season 2 to Premiere on Syfy in 2016 —
NEW YORK – September 1, 2015 – Syfy announced today that popular drama series Dark Matter has been renewed for a 13-episode second season, set to premiere on the network in 2016. The series, produced by Prodigy Pictures, follows six people who wake up on a derelict spaceship with no memories of who they are or how they got on board, averaged 1.8 million viewers in its first season on Syfy.*
“With its mysterious premise and fascinating characters, Dark Matter has built an incredibly loyal, passionate and engaged fan base,” said Chris Regina, Senior Vice President, Program Strategy, Syfy. “We look forward to another out-of-the-world season from this talented creative team.”
Created by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie, executive producers and writers of the Stargate franchise, and developed with Prodigy Pictures (Lost Girl), Dark Matter is based on Mallozzi and Mullie’s graphic novel of the same name, published by Dark Horse Comics. The series features Melissa O’Neil, Marc Bendavid, Anthony Lemke, Alex Mallari Jr. and Jodelle Ferland with Roger Cross and Zoie Palmer.
Executive producers are Jay Firestone, Joseph Mallozzi, Paul Mullie and Vanessa Piazza.
LINKS:
· For more information about Dark Matter, including exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and creators, visit http://www.syfy.com/darkmatter
· Photo: https://syfypr.app.box.com/s/prnkuv4typgefnfzdgw884k28cqpszi0
· Watch Season 1 online: http://www.syfy.com/darkmatter/videos/all/2616 or http://www.syfy.com/darkmatter/where-to-watch
· @SyfyTV #DarkMatter
* L3 data through first 9 episodes (series concluded 8/28/15) |
Researchers in Japan have developed a motion picture camera that can take 4.4 trillion frames per second -- making it the fastest camera in the world. They call their technique “sequentially timed all-optical mapping photography” (or STAMP), and the resolution is an impressive 450 x 450 pixels. The work was published in Nature Photonics this week.
The current gold standard for high-speed, real-time recording utilizes a method known as the pump-probe process, Wired explains, where light is pumped at the subject and then probed for absorption. But to construct an image, it requires repetitive measurements.
Developed by a large team led by University of Tokyo researchers, STAMP uses single-shot bursts to acquire images. Its optical shutter lets it capture images consecutively in less than one-trillionth of a second. Without the need for repetitive probing, STAMP offers results that up to 1,000 times faster than existing high-speed cameras.
The team managed to photograph the conduction of heat, which is transmitted at a speed equivalent to one-sixth the velocity of light, Wall Street Journal reports.
“It is a promising invention because these cameras can be utilized in various fields,” says study author Keisuke Goda from the University of Tokyo. In auto and semiconductor factories, the camera could help develop a better understanding of laser processing, he adds. And in the medical field, it could help advance ultrasonic therapy.
In this schematic of STAMP from their paper, an ultrashort laser pulse is split by the temporal mapping device into a series of discrete “daughter” pulses in different spectral bands. The image-encoded daughter pulses are separated by the spatial mapping device and directed towards different areas of the image sensor. The data recorded by the image sensor are digitally processed on the computer to reconstruct a movie.
Images: University of Tokyo via Wall Street Journal (top) & K. Nakagawa et al., Nature Photonics 2014 |
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YPSILANTI, Mich. — Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont held a boisterous campaign event at Eastern Michigan University here on Monday with about 9,400 supporters cheering along to his hour-long speech.
Though Mr. Sanders had scheduled two rallies in Michigan on Monday, he did not plan a visit to Flint and instead met beforehand with several residents of the city to talk about the lead-tainted water crisis there. Mr. Sanders, addressing a stadium full of supporters after the meeting, said Flint’s water problem was just one of several examples of the country’s dangerous, declining infrastructure.
“I’ve just come from a meeting, which was one of the more difficult meetings that I have ever attended in a long political life where I have seen a lot and I have heard a lot,” Mr. Sanders said to the crowd at the university. “I just met with seven or eight residents of Flint, Mich. I obviously have read the newspapers, and have been somewhat involved in the issue, but I really did not know how ugly, how horrible and how terrible what is going on there is. It is beyond my comprehension that in the year 2016, in the United States of America, we are poisoning our children.”
One person in the crowd shouted, “Go to Flint,” as Mr. Sanders said he had talked to parents who were witnessing the heartbreaking effects of tainted water on their children.
“I just talked to a mother who said that she has a kid who was very bright in school,” Mr. Sanders said. “In the last two years, she has seen her child’s ability to do school work markedly deteriorate. Can you imagine being a mother, seeing your own baby’s, you own child’s intellectual development deteriorate in front of your very eyes? That is happening all over that city.”
Some in the crowd loudly sighed, shook their heads and frowned as the senator explained the conversation with Flint residents. Several people also held signs up that read, “Flintstones 810 for Bernie” and “Fix Flint Now.”
Mr. Sanders said that he didn’t want to be “overly political” but that he had called for the resignation of Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan.
“If the local government cannot protect those children, if the state government cannot protect those children, then the federal government better,” he said.
Mr. Sanders said he wanted to create a jobs program that would help fix some of the crumbling infrastructure problems.
“All over America, communities are struggling with deteriorating water systems, waste-water plants, airports, rail systems, roads, bridges, levees and dams,” Mr. Sanders said. “We can create 13 million decent-paying jobs rebuilding that infrastructure.”
Mr. Sanders also talked about issues at the core of his candidacy, including the need to change a “corrupt campaign finance system,” to regulate Wall Street and to deal with economic, social and racial inequality. Many in the crowd, now familiar with his stump speech and Brooklyn accent, shouted along as he spoke.
“We have today a corrupt campaign finance system which is undermining American democracy,” Mr. Sanders said to cheers. “We have a system in which a small number of people, very small number of people, are making huge campaign contributions.”
“Yuuuuge,” the crowd shouted back.
“Huuuuge,” Mr. Sanders repeated, smiling. “I don’t know how I am going to use that word again. Every time I say it, 10,000 people are going to echo it.”
Mr. Sanders wrapped up his rally by turning his attention to the Supreme Court opening created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and to Senate Republicans who have said they will not schedule any votes on Obama nominees.
“I say to my colleagues in the United States Senate, my Republican colleagues who today, unfortunately, are in the majority: You talk about the constitution a whole lot,” Mr. Sanders said. “Well how about obeying the constitution and start holding hearings when President Obama nominates the next Supreme Court justice?”
“Talk about obstruction,” Mr. Sanders added. “Here you have the Constitution, it is clear as clear can be. The president of the United States nominates people to the Supreme Court. Republicans start hearings on his nomination. Do not obstruct. Obey the Constitution.”
When asked why Mr. Sanders didn’t travel to Flint on Monday, the senator’s spokesperson, Michael Briggs, said, “The senator preferred to meet quietly today with seven or eight people impacted by the unbelievable, horrific situation in Flint without making a media show out of it.”
Mr. Briggs added that Mr. Sanders “wanted to hear what they had to say without television cameras, and what they had to say was unbelievable and hard to imagine in 21st century America.”
Mr. Briggs also said that Mr. Sanders will travel to Flint in the “very near future because the people he met with today urged him to come see firsthand what ground zero looks like.” |
Defence ministers at Five Power Defence Arrangements meeting in Singapore Thomson Reuters By Greg Torode and Raju Gopalakrishnan
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Several Asian nations are seeking to bolster informal alliances among themselves, regional diplomats and officials said, unsettled by growing fears that the United States could not be relied on to maintain a buffer against China's assertiveness.
Countries including Australia, Japan, India and Vietnam are quietly stepping up discussions and co-operation, although taking care they do not upset Beijing, the diplomats said. No one was yet talking about a formal alliance.
Inaugurating the weekend Shangri-La Dialogue, the region's premier security forum, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: "In this brave new world we cannot rely on great powers to safeguard our interests.
"We have to take responsibility for our own security and prosperity, while recognizing we are stronger when sharing the burden of collective leadership with trusted partners and friends."
His comments resonated through the three-day meeting that ended on Sunday.
Regional officials and analysts said there was growing mistrust of the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, especially because of his withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on trade and then, last week, the pullout from the Paris climate accord.
Many fear Trump is signaling a deeper retreat from a traditional U.S. security role that has underpinned the region for decades.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the Singapore forum that Washington remained committed to the region and insisted it would oppose China's militarization of the disputed South China Sea, one of Asia's most volatile hotspots.
Regional officials said they were worried by Trump's unpredictability and concerned that his warm praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping after their first summit meeting in April would influence any decisions on Asia.
"We trust Mattis and we trust (U.S. Pacific Commander Harry) Harris but at the very top? The trust gap is very wide," said one senior Asian military officer.
"Our fear is driven by the reality that it is only the U.S. that is powerful enough to set red lines with China."
Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Asia was still trying to figure out Trump's policy in the region.
"I would like to know very clearly what are the true intentions of the new administration," he said.
FIVE POWERS
In broad terms, Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen confirmed accelerated co-operation among partners, but he also said he welcomed Mattis' reassurances.
"Countries look at the landscape and you adjust, and that's what good leadership does...you put yourself in a position so if there are changes, you are not caught completely off-guard," Ng said at a news conference on Sunday.
Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Malaysia and Singapore re-energized their Five Powers Defence Agreement at the weekend, with officials saying they wanted to better link new military capabilities, as well as boosting counter-terrorism efforts and maritime security.
Tim Huxley, a regional security expert, wrote in a newspaper article last week that the five countries needed to improve the inter-operability of their militaries as the regional balance of power shifted.
While China was becoming richer and more assertive, U.S. strategy and policy had entered "a period of, at best, uncertainty under President Donald Trump", he said.
"Amid this uncertainty, most states in the region are seeking to increase their military capabilities."
India did not send a government delegation to the Shangri-La forum but has been active in strengthening cooperation in the region.
It sent four ships and a P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to naval exercises with Singapore last month, and is discreetly improving Vietnam's defenses. Several Indian defense companies attended the International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference in Singapore last month, including the manufacturers of short-range missiles.
New Delhi rejected an Australian request to join its Malabar naval exercises next month with Japan and the United States for fear of antagonizing China, which has warned against expanding the drills, navy officials and diplomats said.
But officials say the exercises will expand gradually, noting that India has bilateral defense agreements with countries including Australia, Singapore and Vietnam.
"There are different strands of cooperation. At some point they will come together," one Indian official said.
Beijing sent a low-key delegation to the Shangri-La forum this year, but its officials were warily watching developments and warning of "Cold War thinking" behind moves to strengthen alliances.
"It's a Cold War mentality to use alliances to check on China," said Senior Colonel Zhao Xiaozhuo, of the People's Liberation Army's Academy of Military Science.
"It's creating some sort of threat and using China as a threat is a huge mistake."
(Additional reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Lincoln Feast) |
I am surprised that my friend Billy hasn’t disowned me yet. For over a year, I’ve promised to write a few words about the Young Lords for a zine that ze has illustrated. I’ve been distracted, then swamped, then distracted again. So to push myself to work on this, I’m writing a post today. It’s very drafty but I need the kick in the butt…
THE YOUNG LORDS
There had of course been Puerto Rican nationalist organizations throughout the early to mid-20th century. But they mostly focused on the struggle for Puerto Rican independence. Meanwhile Puerto Ricans on the mainland were living in dire conditions. They experienced poverty, dilapidated housing, substandard schooling and terrible health care. Pedro Pietri gave voice to this marginalization and violence in his amazing spoken word poem titled “Puerto Rican Obituary” which appeared in the 1971 book “Palante.” Below is a short clip of Pietri sharing an excerpt from the piece:
In 1959, seven Puerto Rican young people formed (PDF) the Young Lords in Chicago. The group was initially created to protect its members against attacks from white ethnic, black and other latino ‘gangs.’ Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez became the group’s chairman in the early 60s.
During the mid to late 60s, many black gangs in Chicago were transforming into political organizations very much influenced by the Black Power movement. Gang members joined the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and other radical organizations. By 1967, the three largest gangs in Chicago, the Vice Lords, Blackstone Rangers, and the Gangster Disciples founded the LSD (Lords, Stones, and Disciples) peace treaty. This newly formed group ran local businesses (bookstores, cafes, clothing shops) and facilitated political education in their communities.
Puerto Rican gangs underwent a similar process of consciousness-raising and transformation. Cha Cha Jimenez and the Chicago Young Lords re-evaluated their mission & took on the name ‘Young Lords Organization.’ In 1967, they opened Uptight #2, a cafe where they discussed the issues of the day. The Lords established substance abuse programs, gave away food, and organized various community events. After spending time in prison in 1968, Jimenez became particularly interested revolutionary movement-building.
Fred Hampton, the deputy Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, approached Cha Cha Jimenez to discuss a revolutionary framework for liberation. Hampton believed that it was important to marry social service delivery with revolutionary politics. As Jimenez said: “Giving gifts wasn’t going to help their people. They had to deal with the system that was messing them over.”
The Young Lords co-existed and intersected with several other movements of their era including anti-imperialist, anti-war, women’s liberation, and black freedom struggles. Several Puerto Ricans were particularly active in the New York Chapter of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. There was a lot of cross movement building.
Iris Morales, who would later become a leader of the Young Lords Party in NY, joined an African-American led student group called ONYX while at City College in New York. She was involved with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the NAACP. She studied Malcolm X and other black revolutionaries. She ended up founding City College’s first Puerto Rican organization, Puerto Ricans in Student Activities (PRISA). PRISA made alliances with other campus student groups.
In 1969 at a Students for a Democratic Society gathering (SDS), Joe Martinez (then an SDS member) met with leaders of the Chicago Young Lords & received their permission to establish a chapter of the organization in New York. Importantly up to 25 percent of the membership of the Young Lords Organization was black and 30% were women. Other chapters of the Young Lords Organization would be founded in Newark, Philly, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.
However, it is the New York Chapter of the Young Lords Organization that would become iconic. The New York Lords successfully advocated for improved sanitation in East Harlem and organized against police brutality. Inspired by the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program, the Lords fed hungry people regularly in their community. Their lead poisoning campaigns eventually resulted in the passage of anti-lead legislation and the establishment of the Bureau of lead poisoning in New York.
On July 17, 1970, 100 Young Lords occupied Lincoln Hospital to draw attention to the terrible healthcare for the poor. The action gained the attention of NY Mayor, John Lindsay, who said that the city would build a new hospital to replace Lincoln. A new hospital did in fact open on East 149th street in 1976.
Given my work and personal commitments, I’ve been very interested in the YLP’s organizing campaigns against prisons. Similar to the BPP’s 10 point plan, the Young Lords’ Platform included a statement about political prisoners. It was therefore no surprise that prisoners at Attica included the YLP on their list of outside negotiators during the 1971 uprising.
As early as 1969, women within the YLO founded their own caucus. The Women’s Caucus succeeded in getting two women, Denise Oliver and Iris Morales, named to the Central Committee. The women of YLO/YLP were also pioneers in the reproductive justice movement advocating for abortion, contraception, the right of women of color to have children & to be able to raise them free from poverty. They also successfully pushed for sexism to be explicitly addressed in the 13 Point Program and Platform of the Young Lords Organization:
Point #5. WE WANT EQUALITY FOR WOMEN, DOWN WITH MACHISMO AND MALE CHAUVINISM.
Under capitalism, women have been oppressed by both society and our men. The doctrine of machismo has been used by men to take out their frustration on wives, sisters, mothers, and children. Men must fight along with sisters in the struggle for economic and social equality and must recognize that sisters make up over half of the revolutionary army; sisters and brothers are equal fighting for our people. FORWARD SISTERS IN STRUGGLE! (Source: Young Lords Party 13-Point Program & Platform [Revised November 1970])
In May 1970, the New York Chapter of the YLO broke with the Chicago Lords and organized all of the east coast chapters under the umbrella of the Young Lords Party (YLP). After 1972, the Young Lords Party would become known as the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization and be led by Gloria Fontanez. The Revolutionary Workers Organization would last until 1976.
Lots of forces including political repression and in-fighting led to the eventual demise of the Young Lords. However, their contributions were important and the history of the organization should be better known. |
Posted on 2017-04-26 by Oleg Grenrus lens
This post is a response to the Edward's tweet:
Now try to fit all of the indexed and index-preserving variants. ;) Edward Kmett
Which in turn is a reply to my previous post: Glassery.
First I'll show how we can implement indexed optics using a newtype Indexed , as purescricpt-profunctor-lenses (version 3.2.0) does. This approach is already mentioned in Glassery, but I'll also compare it to the lens encoding.
The rest of the post is novel, at least I haven't seen such tehnicque applied to lenses before. By indexing a profunctor itself ( p i a b ), we regain the flexibility of lens approach (Section: Indexed profunctor). This approach also scales to so called "coindexing", so it's possible to extract "coindexes", e.g. reason why or where Prism failed (Section: Coindexed).
This blog post introduces a type alias with 9 (nine) variables:
type IndexedOpticJ p i j k l s t a b = p i j a b -> p k l s t
{-# LANGUAGE DefaultSignatures #-} {-# LANGUAGE GADTs #-} {-# LANGUAGE RankNTypes #-} {-# LANGUAGE TupleSections #-} module IndexedPoptics where import Control.Applicative ( Const (..)) import Control.Lens ( TraversableWithIndex (itraverse)) import Data.Bifunctor import Data.Constraint import Data.Functor (void) import Data.Monoid ( Endo (..)) import Data.Semigroup ( Semigroup (..)) import Data.Pointed import Data.Profunctor import Data.Profunctor.Traversing import Test.HUnit import qualified Control.Lens as L
This work is licensed under a “CC BY SA 4.0” license.
The current way to do indexed optics in profunctor encoding is to use a newtype
newtype Indexed p i a b = Indexed { runIndexed :: p (i, a) b } type Optic p s t a b = p a b -> p s t type IndexedOptic p i s t a b = Indexed p i a b -> p s t
That's the approach taken by purescricpt-profunctor-lenses (version 3.2.0).
Definition of indexed traversal if not complicated, we don't need new type-classes: the old friend Traversing is enough:
itraversed :: ( TraversableWithIndex i t, Traversing p) => IndexedOptic p i (t a) (t b) a b itraversed ( Indexed piab) = wander (itraverse . curry) piab
We'll use itoListOf in the examples.
itoListOf :: IndexedOptic ( Forget [(i, a)]) i s s a a -> s -> [(i, a)] itoListOf o = runForget (o ( Indexed ( Forget ( : []))))
The definition is similar to regular toListOf
toListOf :: Optic ( Forget [a]) s s a a -> s -> [a] toListOf o = runForget (o ( Forget ( : [])))
We can combine indexed and regular optics, without problems, using function composition:
newtype_ex2 = itoListOf (itraversed . traverse') [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? [( 0 , 'f' ),( 0 , 'o' ),( 0 , 'o' ),( 1 , 'b' ),( 1 , 'a' ),( 1 , 'r' )] newtype_ex3 = itoListOf (traverse' . itraversed) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? [( 0 , 'f' ),( 1 , 'o' ),( 2 , 'o' ),( 0 , 'b' ),( 1 , 'a' ),( 2 , 'r' )] newtype_ex4 = itoListOf itraversed "foobar" ~=? [( 0 , 'f' ),( 1 , 'o' ),( 2 , 'o' ),( 3 , 'b' ),( 4 , 'a' ),( 5 , 'r' )]
Combining two indexed optics directly won't work.
itoListOf (itraversed . itraversed) [ "foo" , "bar" ] < interactive >: 77 : 10 : error : • Couldn't match type ‘p’ with ‘ Indexed p Int ’
That's because the type of the result optics has two Indexed , but definition of itoListOf requires only single one!
newtype_ex1 :: ( Traversing p , TraversableWithIndex i1 t1 , TraversableWithIndex i2 t2 ) => Indexed ( Indexed p i1) i2 a b -> p (t1 (t2 a)) (t1 (t2 b)) newtype_ex1 = itraversed . itraversed
So we need to define a special combinator for the optic composition:
icompose :: Profunctor p => (i -> j -> k) -> ( Indexed p i u v -> p s t) -> ( Indexed ( Indexed p i) j a b -> Indexed p i u v) -> ( Indexed p k a b -> p s t) icompose ijk stuv uvab ab = icompose' ijk (stuv . Indexed ) (runIndexed . uvab . Indexed . Indexed ) (runIndexed ab) icompose' :: Profunctor p => (i -> j -> k) -> (p (i, u) v -> p s t) -> (p (i, (j, a)) b -> p (i, u) v) -> (p (k, a) b -> p s t) icompose' ijk stuv uvab ab = stuv (uvab (lmap f ab)) where f (i, (j, a)) = (ijk i j, a) newtype_ex5 = itoListOf (icompose (,) itraversed itraversed) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? [(( 0 , 0 ), 'f' ),(( 0 , 1 ), 'o' ),(( 0 , 2 ), 'o' ) ,(( 1 , 0 ), 'b' ),(( 1 , 1 ), 'a' ),(( 1 , 2 ), 'r' ) ]
Alternatively we can use an OpticLike , which let us combine the indices in the optic building "pipeline":
flattenIndices :: Profunctor p => (i -> j -> k) -> Indexed p k a b -> Indexed ( Indexed p i) j a b flattenIndices ijk ( Indexed kab) = Indexed ( Indexed (lmap f kab)) where f (i, (j, a)) = (ijk i j, a) newtype_ex6 = itoListOf (itraversed . itraversed . flattenIndices (,)) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? [(( 0 , 0 ), 'f' ),(( 0 , 1 ), 'o' ),(( 0 , 2 ), 'o' ) ,(( 1 , 0 ), 'b' ),(( 1 , 1 ), 'a' ),(( 1 , 2 ), 'r' ) ]
#Comparison to lens
In lens , if we combine two indexed optics we'll get the latter index: (profunctor: type-error).
lens_ex1 = L.itoListOf (L.itraversed . L.itraversed) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~?= [( 0 , 'f' ),( 1 , 'o' ),( 2 , 'o' ),( 0 , 'b' ),( 1 , 'a' ),( 2 , 'r' )]
We should use icompose (or <.> ) to combine indices:
lens_ex2 = L.itoListOf (L.icompose (,) L.itraversed L.itraversed) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~?= [(( 0 , 0 ), 'f' ),(( 0 , 1 ), 'o' ),(( 0 , 2 ), 'o' ) ,(( 1 , 0 ), 'b' ),(( 1 , 1 ), 'a' ),(( 1 , 2 ), 'r' )]
On the other hand, in lens indexed optics degrade to regular one when used by a regular operation:
lens_ex3 = L.toListOf L.itraversed [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] ~=? [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]
Profunctor version fails with a type error:
toListOf itraversed [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] < interactive >: 274 : 25 : error : • Couldn't match type ‘ Forget [a] a a’ with ‘ Indexed ( Forget [a]) Int Integer Integer ’
We must remove the index explicitly:
unindexed :: Profunctor p => p a b -> Indexed p i a b unindexed = Indexed . lmap snd newtype_ex7 = toListOf (itraversed . unindexed) "foo" ~=? "foo"
So the Profunctor encoding using newtype Indexed is more rigid. We have to be explicit about the index (or indices). Whether this is good or bad: depends.
Some might think that being explicit is good. On the other hand, the implicitness of lens is not a problem. If we have type redundancy, forcing a type of the result; you'll get a type-error if lens es are combined with wrong combinator. A bit later than when building up the optic (and not annotating it with a type-signature) though.
The print (itoListOf o s) examples doesn't have such redundancy, so the issue may seem bigger than it is.
#Indexed profunctor
In lens , we can get away with having indexed optics because we have two type parameters, and when you go to compose two optics with (.) , the profunctor part automatically selects p = (->) by unification, for the optics that supply indices, as composing a couple things of the form Edward Kmett
Or as Matthew Pickering put it: there are two parameters in lens encoding, p and f . By varying the f , we can change the lens type ( Lens , Getter , Fold or Traversal ) and by varying p we can vary between indexed and regular variants.
That's a good insight. We can add an additional degree of freedom to the profunctor encoding:
type IndexedOpticI p i o s t a b = p i a b -> p o s t type IndexedOpticI' p i o s a = p i a a -> p o s s
The idea is to have index variable on both side of the arrow! Instead of stacking up Indexed , we'll stack up something on top of o . The example will make this more concrete. Let's make an indexed traversal.
We have to introduce a new class TraversingWithIndex .
class IndexedProfunctor p => TraversingWithIndex p where itraversedI :: TraversableWithIndex i t => IndexedOpticI p (i, o) o (t a) (t b) a b itraversedI = iwanderI itraverse iwanderI :: (forall f . Applicative f => (i -> a -> f b) -> (s -> f t)) -> IndexedOpticI p (i, o) o s t a b -- It should be possible to write a default implementation -- using itraversedI -- Not strictly necessary. traversingDictI :: Dict ( Traversing (p i)) -- or we could use Forall from Data.Constraint.Forall default traversingDictI :: Traversing (p i) => Dict ( Traversing (p i)) traversingDictI = Dict class IndexedProfunctor p where ilmap :: (i -> j) -> p j a b -> p i a b
Note that indexes of IndexedOptics are related: (i, o) and o . Every IndexedTraversal in the chain would add an additional index. There's an engineering problem: what kind relation would be the most convenient for a practical usage (should we use DataKinds and type-level lists?). For now we'll use tuples, and keep used language extensions to the minimum.
indexed_ex1 :: ( TraversingWithIndex p , TraversableWithIndex i1 t1 , TraversableWithIndex i2 t2 ) => p (i2, (i1, o)) a b -> p o (t1 (t2 a)) (t1 (t2 b)) indexed_ex1 = itraversedI . itraversedI
The next step is to define a profunctor implementing that class. The Star is good template, we only need to add an index:
newtype StarI f i a b = StarI { runStarI :: i -> a -> f b }
another one is a variant of Forget which forgets the index as well:
newtype ForgetI r i a b = ForgetI { runForgetI :: a -> r }
and the one which doesn't:
newtype IndexedForget r i a b = IndexedForget { runIndexedForget :: i -> a -> r }
Using ForgetI we can define normal operations,
toListOfI :: IndexedOpticI' ( ForgetI ( Endo [a])) i o s a -> s -> [a] toListOfI o s = appEndo (foldMapOfI o ( Endo . ( : )) s) [] foldMapOfI :: IndexedOpticI' ( ForgetI r) i o s a -> (a -> r) -> s -> r foldMapOfI o f = runForgetI (o ( ForgetI f))
and using IndexedForget the indexed variants:
itoListOfI :: IndexedOpticI' ( IndexedForget ( Endo [(i, a)])) i () s a -> s -> [(i, a)] itoListOfI o s = appEndo (ifoldMapOfI o (\i a -> Endo ((i,a) : )) s) [] ifoldMapOfI :: IndexedOpticI' ( IndexedForget r) i () s a -> (i -> a -> r) -> s -> r ifoldMapOfI o f = runIndexedForget (o ( IndexedForget f)) ()
Now we can use toListOfI on the indexed optic!
indexed_ex2 = toListOfI (itraversedI . itraversedI) [[ 1 , 2 ],[ 3 , 4 , 5 ]] ~=? [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]
or itoListOf , though we get very ugly indexes:
indexed_ex3 = itoListOfI (itraversedI . itraversedI) [[ 1 , 2 ],[ 3 , 4 , 5 ]] ~=? [(( 0 ,( 0 ,())), 1 ),(( 1 ,( 0 ,())), 2 ),(( 0 ,( 1 ,())), 3 ) ,(( 1 ,( 1 ,())), 4 ),(( 2 ,( 1 ,())), 5 ) ]
It's possible to write a variant itoListOf with a type signature requiring single index:
itoListOfI' :: IndexedOpticI' ( IndexedForget ( Endo [(i, a)])) (i, ()) () s a -> s -> [(i, a)] itoListOfI' o s = appEndo (ifoldMapOfI o (\(i, ()) a -> Endo ((i,a) : )) s) []
As with the newtype variant, it's possible to flatten indices. In fact ilmap is a general index mapping function.
flattenIndicesI :: IndexedProfunctor p => (i -> j -> k) -> p (k, z) a b -> p (j, (i, z)) a b flattenIndicesI f = ilmap g where g (j, (i, z)) = (f i j, z) indexed_ex4 = itoListOfI' (itraversedI . itraversedI . flattenIndicesI (,)) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? [(( 0 , 0 ), 'f' ),(( 0 , 1 ), 'o' ),(( 0 , 2 ), 'o' ) ,(( 1 , 0 ), 'b' ),(( 1 , 1 ), 'a' ),(( 1 , 2 ), 'r' ) ]
We can compose indexed and regular optics using function composition dot, . :
indexed_ex5 = itoListOfI' (itraversedI . traverse') [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? [( 0 , 'f' ),( 0 , 'o' ),( 0 , 'o' ),( 1 , 'b' ),( 1 , 'a' ),( 1 , 'r' )] indexed_ex6 = itoListOfI' (traverse' . itraversedI) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? [( 0 , 'f' ),( 1 , 'o' ),( 2 , 'o' ),( 0 , 'b' ),( 1 , 'a' ),( 2 , 'r' )]
Graceful degradation from indexed to regular optics is possible with profunctor optics too. The key idea is to make every optic indexed (kind of)!
The engineering challenge here, is to design an algebra for indices. With DataKinds and type-level lists and type-families to tuples, the API can be made quite nice (I guess, hopefully there aren't some nastiness for type-inference).
#A CPS note
One option to make IndexedOpticI elegant, is instead of nesting tuples, we could use (->) version:
class IndexedProfunctor p => TraversingWithIndexC p where itraversedC :: ( TraversableWithIndex i t) => IndexedOpticI p r (i -> r) (t a) (t b) a b itraversedC = iwanderC itraverse iwanderC :: (forall f . Applicative f => (i -> a -> f b) -> (s -> f t)) -> IndexedOpticI p r (i -> r) s t a b
The combination has a nice type:
cps_ex1 :: ( TraversingWithIndexC p , TraversableWithIndex i t, TraversableWithIndex i' t' ) => IndexedOpticI p r (i -> i' -> r) (t (t' a)) (t (t' b)) a b cps_ex1 = itraversedC . itraversedC
Defining operations is not complicated, we have to be just a bit more clever in the instantiation:
itoListOfC :: IndexedOpticI' ( IndexedForget [(i, a)]) i (i -> i) s a -> s -> [(i, a)] itoListOfC o = ifoldMapOfC o (\i a -> [(i, a)]) ifoldMapOfC :: IndexedOpticI' ( IndexedForget r) i (i -> i) s a -> (i -> a -> r) -> s -> r ifoldMapOfC o f = runIndexedForget (o ( IndexedForget f)) id
The double-index example may clarify better: the first index of the optic is instantiated to the "joint" index type, and the latter to the function to produce the joint index from the actual two.
ifoldMapOfC2 :: IndexedOpticI' ( IndexedForget r) k (i -> j -> k) s a -> (i -> j -> k) -> (k -> a -> r) -> s -> r ifoldMapOfC2 o ijk f = runIndexedForget (o ( IndexedForget f)) ijk
And we can fuse the two function arguments above;
ifoldMapOfC2' :: IndexedOpticI' ( IndexedForget r) (a -> r) (i -> j -> a -> r) s a -> (i -> j -> a -> r) -> s -> r ifoldMapOfC2' o f = runIndexedForget (o ( IndexedForget id)) f
To write the examples will use a flattenIndicesC . Note: Now we have to precompose with it.
flattenIndicesC :: IndexedProfunctor p => (i -> j -> k) -> p (i -> j -> z) a b -> p (k -> z) a b flattenIndicesC f = ilmap (\g i j -> g (f i j))
And the example:
cps_ex2 = itoListOfC (flattenIndicesC (,) . itraversedC . itraversedC) [[ 1 , 2 ],[ 3 , 4 , 5 ]] ~=? [(( 0 , 0 ), 1 ),(( 0 , 1 ), 2 ),(( 1 , 0 ), 3 ),(( 1 , 1 ), 4 ),(( 1 , 2 ), 5 )]
or using ifoldMapOfC2' :
cps_ex3 = ifoldMapOfC2' (itraversedC . itraversedC) (\i j a -> [(i,j,a)]) [[ 1 , 2 ],[ 3 , 4 , 5 ]] ~=? [( 0 , 0 , 1 ),( 0 , 1 , 2 ),( 1 , 0 , 3 ),( 1 , 1 , 4 ),( 1 , 2 , 5 )]
Thanks to Tom Ellis for mentioning this idea. and correcting me further.
Also, there is a notion we don't currently explore in lens (it is incompatible with the notion of indexed optics) of what I call 'coindexed' optics. You can think of it as allowing information back in the failing match case. e.g a prism that returns an error message on failure. When you combine the two features the problem gets even worse, as one wants to push information from the left side of the (.) towards the right and the other wants to push information from the right side of the (.) towards the left and they need to conspire to produce the right types now with 2-3 sources of information about what it should be! Edward Kmett
That's easy.
"We can solve any problem by introducing an extra level of indirection." David J. Wheeler
In our case: type variables. In this section we'll use a monstrous type mentioned in the introduction:
type IndexedOpticJ p i j k l s t a b = p i j a b -> p k l s t
one index pair for the contravariant argument (as previously), and one more pair for covariant.
Writing operations using this encoding isn't different than previously. We make some concrete profunctor, use optic to transform it, and then use the result:
ifoldMapOfJ :: IndexedOpticJ ( IndexedForgetJ r) (i, ()) () () k s t a b -> (i -> a -> r) -> s -> Either k r ifoldMapOfJ o f = runIndexedForgetJ (o ( IndexedForgetJ $ \(i, ()) -> Right . f i)) () newtype IndexedForgetJ r i j a b = IndexedForgetJ { runIndexedForgetJ :: i -> a -> Either j r }
That's not exactly a ifoldMapOf variant, as it can fail with a description!
Let's define few constructors to play with examples. We will use bare String for errors, in real library you probably want something more structured.
type Err = String
To define prisms we need a variant of Choice , not that we
class IndexedProfunctorJ p => ChoiceWithIndexJ p where irightJ :: IndexedOpticJ p i j i ( Either Err j) ( Either c a) ( Either c b) a b instance ChoiceWithIndexJ ( IndexedForgetJ r) where irightJ ( IndexedForgetJ p) = IndexedForgetJ $ \i eca -> case fmap (p i) eca of Right ( Right r) -> Right r Right ( Left j) -> Left ( Right j) Left _c -> Left ( Left "right' failed" ) class IndexedProfunctorJ p where idimapJ :: (i -> j) -> (k -> l) -> IndexedOpticJ p j k i l a b a b ilmapJ :: (i -> j) -> IndexedOpticJ p j k i k a b a b ilmapJ f = idimapJ f id instance IndexedProfunctorJ ( IndexedForgetJ r) where idimapJ f g ( IndexedForgetJ p) = IndexedForgetJ $ \i -> first g . p (f i)
And a Traversing variant. Let's make examples interesting by making IndexedFOrgetJ instance "fail", if the Traversal is empty:
class ChoiceWithIndexJ p => TraversingWithIndexJ p where itraversedJ :: TraversableWithIndex i t => IndexedOpticJ p (i, j) k j ( Either Err k) (t a) (t b) a b itraversedJ = iwanderJ itraverse iwanderJ :: (forall f . Applicative f => (i -> a -> f b) -> (s -> f t)) -> p (i, j) k a b -> p j ( Either Err k) s t instance Semigroup r => TraversingWithIndexJ ( IndexedForgetJ r) where iwanderJ f ( IndexedForgetJ p) = IndexedForgetJ $ \j s -> runE2 $ getConst $ f (\i a -> Const $ E2 $ first Right $ p (i, j) a ) s
We have to define auxiliary type to select the right error when traversing:
newtype E2 a b = E2 { runE2 :: Either ( Either Err a) b } instance Semigroup b => Monoid ( E2 a b) where mempty = E2 ( Left ( Left "Empty Fold" )) mappend ( E2 ( Right a)) ( E2 ( Right b)) = E2 ( Right (a <> b)) mappend x @ ( E2 Right {}) _ = x mappend _ x @ ( E2 Right {}) = x -- make inner errors more important! mappend x @ ( E2 ( Left ( Right _))) _ = x mappend _ x @ ( E2 ( Left ( Right _))) = x mappend x _ = x
It's time for examples. The "good" cases work as before:
coindexed_ex1 = ifoldMapOfJ (irightJ . idimapJ ((),) id) (,) ( Right 'a' ) ~=? Right ((), 'a' ) coindexed_ex2 = ifoldMapOfJ itraversedJ (\i x -> [(i, x)]) "foobar" ~=? Right [( 0 , 'f' ),( 1 , 'o' ),( 2 , 'o' ),( 3 , 'b' ),( 4 , 'a' ),( 5 , 'r' )]
Note if traverse' zooms into empty Traversable , it won't be an error. But we can make a variant which would make that erroneous as well.
coindexed_ex3 = ifoldMapOfJ (itraversedJ . traverse') (\i x -> [(i, x)]) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? Right [( 0 , 'f' ),( 0 , 'o' ),( 0 , 'o' ),( 1 , 'b' ),( 1 , 'a' ),( 1 , 'r' )] coindexed_ex4 = ifoldMapOfJ (traverse' . itraversedJ) (\i x -> [(i, x)]) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? Right [( 0 , 'f' ),( 1 , 'o' ),( 2 , 'o' ),( 0 , 'b' ),( 1 , 'a' ),( 2 , 'r' )] coindexed_ex5 = ifoldMapOfJ (itraversedJ . itraversedJ . idimapJ unassoc id) (\i x -> [(i, x)]) [ "foo" , "bar" ] ~=? Right [(( 0 , 0 ), 'f' ),(( 1 , 0 ), 'o' ),(( 2 , 0 ), 'o' ) ,(( 0 , 1 ), 'b' ),(( 1 , 1 ), 'a' ),(( 2 , 1 ), 'r' )]
The erroneous cases work as we want: looking at wrong value through Prism gives Prism error, Looking through Traversal at empty list gives an empty fold error:
coindexed_ex6 = ifoldMapOfJ (irightJ . idimapJ ((),) id) (,) ( Left True ) ~=? ( Left ( Left "right' failed" ) :: Either ( Either Err ()) ((), ()))
coindexed_ex7 = ifoldMapOfJ itraversedJ (\i x -> [(i, x)]) "" ~=? Left ( Left "Empty Fold" )
If we combine a Traversal and a Prism we'll see how different erroneous cases work. If all elements of the list are Right , we get them. If some is Left , but there's at least one Right ; we still get Right . If all values are Left we get prism error; and if the list is empty we get an empty fold error. Here we could use idimapJ to flatten errors, but it's good to see on which "level" error occurred.
coindexed_ex8 = ifoldMapOfJ (itraversedJ . irightJ) (\i x -> [(i, x)]) [ Right 'a' , Right 'b' ] ~=? Right [( 0 , 'a' ),( 1 , 'b' )] coindexed_ex9 = ifoldMapOfJ (itraversedJ . irightJ) (\i x -> [(i, x)]) [ Right 'a' , Left False ] ~=? Right [( 0 , 'a' )] coindexed_exA = ifoldMapOfJ (itraversedJ . irightJ) (\i x -> [(i, x)]) [ Left False ] ~=? ( Left ( Right ( Left "right' failed" )) :: Either ( Either Err ( Either Err ())) [( Int , ())]) coindexed_exB = ifoldMapOfJ (itraversedJ . irightJ) (\i x -> [(i, x)]) [] ~=? ( Left ( Left "Empty Fold" ) :: Either ( Either Err ( Either Err ())) [( Int , ())])
In this blog post a presented some ideas for indexed profunctor optics, there's still a lot to design and engineer. The current approach is quite good IMHO. But maybe using indexed profunctor encoding we can make it even better. The Coindexed example is made with a tongue-in-cheek, but maybe there would be practical use cases for it too. After all, it degrades into indexed case nicely.
#Appendix: Test runner
runIndexedPopticsExamples :: IO () runIndexedPopticsExamples = void $ runTestTT $ TestList $ [ newtype_ex2, newtype_ex3, newtype_ex4, newtype_ex5, newtype_ex6 , newtype_ex7 , lens_ex1, lens_ex2, lens_ex3 , indexed_ex2, indexed_ex3, indexed_ex4, indexed_ex5, indexed_ex6 , cps_ex2, cps_ex3 , coindexed_ex1, coindexed_ex2, coindexed_ex3, coindexed_ex4 , coindexed_ex5, coindexed_ex6, coindexed_ex7, coindexed_ex8 , coindexed_ex9, coindexed_exA, coindexed_exB ]
instance Profunctor p => Profunctor ( Indexed p i) where dimap f g ( Indexed p) = Indexed (dimap (fmap f) g p) instance Strong p => Strong ( Indexed p i) where first' ( Indexed p) = Indexed (lmap unassoc (first' p)) unassoc :: (a,(b,c)) -> ((a,b),c) unassoc (a,(b,c)) = ((a,b),c) instance Choice p => Choice ( Indexed p i) where left' ( Indexed p) = Indexed $ lmap (\(i, e) -> first (i,) e) (left' p) instance Traversing p => Traversing ( Indexed p i) where wander f ( Indexed p) = Indexed $ wander (\g (i, s) -> f (curry g i) s) p
haskell ignore instance Monoid r => Traversing (Forget r) where wander f (Forget p) = Forget (getConst . f (Const . p))
instance Profunctor ( ForgetI r i) where dimap f _ ( ForgetI p) = ForgetI (p . f) instance Strong ( ForgetI r i) where first' ( ForgetI p) = ForgetI (p . fst) instance Monoid r => Choice ( ForgetI r i ) where right' ( ForgetI p) = ForgetI (either (const mempty) p) instance Monoid r => Traversing ( ForgetI r i) where wander f ( ForgetI p) = ForgetI (getConst . f ( Const . p)) instance IndexedProfunctor ( ForgetI r) where ilmap f ( ForgetI p) = ForgetI p instance Monoid r => TraversingWithIndex ( ForgetI r) where iwanderI f ( ForgetI p) = ForgetI (getConst . f (\_ -> Const . p))
instance Functor f => Profunctor ( StarI f i) where dimap f g ( StarI p) = StarI $ \i -> fmap g . p i . f instance Functor f => Strong ( StarI f i) where first' ( StarI p) = StarI $ \i (a,c) -> fmap (,c) (p i a) instance ( Functor f, Pointed f) => Choice ( StarI f i) where right' ( StarI p) = StarI $ \i -> either (point . Left ) (fmap Right . p i) instance ( Applicative f, Pointed f) => Traversing ( StarI f i) where wander f ( StarI p) = StarI $ f . p instance IndexedProfunctor ( StarI f) where ilmap f ( StarI p) = StarI $ p . f instance ( Applicative f, Pointed f) => TraversingWithIndex ( StarI f) where iwanderI f ( StarI p) = StarI $ \o -> f $ \i -> p (i, o)
instance Profunctor ( IndexedForget r i) where dimap f _ ( IndexedForget p) = IndexedForget (\i -> p i . f) instance Strong ( IndexedForget r i) where first' ( IndexedForget p) = IndexedForget (\i -> p i . fst) instance Monoid r => Choice ( IndexedForget r i) where right' ( IndexedForget p) = IndexedForget (\i -> either (const mempty) (p i)) instance Monoid r => Traversing ( IndexedForget r i) where wander f ( IndexedForget p) = IndexedForget (\i -> getConst . f ( Const . p i)) instance IndexedProfunctor ( IndexedForget r) where ilmap f ( IndexedForget p) = IndexedForget (p . f) instance Monoid r => TraversingWithIndex ( IndexedForget r) where iwanderI f ( IndexedForget p) = IndexedForget $ \o -> getConst . f (\i -> Const . p (i, o)) instance Monoid r => TraversingWithIndexC ( IndexedForget r) where iwanderC f ( IndexedForget p) = IndexedForget $ \ij -> getConst . f (\i -> Const . p (ij i))
instance Profunctor ( IndexedForgetJ r i j) where dimap f _ ( IndexedForgetJ p) = IndexedForgetJ (\i -> p i . f) instance Strong ( IndexedForgetJ r i j) where first' ( IndexedForgetJ p) = IndexedForgetJ (\i -> p i . fst) instance Monoid r => Choice ( IndexedForgetJ r i j) where right' ( IndexedForgetJ p) = IndexedForgetJ (\i -> either (const ( Right mempty)) (p i)) instance Monoid r => Traversing ( IndexedForgetJ r i j) where wander f ( IndexedForgetJ p) = IndexedForgetJ $ \i -> getE . getConst . f ( Const . E . p i) newtype E a b = E { getE :: Either a b } instance Monoid r => Monoid ( E a r) where mempty = E ( Right mempty) mappend x @ ( E ( Left _)) _ = x mappend _ x @ ( E ( Left _)) = x mappend ( E ( Right a)) ( E ( Right b)) = E ( Right (mappend a b))
Added a note about CPS version of IndexedOpticI , thanks to Tom Ellis.
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You can run this file with
stack --resolver=nightly-2017-03-01 ghci --ghci-options='-pgmL markdown-unlit' λ > : l IndexedPoptics.lhs
fetch the source from https://gist.github.com/phadej/638733a00ccf2c69bff66ad419902ff0 |
When a federal grand jury in Miami charged Sila Luis in a massive Medicare fraud in 2012, she knew she’d need a good lawyer.
In fact, she retained one of the best criminal defense firms in the United States, a law firm with a famous client list and an impressive record of victories at trial.
But prosecutors did something else. Completely apart from the pending criminal case, they filed a civil lawsuit asking a federal judge to freeze all of Ms. Luis’s assets – including funds she held that were beyond any taint of alleged criminal activity.
The prosecutors said their actions were aimed at preserving assets that the US government could recover if Luis was convicted. But the pretrial civil action also had the effect of rendering Luis incapable of paying her very effective defense lawyers.
On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court will hear oral argument to determine whether a federal forfeiture law empowers prosecutors to use this kind of tactic or whether such legal hardball violates a defendant’s constitutional right to hire and pay for counsel of her own choosing.
The question isn’t whether criminal defendants have a right to use proceeds of their alleged crimes to pay for a lawyer. The US Supreme Court has declared there is no such right.
The Luis case asks a different question: Can prosecutors freeze legitimate assets (unrelated to any criminal activity) even when such a freeze undercuts the defendant’s ability to hire her own lawyer?
Critics say the practice smacks of conflict of interest, in that the seized money is later used by the agency that seized it. Supporters respond that forfeiture can destroy criminal enterprises root and branch, and help ensure that crime doesn’t pay.
The case arises at a time of national debate over the government’s increasing use of forfeiture, not just in connection with criminal cases but also through administrative hearings and civil litigation, which have lower standards of proof.
Record $4.4 billion in seized assets
The government’s reliance on forfeiture is a somewhat recent development in the nation’s history. The concept of the government seizing someone’s personal property was generally rejected by the Founding Fathers, other than in cases of piracy.
Nonetheless, Congress authorized forfeitures in 1970 amid efforts to battle organized crime and drug trafficking groups.
Federal statutes empowered the government to seize criminal proceeds after a conviction. By the 1980s, the use of forfeiture expanded with the government also seeking to freeze crime-tainted assets pretrial, before a conviction.
Today, forfeiture is authorized in cases involving more than 200 federal offenses. In addition, most states have passed their own array of laws authorizing forfeitures.
One measure of the growth of this tactic is the size of the Justice Department’s Asset Forfeiture Fund – where assets seized by the federal government are deposited.
In 1986, when the fund started, it took in $93.7 million.
By 2006, the fund’s annual take topped $1 billion. In 2014, the fund set a record, collecting $4.4 billion in seized assets.
“In the last decade and a half there has been a sharp increase in the amount of forfeiture activity both at the federal and state level,” says Dick Carpenter, director of strategic research at the Institute for Justice.
“Today it is no exaggeration to say that civil forfeiture is exploding at the federal and the state level,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Carpenter and other critics see these developments as part of a continuing consolidation of government power. Indeed, they say, the federal government’s authority to detain, imprison, and impoverish Americans has never been greater.
“As Congress and the courts have cooperated in the vast expansion of federal asset forfeiture powers, federal prosecutors have been given tools that no one in government should have – powers which put the American people in fear not of punishment for crime, but in fear of the exercise of arbitrary power by their own government,” writes William Olson, in a friend of the court brief on behalf of the United States Justice Foundation and eight other conservative groups.
In the case before the high court, Luis and two others were charged with engaging in health-care fraud from January 2006 to June 2012 while running two home health-care companies in Miami.
In addition to allegedly paying bribes and kickbacks to recruiters and nurses, the defendants are charged with billing the Medicare program for services that were not medically necessary or that were never provided.
Investigators say the companies received $45 million in Medicare payments. An FBI agent told the lower court that much of the money had been moved overseas or disbursed, making it difficult to trace and recover all proceeds of the fraud.
Luis’s lawyer, Howard Srebnick of the Miami-based firm, Black, Srebnick, Kornspan & Stumpf, told the judge in the civil case that Luis’s companies had received $15 million in revenue from sources other than Medicare and unrelated to any alleged crime. He said those funds belong to his client and that she should be able to use a portion of that money to pay for her legal defense.
Prosecutors disagreed. They filed their civil lawsuit under a statute that they say gives federal judges discretion to order the pretrial freeze of the illicit proceeds of any health-care fraud. If some of those proceeds cannot be located, prosecutors said, the judge can order assets “of equivalent value” to be frozen as well.
Civil forfeiture and the Sixth Amendment
That’s what happened in the Luis case.
In his brief to the Supreme Court, Mr. Srebnick says the federal law does not entitle the government to freeze property to which it has no legal claim. The government is only entitled to freeze assets that it can show are tied to illicit activities, he says.
The federal statute cited by the government, Srebnick argues, is designed to provide prosecutors with a specific, and limited, tool to prevent a defendant from hiding or spending alleged criminal proceeds in the run-up to a trial.
Such a temporary restraining order can be critical in preventing funds and other assets from being hidden or moved beyond the government’s reach. But the statute doesn’t authorize the government to indefinitely freeze untainted assets that would otherwise be used to pay legal expenses in a related criminal trial, Srebnick says.
That action, he argues, would violate the Sixth Amendment right of a defendant to hire her counsel of choice. It could also violate the Fifth Amendment right to due process and a fair trial, he says.
Srebnick is urging the Supreme Court to read the forfeiture statute narrowly and thus avoid triggering potential constitutional violations.
US Solicitor General Donald Verrilli insists in his brief to the court that the only requirement necessary to freeze a person’s assets is that those assets be deemed “forfeitable.”
He urges the high court to embrace a substantially broader reading of the forfeiture statute. Mr. Verrilli argues that federal law permits prosecutors to seek a court order to freeze any assets “of equivalent value,” whenever a defendant has taken action to spend or hide assets that federal agents can directly link to a crime.
Since Luis is potentially liable for up to $45 million in restitution, and federal agents were unable to locate all $45 million, the government may reach out and restrain other of Luis’s assets “of equivalent value,” according to the solicitor general.
The Supreme Court has never addressed this specific question.
In a friend of the court brief, the American Bar Association warns that the prosecutor’s actions in the Luis case represent “a profound expansion of the government’s pretrial exercise of control over a defendant’s assets.” The brief warns of “pervasive and uniquely harmful” fallout for the criminal justice system.
“If the government can restrain pretrial a defendant’s use of untainted assets to retain counsel of choice, then the government is effectively granted the capability to deprive the accused of counsel of choice,” ABA President Paulette Brown writes in the brief.
In such a case, a defendant would be required to rely on government-funded appointed counsel.
A friend of the court brief filed on behalf of the National Association of State Legislatures and other state and local government groups urges the Supreme Court to uphold the federal government’s broad interpretation of the forfeiture statute.
“A ruling in favor of the petitioner will result in a massive unwarranted preemption of validly-enacted state laws and would create an artificial distinction in the law between directly forfeitable property and substitute assets,” Mary Massaron writes in the brief.
“A broad constitutionally-based ruling threatens to render these varied laws unconstitutional in whole or in part,” she adds.
That kind of broad ruling is exactly what conservative groups are hoping comes from the Luis case. They see in the growing array of forfeiture provisions a dire threat to American freedom.
Mr. Olson, in his friend of the court brief, argues that the government is advancing an extreme legal position that seeks to cripple the defendant’s ability to defend herself from federal charges.
“The implications of these positions in the brave new world of asset seizure and forfeiture, urged by the government, should send shivers down the backs of the justices on this court, who are tasked with guarding the rights of the people against this government’s headlong pursuit of powers typifying those of a totalitarian police state,” Olson writes.
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Critics of the government’s tactics are calling for a complete repeal of civil forfeiture actions. In addition, they say the government should eliminate its apparent conflict of interest in forfeiture by requiring that seized funds be deposited in a general fund, rather than be used to underwrite the same law-enforcement agencies that seized those funds.
The case is Luis v. US (14-419). A decision is expected by June. |
Residents along Peach Drive in Millville, N.J. found at least 80 birds dead on the ground Tuesday morning. Officials told NBC10's Ted Greenberg that they believe the birds were killed on purpose and legally by a nearby farmer. (Published Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012)
Residents in a Cumberland County community were left wondering Tuesday morning what caused dozens of birds to drop dead from the sky.
Residents along Peach Drive in Millville found at least 80 birds -- mostly red-winged blackbirds -- on the ground dead having fallen from trees and the sky.
"Crazy -- something out of a movie," said resident Michelle Cavalieri who saw the birds fall from the sky.
The birds caused a bloody mess on roadways in the residential neighborhood.
Weird News Photos: Man Shoves Snake in Pants
"They’d get up and try and fly and they were out of control so they’d crash and fall again," said resident Jim Sinclair. "It was just strange."
Animal control, public health officials and other emergency crews were on the scene later Tuesday morning collecting dead birds to try and figure out exactly what caused so many of them to die.
Cumberland County Public Information Officer Troy Ferus said Tuesday claiming that it wasn't something environmental that killed the birds but rather something they ate -- a granular pesticide put down legally by nearby Ingraldi Farms.
"Preliminary investigation gives us the impression that.. he had problems with birds," said Ferus earlier in the day. "He applied for and got a permit for a product that kills birds and that’s what it seems to have been effective at doing."
Here is the county's press release on the incident:
The Department of Health reports that Monday evening Ingraldi Farms applied a granular pesticide intended and approved to cull birds, causing an unusually high volume of dead birds in the area of Ingraldi Farms and Whitemarsh Estates in Millville. The material used; Avitrol Double Strength Corn Chops (EPA reg. # 11649-5) is approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and intended to be used for bird control for Blackbirds, Brewer's Blackbirds, Cowbirds, Grackles, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Rusty Blackbird, Starlings and Yellow-Headed Blackbirds. In the past, Ingraldi Farms has also used Avian Control (EPA reg. # 33162-1) a ready to use liquid repellent intended to be used for bird control for Geese, Gull, Pigeon, Crows, Starlings, House Sparrows, Blackbirds, Grackles and House Finches. Ingraldi Farms is licensed through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to apply pesticides on their farms and has been working with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife to alleviate the crop damage done by large flocks of birds. Remedies include auditory shock, hunting and pesticides. Ingraldi Farms has estimated a crop loss of $15,000 so far, due to the birds eating their crops. Bird specimens have been collected and are being sent to the NJ-Department of Environmental Protection Laboratory for testing.
No one at Ingraldi Farms would talk to NBC10's Ted Greenberg when he went there for comment.
Officials say the dead birds are not toxic but that any member of the public that encounters a dead bird should use gloves when picking it up and wash their hands thoroughly after handling and disposing of it in the trash.
But at one point Tuesday afternoon police did put out a call to residents that urged them to remain inside "due to an odor and the death of several birds in the area."
Recently bird kills have happened in various locations around the world -- possibly none more famous than the New Year’s Eve death of hundreds of blackbirds in Arkansas.
Fan, follow and download: Get the latest from NBC10.com anytime, anywhere. Follow NBC10 News Today on Facebook. Sign up for our morning newsletters and check out our mobile site. And, get breaking news delivered right to your mobile phone -- just text PHIBREAKING to 639710 to sign up. (Message and data rates may apply.) |
Ontarians will soon be able to buy beer in some 300 supermarkets, but the more complicated expansion of wine sales in grocery stores is going to take longer to uncork, the Star has learned. While Finance Minister Charles Sousa is unveiling the much-anticipated beer plan in his April 23 provincial budget, sources say wine drinkers will have to wait.
While the existing 268 wine outlets are protected by “grandfather” clauses, there are concerns at Queen’s Park that expanding grocery sales could lead to challenges under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). ( Chris So / Toronto Star file photo )
That’s because former TD Bank CEO Ed Clark — Premier Kathleen Wynne’s privatization czar — is taking a separate look at a wine issue clouded by international trade agreements and other challenges. In the meantime, Clark on Thursday will table his long-awaited report recommending grocery beer sales and the sell-off of chunks of Hydro One, the transmission utility that’s worth up to $16 billion. “Wine needs some time,” a senior Liberal official said Tuesday.
Article Continued Below
As first disclosed by the Star’s Martin Regg Cohn last month, Wynne’s Liberals will allow suds sale in hundreds of Ontario grocery stores, ending a quasi-monopoly enjoyed by the 448-outlet Beer Store, operated by the foreign parents of Labatt, Molson, and Sleeman. “I can assure you that change is brewing in Ontario,” Sousa quipped at Ryerson University’s Digital Media Zone on Tuesday as he revealed the budget date. The treasurer said Clark’s report on the monetizing of government assets to bankroll the Liberals’ 10-year, $29-billion public transit and transportation infrastructure plan is a key part of his fiscal blueprint. “It is such a large component of what it is that we’re going to have in our budget, I’ll release more details of that in the coming days,” said Sousa, who will be filling in his fellow ministers Wednesday at an all-day cabinet meeting at Queen’s Park. In the budget, the Liberals are to announce that licences to sell beer in about 300 supermarkets will be auctioned off with no single grocery company allowed to buy more than 25 per cent of them.
The Beer Store will continue to operate — and can serve as a distributor to supermarkets — but will have to pay Queen’s Park an annual “franchise fee” of as much as $100 million. With a $10.9-billion deficit in 2014-15 and plans to balance the books in 2017-18, the government is scrambling for new revenue streams.
Article Continued Below
At the same time, the Beer Store, which declined comment, will be expected to open more shelf space to Ontario’s 150 craft brewers. Sources say other measures to help the independent brewers — who now employee more than 1,000 workers across Ontario compared to a total of 2,600 at Labatt, Molson, and Sleeman — will be in Clark’s report. Insiders say Wynne’s government wants make it easier for Ontario craft brewers to get their beers on supermarket shelves and in bars and restaurants bypassing the Beer Store. Currently, publicans and restaurateurs are legally bound to buy most of their brews from the Beer Store at prices higher than those charged to individual consumers. Beer will also continue to be sold at the publicly owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which operates 650 stores and 212 agency shops in rural areas. The LCBO will retain a monopoly on spirits. But it will eventually face some competition on wine. Insiders confide the government is looking at “repurposing” some licences now held by the American-owned Wine Rack and the Canadian-owned Wine Shop, which have supermarket kiosks and standalone stores selling Ontario and blended foreign bulk wine. While the existing 268 wine outlets are protected by “grandfather” clauses, there are concerns at Queen’s Park that expanding grocery sales could lead to challenges under the Canada-European Union (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Further complicating matters is that vintages sold at the private stores are exempted from the LCBO’s 66.5 per cent mark-up and pay just 16.1 per cent tax on the blended wines they sell. Because they are mandated by law to charge the same prices as the LCBO that means the Wine Rack and Wine Shop make far bigger profits on the same products than the publicly owned chain. Those are among the many complications Clark will be examining in his next review.
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Ayal Bryant from Barro Vivo CR told Inhabitat because they live in a relatively hot and dry climate, where they receive about 3 months of rain and the rest of the year is pretty much dry, they wanted to build a house that would remain cool during the day without air-conditioning or fans. “So we decided to go for super adobe mainly because of its thermal properties but also because one of how it feels almost primal to live within,” she said.
The house – comprised of five full domes and four half domes – was buried nearly 20 inches below ground level to further protect it from the elements. All of the earth removed to bury the house was used with a 5 percent stabilizing cement admix for the walls. Oriented towards the Pacific Ocean to take advantage of prevailing winds, the home has two bedrooms, a large living room, three bathrooms, a kitchen, service room, walk-in closet and pantry. There is a mezzanine over the kitchen and even a balcony.
Related: Dome-shaped earth bag house keeps residents naturally cool in Colombia
“A big effort was made to use as much local and salvaged material as possible even though this meant more work in sourcing and preparing it,” Ayal said. “So all the wood used is salvaged from old houses that have been knocked down and the [remaining] sand used as part of the mix for the walls came from less than a mile away.”
The team installed a rainwater catchment system on the roof to harvest and store water, thereby mitigating reliance on the local municipal system. They also plan to build compost toilets throughout, using the material as fertilizer outside in tandem with a living machine wastewater treatment system that will be used to irrigate the garden.
About as local and low-impact as it gets, this is exactly the kind of self-sufficient home design Nader Khalili sought to provide the world. We think he would be proud.
+ Barro Vivo Costa Rica
Images via Ayal Bryant and Deborah Solís Ruiz |
MPs should continue to give internships to the children of "tennis club" friends or business contacts, a Conservative MP has claimed.
Margot James, the Tory MP for Stourbridge, who was appointed by David Cameron as the party's vice-chairman in 2005, rejected calls to restrict how work experience placements are awarded, and said children of wealthy families deserved opportunities too.
Her remarks are a direct snub to Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, who last week launched the Coalition's social mobility strategy with a demand for young people to be given internships because of "what they know", not because of "someone who's met somebody at the tennis club or the golf club", and for internships to be paid.
In a further setback for Mr Clegg, a second of his former unpaid interns claimed he was exploited during his time working for the Liberal Democrat leader.
Speaking after Mr Clegg's strategy launch, privately-educated Miss James, who stood down as Tory vice-chairman when she was elected to parliament last year, told a radio talk show: "I don't agree with stopping that route in … you know, the tennis club and business contact."
Asked if she would offer a work experience placement to the children of a "chum", Miss James, 53, said: "I certainly would be inclined to agree, because I want to give as many young people the chance to get some work experience and help build their CVs as possible, and sure, that includes sons and daughters of people I used to know in business, or old friends."
After calling the phone-in show herself, Miss James admitted her career had taken off thanks to the help of her father, a successful businessman and Conservative party donor, who "unashamedly" asked his political contacts to give his daughter unpaid work.
She was able to work for free for six months at the Tory party headquarters in the press department, before securing a job researching for Sir Anthony Durant MP, paying £10 a week.
She later worked for her father's company, Maurice James Industries, for 18 months, before setting up her own public relations business.
Miss James admitted there was "a sort of bias in the system" towards young people who did not need to earn money, but said there was danger the Government's plans could hurt young people's chance of gaining internships by "regulating it out of existence", and said the proposals would be impossible to enforce.
Instead she said she worked with Operation Black Vote and Three Faiths Forum to organise placements for students from diverse backgrounds.
Ben Lyons, co-director of campaign group Intern Aware, said: "Only a day after Nick Clegg declared war on unfair, unpaid internships, I was astonished to hear Margot James talk casually about the unpaid internships she hands out to her friends' children.
"She must realise that this disadvantages the vast majority of young people without connections or the freedom to work without pay.
"If the Government is genuine about social mobility it needs to sort its own house out. The Conservative party must put its money where its mouth is and ensure that all its internships are paid and advertised transparently."
Miss James's comments will add to the Coalition's embarrassment over the launch of its drive to improve social mobility.
On the day of his announcement, Mr Clegg was forced to admit that his father had helped to secure him a work placement at a Finnish bank after university.
Last night Kieran Mathers, a former unpaid intern at Mr Clegg's Sheffield constituency office, said he had been exploited by the MP's staff and had to work in a bar to make ends meet.
Mr Mathers, who worked from Mr Clegg for about six months in 2006, said he had got "virtually nothing" from the experience – and claimed he had been left out of pocket.
He said: "They promised to pay my bus fare – it cost me more than £100 during the time I was there – but I was never given anything back.
"It certainly never help me later on. I had ambitions to work in Parliament, but it did not come to anything."
Mr Mathers, who now works in education, said he had gone to work for Mr Clegg after complete a degree in international politics.
"I had high hopes for where it might lead but it quickly became clear that I was just the latest in a long line of unpaid interns. It was a revolving door and in the end I got nothing out of it – not even my bus fare," he said.
"I worked as every other intern did, on some basic casework, stuffing envelopes, updating databases. I helped put together Nick Clegg's website. I helped organise events."
Last week Jonny Medland, who worked unpaid for three months for Mr Clegg in 2007 when he was Lib Dem home affairs spokesman, said: "They should definitely be paying people – every party should." |
Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform experienced a major outage on Wednesday, with its service management system down for several hours, reports said earlier today. But the fix did not follow the cloud script, and the problem — identified as a leap day security certification bug — continues.
“We have started a gradual rollout of the hotfix in North Central US sub-region. As we proceed through the rollout, we will progressively enable service management back for customers. Further updates will be published to keep you apprised of the situation. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes our customers,” Microsoft said earlier today.
But the situation that was supposed to be resolved quickly, thanks to the cloud, instead got worse, according to Microsoft: “We continue to work through the issues that are blocking the restoration of service management for some customers in North Central US, South Central US and North Europe sub-regions. Further updates will be published to keep you apprised of the situation. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes our customers.” At about noon on Wednesday Pacific Time, the Azure service dashboard showed multiple outages including Access Control 2.0 in the South Central U.S. and Northern Europe, as well as SQL Azure Management Portals in at least six regions, and its service management remains down globally: |
About
Thank you all of your supporting, We will plan to relaunch soon.
Enquiry ? Contact Us: [email protected]
“AirBulb: When there is Light, there is Music”
AirBulb is featured in:
TECHSPOT: "We’ll see the traditional bulb take yet another step forward."
GearBurn: "AirBulb is an incredibly simple idea, but a genius gadget that will help streamline our lives."
▲Special thanks for all supports in above media.
##Latest Update##
AirBulb Color is Launched!!
Updated information about the AirBulb Color:
Warm white LEDs will be replaced to RGB LEDs which enable a color feature in this smart device. Three original white LEDs will be remained to producing normal white color.
AirBulb Color:
3 X White LEDs
3 X RGB LEDs
Mood Lighting enable
Disco Lighting enable
New Reward Packages:
Old Reward Packages:
What is AirBulb? AirBulb combines LED bulb and wireless speaker together at an affordable price. Integrated with Bluetooth technology, you can play music or control the lighting from your iOS or Android device.
One single unit.
No extra wires.
No extra plugs.
No AC adapters required.
No remotes to lose.
AirBulb is integrated with Bluetooth technology, every functions are just at your fingertips. You can play music and control lighting wirelessly through iOS or Android devices. It is a simple all-in-one unit, no extra docking, remote controller and AC adapter are required. AirBulb is really easy to use, you can complete the installation of this simple device within 3 steps.
1. Plug it in
2. Download Apps
3. Pair up and enjoy this smart device
Main Features:
Wireless audio transmission by Bluetooth technology
Bluetooth A2DP, AVRCP, Bluetooth 4.0 Compatible
Multiple speakers connection (up to 2 devices)
AAC Codec over Bluetooth supported
apt-X Codec over Bluetooth supported
Wireless On/Off and dimmable control by Apps (support both iOS and Android)
Different color temperature (Warm White and Cool White) controlled by Apps
Incoming call and alarm notification
Different patterns of flashing light
Relaxing natural sound
Simple & stylish design
Easy to install on a standard lamp socket (E26/E27)
Power supply AC 110-240V @ 50-60 Hz
3W Class D AMP output power
Full range acoustic driver
6 high power LEDs
Environmental friendly: No mercury or halogens
▲Our 1st engineering prototype with complete functionality
Enjoy your Freedom
AirBulb is a single device, controllable with your smartphone. Connect AirBulb with iOS / Android devices via Bluetooth, you can walk in range of up to 10 meters, sync and start streaming for superior sound quality. It connects automatically with the last used device.
No AC adapter, Just Endless Music
No cumbersome AC adapter or power supply is needed; simply screw it into your existing lamp socket and every control is under your fingertips.
▲This is our beta version Apps for functional testing only, we are now doing some improvements in the UI graphic design. All basic functions are implemented in this beta version, user can simply use the Apps in iOS/Android to control or configure the AirBulb.
▲Newer version Design
Dimmable & control:
AirBulb included two color temperature: Cool White and Warm White with different brightness levels, you can simply control it with your fingertips in the Apps.
Incoming call:
AirBulb’s notification function could alerts you of incoming calls with different patterns of flashing light, so you won’t miss your call.
Alarm mode:
Alarm and timer functions are already included in our Apps, thus you can configure the AirBulb to wake you up every morning.
Natural Sound:
A number of relaxing natural sounds are built inside our Apps, you can enjoy your relaxing environment any time, like reading or before sleeping.
Original Switch:
Don’t worry about the compatibility about your existing switches! After plugged in the AirBulb to any standard lamp socket, you can also directly use back the original switch to turn ON/OFF the AirBulb like any traditional light bulb. Meanwhile you get an advanced accessibility in parallel by just control it with your smartphone.
Applications:
AirBulb could be used in anywhere like the following:
AirBulb Installation:
Simple Setup
Installation of this simple device is very easy.No more wiring, you can start using AirBulb in 3 steps.
Screw the AirBulb to your lamp
Download the Apps
Simply pair up your device with the Airbulb in the App and enjoy!
The LED:
LED lighting considered to be the best alternative to traditional incandescent bulbs. It uses only around 1/10 of energy compared with an incandescent bulb and can rate for 40,000 hours of use. It can save you money by reducing power consumption of 80%, using 10 watts to produce light that’s bright enough to replace up to a 65 watt bulb. Unlike incandescent bulbs, LED light bulbs contain no mercury or halogen gases and thus it is much more environmental friendly.
Light comparison between a 8W CFL and a 4W LED.
Our Stretch Goal:
All basic functions are well implemented by our development team. We need your support to launch the manufacturing processes, please support us to reach our 1st stretch goal 100k. If the 2nd stretch goal 150k is reached, we will plan and implement more add-on functions into the AirBulb. Thanks your supports.
Rewards:
▼1: Our designed product: AirBulb
▼2: We all love coffee with enjoyable music together, thus we made our own coffee coaster. Let’s enjoy.
▼3: Our own designed Tee.
What we did before?
Discussed and brainstormed for the conceptual design
Defined key features and technical specs
Conducted feasibility study on the project
Identified appropriate electronics components: LED, chips, etc
Designed circuit boards, system structure, and internal communications systems
Tested and selected sensors, chips, and other electronics
Produced detail engineering drawings of the whole design
Prototyped using 3D printer, and handcrafted to fine tune the prototype
Developed the API for iOS / Android
Tested the functions of the prototype
Estimated costing: tooling cost, development and production cost, delivery cost, etc
Generated Bill-of-material (BOM) for whole product
▲AirBulb mechanical design and plastic parts in 3D models using ProE
▲AirBulb schematic design
▲Our first trial & mechanical prototype using a membrane speaker with 25pcs 0.1W LEDs. As we found that the sound quality and brightness are not really good, we change to use 6pcs 1W LEDs + 3W speaker in next version.
▲This is our 2nd trial prototype using a hand made electronic circuit board with a 3W speaker, which is larger than the membrane speaker. We also put 6pcs 1W high power LEDs inside.
▲This is the our 1st full functional prototype with a transformer and a testing PCBA inside.
▲That's our latest full functional prototype, we are doing some improvements in the dimension which could be placed a large speaker to enhance the sound quality.
▲That's our Apps design capture screen under Xcode in Mac.
▲That's our 1st version video trailer in Maya.
▲We have our 2nd full functional AirBulb now, and are waiting to place mold tools for the mass production plan.
We have spent more than 9 months on design, cost modeling, sourcing, testing and refinements of the AirBulb. We truly believe that this is an attractive and useful product and we really want to bring it to the world. Our team has extensive experience in engineering and software design, but we need your support to fund the cost of the manufacturing process. The project funds will mainly be used to develop mold tools and PCBA manufacturing of the AirBulb which is essential for mass production. We are a team of engineers who work with passion. Please kindly help us to make the AirBulb a reality!
Our Plan:
We have already completed our industrial design, developed a fully functional prototype of the AirBulb, a full functional beta version of Apps and finalized our production plan. We have worked closely with our manufacturing partners in China on various projects in the past. They can offer us difference reliable manufacturing services included PCB, SMT, injection molding, polishing, QA testing, and product assembly.
Other than the mold tooling fee, we also need to fulfill the manufacturing MOQ, thus we need to place order >1,000 units.
Now we are in the engineering prototype stage, we need your help and funds to place the mold tooling and manufacturing cost of the AirBulb plastic case, which is an essential parts in the product assembly process. We are looking forward to jump to the next step, place the mold tooling and launch the manufacturing process of this smart device.
Our production timeline will be as follows:
May 2014 – Complete all features, finalize mechanical design and place manufacturing tooling
June 2014 – Finalize all graphic design and functions for Apps
July 2014 – Confirm orders and manufacturing schedule with factory
August 2014 – Pre-Production begins
September 2014 – Production version completed
October 2014 – Early bird backer products shipment
November 2014 –Bulk product shipment
December 2014 - All incentives shipped and completed
Your Support:
We truly need your support in turning the AirBulb into reality. All pledges will be utilized for the development and manufacturing cost.
Production tooling expense
Apps optimization
Electronic design finalization
Packaging design
Manufacturing services
Meet the minimum order quantity requirement
The funds will also be used for logistics and shipping to get our product across the ocean and into your hands!
We are AvantConcept
We are formed by a team of professional and technology passionate engineers since 2008. We used to provide electronic product design and consultant service to our branded customers with our deep exposure to electronic industry. Our vision is to create our own consumer product that achieving an innovative and user-friendly design based on user’s experience.
All our engineer have over 8 years experience in product design and development. Our team consists of electronics, hardware, software, and mechanical engineers. We also have strong network and close relationship with semi-conductor vendors who could offer us the best sourcing channels, cost-competitive components and delivery time to achieve our production planning.
Stephen Lee (Core Creator, Software & App Creator) He designed hardware and electronic, developed firmware for Airbulb. He also helped on PR and keeps connection with vendors and manufacturers. He just makes things work.
YW Nok (Creative Director, Hardware Developer), an electronic engineer worked over 8 year in product design industry. He worked for the whole product design, graphics and promotional materials. He also helped on electronic design and marketing. He loves to make things beautiful.
Jeremy Sim (CFO), he keeps the budgets and only care about money, we needed his supports in any planing.
SC Wai (Software Engineer), he is a programming robot, with over 9 years experience in many systems and programming languages. He loves to sleep with his computer.
Thomas Davis (Mechanical Talent), a mechanical engineer. He prepared the mechanical drawings and BOM, sourcing, and able to solve quality issues when necessary.
Eric Zhao (Marketing Expert), an industrial engineer. He is responsible for the marketing and PR. He also makes sure the mass production and logistics arrangement go smoothly. |
Jersey City has finalized plans for this year's Fourth of July Freedom and Fireworks Festival at Liberty State Park, which will help support the New Jersey Special Olympics.
The festival will run from noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday, July 4, as attendees will be able to enjoy live music, food truck vendors, carnival rides for the children -- and of course, fireworks.
Last year's event attracted approximately 60,000 people and was the largest held in New Jersey, Mayor Steve Fulop said.
The city has once again partnered with Grucci for the fireworks display this year. Grucci currently holds the Guinness Book of World Record titles for the largest firework display.
Most of last year's festival was paid for through private donations. This year's event will help send local Special Olympics athletes to the Los Angeles World Games, Fulop said. |
“
(c) Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation that contains any quantity of the following hallucinogenic substances or that contains any of their salts, isomers, including optical, positional, or geometric isomers, homologues, nitrogen-heterocyclic analogs, esters, ethers, and salts of isomers, homologues, nitrogen-heterocyclic analogs, esters, or ethers, if the existence of such salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation or class description: ... 130. HU-211 ((6aS,10aS)-9-(Hydroxymethyl)-6,6-dimethyl-3-(2-methyloctan-2-yl)-6a,7,10,10a-tetrahydrobenzo[c]chromen-1-ol). ... 190. Synthetic Cannabinoids.—Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule or contained within a pharmaceutical product approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation that contains any quantity of a synthetic cannabinoid found to be in any of the following chemical class descriptions, or homologues, nitrogen-heterocyclic analogs, isomers (including optical, positional, or geometric), esters, ethers, salts, and salts of homologues, nitrogen-heterocyclic analogs, isomers, esters, or ethers, whenever the existence of such homologues, nitrogen-heterocyclic analogs, isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and salts of isomers, esters, or ethers is possible within the specific chemical class or designation. Since nomenclature of these synthetically produced cannabinoids is not internationally standardized and may continually evolve, these structures or the compounds of these structures shall be included under this subparagraph, regardless of their specific numerical designation of atomic positions covered, if it can be determined through a recognized method of scientific testing or analysis that the substance contains properties that fit within one or more of the following categories: a. Tetrahydrocannabinols.—Any tetrahydrocannabinols naturally contained in a plant of the genus Cannabis, the synthetic equivalents of the substances contained in the plant or in the resinous extracts of the genus Cannabis, or synthetic substances, derivatives, and their isomers with similar chemical structure and pharmacological activity, including, but not limited to, Delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinols and their optical isomers, Delta 8 tetrahydrocannabinols and their optical isomers, Delta 6a,10a tetrahydrocannabinols and their optical isomers, or any compound containing a tetrahydrobenzo[c]chromene structure with substitution at either or both the 3-position or 9-position, with or without substitution at the 1-position with hydroxyl or alkoxy groups, including, but not limited to: ... (III) HU-211 ((6aS,10aS)-9-(Hydroxymethyl)-6,6-dimethyl-3-(2-methyloctan-2-yl)-6a,7,10,10a-tetrahydrobenzo[c]chromen-1-ol).
” |
George Osborne's drastic deficit-cutting programme will have sucked £76bn more out of the economy than he expected by 2015, according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund of the price of austerity.
Christine Lagarde, the IMF's managing director, last week caused consternation among governments that have embarked on controversial spending cuts by arguing that the impact on economic growth may be greater than previously thought.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility implicitly used a "fiscal multiplier" of 0.5 to estimate the impact of the coalition's tax rises and spending cuts on the economy. That meant each pound of cuts was expected to reduce economic output by 50p. However, after examining the records of many countries that have embraced austerity since the financial crisis, the IMF reckons the true multiplier is 0.9-1.7.
Calculations made for the Observer by the TUC reveal that if the real multiplier is 1.3 – the middle of the IMF's range – the OBR has underestimated the impact of the cuts by a cumulative £76bn, more than 8% of GDP, over five years. Instead of shaving less than 1% off economic growth during this financial year, austerity has depressed it by more than 2%, helping to explain why the economy has plunged into a double-dip recession.
Labour seized on the IMF's intervention as a vindication of shadow chancellor Ed Balls's argument that the cuts programme is self-defeating. "The IMF's analysis should be a wake-up call for David Cameron and George Osborne," said the shadow chief secretary to the treasury, Rachel Reeves. "It's time the prime minister and the chancellor listened to the evidence, accepted their plan isn't working and changed course."
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The chancellor has repeatedly used the IMF as cover for his austerity strategy, despite warnings that deep spending cuts in the midst of a global turndown would make a bad situation worse. Now that the IMF has admitted spending cuts could hit the economy at least twice as hard as it previously thought, the government has all the evidence it needs to change course."
Neal Lawson, director of left-wing pressure group Compass, said, "the cuts were never going to work, but these calculations show the effect is bigger than anyone judged. The economy isn't suffering from government borrowing but a severe lack of demand that only the government can fix."
Osborne told reporters in Tokyo that the IMF does not allow for the boost provided to growth by the Bank of England's £375bn of quantitative easing. "The point I would make about their study of the fiscal multipliers is that they explicitly say they were not taking into account offsetting monetary policy action. In the UK, I would argue we have a tough and credible fiscal policy to allow for loose and accommodative monetary policy and I think that is the right combination."
But many economists believe the dent in growth caused by austerity policies may be larger than first thought, because the financial crisis has left banks starving firms and households of credit; and with many countries cutting back simultaneously, it is harder to fill the gap created by cuts with demand for exports.
Former monetary policy committee member Danny Blanchflower said: "In a way, the surprise is that it's taken everybody so long to work it out: Keynes knew it in the 1930s. This is the 'long, dragging conditions of semi-slump', and the multipliers are likely to be larger when you've got banks that aren't lending and you're coming out of the longest recession in 100 years."
Adair Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, said that the Treasury should have pumped even more into Britain's banks during the credit crisis to leave them in a stronger state. "The recovery from recession has been far slower than most commentators and all official forecasts anticipated in 2009," he said. "That reflects our failure to understand just how powerful are the deflationary effects created by deleveraging in the aftermath of financial crises."
The OBR, set by Osborne to give an independent assessment of the economy, will publish a report on Tuesday explaining why it has consistently overestimated economic growth, and is expected to touch on the issue of whether the cuts are taking a greater-than-predicted toll. At its last forecast, in March, it predicted 0.8% growth this year; the IMF now expects the final figure to be -0.4%.
• This article was amended on Sunday 14 October to add the word "implicitly" to clarify how the Office for Budget Responsibility used a "fiscal multiplier" to estimate the impact of the coalition's tax rises and spending cuts. |
Fictive motion is the metaphorical motion of an object or abstraction through space.[1][2][3] Fictive motion has become a subject of study in psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics. In fictive motion sentences, a motion verb applies to a subject that is not literally capable of movement in the physical world, as in the sentence, "The fence runs along the perimeter of the house." Fictive motion is so called because it is attributed to material states, objects, or abstract concepts, that cannot (sensibly) be said to move themselves through physical space. Fictive motion sentences are pervasive in English and other languages.
History [ edit ]
Cognitive linguist Leonard Talmy discussed many of the spatial and linguistic properties of fictive motion in a book chapter called "Fictive motion in language and 'ception'" (Talmy 1996). He provided further insights in his seminal book, Toward a Cognitive Semantics Vol. 1, in 2000. Talmy began analyzing the semantics of fictive motion in the late 1970s and early 1980s but used the term "virtual motion" at that time (e.g. Talmy 1983).
Fictive motion has since been investigated by cognitive scientists interested in whether and how it evokes dynamic imagery. Methods of investigation have included reading tasks,[4] eye-tracking tasks[4][5] and drawing tasks.[6]
Influence on perception of time [ edit ]
A recent avenue of research has focused on fictive motion's influence on perceptions of time. People often speak about time in terms of motion. English speakers may describe themselves as moving through time toward or past events with statements such as "we're entering the holidays" or "we slipped past the due date." They may also talk about events as moving toward or past themselves with statements such as "tough times are approaching us" or "summer vacation has passed".[7][8] Broadly speaking, metaphorical talk about time borrows from two different perspectives for conceptualizing motion. In the ego-moving metaphor, one progresses along a timeline toward the future, while in the time-moving metaphor, a timeline is conceived as a conveyor belt upon which events move from the future to the past like packages.[9][10] (e.g. Lakoff 1987).
It appears that not only does thinking about actual motion influence people's judgments about time, but thinking about fictive motion has the same effect,[11][12] suggesting that thinking about one abstract domain may influence people's understanding of another. This raises the question of whether the influence of fictive motion on people's understanding of time is rooted in a concrete, embodied conception of motion, such that both time and fictive motion are ultimately understood in terms of simulations of concrete experience,[13] or whether the effects of fictive motion are a product of the way that language influences thought.[14]
References [ edit ] |
MEMPHIS, December 23, 2013 – To honor Memphis Grizzlies’ forward Zach Randolph for all his charitable efforts in the Memphis community, Mayor A C Wharton, will declare Friday, Dec. 27 “Zach Randolph Day” in Memphis. Randolph will be on-hand to accept the proclamation and to host “Zach Randolph Day” benefiting Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital at Walmart Neighborhood Market (2856 Hickory Hill Ext., Memphis 38115) at 4 p.m. Media is invited to attend.
Leading up to the big day, customers at this location will have the chance to make a monetary donation to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital for a chance to win an autographed item by Randolph. On Friday, Mayor Wharton will tip-off the program with the official proclamation to Randolph at 4 p.m. Randolph will then have a meet and greet with a class from Balmoral Ridgeway Elementary School. The class was chosen through a fundraising contest the school recently held to raise money for the children’s hospital.
Fans who want to support the Memphis Grizzlies and purchase 2013-14 Season Tickets or 5-Game Packs can do so by calling (901) 888-HOOP or going online to grizzlies.com. Season Tickets start at $11 per game. For more information on the Grizzlies, please visit grizzlies.com, ‘like’ Memphis Grizzlies on Facebook or follow on Twitter (@memgrizz). |
A five-year-old boy was beheaded at a tea garden in Assam's Sonitpur district on Wednesday evening.The accused, a man in his mid-30s named Nanu Mirdha, allegedly lured the child to his house in the Tarajuli Tea Estate in Ramapara area of Sonitpur, and beheaded him.When locals found about the incident, they dragged him out of his house and lynched him, the police said.Police suspect that the beheading could be a case of child sacrifice as idols of gods and goddesses and other religious material were recovered from the place where the boy's body was found. Locals allege that the accused is a tantrik.However, police also said that the accused had a running dispute with the father of the child. The two men stayed just three to four houses away. On Wednesday, the accused allegedly picked up a quarrel with the father of the child and the argument reportedly went on for many hours. Later in the evening, he allegedly dragged the boy into his house and hacked him to death with a machete and also beheaded him. Police are yet to make any arrests and say they are trying to ascertain the identities of those who were involved in the lynching of the accused. |
Orlando City has cleared room on its depth chart for newly-signed centerback David Mateos.
The Lions have waived centerback Sean St. Ledger, a source told the Orlando Sentinel on Friday.
The club officially announced the move on Saturday morning, saying it had placed St. Ledger on waivers "for a serious breach of club policy."
St. Ledger, 30, has played in 15 games for Orlando City this season, starting 14. The Ireland national team defender has started the last five league games for the Lions.
The move opens up an international spot on Orlando City's roster. St. Ledger, who signed with the team on March 5, was making a salary of $124,992. It is not immediately clear how the move impacts Orlando City's salary cap.
The Lions now have seven defenders on their roster, not including Brek Shea, who has most recently lined up at left midfield. Centerbacks Tommy Redding and Conor Donovan have recently been loaned out to Wilmington and Pittsburgh, respectively, in the USL.
Email at [email protected]. For more soccer news, visit OrlandoSentinel.com/OnThePitch or follow on Twitter @oslions. |
Unfortunately, we probably aren't talking this "super" — though maybe this technology could remove Superman's kryptonite vulnerability (but only if his DNA worked like that of Earth organisms). Warner Bros.
One of the leading genetics researchers in the world, George Church, thinks we're not far from being able to use a new gene editing technology— called the "biggest biotech discovery of the century" by the MIT Tech Review— to give ourselves powerful versions of genes that will keep us healthy and strong well into old age.
Think about it — who wouldn't want gene variants that made bones extra strong, prevented bad body odor, and made Alzheimer's and cancer incredibly unlikely?
In an interview with the scientist Paul Knoepfler, Church refers to such "rare protective variants of large impact," which exist naturally — but only in a few people. The new gene editing technology, CRISPR, could theoretically go into your genetic code and replace less beneficial genes with new ones.This technology is still far from perfect now: it has a fairly inaccurate find-and-replace genetic code function at the moment, working only about 20% of time.
Still, CRISPR is a new discovery and scientists are advancing our ability to use it every day. Researchers are expected to publish more than 1,100 papers on CRISPR just this year.
Here are some of the particularly useful genes that Church thinks we might want implanted into our own genetic code.
1. A variant that codes for extra-strong bones (LRP5 G171V/+). 2. A variant that codes for lean muscles (MSTN). 3. A variant that makes people less sensitive to pain— something that could be dangerous, as pain can be a useful warning signal, but may be helpful in some contexts (SCN9A). 4. A variant that's associated with low odor production (ABCC11). 5. A variant that makes people more resistant to viruses (CCR5, FUT2). 6. A variant that's connected to a low risk of coronary disease (PCSK9). 7. A variant that's associated with a low risk of Alzheimer's disease (APP A673T/+). 8. A variant that's associated with a low cancer risk (GHR, GH). 9. A variant that's associated with a low risk of type 2 diabetes (SLC30A8). 10. A variant that's associated with a low risk of type 1 diabetes (IFIH1 E627X/+).
This era of selectively editing our genomes isn't here yet, but it's something that could have huge health implications — allowing people to live longer lives of better quality. |
Updated at 2:46 p.m.
Former senator Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) has changed his mind and plans to run for the open Senate seat in Nebraska, according to a senior Democratic aide.
The aide said Kerrey has called Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to inform him of his plans.
Kerrey announced earlier this month that he decided against attempting a return to the Senate, citing his family.
Kerrey’s former campaign manager, Paul Johnson, confirmed to The Fix that Kerrey is reconsidering his previous decision, but stopped short of saying it was a done deal.
“I know he is reconsidering, but I don’t think he has made a final decision,” Johnson said.
Kerrey’s return would give Democrats new hope in a race that would likely be lost if he doesn’t run. The Democratic bench in Nebraska is very thin behind retiring Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Kerrey.
Kerrey, of course, will have to overcome charges of carpetbagging. Despite being a former governor and senator from Nebraska, he moved to New York after retiring from the Senate in 2001 and even flirted with running for mayor of New York City.
The filing deadline in Nebraska is this week.
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Do your patients ask you a lot of strange questions? Since I’ve begun doing fecal transplants (FMT), here are some of the typical questions I’ve been getting:
• “Is the FMT donor fat?”
• “Was the FMT donor breastfed?”
• “I have two great FMT donors and don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. Could you mix their stools?”
• “How do you extract the stool from the FMT donor?”
• “What if it doesn’t agree with my own poop?”
Today, FMT has one approved use: the treatment of recurrent Clostridium Difficile colitis. For that use, the success rates are extremely high. Of all the things we prescribe as doctors, this is one we can feel unambiguously proud of. It’s fast, effective, and inexpensive. This is no small matter: about 30,000 Americans die every year of Clostridium Difficile . Millions of dollars are spent treating this infection, which can be devastating. One can administer FMT though the upper GI tract or directly into the colon. Since Clostridium Difficile colitis affects the colon, today most gastroenterologists administer it via colonoscopy.
As a result of this success, now some patients will try anything to convince you that they need a fecal transplant to cure a whole host of maladies. Others will refuse one even when they have been debilitated by years of infectious colitis and multiple hospital admissions.
But will there be other clinical uses for fecal transplant?
To do justice to this question, it is important first to consider the topic of the microbiome. Recently, FMT has inspired the medical community to look at this “newly discovered organ” we had been ignoring for so long. The “organ” is our microbiota: an enormous number of cells living in an organized dynamic ecosystem and playing so many roles in virtually every aspect of our health and disease. Our gut microbes interact with each other and with us, the host. We have coevolved and developed a mutually beneficial relationship: we provide them with food and shelter and they help with our nutrition, our ability to fight infections, our metabolism, and even our neurologic development. Their study is particularly fascinating because it brings together medicine, ecology, and evolution.
To better understand the microbiota, we have used several tools that have allowed us to gather an enormous amount of information: more information than we can actually interpret. In a sense one could say that technology is ahead of science. Today, for example, we have the ability to sequence the genetic material of the organisms that live in the gut instead of culturing them.
We have observed that the microbiota of patients with IBS, IBD, metabolic syndrome, obesity, autoimmune diseases, and even autism is different from the “normal” microbiome, but association and causation are of course two different things.
Moreover, it has become clear that in order to understand the effects of the microbiota, we need to not only identify these microorganisms, but also measure the products of their metabolism. The mere presence of a particular microbe or a group of microbes may not be as important as what they are doing.
FMT has also helped to advance our understanding of the microbiome and its role: If for example a disease or a trait can be transmitted though FMT, that could support at least some role of the microbiota in causing that disease or trait.
But studying the effects of stool transplant is a lot more complicated than studying the effects of a regular drug. Even though stool (when used for FMT) is now considered a drug, there are many unknowns: dose, ideal route of administration, mechanism of action, etc. Also, each individual person’s stool is different, like a fingerprint. And it may therefore interact in a unique way with the recipient’s microbiota.
A few months ago we started to enroll patients in a multicenter study with doctors at Montefiore, Yale, and Concorde Medical Group to investigate the possible use of FMT in IBS-D (diarrhea predominant IBS).
IBS-D, especially when it is moderate to severe, can be a debilitating disease and very frustrating to treat. Most patients have typically tried conventional therapies like special diets, probiotics, antidiarrheals, antispasmodics, and sometimes antibiotics like rifaximin, which was recently approved for this use.
Why are there currently so many different conventional therapies prescribed for IBS? Likely this is because the pathogenesis of IBS is so little understood. Visceral hypersensitivity, low-grade inflammation, and dysbiosis have been thought to play a role. Regarding dysbiosis, we know that there is an abnormal microbiota: the numbers of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria, for example, are lower in patients who suffer from IBS than in those who don’t. Also their microbiota seems to be less diverse. Replacing “good bacteria” is the idea behind the use of probiotics, which seem to help some patients. But why are they not sufficient to cure IBS in most patients? The answer is not clear today. Perhaps the numbers of bacteria that survive the passage through the GI tract are not sufficient. Or maybe in order to change that whole ecosystem that is our microbiota in a permanent way, one has to modify it more radically instead of just adding a few specific strains of bacteria.
Despite the unanswered questions about IBS-D, we hypothesize that IBS-D is a condition that occurs secondary to an altered microbiota in the small bowel. Therefore, instead of administering the FMT via colonoscopy as we would do for recurrent Clostridium Difficile colitis, we are using “poop capsules.” It’s a 6-month, randomized, placebo-controlled trial and at 3 months there is a crossover so by the end of the study 100% of the patients will have received the active drug.
As doctors and investigators, we are eager to help our patients with this very debilitating disease. In the process, we also hope to learn more about the microbiota, its effects on our health, and how this new knowledge will lead to exciting new therapies.
To learn more about this trial, go to clinicaltrials.gov
Caterina Oneto, M.D. (@caterina_oneto) | Twitter
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This week, we are featuring Team 11871 Voltron. This is Toms River High School South‘s program that was funded through the Elevate Toms River Principals’ Innovation Challenge!
BY: JAMES RICOTTA, JR.
PRINCIPAL
TOMS RIVER HIGH SCHOOL SOUTH
and
KEITH CHAPMAN
CHEMISTRY/SCIENCE DEPARTMENT/ROBOTICS COACH
TOMS RIVER HIGH SCHOOL SOUTH
Our robotics team would like to thank Grunin Foundation for supporting the Toms River High School South Robotics Team- Team 11871 Voltron. This was Toms River South’s first year at robotics. Approximately 15 students and our coaches, Keith Chapman and Jessica Pielech built our team from scratch. When students first joined some were concerned over the lack of experience but they were all very curious, interested and eager to learn. We advised the group that anyone could join and they didn’t need experience, they just had to show interest!
The students progressed from an inexperienced group, to a competitive FTC robotics team. Over the past few months we competed at two FTC competitions and scrimmages. Recently we attended an expo at the Monmouth Mall to showcase and promote the robotics field. Students competed with other teams and talked to the public about robotics and allowed the public, especially children, to drive our robot. Our team had such a wonderful time at the Monmouth Mall expo, as they were able to interact with the public and talk to elementary age students about robotics. The Monmouth Mall Expo was a great experience as it allowed children of various age groups an opportunity to experience high school robotics. Our students also participated in the Toms River South’s Maker Day event at our media center and had a scrimmage with our other high schools, Toms River High Schools North and East. The team is planning on attending one more FTC scrimmage on May 20th at the Chatham High School.
The program has been very successful for many reasons. Our program grew dramatically. The number of students increased and we obtained more equipment and electronics for the robot. Most importantly, students were learning valuable life skills. Through our meetings and competitions, students learned how to manage a team, coordinate and assign roles, and learned to collaborate ideas. The students also learned how to build, program and compete with other schools who had far more experience.
The team is looking forward to next year and already thinking and planning ahead. The students are thinking about how to make our robot, Voltron, better, stronger and more advanced. We look forward to continued success with our team!
To get a sneak peak of all projects, click here! |
News
MegaGlest 3.11.0 released
22 Jan 2015
v3.11.0
- healthbars with a lot of options
- multi shot / multi-projectiles with different timings,sounds and particle systems
- several camera shake effects
- new tileset "pine rock"
- some new maps
- improve switching settings when connected to a headless server
- support for team unit sharing
- team resource sharing
- tags feature
- Attack boosts fixed in many ways
- Attack boosts and upgrades now support upgrading attack speed
- timed particles and mesh bound particles really work now.
- unit height independend particle positioning ( flat-particle-positions )
- CPU players multiplier are displayed in debug view
- You can have non commandable units
- Units spawned by an attack skill can get an attack command
- Unit and Splash particles can be speeded up ( accelerated )
- Looting https://github.com/MegaGlest/megaglest-source/pull/17
- HP and EP starting values
- <target-height> <burn-height> can be given https://docs.megaglest.org/XML/Unit#target-height
- +several bugfixes
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UPDATE 2017 – This extension is now out of commission as it was only temporary until the Booth Street Bridge was completed. Unfortunately the Booth Strret Bridge has awful bike infrastructure. Promises have been made to improve them.
Preston Street has been extended between Albert Street and the Sir John A Macdonald (SJAM) Parkway. That’s because Booth Street north of Albert will be closed for two years while they build the Light Rail Transit. The new extension of Preston includes a multi-use path which will provide winter bike access to the Canadian War Museum. This is an improvement as the section of Booth it is replacing was treacherous to ride along even in the best of snowless conditions. Because this shared pathway also provides pedestrian access to bus stops along it’s length, I am confident it will be cleared all winter (to be confirmed after the next big snowfall). Today I went and tried it out. Blue line is my ride there, orange line is the way I should have gone to get to the start of the extension, and purple line is the way I rode back to access the Laurier Bike Lane.
I approached from the south along Preston starting at Primrose Avenue. I chose Preston because Albert is very dangerous to cross or ride along and there are traffic lights where Preston and Albert intersect. Preston has always been a busy street and promises to become more so now that it is a main north/south artery towards the Chaudière Bridge over to Gatineau. Apart from the new extension, there are no bike lanes along the length of Preston, which in the winter becomes even narrower with the snow, so I took to the sidewalk for the block between Primrose and Albert. In retrospect I should have taken the cleared O-train path under Albert and accessed the sidewalk on the north side of Albert, as suggested by the orange line on the above map. There’s a short section of sidewalk to follow heading east before it joins the path that runs along the north side of Albert.
Getting across the SJAM Parkway intersection to the museum first requires crossing to the west side of Preston. The SJAM consists of multiple lanes of speeding traffic, and Preston has a large merging turn on to SJAM. This creates the type of intersection where drivers anxiously rush the light as they transition from one busy street to the other. I had to make eye contact with a driver before he halted suddenly and let me cross, even though there are multiple no-right-on-red signs.
Once arrived safely on the other side of SJAM I rode along the quiet service road to the entrance to the museum.
On my return trip, after taking the new path back to Preston and Albert, I continued east along the path on the north side of Albert. It ends at the corner of Commissioners St and Albert. Plans are afoot to introduce multi-use path links between Albert and the Laurier Bike Lane, as described here. Until such time the best way to get to the Laurier Bike Lane is to push your bike up the side walk on the west side of Bronson. Unless traffic is very light, I suggest taking to the sidewalk not only because it’s a steep little hill up to Laurier, but cars really roar around the corner and up the hill, often clipping the edge of the sidewalk at the corner of Slater and Bronson.
Et voila!
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Boise State University’s Bronco Stadium in Boise, Idaho. (Photo by Boise State University/Getty Images)
At Boise State University in Idaho, a campus organization — just one of many at the 22,000-student school — wanted to have its voice heard. At two events last year — one called “Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust” and another called “What Has Roe Done for Us?” — the pro-life Abolitionists4Life sought to display imagery of abortions. This was in line with their mission: to end it.
“We seek to raise awareness to our generation through equipping students to become abortion abolitionists who will courageously bring to light the suppressed issue of abortion in our society today,” the group’s Web site reads.
The university didn’t like the idea. In fact, an administrator insisted the group display warning signs about the imagery, as was supposed to be done at any campus event involving “controversial issues, specifically graphic pictures” — as Abolitionists4Life’s subsequent lawsuit against the school, claiming free speech violations, claimed.
Now, the university has settled with Abolitions4Life, paying the group $20,000 — $100 for damages and the rest for legal fees, as the Idaho Statesman reported.
“Pro-life students should not be discriminated against or censored because university officials do not agree with their viewpoints,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, which works with Abolitionists4Life, said in a statement. “Pro-life students have every right to host events on campus as do any other student. Universities are supposed to be beacons of free speech and tolerance, not discriminatory havens of censorship where the only views tolerated are those of liberal administrators.”
Indeed, as Reuters reported, the university had allowed other controversial events to go forward without warning signs, including a rally where Planned Parenthood distributed condoms and a secular student group’s distribution of flyers that read: “Does God exist?”
“Defendants also regularly permit fraternities, sororities, and off-campus organizations to distribute flyers in the open spaces of the campus discussing events, activities, and job opportunities,” the lawsuit read. “… Defendants did not require the foregoing groups to place warning signs around their expressive activities.”
Going forward, administrators said that no warning signs will be required at protests.
“Universities cannot function as marketplaces of ideas if free speech requires a warning sign or is otherwise severely limited on campus,” David Hacker, an attorney for the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom and counsel for Abolitionists4Life, said. |
Bam! Check this shit out. I got an 8-bit Jack O'Lantern. Back opens up, toss some AAA's inside and oooOOOOooooo SHIT LIGHTS UP! It flickers like a candle, if it had a candle in it, BUT IT DOESN'T. Can you believe that? This is the FUTURE OF HALLOWEEN, and it was SENT TO ME! You can order one too at: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/e9fd/ but it doesn't count, because it wasn't sent to you. Oh, and you aren't me. I bet you wish you were though (I'm pretty hot.)
Also included: Two Eviltrons. For the uninitiated, the Eviltron emits a scary noise and is small enough to hide some place to annoy someone. It even has a magnet to aid in hiding, or with the destruction of electronic devices. You could make someone think they were haunted by monitor degaussing ghosts. They'd probably believe it too. Even scarier, I tested all the sounds, found the 'Children Giggling' sound to be most satisfactory. After letting it go for a bit, I replaced the battery stop tag, but it kept making noise. The haunted noise producing Eviltron is possessed by haunt noise producing ghosts. They disregarded the whole concept of 'This needs batteries to work' and kept it going. Awesome. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/c427/?srp=1 |
A combination of circumstances has increased the risk that armed conflict will break out between the United States and Iran. Such a war is no certainty, but the chance that one will occur is greater today than it has been in years. Some of the relevant circumstances, such as the first two mentioned below, have been around in some form for a substantial amount of time, while others are more recent.
Anti-Iranism in American discourse . The vocabulary has become so repetitive and widely used that it rolls off tongues automatically: Iran is a “theocratic autocracy” and the “largest state sponsor of terrorism” that engages in “nefarious,” “malign” and “destabilizing” behavior as part of its “drive for regional hegemony,” etc. The verbiage has become a substitute for thought and for any careful examination of exactly what Iran is and is not doing and how it does and does not affect U.S. interests. Such a commonly accepted mantra means that anyone making a focused attempt to stir up trouble with Iran starts with a built-in advantage in mustering public and political support.
The lobby pushing hostility against Iran . There indeed have been, and still are, focused attempts to stir up trouble. Politically potent interests have their own narrow reasons to keep U.S.-Iranian relations bad and to keep Iran isolated. Foremost among those interests is the right-wing government of Israel, for which Iran as chief bête noire serves to cripple a competitor for regional influence, to explain all regional trouble in terms that do not relate to Israel, to distract attention from matters (especially the occupation of Palestinian territory) the Israeli government would rather not discuss, and to keep the United States wedded to Israel as supposedly its only reliable regional partner. Given the obvious impact of the Israeli government’s preferences on American politics, this factor weighs greatly on the current administration’s policies toward Iran. Donald Trump has tilted heavily to those Israeli preferences, as reflected in his appointments and in his rhetoric since midway through the presidential campaign. Trump still aspires to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, which would require sharp breaks with the Netanyahu government’s current course. But that might make aggressiveness and confrontation with Iran seem all the more necessary, as a form of compensation to Netanyahu while pressing him for concessions toward the Palestinians.
Anti-Obamaism and the nuclear agreement . The preceding factor was one of two major reasons for opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the multilateral agreement that severely restricts Iran’s nuclear program and closes any possible path to a nuclear weapon. The other major, and very partisan, reason was that the accord was probably Barack Obama’s biggest single achievement in foreign policy. Trump, who scathingly denounced the accord during the campaign and whose administration only grudgingly acknowledges that Iran is complying with its obligations under the agreement, still shows a strong inclination to do the opposite of whatever Obama did. Now that the Republican effort to undo Obama’s signature domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act, has run aground on the realities of health care, the urge may be stronger than ever to undo Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement. If it can be undone not through direct U.S. renunciation but as a casualty of some other confrontation with Iran, then so much the better from Trump’s point of view.
Weak voices of restraint in the administration . There are press reports of debate within the Trump administration on aspects of policy toward Iran, and real debate is much better than policy made through wee-hours tweets. But it is doubtful whether the sober reasons why armed conflict with Iran would be folly are getting adequate attention. This is not only a matter of the dominance of non-sober voices, such as that of self-declared Leninist destroyer-of-worlds Stephen Bannon, who demonstrated his clout with Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement. The problem also is that visceral anti-Iranism infects even some of those looked to as adults in the room, most notably Secretary of Defense James Mattis .
Respectability given to regime change . Another of the adults, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, recently told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that regime change is part of U.S. policy on Iran. This comment resurrects a malevolent concept that amply deserves a place on the trash heap of U.S. foreign policy history, especially given the disastrous results under the previous two administrations of regime change in Iraq and Libya. The concept is no more suitable to Iran, where there is not some political movement in our own image that is just waiting to be freed from the yoke of theocratic autocrats through a new revolution. Those with other reasons for promoting hostility toward Iran also have been promoting the regime change idea. The Sheldon Adelson-funded Foundation for Defense of Democracies, for example, shortly after the inauguration was pushing a paper at the National Security Council centered on regime change. The specific notion usually being pushed is that forms of subversion short of armed conflict would do the job, but the fantasy outcome of a new and attractive regime in Tehran can easily become an objective of military operations initiated, or ostensibly initiated, for other reasons. Meanwhile, the rhetoric of regime change adds to tension and distrust between Tehran and Washington that make destabilizing incidents increasingly likely.
Mission creep in Syria . The crushing of the so-called Islamic State’s caliphate is close enough to completion that the difficult and deferred question of what becomes of the Syrian territory that had been part of the caliphate now must be faced directly. Much commentary on this question in the United States is advocating what amounts to a significant expansion of U.S. objectives in Syria by confronting the Damascus regime and its Russian and Iranian backers. U.S. actions on the ground and in the air already have moved in this direction. Incidents have included shooting down Iranian drones and a manned Syrian aircraft, as well as U.S. attacks on what were described as “Iranian-supported” militias. It is remarkable how much the mission in Syria already has creeped and evolved. As Josh Wood puts it, “Over the course of his short tenure, Mr. Trump and his administration went from talking about potentially partnering with Damascus and Moscow against [Islamic State], to appearing absolutely disinterested in the civil war, to bombing Syrian government targets.” The evolution of objectives in the next five months could be just as rapid as in the last five. Given Iran’s significant role in Syria, and the expanding U.S. role there, Syria is one of the places most likely to spark direct warfare between the United States and Iran.
Displacement from Russia . Incidents with the Syrian regime’s other major backer, Russia, certainly are worth worrying about along with incidents involving Iran. But some of the very reasons for special worry about direct armed conflict with Russia—a nuclear-armed ex-superpower—are also reasons to expect special restraint, along lines similar to what the United States and the USSR displayed throughout the Cold War. Moreover, under the Trump administration Russia does not play the sort of automatic, take-for-granted-as-an-adversary role that Iran plays. We have yet to fathom the full reasons for Trump’s more qualified and even benign posture toward Russia, but there clearly are such reasons. If the administration needs to strike at one of the beasts involved in the Syrian war, that beast will be Iran, even though Russian support probably has been at least as important as Iranian support in shoring up the Assad regime.
Delegation to the military . Trump’s practice of delegating to the Pentagon major decisions, even of a more strategic than tactical nature, involving deployment or use of military forces could in some circumstances be an encouragement of restraint, given the disinclination of experienced military officers to be thrust into new conflicts in which the United States is not already involved. But the United States is already involved in places such as Syria and the Persian Gulf where confrontation with the Iranians is possible, and with such involvement the military bias is in the direction of doing more rather than doing less. The bias is toward being more aggressive to accomplish presumed objectives and especially to protect American forces. At least one U.S. attack so far in Syria has been justified in terms of protection of U.S. forces. Military decisions taken for military reasons may spark an expanded conflict. |
Photo for representation only. Photo for representation only.
The Narendra Modi-led BJP victory in the Lok Sabha elections will help India's profile in the corporate sector.
Ratings agency Moody's, in a report released on credit outlook on Monday, said the new government's strong mandate, which shows an overwhelming majority of 334 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha, for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) improved the chances of a stable government, hence allowing it to address India's macroeconomic challenges.
The decisive win, Moody's said, will have an immediate effect of sustaining investor sentiment. "The completion of the election will also allow stalled policies relating to the corporate and infrastructure sectors to resume, a credit positive for the country's corporates," Vikas Halan, vice-president and senior credit officer of Moody's, said in the report.
Moody's observations were made in the report titled 'India's Decisive Election Outcome is Credit Positive'. "India raised diesel prices immediately after the voting, the first such move since regular price increases were halted in March; we expect further price hikes in the months ahead," Halan said, adding that this would be 'credit positive' for oil-marketing companies.
"A strong majority government would also increase the likelihood of structural reform in India's ailing power sector. Closer co-ordination between the central and state governments on clearances for mega projects and land use, two proposals outlined in the BJP's manifesto, would address investment delays," Halan said. |
TELECOMS PROVIDERS in the US have been given a green light to explore the idea of replacing traditional telephone communications with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a limited licence for telecomes companies to explore the consequences of a world where telephone numbers are replaced by IP addresses, with no traditional switched telephone circuits to fall back on.
Reuters reports that the VoIP trials will be conducted on a voluntary basis with a view to exploring public reaction and assessing the needs of vulnerable groups such as the disabled and rural populations with limited internet connectivity.
"What we're doing here is a big deal. This is an important moment," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. "We today invite service providers to propose voluntary experiments for all-IP networks."
The ultimate ambition will be to eliminate the dual maintenance of both copper wire and fibre optic networks, which would yield huge cost saving, especially across the vast unpopulated areas in parts of the US.
AT&T and Verizon have both announced that they will be taking part in the trials, which will also be expected to demonstrate that there will be adequate provision for emergency service if the change is made in the future.
The trials will not be regulated by the FCC and are expected to be done in a discreet manner to minimise impact on the existing public phone and data networks, however the trial findings will be reported back to the FCC to help shape its future policy on the matter. µ |
That time San Francisco tried to annex Oakland, Berkeley and most of the Bay Area
Looking towards Lake Merritt along 14th Street from Oakland City Hall (1910s). Looking towards Lake Merritt along 14th Street from Oakland City Hall (1910s). Photo: OpenSFHistory / Hoodline Photo: OpenSFHistory / Hoodline Image 1 of / 77 Caption Close That time San Francisco tried to annex Oakland, Berkeley and most of the Bay Area 1 / 77 Back to Gallery
Read this article in its entirety on Hoodline.com.
More than a hundred years ago, municipalities across the country were like imperialistic colonial powers gobbling up land as fast as they could.
The Bay Area was no different.
Here's the story of when San Francisco attempted to annex its East Bay neighbors in 1912, and failed (obviously).
San Francisco Was Built In The Wrong Place
In all actuality, Oakland is where San Francisco should be. At least that's what Gray Brechin, a historical geographer and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, says.
Brechin told us that once the railroad was completed in 1869, San Francisco should have relocated eastward.
"Oakland is easier to get to," Brechin said. "The weather is better, it's flatter, and there is room to grow—plus, it has a great deep-water harbor."
But in the later decades of the 19th century, San Francisco had already established itself as the most powerful city in California, negating any desire to shift the seat of influence eastward, even if only by some 11 odd miles.
As it was, San Francisco cared less about Oakland, and more about New York City.
To read the rest of this story, and find out how San Francisco tried to emulate New York, go to Hoodline.com. |
Instead of being his usual terror on the field, Tyrann Mathieu was sitting in the stands, watching his team play.
LSU dismissed its starting corner back, Tyrann Mathieu, from its football team on August 10th, for a violation of team and school rules. Mathieu then enrolled in a Houston rehab center in lieu of transferring to another school.
Mathieu was not kicked out of LSU and has since re-enrolled at the school. The Honey Badger was spotted in class a few days ago and then at LSU’s game on Saturday night against Washington.
It seems that LSU is leaving the door open for Mathieu in hopes that he can return to the team for the 2013 season.
Check out Mathieu’s sweet animal hat and Notorious B.I.G. t-shirt.
Screengrab via @cjzero and @ocnreport |
'Child refugee' on trial for raping and killing teenage girl is 33, according to father
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A ‘child refugee’ who is accused of raping and drowning an EU official’s daughter is actually 33 years old, according to his father.
It is claimed that Hussein Khavari ambushed and raped 19-year-old Maria Ladenburger before drowning her in a river in October 2016. Khavari claimed to be a 17-year-old unaccompanied minor at the time.
Anthropology tests last month revealed that he was likely to be aged between 25 and 29, however, the presiding judge at his trial Kathrin Schenk, phoned Khavari’s father who revealed that his son was in fact born on January 29th 1894, making him 33 years old.
Khavari is also alleged to have raped a 12-year-old girl in his native Afghanistan before travelling to Europe. Police claim that his parents made a settlement with the girl’s parents to keep the incident quiet.
He had also been sentenced to ten years in prison for attempted murder in Corfu before seeking refuge in Germany in 2015.
Maria Ladenburger was the daughter of Dr Clemens Ladenburger, a top lawyer who assists the legal director of the European Commission.
It is widely reported that between her medical degree, Ladenburger worked with asylum seekers as a volunteer.
At her funeral, her family requested well-wishers donate to two charities, including one which supports refugees and asylum seekers.
The head of the country’s police union, Rainer Wendt, said: ”We wouldn’t have this victim, and so many others, if our country had been better prepared for the dangers that always go along with massive immigration.”
The then co-chair of the anti-mass migration AfD said: “We are shocked by this crime and at the same time we see that our warnings about the uncontrolled arrival of hundreds of thousands of young men from Islamic-patriarchal cultures are written off as populist.”
A verdict is expected to be delivered early next year. |
Here’s an example: Last summer, back when Mr. Trump was just beginning his rise, he promised not to cut Social Security, and insiders like William Kristol gleefully declared that he was “willing to lose the primary to win the general.” In reality, however, Republican voters don’t at all share the elite’s enthusiasm for entitlement cuts — remember, George W. Bush’s attempt to privatize Social Security ran aground in the face of disapproval from Republicans as well as Democrats.
Yet the Republican establishment still seems unable to understand that hardly any of its own voters, let alone the voters it would need to win in the general election, are committed to free-market, small-government ideology. Indeed, although Marco Rubio — the establishment’s last hope — has finally started to go after the front-runner, so far his attack seems to rest almost entirely on questioning the coiffed one’s ideological purity. Why does he imagine that voters care?
Oh, and the G.O.P. establishment was also sure that Mr. Trump would pay a heavy price for asserting that we were misled into Iraq — evidently unaware just how widespread that (correct) belief is among Americans of all political persuasions.
So what’s the source of this obliviousness? The answer, I’d suggest, is that in recent years — and, in fact, for the past couple of decades — becoming a conservative activist has actually been a low-risk, comfortable career choice. Most Republican officeholders hold safe seats, which they can count on keeping if they are sufficiently orthodox. Moreover, if they should stumble, they can fall back on “wingnut welfare,” the array of positions at right-wing media organizations, think tanks and so on that are always there for loyal spear carriers.
And loyalty is almost the only thing that matters. Does an economist at a right-wing think tank have a remarkable record of embarrassing mistakes? Does a pundit have an almost surreal history of bad calls? No matter, as long as they hew to the orthodox line. |
London’s new Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, is allocating over two million dollars (£1,730,726) to an “online hate crime hub” enabling police to track and arrest “trolls” who “target…individuals and communities.” There can be no doubt, given the nature of the British political establishment today, which “trolls” these new Thought Police will be going after, and which “communities” will be protected from “hate speech.” “Islamophobia,” which David Horowitz and I termed “the thought crime of the totalitarian future,” is now going to bring down upon the hapless “trolls” the wrath of London’s Metropolitan police force -- and this totalitarian new initiative shows yet again how easily the Leftist and Islamic supremacist agendas coincide and aid each other.
“The Metropolitan police service,” said a police spokesman, “is committed to working with our partners, including the mayor, to tackle all types of hate crime including offences committed online.” Given the fact that Khan, in a 2009 interview, dismissed moderate Muslims as “Uncle Toms” and has numerous questionable ties to Islamic supremacists, it is unlikely that he will be particularly concerned about “hate speech” by jihad preachers (several of whom were just recently welcomed into a Britain that has banned foes of jihad, including me).
And the “partners” of the London police are likely to include Tell Mama UK, which says on its website: “we work with Central Government to raise the issues of anti-Muslim hatred at a policy level and our work helps to shape and inform policy makers, whilst ensuring that an insight is brought into this area of work through the systematic recording and reporting of anti-Muslim hate incidents and crimes.” Tell Mama UK has previously been caught classifying as “anti-Muslim hate incidents and crimes” speech on Facebook and Twitter that it disliked. Now it will have the help of the London police to do that.
“The purpose of this programme,” we’re told, “is to strengthen the police and community response to this growing crime type.” This “crime type” is only “growing” because Britain has discarded the principle of the freedom of speech, and is committing itself increasingly to the idea that “hate speech” is objectively identifiable, and should be restricted by government and law enforcement action. Section 127 of the Communications Act of 2003 criminalizes “using [a] public electronic communications network in order to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety,” and no groups are better at manifesting public annoyance than Islamic advocacy groups. A pastor in Northern Ireland, James McConnell, ran afoul of this law in 2014 when he dared to criticize Islam in a sermon; he was acquitted after an 18-month investigation and a trial, but the Metropolitan police will not want to be seen as wasting their new “hate speech” money; others will not be as fortunate as McConnell.
Behind the push for “hate speech” laws is, of course, the increasingly authoritarian Left. Increasingly unwilling (and doubtless unable) to engage its foes in rational discussion and debate, the Left is resorting more and more to the Alinskyite tactic of responding to conservatives only with ridicule and attempts to rule conservative views out of the realm of acceptable discourse. That coincides perfectly with the ongoing initiative of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to intimidate the West into criminalizing criticism of Islam.
This is not the first time that a Sharia imperative and a Leftist one coincided during the relatively brief (so far) mayoral tenure of Sadiq Khan. The London Evening Standard reported on June 13 that “adverts which put Londoners under pressure over body image are to be banned from the Tube and bus network.” This was because “Sadiq Khan announced that Transport for London would no longer run ads which could cause body confidence issues, particularly among young people.”
Said Khan: “As the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies. Nobody should feel pressurised, while they travel on the Tube or bus, into unrealistic expectations surrounding their bodies and I want to send a clear message to the advertising industry about this.”
And so no more ads featuring women in bikinis on London buses. People often puzzle about how the hard Left and Islamic supremacists can make common cause, when they have such differing ideas of morality; Khan’s ad ban showed how. The Left’s concern with “body-shaming” and not putting people “under pressure over body image” meshed perfectly with the Sharia imperative to force women to cover themselves in order to remove occasions of temptation for men.
What next? Will London women be forced to cover everything except their face and hands (as per Muhammad’s command) so as not to put others “under pressure over body image”? And if they are, will anyone who dares to complain about what is happening to their green and pleasant land be locked up for “hate speech” by London’s new Thought Police?
Welcome to Sadiq Khan’s London. Shut up and put on your hijab. |
I think it was Joe DiMaggio who once said, "Baseball is a funny game." Joe somebody, anyway. Since its inception, the game has been inspiring wags of all stripes to make merriment for our amusement. Gathered here are the 10 funniest examples ever, drawn from movies, television, records, stage and the internet. (Not included, though, are scenes from baseball-themed feature-length films, however. They're a separate entity.)
Are there omissions? Of course there are! The list is only 10 items long, after all. So here they are, ranked merely by my whim ... a whim to which you will, no doubt, take great exception.
10. "Not Cliff Johnson" by T. Sean Shannon
Really, any of the Baseball Card Theater pieces by Shannon could represent here; they're that good.
9. "Baseball Pitcher" by Jonathan Winters
The late Jonathan Winters would be fun to watch unscrewing a toothpaste cap. Fortunately, he did much more than that in his career -- like wrecking a service station -- as well as this, a pitcher pantomime from 1964:
8. Waiting for Guffman outtake with Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara
Like all of Willard's work in Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, this scene in which he acts out Bill Mazeroski's World Series-winning home run is all improv. O'Hara's reluctant and sullen participation is great, too.
7. "Dueling Hats" by Key & Peele
The Comedy Central duo is far more well known for their football sketches, and this one is really more about baseball hats than it is about baseball. But still, attention must be paid.
6. "Baseball-Football" by George Carlin
Carlin performed this routine in his opening as host of the very first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975. That was around the time that baseball was eclipsing football in the national psyche, and I've always wondered if Carlin's take didn't speed up that process.
5. "Baseball" by Degenerate Comedy
Short and not so sweet.
4. "Who's on First?" by Abbott & Costello
Whether it's the funniest or not, it's certainly the most famous. And rightly so! Here's a seldom-heard radio version, our personal favorite. And of course there have been any number of homages and imitations since. The Credibility Gap got there first, with David Lander and Harry Shearer doing a rock-and-roll-themed version (the last line is dynamite). Some years ago, The Kids in the Hall gave the bit a really nifty twist. And just last year, Jimmy Fallon, Billy Crystal, and Jerry Seinfeld killed with their sequel.
3. "Nobody Will Ever Play Baseball" by Bob Newhart
This, from Newhart's first and hugely selling LP, is one of his classic telephone bits. When you hear the game explained this way, it really makes you question your sanity for following it so closely. (Listen)
2. "Second Marriage" by Woody Allen
If you've never heard Woody Allen's standup comedy, you've missed out. He was an absolute master at the form, and it's never been more evident than in this bit about his sex life. The baseball angle kicks in at around 4:45, but there's no reason to skip that first 4:45 unless you hate comedy or something. Another Allen baseball bit -- this scene from Radio Days -- could have also made this list. (Listen)
1. "1864 Baseball" by Conan O'Brien
Conan's visit with some very dedicated historical baseball reënactors and their fans holds up quite well upon repeated viewings. The film also keeps topping itself as it goes along, which is no easy feat. |
Special By By Ben Morris Nov 30, 2014 in Sports Winnipeg - While the Calgary Stampeders and Hamilton Tiger Cats battle for CFL supremacy, one franchise is sitting at home pondering when they will return their city to CFL prominence. The date was November 25, 1990. The oldest current Blue Bomber, Romby Bryant, was just 10 years old, when the underdog Winnipeg Blue Bombers One of the key defensive players of the game was defensive back Ken Hailey, who recovered two fumbles in the victory. After a close start to the game many would think a fiery speech inspired the team destroy Edmonton's hope of a Grey Cup victory, but that wasn't the case. "Mike Riley wasn't about motivational speeches, he was more about corrections," wrote Hailey in an email interview from his home in California. Hailey added, "the turnover for a touchdown by Greg Battle put us in a position to relax a little." The close knit group of friends who played to not let the other guys down, saw blood in the water and controlled every aspect of the football game. Hailey played on three Grey Cup winning Bomber teams and remembers the pride in participating in Grey Cup parades where he saw thousands of fans braving the cold temperatures to honor the team. That passionate fan base inspired those teams to greatness, but since the last championship, bad luck and poor management has created a culture of futility. Two years after their destruction of Edmonton, the Bombers lost to Doug Flutie and the Calgary Stampeders. Since their last Grey Cup victory, Winnipeg has made it to just five championship games. In a league with eight or nine teams. For the majority of the last 24 years, the disappointment about the drought is amplified. Many look back to the 1990 team and see what needs to be done to field a championship team. "(Blue Bombers G.M Kyle Walters) needs to get a Paul Jones. He needs a guy in the United States to find them the best linebackers and defensive backs that are available. That's what the 1990 team had," said veteran Winnipeg sports journalist Scott Taylor in reference to star defensive players on the 1990 team that included names like Greg Battle, James West, Less Browne and Rod Hill .The collection of those players were a product of strong scouting and a commitment to winning. The winning management has been lost, and according to Taylor that lack of success, "starts at the top." "The board of directors are not very good- the history of bad hires has been horrendous." The board of governors have hired coaches like Jeff Reinbold, Jim Daley, and Mike Kelly.as well as G.M Joe Mack who was run out of town by the media and the fans for questionable decision making like failing to resign guard Brandon LaBatte, and not trading for Ricky Ray. According to Taylor the bad decisions are a result of a "board of directors, (that) is run by people who don't know anything about football." At the end of 2013, former FB Wade Miller was named the club C.E.O, and he immediately fired Mack, replacing him with Assistant G.M Kyle Walters, Mike O'Shea replaced Head Coach Tim Burke, and former Bombers back up Q.B Danny McManus was brought in as an assistant to Walters. Those changes, along with a new starting quarterback had a city excited after a 5-1 start. The collapse left people at home, submitting to yet another failed season. Recalling the fast start Taylor noted, "They won three games late they probably shouldn't have won- they didn't get better when everyone else did." The Alouettes started off 1-6 and ended the season winning 8 of their last 9 to win the East. B.C, who eliminated the Bombers from postseason contention, survived with a backup Q.B, the momentum and confidence created by a 5-1 slowly deteriorated into yet another year without a championship. Of the thousands of passionate, yet disappointed Blue Bombers fans, one man bleeds blue and gold. Lanny Navitka is a season ticket holder who wears his Bomber gear to every game, holding up signs he sacrifices hours to make. Although some fans may believe it is pathetic to have a championship drought of more than two decades, Navitka is not a fan who sees the decades long streak as something to cry about. "I don't look at it as a bad thing. It doesn't matter to me because the Bombers have been to the Grey Cup since 1990 we've been to the Grey Cup five times, and we had a chance every time." Both Navitka and Taylor don't see the drought as a big deal considering the league history of horrid teams bouncing back after bad years to win the Grey Cup. The drought is not considered a huge deal considering many CFL teams have had significant stretches of championship futility of their own. After a 41-9 defeat at the hands of the Edmonton Eskimos, head coach Mike O'Shea bit the bullet and blamed the coaching staff for the loss, when he said "I felt like we didn't have the right stuff and the right plan. I felt like we were out-coached in the first half in all three phases," but the players didn't stand for it. When asked by the That accountability and leadership is part of recipe to make a championship team, and that attitude is what's needed to build a winning team. According to Hailey examples like one set by Vega were all over the locker room of the championship teams of the 80's. "We knew how to have a good time, but we also knew how to strap it up. We were all competitors, that didn't like losing anything. You had to show me that you were better." After a 5-1 start to the season, fans of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were cautiously optimistic about a return to the playoffs. Then, as other struggling teams improved, the holes on the team were exposed. Winning just two more games after their shocking start, hopes of at least a playoff spot was crushed and the team's Grey Cup drought extended to 24 years.The date was November 25, 1990. The oldest current Blue Bomber, Romby Bryant, was just 10 years old, when the underdog Winnipeg Blue Bombers forced eight turnovers in a 50-11 demolition . After a close first half, the Blue Bombers defense shut down Tracy Ham and the Eskimos offense, starting with a Greg Battle interception return touchdown. From that point on the Bombers dominated.One of the key defensive players of the game was defensive back Ken Hailey, who recovered two fumbles in the victory. After a close start to the game many would think a fiery speech inspired the team destroy Edmonton's hope of a Grey Cup victory, but that wasn't the case."Mike Riley wasn't about motivational speeches, he was more about corrections," wrote Hailey in an email interview from his home in California. Hailey added, "the turnover for a touchdown by Greg Battle put us in a position to relax a little." The close knit group of friends who played to not let the other guys down, saw blood in the water and controlled every aspect of the football game.Hailey played on three Grey Cup winning Bomber teams and remembers the pride in participating in Grey Cup parades where he saw thousands of fans braving the cold temperatures to honor the team. That passionate fan base inspired those teams to greatness, but since the last championship, bad luck and poor management has created a culture of futility.Two years after their destruction of Edmonton, the Bombers lost to Doug Flutie and the Calgary Stampeders. Since their last Grey Cup victory, Winnipeg has made it to just five championship games. In a league with eight or nine teams. For the majority of the last 24 years, the disappointment about the drought is amplified. Many look back to the 1990 team and see what needs to be done to field a championship team."(Blue Bombers G.M Kyle Walters) needs to get a Paul Jones. He needs a guy in the United States to find them the best linebackers and defensive backs that are available. That's what the 1990 team had," said veteran Winnipeg sports journalist Scott Taylor in reference to star defensive players on the 1990 team that included names like Greg Battle, James West, Less Browne and Rod Hill .The collection of those players were a product of strong scouting and a commitment to winning. The winning management has been lost, and according to Taylor that lack of success, "starts at the top.""The board of directors are not very good- the history of bad hires has been horrendous." The board of governors have hired coaches like Jeff Reinbold, Jim Daley, and Mike Kelly.as well as G.M Joe Mack who was run out of town by the media and the fans for questionable decision making like failing to resign guard Brandon LaBatte, and not trading for Ricky Ray. According to Taylor the bad decisions are a result of a "board of directors, (that) is run by people who don't know anything about football."At the end of 2013, former FB Wade Miller was named the club C.E.O, and he immediately fired Mack, replacing him with Assistant G.M Kyle Walters, Mike O'Shea replaced Head Coach Tim Burke, and former Bombers back up Q.B Danny McManus was brought in as an assistant to Walters. Those changes, along with a new starting quarterback had a city excited after a 5-1 start. The collapse left people at home, submitting to yet another failed season.Recalling the fast start Taylor noted, "They won three games late they probably shouldn't have won- they didn't get better when everyone else did." The Alouettes started off 1-6 and ended the season winning 8 of their last 9 to win the East. B.C, who eliminated the Bombers from postseason contention, survived with a backup Q.B, the momentum and confidence created by a 5-1 slowly deteriorated into yet another year without a championship.Of the thousands of passionate, yet disappointed Blue Bombers fans, one man bleeds blue and gold. Lanny Navitka is a season ticket holder who wears his Bomber gear to every game, holding up signs he sacrifices hours to make. Although some fans may believe it is pathetic to have a championship drought of more than two decades, Navitka is not a fan who sees the decades long streak as something to cry about."I don't look at it as a bad thing. It doesn't matter to me because the Bombers have been to the Grey Cup since 1990 we've been to the Grey Cup five times, and we had a chance every time." Both Navitka and Taylor don't see the drought as a big deal considering the league history of horrid teams bouncing back after bad years to win the Grey Cup.The drought is not considered a huge deal considering many CFL teams have had significant stretches of championship futility of their own. In 1989 the Saskatchewan Roughriders ended a 23 year championship drought. In 1985, the B.C Lions ended a drought of more than twenty years. Although a promising season ended with the Bombers heading home early, there is room for optimism.After a 41-9 defeat at the hands of the Edmonton Eskimos, head coach Mike O'Shea bit the bullet and blamed the coaching staff for the loss, when he said "I felt like we didn't have the right stuff and the right plan. I felt like we were out-coached in the first half in all three phases," but the players didn't stand for it.When asked by the Winnipeg Free Press about those comments defensive end Jason Vega responded with, "It's us. We're not making plays. We're giving up big plays here and there and that's on us. There's only so much (coaches) can do -- they can make a play call and say 'go ahead guys.' But if we're out of position, that's on us."That accountability and leadership is part of recipe to make a championship team, and that attitude is what's needed to build a winning team. According to Hailey examples like one set by Vega were all over the locker room of the championship teams of the 80's."We knew how to have a good time, but we also knew how to strap it up. We were all competitors, that didn't like losing anything. You had to show me that you were better." According to players , the Bombers have the management and the coaches to build a successful franchise. When the team cleaned out their lockers, linebacker Ian Wild pledged confidence by saying, "We took a big step forward for sure this year. We're definitely going to grow on it." More about winnipeg blue bombers, Cfl, grey cup championship, 1990 grey cup, edmonton eskimos More news from winnipeg blue bomber... Cfl grey cup championshi... 1990 grey cup edmonton eskimos |
While the focus on the rental market in part reflected the political heat of the fight with Labor about negative gearing, the speech appeared to concede the realities of the housing market were that the "dream" of owning your own home was being replaced by a reality that a growing number of younger Australians would only ever rent.
Beyond changing the prospects for many households, it also seems to confirms a huge change in the political dynamics of the housing debate to one which is much more dominated by housing investors at the expense of home buyers.
While Mr Morrison – and others in the government – have raised the spectre of a range of measures that government could undertake to make housing affordable, Mr Richardson put a reality check on the discussion on Wednesday in which he pointed out that – relative to recent moves in house prices – the impact of any government policy change would be marginal at best.
"The most overlooked thing [the Treasurer] said was that there was no silver bullet around this," Mr Richardson said.
"You absolutely do need to look at renters who are of course the flip side of looking at investors."
There were "heaps of things", the government could do but when "you have more than nine million homes and families in Australia, you're not necessarily going to change things heaps".
"You need to understand how small the levers they have on how big a market the Australian housing market is", he said.
"They might affect prices by 2-3 per cent: we easily did more than that over the course of November-December".
Independent economist Saul Eslake agreed, saying that it was "much easier for them to make housing affordability worse rather than better", and that the government appeared to be toying with "more idea that would make it worse".
Mr Eslake's cynical take was that it wasn't surprising that Mr Morrison had started to focus on the rental market because "there's even less the federal government can do about rental housing than owner occupied housing". |
Indianapolis Woman Arrested After Masquerading As Registered Nurse
(INDIANAPOLIS) - Federal prosecutors say an Indianapolis woman was masquerading as a registered nurse without any medical training.
And she managed to get jobs at two local health care facilities.
Police arrested Ashley Johnson after one of her references notified the Clearvista Lake Health Campus that she wasn't an R.N. Court documents say Johnson used the nursing license numbers of two other women who both shared her name.
At one point, she allegedly gave the wrong medication to a patient.
In a statement, Clearvista Lake says, "prior to her start date, we received a completed background check form (which includes confirmation of active licensure) which showed all items clear, and no concerns."
The company filed an online complaint with the Indiana Attorney General's Office when they discovered the discrepancy in Johnson's license. She was suspended, then terminated "once it was confirmed she had falsified licensure information."
Johnson has agreed to plead guilty in the case. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years supervised release after serving any jail time.
Have a question or comment about a news story? Send it to [email protected] |
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