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“Marco gives the same speech with donors that he does in public,” one Rubio advisor assured BuzzFeed. I’m sure he’s right. After all, when has Marco Rubio ever said different things to different audiences about his stance on immigration?
I do think it’s safe to say that Rubio’s choosing his words carefully on this subject, even among friends in private settings. All it would take to blow him up for good on the right is a hidden smartphone recorder catching him crowing about amnesty, and he knows it. He’s the safest pick in the field precisely because he’s not prone to huge unforced errors.
According to a half-dozen Republican fundraisers and contributors who have been courted by the Rubio camp, the candidate’s aggressive advocacy for the Senate’s 2013 immigration bill has proved to be a substantial draw within the GOP money crowd — and his campaign has shown little hesitation about cashing in. Even as Rubio labors to publicly distance himself from the legislation so loathed by conservative primary voters, he and his aides have privately highlighted this line in his resume when soliciting support from the deep-pocketed donors in the party’s more moderate business wing… It isn’t only committed Rubio donors who are swooning after hearing the candidate’s immigration spiel. During a press call in February with other pro-immigration figures in GOP fundraising, California-based fast food CEO Andrew Puzder said that regardless of whatever public murkiness might surround the senator’s position, Rubio had personally assured him he was still dedicated to the cause. “I actually have spoken with Sen. Rubio on the issue and he has not backed away from wanting immigration reform at all,” Puzder said. “He does think it’s very difficult to do it unless you address illegal immigration first so there may be a step process to doing this. But he’s still a very strong advocate for getting immigration reform that’s effective and helps people, and he’s one of the leaders in our party on this issue.”… [E]very source interviewed said that no matter how radioactive Rubio’s immigration record might be to the right, it has done nothing but help him in this early stage of the primaries, when filling the campaign war chest is the chief concern. Two Republican fundraisers who have met with Rubio — requesting anonymity to candidly assess his efforts — even expressed surprise at how enthusiastic the candidate has seemed in private to promote his work on the Senate’s immigration bill, given his strong reluctance to do so in public.
It’s true that legalizing illegals has remained part of Rubio’s immigration platform even after the Gang of Eight debacle. When Bob Schieffer asked him last Sunday if he’d sign the Gang of Eight bill as president, not only didn’t Rubio rule it out, he talked specifically about legalization as the third step in his new plan. (Step one: More security.) Norman Braman, who’s shaping up to be one of his biggest donors, told BuzzFeed, “He believes we have to secure the borders first, and I believe we have to secure the borders first.” But then you read that bit about how surprisingly “enthusiastic” Rubio has been in talking up his Gang of Eight work with the pro-amnesty donor class and you wonder how committed he can possibly be to holding the line on security as president if Democrats push hard, as they surely will. If this guy ends up winning backed by hundreds of millions of dollars from the GOP’s pro-legalization wing, how much can he dig in realistically once Chuck Schumer insists that a comprehensive bill is the only way to beat a Senate Democratic filibuster? President Cruz might be willing to hold the line on security because his base is on the right. Rubio’s base, increasingly, will be the center-right and monied establishmentarians. See why he couldn’t give Schieffer a straight answer?
But look. This is why I’ve said all along, contrary to conventional wisdom, that he did himself more good than harm by joining the Gang of Eight. Back in late 2012, when he was mulling whether to join the Gang or not and risk his goodwill among conservatives, I think the sort of pander that BuzzFeed is describing today is precisely what he had in mind. He thought about 2016, realized that no one wins the GOP nomination without having lots of donor-class money behind him, and calculated that the surest way to impress that class would be to go to bat for their pet issue notwithstanding the beating he’d take from tea partiers for it. He took his lumps and his polls dropped, but he knew when the time came that the people who really mattered in choosing a president would remember. And so they have, with Rubio himself happy to refresh the memory of anyone who might have forgotten. This is why I say he’s a smart tactician even when you hate the moves he’s making. He plays the long game, and it’s paying off. I wouldn’t bet against him.
In fact, between the goodwill he’s built with billionaire amnesty fans and the goodwill he’s built with billionaire superhawks, I wonder how much of a money edge Jeb will end up having over him. There’ll be some advantage, no doubt, but probably without the knockout potential that Jeb was counting on. Imagine the irony if Bush ends up losing the primary because another guy in the field convinced the donor class he’s more like Dubya than Jeb is. Speaking of which, in lieu of an exit question, a tribute to my two favorite flip-floppers: |
The clerk for one Rutherford County town notified Carolina Public Press on May 2 that the town board wouldn’t comply with a request for salary records for town officials unless a reporter attends a town meeting and presents credentials.
However, since the publication of an initial version of this article, the town has provided the requested information.
Those board members’ original perception of the law was “far off-base” according to Amanda Martin, chief counsel for the North Carolina Press Association. She also indicated that the town leaders’ interpretation of the law undermined rights guaranteed everyone, not just members of the press.
The town of Ruth, which had a population of about 448 in 2015, according to state demography estimates, is located in southern Rutherford County, adjacent to the county seat, Rutherfordton. Ruth does not have its own zip code but is still an incorporated town subject to state law.
Carolina Public Press has recently completed publication of a series of articles on the salary levels of elected officials and top-paid employees for each municipality, county and public school system within the 19-county Western North Carolina region. In preparation for those articles, CPP requested records from each government body.
The final article in the series covered smaller towns between 400 and 4,000 in population. Several towns contacted for the report never replied, as noted with an asterisk in the published article. But until Ruth’s response arrived May 2, none of the government entities contacted for any of these reports had refused or attempted to set preconditions on their compliance.
“I had to wait for board approval,” the original town of Ruth email told CPP. “The board stated if you want that information you need to come to a meeting (and) bring your credentials with you. If (you’re) interested in attending let me know (and) I’ll be glad to provide you with meeting dates, time (and) location.”
According to Martin, this response was legally mistaken on multiple levels.
“There is no need for ‘board approval’ for a town to fulfill a routine public records request,” she told CPP. “The personnel laws make crystal clear that salary information is public.”
The idea that a CPP representative would need to go to town in person, much less attend a meeting, is also contrary to what the law says, according to Martin.
“The public records law states that a requester may get information in whatever format he chooses, assuming it can be provided that way,” she said. “So there is nothing in the law that would permit a town to require a member of the public to come in person to a town meeting.”
The demand for credentials also suggests a chilling litmus test on access to records in a democratic system, making it difficult for the people to keep watch on how their government is being run.
While residents of smaller towns often assume the best about their leaders, experience has shown that this trust is not always well-placed. Just last month, two top officials in Tryon in Polk County, located just south of Rutherford County, faced federal arrest over alleged financial misconduct.
“Any member of the public should be able to … request access to this information,” Martin said. “Again, the law is crystal clear that any person has a right to this information. No credentials needed.”
Following the appearance of the initial version of this article on May 3, the town provided salary information for its board members and town clerk. This article and the original salaries story have been updated to reflect this new information and the town’s eventual compliance.
Prior to the appearance of the first version of this article, the town was notified of its pending publication and informed of Martin’s legal advice. The town had not responded further at the time the article’s first publication on May 3.
CPP staff members Michael Gebelein and Frank Taylor contributed to this report. |
Back in May, Vulture was the first to report that the future of Seeso, which launched in January 2016, seemed to be in question. NBC insisted no decisions had been made, but people close to the situation confirmed the writing was on the wall. This assessment seemed more and more likely in the months since, with major layoffs to an already small staff coming in June and word going around that NBC was very publicly shopping around some of its original series. Just earlier today, the nerd-focused streamer VRV announced it had acquired the rights to HarmonQuest, Seeso’s Dungeons and Dragons–themed animated show from Dan Harmon, as well as Hidden America, Cyanide and Happiness, and My Brother, My Brother and Me. But that was just a start.
This afternoon, Seeso quietly broke the news on its Facebook page that the service is officially shutting down.
Dear Seeso-ers, We’re writing to let you know that later this year, Seeso will be shutting its comedy doors. ... Posted by Seeso on Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Their message acknowledges the fate of the other Seeso originals is uncertain. There’s … Johnny!, which NBC said in May would air as planned, will no longer be premiering later this month. A show has more value to a potential buyer if there are unaired seasons, which in turn could be promoted as exclusive to their network/site/service, so NBC has incentive to hold off. However, that means seasons of the improvised HGTV parody Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ and the critically acclaimed Take My Wife are sitting on a shelf waiting for NBC to find a buyer. Sources close to the situation told Vulture people involved in the yet-to-be-sold shows have been left in the dark on what might happen to their work.
It’s not clear exactly when the service will be turned off, but considering how aggressively they’re looking for homes for their content, I’d say it’s not too far off. See-so-long. |
In one moment, I’m sitting at a desk in an office building in San Francisco. In the next, I’m in a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. But I could just as easily be in the audience for “Saturday Night Live,” or in the middle of a lake about to be struck by a train floating above the water.
All three of these are scenes from some of the virtual reality films produced by Vrse, a buzzy Los Angeles-headquartered startup. The first high-end consumer VR headsets are heading to market in the coming months, and Vrse is trying to get out in front of content production and distribution for what it sees as a groundbreaking new medium.
To that end, it has hired former Rdio CEO Drew Larner as its COO and raised seed money from a diverse group of investors that includes Andreessen Horowitz, Live Nation, Vice Media and Annapurna Pictures.
The company’s goals include producing its own content through a studio arm, Vrse Works, as well as distributing its content and others’ through a dedicated app for VR devices simply known as Vrse.
“I don’t think we’re talking about movies anymore,” Vrse CEO Chris Milk said in an interview with Re/code. “What we’re talking about is the ultimate experiential medium, because it feels like real life. What is the most interesting thing that could have happened to you today? That’s a story.”
Some of Vrse’s most-talked-about projects are its mini-documentaries “Waves of Grace” and “Clouds Over Sidra,” produced in partnership with the United Nations. They center, respectively, on a woman living through the recent ebola outbreak in Liberia and a girl caught up in the ongoing Syrian refugee crisis.
“I want to engage an audience on a deeper human level than any other medium that has reached them,” Milk said. “We talk about virtual reality as ‘the last medium.’ … Ultimately, what we’re talking about is a medium that disappears, because there is no rectangle on the wall, there is no page you’re holding in your hand. It feels like real life.”
At the same time, Vrse wants to balance those PBS-y aspirations with hopes of becoming a sort of HBO for VR, a place that will be associated in consumers’ minds with all types of premium content, documentaries being just one of them.
Larner acknowledged that he is a relative newbie to VR, but brings with him experience from both the movie business and the tech world, having advised startups like Kazaa and Skype before five years as CEO of the music-streaming service Rdio, where he is still on the board. He said he expects a key component of the company’s growth will be continuing to strike partnerships, as it has in the past with well-known brands and content creators like the New York Times, Nike and Beck.
“The goal right now is for Chris to drive a platform with established content creators,” Larner said. “We believe we can tell their stories better than anybody else.”
There will be some serious competition for that claim, however. Disney recently co-led a $65 million round in cinematic VR startup Jaunt, while smaller startups like Vrideo and Penrose Studios are also working to establish themselves as go-to destinations for VR video.
However, both Milk and co-founder Aaron Koblin suggested that terms like “video” and “film” are merely good-enough-for-now descriptors of what they want to do.
The longer-term vision is to differentiate from competitors by developing a new form of content that lies somewhere between a movie and a video game. Becoming more interactive would make this content possible only through Vrse’s own technology — hence the need to have a dedicated app rather than hosting non-interactive videos on a platform like YouTube.
“What we’re trying to do is not just be another video player, but to actually think about the opportunities here for us to change the narrative, for us to take advantage of the level of immersion and style of editing that’s going to go into these things,” Koblin said. “There’s an interesting sweet spot for experimenting with interactive narratives.”
In the near term, though, Koblin said there are practical technical considerations to solve, such as “how do we keep you from puking on your shoes?”
“It really is just hacking your senses to convince you that you’re somewhere else,” he said. “Whatever we define it as now will evolve and change. We plan to evolve and change with it.” |
| by Craig White |
The first building in Toronto that will be taller than First Canadian Place, and the first aiming to cross the 'Supertall' threshold of 300 metres, is now under construction. Digging commenced this morning on The One, an 82-storey tall mixed-use tower that will top off in a couple of years at 306.3 metres or 1005 feet. Designed by London's Foster + Partners and Toronto's Core Architects, the complex by Mizrahi Developments will feature 7 double-height storeys of retail and restaurants (also connecting to the local PATH network and subway underground), 10 storeys of hotel, and another 66 storeys of residential and mid-tower mechanical.
Shoring equipment onsite on August 18, image by UT Forum contributor Benito
While work to level and clear the site and to preserve a portion of a heritage building has been going on for many months, equipment to start the digging has been arriving for a few weeks. Seen above, the photo from overhead and taken last Friday, shows equipment for shoring at left.
This morning the digging began. Sam Mizrahi, President of Mizrahi Developments, told us he was "excited to confirm that, yes, we have officially mobilized and commenced construction on The One." The photo below shows the scene from across the intersection of Bloor and Yonge streets from earlier today. The close-up that follows has been lightened to highlight the excavator at work.
The site in context on August 23, image by UT Forum contributor LNahid2000
Close-up on the digging on August 23, image by UT Forum contributor LNahid2000
Just to the south of the site on Yonge Street, a construction site office has been set up.
The site office for construction of The One located at the south end of the site, image courtesy of Mizrahi Developments
Mizrahi also wrote this morning "the Presentation gallery for The One residential sales will open next month" on Davenport Road. We expect an official ground breaking ceremony in September, and we are told that there will be an announcement of some of the commercial tenants at the time.
Scale model of The One at the Toronto of the Future show in June, image by Craig White
When complete, The One will be Canada's tallest building.
Want to know more about The One? You can visit our database file, linked below, to see several renderings, and to get more details. Want to talk about it? Get in on the ongoing conversation in our associated Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page. |
Last night, Glenn Beck dedicated his entire television program to a one-on-one interview that he recently conducted with Carly Fiorina. Unsurprisingly, the interview was not particularly hard-hitting as Beck didn’t really bother to challenge the Republican presidential hopeful on anything that she said, choosing instead to focus on important issues like the “the state of her soul.”
During the discussion, Fiorina attacked Donald Trump for using eminent domain to take private property for the benefit of his businesses, laughably asserting that she has a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters attending her rallies because they know that she will fight against the “crony capitalism” which benefits only the rich and the powerful.
“Crony capitalism is alive and well,” she told Beck. “When you have big, powerful, complicated, costly government, only the wealthy, the powerful, the big and the well-connected can handle it and all the rest of us are getting crushed. And people see that, they feel it in the bones. In their bones, people know if something is so complicated I don’t understand it, I’m getting screwed.”
Fiorina, for the record, walked away with $40 million when she was fired from Hewlett-Packard back in 2005 and currently has a net worth of $59 million, so we’d love to know exactly how she qualifies as one of “the rest of us [who] are getting crushed” by a system that is rigged to benefit the wealthy. |
American employers hired 192,000 new workers in March, a sign that the job market appears to be leaving a winter chill behind.
The job gains, reported by the Labor Department on Friday, finally nudged private-sector payrolls above the level reached as a deep recession was beginning six years ago. Payroll employment is now about 100,000 jobs higher than the roughly 116 million jobs that private firms provided back in January 2008.
But the progress comes with some big asterisks.
Total US jobs are still well below their early-2008 peak, because the public sector (government) has shed 547,000 jobs over the same period. And population growth means that more Americans want to work. The result is that unemployment remains stubbornly above normal, with 2.8 million more people unemployed today than when the recession began about six years ago.
Friday’s jobs report showed a national unemployment rate of 6.7 percent, unchanged from the month before. The lack of month-over-month improvement came for what many economists see as a “good” reason: The added jobs were offset by rising participation in the labor force by people looking for work.
Another challenge ahead for the labor market: US workers are still waiting for a solid revival of wage growth after the recession.
“The only disappointment [in Friday’s numbers] is that … average hourly earnings were unchanged in March,” Paul Ashworth, chief US economist for Capital Economics, said in a report analyzing the numbers.
In theory, a better climate for wages should follow as the job market improves and employers have to compete more for worker talent. Mr. Ashworth said he expects wage growth to accelerate later in the year.
Job growth had slowed markedly in December and January, so the March figures were a welcome return to the kinds of steady gains seen through much of last year. For March, government employment in the US was unchanged, so 192,000 was the hiring total for both the private sector and for the overall economy.
The Labor Department also revised upward an earlier estimate of February job gains to 197,000. Together with a January revision (up to a still-modest 144,000 jobs for that month), those upgrades added another 37,000 in job gains, compared with estimates as of last month.
The recession was so deep that the number of private-sector jobs fell dramatically – reaching a low of 107.2 million by the end of 2009 – and has recovered more slowly than usual.
Despite the arrival of new jobs to fill that gap left by the recession, the labor market recovery still has a long way to go. Because of a decline in public-sector jobs, total US employment is still 437,000 below the peak reached in January 2008.
And the number of Americans wanting to work is also larger now than it was back then, by about 2.2 million people.
Wages are one piece of evidence that the job market still has a lot of what economists call “slack” – meaning unused productive capacity and more available workers than jobs.
Hourly pay is essentially the same today as it was when the recession officially ended in June 2009, when measured for all private-sector workers and adjusted for inflation. That’s because meager pay gains have barely kept pace with inflation.
The recent trend line seems to be moving in a positive direction, though.
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Real wages (adjusted for inflation) dipped during the early phase of the economic recovery but have been at least edging upward modestly since late 2012.
Many economists expect wage growth to pick up slowly. Forecasters in a March survey by the National Association for Business Economics said that, after real pay rose just 0.2 percent last year, employers should boost real compensation by about 0.4 percent this year and 0.7 percent next year. |
In a thinly-disguised message to NATO, which remains uncommitted to the idea of co-operating with Russia in a European missile defense system, the commander of Russian Strategic Rocket Forces (RSVN) said its ICBMs will soon be “invincible”.
According to the commander of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces (RSVN), Lt. Gen. Sergey Karakayev, Russia's RS-24 new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) will be capable of defeating any possible missile defense system within the next 15-20 years.
Speaking before journalists in Moscow, Karakayev said: "Speaking about combat effectiveness, it is necessary to note the new missiles' ability to be invulnerable before launch thanks to their mobility, as well as their ability to tackle the task of defeating any possible missile defense system within the next 15-20 years, should such a need arise."
Karakayev revealed that some missile complexes are already equipped with the RS-24 missiles.
"The first missile regiment, comprised of two batteries armed with Yars advanced land-based mobile missile systems, equipped with RS-24
intercontinental ballistic missiles with multiple warheads, entered duty
at the Teikovo missile division, based in Ivanov region, on March 4," the commander told a press conference at Interfax. “This is a weapon that has accumulated the best qualities of the Topol-M missile and has acquired new combat possibilities.”
The missile has characteristics that make it possible to speak about the invulnerability of (these weapons) at all of the sections of their flight course, he added.
Although the Russian commander did not directly mention US plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, Moscow has said many times in the past that any missile defense system on its borders will necessarily be perceived as a potential national security threat.
At the NATO-Russia Summit in November, which saw the attendance of President Dmitry Medvedev, it appeared that the ground was set for a real co-operation between Moscow and NATO, the 28-nation military bloc that served as a balancing act against the Warsaw Pact countries during the height of the Cold War.
Medvedev stressed in no uncertain terms that Russia would be forced to defend itself if NATO went ahead and developed the system unilaterally.
If Moscow does not take part in the project, “we will have to defend ourselves,” he warned. The dialog on this issue will continue, but the results should be “clear” to Russia, he added.
Increasingly, and with tremendous possible repercussions for the much-hyped US-Russian reset, NATO seems reluctant to bring the Russians on board the system.
Meanwhile, as talks on missile defense sputter, NATO is attempting to “do its job without sharing know-how and its political and legal guarantees with Russia," Russian Ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Monday.
Arguing that NATO is hoping the present standoff over missile defense in Europe will pass, Rogozin said there is no chance of this happening
“No, it won't pass,” he said. “We will get what we want with Russia's interests taken into account, one way or another.”
Meanwhile, Rogozin believes that Russia’s NATO partners will come around to the idea of creating a single European missile defense system with Russia’s direct participation.
Mutual participation in the ambitious project will not only enhance the level of our common security, he stressed, but create a unique co-operation potential.
However, in the unfortunate event that a shared missile defense system does not come to fruition, the NATO ambassador said “Russia will be forced to foot the expense of providing a military-technical answer."
President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama are expected to continue their dialogue on missile defense, among other issues, in Deauville, France, where a G8 summit is scheduled for late May.
Preparations for the summit are continuing along diplomatic and military channels, Rogozin said, while mentioning that Russia is prepared to be patient on this extremely critical issue.
"We are in no hurry," he said.
Although Russia has declared its willingness to show patience with NATO on the question of a joint missile defense system, it is clear that Russia’s missile designers will not wait for the last minute to develop their technologies.
Robert Bridge, RT |
Today, of all days, the government of Canada brings a new law into effect that will put some Canadian women in danger and likely lead to some of their deaths. Today, Dec. 6, the anniversary of the slaughter of 14 women by a gunman in Montreal, the day marked as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
Sex workers advocate Valerie Scott speaks with the media at the Supreme Court of Canada in December 2013. ( Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
It seems grimly appropriate, in a “sick and twisted” way, as activist Valerie Scott told Canadian Press this week, that this should be the day the Conservative government chooses to change Canada’s prostitution laws to make it harder for the women (and men) who work in that business to keep themselves safe. Sadly, it symbolically reflects the approach to “action on violence against women” we, as a country, have taken all too often, all these years after the Montreal Massacre made us swear that things needed to change. The aftermath and reflection after those killings produced a document called “The War Against Women,” containing recommendations about the changes that needed to be made to reduce the level of violence against women. A quarter-century later, my colleague Catherine Porter’s reflection published in these pages today finds that woefully little has been done to give force to those suggestions. A year ago this month, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down our laws governing prostitution on the basis that they deprived sex workers of the ability to work safely by screening clients and employing security. It seemed like progress for those who sell sex for money — by choice or circumstance — and who have long had to live in fear, in the shadows of the economy, denied the protections against violence we extend to workers in every other field. Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay responded with a new law, one that doesn’t address the safety issues the court clearly said needed addressing. It’s a new law that sex workers — including Scott, who brought the original Supreme Court case, and some I spoke to immediately after MacKay brought the bill forward — say will leave them even more endangered than before.
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This is not some moral parlour game, where we lean back in our chairs and express our disgust at the very concept of putting a price on physical intimacy. This is a very real matter of life and death. I used to work at Eye Weekly, an alternative paper that made much of its revenue from classified ads placed by sexual service providers. I remember in 2003, when I was still relatively new there, two of our clients, women who’d come into our office to pay for their ads every week, were murdered while working. Cassandra Do was 32, a former nurse’s aide saving money to pay for sex-reassignment surgery, whose friends said she was notoriously careful about screening clients. She was strangled to death. Lien Pham was a 39-year-old widow, a mother of two. She was strangled in an escort agency apartment while working alone two months later. Immediately afterwards, and in the years following, I spoke to many sex workers about the safety issues they faced in their jobs, and how they dealt with them. And almost every one I spoke to talked about the laws criminalizing the operation of sex work businesses as the biggest obstacle to protecting themselves.
That’s why, a decade after those deaths, Scott and her co-applicants brought their court case to the Supreme Court, and finally they seemed to be heard. The highest panel of justices in the country said what those workers had been telling us all along: that to protect sex workers, their business needed to be legalized. The new law may eventually also get struck down after it winds its way back through the courts. In the meantime, in the years before that likely court decision, it will put prostitutes in even more danger than before.
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When I spoke to her about the law this spring, Jean MacDonald of sex worker advocacy organization Maggie’s predicted, “What you’re going to see with this law is a continuation of the epidemic of violence against sex workers in Canada.” Today, in addition to reflecting on the deaths of the 14 women murdered in Montreal, I’ll think of Cassandra Do and Lien Pham, and the dozens of prostitutes murdered by Robert Pickton, and all the other women who’ve been beaten, raped and killed because of our inaction to protect them, or to allow them to protect themselves — or because, in the case of this new law, of our direct action to endanger them. Today, of all days. How horribly, enragingly appropriate. |
Baked Buffalo wings! How to make Buffalo wings marinated in a spicy sauce, broiled and served with a tangy delicious blue cheese sauce. These baked Buffalo wings are easy, with less mess and cleanup.
Photography Credit: Elise Bauer
Football (American) championship season. Sports bars, beer, and spicy things that make you want to drink more beer. Darts, pool, loud conversation – either an ill-spent or well-spent youth, depending on your perspective.
“Buffalo” Wings
Once in my early twenties, I happened to be in Buffalo, New York for a wedding of a dear friend. On our site-seeing day, the gang of us revelers happened to drive right by the Anchor Bar, home of the “Original Buffalo Chicken Wings”.
Did you know that Buffalo wings are so called because they were first invented in Buffalo, NY? I didn’t, and it had always been one of those oddities that gnawed at the back of my brain during these beer filled nights. In San Francisco, we had Tommy’s Buffalo Burgers made with real buffalo meat. But buffalo wings? Hah! Mystery solved.
Buffalo Wing Sauce vs. Marinade
Buffalo wings are traditionally deep fried and slathered with Buffalo wing sauce. But these baked Buffalo wings are what I prefer. The wings are broiled after they’ve been marinating in a spicy sauce. This recipe will show you how to make Buffalo wings that taste great, with less mess and easy clean-up.
(Like buffalo wings? Check out our Buffalo Chicken Dip!) |
By Kimberley A. Strassel Sept. 15, 2016 7:21 p.m. ET 37 COMMENTS
If the 2016 election is remembered for anything beyond its flawed candidates, it will be recalled as the year of the Democratic email dump. Or rather, the year that the voting public got an unvarnished view of the disturbing—nay, deplorable—inner workings of the highest echelons of the Democratic Party.
What makes the continuing flood of emails instructive is that nobody was ever meant to see these documents. Hillary Clinton set up a private server to shield her communications as secretary of state from the public. She gave top aide Huma Abedin an account on that server. She never envisioned that an FBI investigation and lawsuits would drag her conversations into the light.
The Democratic National Committee and Colin Powell (an honorary Democrat) likewise believed their correspondence secure. But both were successfully targeted by hackers, who released the latest round of enlightening emails this week.
ENLARGE Photo: Getty Images .
These emails provide what the public always complains it doesn’t have: unfiltered evidence of what top politicians do and think. And what a picture they collectively paint of the party of the left. For years, Democrats have steadfastly portrayed Republicans as elitist fat cats who buy elections, as backroom bosses who rig the laws in their favor, as brass-knuckle lobbyists and operators who get special access. It turns out that this is the precise description of the Democratic Party. They know of what they speak.
The latest hack of the DNC—courtesy of WikiLeaks via Guccifer 2.0—shows that Mrs. Clinton wasn’t alone in steering favors to big donors. Among the documents leaked is one that lists the party’s largest fundraisers/donors as of 2008. Of the top 57 cash cows 18 ended up with ambassadorships. The largest fundraiser listed, Matthew Barzun, who drummed up $3.5 million for Mr. Obama’s first campaign, was named ambassador to Sweden and then ambassador to the United Kingdom. The second-largest, Julius Genachowski , was named the head of the Federal Communications Commission. The third largest, Frank Sanchez, was named undersecretary of commerce.
Keep in mind what an earlier leak revealed: a May 18, 2016, email from an outside lawyer to DNC staffers in which the attorney suggests a call to “go over our process for handling donations from donors who have given us pay to play letters.” Add this to what the Clinton and Abedin emails have shown to be a massive pay-to-play operation at the Clinton Foundation, in which megadonors like the crown prince of Bahrain got special access to the secretary of state.
And there are also all those Clinton speeches, for which they were paid millions. News comes this week that despite the Clintons’ promises to distance themselves from their foundation, they will first be holding what sounds like one last fire sale on future presidential access: a belated birthday bash for Bill Clinton, with a glitzy party at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan. A donation of $250,000 gets you listed as “chair” of the party, while “co-chair” costs $100,000. Foundation officials are refusing to say who has donated, or how much.
So which political party is all about money, influence and special access? The Republican Party held a true, democratic primary. Seventeen candidates battled it out, and the voters choose a nominee that much of the party establishment disliked.
Leaked emails show that the Democratic Party hierarchy retreated to a backroom to anoint Hillary Clinton and then exercised its considerable power to subvert the primary process and kill off the Bernie Sanders campaign. In one email, Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall suggested sliming Mr. Sanders on religion: “Can we get someone to ask his belief. Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.” How’s that for deplorable?
Perhaps most revealing are Mr. Powell’s emails, which show, undisguised, how Clinton supporters think. Specifically, the emails demonstrate that this crowd recognizes the Clintons as a menace—and yet they are willing to excuse away anything. “I would rather not have to vote for her,” Mr. Powell wrote to a friend. “A 70-year person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational, with a husband still [sleeping with] bimbos at home.”
Unpack that. Mr. Powell is saying that Hillary is old; that she is a scandal factory; that she will cut any corner to win and do anything for a buck; that she won’t help the country; and that her husband remains a liability. And yet other emails suggest Mr. Powell nonetheless was (is?) debating giving her a boost with a well-timed endorsement in the fall.
This is the modern Democratic Party. The more it has struggled to sell its ideas to the public, the more it has turned to rigging the system to its political benefit. Don’t take Republicans’ word for it. Just read the emails.
Write to [email protected]. |
Donald Trump has spent a lot of time in the last year trying to make news, first with his birther obsession, and more recently demanding comedian Bill Maher pay him $5 million. (Maher offered the sum for proof Trump wasn’t the “spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.” Trump released his own birth certificate and threatened to sue Maher for the money.)
Now Trump is exploring ways to make news in a more literal way: by acquiring the New York Times. According to sources familiar with the situation, Trump has engaged in more than one meeting to discuss how he might buy the Grey Lady. Details of Trump’s strategy remain scant. And it seems unlikely, to say the least, that the Sulzberger family, which controls the company’s voting shares, would welcome his offer.
A spokesperson for Trump declined to comment. The Times also declined to comment. The newspaper has long been rumored to be a coveted trophy for acquisitive billionaires, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg commonly mentioned as a potential buyer.
Trump certainly has many opinions on how Times journalism should be conducted. For instance, when columnist Gail Collins derided Trump’s birther obsession in 2011, calling him “the man who can make Bill O’Reilly look like the most sensible guy in the room,” Trump responded with a letter to the editor claiming that Collins’s “storytelling ability and word usage (coming from me, who has written many bestsellers), is not at a very high level. More importantly, her facts are wrong!” |
These are just my opinions, and I don’t speak on behalf of my employer.
On the Facebookers this morning, noticed one of my friends was contemplating coming out to San Francisco this year to join approximately 50,000 other Oracle and Java-heads for Java One and Oracle Open World.
I’m not going to try to sell you on this event – the location alone should be enough to get most of you excited. San Francisco is an amazing city to visit. The technical content, networking, and after hours social events are just bonuses.
That being said, here’s some advice on how to make the most of your time – not to mention your employer’s investment!
Use the Schedule Builder
Find 2 sessions a day that you MUST attend. Do your best to make it to these sessions. For the rest of the day, leave it to chance. You’ll stumble your way into many more sessions than just two, based on the advice of others or just what catches your eye at the time.
Build your own presentation.
This is the only homework I’ll be assigning you. When you get back to work, I want you to present to your group something that you learned at the conference. This is your chance to make sure it’s a ‘no-brainer’ decision in 2016 when it’s time to register for Open World.
You don’t have to parrot back things you heard. Maybe there’s an ongoing technical or process pain beleaguering your team or product. Make it your mission to find the experts at the conference that can give you some insight for improving the situation, or even fixing it.
Meet an Oracle Product Manager
We won’t bite. We like to talk to users, that’s why we’re there even. Introduce yourself, send us a LinkedIn invite, and follow-up a week to 10 days later with an invite for us to engage you further. It could be a demonstration or presentation to your group, or maybe you want to work closer with us as a trusted partner. Developers can be pretty cool too, so feel free to meet a few of those as well 🙂
Bring a backpack
To haul all of your stuff, all day. Here’s what to put in it each morning:
Sandals or comfy footwear to change out of if you HAVE to be formal at the show
a shirt or even a change of clothes – you might not be able to make it back to your room from conference time to ‘after conference’ time
water – bring a good sized water bottle. Fill it up. Drink a lot of it. You’re gonna need it. Trust me.
Lozenges or something for your throat – I go hoarse after the first day or two. You’re going to be talking a lot more than usual.
Dress in Layers
It can be hot or cold. Expect cold. But if you’re walking around a lot outside, you’re gonna get warm. Bring a hoodie or something you can easily take on or off. The conference is a month later than usual, so it will probably be on the cooler side. Definitely bring sunglasses and really, really good walking shoes.
If you don’t have a good jacket, bring a few extra dollars and buy one – lot’s of great shopping to be had. And they have a nice Oracle ‘mall’ setup in the Moscone to get your branded jackets, hoodies, shirts, and yachting accessories.
Don’t pay for food if you don’t have to.
You can probably find an event each evening where food or at least appetizers are gratis. Save those dollars, and again, make it much easier for your trip to get approved the next year.
Oh, and eat a good breakfast each morning. You might look up and notice it’s already 2 in the afternoon before you get a chance to eat again. Mel’s across from the Moscone is GOOD and CHEAP. And you can get a milkshake for breakfast if your your throat needs some medicine. They’re also really fast.
Coming out early, get active!
Get out of the Moscone and/or your hotel. Take a bike tour, walk/run across the Golden Gate Bridge, or jump into the bay for a swim!
These are also good ways to network and meet other database nerds. If you’re a blogger, then the Pythian Blogger party on Wednesday before the Customer Appreciation Event is always really fun.
Speaking of the Customer Appreciation Event…
It’s a great show
Free food, free drink. The venue is great. Just be ready to queue up to the buses to get over and back. So that change of clothes in your backpack will come in handy. And it’ll be chilly over there, so have a good jacket.
Some Apps for Your Phone
Yelp to find places to eat. Uber to get around. Google Maps for walking directions. A good Twitter client for staying in touch with others at the show or making others back home jealous. Instagram for all of those great San Francisco vistas. Untappd to track good beers you find. Oh, be sure to get some Pliny the Elder on tap if you can find it, it’s one of the best beers in the world, and really hard to find outside of Northern California.
Speaking of beers, there’s tons of breweries in San Francisco to check you. And if you have a free day, get a car and drive over to Santa Rosa to visit Russian River Brewing Company.
The Movie
Someone thought this would make a good video. So here. |
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Click on any state below and see who won the Republican and Democratic race popular votes, and the estimated number of delegates awarded.
Republican results in the US territories:
Puerto Rico: Marco Rubio won the Puerto Rico Republican primary on March 6, besting second-place finisher Donald Trump by 60 points.
American Samoa: Donald Trump won the American Samoa Republican caucus on March 22.
Guam: The Guam Republican caucus isn’t until July, but the territory’s GOP has pledged all nine of its delegates to Donald Trump.
US Virgin Islands: Marco Rubio came out of the Republican caucus in the territory with two delegates, while Ted Cruz and Donald Trump each had one. The delegate selection process was marred by accusations of assault and defamation, according to Politico.
Northern Mariana Islands: Donald Trump won the Republican caucus in the territory with more than 72 percent of the vote and was awarded its nine delegates.
*Note: Colorado and North Dakota Republicans did not have a presidential candidate caucus or primary in 2016. In North Dakota, the state’s 25 delegates can vote for whomever they want at the national convention in Cleveland. Colorado’s 37 delegates were elected in April either as “pledged” delegates who promise to vote for a particular candidate, or “unpledged,” who can vote for anyone in Cleveland. Most of those delegates supported Ted Cruz.
Democratic results in the US territories:
Puerto Rico: Hillary Clinton handily won the Democratic primary in Puerto Rico on June 5. Amid reports of long lines and complaints about reduced polling locations, Clinton secured a majority of the island’s 60 delegates. She also has the support of most of the island’s seven superdelegates.
American Samoa: Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Caucus in American Samoa on March 1, netting four of the territory’s six pledged delegates, according to the New York Times.
Guam: Hillary Clinton won the Guam Democratic Caucuses on May 7, earning four of the territory’s seven elected delegates, according to the New York Times.
US Virgin Islands: Hillary Clinton won the caucus in the US Virgin Islands June 4, netting all seven of the territory’s pledged delegates. Clinton also has the support of four of the territory’s five superdelegates, according to the Washington Post.
Northern Mariana Islands: Hillary Clinton won the Norther Mariana Islands Democratic caucus March 12 by 20 points, netting four pledged delegates to Bernie Sanders’ two, according to the New York Times and Politico. |
GNOME 3.17.3 released
From: Frederic Peters <fpeters gnome org>
To: GNOME 2 release team <release-team gnome org>, desktop-devel-list <desktop-devel-list gnome org>, devel-announce-list gnome org
Subject: GNOME 3.17.3 released
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2015 19:16:14 +0200
Hey all, The development of the next GNOME release, 3.17, is going on and a new snapshot, 3.17.3, is now available. Give it a shot! Some of us will gather in San Francisco next week for the West Coast Summit 2015, and a month later we will all gather for GUADEC in Gothenburg, Sweden (no relation whatsoever with a conspiracy that doesn't even exist). To compile GNOME 3.17.3, you can use the jhbuild[1] modulesets[2] (which use the exact tarball versions from the official release). [1] https://developer.gnome.org/jhbuild/ [2] https://download.gnome.org/teams/releng/3.17.3/ The release notes that describe the changes between 3.17.2 and 3.17.3 are available. Go read them to learn what's new in this release: core - http://download.gnome.org/core/3.17/3.17.3/NEWS apps - http://download.gnome.org/apps/3.17/3.17.3/NEWS The GNOME 3.17.3 release is available here: core sources - http://download.gnome.org/core/3.17/3.17.3 apps sources - http://download.gnome.org/apps/3.17/3.17.3 WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! -------------------------- This release is a snapshot of early development code. Although it is buildable and usable, it is primarily intended for testing and hacking purposes. GNOME uses odd minor version numbers to indicate development status. For more information about 3.17, the full schedule, the official module lists and the proposed module lists, please see our 3.17 page: http://www.gnome.org/start/unstable For a quick overview of the GNOME schedule, please see: http://live.gnome.org/Schedule Cheers, Fred |
Overview
Whiley is a hybrid object-oriented and functional programming language. Whiley employs extended static checking to eliminate errors at compile time, including divide-by-zero, array out-of-bounds and null dereference errors. Extended static checking is made possible through the use of an automated theorem prover. Whiley compiles to the Java Virtual Machine and is fully inter-operable with existing Java applications.
A simple Whiley program illustrates the main ideas:
function abs(int x) -> (int r) ensures r >= 0 ensures r == x || r == -x: // if x >= 0: return x else: return -x
The above function has a post-condition requirement that the return value cannot be negative, and matches either the parameter x or its negation. The Whiley compiler would reject at compile-time any implementation which did not meet this specification.
Aims
Numerous important software systems have failed due to program bugs. Historic examples include the Therac-25 disaster where a computer-operated X-ray machine gave lethal doses to patients, the 1988 worm which wreaked havoc on the internet by exploiting a buffer overrun, and the (unmanned) Ariane 5 rocket which exploded shortly after launch because of an integer overflow (see this video and this list for more).
To address this, Prof. Sir Tony Hoare (ACM Turing Award Winner, FRS) recently proposed the creation of a verifying compiler as a grand challenge for computer science. A verifying compiler:
“uses mathematical and logical reasoning to check the correctness of the programs that it compiles”.
Whiley is an attempt to tackle the verifying compiler challenge. Whiley was developed from scratch because existing languages are already extremely complex, and verifying their programs automatically seems intractable. Indeed, while attempts to construct verifying compilers for existing languages (e.g. Spec# and ESC/Java) have had some success, they remain a long way from completion.
Background
Modern programming languages, such as Java and C#, eliminate fairly simple classes of error (so-called type errors) through the process of type checking; however, they cannot detect more complex problems, such as the potential for a divide-by-zero error. Type checking has been used for a long time in programming languages, historical examples of which include: ALGOL, Pascal, Modula-2, C, C++, Java, C# and more.
Numerous attempts have been made to improve upon the type-checking paradigm. Perhaps most notable was the Extended Static Checking system for Modula-3 (ESC/Modula-3), developed originally at the Compaq Systems Research Center. By 1996 this had reached the point where it became usable in practice. By that time, however, use of Modula-3 was already in significant decline. So, the ESC/Java project was begun in an effort to attract the growing number of Java programmers. The critical component underlying both of these systems was the Simplify theorem prover. This was perhaps one of the first example of an efficient, practical SMT Solver. ESC/Java was described in a seminal paper, and has been used for a variety of real-world tasks, including the Gemplus Smart Card project. However, despite these successes there remains significant issues with the tool. In particular, it is unsound in the presence of multithreading, ignores modulo arithmetic and makes simplifying assumptions regarding loops, aliasing and object initialisation.
Around the same time that ESC/Java was becoming a reality a related project, called the Java Modeling Language (JML), was born. The aim here was to provide a standardised language for writing method pre- and post-conditions, class invariants and more. The advantage of this approach is that it allows a multitude of different tools to be brought to bear on a project. For example, the jmlrac tool does not check conditions at compile time, but instead converts them into runtime checks. Whilst this is not as desirable as performing checks at compile time, it does provide a useful intermediate position.
More recently, Microsoft has begun the Spec# project. This was influenced by JML and Eiffel, and provides a formal language for API contracts. Spec# is primarily intended to be used as a vehicle for research in the area of verifying compilers, and builds on Boogie and the Z3 SMT solver. At the time of writing, the released version only supported runtime checking of pre- and post-conditions although compile checking was performed for some specific cases (e.g. non-null types).
The notion of design-by-contract, where programmers define formal and precise specifications for their software components, was originally coined by Bertrand Meyer for the Eiffel language. Eiffel was probably the first example of a widely-used language that supported pre- and post-conditions. However, in this case, the contracts were always checked at runtime (although efforts have been made to extend this to compile-time checking). Perhaps one key issue here, was the lack of quantifiers in the language definition. Nevertheless, Eiffel remains an excellent example of what can be achieved in this area, and it is still supported by Eiffel Software and used in numerous industrial applications.
Finally, there are several other notable languages in this area. SPARK/Ada has been used by Altran Praxis to develop both commercial and military aircraft software; and, the X10 lanugage, developed by IBM, supports dependent types which allow fine-grained constraints on program variables.
Language Design
The design of Whiley attempts to resolve many outstanding issues related to the verification of object-oriented languages. In particular, the following design choices are seen as critical to its success:
Traditional object-oriented systems do not distinguish values from objects, which presents a significant challenge for software verification. For this reason, Whiley adopts a hybrid approach which distinguishes functions from methods . A function can only accept values as parameters and also returns a value; this ensures that it is side-effect free. Whiley includes standard primitive types, including int and boolean ; however, Whiley also provides primitive sets, lists, maps and tuples. Thus, functions can perform complex computations, and can also be used safely within pre- and post-conditions.
. A function can only accept values as parameters and also returns a value; this ensures that it is side-effect free. Whiley includes standard primitive types, including and ; however, Whiley also provides primitive sets, lists, maps and tuples. Thus, functions can perform complex computations, and can also be used safely within pre- and post-conditions. Modular arithmetic has proved problematic for software verifiers and, hence, Whiley uses unbounded arithmetic . That is, a variable declared as int is not limited to a specific range of values as determined, for example, by 32-bit twos-complement representation. Thus, in theory at least, an int can take on any possible integer value (although there remain some limitations imposed by the amount of available RAM).
. That is, a variable declared as is not limited to a specific range of values as determined, for example, by 32-bit twos-complement representation. Thus, in theory at least, an can take on any possible integer value (although there remain some limitations imposed by the amount of available RAM). Object aliasing has been a difficult issue for program analysis and verification, and a significant amount of research exists on the problem of pointer analysis. Whilst solutions to this problem have proven invaluable for reasoning about traditional languages, such as Java, they suffer from an inherent lack of modularity. Whiley works around this issue by significantly limiting the situations where aliasing can arise ; in particular, whilst aliasing can arise within a method, it can never arise within a function. Methods (aka messages) are used to change the state of an object, whilst functions simply compute information. In the Whiley model, the number of objects within a running system is significantly fewer than in a language like Java (where almost everything is an object).
; in particular, whilst aliasing can arise within a method, it can never arise within a function. Methods (aka messages) are used to change the state of an object, whilst functions simply compute information. In the Whiley model, the number of objects within a running system is significantly fewer than in a language like Java (where almost everything is an object). Many existing languages, including JML, permit pre- and post-conditions which are non-computable. The most common situation where this arises is in conjunction with quantifiers. For example, one might have a condition such as this: forall x,y,z:int [!exists n:int [n>2 && x^n=y^n+z^n]] The astute reader will recognise this as Fermat’s Last Theorem which, indeed, has been proved correct. One cannot expect automated theorem proving technology to reason correctly about such conditions! Whiley addresses this by enforcing its prime directive: every condition must be convertable into a runtime check and, hence, must be computable. Thus, Whiley employs a form of three-valued logic when checking conditions: definitely correct, definitely incorrect and unknown. The first indicates there is definitely no error at that program point; the second indicates there definitely is an error at that program point; whilst the third indicates Whiley could not definitely determine an answer. When this latter state arises, Whiley inserts a runtime check at that program point and produces a warning to indicate this.
These decisions have had a significant impact upon the design of the Whiley language. To learn more about the language, check out the documentation. |
Today marks the centenary of the capture of the Austro-Hungarian fortress at Przemyśl by Russian forces, marking the end of the greatest siege of the First World War. Never a household word outside Central Europe, the siege of Przemyśl has fallen into the memory hole of the Great War’s Eastern Front, which Winston Churchill termed the Unknown War in 1931, and which it sadly mostly remains. The reasons for this historical amnesia are not difficult to detect, beyond the century-long general obsession with the Western Front in the English-speaking world. Przemyśl is someplace most people have never heard of, plus is Polishly unpronounceable.
A hundred years ago, however, the name of Przemyśl was all over the world media. A market town turned into a fortress by the Austro-Hungarian military, it stood astride the river San, in the center of the Habsburg province of Galicia. It was, in every sense, a midpoint: of geography, of roads and rail lines, and a dividing line of sorts between Galicia’s Polish and Ukrainian populations.
Przemyśl was never intended to be a major factor in the coming war against Russia. In the first place, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf (right), Vienna’s top general, planned to carry the war to the enemy. Like virtually every generalissimo in Europe a century ago, Conrad was a devout believer in the cult of the offensive and saw little use in spending scarce Austro-Hungarian defense funds on fortresses. Thus when Przemyśl’s role on the world stage commenced, unexpectedly, it was ready for a siege in 1884, not 1914.
How the Great War’s Eastern Front came to focus on Przemyśl for several critical months is a saga of Habsburgian tragicomedy. In response to the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, an act of terrorism that Conrad and most security officials in Austria-Hungary — correctly — believed was the handiwork of the Serbian government in Belgrade, with Russian backing, Vienna consciously decided for war. Most Habsburg generals and many diplomats had expected this war for years, with Conrad and others welcoming it, and there was something approaching relief when, after years of rising tensions, war finally came.
However, the two-front-war that Austria-Hungary got from that decision, since there was no chance that Russia would stand idly by while its “brother Slav” proxy in Serbia was crushed by Habsburg forces, was a conflict for which Vienna’s military, starved of funds for decades, was simply too small and ill-equipped to win. Unconcerned with such details of strategy and logistics, Conrad — a lonely widower who had the distressing habit of spending hours daily writing long, anguished love letters to his married mistress rather than planning for war — plunged his country into a war that it stood no real chance of winning.
The magical thinking that drove Conrad’s war plans was quickly laid bare by a disaster on the Drina river. In the second week of August, the Habsburg 5th and 6th Armies invaded Serbia, expecting a quick victory over the “murder boys” in Belgrade. Nothing of the sort happened. The Serbian Army, blooded in two Balkan Wars in 1912-13, proved skilled and tenacious in defense of their own soil, and missteps by the untried Habsburg 21st Division at Cer mountain, overlooking the Drina valley, led to a rout. By August 19, Habsburg forces were back in Austria-Hungary, humbled and weary, their effort to subdue Serbia having turned into a historic debacle. Serbia had unexpectedly given the Allies their first victory of the Great War.
Worse was soon to come on the Eastern Front. Just days after Vienna’s failed invasion of Serbia wound down in humiliation, the bulk of Austria-Hungary’s field forces kicked off their grand offensive into Russian territory. At first, Conrad’s army made impressive local gains, moving northward from Przemyśl, with the 1st and 4th Armies scoring noteworthy local victories over the Russians at Kraśnik and Komarów respectively. But the real drama was playing out in East Galicia, around Lemberg, where the bulk of the Tsar’s armies were marshaling.
Lemberg was not only the major city in East Galicia but the “capital” of Ukrainian nationalism — just as it is now, a century later, as L’viv — and was therefore the prize that Russian armies sought to take. It was given to the invader too easily, thanks to deeply flawed Habsburg planning. Conrad ordered his 3rd Army to attack eastward out of Lemberg, but the Austro-Hungarian high command really had no idea how many Russians lurked out there, in the rolling hills and river valleys of easternmost Galicia, and they advanced blindly until they collided with the enemy. Vast encounter battles ensued, of a size never recorded in warfare. Regrettably for Vienna, its 3rd Army was outnumbered three-to-one east of Lemberg and within days the Russians had steamrollered Conrad’s forces in East Galicia and a panicky retreat ensued.
Notwithstanding heroic efforts to hold the line, Lemberg was abandoned to the Russians and despite placing the failing 3rd Army under the command of Svetozar Boroević, Austria-Hungary’s toughest general, the enemy could not be stopped: there were simply too many of them, By the time what remained of Conrad’s armies reached the refuge of the San river, where Fortress Przemyśl stood, Vienna realized the extent of the disaster. Nearly half of the 900,000 troops Austria-Hungary committed to battle against Russia in late August were gone by mid-September: 420,000 casualties with over 100,000 dead. The loss, which had no precedent in all military history, equaled the prewar standing Habsburg Army. This was a blow from which Austria-Hungary would never recover.
The San river line, with Przemyśl in the middle, had to be held but this, too, soon proved impossible. There were simply too many Russians, and Conrad reluctantly ordered a retreat towards Cracow and into the Carpathian mountains. But Przemyśl was to hold out as long as possible, at any cost, to serve as a thorn in the side of the Russians, one that might slow down their offensive deeper into Austria-Hungary.
The actual condition of Fortress Przemyśl when the siege commenced on September 24 left a great deal to be desired. It was not a single fortress, rather an outer ring of fortresses that fully encircled the city at a distance of five to eight kilometers out, supplemented by an inner ring of forts just outside the city. On paper, Przemyśl (right) seemed well defended. It possessed forty-five kilometers of entrenchments and eleven fixed artillery batteries: a total of 714 cannons, fifty-four howitzers, ninety-five heavy mortars, and seventy-two machine guns. However, the only modern pieces were two dozen siege guns, while 299 of Przemyśl’s cannons were Model 1861! A crash program to strengthen the fortress in mid-August, involving 27,000 workers, succeeded in clearing forests around the city, creating fields of fire, and laying a million meters of barbed wire in every direction, but could do nothing to change Przemyśl’s fundamental unreadiness for the twentieth century battlefield.
Neither did the garrison’s morale inspire much confidence. Its commander, Hermann von Kusmanek, had been chosen by Conrad, but proved to be a general of no great distinction. His besieged force looked impressive on paper, with 130,000 troops, but there was only one combat division in the fortress, with 23rd, and it had been roughed up around Lemberg. To make matters worse, most of the rest of the garrison consisted of second-line troops, largely militia, of mixed reliability and combat effectiveness.
Then there was the ethnic factor. Austria-Hungary’s military, like the empire itself, consisted of a dozen different nationalities, not all of whom viewed each other affectionately. Przemyśl’s garrison consisted disproportionately of Hungarians, many of whom had no love for Slavs of any kind. Incidents of ethnic disaffection, even violence, proved difficult to ignore. Just as the siege was beginning, a column of suspected Russian spies being marched through the city under armed guard was spontaneously set upon by a crowd of angry soldiers, Hungarians armed with clubs and knives. Bloodlust against the traitorous “foreigners” exploded in rage. By the time the military police restored order, forty-five of the suspects were dead, among them the daughter of a Greek Catholic priest; none of the suspects, it turned out, were actually Russian spies.
To compensate for Habsburg problems there was Russian overconfidence. Fresh from victory at Lemberg, the Russians expected that taking the fortress on the San would be quick work. As Alexei Brusilov, the Tsar’s best general, who had thrashed Conrad’s forces in East Galicia, explained, “after such a succession of defeats and heavy losses, the Austrian Army was so demoralized and Przemyśl so little prepared to stand a siege (for its garrison, composed of beaten troops, was far from steady), that I was absolutely convinced that by the middle of October the place could have been taken by assault without any serious artillery preparation.”
Here Brusilov’s guess was off by a wide margin. The first serious Russian effort to take the fortress-city, in late September, was a rout, with the attackers losing 40,000 men over three days. A Habsburg counteroffensive pushed the Russian line back a bit in mid-October, giving Kusmanek’s forces a breather, but by early November the Russians were back and siege recommenced.
Life inside the fortress was grim. Russian barrages by heavy siege artillery took a daily toll of defenders. Food was already in short supply and backbiting between ethnic groups was a perennial concern. None of this was conveyed to the public, however, which was told stories of martial glory from besieged Przemyśl, which Conrad insisted be held up as an example of Habsburg courage and steadfastness against all odds. The high command was kept informed of goings-on inside the fortress city thanks to regular mail delivery. In a historical footnote, the siege of Przemyśl witnessed the first air mail service, as Austro-Hungarian aircraft were able to land and take off from inside the city until nearly the end of the siege.
As the harsh winter of 1914-15 set in, both sides froze while attempting to make ground around Przemyśl . By Christmas, it was apparent that while the Russians could not yet take the fortress, neither was a breakout by the defenders likely. They had to be relieved before the siege ended on Russian terms. For Conrad, the stakes were dire. If Przemyśl fell, the Habsburg defensive lines in the Carpathian mountains would probably give way under renewed Russian attacks, and there was nothing behind those passes but the great Hungarian plain. The fate of the Habsburg realm depended on a successful outcome of Przemyśl’s siege.
It was in this spirit that Conrad ordered his tired forces to undertake the offensive in the third week of January 1915. Przemyśl had to be relieved. Yet this was a cruel folly even by the standards of the Great War. In the first place, Conrad sent his forces into the attack in the middle of a harsh winter. Guns, supplies, and men froze in vast numbers. The mountain passes, covered in ice, proved death traps. Even the tough Boroević could not make much headway, so awful were the conditions.
To make matters worse, the Russians did not give ground easily, and enemy counterattacks soon took back what little terrain Habsburg forces had managed to seize in late January. Undeterred by endless bad news, plus casualties so severe that the army had lost count of them, Conrad ordered another Carpathian offensive in late February to relieve Przemyśl. This effort, too, petered out in a frozen bloodbath, not for want of courage, as Austro-Hungarian divisions made little progress in the hell of what the survivors remembered as the Karpathenwinter.
By the end of February, it was obvious to even Conrad that Przemyśl could not be relived. In the end, three months of failed offensives and counteroffensives in the frozen Carpathians, in the direction of the fortress, cost Vienna a staggering 800,000 men dead, wounded, captured, missing, and seriously ill, amounting to almost seven times the garrison besieged at Przemyśl. By early March, morale inside the fortress was plummeting as hunger, disease, and rising indiscipline took their toll. Ugly incidents of inter-ethnic violence had become commonplace. Kusmanek was losing control of his tired force and late efforts at a breakout never really got off the ground.
On March 22, 1915, Kusmanek accepted reality and surrendered his fortress and its garrison to the Russians. Into captivity, after 133 days under siege since early November, went nine Habsburg generals, 2,500 officers, and 117,000 men. This was a disaster of such scope that it could not be hidden from the Austro-Hungarian public. Morale took a heavy blow from the fortress’s fall, especially in Hungary, which had contributed so many troops to the siege, and where every piece of news from the fortress was followed closely.
Yet the Russian hold on the fortress, which they had bought at a great cost in blood, would prove fleeting. Witnessing the debacle at Przemyśl and in the Carpathians, Berlin reluctantly decided that its ailing ally had to be saved before the Russian bear killed off Austria-Hungary altogether. The result was the Gorlice-Tarnów offensive in early May, east of Cracow, which tore a gaping hole in Russian defenses. Exhausted from months of fighting and losses almost as vast as Austria-Hungary’s, the Tsar’s armies in Galicia collapsed under Prussian and Habsburg blows. Austro-Hungarian forces finally advanced out of the Carpathians, and by June Przemyśl was back in Habsburg hands, the Russians making no effort to renew the siege with themselves as the defenders. By summer’s end, Lemberg and nearly all of Galicia had been retaken, while the Russians lost a million men as prisoners alone. Conrad’s terrible defeats had been avenged.
But the shame of Przemyśl would never disappear for Austria-Hungary or its top general. The fall of the fortress, after months of painful siege, became for some a symbol of the ultimate failure of the Habsburg Empire itself — doomed by poor planning and flawed leadership, all the while riven by ethnic backbiting. Although the army would hold out until early November 1918, losing seven million casualties along the way to defeat, rising animosities between Austria-Hungary’s many nationalities would prove the undoing of the empire at the conclusion of the Great War.
Not much remains of the epic siege that captivated the world’s attention a century ago. Many of the shell-scarred fortifications remain, while Przemyśl has a nice museum of the siege. In Budapest there stands a monument to the siege and its many Hungarian defenders, the Przemyśl Lion (right). Today, Przemyśl again finds itself close to war, perched as it on the border with Ukraine. Again, Russian invaders are making headlines and the cast — an aggressively imperialist, eastward-looking Russia versus a westward-looking Galicia that sees itself as part of Central Europe — seems remarkably familiar. History does not repeat itself exactly, but some believe it does rhyme.
P.S. The full story of the siege of Przemyśl and the entire Galician campaign, which proved the undoing of Austria-Hungary thanks to Conrad’s flawed generalship, is told fully in my book Fall of the Double Eagle, which will be published in a few months.
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Image caption The religious leaders learned about the people that died in the German Nazi camps in Poland
Muslim leaders from around the world have taken part in an unprecedented trip to Germany and Poland to see and hear for themselves about the horrors of the Jewish Holocaust.
The 11 imams, sheiks and religious teachers from nine countries met a Holocaust survivor and Poles whose families risked execution to save Jews from the Nazis, in the Polish capital's Nozyk Synagogue as part of the tour.
They have been around museums, including the recently opened Museum of the History of Polish Jews on the site of the former Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw. And they also visited the Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps.
"The main aim is to get Muslims who are leaders all over the world, particularly in the Middle East, to acknowledge the reality of what happened here and to be able to teach it to the people that they lead," said trip organiser Rabbi Jack Bemporad, who is executive director of the US-based Center for Interreligious Understanding.
He was standing underneath the red brick watchtower over the main entrance to Birkenau, the largest of more than 40 camps that made up the Auschwitz complex. This was where the Nazis installed four gas chambers and crematoria to speed up the murder and disposal of people, who were mostly Jews, from across Europe.
More understanding
Auschwitz-Birkenau, set up by the Germans in Nazi-occupied Poland, is largely intact and is now a museum. Historians estimate 1.1 million people were killed there - one million of them were Jews but there were also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and others.
"I think that when someone wants to deny the Holocaust or think that it is exaggerated, which many of them do and certainly many of their followers do, when they come here and see it, their experience is such that they can no longer think that," Rabbi Bemporad said.
Image caption The visitors stopped to pray beside an execution wall.
Beside the ruins of one of the gas chambers - the Germans blew them up as they retreated, in an effort to hide their crimes - the Muslim leaders paused for a moment's silence.
"You may read every book about the Holocaust but it's nothing like when you see this place where people were burned," said Mohamed Magid, president of the Islamic Society of North America.
"This is the building, the bricks. If they were to speak to you and I, they would tell you how many cries and screams they have heard."
It's not just about Jews... this is all about human beings because the human race suffered here." Ahmet Muharrem Atlig, Turkish imam
Mr Magid, who is originally from Sudan, first visited Auschwitz-Birkenau during a trip organised for American imams in 2010. He said the experience had led him to hold an annual Seder, a Jewish ceremonial meal, at his mosque in Virginia where he invites people to listen to the story of a Holocaust survivor who was saved by a Muslim family.
"We go back more committed to human rights and more understanding of conflicts and how to resolve them, but also to be careful of a curriculum that teaches racism and hatred," he said.
Pain and injustice
Earlier, the group had taken photos as they walked around an exhibition in the red brick barrack blocks at Auschwitz, about 2 miles (3kms) from Birkenau.
They made comments such as "Can you imagine?" and "It's beyond comprehension" as they saw a great pile of hair shorn from women prisoners that was used to make rudimentary textiles. They shook their heads as they saw faded children's shoes and dolls in glass cases.
After they had seen just two of the 14 exhibition blocks, some of the group asked for a break and they knelt in prayer beside the camp's execution wall.
Barakat Hasan, a Palestinian imam and director of the Center for Studies and Islamic Media in Jerusalem, said he "didn't know many details about the Holocaust" before the trip.
Image caption Barakat Hasan, a Palestinian imam, said he would share what he had learned on the visit
"I felt my heart bleeding when I was looking at all this. I was fighting back tears," he said through an interpreter. "As a Palestinian living under occupation, I feel sympathy for the pain and injustice that was inflicted on the Jews," he added.
Mr Hasan said he did not believe there were people in the Muslim world who denied the Holocaust happened, but he said there was discussion in his community about whether the commonly quoted figure of six million Jewish victims was correct.
"Maybe now after seeing what I've seen, maybe the numbers are correct also," he said, adding that he would write articles and mention his trip on Facebook.
As he walked along the railway line and unloading ramp at Birkenau - where the trains hauling cattle cars crammed with Jews arrived - Ahmet Muharrem Atlig, a Turkish imam and secretary general of the Journalists and Writers Foundation in Istanbul, said he wept when he saw a photograph that showed children looking scared as they got off a train.
"Unfortunately the Muslim communities and congregation don't know much about the Holocaust," he said.
"Yes, we've heard something. But we have to come and see what happened here. It's not just about Jews, or Christians, this is all about human beings because the human race suffered here." |
A Greek daily newspaper with the cover headline of 'Europe Hopes For A Miracle' in reference to the upcoming referendum in Great Britain over whether to remain in the European Union is displayed on a table on June 17, 2016 in Athens, Greece. (Photo11: Milos Bicanski, Getty Images)
LONDON — Two new polls suggest that support has swung back toward remaining in the European Union, as campaigning resumed Sunday after last week's slaying of British lawmaker Jo Cox.
A poll conducted Friday and Saturday by market research firm Survation for the Mail on Sunday said 45% of the respondents wanted to stay in the 28-member EU, and 42% wanted to leave.
A survey by YouGov for the Sunday Times conducted Thursday and Friday said 44% wanted to remain, and 43% wanted to leave.
Britons vote Thursday on a referendum about the United Kingdom's membership in the EU. Previous polls had put Brexit — Britain’s departure from the bloc — ahead of those favoring to remain in the EU.
The latest poll by Survation is the first since Cox, 41, a Labor Party member of Parliament, was shot and stabbed in the street Thursday after she met with constituents in the village of Birstall in West Yorkshire in northern England. The suspect, Thomas Mair, 52, was charged with her death and appeared in court Saturday.
A third of the responses to the YouGov poll were gathered before the death of Cox, who supported remaining in the EU.
YouGov said it does not think the strengthened support to remain in the EU is connected to her murder. “The underlying figures suggest the movement may be more to do with people worrying about the economic impact of leaving the European Union,” said YouGov spokesman Anthony Wells.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who is campaigning to remain with the EU, said he would continue as prime minister even if the nation votes for Brexit, the Sunday Times reported. Many have speculated that Cameron could go if the campaign to leave is successful.
Investors expect the pound to fall sharply if Britain votes to exit the EU, and the Economist Intelligence Unit predicted the economy would shrink 1% next year if the country votes for Brexit.
Cameron told the Sunday Times that leaving the EU would be “a one-way ticket.”
“Once you have jumped out of the aeroplane, you can’t scramble back through the door,” he said. “There is no way back in. This is an irreversible decision with very bad consequences for the British economy.”
Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a member of the ruling Conservative Party who is campaigning to leave the bloc, told the Sunday Telegraph: “There are economic risks if we leave, economic risks if we remain. I don’t think there will be a recession as a result of a vote to leave.
“But at some point in the future, it may be the case that global economic factors cause problems. My argument is that whatever happens in the future, an independent Britain will be better able to cope with those strains.”
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By Daniel Cabrera, M.D.
Author: Daniel Cabrera, M.D. / Reviewer: Dustin Leigh, M.D.
What are hiccups? Why is it important?
Hiccups are funny as long as somebody else is the one suffering. Although described since the beginning of civilization, understanding of this phenomenon is very poor(1) . There is scant medical literature focused on the topic with most of the current knowledge coming from the palliative care world(2).
The technical term for hiccup is singultus or synchronous diaphragmatic flutter(3). Singultus is a rhythmic movement of the diaphragm, occuring more common in males. Eighty percent is caused by unilateral contraction of the left hemi diaphragm, with a frequency of 20-60 hertz, and happening at any point of the respiratory cycle. Utility of singultus is unclear with some scientists speculating it is an evolutionary remnant from amphibian physiology(3).
Hiccups can be acute or chronic, defined by a duration threshold of 48 hours. Although in the ED some of the cases we face are acute, chronic singultus is commonly. In the palliative care population, it is particularly associated with cancer, affecting up to 9% of the patients. The impact of this disease can be significant, resulting in diet and sleep disruption, leading to severe emotional distress and even to death(2).
Why do people get hiccups? Should I be worried?
The pathophysiology of singultus is unclear, but is hypothesized to involve a complex reflex center of dopaminergic neurons in the reticular formation and hypothalamus, with the afferent pathway composed by the vagus and phrenic nerve and the efferent pathway being the phrenic nerve.
Hiccups can be caused by a laundry list of conditions. In the Emergency Department we need to elucidate what system is responsible for the singultus: CNS lesions? Metabolic? Infra or Supradiaphragmatic process? Medications? And ideally treatment should be tailored to the cause. Here a table from Reference 2:
Management
Multiple interventions, including hundreds of home remedies, have been described; but their effectiveness remains unclear. We are going to discuss the treatments readily available in Emergency Departments, but it is important to consider that for chronic singultus, some patients may even require surgical management(2).
As discussed before, particular attention needs to be placed on managing the primary problem (e.g., small bowel obstruction, uremia, etc.)(1). Once identified, the next step is the symptomatic treatment. This is especially important in patients where the primary problem can’t be controlled. It appears to be reasonable to start with simple mechanical measures such as nebulized saline(2), some type of glottis stimulation or previous simple remedies that worked for the specific patient(1).
After simple mechanical maneuvers have failed, the next step is pharmacological treatment. The current knowledge and recommendations originate from low quality evidence; although a recent systematic review attempted to consolidate the current understanding of the treatment(2). Current evidence is as follows:
Baclofen. A GABA analogue produces a central anti-spastic response. There is a small RCT using baclofen with modest results, however it is often considered the first line treatment by experts in the topic. The oral form has a very fast absorption which makes it attractive, but it is associated with sedation, particularly when used concurrently with other CNS depressants.
A GABA analogue produces a central anti-spastic response. There is a small RCT using baclofen with modest results, however it is often considered the first line treatment by experts in the topic. The oral form has a very fast absorption which makes it attractive, but it is associated with sedation, particularly when used concurrently with other CNS depressants. Gabapentin . Evaluated in a small retrospective chart review. The mechanism of action appears to be the blockade of alpha-2 sensitive calcium channels, which may modulate the contraction of the diaphragm. 83% of the patients in the study had some relief. Gabapentin needs to be used carefully on patients with renal failure.
. Evaluated in a small retrospective chart review. The mechanism of action appears to be the blockade of alpha-2 sensitive calcium channels, which may modulate the contraction of the diaphragm. 83% of the patients in the study had some relief. Gabapentin needs to be used carefully on patients with renal failure. Chlorpromazine . Evidence comes from a retrospective chart review of 8 patients and 50 patient case reports. The mechanism is probably due to its anti-dopaminergic effect. Although popular and advertised by the manufacturer to use in singultus for several years, the evidence to support its use is very scant. It only appears to be anecdotally efficacious. Chlorpromazine is poorly tolerated in elderly and hypovolemic patients (may cause marked hypotension).
. Evidence comes from a retrospective chart review of 8 patients and 50 patient case reports. The mechanism is probably due to its anti-dopaminergic effect. Although popular and advertised by the manufacturer to use in singultus for several years, the evidence to support its use is very scant. It only appears to be anecdotally efficacious. Chlorpromazine is poorly tolerated in elderly and hypovolemic patients (may cause marked hypotension). Midazolam . Supported by 2 case reports with 3 patients total. Its muscle relaxant and anticonvulsant effect probably supports its benefits. It appears to decrease the frequency of the singultus, particularly in patients who were living the last days of their lives.
. Supported by 2 case reports with 3 patients total. Its muscle relaxant and anticonvulsant effect probably supports its benefits. It appears to decrease the frequency of the singultus, particularly in patients who were living the last days of their lives. Other. There are other medications with weaker evidence behind their use: methylphenidate, metoclopramide, amantadine, nifedipine, nimodipine and haloperidol.
As a summary, the evidence supporting non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatments for singultus is almost non-existent. Key management principles need to be focused on identifying the etiology. Treat the symptom as soon as possible, especially in patients with non-reversible causes. In our review of the evidence, it seems reasonable to start with basic glottis stimulating maneuvers. For those who fail mechanical maneuvers, proceed with pharmacologic intervention. Have a keen awareness of the lack of research supporting them and the potential for side effects. Baclofen and gabapentin, although with low level evidence, appear to be the most recommended by experts(2).
BONUS TRACK
These home remedies, although appealing for some folks and sometimes supported by case reports, are probably not efficacious in the treatment hiccups(2):
Stimulation of the palate or pharynx with cotton applicator or catheter
Traction on the tongue
Pressure over the eyebrow area
Lifting the uvula with a spoon
Performing a Valsalva maneuver
Pressing a finger firmly into each ear for approximately 20 seconds, with or without drinking a glass of water through a straw
Drinking methylcellulose with warm water
Breath holding
Biting a lemon
Breathing into a paper bag
Sudden fright
Digital rectal massage
Drinking water from the opposite side of a cup
Eating a spoonful of granulated sugar or peanut butter, gargling or drinking ice water, swallowing dry bread
Black pepper induced sneezing
Inserting a nasal catheter 8–12 cm so it rests opposite the second cervical vertebra
Massaging the anterior of the soft palate in the midline for approximately one minute with a cotton-tipped swab
Gastric aspiration via nasogastric tube
C3 to C5 dermatome stimulation by percussion of the back of the neck
Prolonged pressure on the diaphragm
Compression of the phrenic nerve at the neck
Irritation of the vagus nerve by supraorbital pressure or carotid sinus massage
REFERENCES
Woelk CJ. Managing hiccups. Can Fam Physician. 2011 Jun 1;57(6):672–5. Calsina-Berna A, García-Gómez G, González-Barboteo J, Porta-Sales J. Treatment of chronic hiccups in cancer patients: a systematic review. J Palliat Med. 2012 Oct;15(10):1142–50. Hiccup [Internet]. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2014 [cited 2014 Oct 24]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hiccup&oldid=628432561
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Abstract
In this article I argue that because of its emphasis on the use of reason, the Jafari Islamic school of thought is not only compatible with, but even promotes certain forms of deliberative democracy. I particularly focus on how this characteristic offers a valuable conceptual tool to promote peace and justice in deeply divided societies. My argument is grounded in traditional Shia theology and history but develops a political framework embedded within contemporary political theory. I distinguish this democratic political framework from the theocratic model of Wilayat-ul-Faqih, the political system currently being applied in Iran, and argue that an emphasis on rational argumentation opens a path towards reconciliation between Islamic principles and democracy. I analyse the potential benefits of deliberative democracy for Shias in both Middle Eastern societies and the West. |
And the buzz around the Montreal Impact was felt at the press conference, on twitter and all around the club.
Marco Schällibaum first words uttered at the press conference were very significant and straight forward
One of my principles is when you get something, you must give back. I will give it my all to have success with this team.
Changes in the Coaching and Academy Structure
The first notable and big changes in the organisation are the appointments of 2 new assistant coaches making the structure as follows
Head Coach : Marco Schällibaum
Assistant Coach : Mauro Biello
Assistant Coach : Philippe Eullaffroy
Assistant Coach : Youssef Dahha
Fitness coach : Paolo Pacione
Mauro Biello continues on as assistant coach with the club and Philippe Eulaffroy completes the coaching triangle. Yousseff Dahha gets bumped up from the Academy and becomes the pro team's goalkeeper change. This is not Dahha's first time as goalkeeper coach of the Montreal Impact pro team in the mid-2000's in the USL.
Philippe Eulaffroy's appointment will have a definitive impact on the Academy. The Academy Director and U21 Head Coach will keep his director title but will not be the U21 Head Coach anymore.
The Academy changes are:
Wilfried Nancy from U18 to U21 head coach
Jason DiTullio goes from U16 to U18 head coach
Simon Gatti becomes the U16 bench boss
Former U21 assistant Nicolas Gagnon becomes the head coach of the U14s.
Antoine Guldner remains with the U13s.
Yannick Girard named assistant coach to Wilfried Nancy with the U21's.
Owen Braun is now the Goalkeeper Coach with the Academy, adding to his responsibilities as Sports-Etudes Goalkeeper coach
The Schällibaum Effect
Confirmed by the media present right after the press conference, Marco Schällibaum has a 1-year contract with an option. It might be quite surprising for some as his profile shows a technical expertise that might be helpful for long-term . Though, since his BSC Young Boys days (1999-2003), Schällibaum has not held a coaching position for more than 1 year, also an indication of the known volatility of Swiss clubs and their respective owners.
"I like attacking play, going for the win," Schällibaum said in his introductory press conference at Stade Saputo on Tuesday. "Technically, it's easier to move around with the ball than without the ball."
Fitting that attacking style, ball possession style that Sporting Director Nick De Santis has always promoted, Schällibaum is saying the right things. And he actually means it as Patrice Bernier said on French sports network RDS that Felipe Martins confirmed to him that new head coach likes to attack.
Being more offensive does not mean more forwards and less defenders but we can see a shift towards more offensive fullbacks , something lack in the previous season.
"Our criteria were quite simple," De Santis added. "Philosophy, methodology, working method, preparation, vision. The very first time we met, he showed that he was a passionate, energetic and determined person. The soccer discussions sometimes lasted until the wee hours of the morning, and we saw things in a similar way.
Having clicked so quickly early in the process, we just hope that time and patience will be given to Marco Schällibaum. Keeping the ``European`` identity of the Montreal Impact, integrating the Academy into the pro and surrounding the new coach with Impact people, there will be no excuses for bad communication or divergent philosophies. |
Image copyright AP/Reuters
The Vatican has defended the Pope's meeting with Kim Davis, a Kentucky official jailed for refusing to issue licences for same sex marriages.
In a statement, it said the exchange should not be seen as an endorsement of her position.
Mrs Davis opposes gay marriage and argued that her Christian faith should exempt her from issuing licences.
She said the Pope told her to stay strong during a 15-minute meeting, which she said validated her actions.
But a Vatican spokesman said the details of her situation were not discussed.
The Rev Federico Lombardi said the Pope met "several dozen" people at the Vatican's embassy in Washington just before leaving for New York last week.
"The Pope did not enter into the details of the situation of Mrs Davis and his meeting with her should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its particular and complex aspects," Rev Lombardi said.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What happened when Kim Davis met the Pope?
Mrs Davis, an Apostolic Christian, spent six days in jail in September after defying a federal court order to give marriage licences to gay couples in Rowan, Kentucky.
Her lawyer Mat Staver told CBS News that she and her husband had been invited to meet the Pope following the media storm surrounding her stance.
Pope Francis "thanked her for her courage" and told her to "stay strong", Mr Staver said.
Mrs Davis's supporters said it showed the pontiff backed her cause.
But the Vatican released a rare statement on Friday in an attempt to make clear he intended no such validation.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mrs Davis made headlines for her controversial refusal to issue marriage licences to gay couples
The Pope was asked for his views on the question of government officials refusing to discharge their duties because of their religious beliefs during his return from the US on Sunday.
He told reporters on his flight back to Rome that conscientious objection was a "human right".
Correspondents say the Catholic Church has taken a slightly more compassionate view of homosexual relationships under Pope Francis's leadership.
Mrs Davis' church belongs to a Protestant movement known as Apostolic Pentecostalism. |
Eric Walsh examines water damaged U.S. currency at the Mutilated Currency Division of the Treasury Department in Washington, on July 17. For the past few years, authorities say, Franz Felhaber and his family have popped in and out of U.S. banks, looking to trade-in about $20 million in bills like these for clean cash.
WASHINGTON The businessman arrived at the Treasury Department carrying a suitcase stuffed with about $5.2 million. The bills were decomposing, nearly unrecognizable, and he asked to swap them for a cashier's check. He said the money came from Mexico. Money like this normally arrives in an armored truck or insured shipping container after a bank burns or a vault floods. It doesn't just show up at the visitor's entrance on a Tuesday morning. But the banking habits of Franz Felhaber had stopped making sense to the government long ago. For the past few years, authorities say, he and his family have popped in and out of U.S. banks, looking to change about $20 million in buried treasure for clean cash. The money is always the same — decaying $100 bills from the 1970s and 1980s. It's the story that keeps changing: • It was an inheritance. • Somebody dug up a tree and there it was. • It was found in a suitcase buried in an alfalfa field. • A relative found a treasure map. No matter where it came from or who found it, that buried treasure stands to make someone rich. It could also send someone to jail. Raising suspicion Felhaber is a customs broker, a middleman. His company, F.C. Felhaber & Co., is just minutes away from the bridge between El Paso, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Tens of billions of dollars of Mexican goods cross that bridge each year, aided by people such as Felhaber who navigate the customs bureaucracy. PHOTOS: Recovering mutilated money Customs brokers don't own the stuff that comes into the United States. They just make sure it gets here. So it is with the $20 million. Felhaber says the money is not his. A Mexican relative, Francisco Javier Ramos Saenz-Pardo, merely sought help exchanging money that had been buried for decades, Felhaber says. "To be very clear on this matter: In the beginning, I was not told what it was," Felhaber said in one of several telephone interviews with the Associated Press. Money petrifies after sitting underground that long and Felhaber said it looked like a brick of adobe. The Treasury will exchange even badly damaged money, but Felhaber said Saenz-Pardo did not want to handle the process himself. "Imagine a Mexican family bringing money that is damaged and the government calling it a drug deal," Felhaber said. If the goal were to avoid unwarranted attention, he went about it all wrong. Rather than making a simple — albeit large — exchange at the Treasury, Felhaber allegedly began trying to exchange smaller amounts at El Paso-area banks, raising suspicion every time. The first stop was the Federal Reserve Bank in El Paso, where authorities say Felhaber appeared with an uncle, Jose, and an aunt, Esther. In her purse, Esther carried $120,000. She told bank officials there were millions more, discovered while digging to expand a building in Juarez, according to U.S. court records filed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Banks normally refer such requests to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, an arm of the Treasury. But employees worried that with so much cash, the three might be robbed on their way home. So, the bank accepted the money and wired $120,000 to an account in his uncle's name, Jose Carrillo-Valles, according to a government affidavit. Felhaber was back at it again weeks later, this time at a Bank of America branch. Customs officials say he unsuccessfully tried to persuade a bank vice president to dispatch an armored truck to the Mexican border to pick up millions of dollars. Felhaber denies that conversation took place. But he is tough to pin down on details. At times he seems specific on a point ("There is a $20 million inheritance,") only to contradict himself minutes later, saying the amount is "nowhere near that" and he has no idea where the money came from. Soon after the Bank of America visit, a man bearing a striking resemblance to Felhaber walked into a Bank of the West branch. This time, however, authorities say the customer identified himself as Ken Motley and said he discovered millions while excavating a tree in Chihuahua, Mexico. Bank employees refused to exchange any money, despite two follow-up phone calls — once with a Spanish accent, once without — to try to set up an exchange. The mysterious Ken Motley also appeared at the First National Bank, telling employees that a friend had discovered $20 million buried in an alfalfa field, investigators say. Felhaber says he is not Ken Motley. Customs investigators say a Bank of the West employee identified Felhaber's picture as that of Ken Motley. "That's an absolute lie," Felhaber said. "That would be a horrendous miscarriage of justice." It's unclear which transaction caught investigators' attention. Most of the tens of thousands of exchanges of mutilated money each year are routine. Natural disasters create a lot of inquiries. Children of the Depression have kept money out of banks, only to see it eaten by rodents in their attics or destroyed in fires. A surprising number of people accidentally shred greeting cards with money inside. But authorities say there are warning signs that trigger investigations. Making a series of small exchanges is one. Bringing mutilated money from abroad is another. "That is one of the things we are extra concerned about: This process being used to launder money from illegal activities," said Leonard R. Olijar, the chief financial officer of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. "That's one of our factors that we use to make a case suspicious." Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents questioned Felhaber in October 2005. According to a government summary of that interview, Felhaber said he believed the money was the result of a 1970s Mexican land deal. The money was buried in a coffin, he said, until Saenz-Pardo — the relative who brought him the money in the first place — discovered a map leading him to the buried treasure. Felhaber said he didn't want to do anything illegal and was merely getting a cut of whatever he exchanged. He now says he was mistaken in his interviews with investigators. "I told them, 'I suspect this is where it's from but I didn't know,"' he said. "They take you to your word like you're supposed to remember every single thing every single time." Sorting out the stories Maybe it was the visit from investigators or maybe someone realized the bank visits weren't working, but Felhaber apparently changed strategies. In January 2006, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing received a package containing about $136,000 from Jose Carrillo-Valles, Felhaber's uncle. Felhaber's business was listed as the return address. The letter explained the money had been stored in a basement for 22 years. Though customs officials were suspicious by then, there was no clear evidence of a crime, just a lot of unanswered questions. So, two months later, the Treasury mailed a check, which was deposited into Carrillo-Valles' account. Following the money, investigators interviewed Carrillo-Valles and his wife. Each denied ever sending or receiving the money, according to a government affidavit. As for the $120,000 wired to Jose's account from the Federal Reserve a year earlier, they allegedly said it was an inheritance. Esther said Jose's mother had recently died. Authorities don't believe the inheritance story. For starters, they say Jose's mother was still alive when the $120,000 was exchanged. They also traced a wire transfer from Jose's account to someone named Saenz-Pardo shortly after it was deposited. Customs investigators now believed Carrillo-Valles was acting as an intermediary, taking a cut of the money and sending the rest to Saenz-Pardo or someone else in Mexico. Twice, reporters called Carrillo-Valles on his cellphone to ask about the arrangement and confirm his discussions with investigators. First, he said he did not speak English. When a Spanish-speaking reporter called back, he said he could not hear her, and hung up. In April 2007, the case moved from being suspicious to becoming a criminal investigation. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials called the Justice Department, saying Felhaber had just arrived in person at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing with about $1.2 million. It's not illegal to find money. Depending on where it's found, there might be a bureaucratic process to follow or taxes to be paid, but the discovery itself is not a crime. There are strict rules, however, about bringing money into the United States. Import documents identified the $1.2 million as belonging to Jose Carrillo-Valles. Based on their investigation so far, authorities believe that was a lie — a violation that carries up to five years in prison. But Washington federal prosecutor William Cowden decided to wait. Maybe Felhaber would return with even more. It paid off. This April, Felhaber was back at the Treasury, this time with a suitcase containing $5.2 million. Investigators say they have found no import documents filed for this deal, a violation of cash smuggling laws that also carries up to five years in prison. Prosecutors moved in. Felhaber's two Treasury visits gave them probable cause to seize the money — both the $1.2 million and the $5.2 million. They told a federal magistrate in June that they suspected it was all drug money that had been buried or hidden inside a wall for decades. "Given that the money is coming north from Mexico, that both conflicting and cockamamie stories have been told about its origins, and that all the stories of how it got to be found are fantastical, I strongly suspect that the Felhaber currency is the proceeds of illegal bulk narcotics sales," ICE investigator Stephen A. Schneider told the magistrate. ''The truth will come out' Felhaber says he's still not sure what all the fuss is about. At times he says he has no idea where the money came from, but he is always certain it has nothing to do with drugs. None of the documents filed in federal court accuses Felhaber or his relatives of being involved in drugs. They leave open the possibility that somebody merely came across a cache of drug money, forgotten or abandoned in the Mexican desert. In the coming weeks, the Justice Department plans to seek forfeiture of the seized $6.4 million. That means Felhaber and his family will have the opportunity to come to Washington to ask for their money back. If they do, they'll have to explain where it came from. And they'll have to sort through some of the inconsistent stories for a federal judge. Felhaber bristles at the suggestion there have been inconsistencies. "The story has never changed," he said. "I don't know how it's changed." Reached by telephone Monday, he said he was aware of the looming forefeiture action but could not discuss whether his family planned to challenge it. But he said "the truth will come out" about the money eventually. Cowden, the federal prosecutor, said he doesn't know what to expect. "Some of these cases, nobody ever comes forward," he said. If so, the buried treasure will become government property. Or at least some of it. Perhaps there is another $14 million out there, muddy and waiting to be exchanged. Does Felhaber know if there's any money left? On that, it's hard to get a straight answer. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more |
Article by Corey M
Blood Incantation released their debut EP Interdimensional Extinction last year to little fanfare. Having heard one of the US death metal band’s songs on a Dark Descent compilation, I was highly anticipating this release and was not disappointed. However, other respectable authors have dismissed it without giving it the attention it deserves. Because I’ve only grown to appreciate this EP more over the last several months, I intend to elaborate on Blood Incantation’s strengths, because I believe they deserve more coverage.
Guitars are the focus of and main engine of Blood Incantation’s music. Typically one guitar plays chords in rhythmic bursts to support the other guitars which harmonize faster-moving and more complex melodies. An excellent balance between the low-register rhythm chords and the weird-and warbly-leads is always maintained. During high-tension segments, the guitars mainly play in unison for maximum impact, and during some of the more paranormal passages, the drums and rhythm intensity are dialed back just enough to open up space for the imaginative and unpretentious leads. The best of the guitar solos remind me of those on In the Nightside Eclipse, sharing that ability be technically modest yet very evocative. Blood Incantation’s flailing-tentacle leads mysteriously manage to reflect or echo the dynamics of the chord pattern underneath, achieving symbiosis with the rhythm guitars and drums, even while ratcheting up the tension to the point of anticipating a total musical disintegration. Other times, leads are used to gracefully close out a song, resolving the musical stress by harmonically tying together the wildly whipping threads of various melody.
Vocals are perfectly competent and never interfere with the shape of the riffs, partially due to having a more forward-sounding presence in the mix, compared to the guitars which cast a broader curtain of sound and envelop the rest of the instruments. Drums are in thrall to the guitars, and when the guitar rhythm turns odd or just a little unorthodox, they provide an unobtrusive, robust foundation on which the highly melodic riffs build. Special mention must go to the session player with the fretless bass, who plays in the technically adventurous death metal band Stargazer. Giving each a riff an uncanny, slithery feel, the fretless adds another layer of harmonic depth and texture in a way that is underutilized or outright ignored by many death metal bands.
On the extra-musical side, Interdimensional Extinction‘s cover art is not only very cool, but an effective visual representation of the themes present in the music, featuring a distant planetary body surrounded by an orbital ring of human skeletal bits. Human skulls are always related to human death and sometimes death in general, as a concept that extends further than the merely personal, into the planetary, the celestial, and yes, even the “interdimensional”! This far-out unearthly realm is what Blood Incantation attempts to explore, as their perspective encompasses not only human death, but death as a common fate for all for all systems of organized energy, from a single bacterium to the largest galactic cluster. Does the band intentionally attempt to establish a sympathetic link between humans and non-human things by relating us all under the empirical inevitability of death? Maybe; maybe not, but these are the sorts of imaginal realms that great death metal can take a listener’s mind.
All four songs on this EP are proficiently crafted and offer the very thing that most lovers of death metal are either actively searching for at least glad to hear; death metal in its unadulterated language, but through a distinctive dialect. Perhaps the band’s native Colorado landscape has informed their intuitive songwriting, as each song moves through jagged peaks and rolling valleys, organically and without pretense. Due to the clarity of the arrangements and mixing, the songs are actually relatively easy to follow, and riffs do not hide behind distracting, murky guitar tones or gratuitous reverb. There may appear to be similarities with Demilich or Immolation, but they are only skin-deep, and Blood Incantation use intriguingly idiosyncratic methods of riff development and song structuring. All things considered, including that I have been listening to this solidly for six months now, I can only think of good reasons to recommend this EP.
Tags: 2015, blood incantation, death metal, Interdimensional Extinction, Technical Death Metal, underground metal |
Women held a die-in in protest against domestic violence (Picture: Getty Images)
A Spanish archbishop has been accused of ‘inciting violence’ after claiming that domestic abuse takes place because ‘women do not obey men.’
Braulio Rodriguez, who is the Archbishop of Toledo, spoke to his congregation about relationships at a sermon held in Toledo Cathedral on 27 December, and his comments were later written up in the Our Father parish bulletin.
He criticised ‘false marriages’ and ‘quickie divorces’, and said that the root cause of domestic violence was a woman’s ‘disobedience’ to her husband.
‘The majority of cases of domestic violence happen because the woman’s partner does not accept them, or rejects them for not accepting their demands,’ he said.
MORE: Sex robots could be ‘biggest tech trend of 2016’
Rodriguez blamed the disobedience of women for domestic violence ‘Or often the macho reaction comes about because she asked for a separation.’
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The comments were met with anger by thousands across Spain and protests were held across Madrid.
Rodriguez was accused of having ‘medieval views’ and ‘inciting violence’.
One woman said he ‘should be locked up’.
Last year, 56 women were killed in Spain because of domestic violence.
MORE: Police hunt for boys filmed trying to set London bus on fire
Protests were held in Madrid (Picture: Getty Images) |
Mahmoud Abbas to maintain freeze on coordination with Israel even after it dismantled metal detectors at Jerusalem site
Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem appear likely to maintain a boycott on the compound housing al-Aqsa mosque, with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, saying he will maintain a freeze on coordination with Israel even after it dismantled controversial metal detectors that triggered more than a week of violent conflict.
“Unless all measures go back to what they were before 14 July, there will not be any changes,” Abbas said in a speech before a meeting with the Palestinian leadership. Security was increased after the 14 July attack at the compound in which two Israeli police officers were killed by three Israeli Arab gunmen, who later died in a shootout.
Fresh clashes broke out after the second evening prayers had finished late on Tuesday, with police using volleys of stun grenades to clear the streets, further undermining hopes of a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
The protests, during which worshippers have prayed in the streets around the compound, come amid concern that Israel is still seeking to impose enhanced security measures at the site, despite the removal of the devices.
Noisy crowds gathered outside the compound for evening prayers in an atmosphere that veered between celebration, empowerment and defiance.
The tensions came as clerics said they needed more time to study the proposed Israeli measures, which Palestinian and other critics say are in breach of the status quo governing the compound known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.
“We need to know all the details before we decide to pray inside the compound,” said Muhammad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, the city’s top Muslim cleric.
Jordan, which is custodian of the site under the status quo, echoed the message on Tuesday saying it wanted a return to security conditions before 14 July.
The move to install the metal detectors after that attack set off widespread protests and deadly Israeli-Palestinian violence over the past week.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A main entrance to the mosque compound after Israeli security forces removed metal detectors from the site. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
However, in a late night announcement in the early hours of Tuesday, Israel said it would replace the metal detectors with other security arrangements based on “advanced technology”.
The crisis over the religious site that has occurred over the last 10 days has also revealed how in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict religious tensions are increasingly coming to the fore.
The question now, however, is whether the decision to remove the metal detectors and some cameras after such a tense period is enough to put a lid on the latest violence.
Recent experience suggests that while such confrontations are easy to provoke they are far less simple to defuse, amid reports in the Hebrew media that Israeli police will once again turn out in force for this week’s Friday prayers – making the day a key test of whether protests will continue.
The most recent wave of stabbings and attacks by Palestinians, which had largely abated, were provoked by exactly the same concerns among Palestinians that Israel was trying to extend its control over the religious site, while the second intifada in 2000 was triggered by a high-profile visit to the compound by the then Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon – both of which led to prolonged periods of violence.
The mishandling of the current crisis by the beleaguered Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has drawn attention once again to the volatile dynamics of his far-right coalition, not least his tendency to bend to far-right national religious politicians such as the education minister, Naftali Bennett, for fear of being outflanked on his right.
Among those who harshly criticised Netanyahu’s handling of the crisis on Tuesday was the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, who accused the government of “haste and immaturity”.
On the Palestinian side different forces have been in play.
While Abbas suspended all contacts with Israel over the crisis – including security contacts – the protests over the metal detectors and al-Aqsa mosque have been driven by a grassroots public sentiment largely outside the Palestinian political factions which the unpopular Abbas can ill afford to ignore.
Organised at a local level in the East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, it saw protesters quickly organise, raising money to provide food and drinks at the nightly protests at the Lions’ Gate entrance to the esplanade which is the site of al-Aqsa mosque.
“This movement is a movement of the street,” said Sheikh Raed Dana of the Waqf, the Islamic endowment organisation which administers the mosque compound.
“We as the Waqf listen to the street. The street says yes and we say yes; if the street says no to the measures, we will say no.”
Outside the compound on Tuesday evening, worshippers insisted they would not enter the mosque.
“Everyone has come here to protest,” said Fadel Abu Ramouz, 48. “We don’t want Israeli cameras or any other measures and will stay outside the mosque until they do.”
Jawad al-Siyam, a well-known activist from the Silwan neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, offered a more nuanced interpretation, suggesting that after the removal of the cameras some people wanted to return to praying in the mosque while others wanted to continue until all the new security measures had been removed.
“People want to stay in the streets until Israel removes everything that it brought.” Siyam noted that another significance of the protest movement that has grown up in recent days had been it ability to unify Palestinians.
“Palestinians can disagree about everything but not about al-Aqsa. They consider what is happening here a violation. Even people who do not have much money have been contributing to buy food and drinks for this protest.” |
Wayne State University Police say Officer Collin Rose has died after being shot on Tuesday night.
Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson released this statement:
I am saddened to report that a short time ago, Wayne State University officer Collin Rose died from the gunshot wound he suffered while working in the line of duty yesterday evening. This is a tragedy felt by all of us -- Collin and his family and friends, his fiancée, and our campus and community. Please keep Collin and his fiancée and family in your thoughts and prayers. Collin served Wayne State with distinction, and we owe those he left behind our deepest sympathies and our strong support. Please keep all our police officers in your thoughts as well. Collin is the first and only Wayne State officer ever to fall in the line of duty. Our officers mourn with us, but these dedicated, professional men and women continue to serve us courageously, every day. We can honor Collin’s memory best with our ongoing gratitude and support for all of our officers.
Rose, 29, was on life support at Detroit Receiving Hospital after he was shot in the head after stopping someone on a bicycle near Lincoln and Brainard around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. He died just after 5 p.m. Wednesday.
A GoFundMe has been started to raise money for Rose's family and funeral expenses.
Rose's family has issued the following statement:
"The family members of Collin Rose want to thank everyone for their outpouring of support. Collin loves working at Wayne State and has enjoyed the challenges of being a canine handler. We're thankful his two canine partners were not harmed and appreciate the regional law enforcement response to the crime scene. We are optimistic about his recovery and ask for your prayers during this time."
Gov. Rick Snyder released this statement
"I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Officer Collin Rose and my thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and coworkers during this tragic time. Officer Rose was well-respected by fellow law enforcement officers and the community for his work and his commitment to serving others. May he rest in peace knowing that Michiganders are collectively mourning his loss and that we will support his family, friends and colleagues to the best of our ability while they grieve."
Rose was a canine officer who named his partner "Wolverine" in memory of fallen DPD Officer Patrick Hill. "Wolverine" was Hill's code name. He died in October 2013 after being shot in the line of duty by a murder suspect in April of that year.
Rose was with the Wayne State University Police Department for five years.
"This is a tragedy of immense proportions," said Dr. M. Roy Wilson, president of Wayne State University.
Officials say a Wayne State University police officer has not been shot in 36 years.
Original story on Hill's death.
Rose was on duty, but off campus at the time of the shooting.
Rose reportedly stopped someone on a bicycle right before the incident. Police released a picture of a unique bicycle that the suspect was riding at the time of the shooting. Officers say that picture led them to Davis because he was identified as having been seen riding the bike.
Davis was taken into custody at Michigan and Selden and driven to the Detroit Detention Center for questioning.
According to officials, it's is not clear exactly why Rose made the stop.
Chief James Craig says Wayne State University police made several arrests in the area where the shooting occurred last night. Those arrests were related to a recent rash of car break-ins, where items were stolen.
Police say Rose was investigating those break-ins, but it's not clear why he stopped the bicyclist.
Rose was discovered by another police officer who responded to the scene.
The ATF is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the gun used in the shooting, which is still missing. Anyone with information can call 888-ATF-TIPS. |
MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Justice has collated bank documents allegedly showing that over P38 million in cash deposits were made to the bank accounts of two relatives of Sen. Leila de Lima’s driver and reported lover in 2014.
This information came out during the DOJ’s fact-finding investigation on the illegal drug operations in the New Bilibid Prison when De Lima was secretary of justice.
The STAR obtained bank deposit slips showing that millions of pesos went to the bank accounts of Hannah Mae Dayan and Marco Palisoc – daughter and cousin of Ronnie Dayan, respectively.
The DOJ has forwarded the bank records to the Anti-Money Laundering Council for verification, according to a well-placed source.
Dayan’s account received P24 million in four cash deposits – P3 million on Feb. 7, 2014; P9 million on Feb. 21, 2014; P6 million on March 14, 2014 and P6 million on March 28, 2014.
Palisoc’s account got P14,304,000 in two cash deposits – P9,600,000 on Sept. 16, 2014 and P4,704,000 on Oct. 23, 2014.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II earlier revealed that investigators have gathered bank deposit slips of several staff of De Lima and people linked to her totaling to over P88 million.
Other bank records showed cash deposits in accounts of De Lima’s former staff Jonathan Caranto (P24 million), Bogs Obuyes (P24 million) and Marrel Obuyes (P2.2 million).
Aguirre asked the AMLC to verify the deposits amid suspicion that some quarters were out to sabotage the DOJ probe and feed investigators with wrong information.
The DOJ received the AMLC report last week, but Aguirre did not divulge the findings due to the Bank Secrecy Law.
He only hinted that the report covered more than 10 people he branded as “friends of De Lima.”
“If there is any link (between drug money and De Lima), it’s indirect – only bank accounts of her companions, friends and employees,” he said.
“But these people have no big sources of income to get millions in deposits, so what other conclusion could you get?”
Aguirre also revealed that probers are also verifying information that about P500 million in drug money went to a duly registered corporation doing business in the national penitentiary. He did not name the firm pending probe.
He also would not reveal what the DOJ would do next with the AMLC report – if it could be used to seek a freeze order from the Court of Appeals.
“For now, this AMLC report will be for our use to further our investigation until a case is filed in court,” he said.
Aguirre believes that the money trail would bolster the testimonial evidence from high-profile NBP inmates against De Lima.
“We asked for additional reports because we received so many bank account numbers,” he said. “We’re just in the first wave. As I said earlier, the information is just overflowing.”
In the House of Representatives inquiry, high-profile inmates led by robbery and carjack convict Herbert Colanggo claimed that they gave millions of payola to De Lima for protection of their illicit businesses and activities in the NBP.
Aguirre said he has tapped the National Bureau of Investigation to pursue the probe as more witnesses are set to be presented before the House.
Dayan has been subpoenaed to appear before the House, but he could not be located. |
It's not about bitcoin or ethereum maximalists. It's not about greed, bets, bots or the news. There is no competition here. If you are invested, and you should be. For the simple reason that you believe in decentralisation, ideas and technologies behind the various funds in your accounts.
A decentralised currency is a great idea: bitcoin/ether.
Decentralised storage is also great: siacoin.
Decentralised news and social interaction that has not been bought and paid for by corporations or interests is freedom of speech and thought: steem.
Distributed computing, a.i., rendering and modelling are good ideas: golem.
A better interface for ethereum will be needed for mass adoption: status.
Decentralisation of energy: tesla-gigafactory (not blockchain but just as real)
I could go on: melon, gnosis, stratis and so many others I don't even know.
If you're reading this today, irrespective of the price you paid for your investments you're in nice and EARLY and you will profit in the long term, monetarily, socially and in your basic freedoms.
Prices will go up and prices will go down but if you zoom out on your graphs you will feel better.
Today is a good day to buy, in fact this entire month will be, as each platform scales and grows and as the changes come whether they are uasf, bipxxx, ice age or Casper.
Don't believe the news, go read technical articles from the developers. Go read white papers.
Educate yourself. Don't drive your fiat off a cliff, park it where you're beliefs lie and you will be rewarded.
Don't listen to the media or idiots moaning about the price or ico's cashing out or any other crap that is paraded in your face to scare you.
Understand that people invested to make money short term will sell short. People invested before you and I will pay off their mortgage. The average brainwashed media junkie will sell out of fear. Today's price is just that. Today's price.
Tomorrow will be a brighter day if we keep working and investing in a future that empowers us all.
All the big boys will try to scare us and take us down with every opportunity we give them because in reality they are afraid. We are pulling the rug from under their feet and tipping the balance of power.
Know why you are here.
Know where you are investing and why.
Give yourself room to manoeuvre.
Learn from your mistakes.
Be confident and secure of your position in a future where even you have a say.
And when tomorrow comes and the fiat's have run out of gas we can all share pics of our latest top-end Teslas, cause lambos will be history.
Stay Savvy.
R |
Senate Republicans issued a rare party-line rebuke of Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren Tuesday night, barring her from further participation in a debate on Jeff Sessions' nomination for Attorney General, The Washington Post reports.
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The rebuke followed Warren's choice to read a letter written by Coretta Scott King in 1986, warning Congress against Sessions' appointment to a federal judgeship, on the senate floor.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell interrupted Warren mid-speech after she quoted Ms. King, claiming she had violated Senate a rarely-invoked rule by "impugning [Sessions'] motives and conduct." Specifically, he cited a passage from the letter—quoted by Warren—in which King states that Sessions had used his power as U.S. attorney to "chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens."
The move follows heated debate on the confirmation of a number of Trump's cabinet picks, most notably Sessions and Betsy DeVos, who was confirmed earlier today via a tie-breaking vote from Mike Pence.
Warren is now reportedly forbidden from speaking again on Sessions' nomination, after the Senate voted 49 to 43 (strictly along party lines) to uphold the rebuke.
Ms. King's letter, which you can read here, urges Congress to block Sessions' nominated based on his civil rights record and—as the quote above alludes to—his role in prosecuting a 1985 voter fraud case in Alabama brought against black civil rights activists, including a former aide to Martin Luther King. In response, King wrote that Sessions' appointment to the federal bench would "irreparably damage the work of my husband." |
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) warned that the divisive rhetoric presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is known for can lead to tragic events like the racially-motivated massacre last summer at a Charleston church.
“I know what that rhetoric can do,” Haley said in a Thursday interview with the Associated Press. “I saw it happen.”
Dylann Roof, a 22-year-old Confederate sympathizer, was charged with murdering nine black parishioners last June at a historically black church. Roof published a manifesto online outlining his white supremacist beliefs, and also uploaded dozens of photos of himself posing with guns and the Confederate flag.
In the wake of the killings, Haley started a national movement to remove the Confederate battle flag from government buildings by advocating for it to be taken down from the state house grounds.
She told the AP that she wished Trump would use a more civil tone in his public addresses instead of resorting to disparaging rhetoric against women, Muslims and Latinos.
“The way he communicates that, I wish were different,” Haley said.
The South Carolina governor, who is of Indian descent and endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in the 2016 race, has spoken out against Trump’s “irresponsible” rhetoric about immigration many times during the campaign.
Trump responded by calling her “very weak on illegal immigration.”
Despite their differences, Haley has said she will support Trump as her party’s nominee. |
This piece originally appeared in the June, 1988 issue of Esquire, and is featured in the essential new anthology, Great Men Die Twice: The Selected Works of Mark Kram.
Odd, he was thinking, how a streak leans on you, twists you, turns you, can overwhelm the most finely tuned psychology designed to protect you from its vast intrusions. He was stretched out on a bed in a dark Madrid hotel room, listening to the horn of Miles Davis make brooding runs that seemed to fall off sharply and start to probe all over again. Before a race, the horn on the tape deck was always there, the notes like loyal guides directing him toward a mood—aggressive, calm—whatever he needed to carry him through those moments of pure physical fury that, if they were not getting more physical, were becoming more furious. But he wasn’t getting anything from Miles’s horn today, his mind was just out there floating, unable to hook into any kind of thought pattern, and he regretted that he hadn’t brought along one of his physics books.
Edwin Moses smiled as he opened the curtains, letting in the piercing light of the Spanish sky. Question: What do you do to concentrate? Answer: Get down with Miles Davis and in with the particles and waves. But few reporters ever wanted to know about this, all they wanted to know about these days was the streak, that quick surface strike into the public imagination, or the thing as he privately began to think of it. Strange, he thought now, the way any prolonged assault on perfection begins to surround itself with so much collective psychic energy that it can implode, scattering character far from its center. The psychological effects of slumps have always been known to athletes, sensed by fans; slumps disassemble, crush the will, change a man. But streaks bring joy, ennoble, are the mammon of the godmakers. Yeah, he had to smile, but try lugging this mutha around for nine years, nine months, and nine days.
The numbers were always with him. Just the other day he saw a long line of black-cowled nuns moving into a church; he instantly turned them into a metaphor for the streak. The same with the birds in the sky, or jets waiting to take off; any unbroken line, and there was the quick flash of the streak through his mind. Winning, he finally had to admit, was becoming too desperate a matter; the very thought of winning or losing was perilous in the hurdles; only the pure act itself, 400 meters of instinctual reaction, must dominate the mind. He was eager to feel the surface under his spikes now, to retreat into the stillness, that splendid void that he has always found in the hard geometry of the chalked, measured distances; yeah, a streak can lean on a man, all right.
And what a record it is: two Olympic gold medals, two world championships, and the streak—107 straight victories in a sport where the margin for error barely exists. For 12 years (the average career is three to five years) he has attacked the 400 intermediate hurdles with the kind of vigor and Pegasus form that would have been the stuff of sports page sonnets in another age. He has been the epitome of what the French call the idée fixe; the man cannot be diverted from his vision. Before Moses came along, 48 seconds could not be broken; he’s broken it 27 times, run 18 of the 19 fastest times on record, among them the world mark of 47.2. Says Danny Harris, his most fierce competitor: “In Europe, they’d pay to watch him run by himself.” They already have in Taiwan—5,000 of them. Dick Hill, senior associate athletic director at the University of Louisville, says: “You want the Olympic, what it should be but seldom is. It’s Edwin Moses. Body and motion is my discipline. He’s the most remarkable athlete of the 20th century. Perfection.”
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Maybe that’s the trouble, Ultimately, perfection seems to alienate more than it ever endears, especially those who are closer to the heat. When there wasn’t any money around in big-time track, who cared if everybody thought Moses was the King of Siam. But when the checks started to be written, Moses was the big horse in the gate. “Oh yeah,” says a friend, “and he gets all the oats. It’s money, jealously that’s behind any knocks on him. What else could it be? For an image hustler, he’s a helluva hermit.” The friend strikes a revealing note. If you look around the floating, sad-comic opera of celebrities trying to sell themselves, where is Edwin Moses? From afar, without buying into the whole Olympic brag of the ideal, and without Moses uttering a word, it is not hard to have the innocent hunch that here might be the last warrior, the seeker of excellence for its own sake, the one who decides that if his performance is not electric enough then forget about the Jockey underwear. He might as well be an apparition. You don’t see him on TV exchanging banalities with Johnny Carson; in fact, you never see him anywhere except when he folds himself into the starting blocks and goes to work.
Isn’t that right, Edwin? “I wouldn’t know about that,” he says. Let’s try again. Doesn’t it seem you’re the most available public figure on the landscape. “You think so?” he asks. When’s the next plane out of here, you wonder. He is walking on a beach in southern California, not far from his home. The ocean is placid, the beach empty. He often runs here in the morning, or he comes to watch the birds. They calm him, and the sight of a pelican will draw his undivided attention. “Hey, look at that,” he says abruptly, “a pelican.” The observation startles; the silence had become a roar. “You never see much of them anymore,” he says. “People have been catching them. They cut off their beaks. People.” Go on, but he drops the beaks, his voice trailing off with a hint of bewilderment. The winter light catches his tinted glasses. The glasses have been a personal trademark, projecting mystery, a threatening insouciance. Andre Phillips, a top hurdler, got him right: “I first saw him on TV. The Montreal Olympics. I was just a kid. There he was, hood up and glasses. The dude had ccome out of nowhere and there he was and you still couldn’t see him. No face. Like a ghost. Theee ghost. He was there, but he wasn’t. Hands off. Alone. Cool. I really threw myself into the hurdles after looking at him.”
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Edwin Moses in 1979. Photo via AP.
Better hurry, then, before he disappears right in front of you. What about the streak, Edwin? The ending of the streak in Spain was supposed to have devastated him (though it’s hard to see him devastated by anything right now). The suggestion is that since the loss to Danny Harris he can’t be around mirrors; all he can see in them is a human being. Wait a minute, this guy walking on the beach, 2,000 feet deep into silence? One would have a better chance of finding a black pearl in the sand than locating an ego of that dimension. “I lost,” he says. “It was a race, and I lost.” But then, suddenly, he is putting you there in Madrid, hardly a man still running a finger over scar tissue. The monotone is gone, the words are carrying colors as he recreates the June night six months before: the way he felt before the race in his hotel room, the sound of Miles’s horn; the ping-pong thoughts about the psychology of humping a streak up the mountain each time out; the sky looking as if it had been torn from a canvas in the Prado. And finally the explosive start of Harris out of the blocks, and how he hadn’t had a plan for that possibility (extremely unlike him), then the cataract swoosh of sound from the crowd, the knifelike inner wince of recognition that it was all over. Unthinkingly, he continued his famed victory lap around the track, and the Spanish, who have a nose for drama, filled the stadium with the chant: Torero! Torero! “Something extraordinary was gone,” he says. But, he adds, slipping now into low gear, “it was a race, that’s all. I lost. One shouldn’t make too much of it.”
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The great electronic beast began to chomp: Moses Beaten. In France, a boyhood friend, Dr. Archie Mays, walked toward a newsstand with a certain feeling of unease. Headlines in five different languages looked back at him. Mays says, “When you’re close to someone, you pick up on things. All those years, he never once talked about the streak. He had it locked up tight inside himself, and who knows what it was or wasn’t doing to him? And you began to take it for granted that he would win. When he ran, it was like he was teaching little boys. But early last year, I sensed something was wrong. He didn’t seem like he was all asses and elbows as he got ready. He’s a walking closet of scraps of paper, with plans jotted down for his training. He always pulled them out and showed me. Not last year. He seemed detached. There was a sense of an edge lost.” One look at Moses in Spain, and Danny Harris was sure of it. He says now: “The pressure had gotten to him, and I knew. Hesitancy. Very tentative. He didn’t look like he wanted to take off his warm-up suit. Didn’t want to run. He can say all he wants that the streak wasn’t eating him up, that he didn’t feel any pressure, but I know better. Once, I was on one, just 14 straight. It’s a terrific feeling, what more with nine years of never losing! It’s like an important possession. You don’t even want to think of parting with it. But it gets to you. Everybody’s gunning for you. You’re mind won’t let you alone.”
Athletes will admit to anything before acknowledging the erosive damage of pressure. There’s already enough vulnerability to go around in the percentages, and in the instant exposure as soon as you put on the gear. If they talk about pressure at all, they will direct you to the guy in the other lane, or sometimes look at you as if you’ve just discovered a weak limb on their family tree. But pressure is the big cat in their lives; the idea is to keep it caged and sedated. No one has ever been better at that than Moses, yet his loss in Spain loosed a wave of speculation that the royal robes might have become a trifle frayed. After all, he was crowding age 33, the hair was going fast, gray was snaking around the temples, and who knows what private doubts were hidden behind those eyes, the eyes you never see? “It seems that everybody wants to rush me off the stage,” says Moses, “but they just have to wait.” They call him the King of Sticks on the circuit, and sometimes he gets the impression from the huge crowds that he should dutifully surrender his head for the sake of historical continuity. “It’s love and hate now,” he says. “But I have to be dealt with. I concede nothing—not even to age.” As if to etch it indelibly in the track world’s consciousness, he came back after Spain to crush the field, including Harris, in Paris and Berlin, and won his second world title in Rome in what many consider the most dramatic race ever, a victory over Harris by just a billow of his jersey—two hundredths of a second.
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Danny Harris beats Edwin Moses in Madrid. Photo via AP.
Now as he leans on a pier and looks out, he seems, for some reason, like an old friend, somebody you’d ask for very personal advice. He disarms, neutralizes the desire for taut penetration, makes asking him questions that you would not want asked about yourself seem like oafish intrusion. Yet it would be a mistake to think that he will ever hunker down and give you a tour of his life. “Nobody gets into Edwin’s world,” says Danny Harris. Above all else—his easy charm, his proclivity for being civil at all times—this is an interior man, friendly with the desert quiet within himself. When he does try to come out of his interior, he’s like a carpenter with language, building staircases that come to a sudden halt. He drops his tools and says to himself: “Hold it, this might lead somewhere I don’t want to go.” His pal Archie Mays says, “Language is a big thing to him. Not only his own. He can hear hostility and deception. He’s not about to walk into anyone’s backyard knowing there’s a pit bull out there. People can become afraid of his reserve, his demeanor. He’s got a lot of faces, Edwin. The Business Face. The Track Face. They’re all real. The Understanding Face and the Angry Face.” Like? “When those eyes just come out over the glasses.”
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The glasses are being lowered now, and the eyes are moving out like two freight trains. The incident on Sunset Boulevard has been gently introduced. If you have an ounce of sensitivity, this is the kind of moment when you wonder why you didn’t become a bricklayer. The snippet of celluloid from three years ago is filling his mind, the images must sear: the Olympic Hero and the Street Hooker; Moses in his immaculate white suit leaving the jailhouse, the vacuity of his face; the impeccability of a whole persona at this moment irrevocably compromised; the runner stumbles. The hooker-cop had approached him at a red light, he joked with her about price, then hit the gas when the light changed. A block away he was surrounded like Public Enemy No. 1. Price had been mentioned, and that was enough for the cops; the Olympic license plate also lit them up. Once in court, he was quickly found innocent, an apparent victim of cops too eager to affirm their status as a special squad. Publicly, he had become more raw meat for a morally ascendant society, with an increasingly hair-trigger tendency to impose moral absolutes—on others. The notorious tabloids of France couldn’t even get worked up about it, except to cluck. Well, there go the Americans again with their heroes, back to Hawthorne and giving out scarlet letters. But with serious portraiture in mind, you can’t avoid the misfortune, it is vital. How did a man like Edwin Moses respond to being staked out in the media sun, how far did it drive him into his interior and what did he find there, how did he hold on to what he was all about? The Hollywood incident had hurt him badly—and it still does. His eyes flash, and then he turns back to the car.
Moses shows up the next afternoon to see to see his physical therapist, Ken Yoshino. He looks tired, says he was wired up last night, didn’t get much rest. “I began classwork toward an M.B.A. last night,” he explains. “It’s exciting.” Says Mays, “He’s a searcher. Athletes get in trouble when they quit and find emptiness. Edwin will just go on another search.” He’s already got a B.S. in physics, a B.A. in business. All the world’s a classroom. He’s become an expert scuba diver, had a pilot’s license. Pursuits that lengthen the distance between him and people? He ponders: “Could be. I never thought of it that way.” He can also spend a lot of time photographing birds; an egret can put him into a trance. So can biology books; if he had his way every hotel room would have a Merck Manual of symptoms instead of a Bible. Right now, he has a back pain.
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Yoshino examines the point of the twinge. Edwin is on his belly, wearing just shorts. Besides those eyes and that winning, rascally gap between his teeth that contradicts a sometimes grave profile, the longness of his body captivates; the legs mute the rest of his six feet two inches. Yoshino points to his prize corpus. “God made him one of the most efficient machines on earth,” he says. “Body fat. Negative. Diet? You ever watch him eat?” Yes, and it’s painful; he looks as if he’s dining at the Borgias. “He even carries his own water in the back of his car. Look at his legs. Most athletes have an 8-percent discrepancy in leg strength, he’s got only 2-percent. Gives him an even foot strike, continues drive. The guy’s a Vienna symphony of physical harmony.” What about aging? “His back pops where it never used to. There’s an unstable section in there. But man to man, he can win for the next two years.”
Later, intimations of track mortality are given quick dispatch. Entering his home over Newport Bay, Moses says, “I can’t even bear to think of quitting the hurdles. I’m not going anywhere. But it’s too bad you can’t be like a musician and go until you can’t blow anymore.” The house is lined with books, strewn with memorabilia that chart his rise from a skinny college kid at Morehouse College to the covers of world magazines. He produces one, an Italian fashion number: no glasses, the gap in the teeth, big smile. “See how warm I can be,” he says. The European atmosphere for track, he says, is like an NFL title game. “But I don’t care much for the crowds,” he adds. “You’re up for grabs. After I ran in the L.A. Olympics, the fans outside were in a feeding frenzy. They nearly ripped off my clothes. I felt in real danger.” He talks fondly of his appeal in Europe—and why not? It’s his power base, but it wasn’t always so; Edwin Moses has taken world track from the dark ages to the marquee.
He runs 15 to 17 meets a year, getting $30,000 or more for each trip out. He won’t crunch the numbers, but it’s clear that the figure puts him in the area of a half-million annually; shaved down, that comes to about thirty grand.... He breaks in: “For every minute I actually run. Say around 10 minutes of work a year. But it was hard politics getting here.” Back in the early days, world track was a back room with a little guy and a satchel, where two things were sure to happen: they cheated you out of your money and made you feel like a Third World indigent – without brains. An imperious cartel of promoters seemed impenetrable. After the ’84 Olympics, Moses went head to head with the cartel. He was vilified in Europe. But if you are in track promotion, how do you announce that you can’t afford Edwin Moses? He aimed his mystique and his new manager, Gordon Baskin, at the walls of the cartel. He had fired his first three managers: one for making a pass at his new wife, Myrella, another for stealing money, and still another for getting him involved in a condominium scam that he sniffed out early. Baskin is an ex-banker who knows the location of the throat. He didn’t need the job; Moses was an adventure. The cartel came down in a heap. You can still hear a lone scream accusing Moses of wrecking world track.
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Edwin Moses arrives in court to face solicitation charges. Photo via AP.
The other noise is from the athletes themselves. The bottom dogs have trouble with the vision of the plutocrat in their midst. Even with the bigger checks and heightened image, they resist his efforts to unify them for the future. “Not a union,” he says. “Just hard diplomacy and staying together in our efforts. The cartel may be down, but not out.” As one doubter says, “Why should Godzilla care about the mice?” He is both respected and suspect among other athletes. He’s admired for what he’s done and for his sincere willingness to render counsel to anyone who seeks him out. But some of the suspicion rears over the streak; to preserve it, Moses ducked tough competition, took a powder after the L.A. Olympics. “Ridiculous,” he says. “All my contracts are signed before the season. Besides, if they wanted me so bad why didn’t they come after me?” Says Harris: “I didn’t hook up with him once until Spain. Only Edwin knows if he was ducking me.” Why didn’t he enter wherever Moses was scheduled? “They lock you out,” he says. “Edwin pulls the strings in Europe. He runs the show. You dance his dance.”
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This amuses Moses, bringing forth one of his chuckles. “I guess they think I’m the cartel now,” he says. “The biggest psych job ever. Andre Phillips and Harris actually making people believe that I was trying to duck them.” A rare glimpse of his pride as he says: “Look at the skeletons I’ve left behind. I’ve been through generations of hurdlers. I’ll be retiring a few more before I’m done.” The sudden, high acidity among hurdlers is unusual. They are not given to the volatility of sprinters. Sprinters are emotional, joyous, social, apt to exchange confidences. Hurdlers seem solitary, brooding, wary sentinels of their secrets, their state of mind. They work in a mist, full of tiny pulsations of mental signals. Watch them just before a race: all eyes, no breathing, their cerebral gears shut down, just that camera grinding in their minds. “Edwin takes the film,” says Dick Hill, “to a level where we can’t see. If his critics could tune into the visualization that he has of himself, they’d take off their spikes and get a job.”
Moses pops a tape into the VCR, and as the images come into focus, he chuckles: “There you are—Edwin Moses the radical.” The tape shows him winning the gold medal in the ’76 Olympics. The face is solemn, that of a school kid tired of giving answers to everyone in class. The modest Afro fills out a small head, the dark glasses are already paramount to the look, but what’s that bobbing around the neck? A leather thong necklace? An ornament of dissidence? Doesn’t say much, either; there’s menace here, all right. “They typed me right off,” he says. “They didn’t care that the glasses were prescription. I still can’t see. I have to struggle through serious optical fatigue. The rawhide cord necklace was a gift from a college roommate. No symbolism.” Lloyd Walker, an Olympic coach, discovered him as a hurdler just months before Montreal. “He was a natural,” says Walker. “I watched him crush the drills, went to Europe and said: ‘You are all coming in second.’” The ’76 Olympics didn’t do anything for him, Moses says, suddenly blacking out the tape. “I was forgotten instantly. Who knows? Maybe everybody did buy into me as a black terrorist in embryo.”
What about the tape of his loss in Spain? “I have one here someplace, but can’t find it.” He pauses: “Maybe I’ll never find it.” Instead, he inserts a sort of lab tape done for Kodak, Edwin Moses at 1,000 frames per second, bare-chested, the body encrusted with beeping gadgets that monitor his physiology. His style is murderously fluent, the aura is primal. He loves talking about the technical subtleties, the seconds between hurdles (3.1 to 4.8 toward the end), the intricacies of his ascent over 36-inch high “enemies,” and the descent that sends 3,000 lbs. of pressure slamming into his joints. “It’s in a way like taking off and landing a jet on an aircraft carrier,” he says. “You have to have the right thrust up, get up, and have the right glide slope coming down, with very little runway to deal with. You don’t have time to think. You have to know. Thinking can be costly. For the hurdles, you have to be a little crazy. You have to run hard, you’re going to be tired all the time. You’re going way beyond what the body was designed for. On every single hurdle. Just to try for it is a physical nightmare.”
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Moses is the De Sade of preparation, sadistic with his body. When he’s through flogging himself, he takes all the readouts from his monitoring devices and lets his computations speak to him. “Physically,” says Hill, “you always know what to expect from Edwin Moses. The big variable is what’s in his head. He’s always got five, six plans ready for any way the race shapes up. His head is the scary part.” Moses says he’s an athlete only when he races, the rest of the time he’s an artist putting together a canvas, the race merely “the act of writing my signature.” He thinks now of the pain, saying: “The pain can make you scream. You can’t stand, sit, walk for long. It travels up the back of your legs to your head.” Says Iowa State coach Steve Lynn: “I don’t know how he does it. All that boredom of isolation, the hurt for so many years. There’ll never be another Edwin.” Harris agrees: “You won’t catch me going over the sticks when I’m 30. Something special about that man on the inside.”
“All right, Edwin, what’s on the inside?”
“Not all that much,” he says, fiddling with his lunch. “You’d be surprised.
“I think about a lot of things, but not much about myself. Only on the edges. I haven’t had much time for serious introspection.”
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“Money?”
“I count it. I’m not into ostentation.”
“Reincarnation?”
He laughs.
“How about fame?”
“I don’t need to be famous.”
“Ducking the opposition?”
“Think about it,” he says. “What for? They’re good for business. Long time ago, I inquired what it would take for me to make the hurdles a big event. The answer was TV and people who look like they can beat you. I like the hot guns. They put focus on the event.”
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“The perfect race?”
“I keep searching for it. Could be in the coming Olympics. If the weather’s right, I could crack into 46 for a new world record. But it’s tough. You need help. The others force you to the limit. It’s like calling a board meeting, and you hope that every member is going to contribute loudly. It doesn’t happen that often. I think the board will convene with serious, very serious intentions in Seoul.”
“Power?”
“To be able to function,” he says. “Not to use over other people.”
“Is there life in the universe?”
“I believe in the possibility of aliens.” He chuckles. “You’re leading me somewhere.”
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“Sunset Boulevard?”
“I thought so,” he says, grimacing.
The Moses firmness doesn’t wobble in the face of breezy familiarity. He sighs, deliberates over the $100,000 misunderstanding; that’s what it cost him in legal fees to defend himself against a crummy misdemeanor. In the realm of commercial endorsements, he was suddenly in limbo. He was under siege. His wife got one call from a reporter asking: “How can you continue to enhance his career after this?” Being married to him was never easy, if only because of the distance there between what he feels and what he shows. Myrella never wavered, and their marriage has struck deep roots since. “Yeah,” laughs Archie Mays, “he’ll even kiss her on the check in public now. He’s not as tightly wrapped up about marriage. The stupid incident in Hollywood hit a profound chord in him. And made him very vulnerable. He wasn’t used to that kind of feeling.” Or as Moses says, he felt the sharp edge of “the randomness of things, of life, how it can shift on you and you’re helpless.” He will make a single observation on the incident: “Far in the back of my house, sometimes late at night, when I was trying to sleep, you could hear a coyote pack tearing apart a kill. That sound told you all there was about the way I felt.”
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Mays says: “Let me put it this way. Take the area of business. You can’t hype the guy, he’ll throw off the fat and go for the meat. He goes at himself the same way. Celebrity bores him. Manipulator of perception? All he’s out to control is his space. Personal dignity is what matters to him. Period. He guards it like a wolf. Dignity. That’s what I think when I look at Edwin.” Dick Hill, though, sees a hurdling machine. “I can’t look at him to this day without thinking about when he was up against Andre Phillips. Edwin was beaten. No question. Andre shot by him after eight, and it was all over. Then Moses went deep down. Maybe it does have to do with dignity. Moses keyed on the 10th hurdle, attacked the track. And bam! Andre’s eyes went to the ground. He was questioning, and Moses was gone. With one move, he was the beautiful composite of what we try to teach at the Olympic Training Center. Fight. Concentration. Mindset. Body control. A kinesthetic sense of awareness of all combinations. It was awesome. He is awesome.”
But awesome won’t do, neither will superstar. Indiscriminate use in the 80’s has driven both descriptions into the Woolworth bin. The late critic Kenneth Tynan coined two designations that would fit Moses. One of them he called s’imposer: the talent for imposing, asserting authority on a given field of work, saying, “Inside this field, you will defer to me.” The other term—more visual—is high definition performance. It communicates authenticity (not celebrity), transmits the essence of one’s talent to an audience with economy, grace, not apparent effort, and absolute, hard-edge clarity of outline. Edwin Moses is an HDP; anything less misses the man as well as his work. Chisel it in under the bust, remember it when the camera pans the chute in Seoul and comes in tight on those eyes.
Mark Kram began his 40-year writing career as a sports columnist as The Baltimore Sun in 1959. He spent 13 years at Sports Illustrated (1964-1977), during which he became one of the signature voices of the magazine. He later contributed pieces to Playboy, Esquire, and GQ. Ghosts of Manila, his book on the Ali-Frazier rivalry, was published by HarperCollins in 2001. He died in 2002. His son, Mark Kram Jr. edited Great Men Die Twice: The Selected Magazine Work of Mark Kram. It is now available for purchase.
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The Stacks is Deadspin’s living archive of great journalism, curated by Bronx Banter’s Alex Belth. Check out some of our favorites so far. Follow us on Twitter, @DeadspinStacks, or email us at [email protected]. |
By Sam Smith
Life is why you never give up. There’s always hope, and you can be very surprised what you find around that unexplored corner. Or unused lineup. There’s always a chance if you don’t surrender to your disappointment and anguish. The Bulls discovered that last month after a devastating and embarrassing loss in Boston and eventful airplane ride to North Carolina.
Few these days find peace and resolution on the way to North Carolina.
The Bulls did, a change in lineup, attitude and style that helped produce seven wins in the last nine games, a 41-41 record that was good enough for the last seat on the NBA playoff bus. Which for the Bulls rolls into Boston 5:30 p.m. Sunday to start against the No. 1 seeded Celtics.
The Bulls are considered underdogs, long shots. Though they’re a lot closer than they were a month ago, now with vigor and vivacity that seemed long lost.
Yogi Berra supposedly observed once when you reach the fork in the road to take it. The Bulls had come upon a crossroads of their season. The trip from Boston to North Carolina became an awakening that even now gives them hope, if not belief, they can make something special of this often incongruous and inglorious season.
“I do remember,” said Wade about that lost afternoon and subsequent plane ride when he huddled with coach Fred Hoiberg. “(Rajon) Rondo got in the lineup after that. Niko (Mirotic) got back in. Then we played Charlotte and we won and then I got hurt. It was a big moment for this team. For me, just being a leader and going to talk to coach and watch film with him and talk about a few things I saw. And understanding if we were going to make the playoffs, we needed those guys. We needed Niko; we needed Rondo. Coach obviously made a decision on what needed to be done and that’s the reason we’re in the post season now for sure.”
The Bulls had reached a low point in the season both numerically at 31-35 and spiritually with the calamitous loss in Boston on national TV. It wasn’t just the near 30-point deficit much of the game or the horrific shooting, the sagging shoulders under the weight of a season seeming to having fallen in on them. The Celtics were laughing at them, Isaiah Thomas joining the fans’ wave while sitting on the bench, Celtics players laughing at those comments not usually so funny.
The season had become a doctorate in dysfunction, changing lineups, trades, promotions, demotions, rivalries, team meetings, individual accusations, fines, benchings. There was plenty of "me" in spelling team for those guys.
The hope of the so called Three Alphas upon arrival with the 10-6 start through November had been extinguished in the reality many saw previously: Three guys best with the ball, not so good shooting three pointers, playing with two other guys who rebound well, but don’t score or shoot. It took a month, but the rest of the NBA picked up on it. The squeeze on the court often was obscured by the personalities off.
Rondo, Butler and Wade wasn’t working. Someone had to go. Rondo was low man with the shortest contract. He was benched after the Dec. 30 loss in Indiana that sent the team under .500. He didn’t even play for five games. Meanwhile, Mirotic, facing his own free agency and always a bit uncertain about his status, stewed a bit in his own frustrated juices about losing a starting position to Taj Gibson. He pressed and added pressure. Alone without buddy Pau Gasol, he crawled more into himself. His play, predictably, declined. He left the rotation as well.
There was enough talent with Butler and Wade to be average, but who was satisfied with that? So they rocked and rolled around .500, good wins, horrible losses. Excellence is consistency. They were not.
Boston was the bottom, a fifth straight loss, baked like a Boston bean that Sunday afternoon in March.
Hoiberg was ready for some major changes; it was good to share it with Wade, who had been no great fan of Rondo’s or Mirotic’s. But Wade also understands the game.
He and Hoiberg watched film all the way to Charlotte and it remained clear. They needed more speed from the ball handler, less holding, obviously, but also more shooting to get the defenses off he and Butler. Sure, they’d talked space and pace all season, but there also was the ongoing tryouts and auditions; just who could play with all those kids. It takes time. Time was up.
Hoiberg was glad to hear it from Wade, especially. Rondo needed to be there, so did Mirotic. Hoiberg knew there’d been some friction among them, but he was ready to go with that group again and show Wade his flaws as well. You want your best players to buy in. Wade was offering to pay. Butler was on board.
"I’ve got Rondo on my side this time,” Wade said Wednesday when asked about playing Boston again. “Most of the time I played against him. We’re going to lean on him a lot, his leadership. He’s our starting point guard. Him going into a familiar place and we know how important it is for him and what it is going to mean. We are all going to get behind him and get this done for him." Dwyane Wade said Wednesday when asked about playing Boston again
Rondo went back into the starting lineup the next game in Charlotte and scored 20 points for the first time this season with six assists and six rebounds. Mirotic came off the bench, but he led the Bulls with 24 points and 11 rebounds in one of their better wins of the season. He made five three pointers; it’s much easier to shoot without a boulder of distress on your back.
Professional athletes are the gods of our society, the fittest and fastest, able to perform extraordinary feats. We prefer their lives to be about the joy and success we can revel in. But they bleed like everyone else, emotionally as well. Mirotic had so sought acceptance from the team’s stars. Not that he didn’t have it, but no one ever said. He glowed after he heard Wade had lobbied for his increased presence in the lineup. He told a staffer he’d wished someone had told him before. Everyone likes to hear about acceptance. Not everyone can be the stoic, strong, silent type we celebrate and fantasize about. More fancy than reality.
Mirotic got back into the starting lineup after three games. Since sitting out that Boston game, he is averaging 15.8 points and 6.8 rebounds. More significantly, he is shooting 47 percent on threes and averaging five made threes per game. Rondo started in Charlotte and since except for the three games out with a bad wrist. He’s averaging for the season 7.8 points and 6.7 assists. But since that loss in Boston, he is averaging 12 points and eight assists.
The Bulls since that March game have made double figures threes in a game 12 times in the 16 games and a franchise record seven straight. They’re averaging 107.3 points per game since then in going 10-6. It’s the same record the Bulls had in their 16-game start of good feelings.
It wasn’t a pleasant 50-game interlude to watch or be a part of. But it provided a basis and foundation for growth and realization. Your worst days can prove to be your best remedies as long as you don’t give in to them. It’s a credit to this Bulls group they survived the darkness by trying to unlock their aspirations.
“It was a collective team effort,” said Rondo, the former Celtic from their 2008 champions. “There were a lot of ups and down this year. Whatever happens regardless of what happened throughout the season, we are where we want to be right now. Got to keep moving forward. We went through adversity. A couple of games we got down, but we stuck with it and continued to fight back. It was an ugly loss (in Boston in March), a TV game, Sunday afternoon, and they put it to us. It was (a turning point). I think it has to be in our heads, how they put it to us the last time they played us. We've got to come out and compete.”
No reason to believe now after what they endured, realized, accepted and overcame that they won’t. |
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The Massachusetts House approved a bill Wednesday that would outlaw devices that allow semi-automatic weapons to mimic fully automatic guns. The House voted 151-3 in favor of legislation to ban so-called bump stocks, such as those used by the Las Vegas shooter. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has said he supports a ban. The devices fit over the stock and grip of a semi-automatic rifle and allow the weapon to fire continuously. State Rep. David Linsky, a Natick Democrat, filed legislation that would outlaw any devices that - when attached to a rifle, shotgun or firearm - increase the weapon's rate of discharge. Those who violate the measure would face up to 20 years in prison. The prohibition would take effect 180 days after becoming law. The Las Vegas shooter had 12 weapons fitted with such devices. House Speaker Robert DeLeo defended the decision to vote on the bill without holding public hearings first, saying Massachusetts has a long history of taking action to prevent gun violence. "I think it's important for us to take it up and take it up immediately," the Winthrop Democrat said before the vote. Lawmakers in the Massachusetts Senate also have said they would support a ban. The Senate is scheduled to meet in a formal session on Thursday. The amendment approved by the House says that anyone who "possesses, owns or offers for sale any device which attaches to a rifle, shotgun or firearm, except a magazine, that is designed to increase the rate of discharge of the rifle, shotgun or firearm or whoever modifies any rifle, shotgun or firearm with the intent to increase its rate of discharge, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison by not less than three nor more than 20 years." Linsky's bill initially would have also eliminated a state law that allows magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, if they were manufactured prior to 1994. That language was later dropped. Linsky said that could be discussed another time. Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts, said the rush to ban the devices is premature. The National Rifle Association, of which the Gun Owners Action League is an affiliate, has suggested that the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives should revisit the devices and determine if they should be subject to greater restrictions. "They don't even know what the ATF's going to do yet," Wallace said. "The investigation hasn't been finished. The ATF may take this up and may change everything. To rush something through like this without taking the time to figure out what's going on is kind of irresponsible." |
Still from "The Tunnel"
The Little Rock Horror Picture Show, the fanged-and-betentacled sister film fest that sprang from the guts of the Little Rock Film Festival , is teaming up with the Central Arkansas Library System's Butler Center for Arkansas Studies near the River Market downtown to throw a screening and reception on January 31 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The event is open to the public, and will serve as an early sneak peek for the LR Horror Picture Show, which is scheduled for Feb. 17-19 at Market Street Cinema.
Attendees will be able to purchase passes for the Picture Show at the Butler Center event. We've previously reported about the lineup for the LRHPS here, here and here. Looks like it's gonna be a great time.
Full press release on the jump...
For Immediate Release
LITTLE ROCK HORROR PICTURE SHOW PARTNERS WITH BUTLER CENTER
Little Rock, Ark.- The Little Rock Horror Picture Show is teaming up with the Central Arkansas Library System's Butler Center for Arkansas Studies for a reception and secret film screening January 31st from 6-8 pm. The Little Rock Horror picture show, a spinoff mini festival of the Little Rock Film Festival will take place over one weekend and will focus on horror and sci-fi film with feature and short films from three different continents. The festival will be from February 17 — 19th.
The event is open to the public and attendees will be able to purchase passes to the Little Rock Horror Picture Show on site. Those interested in volunteering at both the Little Rock Horror Picture Show and/or the Little Rock Film Festival can sign up at the event.
The Little Rock Horror Picture Show’s announced films include Madison County, Exit Humanity, The Holding, The Tunnel, Sennentntschi: Curse of the Alps, and Silent Night.
For more information on the other films showing at the festival please visit www.LittleRockFilmFestival.org. For more info on Madison County please visit www.MadisonCountyMovie.com.
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Waitress Pays Rent With Million-Dollar Gospel Tract
NEWPORT BEACH, CA—Stating she was overjoyed to have received the unexpected gift, local waitress Rachel Palmer was left a single million-dollar bill gospel tract after serving a family at the diner where she works for over 90 minutes, after which she realized she’d be able to afford rent this month using the counterfeit bill.
An emotional Palmer further stated she’d be giving whatever was left over from paying her rent to charity.
“I just can’t believe it—I was behind on my bills, too,” Palmer said. “You read about waitstaff getting unexpectedly large tips sometimes, but I never imagined anything like this would happen to me.”
“I didn’t even know a million-dollar bill existed, or that they had religious stuff all over the back of them,” she said as she proudly held up the million-dollar gospel tract for reporters to see.
At publishing time, other waiters and waitresses had reported receiving similar generous tips this week, including trillion-dollar gospel tracts and Bible verses scribbled down next to Christian fish symbols. |
Gary Ridgway claims to be helping victim's families bring closure in a series of telephone interviews with KOMO-TV's Charlie Harger. Courtesy KOMO-TV
AMERICA'S most prolific serial killer, who is in jail for killing 49 women, has now confessed to a TV crew to killing 80.
Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, claims he is revealing the true number of his victims to try to help bring closure to their families.
Ridgway, who murdered prostitutes and teenage runaways in King County, Washington State during the 1980s and 1990s, made the revelation in a series of telephone interviews with KOMO-TV's Charlie Harger.
PICTURES: KILLERS, CANNIBALS, VICTIMS
Ridgway, who was arrested in 2001 through DNA evidence, avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty to killing 48 women and was sentenced to 48 consecutive life terms. A 49th victim was later identified and a 49th life sentence was added in 2011.
Ridgway, who was married three times, was a truck painter from Seattle. He admitted picking up prostitutes and teenage runaways, strangling them during sex and dumping their bodies in wasteland near the 105km-long Green River.
Ridgway has previously confessed to US Congressman Dave Reichert, then part of the police task force trying to solve the murders, to killing 71 women. Now he has told Harger that he murdered more.
Harger said that he believes Ridgway's true motivation for agreeing to the interviews is to "up his count" and make it appear that he killed more, with Ridgway now stating he murdered 80 women.
"I think he wants to show the world that, 'Here I am, Gary Ridgway, the truck painter from Kenworth, the guy who everybody thought was slow since elementary school, somebody who couldn't hold a candle to Ted Bundy. But, here I am, and I'm the best at something.'"
Harger despite his reservations believes Ridgway's confessions have to be investigated.
"There's so many people out there who have never been found, so many women dead in the cold," Harger said.
"Maybe if we listen to the clues and cut through his lies, we will find a nugget of truth, the clue investigators have waited for," he said. "It's a chance we have to take." |
The Emirates Stadium in Holloway, London was opened eight years ago. It's England's third largest stadium and home to the Arsenal Football Club. And now, it's also the subject of an awesome CryEngine map.
The man behind the project is a Turkish environment artist by the name of Gökhan Karadayi, who's currently working with TaleWorlds on the next Mount & Blade game. He first posted about the stadium on the Polycount Forum in March, and he did so again yesterday to update the thread with the now-finished map.
The guy used CryEngine 3 to recreate the stadium, and he did a pretty good job. This is what the place looks like in real life:
And here's Karadayi's version:
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Sweet.
Look below for the six-minute (!) flythrough video, which shows a rainy nighttime scene and a day scene, and which you should most definitely watch in HD, along with a couple of hi-res screenshots.
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Emirates Stadium photo via burohappold.com
CryFootball - Next-Gen Emirates Stadium [Polycount Forum] |
Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility has set the technology and investing worlds aflutter, with much of the commentary positioning it as a play by Google for Motorola’s strong IP portfolio. But a single point of focus is incorrect and misses a bigger point: The MMI purchase is the result of Google’s miscalculations about the way value is captured in mobile computing. These strategic missteps placed Google in a position of weakness and forced it into a costly and desperate move.
To understand why that’s the situation Google is in, first we should look at the company’s mobile Android software in the context of Google’s product portfolio. There’s a great consistency with Google’s products: they are services “in the cloud.” All except for one: Android. It’s a peculiar Google product for two reasons.
1) Android is not an end-user application or service. It’s system software; the customer for Android is not the end-user but a system builder or integrator. Typically a phone or device vendor needs to license Android and then build a product which must then be accepted by another intermediary — usually a mobile operator — before sale to the end-user. System software is “plumbing” which, like Windows, enables applications that “run on top” of it. It’s a platform.
2) Android is one of many enablers for other Google services. Google offers the same services on other system software. For example, Gmail and Google Search and Google Maps work very well on iPhones (or Windows). So Google’s own platform is not the only venue through which Google’s money makers can reach the market. Although Google services can run on any platform, mobile platforms are not as open as traditional computer platforms. This means that a platform owner (e.g. Apple or Microsoft) can “turn off” Google services on a whim. By distributing its own platform, Google can thus ensure that its services will have unhindered access to users. In other words, they gain distribution. By being a plumber, Google can ensure that its services will flow freely.
It’s an innovative, if not convoluted, business model: Building and giving away the plumbing so that homes are granted unhindered access to free Google utility services (whose meter readings are sold to the highest bidder). But it comes with more complications.
When it took its approach to mobile software, Google made a big bet that smartphones and tablets were sufficiently mature and thus could be built in a way that didn’t require Google owning all points of the value chain. For the last year it seemed that Google bet right. Android was very quickly adopted by licensees to the point that it achieved nearly 50% share in smartphone shipments last quarter.
However, lately, cracks began to appear in the strategy. Issues with intellectual property in Android caused some licensees to have to pay royalties to patent holders, increasing the cost. Fragmentation took hold where some versions of the software were used by some licensees on some products without the option or incentive to upgrade. Finally, some vendors modified the software resulting in missing features or inconsistent user experiences — even to the extent that Google’s own services were omitted.
All of these problems are a direct result of the approach Google chose with its big bet on Android. As a consequence, it has become increasingly difficult to ensure that Google’s revenue-generating services are properly “flowing” to the end users. The smartphone as we know it today is not good enough or mature enough to support Google’s initial strategic approach with Android. The big bet may have been lost.
Instead, with Motorola, Google got a hold of the vehicle through which it can create and sell integrated products. The company is thus no longer just a plumber but also a house builder and real estate developer. It can now build showcases that demonstrate the value of its services. The challenge then is how it will sell plumbing to contractors while it also competes with them by building houses. Android’s big bet has yet to pay off and Google just doubled down. |
Israel planned to detonate a nuclear weapon before the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, it has emerged 50 years later. This is a further indication that Israel may actually have nuclear arms, and may have had them for quite some time, despite the country's reticence in either admitting or denying it.
According to a New York Times article, retired brigadier general Itzhak Yaakov described the project — codenamed the Doomsday Operation — in an interview, and also said that Israel would have detonated the atomic weapon had it thought it would lose the war against Egypt — which was then called the United Arab Republic.
The conflict ended up being a six-day affair — from June 5 to 10 — and came to be called the Six-Day War. Israel won the war against Egypt, Jordan and Syria so fast that the weapon had not even been moved to the Sinai peninsula, where it was to be detonated atop a mountain, Yaakov told Avner Cohen, a scholar who studies the nuclear history of Israel.
Israel's nuclear policy
As mentioned earlier, Israel has a nuclear policy of neither confirming nor denying that it possesses nuclear weapons — a move that is called "nuclear opacity" or "nuclear ambiguity." However, over the decades several high-ranking Israeli officials have off-hand confirmed that Israel has nuclear weapons.
Yaakov's revelations add to that. They show that Israel might have had nuclear weapons as early as 1967. This was a full seven years before India became the third country — after the US and Russia — in 1974 to come out in the open about nuclear bombs by conducting three states. India's test would prompt the setting up of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG), where India itself is looking to gain entry right now.
Meanwhile, Yaakov himself had been arrested in 2001 for talking about Israel's nuclear programme to a reporter. No part of that interview would make it out intact.
Precursor to the Samson option?
According to the Yaakov, the "Doomsday Operation" was codenamed Shimson, after the Biblical hero Samson. Interestingly, many defence analysts and authors have referred to Israel's deterrence policy or the option to launch major nuclear strikes if much of Israel is destroyed as the Samson option — something that is believed to exist even today.
Samson, it may be remembered, was an Old Testament hero who was the strongest in the world, with his strength lying in his hair. He was betrayed by his beloved Delilah, who cut off his hair while he slept.He was imprisoned by the enemy, blinded and tied to two pillars that were central to a building full of people. As his last act, he prayed to God for strength and pulled the two pillars down with his bare hands, thereby getting the building to collapse and killing many enemies within it. |
This is precisely why we need the public option as a cost containment in the final bill product, and why we MUST work hard to influence the final conference report! According to the Los Angeles Times, the Senate Finance Bill is a "bonanza" for private insurers because without a public option to lower premium costs and provide competition, what insurance companies get are 47 million new captive customers with big fat government subsidies (i.e. bailouts) that are forced to buy junk insurance plans.
"It's a bonanza," said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.
And you know what's egregiously bad about this? Private insurance companies currently pay about 80% of insurance policy claims, and in the Senate Finance Bill, the requirement for them will be lowered to 65%! That means you'd be required to pick up 35% of your medical bills. See? You get covered, but you're forced to pay 35% of your bills.
That's why I keep saying that universal coverage does not equate affordability. |
Conor McGregor is one of the few mixed martial artists who receive the celebrity treatment. The fancy suits, the red carpets, the legions of adoring fans. He has it all.
That's great...sometimes. But other times, a guy just wants to pick up a bag of potato chips or pay an electric bill without having a stranger approach him.
While McGregor was stopped in his car, a fan started snapchatting him and was looking for a selfie. The Notorious didn't take kindly to this, though, and snatched for the phone.
The fan seemed no worse for wear from the encounter, though, as he ended the video with a big smile.
This should be a lesson for the future, though! Let celebrities go about their business in peace.
[Twitter, h/t TheOddsBible] |
× Brothers sentenced to life for Mother’s Day shooting that injured 20
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Four brothers and members of a 7th Ward gang were sentenced Tuesday for their roles in the 2013 Mother’s Day shooting that injured 20 people, including two 10-year-old children.
The shooting happened during the Original Big 7 Social Aid & Pleasure Club’s annual second line.
Travis Scott, 31, Akein Scott, 22, fire into the parade crowd injuring 20 people, some seriously. Travis and Akein pleaded guilty last year. On Tuesday, there were sentenced to life plus 10 years.
Shawn Scott, 27, and Stanley Scott, 24, were sentenced to 40 years in prison with credit for time served, followed by 5 years of supervised release for their roles in the shooting.
The restitution to the victims will be determined at a later date.
All four brother pled guilty in 2015.
Travis pleaded guilty to four counts in the Third Superseding Indictment, including one shooting.
Stanley pleaded guilty to six counts, including perpetrating three shootings.
Shawn pleaded guilty to five counts, which included two shootings.
Akein pleaded guilty to eight counts of the Third Superseding Indictment, which included his perpetrating five shootings in New Orleans.
Akein and Shawn also pleaded guilty to the Mother’s Day shooting on May 12, 2013.
All four defendants pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute over one kilogram of heroin.
According to court documents, the FnD gang was an enterprise engaged in racketeering under federal law. As members of this gang, Travis, Akein, Shawn, and Stanley conspired to commit numerous overt acts in furtherance of the gang’s activities.
Gang members sold illegal drugs, such as heroin and crack cocaine, and they committed acts of violence, including shootings.
FnD members often sold drugs in the Frenchmen Meat Market, a convenience store located at the corner of Frenchmen and North Derbigny Streets.
FnD members used intimidation, violence, and threats of violence to maintain the gang’s control over turf that extended from Elysian Fields Avenue, North Johnson Street, the I-10 Interstate Highway, St. Anthony Street, and North Claiborne Avenue.
Additional FnD members Jeremiah Jackson, Gralen Brown, Brian Benson and Richmond Smith, have previously pled guilty to gun and drug-related charges and are awaiting sentencing.
Crystal Scott pled guilty to drug-related charges and was previously sentenced to 120 months in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment. |
Ahead of his visit to Alaska for a summit on climate change, President Obama announced Aug. 30 that his administration would change the name of the country’s tallest mountain from Mt. McKinley to its original Indigenous name, Denali (or Deenahee, Denaze, Dghelayka’a), a word that means “High One” in Athabascan. Alaskan Natives and non-natives have been pushing for this change since 1975. In the 1980s, a compromise was made to name the national park around the great mountain Denali National Park.
While there has been an odd response from the leaders in Pres. McKinley’s home state of Ohio, insisting that this was a move by the president to be more “politically correct,” Indigenous people are celebrating.
In the last few years, there has been a push in Indian country to decolonize the land. The movement focuses on bringing back Indigenous plants and land teaching, but also the Indigenous names to the land. Part of colonization and genocide is to not only to remove the people from the land, it’s also removing any attachments the people have to the land.
In 2013, a movement to change Canada’s Mt. Douglas back to its Indigenous name, Pkols, was started by more than 700 people, including the chiefs of the Sannich and Lekwnungen nations, who gathered in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, where the old treaties were signed with Governor James Douglas in 1852. Reinstating the Indigenous name with a hand carved cedar sign, local tribes since then have been working on getting it recognized officially with the Canadian government.
The Indigenous nationhood movement and the movement to decolonize land names have even gotten the attention and support from non-natives and environmental organizations. Jordan Engel is an urban farmer and architect that grew up around the Seneca Nation of New York. Engel also did an internship at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where he begun his decolonial atlas. If you go to the website you can find the map of certain areas around Turtle Island. There are maps in Ojibwe, Mohawk, Passamaquoddy-Maliseet, Arapaho and Lakota. Working with language speakers in each area, Engel in a recent interview with Indian Country Today said, “There is no truth in cartography…Colonial powers without the consent of indigenous people, drew up imaginary political borders, which more often than not don’t reflect any real natural or cultural boundaries.”
The decolonization of the land movements are inspiring Native youth to get involved with projects like decolonial atlas; getting our youth involved with tribal language camps and indigenous science programs. Not only does giving places back their original name help out the Native community it also reminds non-Natives that things weren’t always named after white colonizers; that indigenous people have a name for the mountains, rivers, and plants; that there are still indigenous people connected to that land, and that we are still speaking and teaching our languages.
Other mountains are on their way for their name to be changed too. I hope that they change the names of our mountains in Washington: Rainier back to Tahoma or Ti’Swaq, Mt. Hood to Wy’East, Mt. St. Helens to Suek. These are the names my grandmother used in her stories, and her mother and father before her. And it’s the names I will be teaching my daughter.
Photo: The east side viewed from Denali National Park and Preserve, which surrounds the mountain, by Photo (c)2006 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man) – Self-photographed. Licensed under GFDL 1.2 via Commons. |
The fruits of a Tijuana marijuana seizure
The American war on marijuana has a villain problem in California. After 14 years of legalized medical cannabis, which has had the unintended consequence of turning nearly every news article about pot into an opportunity for light humor, the face of the drug’s trade has softened considerably. The only real public menace left in the state’s pot economy—the last scourge worthy of old-school drug-war tactics like helicopter drops and raiding parties—comes in the form of Mexican “cartels,” the crime syndicates that grow pot deep inside California’s public lands and sow hellish violence and mayhem south of the border.
Now the dreaded cartels are at the center of the debate over Proposition 19, next Tuesday’s historic referendum on whether California should legalize marijuana as an adult recreational drug. Advocates say that ending prohibition would be the most effective way to beat the Mexican drug rings. A legal marijuana industry, they argue, would undercut the crime syndicates on price and quality and cripple their business. Opponents of Proposition 19, meanwhile, point to the cartels as the true, inevitable face of the drug trade, arguing that the syndicates will only change their tactics and become more violent if the ballot initiative passes.
Either way, the debate over legalization sounds eerily familiar. Indeed, as the drug war recedes in California, it appears to be returning to its roots. Like the Tax, Control, and Regulate Cannabis Act of 2010, the earliest moves to outlaw cannabis took place at the state level—in California, no less. And like today’s movement for legalization, the push to ban marijuana revolved around fears of Mexicans.
The idea of prohibition first took hold around the time of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, which drove waves of poor immigrants north into the Western United States. Along with their willingness to pick beets and cotton for pitifully low wages, the newcomers brought a penchant for smoking a peculiar sort of cigarette. At the time, cannabis was virtually unknown as an intoxicant among the Anglo-American population, writes Dale Gieringer, the California state director of the National Campaign for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Aside from a few accounts of hash houses in New York and travelers who had visited the hashish-loving regions of the Middle East, there is next to no record of pot’s recreational use in America before the 20th century.
Criminalizing marijuana, then, was a way of criminalizing Mexicans: a kind of stoner’s Jim Crow. And state lawmakers who favored the policy weren’t exactly shy about their agenda. “All Mexicans are crazy,” said one Texas legislator during the floor debate over marijuana criminalization in his state, “and this stuff is what makes them crazy.” Or as an advocate of Montana’s first anti-marijuana law said in his state legislature: “Give one of these Mexican beet field workers a couple of puffs on a marijuana cigarette and he thinks he is in the bullring at Barcelona.” California’s 1913 law against pot—one of the first such statutes in the nation—banned “preparations of hemp, or loco-weed.”
Prohibition of marijuana finally went federal in 1937. In a little-remarked, exceedingly brief congressional hearing held to discuss the proposed Marihuana Tax Act, Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director Harry Anslinger—who once said that “the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races”—testified that marijuana caused in its users “insanity, criminality, and death.” As the late historian Charles Whitebread recounts, that official testimony enjoyed a strange afterlife over the next few years, as a series of defendants in sensational murder trials walked off with insanity pleas, claiming they had done their vile deeds under the influence of the obscure drug “marihuana.” Moral panic ensued—as did the drug’s prevalence as something other than a trick legal defense. “Ironically,” writes Gieringer, “it was only after marijuana had been outlawed that it began to become popular.”
Before long, Americans’ taste for marijuana far exceeded that of their neighbors to the south. Today, only 3 million Mexicans say they smoke pot. By contrast, 25.8 million Americans say they have done so within the past year, most of them members of the Anglo-American majority. (On the list of Stuff White People Like, marijuana is No. 33, behind microbreweries but ahead of TheDaily Show.)
And yet Mexico has always managed to play a major role in America’s relationship with weed, just as Latinos have always managed to bear more than their share of the drug war’s aggression. For years, Mexico was the dominant source for all pot smoked in the United States. Then in 1975, the Mexican government, using equipment donated by American drug warriors, sprayed the marijuana fields of the Sierra Madre Mountains with Paraquat, an herbicide deadly to humans. Contaminated pot entered the American supply, which made Mexican dope about as popular as English beef was during Britain’s 2001 outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease. This helped establish the hippie stronghold of Northern California as the new capital of marijuana production, which in turn encouraged the Mexican cartels to get out of the smuggling game and relocate their gardens to Humboldt and Mendocino. Today, vast Mexican “guerilla grows” colonize the inner reaches of California’s state and national forests, supplying the low end of the marijuana market.
This summer in Northern California, amid all the heady talk of legalization, incidents of violence on public lands between police and guerilla growers reached the highest levels in recent memory. Five growers, all Latinos, were shot and killed by law enforcement officials. But whether these casualties were foot soldiers of the Sinaloa Cartelor simply hired hands working for an American employer is nearly impossible to tell. Because cartels operate somewhat like terror cells (or labor-trafficking rings), even the guerilla growers who fall under arrest often have no idea who their real employers might be.
In fact, many Northern California locals who grow marijuana say they don’t believeall the reports of Mexican cartels deep in the woods: They argue that, more often than not, references to the syndicates are just police hype and overdiagnosis—propaganda meant to keep the marijuana business as scary as possible in the waning days of prohibition. (In an age of stoned-senior-citizen bingo nights, every bogeyman helps.)
Of course, people in the border regions of Mexico don’t have the luxury of entertaining doubts about the cartels’ reach. There, the crime syndicates could hardly be scarier, with a death toll that has reached 28,000 since 2006. Last week, after the Mexican government seized and destroyed 134 metric tons of marijuana, 27 people were killed in Tijuana and Juarez in apparent retaliation. * Earlier this month, during a conference to promote investment in Tijuana, two headless bodies were found hanging from a bridge a few miles away. The most heartbreaking calls for legalization come from within Mexico itself, where the evils of prohibition have exacted the largest human toll.
At the same time, it’s important to realize that the campaign for Proposition 19 is, in part, a fight for control over a hugely lucrative industry. The gentrified segments of the trade want to seize control over the industry from its criminal segments, which frequently happen to have both Mexican labor and Mexican management.
As I have written elsewhere, if Proposition 19—or some successor legislation in 2012—should pass, the marijuana industry stands to grow, prosper, and consolidate. But in the process, it will probably end up trading one form of illegality for another. We could see big pot operations open up in the Central Valley, and the once-outlaw hippies of Mendocino and Humboldt catering to busloads of Japanese tourists with a Napa Valley of marijuana. But in a world of tighter profit margins and higher taxes for growers, the laborers tending these crops will likely be the same people who work virtually every other field in California agriculture: undocumented laborers from the land of Acapulco Gold.
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Correction, Oct. 28, 2010: This article originally referred to “134,000 metric tons.” If that were true, this one drug bust would have accounted for almost three years’ worth of global marijuana production. (Return to the corrected sentence.) |
WASHINGTON (AP) — While insisting they've not abandoned their goal of repealing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, Republicans are increasingly talking about "repairing" it as they grapple with disunity, drooping momentum and uneasy voters.
House Speaker Paul Ryan with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell during the 2017 "Congress of Tomorrow" Joint Republican Issues Conference in Philadelphia on January 26. REUTERS/Mark Makela WASHINGTON — While insisting they've not abandoned their goal of repealing President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, Republicans are increasingly talking about "repairing" it as they grapple with disunity, drooping momentum, and uneasy voters.
The GOP triumphantly shoved a budget through Congress three weeks ago that gave committees until January 27 to write bills dismantling the law and substituting a Republican plan. Everyone knew that deadline was soft, but now leaders are talking instead about moving initial legislation by early spring.
And as the party struggles to translate its longtime political mantra into legislation that can pass Congress, some Republicans have started using different language to describe the effort.
"It's repairing the damage Obamacare has caused. It's more accurate" than repeal and replace, said Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chairs the Senate health committee. He notes that President Donald Trump and many Republicans want to keep popular pieces of the overhaul like requiring family policies to cover children up to age 26.
"It probably lessens people's anxiety that we won't pull the rug out from under them," Rep. Pat Tiberi, of Ohio, who chairs a House health subcommittee, said of the term "repair."
The refined rhetoric comes as much of Washington's focus has shifted to Trump's nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court vacancy and Democratic attempts to derail GOP efforts to confirm Cabinet members. That and controversies surrounding Trump's temporary refugee ban have sapped some energy from the healthcare drive.
It also comes with polls spotlighting the GOP's risks. A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found 53% wanted to keep Obama's law in some form, and 56% were "extremely" or "very" concerned that repeal meant many would lose insurance.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has been saying Republicans want to "rescue" the health system and Thursday embraced all of the competing phraseology, saying, "The best way to repair a healthcare system is to repeal and replace Obamacare."
But talk of a repair dismays other Republicans, including hard-line conservatives. They say their message since Democrats enacted the 2010 law was that the GOP would repeal it, a goal later amended to "repeal and replace."
"You've got to repeal the law that's the problem. That's what we told the voters we were going to do," said Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, a leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
President Barack Obama on the day of President Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Jordan cites problems that have accompanied the statute, including rising premiums and deductibles and diminished insurance choices in the individual market in some communities. He says healthcare would improve if Obama's law vanishes.
"If you start from that premise, repair shouldn't be your mind-set," Jordan said.
Democrats say the GOP's evolving language signals retreat. They say Republicans will threaten healthcare's availability and raise rates, angering the 20 million people who gained insurance under the law and tens of millions of others who benefit from the statute's coverage requirements.
"It puts the burden on them to come up with the so-called repairs," No. 2 Senate Democratic leader Richard Durbin of Illinois said. "What a departure from repeal it, walk away from it, and America will be a better place."
Behind the scenes, Republicans continue shaping proposals to void Obama's statute. Potential targets include the law's requirement that people who don't get coverage at work buy policies, the subsidies many of them receive, and the tax increases imposed to finance its programs.
But they've encountered internal disagreements.
Some Republicans want to abolish the law's broadening of Medicaid to provide health coverage to more lower-earning people, while others are from states that accepted the expansion. Most want to include language blocking federal payments to Planned Parenthood, but some don't, and some want to let states keep Obama's law intact.
There are disputes over whether to quickly repeal the law's tax increases on higher-income people and the health industry and over how to provide money so people don't abruptly lose coverage and insurance companies fearing losses don't stop selling policies.
With insurers crafting their 2018 rate structures over the coming two months, the insurance industry's leading trade group made its jitters clear to Congress this week. Marilyn Tavenner, the president of America's Health Insurance Plans, told Alexander's committee that insurers needed to know soon whether lawmakers would continue the federal payments that let companies reduce out-of-pocket costs for many lower-earning customers.
Losing those subsidies "would further deteriorate an already unstable market and hurt the millions of consumers who depend on these programs for their coverage," she warned.
At a hearing Thursday before a House health subcommittee, Republicans revealed four "discussion drafts" of potential bills. They included letting insurers charge older customers higher rates and shortening the law's 90-day grace period for consumers to pay premiums.
Another would replace the law's unpopular individual mandate with a requirement that people maintain "continuous" coverage if they want to avoid paying more for policies.
___
AP Congressional Correspondent Erica Werner contributed to this report. |
Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) felt the fury of one constituent at a town hall on Tuesday, when a man arose to grill the congressman over concerns about NSA surveillance programs.
In the video above, Dax Ewbank of Oklahoma City accuses Lankford of misleading people in a recent letter in which he attempted to tamp down fears that NSA programs were being used to target normal U.S. citizens.
Ewbank begins by pointing to a bombshell Reuters report earlier this month, which found that a Drug Enforcement Administration special operations unit that had partnered with the NSA was funneling key surveillance information to authorities to help them launch criminal investigations of Americans. A document cited in the report also found that operatives had been instructed to alter the investigative trail to cover up where the relevant information had originated. Days after the Reuters story broke, reporters found that details of the program had been published in a manual used by IRS agents for the past two years.
(Watch Ewbank give Lankford a tongue-lashing above.)
"I do not accept this idea that we need to wait for two years while you guys figure out what to do," Ewbanks yelled, as the crowd began clapping in agreement. “It needs to end now.”
Congress narrowly shot down an amendment introduced by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) last month, which would have ended funding for NSA phone surveillance programs. Lankford voted against it. |
UUP strategist and News Letter columnist Alex Kane has hit out at Irish premier Bertie Ahern's plan for his Fianna Fail party to organise in Northern Ireland.
Mr Ahern announced the strategy on Monday and said the party hadn't plans for Westminster seats.
Speaking at a Celtic Fringe seminar in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Kane said the strategy would only serve to alienate unionists despite the removal of Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution and the territorial claims on Northern Ireland.
He said: "No one should underestimate the fundamental stupidity of Fianna Fail's proposals to 'develop a strategy for organising the party on a 32-county basis'.
"These proposals undermine the overriding purpose of removing Articles 2 and 3 – which was to reassure unionists that both sides, across Ireland and in Northern Ireland, could co-exist within their own clearly defined geographical and constitutional territories.
"The presence of Fianna Fail in Northern Ireland's electoral battles, almost certainly in tandem with the SDLP, can only be construed as pan-nationalism in another form.
"The Celtic Tiger has now been joined by the Republican Wild Boar," he claimed.
He accused Mr Ahern of 'stirring the pot' when he said on Monday: "We are conscious that ultimately 2016 moves upon us. It won't be too long upon us.
"We want to move with our Northern friends: nationalists, republicans, unionists, loyalists, to make this a better island and Fianna Fail as a republican party, the biggest republican party, wants to be at the forefront of doing that in the years ahead. We can't do that if we don't play a role, an active role in Northern Ireland."
Mr Kane said Mr Ahern was sticking his nose in where it wasn't wanted.
He said: "Putting it bluntly, the Irish prime minister seems to have decided that the Belfast Agreement isn't the concluding part of the peace process that some of us believed it to be. Instead, he wants to celebrate the centenary of the Easter rebellion with a run-up strategy which undermines the Agreement and pushes Northern Ireland further from its UK roots.
"It is a move which could have very serious, dangerous and violent consequences.
"Oddly enough, it may even encourage the coming together of the remnants of anti-Agreement unionism into a new party.
"They now have the very bogeyman they needed to give purpose to their mission.
"If Bertie Ahern wants to destroy the Belfast Agreement he will give the nod to Fianna Fail's active participation in Northern Ireland.
"If, however, he wants to promote and protect that Agreement, then he will ensure that Fianna Fail keeps its party political nose out of Northern Ireland." |
Tempest was one of the most enjoyable draft formats to me, but of course I’m currently thinking back on something from so long ago that maybe I can only remember the good stuff! I do know that Tempest Remastered will shake up anything you might have known about Tempest block Limited.
For starters, many of the best commons (Rolling Thunder, Pacifism, Rootwater Hunter, Evincar’s Justice, Capsize) have been moved up a rarity. I think the best way to evaluate what will essentially be a new format is to take a look at all the common creatures and where they fall on the mana curve in addition to the common spells for each color. I’ll then repeat the process for uncommons, and finally try to give a general ranking for the rares.
Let’s dig in!
Commons
White
1cc: Nomads en-Kor
2cc: Armored Pegasus, Master Decoy, Soltari Trooper, Youthful Knight
3cc: Armor Sliver, Charging Paladin, Soltari Lancer, Standing Troops
4cc: Mounted Archers, Spirit en-Kor
5cc: Staunch Defenders
6cc+:
Spells: Angelic Blessing, Anoint, Bandage, Conviction, Disenchant, Shackles, Smite
Upon initial inspection, this looks really weak.
We all know Soltari Trooper from his days in Vintage Masters and a 2-power evasion creature is very strong. Soltari Lancer gaining first strike also allows it to win combat against the other shadow creatures when it is attacking, so that’s another strong common.
Spirit en-Kor has always been solid and resilient, but with just 2 power for 4 mana, it is not the biggest of threats.
Mounted Archers is playable, but at 2/3 for 4, even with reach and the ability to block extra creatures, we are not getting much for our investment and it’s not an early pick ever.
I suspect Master Decoy, one of the better tappers ever printed, will be the top common. Staunch Defenders was basically a bomb uncommon and moved down in rarity. Tempest is an aggressive format without many ways to get rid of a 3/4 blocker. Gaining 4 life when it enters the battlefield is a huge swing.
The combat tricks are super unexciting. Angelic Blessing can only go in very aggressive decks as a Lava Axe. Anoint costs quite a bit too much for too little an effect to be worth buying back. Bandage is a cheap cantrip that can sometimes net a card, but the effect is certainly small. Conviction, or just “pants” as it was once called, can force a creature through and the ability to bounce it back is relevant, but it’s not an early pick.
Shackles looks like a great card to many, and while it is playable, the fact the creature needs to already be tapped is a huge drawback. The ability to bounce the Shackles is what makes it still quite playable, but at a cost of 3 mana plus 1 to bounce each time, it is not an ideal removal spell.
Smite, on the other hand, is cheap but conditional, and does nothing against the very powerful creatures with abilities that will never be attacking.
Top 5 white commons:
1. Master Decoy
2. Staunch Defenders
3. Soltari Trooper
4. Soltari Lancer
5. Shackles
Blue
1cc:
2cc: Hammerhead Shark, Merfolk Looter, Thalakos Seer, Winged Sliver
3cc: Horned Turtle, Mnemonic Sliver, Thalakos Scout, Wind Drake
4cc: Wayward Soul
5cc: Scrivener
6cc+: Sea Monster
Spells: Gaseous Form, Mana Leak, Shadow Rift, Sift, Spell Blast, Time Ebb, Twitch, Whispers of the Muse
Wow, there is SO little to see here!
Hammerhead Shark and Horned Turtle have extra toughness for their CMC, so they are fine defensive creatures that rarely go on the attack. Not exciting.
Merfolk Looter is great and my choice for top blue common, but that being said, there isn’t much in terms of graveyard synergy, and effects like buyback put good use to excess mana already, so it is not actually that amazing.
The blue shadow creatures at common are really unexciting. Thalakos Seer is great if it can trade for a 2/1 shadow creature and kind of pathetic otherwise. At UU, I don’t even really want it. Thalakos Scout had the bonus of being tough to actually deal with, since you could stack damage when it blocks or is blocked by another shadow creature and return it to your hand for more. That is no longer the case and he’s looking a little pathetic.
Wayward Soul also suffers dramatically from the damage-on-the-stack rules. Once able to take down 3 toughness fliers and come back for more next turn, the ability to simply put it on top of your deck is unimpressive. A 3/2 flier for 4 is still reasonable, but we are basically looking at a double-blue casting cost Assault Griffin with a rare upside at this point.
Time Ebb and similar cards have been around for a while. They are good tempo cards that not every deck wants, but can give you a pretty nice swing. I like Mana Leak as it is basically a 2-mana removal spell in a sense, but it’s still not an early pick.
Sift is very good, albeit pretty slow. It’s likely the second best blue common despite that.
I actually have Wind Drake as the #3 blue common… a 2/2 flier for 3 with no other ability being ranked so highly speaks volumes to how shallow blue is.
Scrivener can be an excellent value card and one of my favorites, but not a high pick. Whispers of the Muse is another of my favorite cards from this time period, but the 6 mana to buyback doesn’t come up super often (although quite powerful when it does and being able to cycle for 1 makes it a fine card). Sea Monster is the biggest dude on the block at 6/6, but not being able to attack is a pretty gigantic drawback. I would still pick them up for the Islands mirror, but 6 mana is already a lot to ask for.
Top 5 blue commons:
1. Merfolk Looter
2. Sift
3. Wind Drake
4. Wayward Soul
5. Time Ebb
Black
1cc: Carnophage
2cc: Clot Sliver, Dauthi Horror, Rats of Rath, Thrull Surgeon
3cc: Dauthi Jackal, Serpent Warrior, Vampire Hounds
4cc: Dungeon Shade, Gravedigger
5cc:
6cc+:
Spells: Coercion, Cursed Flesh, Dark Banishing, Dark Ritual, Death Stroke, Death’s Duet, Diabolic Edict, Lab Rats, Spinal Graft
No shortage of potentially powerful aggressive cards here. Carnophage and Serpent Warrior don’t go in every deck as they will deal you a reasonable amount of damage, but they also hit harder than their CMC.
Both shadow creatures, in Dauthi Horror and Dauthi Jackal, are legitimate threats that I’m happy to include in my deck. Gravedigger has been around forever, but it’s a super solid 2-for-1 that scales excellently in multiples.
Dark Banishing is a solid removal spell and thus the best black common in my book. Diabolic Edict and Death Stroke are far more conditional and nowhere near that power level, but yet both only cost 2 mana, so I’m happy to have either.
Clot Sliver is the first Sliver I’m OK having in my deck with no other synergies. A 1/1 that regenerates for 2 at 1B is a reasonable deal and the fact that it can get the bonuses from your opponent’s Muscle Slivers, Winged Slivers, and the like make it perfectly reasonable as a card to pick up (just remember that they will also be able to regenerate now).
Top 5 black commons:
1. Dark Banishing
2. Gravedigger
3. Dauthi Horror
4. Dauthi Jackal
5. Death Stroke
Red
1cc: Mogg Conscripts, Mogg Fanatic
2cc: Canyon Wildcat, Mogg Flunkies, Wall of Diffusion
3cc: Barbed Sliver, Craven Giant
4cc: Furnace Brood, Lowland Giant, Sandstone Warrior
5cc: Anarchist
6cc+:
Spells: Aftershock, Flowstone Blade, Kindle, Lightning Blast, Maniacal Rage, Seething Anger, Shatter, Stun
Mogg Fanatic is one of the biggest losers from damage no longer going on the stack. This card was a really legitimate 1-mana card that could trade with 2-toughness guys to borderline unplayable.
Mogg Conscripts is not as easy as you might think to turn on. He will often be a 2/2 wall for 1.
Mogg Flunkies ranges from completely busted to borderline unplayable depending on the rest of your deck. 3/3s for 2 are quite good, but without any Haste in this set, he is lacking compared to Flunkies of the past. He will definitely make the Mogg Fanatics and Conscripts into closer to real cards if you get a lot of them.
The potential evasion on Canyon Wildcat, plus being a 2-power creature for 2 mana, makes it a reasonable pick.
Lightning Blast and Kindle are great. Take them early and often. Lightning Blast is also reasonably splashable.
Aftershock does what it says it does. You take 3 damage. It costs 4. Not the best rate, but removal is removal is removal. Being able to kill a land can also randomly win games.
Wall of Diffusion is an excellent blocker. Not every deck wants that, especially not ones that play many of these other red commons (see: Craven Giant).
Furnace Brood is a reasonable Hill Giant. Lowland Giant, a.k.a. OG Summit Prowler, is a reasonable body. Sandstone Warrior, however, is the real winner from the 4-drop slot as he is extremely tough to kill in combat. His big downside is the base power of 1, meaning when they just let him through since they can’t block, you actually need to invest mana to do any damage.
I’ve played many Maniacal Rages in my day—you should note that putting it on their creature makes it unable to block. Stun is a reasonable trick to force through damage and replaces itself. Seething Anger is excellent in decks that can force creatures through.
Anarchist, like Scrivener, is very slow but can yield some excellent value. His value goes up dramatically with bombs like Rolling Thunder.
Top 5 red commons:
1. Lightning Blast
2. Kindle
3. Sandstone Warrior
4. Mogg Flunkies
5. Aftershock
Green
1cc:
2cc: Canopy Spider, Heartwood Dryad, Muscle Sliver, Skyshroud Elf
3cc: Horned Sliver, Rootwalla, Trained Armodon
4cc: Endangered Armodon, Skyshroud Troll
5cc: Spike Colony, Spined Wurm
6cc+:
Spells: Elven Rite, Elvish Fury, Harrow, Mulch, Provoke, Rampant Growth, Reality Anchor, Verdigris
These cards are really strong across the board.
Skyshroud Elf, Rampant Growth, and Harrow are all excellent mana-fixing and ramp. The option to draft many different colors in your base-green deck is viable in Tempest Remastered and all of these cards are quite playable in almost any deck.
Muscle Sliver is the Sliver that really scales. You can pick these early and know that each additional one makes the previous that much more insane. Getting several of these may make your deck unbeatable (and makes every other Sliver you play pretty absurd, as well).
Rootwalla is fantastic. It’s very hard to block effectively as a potential 4/4 attacking on turn 4 is really strong. Trained Armodon as a 3/3 for 3 with no drawback besides its double-green casting cost is above the curve in this format.
Skyshroud Troll is super tough to deal with. Regeneration is extremely strong and a 3/3 for 4 is already fine in this set. Endangered Armodon is tough to make work and won’t make many decks, but when it finds a home, it is simply huge.
The 5-drops are both great. Spined Wurm is massive and there aren’t many ways to deal with it, and Spike Colony is just a really powerful card with the ability to mess up combat math dramatically.
The spells besides the ramp aren’t overly exciting. Elvish Fury is a Giant Growth for 1 mana that can be bought back, so that is quite powerful, but the rest are meh. Provoke can be played, but I don’t like it since it’s hard to get actual value.
Mulch is basically draw 1.7 lands for 2 mana… if you have a use for cards in your graveyard, go for it. If you want it for card advantage, look elsewhere.
Top 5 green commons:
1. Spike Colony
2. Muscle Sliver
3. Rootwalla
4. Skyshroud Elf
5. Spined Wurm
This is the one list that I feel could keep going and there are a lots of things that are close. I really like Trained Armodon but it lost the nod due to its cost. I also really like all the ramp spells and Elvish Fury. The green commons are quite deep and mostly interchangeable depending on what you have, as I could see the 8th-best green common go above any card on this list depending on the deck.
Artifacts
1cc: Metallic Sliver
2cc:
3cc: Bottle Gnomes, Coiled Tinviper, Patchwork Gnomes
4cc: Telethopter
5cc:
6cc+:
Spells: Skyshaper
There aren’t many common artifacts. They certainly aren’t good.
Patchwork Gnomes and Telethopter are both playable. I would play them in more decks than I would not. I would not take any early.
Skyshaper as a one-shot jump-your-team is quite bad. Coiled Tinviper is pretty far below the curve. Bottle Gnomes lost a ton from damage no longer stacking.
Metallic Sliver is the big wildcard. I pick these up when there’s nothing for me as it tends to be a good sideboard card against decks with Slivers. The fact that they grant their bonuses to all Slivers on the board, different from the core set Slivers, means Metallic Sliver is just the same creature as Muscle Sliver or Clot Sliver once your opponent plays them. I don’t mind having 2 in my sideboard, but I would only consider bringing in 2 or more against really dedicated Sliver strategies (of which I don’t think there is a good one).
Uncommons
White
1cc:
2cc: Soltari Monk, Soltari Priest, Wall of Essence, Warrior en-Kor
3cc: Soltari Champion
4cc: Angelic Protector
5cc: Avenging Angel
6cc+:
Spells: Gallantry, Kor Chant, Pacifism, Pegasus Stampede, Repentance
I’m quite happy to first pick Pacifism or Kor Chant. They are excellent removal spells.
All 3 Soltari shadow creatures are excellent and worthy of early picks.
Angelic Protector and Avenging Angel are moderately costed evasion creatures that are tough to deal with. Avenging Angel is a much higher pick, but the ability to cause combat havoc on your own Angelic Protector should not be overlooked.
Repentance kills most of the things you want to kill, so it’s always a solid pickup. Gallantry is a fine defensive combat trick if you don’t get blown out by instants, so it’s not one of my favorite cards.
Warrior en-Kor is already a 2/2 for 2, which is fine, but the en-Kor ability is good enough that this goes way up in heavy-white decks (and combines excellently with protection from colors).
Pegasus Stampede at its worst is a 1/1 flier for 2. This is not good. Being able to buy it back when you’re flooded sounds like a good thing, but often 1/1 fliers aren’t great when you’re flooded either. There are games where this will be “8 mana, sac 4 lands, make four 1/1 fliers” and that can win the game—but they aren’t common. Not a high pick.
Blue
1cc:
2cc: Wind Dancer
3cc: Rootwater Hunter
4cc: Dream Prowler, Fighting Drake, Thalakos Drifters
5cc: Killer Whale
6cc+:
Spells: Capsize, Counterspell, Curiosity, Dismiss, Legerdemain, Volrath’s Curse
I’m quite happy first-picking Rootwater Hunter as it’s just fantastic in this format. There are lots of 1-toughness creatures, it pings opponents, and allows you to trade up in combat. I can not have enough of these.
I’m also happy to first-pick Capsize as, even though it is slow, it does take over games. The late-game can be completely decimated by a Capsize with buyback.
Fighting Drake is the perfect size to defend against everything at a similar mana cost. 2 power to go with 4 toughness on a flier makes this a very high pick.
Thalakos Drifters and Killer Whale have seen Vintage Masters reprints. They were both only OK there, but are quite good here. I’m happy to have either.
Counterspell is fantastic. Dismiss is playable, but costs far too much to be an early pick. There are matchups in which it’s great, and it’s a total blowout vs. buyback cards, but otherwise it’s not fantastic.
Curiosity can take over a game but runs the same risk as any creature enchantment. You can usually get at least one hit in, so it replaces itself, and at only 1 mana that’s fine but not a high pick.
Not a big fan of Legerdemain and while Volrath’s Curse looks like it can be an Arrest, its drawback means it most certainly is not.
Wind Dancer is fairly bonkers in a UG deck, sending your Spined Wurms to the air while pinging away from turn 2 is pretty nice. It can play a similar role in a UR deck, but it’s a mediocre UB card and an unexciting card in UW.
Black
1cc: Sarcomancy
2cc: Dauthi Slayer, Dauthi Warlord, Wall of Souls
3cc: Dauthi Marauder
4cc: Screeching Harpy
5cc: Revenant, Skyshroud Vampire
6cc+:
Spells: Cannibalize, Evincar’s Justice, Fugue, Reanimate
Cannibalize is a really strong removal spell despite the perceived drawback. There will often be a creature you don’t care about getting counters and there will even be times where you need the counters for yourself. This also combines very well with bounce spells, but just having a spell that can exile a bomb you can’t otherwise beat is nice.
Evincar’s Justice is incredible. Really great. Thrilled to first-pick it.
Dauthi Slayer and Dauthi Marauder are excellent aggressive shadow creatures. Not a big fan of the Dauthi Warlord, as the risk of having a mere 1/1 shadow for 2 mana is not exciting.
Revenant has been considered a bomb rare in the past. It’s now uncommon. It only has single black in the casting cost and doesn’t go in every deck, but if you’re heavy on creatures, this is what you want. Even if it starts as a mere 2/2, it will grow quickly. It can easily be splashed into Mulch decks, as well.
Skyshroud Vampire and Screeching Harpy are both really good evasive creatures. I would take the Vampire very highly as it’s extremely challenging to block and can end the game out of nowhere. Regenerating fliers like the Screeching Harpy are always solidly playable.
Not every deck wants a Sarcomancy, but there are more Zombies to negate the potential drawback. The problem is that most die, so if you’re a defensive deck, this is just a liability.
Fugue is very good in slow matchups, otherwise it costs quite a bit of mana when facing down a bunch of shadow creatures. Reanimate is too costly for not enough gain to go in many decks. Reanimator is tough to build and you need lots of things you want to bring back. It is certainly playable in some decks to potentially steal their rare after you deal with it, but it’s not exciting.
Red
1cc:
2cc: Mogg Maniac
3cc: Mage il-Vec
4cc:
5cc: Flowstone Wyvern, Renegade Warlord, Sabertooth Wyvern
6cc+: Flowstone Mauler
Spells: Deadshot, Goblin Bombardment, Rolling Thunder, Searing Touch, Shadowstorm, Spellshock
If Mogg Fanatic took a dive due to damage no longer stacking, Goblin Bombardment fell off a cliff. I would almost never play this card. The same goes for Spellshock and Mogg Maniac (and Shadowstorm is clearly a sideboard card).
Mage il-Vec is surprisingly good as dealing a point of damage is quite strong in Tempest. Not the highest of picks, but coming on a 2/2 body makes this a solid inclusion.
Sabertooth Wyvern does a decent job of ruling the skies at 3 power with first strike, but 2 toughness and 5 mana make it a below-average inclusion. I would much rather have a Flowstone Wyvern as a 3/3 flier with the ability to cheaply deal 5 damage when unblocked.
Flowstone Mauler is huge and becoming an 8-power trample creature is great. A high pick for sure.
Rolling Thunder is on the short list for best cards in the set, which really speaks volumes to how insane Tempest draft was when this was common. It will often Plague Wind them and othertimes simply Fireball them out. Almost never pass this card.
Deadshot is an excellent removal spell that also forces damage across. Being a sorcery so you can’t use it defensively for the tap part of the card is unfortunate, but it’s still a solid pickup. Searing Touch is very strong and has the ability to take over a game.
Renegade Warlord is playable but not super exciting, especially since red doesn’t have any real ability to go wide and flood the board with creatures.
Green
1cc:
2cc: Hermit Druid, Wall of Blossoms
3cc: Lowland Basilisk, Spike Feeder
4cc: Spike Breeder
5cc: Crashing Boars
6cc+: Carnassid, Rootbreaker Wurm
Spells: Needle Storm, Overrun, Tranquility, Verdant Touch
Overrun, just as in every set it’s printed, is a fantastic first pick. The green creatures are already a little bit larger than the creatures in the other colors, so giving them +3/+3 and trample will end things consistently.
Hermit Druid is a solid card. It’s a 1/1 for 2, but the ability does effectively draw you a card (albeit a basic land) every turn for 1 mana. Having any graveyard synergies, especially something like Recurring Nightmare, makes this card go way up.
Wall of Blossoms is basically never getting cut and I’m happy to draft it relatively early.
I like all the Spike creatures. Spike Feeder and Spike Breeder are no exception as they have some decent ability. Spike Feeder went from being great to just playable now that you can’t stack damage and gain 4 life, but it’s still a reasonable card.
Lowland Basilisk effectively has deathtouch, so we like that. Crashing Boars is pretty sweet with pseudo provoke, so we like that. And Rootbreaker Wurm is simply gigantic, so we really like that. Rootbreaker Wurm would be my higher pick, although still far below the likes of Overrun.
Gold
It’s just the 5 allied-color Slivers for uncommon gold cards. All are completely reasonable 2-drops if you happen to be in the 2 colors and go up in value with Sliver synergies (shocking, I know!). None are exciting and I wouldn’t use an early pick on them.
Artifacts and Lands
Phyrexian Hulk is the lone creature. He can make the cut, but is not good.
Emmessi Tome and Lotus Petal are basically not playable cards.
The uncommon dual lands are really bad, but they will often make the cut. Mana fixing is still mana fixing, but the non-allied lands both deal damage to you AND come into play tapped, which is a huge cost. The allied lands don’t untap when tapped for colors. These are huge drawbacks and I wouldn’t fault you for not playing them in your 2-color decks if your mana is already fine. Luckily, they do produce colorless mana as well.
Maze of Shadows is a tough card to maindeck as many decks can’t afford the random colorless land, but if you can, it’s a solid inclusion in most main decks. It also allows you to save your own shadow creature from being blown out by combat tricks, which is a nice bonus.
Stalking Stones also falls into the colorless land camp, so not every deck can afford that, but this one is quite solid as it only takes a one-time investment to turn your land into a permanent 3/3 creature and you can do it at instant speed (you can also tap Stalking Stones itself to do this).
Rares
These are the cards I consider bombs. These are not in order and I wouldn’t necessarily take any of them over Rolling Thunder, but these are the ones I’m happy to first-pick:
I think I’m happiest of all to first-pick Wasteland from this list, assuming it’s not a phantom draft! There are many cards that are close to this list and are very strong but not necessarily better than many of the uncommons. A card like Stronghold Assassin went from being a bomb with damage on the stack to just being a very solid card I’m happy to play. A card like Survival of the Fittest can become a complete bomb with some good graveyard interactions, such as Coffin Queen and Recurring Nightmare.
There really aren’t any distinguished archetypes in Tempest Remastered. There are going to be decks with more fliers, or more shadow creatures, but the only real “theme” deck, or deck that rewards you, is Slivers. Muscle Sliver is hugely important there and already good on its own, but with good mana fixing and a card like Sliver Queen or Volrath’s Laboratory, you can do some crazy things.
I tried to make this as inclusive and informative as possible, but we always miss a few things… what are you most looking to draft out of Tempest Remastered? Which cards have I undervalued the most? What did I completely miss?
Good luck, I’ll see you in the queues! |
Mass protests in Spain and Portugal, against ever tougher austerity measures, have ramped up the pressure on Iberian governments struggling to avoid international bailouts.
Tens of thousands of chanting protesters from across Spain packed the centre of Madrid on Saturday, including policemen in blue T-shirts, firemen with their red helmets, teachers decked out in matching green, healthcare workers in white and parents pushing strollers.
Many blew whistles and chanted “we are not paying for this crisis” and “general strike now” as they marched to the Plaza Colon square for the rally.
Meanwhile over 100,000 people took to the streets of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities to protest against fresh austerity measures recently announced by their centre-right government.
Organisers estimated that 50,000 people turned out in Lisbon, with a similar number in the second-largest city of Porto and several thousands in around 30 other cities. The country’s police generally refuse to release numbers.
In the Portuguese capital, protesters clashed with police in front of the parliament, but no one was injured.
In Madrid, over 1,000 buses ferried people in for the protest, which was organised by Spain’s two leading trade unions, the CCOO and the UGT, along with roughly 150 smaller organisations.
The government said around 65,000 people took part in the demonstration.
“We want to say loud and clear to the government that we do not agree, that its policies cause too much damage, that we will not resign ourselves because there are alternatives,” CCOO head Ignacio Toxo told the rally.
In July, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative government eliminated public workers’ annual Christmas bonuses, as part of austerity measures worth 102 billion euros ($126.5 billion) to be put in place by 2014 to reduce Spain’s public deficit.
The government’s austerity measures also include an increase in sales tax and cuts to jobless benefits in a nation with nearly 25 percent unemployment.
“I see the future as very black,” said 55-year-old public sector worker Rian de los Rios as she made her way to the rally.
“My salary is getting smaller and smaller and my hours longer.”
The Madrid government argues the austerity measures will prevent Spain from needing the kind of multi-billion-euro bailout like the ones already received by Portugal, Greece, Ireland, which come with detailed conditions and regular inspections.
“These sacrifices are absolutely unavoidable if we are to correct the difficult economic climate we are experiencing and lay the foundations for a recovery,” Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told reporters in Cyprus.
Madrid has already accepted a eurozone rescue loan of up to 100 billion euros to save its banks, still reeling from a 2008 property market crash.
The protesters demanded a referendum on the deficit-reduction strategy of cost-cutting and tax hikes put in place by the government since it took office in December.
UGT head Candido Mendez said Saturday’s rally was the start of a “long fight” against the austerity measures.
Railway workers, along with metro workers in Madrid and Barcelona, will stage a one-day strike on Monday over the austerity measures.
The marchers in Lisbon held up banners reading “Stop social terrorism” and “Soon the State will steal from the dead.”
Another slogan, “Let the troika go to the devil,” made reference to the country’s international creditors — the so-called troika of the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank.
The global economic institutions are monitoring Portugal’s implementation of spending cuts and reforms required in return for the 78-billion-euro ($102 billion) rescue package the country received in 2011.
These cuts and reforms caused the economy to contract by 1.2 percent in the second quarter, faster than the 0.1 percent rate at the beginning of the year, with the drop for the whole year expected to hit 3.0 percent.
In response, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho announced a rise in social security contributions for public and private sector workers together with cuts in employers’ contributions in a bid to kickstart job creation, with unemployment running at more than 15 percent.
On Tuesday, Portugal won a reprieve from its creditors, when the EU and IMF agreed to relax Portugal’s deficit targets for 2012 and 2013, rewarding the Portuguese for pushing through reforms. |
The City of Saskatoon is proposing changes to speed limits in a dozen locations. The proposed changes will be considered by city council’s transportation committee Monday.
Here are the proposed new and altered speed limits:
Central Avenue from Agra Road to a point 220 metres north of Somers Road be reduced from 60 kilometres per hour to 50 km/h;
Lowe Road from Agra Road to a point 800 metres north of Lowe Road be reduced from 80 km/h to 50 km/h;
McOrmond Drive from Fedoruk Drive to a point 800 metres east of Lowe Road be reduced from 60 km/h to 50 km/h;
Central Avenue from Agra Road to McOrmond Drive be established as a 60 km/h zone;
Lowe Road from 800 metres north of Agra Road to McOrmond Drive be reduced from 80 km/h to 60 km/h;
McOrmond Drive from a point 800 metres east of Lowe Road to Central Avenue be set as a 60 km/h zone;
Fedoruk Drive from Central Avenue to McOrmond Drive be increased from 50 km/h to 60 km/h;
McOrmond Drive from Central Avenue to Wanuskewin Road be set as a 70 km/h zone;
Millar Avenue from 60th Street to 71st Street be reduced from 60 km/h to 50 km/h;
Zimmerman Road from Highway 16 to one kilometre north of Highway 16 be reduced from 80 km/h to 60 km/h;
71st Street West from Thatcher Avenue west to city limits be reduced from 90 km/h to 70 km/h;
College Drive from a point 100 metres east of Preston Avenue east to city limits be set as an 80 km/h zone.
[email protected]
twitter.com/thinktankSK |
Kyber Network (KNC) Crypto Review
Thanks for checking out my latest review of the Kyber Network (KNC).Kyber is a Decentralized Exchange running on the powerful Ethereum Network.
I am a firm believer that Decentralized Exchanges are a step forward in the Crypto world all too often we hear stories of centralized exchanges charging high fees, shutting down suddenly, or getting hacked.
Kyber (KNC) is a promising Decentralized Exchange that could play a lead role in fostering the change from a centralized exchange based system to decentralized exchange based system.
I will be reviewing some of the highlights of the Kyber Network and why it could prove to be a lucrative investment.
Key points that I will cover are as follows:
*Introduction to the Kyber (KNC) Network
* The Kyber Team
* Marketing
* Investment Analysis
So let’s get started!!
Kyber Network (KNC) CryptoCurrency Review- Introduction
The Kyber network runs on the robust Ethereum platform and can be described as an on-chain protocol which will allow Secure instant exchanges between digital assets(cryptocurrencies).
The Kyber network will function as trustless and decentralized furthermore it will have high liquidity making it appealing to Crypto traders. The Kyber network also will be providing payment APIs that will allow Ethereum account holders to accept payments from other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
The action-packed Kyber roadmap has many critical dates scheduled for 2018 and early 2019. Highlights will include:
Q1/18– Main net launches and will support the trading between Eth and tokens.
Q2/18– Supports trading between arbitrary token pairs.
Q3/18-Supports the trading of advanced financial instruments.
Early 2019– Supports cross-chain trading.
The Kyber Network Market Cap is currently valued at 133,732,043 USD, and it has a current supply of 134,132,697 KNC tokens with a fixed total amount of 215,625,349 KNC tokens.
The best exchange to purchase the Kyber token is on the popular Binance exchange. After purchasing the token you can easily store it in an ERC-20 token compatible wallet such as myetherwallet.
Kyber Network (KNC) Token Review- Team Members
The Kyber Team appears to be based in High Tech Singapore where many other promising CryptoCurrency companies have started to emerge.
The team appears to be highly educated and well connected in crypto circles Loi Luu one of the co-founders is a frequent speaker at Bitcoin and Ethereum conferences worldwide.
The size of the team is quite large for a startup which is a good sign; I noticed 12 team members that were listed on the Kyber website.
The Kyber Network also has six industry-leading advisors including Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin.
The list of Partnerships that the Kyber Network has formed already is impressive companies such as Fenbushi
Capital, Pantera, and many other notable investors have decided to invest in this promising startup.
Kyber Network (KNC) Crypto Review- Marketing
The Kyber Network team is lucky to have notable industry advisors and investors such as Vitalik Buterin with his name recognition alone people have taken notice to this promising company.
Kyber has a loyal Twitter and Reddit following, and I like that I can view the progress of the Kyber Network team on Github. They have a blog where they post fresh content often and generally; they seem to do an excellent job with marketing.
The only suggestion I would have is that they might benefit by posting more video content on sites such as Youtube. Video marketing is an excellent way for companies to build brand awareness.
Kyber Network (KNC) ERC-20 Token Review- Investment Analysis:
Overall I believe that in 2018 we will see an increase in the price of the (KNC) token as the Kyber Network becomes fully operational.
Right now could represent an excellent buying opportunity and a chance to start accumulating the Kyber Network token as the price has dropped significantly since last months all-time highs.
With essential roadmap features being introduced shortly new all-time highs could likely be reached during the first quarter of 2018 when the Kyber Main net has been launched.
(As always please do your research before investing in crypto projects this review is my own opinion and is not meant to be taken as investment advice.)
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Project of Doom Week 11
In week 11 of the quilt along, the patterns Hedwig, Eagle Owl, Errol, Pigwidgeon is based on the owls in the Harry Potter films and books.
I couldn’t resist or rather decide which one I was going to make, and ended up making all 4 of them.
All these free patterns can be found on Fandom in Stitches or Sewhooked.
Here is my blocks from these patterns.
“I’ve got to keep him up here because he annoys Errol and Hermes. He annoys me too, come to that.“ —Ron Weasley
Pigwidgeon (also known as Pig) was Ron Weasley’s first pet owl. He was a Little Owl, or Athene noctua.
“Very smart owl you’ve got there. Arrived about five minutes after you did.“ —Tom comments on Hedwig’s intelligence
Hedwig was Harry Potter’s pet Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus).
In August 1991 Hedwig was purchased from Eeylops Owl Emporium and was gifted to Harry from Rubeus Hagrid on his eleventh birthday. Owls are used by wizards to deliver mail, but Hedwig was also an important companion as Harry was initiated into the wizarding world. She continued to be one of his closest companions until her death in the Battle of the Seven Potters in 1997.
“That bloody bird’s a menace!“ —Ron Weasley
Errol (f. 1992 – 1994) was one of the Weasley family’s owls. He was a Great Grey Owl, or Strix nebulosa.
Eagle owls are a species of owl. Wizards are known to keep this species as pets; the Malfoy family owned one and they can be bought at Eeylops Owl Emporium in Diagon Alley in London. Eagle owl feathers have magical healing properties and are used in potion-making.
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With global democracy declining for the ninth year in a row , we look at some of the opposition leaders around the world who have been charged with sodomy, bribery and arson, and who now face prison and even death sentences
Venezuela
Leopoldo López, awaiting verdict, charged with inciting violence and arson
“Our arguments – and those of hundreds more Venezuelans suffering the same injustice – are clear and forceful: political disqualification violates laws.”
Founder of the opposition Popular Will party, Leopoldo López was arrested on 18 February 2014 after calling for citizens to protest the government of President Nicolas Maduro, whose leadership has seen Venezuela pushed into the top 10 countries in the world for corruption and homicide. Charges of murder and terrorism were later downgraded to arson, damage and inciting violence, for which he is still on trial.
Ethiopia
Andargachew Tsige, death row, convicted of attempting to overthrow the government
Accused of attempting to overthrow the government, Ethiopian opposition leader Andargachew Tsige was sentenced to death in absentia in 2007. His party, Ginbot 7, seeks to end the country’s dictatorship and is Ethiopia’s largest exiled opposition movement. Tsige fled in the 1970s and sought asylum in the UK, while Ginbot 7 was declared a terrorist organisation by the Ethiopian government in 2011.
While travelling to Eritrea in June 2014, Tsige disappeared during a stopover at Sana’a airport and was subsequently extradited to Ethiopia, where he remains on death row. Amnesty International has closely documented Tsige’s case, and online petitions call for his release.
Maldives
Mohamed Nasheed, 13 years, convicted of terrorism
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mohamed Nasheed was imprisoned for 13 years on terrorism charges. Photograph: Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images
“Maldivians have the right to be ruled, not through coercion, down the barrel of a gun, but peacefully, by popular consent, via the ballot box.”
As president of the Maldives, Nasheed sought to arrest the chief judge of the criminal court for corruption in January 2012, but was forced to resign from office in what was effectively a coup. Now leader of the opposition Maldivian Democratic party, he was arrested on terrorism charges and jailed for 13 years earlier this month.
The MDP launched a national civil disobedience campaign to free Nasheed on 15 March, calling for citizens to take to the street in peaceful protest. His trial was deemed deeply flawed by Amnesty International.
Kuwait
Musallam al-Barrak, two years, convicted for criticising the Kuwaiti ruler
“You can jail my body but not my ideas and will.”
Musallam al-Barrak, leader of the Popular Action Movement opposition, is accused of insulting Kuwaiti ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah during a speech while he was an MP in October 2012. His speech protested that changes in law would allow the al-Sabah family to manipulate election outcomes.
Authorities have cracked down on their opposition since mass protests in 2012, and numerous former MPs and tweeters have since been jailed for criticising the emir. Al-Barrak was sentenced to two years in prison in February. Amnesty International has been calling for his release.
Malaysia
Anwar Ibrahim, five years, convicted of sodomy
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced to five years in prison for sodomy. Photograph: Ahmad Yusni/EPA
“[Imprisonment] is a small price to pay in my struggle for freedom and justice for all Malaysians.”
On 10 February 2015, Malaysia’s highest court upheld a five-year prison sentence for opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on a sodomy charge. The action came after a former campaign worker filed a sexual assault claim against him. Anal sex is illegal in Malaysia. Ibrahim was previously acquitted of the crime in 2012, but the ruling was overturned days before he was set to contest an election in March 2014. Critics describe his arrest as a government attempt to block the opposition’s ascendancy.
There are Facebook and Twitter campaigns for his release, and political coalition Pakatan Rakyat launched a petition to pardon Ibrahim on 16 March.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Jean-Bertrand Ewanga, one year, convicted of contempt of court
The arrest of Jean-Bertrand Ewanga, secretary of the opposition Union for the Congolese Nation party, came in August 2014 after he participated in a rally opposing the extension of presidential terms in the DRC. He was placed under house arrest on charges of inciting hatred, tribalism and contempt of the supreme magistrature, then sentenced to one year in prison on 11 September 2014.
The Free Fair DRC campaign group has been active in raising awareness, and Ewanga’s case was discussed in British parliament during October 2014, where it garnered 28 signatures from across party lines.
Tanzania
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ibrahim Lipumba was arrested for holding political rallies without a permit.
Ibrahim Lipumba, awaiting verdict, charged with holding rallies without a permit
“The people of Zanzibar have been robbed of their choice. We will not accept it.”
Professor Ibrahim Lipumba, chairman of the Civic United Front party, was arrested on 28 January 2015 and for holding political rallies without a permit ahead of the October 2015 Tanzanian elections. New charges of conspiracy, unlawful assembly and rioting were issued on 25 February. With Lipumba currently out on bail, the case has been adjourned until April 13.
Rwanda
Victoire Ingabire, 15 years, convicted of threatening state security
“Remanding me in captivity or silencing my voice can only postpone the revolution, it cannot stop the movement.”
Unified Democratic Forces party leader Victoire Ingabire returned to Rwanda in January 2010, after living in exile for 16 years in the Netherlands, to stand in that year’s elections. She was arrested in April 2010 and barred from running for office.
She was charged with “threatening state security” and “belittling Rwanda’s 1994 genocide” after questioning why the country’s official memorial excluded Hutus (some moderate Hutus were slaughtered by Hutu extremists alongside Tutsis). She boycotted the trial, which she described as politically motivated, and refused to appear in court. Courts upheld the conviction and increased her jail term from eight to 15 years, reviving previously dropped charges of encouraging revolt, after an appeal in December 2013. Her supporters call for international mobilisation against her imprisonment.
Sudan
Farouk Abu Issa, awaiting verdict, charged with undermining the constitutional system
Farouk Abu Issa was arrested on 6 December 2014 after signing a political declaration in Sudan that brought together opposition and rebel forces in a joint call for democratic change. He faces charges of (pdf) “complicity to execute a criminal agreement”, “undermining the constitutional system” and “opposing public authority by violence or criminal force”.
Abu Issa’s health has deteriorated since his arrest. Amnesty International and Canadian organisation Lawyers’ Rights Watch have spearheaded calls for the 82-year-old’s release.
Swaziland
Mario Masuku, awaiting verdict, charged with terrorism and sedition
“The king will try to silence the opposition, to try and tighten the knot around us, but we will continue to make things very difficult.”
Mario Masuku, president of banned opposition party of the People’s United Democratic Movement, was detained on terrorism charges after delivering a speech on 1 May 2014 that criticised the system of government in Swaziland. He has been denied bail twice, despite severe health problems, and could face 15 years behind bars if convicted.
Online petitions call for Masuku’s release, while blogs have reported widespread support from politicians, organisations and individuals including the International Trade Union Confederation, the African National Congress and Unison.
Burundi
Frédéric Bamvuginyumvira, five years, convicted of bribery
In his role as deputy leader of the Front for Democracy party, Frédéric Bamvuginyumvira was tipped as the preferred opposition candidate for the summer 2015 presidential elections. The former vice-president was accused of attempting to bribe police in December 2013. He denies the charges, claiming they were intended to block his run for president.
The initial accusations of adultery and bribery were dropped in favour of corruption charges, and on 15 January 2015, Bamvuginyumvira was sentenced to five years in prison. A 2014 report by Amnesty International included a section on his case.
This article was amended on 31 March 2015 . An earlier version said the Ethiopian government declared Ginbot 7 a terrorist organisation in the 1970s. It did so in 2011.
Join our community of development professionals and humanitarians. Follow@GuardianGDP on Twitter. |
Kyle Schwarber belted a pair of two-run homers and Anthony Rizzo added his 31st blast of the season to help the Cubs improve to a season-high 12 games over .500 and maintain a 3 1/2-game lead over the Brewers in the National League Central.
CHICAGO -- Rookie Ian Happ drove in four runs and joined the 20-homer club while Javier Baez added a two-run double and stole home to spark the Cubs to a 17-3 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday and complete a sweep.
CHICAGO -- Rookie Ian Happ drove in four runs and joined the 20-homer club while Javier Baez added a two-run double and stole home to spark the Cubs to a 17-3 victory over the Pirates on Wednesday and complete a sweep.
Kyle Schwarber belted a pair of two-run homers and Anthony Rizzo added his 31st blast of the season to help the Cubs improve to a season-high 12 games over .500 and maintain a 3 1/2-game lead over the Brewers in the National League Central.
View Full Game Coverage
• Baez steals home with some razzle-dazzle
Happ became the sixth Cubs player to hit 20 homers this season, joining Rizzo, Schwarber, Baez, Kris Bryant and Willson Contreras, which set a franchise record. The Cubs also set a Major League record for most players age 25 or younger to hit 20 home runs; the old mark was five, shared by the 2007 Brewers and 1979 Expos.
Video: PIT@CHC: Cubs hammer four home runs in the win
"We have a lot of good hitters here, a lot of young guys who have learned a lot and are putting good swings on the baseball, especially on a night when we get 20 hits and score 17 runs," Happ said. "We had a lot of good [at-bats]."
Happ smacked an RBI single in the first, a two-run homer in the third and an RBI double in the fifth. It's the fourth time this season he's driven in four runs in a game. He flied out to left in the sixth but, needing a triple for the cycle, he ran hard all the way to third unaware that Starling Marte had made the catch. Happ did pause at third before heading to the dugout.
Video: PIT@CHC: Happ drills an RBI double down line in right
"I loved the faux triple down the left-field line -- that was outstanding," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.
• Happ sprints to third on flyout thinking it was a triple
Said Happ on the potential cycle: "I hit it -- I was hopeful."
Video: PIT@CHC: Happ flies out, sprints around bases
The Cubs now have outscored their opponents 270-180 in the second half, and the plus-90 run differential is tops in the Majors.
Jose Quintana picked up his second career RBI with a run-scoring single in a seven-run fifth. More important to the Cubs, the lefty overcame a rocky first inning. David Freese hit an RBI single and another run scored when Quintana hit Marte to load the bases, then plunked Jordy Mercer to force in a run. But the lefty settled down and retired 14 in a row before Josh Bell's solo homer with one out in the sixth.
Video: PIT@CHC: Bell slugs a solo home run to left field
"The first inning was tough but his stuff was really good from jump street," Maddon said. "He's just over-amped. This guy is still trying to make an impression for us and with us, and I just love his methods. He's such a professional."
Ivan Nova also had a long first inning, throwing 32 pitches, and took the loss, lasting three innings. He's now 1-6 in his last eight starts and has given up 10 homers over 42 innings in that stretch. The Pirates have lost 13 of their last 18 games, and their starting pitchers are 3-9.
• Missing up in zone, Nova labors over 3 innings
"We got hit hard. We made a lot of mistakes up in the zone," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "Breaking balls that were left elevated got hit hard. Fastballs that missed locations up got hit hard. We weren't sequencing as well as we've shown the ability to do in the past. Everything we left out over the plate was hit and hit well."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
On the run: Baez took advantage of Pirates mistakes in the second to score. He reached on a fielding error by third baseman Freese, then stole second and reached third on a throwing error by catcher Chris Stewart With Quintana at the plate showing bunt, Baez took a big secondary lead and then stole home when Stewart threw to third, tying the game at 2. He's the first Cubs player to swipe home in the regular season since Starlin Castro did so in 2010.
Cubs fans probably remember Baez stealing home in Game 1 of the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers last year when he wasn't supposed to.
"We had a safety squeeze," Baez said of the play on Wednesday. "It was the same error as last year [in the NLCS]. We practiced today in early work, and even during the early work I was going to the plate too fast and breaking to the plate pretty fast. I think on the play [Quintana] squared the bunt too early. I reacted early, too. I was making sure that didn't happen again and it did."
"He's just one of those wild cards out there," Stewart said. "He does things you don't expect and catches you off-guard. He caught me off-guard."
Video: PIT@CHC: Baez moves to third on error, steals home
Glovework: Chicago's Jon Jay starred in the field in the third with back-to-back outstanding catches in center. He robbed Andrew McCutchen of a potential extra-base hit when he snared the fly ball at the warning track, falling to the ground after making an over-the-shoulder catch. Jay then grabbed Bell's fly ball toward the gap in right-center on the run. According to Statcast™, McCutchen's ball had a hit probability of 75 percent, while Bell's was 60 percent.
"The play by Jon Jay was very instrumental," Maddon said. "[The first one] was the really spectacular play. The second one, good play -- the first one, great play. That's two really good plays that helped settle that inning."
Video: PIT@CHC: Jay locks down center with two amazing grabs
QUOTABLE
"They've been the same lineup. If you makes pitches, you're going to have success. If you don't make pitches, you're going to get hit." -- Nova, who suffered his first loss in four career starts against the Cubs
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Happ hit his 20th homer in his 89th career game. No player in Cubs franchise history has hit 20 homers in fewer games to start their career.
The 17 runs allowed by the Pirates were a season high; the previous high was 14, which the Cubs scored April 24 in Pittsburgh.
The Cubs totaled a season-high 20 hits, their first 20-hit game since May 12, 2014, when they did so against the Cardinals.
Video: PIT@CHC: Cubs erupt for seven runs in the 5th
Bell's 23rd homer tied him with McCutchen for the team lead. It also tied him for second on the Pirates' all-time list of home runs by a rookie, joining Ralph Kiner (1946) and Johnny Rizzo (1938) behind only Jason Bay (26 in 2004).
WHAT'S NEXT
Pirates: After an off-day Thursday, the Pirates will return to PNC Park to begin a three-game series against the Reds on Friday night at PNC Park at 7:05 p.m. ET. Right-hander Gerrit Cole will start for the Bucs after throwing seven shutout innings and homering against the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Saturday. Pittsburgh could receive some reinforcements from Triple-A Indianapolis and the disabled list as Major League rosters expand from 25 to 40 players.
Cubs: Kyle Hendricks will open the four-game series against the Braves on Thursday. The right-hander has an impressive 2.48 ERA in seven starts since the All-Star break but he's only 1-1 in that stretch. This will be his third career start against the Braves and first since Aug. 21, 2015. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. CT from Wrigley Field.
Watch every out-of-market regular-season game live on MLB.TV. |
A single mother in Georgia said she was banned from attending her six-year-old girl's elementary school father-daughter dance after she tried to go dressed up like a man.
Amy Peterson said her daughter, Gracie, was looking forward to having her mom play the role of her father, given that her dad is out of the picture, ABC affiliate WSB reported on Monday. But the school in Henry County, Georgia, forbade them from attending the annual dance.
"To me, I’ve identified myself as her father and her mother because that’s what I’ve done for six years," Peterson told WSB. "She was okay with it. She was excited that her friends were going to get to see this."
Peterson said she filed paperwork a month ahead of last Friday's dance to let the school know that she would be attending.
But Peterson said she received a phone call from the school’s principal about an hour before the dance telling them not to come, according to WSB.
"She [the principal] said, 'No. I forbid you to come and if you show up we will turn you away,'" Peterson said, recalling the conversation. "How do you explain that to a 6-year-old? You can’t go to a dance because you don’t have a male role model in your life?"
Peterson said she believes the school handled the situation poorly.
The Henry County school district defended its decision in a statement.
"The school is cognizant that different dynamics exist across households in our school system," the statement read. "There are multiple parent engagement events and opportunities to participate with their kids annually at this school in an effort to make that connection and build school spirit."
But Peterson said the policy makes children like Gracie feel left out and compared the school's behavior to bullying.
"They're already being bullied. Why be bullied by the school too?" Peterson said. "Why is she being punished because she doesn’t have a dad?" |
WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives voted 244-185 Wednesday to repeal in full President Obama's health care law in a symbolic display of opposition to the law after the Supreme Court's decision to uphold it.
Five Democrats sided with Republicans, who were unanimous in support of repeal.
It was the 33rd vote to repeal the law or eliminate funding for its provisions since Republicans took control of the chamber last year. None of the GOP's efforts stood a chance of enactment because Democrats control the Senate and the White House, which issued a veto threat Monday on the GOP's repeal bill.
"We are resolved to have this law go away, and we're going to do everything we can to stop it," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
The vote was aimed squarely at November's elections, when voters will be given their opportunity to weigh in on the health care law. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans are in unanimous opposition to the law and campaigning on a unified pledge to repeal it if the party is in control of Congress and the White House next year.
Even if Republicans sweep full control of Congress and the White House, a full repeal of the president's signature achievement is an uphill and complex legislative battle, in part because many provisions of the law are popular with the American public and because Senate rules usually require super-majorities to move forward on such sweeping legislation.
Romney was booed by a heavily Democratic audience at a NAACP Convention in Houston when he reiterated on Wednesday his pledge to repeal it. The Republican and Democratic congressional campaign operations use the law in ads in competitive races across the country.
A July 2 Pew Research Center survey underscored the two parties' hurried efforts to frame the health care debate before Election Day: A high number of Americans are uninformed on the law and the Supreme Court's ruling to uphold it. Overall, 45% said they either didn't know what the court ruled or believed the court had rejected most of the law. Nearly one-quarter had no opinion. |
The ACLU has stated concern again and again about the new model of internet advertising which relies heavily on tracking users as they move from website to website and creates a detailed profile about their viewing habits. Our suggested solution has been a Do Not Track (DNT) mechanism, one that would allow users to opt out and convey that they don’t want to be tracked. But what does it mean not to track someone online?
This week in Washington D.C., an expert group of companies, consumer groups, browser makers and government regulators are gathering in one of the final stages to resolving that key question. The “Tracking Protection Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium” (W3C) is an international standards setting body made up off all the different stakeholders who make the Internet run. For the next three days they will hold face to face meetings and attempt to hammer out the difficult technical issues around DNT. For example, how should companies handle fraudulent practices that are revealed by tracking? What about web analytics?
Resolving these questions is crucial to the success of DNT. While the public has been very supportive of the idea, some advertisers have attempted to stop short of true Do Not Track. While paying lip service to the idea (and the W3C process), they have attempted to substitute a different concept, that of Do Not Target. Under the advertisers’ model consumers would simply not receive targeted advertising based on profiles, however the creation of the profiles would still go on! Other companies like Google have only recently added a DNT feature after long arguing that it was impractical or unworkable.
Attempts to confuse consumers or plead technical impossibility threaten to blunt the enormous momentum DNT has gathered over the last year. An effort that started as something pushed by a few consumer groups now has a realistic chance to succeed. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Jon Leibowitz, actually predicted recently that "consumers will have an easy to use and effective Do Not Track option by the end of the year."
Equally important, a consistent standard would create clear accountability across the web. A workable DNT standard crafted by W3C will allow consumers to push for guarantees from companies that they will abide by a true DNT and identify those that don’t. These guarantees will be enforceable by the FTC and regulators around the world. If the W3C falters, the Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Senator John Rockefeller, has already filed legislation to require creation of a DNT.
As the W3C moves to finalize standards by this June, we’ll keep you informed both about positive steps and any roadblocks that the process encounters so you can help us encourage companies, advertisers and browser manufacturers to craft an Internet that protects our privacy and civil liberties. If you want to urge Congress to continue to make online targeting a focus, please click here, and to stay informed on our “Demand Your dotRights” digital privacy campaign, follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Learn more about online privacy: Sign up for breaking news alerts, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook. |
It’s common sense that being generous makes you feel good and that being stingy makes you feel bad. As primarily social animals, human beings are hardwired at a biological level to use altruism and to strengthen social connectivity and make us happy. On the flip side, being stingy will make you lonely and depressed.
A study released on August 20, 2013 by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business found that making a charitable donation directly to someone you know in a way that builds social connection creates much more than donating anonymously to an organization.
Lara Aknin of Simon Fraser University, in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, and colleagues at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and Harvard Business School set out to discover how the emotional benefits of making a donation to charity manifest under different social conditions. This study which is titled, “Does social connection turn good deeds into good feelings?: On the value of putting the 'social' in pro-social spending" will be published in the International Journal of Happiness and Development.
Pro-social behavior, is defined as "voluntary behavior intended to benefit another," that consists of actions which "benefit other people or society as a whole, such as helping, sharing, donating, co-operating, and volunteering."
The researchers say that this is the first time a study has examined specifically how social connection helps turn generous behavior into positive feelings on the part of the donor. The findings build on earlier research that has demonstrated the paramount importance of social connectivity, altruism and voluneer work that I have written about in many previous Psychology Today blogs.
The of researchers conducted three studies of charitable donations and found that spending money on others or giving money to charity leads to the greatest boost in happiness when giving fosters social connection. The researchers call this “pro-social” spending. The team emphasizes that, "While additional factors other than social connection likely influence the happiness gained from pro-social spending our findings suggest that putting the social in pro-social is one way to transform good deeds into good feelings."
Conclusion: Social Connectivity Increases Happiness and Charitability
The fundamental conclusion of this study is that donors feel happiest if they give to a charity via a friend, relative or create a social connection rather than simply making an anonymous donation to a worthy cause. The research has strong implications for strengthening interpersonal , grassroots generosity within your community and philanthropy at an institutional level.
For example, buying or cooking a meal for friends and family not only makes you feel good, but it strengthens the social connection you feel to people in your life. Not that you want to "give to get," but there is a sweet spot where generosity feels organic and gives everyone warm fuzzies. Haggling over how many nickels and dimes someone owes after a meal is exhausting and can diminish the warmth, love and social connectivity that is nourished when people eat a meal together.
One of the most promising aspects of this study is that it creates a win-win situation across the board that will make the world a better place. If donors have a greater sense of happiness when giving involves making a social connection these positive emotions will lead to more frequent and perhaps bigger donations and less Ebenezer Scrooge-ish behavior.
The real life applications of this study could create a snowball effect of generosity and magnanimity because happy donors will ultimately be more likely to become advocates and ‘tell two friends and so and so on...” which would create an exponential boost in donations through what the researchers call “spontaneous word-of-mouth ."
Making altruism and social connectivity a machiavellian pursuit will always backfire. The researchers recommend that non-profit organizations looking to maximize donations should consider recruiting grassroots advocates and focus on strengthening social connections because social connectivity is ultimately the key to increasing donations. Again, this is common sense and it’s important to remember that social connections and don't come with a pricetag.
If you'd like to read more on this topic please check out my Psychology Today blogs: "Why is Doing Good More Important Than Feeling Good", "Evolution Does Not Reward Selfish and Mean People", "Volunteering Protects Against Heart Disease" and "Positive Actions Build Social Capital and Resilience." |
cityscape The TTC’s Signal System, Explained
New video outlines how signal systems work, and why scheduled subway closures are actually good and useful things.
Unless you happen to be a subway operator with the Virtual TTC Academy, you might not be entirely clear on how the transit system’s signal system works—or even what, precisely, it’s for. You might, in fact, be familiar with it mostly thanks to the kind of announcement featured at the beginning of the video above: “Attention customers on Line 1, Yonge-University-Spadina: due to signal problems at Davisville Station, expect longer-than-normal travel times during your commute.” (We’re almost positive “Line 1” will soon start sounding far less strange.)
The current fixed-block signal system is, although safe, also old and outmoded: the TTC is in the process of replacing it with a new Automatic Train Control system. The video serves as an introduction to these two systems and the differences between them, but it clearly has an ulterior motive—to, by educating customers about technical and logistical challenges, help them understand why it really is necessary to schedule occasional weekend subway closures. And after learning that workers can accomplish as much during a localized one-day shutdown as they would during five whole weeks of overnight construction, it’s possible patrons will indeed be more sympathetic. |
Evander Kane remained with the Sabres through the deadline and GM Tim Murray said he’d be “open” to exploring an extension with the winger. That's going to take some work from both sides, though.
The Sabres’ lone deal was a minor league trade involving two players, Dan Catenacci and Mat Bodie, who have a combined 11 games NHL experience. Cody Franson and Dmitry Kulikov were both potential deadline rentals for teams in contention, but neither free agent-to-be was sent packing on March 1. And the most interesting of the Sabres’ assets, winger Evander Kane, was also among those who stayed on the roster past the deadline.
Kane, 25, was an interesting one heading into the deadline for a number of reasons. There had been speculation throughout much of the early season that the Sabres were, at the very least, listening to offers for the winger. On-ice, Kane hadn’t performed to near the level Buffalo was hoping when they made the blockbuster trade with the Winnipeg Jets to acquire him. In his first full season, he scored only 20 goals and 35 points, despite being pegged to have 30-plus goal potential. But it wasn’t just that. Kane had run into some issues off-ice that made it seem like his days as a Sabre were numbered.
That said, Kane had been coming on strong in the back half of the season. From the start of January up until the March 1 deadline, Kane had posted 14 goals and 20 points in 27 games. He was skating nearly 19 minutes per night and putting a ton of shots on goal. Kane was seemingly starting to come into his own. Around these parts, we argued that it’d make more sense to hang on to Kane through the deadline and see if he can’t keep this up, leading to an even bigger haul at the 2017-18 deadline.
But apparently that Kane wasn’t traded wasn’t just because the Sabres want to increase their haul next year. Instead, a pair of factors were at play for Sabres GM Tim Murray. First, he said that the offers for Kane simply weren’t good enough for it to make sense, via The Buffalo News. Second, he said that he’d be open to inking Kane to a contract extension, something that few thought would have been a possibility when the campaign began.
According to The Buffalo News, Murray indicated that would be contingent on whether or not “a couple things [Kane] has going on off the ice go away and stuff like that.” And there’s the rub with any extension for Kane. His time in Buffalo has been rocky. There were two run-ins with the law, the first a sexual assault allegation that didn’t result in any criminal charge and the second resulting from an alleged altercation in a bar. The latter saw Kane handcuffed and charged in July, but the charges were dismissed in April. That’s not to mention the one notable difficulty with the coaching staff. Kane was benched last season for missing a practice late in the season after attending the NBA All-Star Game the night before.
But, as far as this season goes, Kane has stayed out of trouble. The only games he’s missed all season have been due to injury and illness, and it’s clear coach Dan Bylsma respects Kane’s game and relies heavily on the winger. He averaged more than 21 minutes of ice time per game during the 2015-16 season and Kane is still up around 19 minutes per night on a deeper Sabres team. There’s been no indication that Kane didn’t mean what he said when he told reporters following the missed practice that he was going to start taking hockey more seriously.
The on-ice results have shown that he’s taking things more seriously, too. His point production this season stands to dwarf that of the 2015-16 campaign, despite the fact that his overall ice time will be down significantly. In eight fewer games, Kane has already surpassed the past season’s goal total by three — he has 23 markers in 58 games — and he’s one off of matching his 35-point total from 2015-16. His 5-on-5 point rates have shot up this season, as well. He’s producing 1.54 goals and 1.93 points per 60 minutes, thanks in large part to an uptick in his shooting percentage. Unsustainable? Sure, but even a slight dip from the 13.7 percent he’s shooting at 5-on-5 would still make him a steady goal scorer.
He’s one of the better scorers the Sabres have at this point, too. At a per-game rate, the only players who’ve produced more for Buffalo are Jack Eichel, Ryan O’Reilly and Kyle Okposo. Kane’s the team’s leading goal scorer by four goals — in 11 fewer games, it’s worth noting — and he’s only nine points back of the team scoring lead.
So, with Kane scoring and an extension at least in consideration, the question becomes the price tag. Right now, Kane carries a cap hit of $5.25 million and he’s earning $6 million per season. It’s hard to say that’s exactly where Kane will land on any new deal — the raise could be more slight than $750,000 — but his production would indicate he could be in for a slight increase in pay. If he hits free agency, he’s almost sure to get a raise based on promise alone. It’s tough to find a comparable for Kane, but here’s one possibility: Milan Lucic, he of the seven-year, $42-million deal.
Lucic has the playoff experience, the physicality to his game and a certain intimidation factor. Kane, however, has greater scoring ability, more speed and his own kind of physical edge. Both have scored at a .59 point per game rate since the start of the 2014-15 season, but Kane has 53 goals to Lucic’s 52. And the overall difference in scoring, which is 43 points, can largely be attributed to all the time Kane has missed. His scoring rate would project him to have 78 goals over the same number of games played as Lucic, making Kane a near consistent 30-goal player. Maybe that puts him into the range of a $6 million annual salary, right alongside Lucic.
The money could prove difficult down the line with Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart up for new deals the same season as Kane becomes a UFA, but that’s the same cap math that every team has to go through at some point. The recent addition of Okposo, who has six years and $36 million left on his contract after this season, could also come into play. With that in mind, money could be one of the biggest factors in Buffalo’s decision to keep Kane, trade him or let him walk as a free agent.
Signing Kane as early as July 1, the day the Sabres can offer an extension, would be hasty, but like shipping Kane out at the deadline, it could worth it for the Sabres to see what he can produce next season. But there will still be a lot of questions to be answered before an extension becomes a reality. Kane will have to prove himself to management on- and off-ice and both sides would have to find a way for the money to work. If that happens, though, the Sabres handing Kane an extension might not be as far-fetched an idea as it seemed earlier this season.
Want more in-depth features and expert analysis on the game you love? Subscribe to The Hockey News magazine. |
Lewis has also backed pro-marijuana efforts in Ohio and Washington.
The Massachusetts ballot question would allow patients with debilitating medical conditions such as cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis to get permission from their doctors to use marijuana.
The plan also calls for the state to register up to 35 nonprofit medical treatment centers around the state to distribute the marijuana.
A public relations firm representing the Committee for Compassionate Medicine said the goal of the question is "to ensure that Massachusetts patients have the same access to the necessary medical resources to fight debilitating diseases that are available in sixteen other states."
"Peter Lewis and others have provided the initial funding to ensure the Committee for Compassionate Medicine qualified for the November 2012 ballot and to establish a grassroots political organization and fundraising infrastructure for that effort," the statement said.
With that financial boost, the group is hoping to draw thousands of supporters to help convince voters to approve the measure if it reaches the November ballot.
Critics of medical marijuana initiatives say weakening the prohibition against the drug could send the message to young people that smoking pot is no big deal, ultimately encouraging more teens to experiment both with marijuana and harder drugs.
Under the ballot question, the new treatment centers would be authorized to acquire, cultivate, possess and process marijuana, including the development of related products such as food, tinctures, aerosols, oils, or ointments.
Those patients allowed to possess marijuana would be issued registration cards by the state Department of Public Health after a physician determines in writing that they have one of the qualifying medical conditions.
Nothing in the ballot question changes state laws against driving under the influence, forces health insurers to cover the expense of the marijuana, or requires employers to allow for on-site medical use of marijuana.
The bulk of the money contributed by Lewis - $350,000 - went to hire professional signature gatherers to collect the tens of thousands of signatures needed to guarantee the question a spot on the November ballot.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts also received $9,000 in consulting fees, according to the records with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
It’s not the first time Lewis has waded into the debate about expanding access to marijuana.
Lewis is helping fund a campaign in Washington state to legalize and tax marijuana for recreational use.
That question - which would create a system of state-licensed growers, processors and stores, and impose a 25 percent excise tax on wholesale and retail sales of marijuana - appears headed for the November ballot in Washington.
And in his home state of Ohio, Lewis said last year that he was seeking proposals for a medical marijuana ballot issue for 2012.
Last month, backers of a ballot question to legalize medical marijuana were given the OK by the Ohio attorney general’s office to begin collecting signatures to put it on the November ballot.
The amendment to Ohio’s constitution would also allow those with a debilitating medical condition - including cancer, AIDS, glaucoma and Crohn’s disease - to use, possess, produce and acquire marijuana and paraphernalia.
It would also authorize vendors to make and distribute the otherwise illegal drug and set up a state oversight commission.
If the Massachusetts question lands on the November ballot it won’t be the first time that voters here have been asked to change state law regarding the drug. Generally they have been receptive.
In 2008, Massachusetts voters overwhelming backed a 2008 initiative which decriminalized the possession of an ounce of less of marijuana. The law instituted a $100 civil fine instead.
Then in 2010, advocates placed 18 nonbinding advisory questions on local ballots in communities across the state to get a sense whether Massachusetts voters would support another overhaul of marijuana laws.
Nine of the questions supported the use of marijuana for medical reasons while another nine backed legalizing the drug outright, allowing the state to regulate and tax it.
Voters responded to the questions with a resounding "yes." Support ranged from 54 percent in some districts to up to 70 percent in others.
Source: Associated Press (Wire)
Published: February 7, 2012
Copyright: 2012 The Associated Press
CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archives
http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml |
September 27, 2017
Dear Colleague,
Today is National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. On this day, we join together in taking actions to prevent HIV among gay and bisexual men and ensure that all gay and bisexual men living with HIV get the care they need to stay healthy. Gay and bisexual men are severely affected by HIV. More than 26,000 gay and bisexual men received an HIV diagnosis in 2015, representing two-thirds of all new diagnoses in the United States, and diagnoses increased among Hispanic/Latino gay and bisexual men from 2010 to 2014.
However, recent trends suggest that prevention efforts are slowing the spread of HIV among some gay and bisexual men. From 2010 to 2014, HIV diagnoses fell among white gay and bisexual men and remained stable among African American gay and bisexual men after years of increases.
Scientific advances have shown that antiretroviral therapy (ART) preserves the health of people living with HIV. We also have strong evidence of the prevention effectiveness of ART. When ART results in viral suppression, defined as less than 200 copies/ml or undetectable levels, it prevents sexual HIV transmission. Across three different studies, including thousands of couples and many thousand acts of sex without a condom or pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), no HIV transmissions to an HIV-negative partner were observed when the HIV-positive person was virally suppressed. This means that people who take ART daily as prescribed and achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.
However, according to a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, too many gay and bisexual men living with HIV are not getting the care and treatment they need. Among gay and bisexual men living with diagnosed HIV, 61% have achieved viral suppression, more than in previous years, but well short of where we want to be. More work is needed to close this gap and to address the barriers that make it more difficult for some gay and bisexual men, including African American and Hispanic/Latino men, to get HIV care and treatment. For example, socioeconomic factors such as lower income and educational levels and cultural factors such as stigma and discrimination may affect whether some gay and bisexual men seek and are able to receive HIV treatment and prevention services.
Some of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) activities to reduce new HIV infections among gay and bisexual men, increase testing, improve treatment outcomes, and reduce HIV-related disparities include:
Funding health departments and community-based organizations (CBOs) to support HIV prevention services for gay and bisexual men. For example, under current cooperative agreements, CDC has awarded at least $330 million per year to health departments for HIV prevention among the most affected populations and is awarding nearly $11 million per year to CBOs to provide HIV testing to young gay and bisexual men of color and transgender youth of color.
Supporting biomedical approaches to HIV prevention such as PrEP and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP).
Supporting projects to identify promising prevention strategies, such as Project PrIDE (PrEP, Implementation, Data to Care, and Evaluation), which is helping health departments implement PrEP and Data to Care demonstration projects for gay and bisexual men of color.
Providing gay and bisexual men with HIV prevention and treatment messages through Act Against AIDS. For example, Doing It , which encourages all adults to get tested for HIV, includes many resources for gay and bisexual men. Start Talking. Stop HIV. helps gay and bisexual men communicate about HIV prevention, and HIV Treatment Works provides resources to help people live well with HIV.
CDC encourages public and private stakeholders to implement interventions that increase retention in HIV care and viral suppression. In addition, partners such as health departments, CBOs, and others can help address stigma and discrimination—using the resources of the Act Against AIDS campaign Let’s Stop HIV Together, for example—and extend the reach of their HIV prevention and testing services that focus on gay and bisexual men. Learn more about how CDC can support your prevention programs.
Thank you for your contributions to HIV prevention efforts for gay and bisexual men. With your help, we have made tremendous strides over the decades. And while there is still much work to do, today we have powerful prevention and treatment tools that can dramatically reduce HIV infections among gay and bisexual men and move us closer to a future free of HIV.
Sincerely,
/Eugene McCray/
Eugene McCray, MD
Director
Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/hiv
/Jonathan Mermin/
Jonathan H. Mermin, MD, MPH
RADM and Assistant Surgeon General, USPHS
Director
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
www.cdc.gov/nchhstp |
Doctors Don't Know What Women Want To Know About Birth Control
Corbis
Women have choices in contraception, from pills and injections to intrauterine devices and the NuvaRing. But when women discuss birth control with their doctors, they may not be getting all the information they want, a survey finds.
Doctors tend to think it's most important to discuss how to use contraceptives and which methods are most effective at preventing pregnancy, according to the poll, which was published in the journal Contraception. Women, on the other hand, are often more concerned about safety, side effects and how the contraceptives work.
Researchers surveyed 417 women, aged 15 to 45, and 188 health care providers. The women were either using contraceptives or interested in using them. While 41 percent of them ranked questions about safety as one of their top three concerns, only 20 percent of the doctors thought discussing safety was a top priority. That may be because providers know that for a healthy woman, contraceptives are usually safer than pregnancy, the study says. But women may still worry about complications caused by hormonal birth control, like blood clots, though they are relatively rare.
toggle caption Maanvi Singh/NPR
Those considering permanent contraceptive option may be worried about safety as well. Recently, the safety of Essure, a device that's permanently inserted into the fallopian tubes to block them, came under question when a number of women who used it complained about pain, hemorrhaging and headaches.
"The main takeaway is really that it's very important for providers to speak about what's most important to women," says Kyla Donnelly, a reproductive health researcher at the Dartmouth's Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, who led the study.
Yet providers don't always know what what's most important to their patients, she tells Shots. "And doctors are increasingly having to manage very short consultation periods."
These results aren't the final word — the participants were mostly white, and they had to have Internet access in order to complete the survey. But it does show that doctors and patients aren't always on the same page.
Donnelly says she's working with other researchers to developing guides — called option grids — to help health care providers and patients discuss contraceptives. "That way providers can feel supported with the right information." |
So! As many people have likely heard and/or seen, a clip from the new Zelda game was shown at e3 this year. The protagonist shown in the video seemes even more androgynous than most versions of Link, and when Aonuma was asked by a reporter why that was he replied, “Nobody ever said that that was Link.”
So, cue theories about the new protagonist being Zelda, or a female version of Link, or a new female character. Cool, right?
Then an interview from an Australian Zelda website, MMGN, pops up, in which Aonuma says, “That was just a joke,” and “I never said that wasn’t Link.” Boo. Super lame.
However! I’m not totally convinced that MMGN is a relaiable source. Literally everywhere else this “joke” tidbit has popped up has sourced back to MMGN, and no other gaming journalists have been given an interview to say it was a joke. Is it possible that the author of that “interview” is just another dudebro gamer who saw the growing positive reaction to Zelda as a potential protagonist, just *knew* those fans were wrong, and so decided to fake an exclusive interview in order to bring in a huge number of views to his website on a seemingly safe bet? In a later interview with Game Informer Aonuma said no such thing, and instead expertly danced around the topic of the trailer character’s gender.
Also, many Zelda fans are aware that thr author and artist of the webcomic Dresden Codak, Aaron Diaz, has been working in his spare time on art for a project called “The Legend of Zelda: Clockwork Empire,” in which Zelda is the main protagonist. Aaron Diaz was one of many people to display approval at the seeming hint at Zelda as a protagonist in the trailer, then outrage at the supposed interview calling it “a joke.” He even tweeted that making such a joke made Aonuma an asshole. However, later on Mr. Diaz tweeted that, while he couldnt talk about details, his professional interactions with Nintendo “keep getting weirder and weirder.” When asked if that meant he’d received a Cease and Desist from Nintendo about Clockwork Empire, he replied, “I’m pretty sure that would be the opposite of weird.” After these tweets, he has said nothing regarding the trailer or his outrage.
Tinfoil hat time! Here are my theories-
a.) The protag is Zelda and Nintendo has hired Diaz for promotional art.
b.) The protag is Link, but after seeing how big the stir was over a potential Zelda protagonist, they’re hiring Diaz for a future game with Zelda, possibly even wanting to use his Clockwork Empire concept art.
Or,
c.) They in fact already purchased the rights to his Clockwork Empire concept, which included giant clockwork enemies (like what was seen in the trailer), and after the “joke” “interview” he was pissed that it seemed like they were only using bits and pieces of his concept, but after his comments he was contacted and they told him either a.) or b.).
This is all just speculation and suspicion on my part, but I still think there’s hope for a Zelda-led Zelda game, sooner or later. |
As about 250 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division prepare to deploy in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the military continues to work to identify who might go to Iraq next as part of a 1,500-troop increase authorized in early November by President Obama.
The 250 soldiers from 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne, of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will begin deploying to Iraq in late December.
Their deployment, announced Dec. 1, is not part of the 1,500-troop increase authorized Nov. 7 by Obama.
Instead, they will deploy to Iraq to conduct security operations, reportedly to relieve troops who are currently in theater. The paratroopers are slated to deploy for a nine-month tour.
"The 1st Battalion, 505th PIR is a well-led and highly trained unit with extremely talented and adaptable paratroopers," said Col. Curtis Buzzard, the brigade commander, in a statement. "I know they are ready for any contingency and am confident they will accomplish the mission."
There are about 1,600 U.S. troops currently in Iraq as the U.S. steps up its fight against the Islamic State.
The 1,500-troop increase will almost double the number of troops already in Iraq, which includes the 1st Infantry Division headquarters, which took command in theater Oct. 31.
"The sourcing hasn't been identified for all of the 1,500 military personnel," said Navy Cmdr. Elissa Smith, a spokeswoman for the Defense Department, in an e-mail to Army Times. "However, as a bridging solution until these troops are sourced from U.S. and coalition sources, [the commander of] U.S. Central Command has given direction to move troops from around the CENTCOM area of responsibility into Iraq."
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These troops are from the 1st Infantry Division and the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force who are already in the CENTCOM area of operations, Smith said.
About 170 troops will stand up four building partner capacity sites, the first two of which will be in Anbar province and near Baghdad, she said.
These BPC sites are to accommodate the training of 12 Iraqi and Peshmerga brigades.
In addition, 40 troops are tasked with the advise and assist mission in Iraq, she said.
When the 1,500 troops are in place, it's expected that about 630 of them will be tasked with the advise and assist mission, to include enablers in areas such as logistics, command and control, and intelligence support. The other 870 will be tasked with the building partner capacity mission, Smith said.
About 250 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division will deploy in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, officials announced Monday.
The soldiers from 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will begin deploying in late December.
They will deploy for nine months to the Central Command area of responsibility to conduct security operations.
"The 1st Battalion, 505th PIR is a well-led and highly trained unit with extremely talented and adaptable paratroopers," said Col. Curtis Buzzard, the brigade commander, in a statement. "I know they are ready for any contingency and am confident they will accomplish the mission."
The paratroopers from 1st Battalion are deploying to replace XXX, who have been in the area of operations since XXX.
The soldiers are not part of the 1,500-troop increase authorized Nov. 7 by President Obama.
That increase almost doubles the number of troops already in Iraq, including the 1st Infantry Division headquarters, which took command in theater Oct. 31.
The military has not provided details on the 1,500-troop increase, including who or what types of troops might deploy.
These troops will deploy in "a non-combat role to train, advise and assist Iraqi Security Forces, including Kurdish forces," according to the White House announcement Nov. 7.
U.S. Central Command will establish two expeditionary advise and assist operations centers in locations outside Baghdad and Erbil. The centers will provide support for the Iraqis at the brigade headquarters level and above, and they will be supported by an appropriate array of force protection capabilities, officials have said.
peshmerga brigades. |
City in California, United States
Laguna Beach () is a seaside resort city located in southern Orange County, California, in the United States. It is known for a mild year-round climate, scenic coves, environmental preservation, and an artist community. The population in the 2010 census was 22,723. As per population estimate in July 2017 the total population of Laguna Beach city was 23,174.[8][9][10]
Historically a territory of Paleoindians, the Tongva people and then Mexico, the location became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War. Laguna Beach was settled in the 1870s, officially founded in 1887 and, in 1927 its current government was incorporated as a city. In 1944, the city adopted a council-manager form for its government. The city has remained relatively isolated from urban encroachment by its surrounding hills, limited highway access, and a dedicated greenbelt. The Laguna Beach coastline is protected by 5.88 miles (9.46 km) of state marine reserve and an additional 1.21 miles (1.95 km) of state conservation area.[11]
Tourism is the primary industry with an estimated six million[12] people visiting the community annually.[13][14] Annual large events include the Pageant of the Masters, Festival of Arts, Sawdust Art Festival, Art-A-Fair, Bluewater Music Festival, and Kelpfest.
History [ edit ]
Laguna Beach was the site of a prehistoric paleoindian civilization.[15] In 1933, the first fossilized skull of a paleoindian found in California was uncovered during construction on St. Ann's Drive.[16] Known as "Laguna Woman", the skull originally was radiocarbon dated to more than 17,000 BP, however, revised measurements suggest it originated during the Holocene era 11,700 years before present.[17] Subsequent research has found several prehistoric encampment sites in the area.[18]
Historically, the indigenous people of the Laguna Beach area were the Tongva. Aliso Creek served as a territorial boundary between Gabrieleno and Acjachemen groups, or Juanenos, named by Spanish missionaries who first encountered them in the 1500s.[19][20] The area of Laguna Canyon was named on an 1841 Mexican land grant map as Cañada de las Lagunas (English: Glen of the Lagoons).[21] After the Mexican–American War ended in 1848, the area of Alta California was ceded to the United States. The treaty provided that Mexican land grants be honored and Rancho San Joaquin, which included north Laguna Beach, was granted to José Antonio Andres Sepúlveda. Following a drought in 1864, Sepúlveda sold the property to James Irvine.[22] The majority of Laguna Beach was one of the few parcels of coastal land in Southern California that never was included in any Mexican land grant.[22]
Pre-1917 postcard of Joseph Yoch's original Hotel Laguna -- built in 1888 and replaced in 1930
View of the Main Beach c. 1915
Settlers arrived after the American Civil War. They were encouraged by the Homestead Act and Timber Culture Act, which granted up to 160 acres (65 ha) of land to a homesteader who would plant at least 40 acres (16 ha) of trees. In Laguna Beach, settlers planted groves of eucalyptus trees.[23] In 1871, the first permanent homestead in the area was occupied by the George and Sarah Thurston family of Utah on 152 acres (62 ha) of Aliso Creek Canyon.[24][25] In 1876, the brothers William and Lorenzo Nathan "Nate" Brooks purchased tracts of land in Bluebird Canyon at present-day Diamond Street. They subdivided their land, built homes and initiated the small community of Arch Beach.[26] In his book, History of Orange County, California (1921), Samuel Armor cited the permanent homestead of Nate Brooks as the beginning of the modern day town and described Brooks as the "Father of Laguna Beach."[27]
The community in Laguna Canyon and around the main beach expanded during the 1880s. The city officially founded a post office in 1887 under the name Lagona, but the postmaster in 1904, Nicholas Isch, successfully petitioned for a name correction to Laguna Beach.[28] By then Laguna Beach already had developed into a tourist destination.[29] Hubbard Goff built a large hotel at Arch Beach in 1886, which later was moved and added to Joseph Yoch's Laguna Beach Hotel built in 1888 on the main beach.[30] Visitors from local cities pitched tents on the beaches for vacation during the warm summers.[31]
The scenic beauty of the isolated coastline and hills attracted plein-air painters in the early 1900s. William Wendt, Frank Cuprien, and Edgar Payne among others settled there and formed the Laguna Beach Art Association. The first art gallery opened in 1918 and later became the Laguna Beach Art Museum.[32] Precursors to The Festival of Arts and the Pageant of the Masters began in 1921, and eventually were established in their present-day form by Roy Ropp in 1936.[33] Due to its proximity to Hollywood, Laguna also became a favorite filming location. Starting in 1913, dozens of silent films were made at local coves with Harold Lloyd, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and others. Actors and film crews stayed during long production shoots at the Arch Beach Tavern on the hillside above Moss Street.[34]
The arrival of painters, photographers, filmmakers, and writers established Laguna Beach as a noted artist community.[31] Although there only were approximately 300 residents in 1920, a large proportion of them worked in creative fields.[35] The small town remained isolated until 1926 because the long winding Laguna Canyon road served as the only access.[35] With the completion of the Pacific Coast Highway in 1926, a population boom was expected. In order to protect the small town atmosphere of the art colony, residents who called themselves "Lagunatics" pushed for incorporation.[35] The municipal government for Laguna Beach incorporated as a city on June 29, 1927.[36] The city has experienced steady population growth since that time, rising from 1900 residents in 1927 to more than 10,000 in 1962, and becoming four times larger in area.[35]
Many creative, bohemian, and wealthy people have made Laguna Beach their home. They have added to the local culture by providing a theme for the small town. The adventurer Richard Halliburton built his Hangover House on the slopes of South Laguna. Hildegarde Hawthorne, granddaughter of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, described Laguna "as a child of that deathless search, particularly by persons who devote their lives to painting or writing, or for some place where beauty and cheapness and a trifle of remoteness hobnob together in a delightful companionship."[37]
Laguna Beach was the southern California epicenter of the 'alternative' hippie culture in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[38][39] In early 1967, John Griggs and other founding members of The Brotherhood of Eternal Love relocated from Modjeska Canyon to the Woodland Drive neighborhood of Laguna Beach, which they later re-christened "Dodge City".[38] Timothy Leary lived in a beach house on Gaviota Drive.[40] The Utsava Rajneesh Meditation Center was located on Laguna Canyon Road and was the last remaining commune in the United States for followers of the spiritual teacher and guru Osho, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.[41]
1993 fire [ edit ]
A fire in Laguna Beach in October 1993 destroyed or damaged 441 homes and burned more than 14,000 acres (5,700 ha). The National Fire Protection Association listed it as the seventh largest-loss wildland fire in the United States.[42]
Geography [ edit ]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Laguna Beach has a total area of 25.4 km2 (9.8 sq mi), of which 22.9 km2 (8.8 sq mi) is land and 2.5 km2 (0.97 sq mi). Its coastline is 7 mi (11 km) long and includes 27 beaches and coves.[43] It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on the southwest, Crystal Cove State Park and the city of Newport Beach on the northwest, Laguna Woods on the northeast, Aliso Viejo and Laguna Niguel on the east, and Dana Point on the southeast.
The land in and around Laguna Beach rises quickly from the shoreline into the hills and canyons of the San Joaquin Hills. The town's highest point, at an elevation of 1,007 feet (307 m), is Temple Hill in the Top of the World neighborhood.[44] Because of its hilly topography and surrounding parklands, there are few roads into or out of town; only the Coast Highway connecting to Newport Beach to the northwest and to Dana Point to the south, and State Route 133 crossing the hills in a northeastern direction through Laguna Canyon. Parts of Laguna Beach border the Aliso/Wood Canyons Regional Park.
The natural landscape of beaches, rocky bluffs and craggy canyons have been noted as sources of inspiration for Plein air painters and landscape photographers who have settled in the Laguna Beach since the early 1900s.[45][46] The hills also are known internationally for mountain biking.[47] Laguna Coast Wilderness Park[48] is a 7,000-acre (2,800 ha) wilderness area in the hills surrounding Laguna Beach. This park features coastal canyons, ridgeline views and the only natural lakes in Orange County.
North Laguna Beach South Laguna Beach
Climate [ edit ]
Laguna Beach has a mild Mediterranean climate with abundant sunshine all year. The average daily high temperature ranges from 68 °F (20 °C) in January to 80 °F (27 °C) in August. Mean annual precipitation is relatively low at 13.56 inches (344 mm). The average ocean water temperatures range from about 59 °F (15 °C) in February to 68 °F (20 °C) in August; with early to mid-September water temperatures often peaking at about 72 °F (22 °C).[49] However, the ocean surface temperatures along the beaches of Laguna Beach may vary by several degrees from the average, dependent upon offshore winds, air temperature, and sunshine.[49]
Climate data for Laguna Beach, California Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 89
(32) 92
(33) 92
(33) 97
(36) 100
(38) 102
(39) 104
(40) 100
(38) 108
(42) 104
(40) 100
(38) 90
(32) 108
(42) Average high °F (°C) 68
(20) 68
(20) 69
(21) 72
(22) 73
(23) 75
(24) 79
(26) 80
(27) 80
(27) 77
(25) 72
(22) 67
(19) 73
(23) Average low °F (°C) 44
(7) 45
(7) 47
(8) 50
(10) 54
(12) 58
(14) 61
(16) 60
(16) 59
(15) 54
(12) 48
(9) 43
(6) 52
(11) Record low °F (°C) 21
(−6) 27
(−3) 28
(−2) 31
(−1) 33
(1) 37
(3) 30
(−1) 38
(3) 40
(4) 33
(1) 28
(−2) 24
(−4) 21
(−6) Average precipitation inches (mm) 2.75
(70) 2.96
(75) 2.58
(66) 0.84
(21) 0.25
(6.4) 0.13
(3.3) 0.04
(1.0) 0.12
(3.0) 0.35
(8.9) 0.47
(12) 1.23
(31) 1.84
(47) 13.56
(344) Source: The Weather Channel[50]
Demographics [ edit ]
Historical population Census Pop. %± 1930 1,981 — 1940 4,460 125.1% 1950 6,661 49.3% 1960 9,288 39.4% 1970 14,550 56.7% 1980 17,858 22.7% 1990 23,170 29.7% 2000 23,727 2.4% 2010 22,723 −4.2% Est. 2016 23,190 [7] 2.1% U.S. Decennial Census[51]
2010 [ edit ]
The 2010 United States Census[52] reported that 22,723 people, 10,821 households, and 5,791 families resided in the city. The population density was 2,313.8 people per square mile (893.4/km²). There were 12,923 housing units at an average density of 1,315.9 per square mile (508.1/km²). The racial makeup of Laguna Beach was 90.9% White (85.7% Non-Hispanic White), 0.8% African American, 0.3% Native American, 3.6% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.5% from other races, and 2.9% from two or more races.[53] 7.3% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.[53]
The Census reported that 99.6% of the population lived in households and 0.4% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters. There were 10,821 households out of which 20.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them, 43.6% were opposite-sex married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 3.6% had a male householder with no wife present. 5.2% of households were unmarried opposite-sex partnerships and 2.8% were same-sex married couples or partnerships. 35.2% of households were made up of individuals and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.09. The average family size was 2.72.
The population was spread out with 16.1% under the age of 18, 4.8% aged 18 to 24, 23.4% aged 25 to 44, 37.4% aged 45 to 64, and 18.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 50.6[54] years. For every 100 females, there were 100.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.8 males.
There were 12,923 housing units of which 60.0% were owner-occupied and 40.0% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.7%; the rental vacancy rate was 7.7%. 64.6% of the population lived in owner-occupied housing units and 35.0% lived in rental housing units.
During 2009–2013, Laguna Beach had a median household income of $94,325, with 6.3% of the population living below the federal poverty line.[55]
2000 [ edit ]
Emerald Bay
Condominiums line the beach.
As of the census[56] of 2000, there were 23,727 people, 11,511 households, and 5,778 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,035.1/km2 (3,000/sq mi). There were 12,965 housing units at an average density of 565.6/km2 (1,000/sq mi). The racial makeup of the city was 91.99% White, 0.80% African American, 0.36% Native American, 2.08% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 2.21% from other races, and 2.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.62% of the population.
There were 11,511 households out of which 18.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.9% were married couples living together, 6.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.8% were non-families. 36.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.05 and the average family size was 2.69.
In the city, the population was spread out with 15.8% under the age of 18, 4.2% from 18 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 33.9% from 45 to 64, and 13.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.0 males.
According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $90,017, and the median income for a family was $146,562.[57] Males had a median income of $66,221 versus $46,138 for females. The per capita income for the city was $58,732. About 2.8% of families and 5.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.7% of those under age 18 and 4.3% of those age 65 or over.
Arts, music, and culture [ edit ]
The Laguna Art Museum is rooted in the development of Laguna Beach as an art community with the creation of the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918.[58] Located beside the main beach, the museum focuses on the art of California. The Pageant of the Masters, founded in 1935, is held annually during the summer months. The unique show presents recreations of famous artworks using real people as models. Community organizations also host several long-running art festivals during the summer season.[59]
Entrance to the Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters
The Festival of Arts, which underwent a major renovation in 2017, originated in the 1930s. It showcases juried works by 140 local artists, and its stage provides a venue for daily musical performances in July and August of each year. The Sawdust Art Festival was founded in 1965 as a counterculture alternative to the Festival of Arts. It exhibits non-juried crafts and arts on a dedicated 3-acre (1.2-hectare) site. The Art-A-Fair began in 1966, built an exhibition site in 1977 and exhibits juried works of 125 artists from outside the area.[60]
The Laguna Playhouse, founded in 1920, is noted as the "oldest continuously running theatre on the west coast".[61] The playhouse provides professional stage productions in its 420-seat Moulton Theater, as well as performances by the Laguna Playhouse Youth Theatre program. The Irvine Bowl is a 2600-seat amphitheater used for the Pageant of the Masters program and for occasional concerts.
The Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational is held annually in October.[62] Some of North America's plein air landscape painters are invited to participate in the week-long events including public paint outs, artist meet and greets, and educational activities.
The Laguna Beach Arts Commission sponsors a weekly Summer Concert in the Park series at Bluebird Park and Heisler Park. The Laguna Beach Chamber Music Society holds an annual chamber music festival during the winter season. Laguna is also home to the annual Bluewater Music Festival, and Kelpfest held on Earth Day, to raise awareness of the importance that kelp plays in ocean habitat.[63]
Surf culture and sports [ edit ]
Laguna Beach has a rich surfing history centered on a five-block stretch of rocky reefs between Brooks and St. Ann's Streets.[64] The Brooks Street Surfing Classic, begun in 1955, is a "contender for the world's longest running surf competition," according to the Encyclopedia of Surfing.[65] The competition is held only when peak swell conditions occur during a four-month-long window in the summer and has been held 52 times from 1955 to 2015. Participation is open only to Laguna Beach residents.[66] Notable participants have included Hobie Alter, Mickey Munoz, and Tom Morey.[65]
A far view of Goff Cove from Laguna Beach.
Goff cove at sunset.
Started in 1976, the 'Vic' Skimboarding World Championship is held at Aliso Beach in Laguna Beach and is the longest running skim boarding contest on the pro circuit.[67]
The Laguna Open Volleyball Tournament began in 1955 and, according to tournament directors, it is the second oldest volleyball tournament in the United States.[68] Participants have included several Olympic gold medalists, including Chris Marlowe, Dusty Dvorak, Scott Fortune, Dain Blanton and Gene Selznick, who won the first seven competitions.[68]
Laguna's foothill trails are known internationally for mountain biking.[47] Mountain bike hall of fame legend, Hans Rey makes his home in Laguna Beach, as do the Rads,[69] pioneers of mountain biking going back to the 1970s.
The U.S. Open for Lawnbowling is held annually, at the lawn bowling field at Heisler Park.[70]
Government [ edit ]
Laguna Beach was first settled in the 1870s, but was founded officially in 1887 and, in 1927 it incorporated as a city. Beginning in 1944, a council-manager form of government was adopted.[2] Residents of Laguna Beach elect five non-partisan council members who serve four-year staggered terms, with elections occurring every two years. The position of mayor is non-elected and chosen annually among the members of the city council. The council serves to pass ordinances, approve a budget, and hire the city manager and city attorney. The city manager oversees administrative operations and the appointment of department heads. In 2011, John Pietig was hired as city manager following the retirement of his boss, Ken Frank who, after 31 years, was one of the longest-serving city managers in Orange County history.
The city clerk and city treasurer are elected by popular vote and serve four-year terms.[71][72]
County, state, and federal representation [ edit ]
Laguna Beach is located in the fifth district of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
In the California State Legislature, the city is in the 37th Senate District, represented by Republican John Moorlach, and in the 74th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Cottie Petrie-Norris.[73]
In the United States House of Representatives, Laguna Beach is in California's 48th congressional district, represented by Democrat Harley Rouda.[74]
Crime rate [ edit ]
According to an analysis by NeighborhoodScout.com, Laguna Beach has a higher crime rate than the national average of communities of all population sizes in the United States. The chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime is 1 in 200 and of a property crime is 1 in 36.[75]
Laguna Beach Crimes[75] Violent Property Total Number of Crimes 116 647 763 Crime Rate (per 1,000 residents) 5.0 27.9 32.9 Laguna Beach Violent Crimes Population: 23,190 Murder Rape Robbery Assault Report Total 0 15 17 84 Rate per 1,000 0 0.65 0.73 3.62 United States Violent Crimes Population: 323,127,513 Murder Rape Robbery Assault Report Total 17,250 130,603 332,198 803,007 Rate per 1,000 residents 0.05 0.4 1.03 2.49
Conservation and environment [ edit ]
Beachgoers at Main Beach in Laguna Beach
Laguna Beach has a history of environmental stewardship and historic preservation. Laguna Beach is the only Orange County city protected by a dedicated greenbelt inland and bluebelt seaward. In 1968, local conservationists founded Laguna Greenbelt and began a drive to conserve a horseshoe of hills and canyons surrounding Laguna Beach.[76] As of 2011, more than 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) of contiguous wildlands constituted The Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Jim Dilley Preserve, Crystal Cove State Park, and the Aliso-Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.[77]
Waves by Goff Cove in Laguna Beach at sunset.
The creation of the 7,000-acre (2,800 ha) Laguna Coast Wilderness Park as a protected area began in the late 1980s and early 1990s when local artists, activists and politicians rallied to preserve Laguna Canyon. With the environmentally focused Laguna Canyon Project and its photographic mural, "The Tell,"[78] as backdrop and stimulus, Laguna citizens forged a partnership to prevent construction of a 3,200-acre (1,300 ha) housing project in the canyon. An exhibition on the Laguna Canyon Project, titled "The Canyon Project: Artivism," was held at Laguna Art Museum in 2015-16.,.[79][80] Today the Wilderness Park and Laguna Canyon within it are designated as open space into perpetuity.[48]
The Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve (LBSMR), which extends from Irvine Cove to Treasure Island Beach, was established in 2012, to make most of the coastal area a no-take zone.[81] Docents of the Laguna Ocean Foundation provide monitoring and education at tidepools within the LBSMR.[81] In addition, the 3.2 mile long Crystal Cove State Park abuts the northern border of Laguna Beach.
American Craftsman Bungalows from the early 1900s dot the downtown and South Laguna areas. Between 1980 and 1981, the city conducted the Laguna Beach Historic Survey, a citywide block-by-block study which noted the location of pre-1940 buildings and determined which had historic significance.[82] 706 homes and structures in Laguna Beach were classified as historically significant.[83]
Laguna Beach is the tenth official Transition Town in the U.S. In February 2007, Laguna's city council unanimously voted to join the U.S. Mayors Climate Initiative, and in April 2013 became the first Orange County city to request formally that the San Onofre Nuclear Reactor not be restarted after its January 2012 shut down. The Aliso Creek Water Reclamation Facility went into operation in 2014. It removes polluted runoff in Aliso Creek, improves ocean water quality, and creates local recycled water.[84] With a grant from Cal Trans, the city is undertaking a transition plan to implement Complete Streets for all users. A North-South bicycle route with signs and sharrows was completed through town in 2014. Laguna Beach passed a citywide 'Idaho Stop'[85] for cyclist, a no plastic bag ordinance and a no plastic bottle purchasing policy for its government.
Education [ edit ]
Primary and Secondary [ edit ]
The Laguna Beach Unified School District manages public education for city residents. The district includes one high school (Laguna Beach High School), one middle school (Thurston Middle School), and two elementary schools (El Morro Elementary School and Top of the World Elementary School). One private elementary school, St. Catherine of Siena Parish School, is overseen by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.
Higher education [ edit ]
The Laguna College of Art & Design (LCAD) is a small private college located in Laguna Canyon. It was founded in 1961 by the Festival of Arts and Laguna Art Museum as the Laguna Beach School of Art. LCAD offers bachelor of arts degrees in drawing and painting, illustration, animation, graphic design, and game art, and master of fine arts degrees in painting and drawing. In 2013, enrollment was approximately 450 students.[86]
Smoke Free Place [ edit ]
The city was decided as smoke free place by Laguna Beach Council on May 23, 2017.[87] Ordinance 1624 were imposed by the Beach Council to stop smoking on all the public places in city.[88]
Notable people [ edit ]
Broadcasting and media [ edit ]
Laguna Beach has its own FM community radio station, KX 93.5.[89] The community is served by two weekly local newspapers: the Laguna Beach Independent and the Coastline Pilot, a subsidiary of the Los Angeles Times. In 2004, MTV created a reality television show entitled Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, which aired for three seasons.
Infrastructure [ edit ]
Fire protection in Laguna Beach is provided by the Laguna Beach Fire Department, and law enforcement by the Laguna Beach Police Department. Laguna Beach also has been using goats as part of its fuel reduction and vegetation management program since the early 1990s.[90] Marine safety services are provided jointly by Laguna Beach City Lifeguards in north Laguna Beach and by Orange County Lifeguards in south Laguna Beach.
Sister cities [ edit ]
Laguna Beach has 3 sister cities:
See also [ edit ] |
The NFLPA believes it has a strong case for challenging Ezekiel Elliott's suspension based on what it perceives as serious flaws in the NFL's investigative process, according to a source familiar with this week's appeal hearing. According to the source, Kia Wright Roberts, the NFL's Director of Investigations, testified Tuesday that she was the only NFL employee who interviewed Elliott's accuser, Tiffany Thompson, during the investigation. Roberts further testified, according to the hearing transcripts, that she would not have recommended discipline for Elliott based on her findings and that she was not included in the part of the process where the committee that investigated the Elliott matter recommended discipline to commissioner Roger Goodell. On Wednesday at the Elliott appeal hearing, appeals officer Harold Henderson heard testimony from Lisa Friel the former New York City prosecutor who now investigates domestic violence cases for the NFL. Friel's testimony corroborated that of Roberts, and the part of that testimony with which the NFLPA took issue was that commissioner Roger Goodell imposed the six-game suspension without Roberts' input with regard to appropriate discipline. Roberts was part of the committee that wrote the 160-page report on its investigation into Elliott's case, but that report did not include a specific recommendation of discipline. A different committee, which included some but not all members of the original investigating group, met with Goodell to discuss discipline based on the report. Roberts was not asked to be part of that meeting, according to her testimony and that of Friel. As a result, the union concluded that the process by which the NFL arrived at a six-game suspension for Elliott encountered significant flaws somewhere between the investigation itself and the ultimate decision to suspend. The concerns about the NFL's investigative process in this matter could form the basis for a court challenge aimed at getting Elliott on the field for the Cowboys' Week 1 game against the Giants. If the union files a suit seeking an injunction that would vacate the suspension, Elliott could potentially be allowed to play while the case is working its way through the courts. |
As you’re probably well aware, Glenn Beck claimed that President Obama is a racist and has a “deep seated hatred toward white people.”
Yesterday, the Sr. Vice President of Programming at Fox News, Bill Shine, issued the following statement:
SHINE: During Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel. And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions.
Translation:
This morning Glenn Beck said something idiotic and untrue, but rather than take corrective action like a responsible news organization, Fox News Channel will do nothing. We are not in the business of reporting the news, we are in the business of making money on the backs of opinionated nut jobs like Beck.
In other words:
F U America!
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As a founding member of the Raiz Up Collective in Southwest Detroit, Antonio Cosme, 28, has been an outspoken critic of the city’s redevelopment regime: speaking at public meetings, interrupting the mayor’s state of the city address, and using his own body to prevent officials from shutting off a pregnant woman’s water supply in the middle of Ramadan. Recently, however, Cosme has also become a subject of the emergency management system he’s been criticizing. He and fellow Raiz Up artist and activist William Lucka, 22, are facing up to $75,000 in fines and four years in prison for allegedly painting “Free the Water” in large block letters up the side of a water tower in Highland Park. Accompanying the text is a black graphic of a fist covering the height of the tower.
In November 2014, police confronted Cosme and Lucka at the bottom of the tower, but nearly a year and a half had passed before police contacted them again about the incident. Then, a Detroit graffiti task force — a newly formed special unit charged with tracking and prosecuting taggers and graffiti artists — took over the case, claiming the cost of cleaning the tower would range from $45,000 to $75,000, Cosme says. Police raided Lucka’s home, taking many of his art-related materials, and eventually brought a slew of new charges against him, using one of the task force’s key tools: an expanding graffiti database. Cosme describes it as a “badass” archive of local street art despite its nefarious purpose. Using the database, the taskforce linked Lucka to multiple appearances of the tag “Astro,” which appeared on the water tower with “Free the Water.”
Because Cosme and Lucka’s arrest coincided with the formation of the task force, Cosme sees the charges as a publicity stunt to show off the special unit and promote the city’s agenda. In June 2015, the taskforce also made a big show of issuing a warrant for the internationally known street artist, Shepard Fairey. After completing a commissioned 18-story retread of his brand “Obey,” Fairey wheat-pasted several other versions of his brand illegally in public spaces, including a water tower. He turned himself in and faced charges that were dropped in June of this year.
The publicity around the arrest is ironic considering that Fairey is a commercial street artist whose work tends to appear in areas undergoing gentrification. Indeed, his commissioned mural in Detroit climbed the side of a building owned by Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans who has become one of the city’s leading developers. Cosme and Lucka’s case, meanwhile, represents heightening conflict between residents and an emergency management system that doesn’t seem to care about them. The case highlights clear disparities in the city’s agenda, considering that, on the one hand, it has targeted at least 40 percent of the city for water shut-offs due to overdue bills as low as $150 and, on the other hand, it has criminalized graffiti in order to attract and retain out-of-town investors and developers, and to encourage smaller-scale entrepreneurship.
While Detroit media tends to narrate graffiti in terms of vandalism and blight, Cosme and Lucka are hardly criminals. Cosme helped to found Raiz Up as an Indigenous/Chicano art and activist collective in 2012 after returning to southwest Detroit from Eastern Michigan University, where he studied economics and political science. He was frustrated watching his city “get sold off piece by piece, watching every asshole with an idea and a bunch of money get their shit done,” he told me over the phone. Significantly, the Detroit establishment seemed to endorse the collective’s values: In 2014, the Knight Foundation awarded The Raiz Up $25,000 to host hip-hop parties that also organize communities and promote civic action. The Raiz Up works with a number of other local organizations — Black Youth Project, New Era Detroit, #blacklivesmatter, the People’s Water Board — geared at “hardwiring,” to borrow a phrase from corporate culture, community interests and provide input for the city’s agenda. Attempts by some groups to do so have been met with resistance from city leaders: A recent voter-initiated ballot measure that ensures public investments serve community interests, for instance, was instantly undermined by a councilman’s similar proposal that excludes developer accountability, a key feature of the community version.
Cosme and Lucka have been in and out of court since March, initially working with a pro-bono defense council, but moving to a different lawyer when it became clear that the city was going to push hard for the maximum sentence. They have a pre-trial conference on September 23 and their final trial on October 24. Initial offers from the prosecutor have been inflexible, Cosme says, which has been frustrating considering that Lucka qualifies for a program that keeps young offenders out of prison. And, having witnessed a white graffiti artist with similar charges walk without sentencing, Cosme believes the entire process subscribes to a logic of anti-blackness. “That day in court, literally, every single black person who went into court … went to jail,” Cosme said. “I saw two or three white people just get off … [with] lawyers from the suburbs.”
Supporters have formed a Free the Water Defense Campaign for Antonio Cosme and William Lucka’s defense fund. The same group is hosting a fundraiser featuring Lucka’s artwork on August 13 and a crowdfunding campaign, Funded Justice, that continues through August 31.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated Shepard Fairey was still facing charges for his street art. Charges were dropped in June 2016. This has been fixed. |
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As the eyes of the world turn to Tokyo for 2020, six new strangers will gather in this exciting city to live under the same roof. |
Despite all that rain, the story of this strange, unpredictable, up-and-down summer has now been established: it is all about the Olympics, and millions of people's delight in how well they are going. In an age as fragmented and individualistic as ours, to talk about the country as if it was a single human being – "a nation rejoices", and all that – can easily seem misplaced, and to go on about sporting successes as if they make any difference to our grim economic predicament is plain silly. Nonetheless, Ennis, Farah, Murray, Wiggins and the rest are certainly cheering us up, and the organisational triumph has provided a counterpoint – if only temporarily – to the sense that Britain is declining, at speed.
But what is going on with the government? In the lead-up to the Games, a lot of people held fast to the assumption that if everything went according to plan, the coalition would reap the benefits. But look what has happened.
The fact that the prime minister has been in the crowd when aspiring British medal-winners have lost out has sparked talk of the "curse of Cameron". The one Tory politician who has done well out of the Games is Boris Johnson, credited with a magic touch the PM cannot match, and talked up not just as the next Conservative leader, but a shining saviour. The exit from politics of Louise Mensch means a byelection the Tories are 99% certain to lose. As the Lib Dems' fate seems to grow grimmer by the day as they cling on to the coalition, but apparently run of out of reasons for doing so, beyond the imperative to avoid an election, lest they be completely wiped out.
Electoral reform, a cause wired in to the party's soul, was killed last year in the referendum whose often nasty tone marked the end of the idea that Nick Clegg and David Cameron were blissfully happy partners, tied together in a shared political project. Never mind, went the line dispensed by the party leadership: the prospect of a democratic(ish) House of Lords would seal the idea that, despite their political pain, the Lib Dems were pulling Britain in a progressive direction. But that dream died on 10 July, the night that 91 Conservative MPs voted against Clegg's changes to the upper house – which led in turn to Cameron U-turning on his plan to somehow keep the plans alive, and serving notice at the height of Britain's Olympic raptures that the plans were dead and buried.
Now, there comes proof that if the country seems amazingly united, the face the coalition is presenting to the world is one of division and disagreement. On Monday, Clegg accused his political partners of bad faith and said that the Lib Dems would be getting their own back. "Part of our contract has now been broken," he said, and announced that his party would oppose the Tory plans to reform constituency boundaries – which, by some estimates, would have brought the Conservatives as many as 20 MPs (and lost the Lib Dems at least a quarter of theirs). The Guardian's report of his press conference said he looked "subdued and depressed", which was true, but not unexpected: as anyone who tunes into Prime Minister's Questions will know, Clegg has been looking subdued and depressed for months.
Yesterday, Cameron said he would press on with his plans for redrawing Britain's electoral map. "I think everyone should come forward and vote for that proposal because it is a very sensible proposal and it will be put forward," he said. Quite what will happen if the Tories put it on the parliamentary timetable and the Lib Dems want no part of it remains unclear.
Meanwhile, the dysfunctional rumblings within the coalition go on. Having claimed that "the worship of youth is subsiding", Vince Cable is being talked up as a replacement for Clegg. In Tory ranks, there are mutterings – off-the-record for the moment, and perhaps more about tactical positioning than serious proposals – about explicitly challenging the Lib Dems to support the boundary changes, and going for divorce and minority Conservative government if they do not. Some Tory voices want a new coalition agreement, focusing on such areas as education reform, welfare, and tax cuts for low earners; others want out, and fast.
Everything seems to be in a mess: what, you wonder, could tie the two coalition parties (and their warring internal factions) together, so as to see out the next three years? To use a sporting comparison, the government currently resembles a relay race in which the runners are not only sprinting in different directions, but repeatedly tripping each other up.
"The coalition is for five years and it will still do five years," a very senior Lib Dem tells me, though he warns of more noise to come, chiefly from the Tory side. "The Tories have much the biggest problem: a group of people who will vote against anything, and will continue to do so – on Europe, on some parts of economic policy, on constitutional reform."
"There will be continuing voices who are basically anti-coalition," he goes on, mentioning a Tory backbencher called Peter Bone, who was recently heard making the case for a minority Tory government, issuing a tantalising rallying call to Tory activists: "Without being shackled to the Liberal Democrats we could introduce real Conservative policies relevant to the nation."
But the fact that the Tories are best served by staying put, this source says, is underlined by the opinion polls. "If there's an election, they're hardly going to romp home. And even if they managed to carry on as a minority government, we'd obviously have an influence on that in terms of votes in the Commons." In short, he reckons, the Tory leadership are as glued into the coalition as the Lib Dems are, and until the "last realistic moment" – which, he says, "could be two weeks before the next election, or six weeks" – everyone will have to hang in there.
Fixating on Clegg's predicament – and, indeed, simply looking at his face – it is easy to think most of the coalition's pain is felt on the Lib Dem side. But on Monday, as it became clear that the boundary reorganisation was dead, the influential Tory activist and commentator Tim Montgomerie said what had happened was the "single worst political event to hit the Tories since 1992 and black Wednesday". Without it, he pointed out, the Tories would need an extra three percentage points on their national lead at the next election – which, he said, "is not a small amount. It's not much less than we gained from the whole 2005 to 2010 effort."
One Tory cabinet minister and Cameron ally sounds a note of similar alarm. "The truth is that what's happened has been quite bad for the Conservatives," he says, and cites two big reasons: not just the uncertain fate of the boundary review, but the fact that large numbers of Conservatives have been visibly defending an unelected chamber and "gilded earls" – "not a good look," he says.
He also has a pop at those noisy Conservatives who amount to the Tory equivalent of "Trotyskist impossibilists", making trouble for the coalition, and Cameron in particular. Sooner or later, he implies, it might be time for Tory modernisers like him to start "remaking some of the arguments we made in opposition" and putting jump-leads on the kind of touchy-feely Toryism that reached its peak in around 2007 – which cuts to the heart of what a mixed-up business coalition is. That would ease the pain of the Lib Dems, but annoy the Tory right no end. Whatever happens, though, he thinks the coalition will prevail. "It'll probably get more difficult towards the end," he says, "but it'll still be here."
Nick Boles is another high-ranking comrade of Cameron, the MP for Grantham, the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher – and the author of a short book titled Which Way's Up?, published in 2010. It ruffled Tory feathers by making the case for an electoral pact with the Lib Dems – and, if a Tory-Lib Dem alliance was returned to power, the continuation of the coalition beyond the next election. "I don't think that idea ever got anywhere, really," he says, with a dry laugh. "Mainly because Clegg ruled it out pretty emphatically at the time." But looking at the two parties' current predicament, he reckons that recent events have drawn them nearer, rather than blowing them apart.
"Emotionally, things are a bit raw," he says. "But in terms of self-interest, the two parties are bound together far more than they were the day before yesterday. The Liberal Democrats aren't going to have anything to show on constitutional reform, which is one of their biggest priorities – and we're not going to have a boundary change, which would have reduced the lead we need to form a majority government.
"If House Of Lords reform had gone through, you could have imagined the Lib Dems saying, 'Well, we've got a major achievement – now we're going to leave the coalition and start profiling ourselves as an independent party.' And if we'd got the boundary review, we could have said, 'Now, we're not so worried about a quick election, because we've got more chance of winning it.' But neither of those things are true, and we're thrown together more."
He believes there is a good chance that the partnership will have to be resumed after the next election. "Right now, given the changed map, that's probably the most likely option for remaining in government as Conservatives," he says. "Which is depressing, because I want us to govern alone."
A strangely similar set of opinions is dispensed by the Lib Dems' deputy leader, Simon Hughes, charged with the responsibility of maintaining a separate Lib Dem identity while making the case for coalition, and keeping his activists' morale up – a difficult trick.
"The options for the next three years are a Tory minority government or coalition with us," he says. "What we're there to do is to make sure that as we try to get out of the difficult economic situation, we absolutely concentrate on jobs, training, skills and bringing down unemployment – and that we do more state intervention to deliver that. We have to end the scandal of bonuses, and abuses of public sector pay … and thirdly, we have to be seen to be the people who, on a whole range of things, are fighting for a fairer Britain." He mentions building more houses and opposing more welfare cuts – the latter, surely, the kind of suggestion guaranteed to make hard-core Tory blood boil.
How could the Lib Dems do that when a large swath of the Conservative party is baying for the leadership to take pretty much the opposite course?
"The leadership of the Tories knows there is no alternative to the coalition for the rest of this parliament," says Hughes. "So there's a chance we could do quite a lot of it – because it's appealing to the public. The public are willing to have austerity, but they want some balance, things that show that we're closing the gap between rich and poor. The Tories at the top understand that."
Looking ahead to 2015, he sees the chance of the Lib Dems once again in coalition with one of the two bigger parties as a prospect to keep his party's spirits up. "All the research suggests that there is as good a chance of us holding the balance of power again," he says, echoing Nick Boles' prediction of another Tory-Lib Dem coalition in three years' time. "And the opportunity of being able to choose who our partner would be is phenomenally encouraging for the troops."
But not, perhaps, the rest of us. Five more years of marital blow-ups, mutual accusations of betrayal, furious backbenchers, and "subdued and depressed" leaders – with continuing austerity, and not even a homegrown spectacular like the Olympics to cheer us up. Don't say you weren't warned. |
A Winnipeg couple says their whole family is being bullied because their daughter is transgender and they say the school division isn't doing enough to stop it.
Izzy and Dale Burgos said ever since eight-year-old Isabella was four, she knew she was a girl inside.
And that's how she returned to school to start grade three in September, as a transgender girl.
The Manitoba Human Rights Commission says the complaint launched by Bella Burgos, above, who transitioned from a boy to a girl last year, and her family that she was discriminated against will now go to mediation. (CBC) That's when the bullying started, but it wasn't other students bullying her.
It was the parent of a friend.
Isabella said she was waiting for her brother in the school a few weeks ago. A parent picking up her child took issue with Isabella.
"This lady walked up to me and told me I couldn't go to the girls' washroom," Isabella said.
Isabella's mother, Izzy, said the woman went overboard.
"This person I never met felt the need to yell at my daughter," she said. "I can't fathom yelling at a child, especially one that's not yours."
The school spoke to the parent but Izzy Burgos said it it didn't end there. In fact, it got worse.
"She comes back and does it to me and my older son and Isabella again," she said. "And then two weeks later again to my son. I'm just frustrated."
School division changes rules
Burgos and her husband Dale say Joseph Teres School has been co-operative with Isabella's transition.
At first, they allowed her to use the girls' facilities.
But now she has to use a gender-neutral bathroom.
Dale and Izzy Burgos said the River East School Division isn't doing enough to protect their daughter, who is transgender, and the rest of the family from a woman who has bullied them on three occasions. (CBC) And the woman who's been doing the bullying has continued.
River East Transcona superintendent and CEO Kelly Barkman confirmed that the woman, a parent of Isabella's friend, has been spoken to about the comments she made to Isabella and her family.
"We are aware of the situation and the principal and division are working with everybody to make sure that everyone is feeling safe," he said.
But Isabella's father, Dale, said the division is not doing enough to protect his family.
He has contacted police about the bullying incidents.
"We've really been wanting Rainbow Resource Centre (a not-for-profit group that advocates for gay, transgender and other communities) in there [to] talk with the school division and talk with the schools," he said. "It's not about preaching. It's just about answering questions that people might have."
Isabella said she would love some help.
"Because a lot of people have been asking me questions and I just want the teachers to teach about transgender," she said. |
What's this all about?
How does it work?
media providers
media imports
media provider
media import
media import manager
Import handlers
Search()
Media handlers
So how does importing items work?
When Kodi starts up it disables all library items that were imported from a provider because it doesn't know if the provider is available right now. Disabled is just a state of an item and could be used in skins to e.g. grey out these items in the list so that the user sees the item as part of the library but realizes that the source it came from is not available right now.
When Kodi discovers a (new) provider (e.g. a UPnP server) it tells the media import manager that a source is available.
The media import manager checks if it already knows the provider or not.
If it doesn't know the provider, it starts a provider registration task
The provider registration task checks (based on the provider identifier/path) if there's an import handler capable of importing media items from that provider or not (for UPnP we e.g. require the UPnP server to support searching for a specific "upnp:class" property).
After that new media imports can be added for the registered provider in Settings -> Media sources -> Media imports -> By media provider -> Add import...
If there are imports defined for the detected provider, start an import retrieval task which will use the import handler capable of handling the detected provider to grab all items of the media types chosen by the user for this import
If the import retrieval task was successful, start a media synchronisation task for every media type (using the proper media handler ) chosen by the user for this import and provide it with the list of imported items
The media handler takes care of synchronising the already imported items from that provider/import with the just previously imported ones
What is already working/there?
What isn't working?
How can the community help?
(post)
media_import_redesign
Start (at least) two of the test build installations on the same local network
Make sure that the UPnP server is enabled (see Settings -> Services -> UPnP/DLNA -> Share video and music libraries through UPnP
Kodi should automatically detect the other installation as a potential media provider and show a Kai toast with the name and the logo of the detected media provider
Go to Settings -> Media sources -> Media imports -> By media providers and you should see a list of detected media providers by their name
Open one of the listed media providers and you should see a list of defined media imports (obviously this will be empty at the beginning)
Choose Add import.. to create a new import and then choose one of the listed media types from the dialog
You will see the Media import information dialog with some details about the import and some settings which you can adjust to your liking (these are not fully integrated yet)
Close the dialog and Kodi will automatically start synchronising all media items of the specified media type from the media provider
Repeat the last three steps for all media types you'd like to import items from the media provider
Settings -> Media sources -> Media imports
Synchronise
IMPORTANT:
(wiki)
I think I found a bug. What should I do?
Provide your Debug log (wiki) and if it crashed also provide the crash dump / stack trace / mini dump (Windows-specific in combination with the PDB file)
and if it crashed also provide the crash dump / stack trace / mini dump (Windows-specific in combination with the PDB file) Provide a detailed description what exactly went wrong and what the expected behaviour is.
Provide a detailed description (ideally step by step) how to reproduce the problem.
Hey everyoneAs some of you know I've been working on media importing and library integration for almost two years now (with a lot of breaks and very little free time) and I've demonstrated my work during the last two devcons and while my work was always publicly available on github I've never provided any test builds or asked the wider community for input because I first wanted to get the core design and implementation into a shape where it can be tested before having to deal with the flood of feature requests. In the last few days I finally had time to resolve some of the outstanding larger issues, bugs and TODOs and now it's finally time to get more people on board to test this, provide feedback and bug reports because there's only so much testing I can do myself and if you designed and implemented a whole system you don't really see any (better) alternatives anymore.The general idea is to provide a framework to be able to import media items from all kinds of services and locations which are not supported by our current library scanners which are purely filesystem based. Examples are importing some or all items from a plugin or from a UPnP server. This will allow users to directly integrate these items into their usual library so when they go through their library they'll also see items that are not directly available as a file on their disks/NAS but are available through another service and can play them like any other library item (as long as the service is available).The new concept introduces the termsand. Ais an entity that can provide a set of media items and maybe also a hierarchy (filesystem). Ais a pointer to a location in the hierarchy of a provider in combination with a list of media items (movies, tvshows, ...) that should be imported from that specific provider and location. Therefore there can be several imports for a single provider (e.g. multiple specific paths of a plugin). While this concept is aimed at specialized providers like UPnP servers etc. it could theoretically also be applied to the current library scanning and scraping. The provider would then be a specific server (or the local filesystem) and an import would just be a combination of a specific path on that server and a media type to import from that path. To handle providers and imports there are provider repositories which are just database specific implementation and right now there's just one for storing and retrieving the providers and imports from the video database.To do the actual work of importing media items there's the. It has access to provider repositories to know about the existing providers/imports and to add/remove them. Furthermore it has access to specific implementations of import handlers and media handlers.are specific implementations which can get a list of media items of specific media types from a provider/import. Right now there's just an implementation for UPnP which uses therequest specified for UPnP DirectoryProvider implementations to request items of a specific media type.are media type specific implementations which know how to add items of a specific media type into the local library. That task involves getting all previously imported items of a specific provider, comparing the list of imported items with the list of previously imported items and then deciding which items to add, remove and update in the local library.This whole process has been implemented using jobs and tasks (basically sub-jobs) which are run in a seperate thread in the background. They won't interfer with any media playback so if the user is watching a movie and a new UPnP server pops up, he won't see any dialog on the screen until he stops playback. Furthermore there's feedback through the progress bar dialog during the whole import process (similar to how it works for good old library updates).Right now most of the retrieval, synchronisation and cleanup logic is there in a generic form. Importing is only supported from UPnP servers which are also provided by a compatible Kodi version (i.e. this specific test build). Furthermore it only supports importing items into the video library i.e. movies, tvshows, seasons, episodes and music videos. There's no support for the music library yet.A lot. I only have limited testing time and possibilities so there are probably a ton of bugs that I don't even know about.You can help by installing these test builds, test the new features and provide feedback and bug reports.Test builds are available in the second post of this thread: 1986017 The source code is located in my Kodi fork on github ( https://github.com/Montellese/xbmc ) in thebranch: https://github.com/Montellese/xbmc/tree/...t_redesign It is based on a recent version of the master branch from April 18 2015: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/commit/6e5a...6a9fb3c11a Once you've installed one (or more) of these test builds on multiple devices you are ready to go:Once you've setup the media synchronisation for one or more media providers Kodi will automatically snychronise the imported media items whenever it detects a known media provider (e.g. after startup or when the media provider is started/restarted). You can also manually synchronise media items by going toand use thecontext option on a media provider or media import.To test this you need to be able to install the same build on (at least) two different devices and they should have access to different media items so that they can be synchronised between the two installations. You need to use the same test builds i.e. you can't synchronise a test build with an existing Kodi Helix or Isengard Alpha/Beta build.Remember to backup any existing installation and its data (specifically Userdata_folder ) because this will perform an update of your (video) database!!! |
The injured RTI activist has been admitted to a hospital in Latur.
Shiv Sena workers today assaulted and blackened the face of a Right to Information activist at Latur in Maharashtra's Marathwada region, after he "exposed" an illegal construction case.The activist Mallikarjun Bhaikatti had, through an RTI query, revealed that around 14,000 square feet illegal construction was carried out in a four-storeyed building and boys hostel on the Latur-Nanded road.Mr Bhaikatti had addressed a press conference at Latur yesterday to "expose" the illegal construction, police said.The Sena workers brought Mr Bhaikatti to the college premises today when around 4,000 students were present and assaulted him with an iron rod, before blackening his face.The injured RTI activist has been admitted to a hospital in Latur.Local Sena activist Abhay Salunke said Mr Bhaikatti was a "blackmailer".Earlier this month, Sena workers had blackened the face of Sudheendra Kulkarni, chairman of the Observer Research Foundation, in an ink attack ahead of the launch of 'Neither a Hawk Nor a Dove: An Insider's Account of Pakistan's Foreign Relations' authored by former Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri. |
“If you quit giving people that stuff, they would figure out how to do it on their own,” Mr. Grimes said.
The fact that many of them joined the Tea Party after losing their jobs raises questions of whether the movement can survive an improvement in the economy, with people trading protest signs for paychecks.
But for now, some are even putting their savings into work that they argue is more important than a job — planning candidate forums and get-out-the-vote operations, researching arguments about the constitutional limits on Congress and using Facebook to attract recruits.
“Even if I wanted to stop, I just can’t,” said Diana Reimer, 67, who has become a star of the effort by FreedomWorks, a Tea Party group, to fight the health care overhaul. “I’m on a mission, and time is not on my side.”
A year ago, Ms. Reimer’s husband had been given a choice — retire or be fired. The couple had been trying to sell their split-level home in suburban Philadelphia to pay off some debt and move to a small place in the city.
But real estate agents told them the home would sell for about $40,000 less than they paid 19 years ago — not enough to pay off their mortgage .
Then Ms. Reimer saw a story about the Tea Party on television. “I said, ‘That’s it,’ ” she recalled. “How can you get this frustration out, have your voices heard?”
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She liked that the Tea Party was patriotic, too. “They said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the national anthem,” she said.
She had taken a job selling sportswear at Macy’s . But when her husband found her up early and late taking care of Tea Party business, he urged her to take a leave. When the store did not allow one, she quit.
Photo
“I guess I just found my calling,” she said.
Ms. Reimer, now a national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, also found a community. Directing protesters to Congressional offices on Capitol Hill before the vote on health care this month, Representative Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has become a Tea Party hero, stopped to welcome her by name. “I should have known you’d be here,” he said, embracing her.
A Tea Party member from North Carolina recognized Ms. Reimer from Massachusetts , where she led crews knocking on doors in the snow for Scott Brown , the state’s new Republican senator. “Our slave master,” the man said, greeting her.
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Ms. Reimer often wells up talking about her work. “I’m respected,” she said, her voice breaking. “I don’t know why. I don’t know what is so special. But I’m willing to do it.”
She and others who receive government benefits like Medicare and Social Security said they paid into those programs, so they are getting what they deserve.
“All I know is government was put here for certain reasons,” Ms. Reimer said. “They were not put here to run banks , insurance companies, and health care and automobile companies. They were put here to keep us safe.”
She has no patience for the Obama administration’s bailouts and its actions on health care. “I just don’t trust this government,” Ms. Reimer said.
Jeff McQueen, 50, began organizing Tea Party groups in Michigan and Ohio after losing his job in auto parts sales. “Being unemployed and having some time, I realized I just couldn’t sit on the couch anymore,” he said. “I had the time to get involved.”
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He began producing what he calls the flag of the Second American Revolution, and drove 700 miles to campaign for Mr. Brown under its banner. Flag sales, so far, are not making him much. But he sees a bigger cause.
“The founding fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor,” he said. “They believed in it so much that they would sacrifice. That’s the kind of loyalty to this country that we stand for.”
He blames the government for his unemployment. “Government is absolutely responsible, not because of what they did recently with the car companies, but what they’ve done since the 1980s,” he said. “The government has allowed free trade and never set up any rules.”
He and others do not see any contradictions in their arguments for smaller government even as they argue that it should do more to prevent job loss or cuts to Medicare. After a year of angry debate, emotion outweighs fact.
“If you don’t trust the mindset or the value system of the people running the system, you can’t even look at the facts anymore,” Mr. Grimes said.
Tea Party groups like FreedomWorks recognize that they are benefiting from the labor of many people who have been hit hard economically. But its chairman, the former House majority leader Dick Armey , argued that their ranks will remain strong — and connected — even as members find work.
“I see these folks as pretty much the National Guard,” Mr. Armey said. “They will go back to their day jobs, they will go back to their Little League and their bridge club. But they will have their activism at the ready, and they will stay in touch.”
Mr. Grimes, for his part, is thinking of getting a part-time job with the Census Bureau . But he is also planning, he said, to teach high school students about the Constitution and limits on government powers.
“I don’t think that the unemployment thing is going to change,” he said. |
Coming Soon
Warrior Nun
A young woman wakes up in a morgue with inexplicable powers and gets caught in a battle between good and evil. Inspired by the manga novels.
Chambers
Consumed by the mystery surrounding the donor heart that saved her life, a young patient starts taking on sinister characteristics of the deceased.
The Fast and the Furious Animated Show
Adventures abound as a group of teenagers infiltrates an elite racing league controlled by a nefarious organization bent on world domination.
Wu Assassins
The last in a line of Chosen Ones, a wannabe chef teams up with a homicide detective to unravel an ancient mystery and take down supernatural assassins.
Edoardo Ferrario: Temi Caldi
Italian comedian Edoardo Ferrario riffs on life at 30 and unpacks the peculiarities of global travel, social media and people who like craft beer.
PINOCCHIO
Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro reinvents the classic tale of the wooden puppet who dreams of becoming a real boy.
The Perfect Date
No beau? No problem! To earn money for college, a high schooler creates a dating app that lets him act as a stand-in boyfriend. Noah Centineo stars.
Yankee
A young man from Texas crosses the border into Mexico and becomes an infamous drug lord. |
Smallwood: Why Nerlens Noel should be traded as quickly as possible
Smallwood: Why Nerlens Noel should be traded as quickly as possible Oct 19
John Smallwood has been with the Daily News since 1994. He began as the beat writer for Villanova University basketball and was promoted to columnist in 1995. He has won several awards while covering almost every major sporting event, including the Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, Final Four, World Cup and Olympics.
Denver Nuggets guard D.J. Kennedy (17) defends Minnesota Timberwolves center Shabazz Muhammad (15) during the second half of an NBA preseason basketball game in Lincoln, Neb., Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016. The Minnesota Timberwolves won 105-88.
With the start of the NBA season a week away, the Sixers still have to make final cuts before they play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Oct. 26.
Even though rookie Ben Simmons, the No. 1 overall pick, will miss at least the first few months while recovering from foot surgery, the long-awaited debuts of 2014 draft lottery mates Joel Embiid and Dario Saric assure that the Sixers will begin with a better overall roster than they had in the previous two seasons.
Still, from a balance standpoint, this roster is full of gaps, and as other teams start the process of finalizing their rosters, it is interesting to talk about what fringe players on other teams might make sense for the Sixers to acquire as part of their continued growing process.
Considering the Sixers' top six players – Embiid, Saric, Simmons, Richaun Holmes, Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel – are all at least 6-foot-10, searching for upgrades at both guard positons and small forward should be something that president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo should always be doing.
Since the Sixers embarked on their massive rebounding program three years ago, this has been a recurring theme I’ve written about several times at various points of a season.
After the Summer League, I suggested the Sixers make a play for swingman Kelly Obure, Jr. of the Washington Wizards, point guard Tyus Jones of Minnesota and rookie point guard Tyler Ulis of Phoenix.
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Poll Should the 76ers trade Nerlens Noel? Yes
No
Maybe later this season Vote Results
I’d still take any of those three, but here are a few more interesting names.
With the Sixers' six first-round and eight second-round draft picks plus an almost bottomless barrel of salary-cap space to make deals work, any of these players should be obtainable and the price probably would not be that high:
Shabazz Muhammad – The deadline for an extension of his rookie deal is approaching, but Minnesota is not actively engaging in talks with the swingman who is in a classic blocked situation behind Andrew Wiggins.
Because of his situation, Muhammad, 23, could be one of those players who can be acquired without having to give up too much.
For his career, he’s averaged 9.7 points in 18.1 minutes per game. Muhammad might not do a lot more than score, but consistent scoring is something the Sixers desperately need.
Sam Dekker – Back surgery cost the 6-foot-9 swingman from Wisconsin a chance to make an impression with the Houston Rockets last season as a rookie.
Injuries to other players in Houston shifted Dekker to power forward, but his natural NBA position is the three. Dekker runs the court well and has averaged 10.5 points and shot 56.2 percent in four preseason games.
Kyle Anderson – San Antonio always seems to find gem players late in drafts. Anderson was the 30th pick in the 2014 draft after being a third-team All-America at UCLA.
Considering Kahwai Leonard is in front of him at small forward with the Spurs, Anderson might flourish in a place where he has an expanded role.
Brandon Knight – If the Sixers would have just had the insight to have acquired Knight straight up from Milwaukee for Michael Carter-Williams instead of both being in a complicated three-team deal, the Sixers would not have a point guard issue. |
WASHINGTON — For five years Robert Bergdahl waged a father’s war for the return of his soldier son.
He accused the Obama administration of stalling talks for his release. He made his own contact with the Taliban to try to find out more. He pressured the State Department and Pentagon during frequent trips to Washington, where in 2012 he spoke in anguish to a crowd of 100,000 on Memorial Day.
A father’s war came to an end on Saturday with the freeing of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 28, who had been America’s only known prisoner of war. But Sergeant Bergdahl, a skier, expert marksman and ballet dancer from rural Idaho, will remain one of the more unusual members of the American military — and the central character in a bizarre disappearance in Afghanistan that set off a frantic search with Predator drones, Apache attack helicopters and military tracking dogs.
“Men don’t come back from this, you know,” Mr. Bergdahl bleakly warned his son at Christmas 2008, just before he was deployed. |
Michael Bloomberg’s gun violence prevention lobby, Everytown for Gun Safety, released a new video on Tuesday. In the clip, children quote lines originally delivered by National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre.
The children, whom Everytown has dubbed “Lil’ Waynes,” rattle off some of LaPierre’s most troublesome quotes, such as, “They’re out to brainwash your kids and change your life, no matter how many millions of humans end up dying in the process.”
“We know, in the world that surrounds us, there are terrorists, and home invaders and drug cartels and carjackers and knockout gamers, rapers, haters, campus killers, airport killers, shopping mall killers, road-rage killers, and killers who scheme to destroy our country with massive storms of violence against our power grids that could collapse the society that sustains us all,” another Lil’ Wayne says in the video.
The video is being released in advance of the N.R.A.’s annual meeting. Everytown and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America are heading to Nashville to, according to a press release, “represent [a] counterweight to the gun lobby.” |
A Mercedes-Benz of Tampa Bay employee pulled out her debit card and exclaimed, "Superstar Ray!"
The smiling face from behind the counter replied, "Let's not go overboard."
Ray Lee-Pack handed a coffee drink across the counter. He has a job that he loves despite many people wondering if he'd ever be able to get and keep one.
Artistas Cafe WTSP
Lee-Pack has autism. This year, 500,000 people with autism in the U.S. will turn 18, and 90 percent of them will not be able to find a job.
Now, in the back of a car dealership in Tampa, CBS Tampa affiliate WTSP reports a program has started giving some of those young adults a chance to get one.
"I also have a daughter with autism, so I share the journey with so many parents who have the concern that what is this world going to be for my child?" said Vicky Westra, founder of Artistas Café. "When they turn 18-22, doesn't seem to be a lot of options still for young people with autism."
The cafe has been training and employing workers with autism since 2011. Currently, Vicky has eight autistic employees at Artistas. The job, which requires them to make a variety of drinks and snacks and run a cash register, teaches basic job skills.
Most customers at the dealership don't even notice the people behind the counter have autism.
"They don't recognize that 100 percent of front line team members have a diagnosis of autism and when they find out a lot of them are surprised," said Vicky.
"No, I never knew," agreed Andrew Richards. "I've come here multiple times to check my car and I never knew. They look like normal people."
Tony Aponte WTSP
"It takes them a little while to figure out," said Tony Aponte, who has worked at Artistas for over a year. "A few others, if they're not told we're on the spectrum, they'd probably never think we were."
The goal of the program is to provide training and/or employment for 5,000 people with autism by 2021 by helping develop their work skills.
It's also changing public perceptions about people with autism. "The first thing that came to mind was they're less functional. They can't operate in society," said Richards. "No, that changed my opinion actually. I think these people have the capability just like any other normal people."
Artistas Café has proven such a success that Vicky now plans to expand opportunities by opening a business and training center to help more people with autism get ready for jobs.
The advocacy group Autism Speaks says job resources for people with autism can also be found on the website TheSpectrumCareers.com, which can help connect them with potential employers. |
Posted on November 18, 2012
Nancy Pelosi: No Deal Without Tax Increases For Wealthy
RADDATZ: Could you accept a deal that does not include tax rate increases for the wealthy? We've seen talk about a possible compromise that would leave rates the same, but cap deductions for high-income earners. Is that something that's acceptable?
PELOSI: No.
RADDATZ: Not at all? No way?
PELOSI: Well, no, I mean, the president made it very clear in his campaign that there is not enough -- there are not enough -- what you just described is a formula and a blueprint for hampering our future. You cannot go forward -- you have to cut some investments. If you cut too many, you're hampering growth, you're hampering education, our investments for the future.
So just to close loopholes is far too little money, if it's -- and it could be they have said they want it to be revenue-neutral. If it's going to bring in revenue, the president has been very clear that the higher-income people have to pay their fair share. |
The ink on Gov. Scott's signature on the medical marijuana law is barely dry, but attorney John Morgan is ready to sue.
Attorney John Morgan to file suit Tuesday against state
Medical Marijuana law bans smoking
Morgan says it runs counter to what voters OKed in Amendment 2
The high-powered Orlando attorney will be in Tallahassee Thursday to file his formal legal challenge of the new law, according to Capitol Bureau reporter Troy Kinsey.
Morgan is suing because the Florida Legislature banned smoking in the law that expands medical marijuana use in the state.
The law implements Amendment 2, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters last November.
But the amendment allows users to smoke, though not in public places.
Some advocates say smoking as a delivery method offers more benefits than the other options lawmakers approved, which includes edibles and vaping.
Morgan was a major advocate for Amendment 2. He is planning a news conference on the lawsuit Thursday morning on the steps of the Leon County Courthouse. |
One Trick to Beat Procrastination Forever
The TLDR; is: meditate.
Coach Tony Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 4, 2016
You probably thought I was going to say start small and get momentum. That’s a fine answer.
But meditation is a better answer.
A couple of years ago, I was a guest on Tim Phycyl’s podcast. He’s the world’s top procrastination researcher.
Tim described the most common form of procrastination as short term mood repair. Essentially, you have a small amount of anxiety about your upcoming task and in order to reduce that anxiety you go into an avoidance pattern.
When Tim says small, he means really small. The problem is that we normally aren’t very aware of our anxieties. They sit right below our conscious thoughts. If we try, we can identify them. But for most of the day they’re popping up and driving our decisions without our being aware at all.
This is explained really well in the book, Thinking, Fast and Slow.
The book’s central thesis is a dichotomy between two modes of thought: “System 1” is fast, instinctive and emotional; “System 2” is slower, more deliberative, and more logical.
So the great opportunity for overcoming procrastination is in bringing thoughts from System 1 (emotional) to System 2 (rational).
The best and only way I know to train for this is meditation.
Most people know that meditation can help calm you. But it also helps you practice an awareness-focus loop.
In a breath-based mindfulness meditation, you’ll catch your mind wandering and then bring your focus back to your breath. Your mind is expected to wander, so don’t feel bad when this happens.
Every time you catch yourself with a wandering mind is a chance to practice awareness of your thoughts.
That’s a skill that you can use outside of your meditation session. So next time you’re procrastinating ask yourself, “What are you so afraid of?”
I try to answer in a complete sentence. That ensures that you’ve brought the thought fully into System 2. “I am aware that doing my taxes is boring.”
Quite often, doing this exercise will eliminate the anxiety. Doing the work might be boring but it’s not that boring. |
John Daido Loori (June 14, 1931 – October 9, 2009)[1] was a Zen Buddhist rōshi who served as the abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery and was the founder of the Mountains and Rivers Order and CEO of Dharma Communications. Daido Loori received shiho (dharma transmission) from Taizan Maezumi in 1986 and also received a Dendo Kyoshi certificate formally from the Soto school of Japan in 1994. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well.[2] In 1996 he gave dharma transmission to his student Bonnie Myotai Treace, in 1997 to Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, and in 2009 to Konrad Ryushin Marchaj.[2] In addition to his role as a Zen Buddhist priest, Loori was an exhibited photographer and author of more than twenty books.
In October 2009, he stepped down as abbot citing health issues. Days later, Zen Mountain Monastery announced that his death was imminent.[3] On October 9, 2009, at 7:30 a.m. he died of lung cancer in Mount Tremper, New York.[1]
Biography [ edit ]
John Daido Loori was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and raised Roman Catholic.[4] As a child Loori loved photographing things, once using his family's bathroom as a makeshift dark room.[5] He served in the U.S. Navy from 1947 to 1952. Later, after studying at Rutgers, he worked as a chemist in the food industry [6] and led the American Civil Liberties Union in Orange and Sullivan Counties in New York.[2] As an adult he distanced himself from Catholicism and explored a variety of other religions.[4] Then, in 1971,[5] he attended a workshop given by the photographer Minor White. Loori came to study photography under White until his death and also learned meditation from him.[6] In 1972 Daido Loori began his formal Zen practice, studying in New York under Soen Nakagawa and then in California under Taizan Maezumi, Roshi.[2]
In 1980 Loori purchased 230 acres (0.93 km2) in New York which today serves as the site for Zen Mountain Monastery.[6] In 1983 he was made a Zen priest by Maezumi and in 1986 was given shiho (or, dharma transmission) by him. In 1997, he received dharma transmission in the Harada-Yasutani and Inzan lineages of Rinzai Zen as well. According to author Richard Hughes, this made Loori "one of three Western dharma-holders in both the Soto and Rinzai schools."[2] Loori was a professional nature photographer, having once exhibited his work at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York.[5] He has also held various other shows and workshops on photography, including positions at Naropa University starting in 1974 and the Synechia Arts Center located in Middletown, New York;[6] his works have been published by Aperture and Time-Life.[2] His book, Hearing with the Eye: Photographs from Point Lobos, features Loori's abstract nature photography interwoven with commentary on Teachings of the Insentient by Eihei Dogen.[5]
Loori founded Dharma Communications as a way to communicate the dharma of the Mountains and Rivers Order. Dharma Communications publishes a Buddhist quarterly titled the Mountain Record, various audio-visual materials, and has also published several books by Daido Loori.[2] According to Charles S. Prebish, Dharma Communications is "one of the most efficient and successful publishers of Buddhist materials on the continent, and a place where practitioners can learn how to cultivate both mindfulness and compassion in front of a computer."[6]
Books [ edit ]
The Way of Mountains and Rivers
The Zen Art Box with Stephen Addiss
with Stephen Addiss Hearing with the Eye: Teachings of the Insentient
The Zen of Creativity : Cultivating Your Artistic Life
The Eight Gates of Zen : A Program of Zen Training
Sitting with Koans : Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Koan Study with Tom Kirshner.
with Tom Kirshner. The True Dharma Eye : Zen Master Dogen's Three Hundred Koans with Kazuaki Tanahashi (Translator).
with Kazuaki Tanahashi (Translator). The Heart of Being: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen Buddhism
The Art of Just Sitting, Second Edition : Essential Writings on the Zen Practice of Shikantaza
Celebrating Everyday Life: Zen Home Liturgy
Making Love with Light , a book of nature photography.
, a book of nature photography. Riding the Ox Home : Stages on the Path of Enlightenment
The Still Point: A Beginner's Guide to Zen Meditation
Cave Of Tigers : Modern Zen Encounters
Invoking Reality: Moral and Ethical Teachings of Zen
Path of Enlightenment: Stages in a Spiritual Journey
Two Arrows Meeting in Mid-Air: The Zen Koan
Mountain Record of Zen Talks
Teachings of the Insentient: Zen and the Environment
Translated Editions [ edit ]
Das Zen der Kreativitat (German ed.) – 2006 Theseus Verlag, Berlin 3-89620-287-1
(German ed.) – 2006 Theseus Verlag, Berlin 3-89620-287-1 Célébrer la Vie au Quotidien (French ed.): 2003 BDLYS Ed. 2-914395-20-5
(French ed.): 2003 BDLYS Ed. 2-914395-20-5 La Recontre de la Réalité (French ed.) by BDLYS Ed. 2-914395-21-3
(French ed.) by BDLYS Ed. 2-914395-21-3 El Punto de Quietud (Spanish ed.): 2001 Mandala Ed. 84-95052-69-5
(Spanish ed.): 2001 Mandala Ed. 84-95052-69-5 Hat ein Hund Buddha-Natur? (German ed.): 1996 Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH 9-783596-130191
Filmography [ edit ]
The Still Point: Introduction to Zen Meditation
Entering the Mountain Gate: Essentials of Zen
Oryoki: Formal Monastery Meal
The Heart of Being: Zen Buddhist Precepts
Mountain Light Video Library: A Collection of 27 Dharma Discourses
One Bright Pearl: Dharma Combat
Enlarging the Universe: Creative Expression
Fire Keeper: Student Mind
The Art of Seeing
The Great Earth's Edict: Zen and Environmentalism
Recent Photography Exhibitions [ edit ]
"The Tao of Water", Jan. 18 - Mar. 22, 2008 Gallery at 910, Denver, CO
"Jinzu", April 19 - June 6, 2007 Gallery at 910, Denver, CO
"Jinzu", Sept. 8 - Dec. 31, 2006 Buffalo Big Print, Buffalo, New York
Gallery [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ] |
For years, no military program has sparked more fevered speculation from conspiracy theorists than the mysterious High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP. And for years, the Pentagon has been pooh-poohing speculation that the enormous collection of transmitters, radars, and magnetometers in Alaska was some sort of superweapon.
But, it turns out, the conspiracy theorists may not have been entirely off-base, after all.
Since its inception, there's been a huge range of opinion on what HAARP actually does: everything from a giant mind control facility to a space nuke countermeasure to a weather controller to an ionosphere-boiling mad science experiment to the mother of all pork projects has been suggested. But now that the program is actually up an running, military managers say the electronics array has much more benign use. "HAARP's main job is to produce radio waves to probe the ionosphere," an Air Force Research Laboratory officer said in October.
Which is true – up to a point.
A drive by Clifford Stone on the X-Files-esque uber-site Above Top Secret to use the Freedom of Information Act to turn up UFO-related documents has led to the release of a fascinating report, HAARP: Research and Applications.
It's from the Air Force Research Laboratory and Office of Naval
Research, and it lays out the uses the military see for HAARP. Turns out the Pentagon wants some military bang for their buck from the program.
HAARP can actually perform a lot of militarily important functions, all involving the interactions of radio waves with the high atmosphere, magnetosphere and ionosphere.
The document points out that "on the higher frequency end (VHF/UHF)
transionospheric propagation is a ubiquitous element of numerous civilian and military communication systems, surveillance and remote sensing systems." In other words, messing with the ionosphere means you can shut down VHF radio, TV and radar signals at will. As radio hams know, the reflection and refraction effects of the ionosphere make a huge difference to long-range radio reception, and HAARP provides the only means of influencing that.
Another interesting feature is how HAARP can influence the 'auroral electrodynamic circuit', a natural flow of electricity with ranges from
100,000 to 1 million megawatts ("equivalent to 10 to 100 large power plants"). Messing with the electrical properties of the ionosphere means some of this tremendous flow of power can be changed at the flick of a switch. In effect, the natural flow can be modulated to create a gigantic low-frequency radio transmitter.
Which is extremely interesting to military types. Extremely low frequency, or ELF, waves can be used for submarine communications and for probing the planet; because of the way they propagate, HAARP can cover "a significant fraction of the Earth." The document says that the waves can be used for "seabed exploration" and even locating mines underwater, not to mention "underground target detection."
HAARP can also "induce precipitation of energetic particles" in the ionosphere, which "could impact the operation and lifespan of satellites." While this is mainly about protecting satellites from particles from solar flares or nuclear explosions, the phrasing suggests that it might be able to have a subtle negative impact on satellites as well.
At the High Frequency range, HAARP also has some useful tricks, including being able to "enhance ground-to-ground and satellite-to-ground links that would otherwise be marginal or absent."
Its ability to create a radio-reflective layer means it can create new over-the-horizon capabilities for radio and radar systems. It can even act as a HF radar emitter itself.
The third band is optical and near-optical: HAARP can make lights in the sky. While we have looked at the effect of creating high-altitude plasmas before (as possible anti-missile defence), the document notes that it can also produce "airglow with megawatt power…in the IR [infrared] region of the spectrum." This has
"significant military implications for IR detection and countermeasures." The picture with this shows the IR glow below a satellite, suggesting that the system may be able to blank out the view of IR satellites selectively. Given that such satellites are the best way of detecting the launch of ICBMs, this is a significant capability.
All in all, it's a set-up that can do a lot more than just basic research. And while this may not seem much compared to weather modification, remember that these are just the capabilities they're willing to make public...
ALSO: |
EDITOR'S NOTE: Orlando's mayor on Monday revised the death toll in the nightclub shooting to 49, from 50. The 50th body was identified as gunman Omar Mateen.
The FBI said Sunday that the suspect in the Orlando nightclub shooting was investigated twice by the agency in recent years for connections to Islamic terror -- including a 2014 probe for possible ties to American suicide bomber Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha.
FBI agent Ron Hopper identified the suspect as Omar Mir Sadiq Mateen, 29, of Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Mateen early Sunday morning killed 50 and wounded 53 others inside the gay nightclub Pulse. He later died in a shootout with police after holding dozens of hostages for several hours.
Hopper told reporters at a press conference in Orlando that the FBI first became aware of Mateen in 2013, after he made inflammatory comments to coworkers alleging possible terrorist ties.
He said the agency thoroughly investigated the matter -- including conducting surveillance, checking records and interviewing Mateen and witnesses.
However, the case was closed because agents could not verify the “substance” of Mateen’s claims, Hopper said.
Mateen is a U.S. citizen and a Muslim born in New York to parents from Afghanistan, according to authorities.
The FBI investigated Mateen again in 2014 for possible ties to Abu-Salha, a fellow Floridian, but concluded the two had minimal contact and that Mateen posed no terror “threat” at that time.
Hopper said Mateen was not under surveillance or being investigated at the time of the nightclub attack.
Mateen called 911 before the attack and pledged his allegiance to Islamic State terror group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Fox News reported.
He also purportedly mentioned during the call the Tsarnaev brothers, who set off bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon and were inspired by Islamic extremism.
Hopper did not confirmed such a call and said only that investigators are looking into “any and all connections both domestic and international terrorism.”
He also said the FBI is not “actively” looking for a second suspect or investigating any additional, related terror threats.
An agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said at the press conference that Mateen legally bought at least two firearms -- a handgun and a long gun -- within the past couple of weeks.
However, the agent declined to discuss specifics of the purchases.
Earlier in the day, top Capitol Hill lawmakers suggested Mateen appeared to have links to radical Islamic terrorism and that the FBI was aware of him and his activities.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the FBI had told him that Mateen “appeared” to be connected to Islamic radicalism.
He also said the Senate’s intelligence staff thought that Mateen, married in 2009 to a woman who was born in Uzbekistan, had “some connection” to the Islamic State terror group.
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said that local law enforcement said Mateen declared his allegiance to ISIS, which “indicates an ISIS-inspired act of terrorism.”
Schiff, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said other facts that suggest an Islamic extremist attack include the shooting taking place during Ramadan and ISIS leadership in Raqqa recently urging attacks this time of year.
New York GOP Rep. Pete King, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News that Mateen was “trained in weapons.”
“I don't want to release it before they do, but I can understand why the FBI was so quick to say this morning that they thought this had ISIS connections or at least ISIS ideology,” King said. |
While the harvest for grapes used in some sparkling wines already has begun, the majority of the state’s harvest will occur from now through October. The vines remain in need of a steady dose of hot days and cool nights to improve on the 2016 harvest, which set several records for production.
Wineries
More than 2,000 wineries have opened in since 2006.
California has more than four times more wineries than the state with the second-most, Washington.
States with most wineries, 2016
1. California 4,653
2. Washington 1,019
3. Oregon 644
4. New York 530
5. Texas 497
6. Michigan 387
7. Virginia 332
8. Pennsylvania 328
9. Ohio 300
10. Missouri 221
Source: Department of the Treasury
The grapes of math
California wine shipments to the U.S. reached an estimated retail value of $34.1 billion in 2016.
The state shipped an all-time high of 238 million cases to the U.S. in 2016, up 2% from the previous year.
California grape crush statistics show the price for red wine grapes reached a record high in 2016. This indicates great stability in the product because the amount of grapes harvested increased as well.
The overall average statewide price per ton paid to growers
It’s all about the yield
Even though the 2016 crush was large in tonnage, the Allied Grape Growers said the crush size was below average because the yield per acre was lower than average.
California wines selling for $10 or more account for 19 percent of the volume and 40 percent of the value in the U.S.
Wines under $10 have 81 percent of the shipment volume and 60 percent of the revenue.
California has 17 different wine pricing districts. District 13, (areas of Tulare, Madera, Fresno and other counties) had the largest volume, but the price per ton was $301. Grapes produced in District 4 (Napa County) had the highest price, $4,666 per ton, and were up 7.3 percent from 2015.The second-highest priced region was District 3 (Sonoma and Marin counties) with $2,584 per ton.
You can read the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2016 report here.
The average price per ton in 2016 by variety:
Cabernet sauvignon $1,432
Chardonnay $880
Merlot $765
Zinfandel $603
Popular California varieties in tons
Leading varieties in 2016
Percent of total 2016 crush in California
Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Department of Food and Agriculture, Wine Institute, California Wines, Vinepair.com |
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he will likely support plans to hold Tony Blair in contempt of Parliament over Iraq.
Mr Corbyn said that he had yet to see the text of the motion.
But he added that he would "probably" back it.
READ MORE: Blair to face Commons 'verdict and sentence' over Iraq war deception
MPs, including former First Minister Alex Salmond, want to sanction Mr Blair in the wake of a damning report into the 2003 invasion.
The official Iraq inquiry concluded that the war was launched before all peaceful options had been exhausted.
Mr Blair also presented intelligence on Iraq's ability to create weapons of mass destruction (WMD) with an unwarranted certainty, the Chilcot report said.
READ MORE: Blair to face Commons 'verdict and sentence' over Iraq war deception
Mr Salmond said that MPs had a duty to respond to the findings.
"'No parliament worth its salt tolerates being misled," he said.
The former SNP leader, who voted against the war, also said that MPs had to learn the lessons of Iraq and "to examine what it is being fed by the executive" or risk repeating the same mistakes.
Mr Corbyn told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: "Parliament must hold to account, including Tony Blair, those who took us into this particular war.
He added: "I haven’t seen it yet but I think I probably would [vote in favour of it]."
READ MORE: Blair to face Commons 'verdict and sentence' over Iraq war deception
If passed Mr Blair could be called before Parliament for questioning.
The former Prime Minister, who led his party to three successive general election victories, could also be stripped of his membership of the Privy Council.
After the report's publication Mr Blair apologised for the intelligence failures and the lack of planning for a post-conflict Iraq,.
READ MORE: Blair to face Commons 'verdict and sentence' over Iraq war deception
But he refused to say that he was sorry for the decision to invade.
And he said that the findings showed that he did not lie or mislead MPs.
Conservative backbencher David Davis plans to table the motion on Thursday.
He said that the Inquiry has not ruled on whether Mr Blair had "lied or not".
But, he said: " If you look just at the debate (on the war) alone, on five different grounds the House was misled,"
He said: "Everybody I talk to thinks that there has been, as it were, a trial. But there’s no verdict. And the House has to deliver a verdict.”
Meanwhile, Mr Blair's former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott said that he now believes the US-led invasion of Iraq was illegal.
He offered his "fullest apology" to the families of the military personnel who died.
The push now has the backing of MPs from six political parties.
Supporters said that they were hopeful that the motion would be selected by the Speaker John Bercow and that they would build support for the move this week, when MPs are due to spend two days debating the findings of the Iraq Report.
SNP MSP James Dornan has also lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament calling for those implicated by the findings of the Chilcot report to hand back their honours.
He said that the report exposed a “devastating establishment failure”.
They include Lord Goldsmith, the former Attorney General, who was made a Life Peer in 1999. The legal process in the run up to the war was described as “far from satisfactory”. |
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Guilty on all 59 counts: guilty, guilty, guilty.
On Monday, December 10, a jury of 12 found Nechemya Weberman enormously guilty. The jurors convicted him of sexually abusing an underage girl entrusted to his care. They declared the respected member of the ultra-Orthodox community to be a criminal and a fraud, and thousands of survivors, advocates and victims, many of whom still live in silence, breathed a sigh of relief as one.
Once, an ultra-Orthodox man could not be found guilty of sexual abuse. He could not be charged with a word that did not exist.
I was 9 years old when I first encountered the word “abuse.” I was at my friend’s house. I found a book on a desk near her room, and ran to the staircase to read it. I don’t remember the title, or what the book was about, only that across its white cover was a picture of a gun, and on the first page, in the subtitle, was an adjective I’d never seen.
I read it, slowly: “Ub-u-sive…”
My friend’s mother came up the stairs just then, and when she saw me holding the book, she gasped. I wanted to ask her what ub-u-sive meant, but she grabbed the book right out of my hands and scolded me. She warned me never to take books without permission. Clasping the book firmly in her hand, she closed the door of her room behind her, and the book disappeared, hidden away, I suppose, in that mysterious, forbidden place where all books go that are not meant to be read.
It remains a vivid memory in my mind, the first of many similar episodes with books, magazines or pictures. Every incident reinforced the dominant ideology of the ultra-Orthodox world: More important than what you are allowed to know is what you are not allowed to know.
In the ultra-Orthodox world, words are important. Words are powerful; they give life to an image, reality to an idea. If you use only pure words, your mind cannot be tainted; bad words will leave a stain, marking you as less-than-good.
Abuse was not a word. If there was no such word, than there were no such children. And truly, for decades, there were none. They did not dare to exist.
When I was 9 years old, I heard a story. It was about a crazy lady who called the police. She told them crazy things about an uncle in the family. She had fabricated lies about him; she hated him, she wanted attention.
When I was 11 years old, a Bobov boy hung himself. He wasn’t crazy, but something was a bit wrong with him. Mainly, he didn’t have any friends in school. That’s why he hung himself, everyone at school said.
Then in high school, 14-year-old Chavi was expelled from school. She had testified to the police that her father molested her after he demanded custody. My principal explained to me that she knew that Chavi wasn’t lying, what she said was true. But her grandparents went against the will of the rabbanim and told her to talk to the police.
They had no choice, but to expel her, she said. Classmates were warned not to speak with her. We never saw her again.
Then, my friend told me her cousin touched her; he touched her a lot, she said. I didn’t know what she meant, but one day she took me to a faraway place, far beneath the world I knew. She pulled me along with her, down long, dark corridors to a space I’d never seen before.
Few in the Orthodox community know of this place, where children live who do not really exist. Few in the community know of this world, where children go to die of forbidden wounds.
I did not want to be there. I could not bear to stay. I wanted to run away from my friend. I wanted to be part of the happy world, where people smile, and sing, and pray, where they do not bleed impurity. But my friend pulled me back. She said she was scared, so scared, and that I must stay with her, and I did, watching her curl up in agony, begging to die.
I did not dare tell anyone what I had seen. That would be the worst of all. You cannot wipe off the blood of a leper.
I never prayed for my friend, or the ones who dragged me there later on. I kept them a secret, even from God. Surely He would have nothing to do with such boys or girls. God is for pure intentions and thoughts; God is for the tragically ill. Abused children are an aberration, a mistake, and I was scared He’d view me as tainted, along with them.
In the insulated confines of my ultra-Orthodox community there are two worlds: the outer world and the underworld, and in between them a horrifying disconnect. We, of the underworld, are untouchable. If it is revealed that we are in any way tainted by abuse, even if only by association, it will defile our entire family; it will ruin their lives, their prospects at marriage. We are contaminated. And it is our job to protect the community from our contamination.
For many years we hid. We hid from our friends and from our family; we hid from our spouses, who did not want to know. We grew in silence, through adolescence, through the teenage years, through young adulthood and, for many, through arranged marriages. Then, slowly, as adults, we emerged, one victim, then another, some by accident, some by therapy, some by way of an outsider who taught them the words forbidden in their childhoods, words that described hell.
We began to speak. We used words like “abuse,” “rape,” “molestation” and “pain.” We began to tell our stories to investigators, to journalists and on blogs. Some of us, for the first time, told our friends and our spouses.
The reaction was immediate. We were branded as tainted, damaged and dangerous, often by close friends and others. We were declared by leaders and respected rabbis to be “mosrim,” traitors; deceptive liars. They called us self-hating Jews. They described us as young and shallow, rebellious men and women bent on vengeance and destruction; adults whose empty, worthless lives were filled with bitterness and rage.
We had violated the rules of what we were not allowed to know. We were using words that had been banned, forbidden. And we, who were stained with someone else’s crimes, were ordered to disappear, to stop whining. For how could we claim trauma and pain when we did not really exist? How could we have witnessed crimes that our leaders, wiser and holier than we are, said were not there? Because there was only one truth in this world, that of the rabbis and the holy men — and it was only they who could decide what had happened and what had not.
In 2003 I began writing my novel, “Hush,” a story of two ultra-Orthodox girls who endure the horrors of sexual abuse. People often asked me how I did it, how I wrote and published such a book while still living within the community.
I never answer their question. I have never been able to explain. It would take another book to do so. Because from the day I wrote until the day I finally ran away, I lived through the darkest parts of my world.
“The truth shall set you free,” David Foster Wallace wrote in “Infinite Jest.” “But not until it is finished with you.”
Victims of sexual abuse, forced free by a horrific truth, live with gashlike scars across their souls. One scar from the crime, the other from the denial that followed. They live with a constant question:
How?
How did this happen?
How did a community of values, of family, of God, become stripped of its own humanity? How did a group of people, warm and giving in so many ways, so viciously deny the suffering right in front of their eyes?
I don’t know if we will ever find an answer. Yet if we look deep within our own mindset, perhaps we can better understand the complicated factors that have brought the community to where it is today: cover-up, abuse and scandal exploding in the daily news, like buried landmines in old battlefields.
The religious Jewish community is a closed world, one that has built high walls around itself, walls that ensure that the gentiles and their evil influences cannot infiltrate. Yet the religious Jewish community is also a giving world, one with countless chesed organizations, there to help ease the suffering within. It is a generous world so long as the suffering is of a certain kind, so long as it does not violate the rules of what can and cannot happen.
Chai Lifeline, Tomchei Shabbos, Bonei Olam, among others — these are all organizations that help the ill, the poor, the widows and the orphans to deal with misfortunes sent by heaven.
Heavenly tragedies are not in the community’s control. They are there by a decree of the Almighty, a small part of a larger, divine story, just one piece of God’s grand plan, one that we cannot hope to understand. We must accept it with simple faith.
Sexual abuse is not from heaven. Sexual abuse is an act of man. Sexual abuse is suffering brought upon a person by the twisted demons of another. It is part of a darkness we declared to be safely beyond our high walls.
It means that there are victims, and where there are victims there are villains. It means that there are scars, and where there are scars there are criminals.
The ultra-Orthodox community does not want to know its criminals. It does not want to see its villains. It chooses to hide the darkness, to fight like hell against those who try to show it. It chooses to ban the words that define the evil, to intimidate those who try to speak or understand it. This way the community continues to feel safe, to hold an image of itself as whole, unbroken, secure from the harm of suffering children.
It is deeply disturbing, seeing those scars, the part of the community that doesn’t fit the traditional Jewish narrative. It is terrifying to look in the mirror and see a gentile’s reflection; that was only supposed to belong to the goyim. The instinctive reaction is denial: This cannot be us. The instinctive reaction became community policy, and it is visceral, terrifying and cruel. Such children were called mentally unstable. It was better to be crazy than to be abused. Crazy was the child’s fault, abused was the community’s own.
And this is how the Orthodox Jewish community turned into a world that went to war with its own children.
The Orthodox Jews are not alone in this. Over the past decade, they have partnered with their historical enemies, the Catholics, to battle the grave threat posed by men and women scarred by the sins of their leaders. Among the Catholics, the lies and the scandals tore the forefront 10 years ago, opening the doors to thousands of other victims to come forward. A decade and billions of dollars in settlements later, the cases are ongoing.
For us Jews, the process toward justice has been much slower, with victims emerging from the shadows only recently. But a little more than three weeks ago, on November 26, a trial began on the 20th floor of a building in Downtown Brooklyn.
Tens of thousands watched — Orthodox, ultra-Orthodox, secular — following the story on blogs, Twitter and newspapers. Tens of thousands watched as, for the first time, an 18-year-old girl from a Hasidic enclave took the stand as a witness to her own hell. They watched the slight, just-married, slip of a girl say — and say again — that she’d been abused and molested repeatedly, and that what happened to her had a name, a label, a word. She existed. They watched the girl, not quite an adult, stand up to a community that refused to acknowledge an act of evil because doing so meant there was evil among that community, they who were inherently pure. ‘
On the December 10 the jury came out, and something changed in our world. Something happened to the long and paralyzing silence, frozen for decades with fear. It cracked open. It shattered with finality.
Guilty, guilty, guilty; 59 times guilty. The jury of 12 declared Nechemya Weberman to be a criminal, one who was enormously guilty. And survivors, advocates and victims breathed in relief as one. Because we had long known that bricks and stones, traditions and ancient rules do not ensure morality, only a dangerous pretense of it. We have long known that the greatest enemies lie not behind the walls, but here, inside, deep within ourselves.
There are those in the ultra-Orthodox community who say that much has changed, that there is more awareness than before. They say that many schools have taken on the issue, bringing in experts and educating teachers about the symptoms and dangers of abuse; so why don’t the survivors just shut up already? Why do they still demand attention and embarrass the community in the media? What more do they want?
For decades, victims of sexual abuse have had to pay dearly for the community’s denial. Those victims are now grown. They speak out in different ways, and it is the community that now, too has to pay a price for its denial.
The community members don’t get to choose the price. They don’t get to decide what victims should to do with the trauma they’ve created. After years of brutalized silence, victims will speak as loudly as they need to.
This is a community that wants to leave sin, so long as it can do so without expressing regret. It is willing to change the future, so long as we allow it to forget the past, so long as we don’t ask it to account for its actions. It wants change, it really does, but the change is conditional: change on its own terms, change it can take credit for without ever looking back, change that is another form of denial.
One cannot ask forgiveness from the dead. It is too late to reach out to those who jumped off balconies, who hung themselves off bathroom rods. It is too late to turn to those who swallowed bottles of painkillers, who overdosed on drugs. Yet there are hundreds of survivors who still live, men and women who’ve stood up and walked on — once terrified children, now haunted adults, still gripped by a past that has ripped into their souls.
They are no longer seeking the truth; now they seek only honesty. They are no longer seeking holy men; now they seek only good men. What they want from those who have legislated spirituality, from those who’ve led the community down its darkest path, is the first step of repentance; a confession, an acknowledgement, a reckoning that in the hollowed halls and back rooms of homes and institutions built for God, a terrible thing has happened.
Perhaps there will be a day when a victim in Williamsburg or Lakewood can ask for justice without being forced out. Perhaps there will be a time when advocates and survivors will not be threatened, harassed and terrorized for demanding that the most basic of morals be upheld. Perhaps there will be a day when the community and its leaders will acknowledge the hell they’ve created for so many of their own. Maybe they will ask for forgiveness. And then we will know that change has truly come.
Until then, let us teach our children the words stolen from our generation, words that describe hell. Because for those of us who have survived, who have lived in the underworld and came out alive, we hold a sacred knowledge: Words are important. Words are powerful. A mind cannot be tainted by a word, only by its refusal to acknowledge it.
Judy Brown wrote the novel “Hush” under the pseudonym Eishes Chayil. “Inside Out” is her essay series about life in the ultra-Orthodox world. It is based on true events, but her characters’ names and identities have been changed; some are composites, comprising several real-life people. Find her at Facebook.com/JudyBrownHush.
This story "'Ub-u-sive'" was written by Judy Brown (Eishes Chayil). |
Coffee-Processing Plant to Produce Energy Too
January 3rd, 2012 by Zachary Shahan
We’ve written about coffee-roaster technology being used in new renewable energy applications, we’ve written about a record-breaking car that ran on coffee grinds, and we’ve even written about efforts to turn coffee grinds into ink, but this story is about something completely different. The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota announced just at the end of 2011 that it is “leading a project to develop an efficient renewable electricity technology for coffee-processing plants.”
EERC and Wynntryst — an energy solutions company based in South Burlington, Vermont — are going to develop “a gasification power system to utilize the waste from a coffee-processing plant to produce energy.”
“The project specifically focuses on the waste from the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR) plant. ” (Yep, that’s the same Green Mountain Coffee Roasters that installed 530 solar panels on the roof of its distribution center in 2009, the largest solar installation in Vermont at the time.. and maybe still.)
The company, which provides coffee products to multinational corporations around the world (such as Starbucks and McDonald’s), has a decent waste stream that includes coffee residues, plastic packaging, paper, cloth or burlap, and plastic cups.
One super interesting thing about this project is that it continues the work performed for NASA regarding space stations in lunar bases.
“This project is an extension of work performed by the EERC for NASA, which explored the conversion of waste from a space station and future Martian and lunar bases into heat and power,” said Deputy Associate Director for Research Chris Zygarlicke. “This project will similarly utilize a mostly renewable and bio-based waste and convert it into electricity for the coffee industry.”
More details from the news release follow (everything below except the photo credit is reposted from EERC’s site):
“The first step of the project is to demonstrate that we can gasify the complex mixture of waste and produce clean synthetic gas, or syngas, by utilizing the EERC’s novel advanced fixed-bed gasifier (AFBG) system on the biomass-residue mixture,” said Project Manager and Research Scientist, Nikhil Patel.
The syngas will then either be utilized in an internal combustion engine (or a fuel cell) for efficient production of electricity and heat or be converted to high-value biofuels or chemicals. The pilot-scale tests will evaluate the quality of syngas that can be produced from the Green Mountain waste. EERC researchers will fine-tune the technology to meet the highest environmental standards possible.
“Over the years, the EERC has developed and tested numerous small gasifier systems like this on a variety of biomass feedstocks,” Zygarlicke said. “The EERC system has already produced power by gasifying forest residues, railroad tie chips, turkey litter, and other biomass feedstocks and burning the produced syngas in an on-site engine generator. The coffee industry residues will be similarly tested.”
The EERC will use the outcome of the pilot-scale efforts to propose a full-scale commercial demonstration system for installation at various Green Mountain sites.
“The EERC is developing smaller-scale distributed gasification technologies as a means for converting biomass to renewable energy,” said EERC Director Gerald Groenewold. “This project is a perfect example of the EERC’s ability to adapt to changing market needs, as more and more industries, manufacturers, and municipalities look for ways to utilize modest quantities of available biomass residues for energy.”
Coffee photo via shutterstock |
A laptop retrieved from an ISIS hideout which contained shocking plans to develop weaponised bubonic plague that could inflict 'huge casualties' has been pictured for the first time.
The computer was recovered from an Isis hideout in Syria by a moderate rebel commander called Abu Ali.
He said that Isis fled from the building before his men stormed it. A dusty laptop was found inside, which was then handed over to a pair of investigative journalists.
The laptop found in an Isis hideout is believed to have contained a shocking document with plans to develop weaponised bubonic plague
An Isis member parades the group's flag. Plans to develop weaponised bubonic plague have been found on a laptop captured from Isis
They trawled through the computer's files and discovered a disturbing 19-page document containing instructions for making weaponised bubonic plague (biological name Yersinias pestis), including the steps needed for testing it.
'The advantage of biological weapons is that they do not cost a lot of money, while the human casualties can be huge,' the document states, according to Foreignpolicy.com.
It stated that testing should be done on small mice first.
It added: 'When the microbe is injected in small mice, the symptoms of the disease should start to appear within 24 hours.'
The laptop belonged to a Tunisian chemistry and physics student called Muhammed S, who it's thought joined the terrorist group in Syria.
However, Jennifer Cole, Senior Research Fellow, Resilience & Emergency Management, at the Royal United Services Institute, downplayed the danger the find signified.
New threat: The laptop belonged to a Tunisian chemistry and physics student called Muhammed S, who it's thought joined the terrorist group in Syria
She told MailOnline: 'This is nothing a security analyst wouldn't expect to find on a jihadist laptop. We've seen it time and time again.
'Plus, biological weapons are extremely unpredictable and their spread cannot be predicted or controlled. This is why regimes and terrorist groups have been so reluctant to use them.
'They are slow acting, can't be geographically contained and are as likely to hurt you as the enemy. That's why, while lots of groups look into them, none ever use them.'
She added that bubonic plague 'can be treated with simple antibiotics these days, so no threat anyway' and that polio in Syria is a far bigger worry than biological weapons.
Footage of another fifteen members of Kurdish militia captured by the brutal jihadists has been released
The discovery follows the release by Isis of a new decapitation video, threatening America for the second time and urging the Kurds to break from their alliance with the West against the caliphate.
It came just hours after Isis released shocking footage of the mass execution of 300 Syrian national army soldiers in the Syrian desert.
The grainy video, accompanied by the hashtag '2ndAmessagetoAmerica', shows the vicious beheading of a Kurdish soldier, who was part of a group of 15 fighters likely to have been captured by Isis during the fighting in Iraq.
The group's first warning ten days ago was entitled 'A Message to America' and showed the decapitation of American journalist James Foley.
In the latest video, the captors first issue a warning they will continue to decapitate prisoners should America continue to support the Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State.
They then behead one of the captives on a sandy roadside in Iraq, where the Great Mosque of Mosul can be seen in the background.
Kurdish forces have been in fierce fighting with Isis since June and their militias have been beginning to receive considerable amounts of armaments from Western powers including the USA and UK. |
Today a person nicknamed sigtech of GIMP Painter project announced availability of several patches to user interface and painting functionality of GIMP. The news are going to hit websites anyway, so best it to get things right from the beginning.
Let's start with what GIMP Painter is. It's a fork of upstream GIMP that implements some painting related functionality that creators of the fork found missing in GIMP. Up till now two most significant changes were:
Mixbrush, a painting tool that allows natural paints blending;
G-Pen, a fork of GIMP's Ink tool that implements optional line smoothing.
If you want demonstration of Mixbrush, watch these two videos created by Yoshinori Yamakawa who is involved in the GIMP Painter project:
GIMP Painter was used in "Chaos and Evolutions" DVD course on digital painting by David Revoy (it was shipped with DVD too) and GIMP Paint Studio actually makes presets for GIMP Painter rather than for regular GIMP.
So, what's in the new bundle of patches?
Horizontal tool options toolbar instead of of vertical. Vertical tabs in docks and therefore vertical docking (or vice versa). Tabs in painting dynamics editor. Folding of docks. Changes in brush palette interface. Blending modes and working painting dynamics for Smudge tool (dynamics are broken for Smudge currently in upstream GIMP); Line smoothing. The former G-Pen implementation worked for the forked Ink tool only. The new patch implements smoothing for both brush core and the Ink tool, so it should work for all brush based tools (including Smudge and Clone), Airbrush tool and Ink tool.
What does it look like? Here is a screenshot of today's Git created by GIMP Painter's developer:
One cannot help but noticing the UI looks rather Photoshop-ish :)
OK, so what's the deal? Will these changes be merged to upstream GIMP? The answer is a bit more complicated than you probably expect.
First of all, the new changes can be roughly divided into controversial and non-controversial. The painting related changes are non-controversial and will be merged into upstream. The user interface changes are a different story.
One thing that has to be understood about the way GIMP is evolving for last few years is that it's been shaping up according to a big picture: what it aims to be, what the target user base is and so on. The UI patches implemented by sigtech are based on requests from GIMP UI brainstorm blog and thus, whether "good" or "bad" they are, haven't been considered as part of the big picture yet. So the UI changes will have to wait till they are taken through the usual usability routine by Peter Sikking, GIMP's usability architect.
The first good news is that sigtech expressed willingness to cooperate with upstream GIMP project. The second good news is that two paid internships that Peter Sikking proposed are currently rolling out, which presumably will help unlocking development of last missing bits in 2.8 (most notably, the optional single-window mode).
That still leaves us Mixbrush. The thing about Mixbrush is that it's a painting tool that is still based on the old GIMP core, whereas the current project's policy is to not accept new tools based on the old core and request using GEGL instead. This is why the new Cage transform tool was designed and implemented as GEGL based. According to Alexia, who is currently in charge of painting features in GIMP, GEGL's painting core can have multiple external rendering engines, so the right way to implement Mixbrush is to do it using GEGL.
If you are keen to play with the new GIMP Painter, right now you can only clone Git repository and build source code. The Git repo of the fork is kept in sync with upstream GIMP's Git master repository.
Edit: as of October 2011 there is an Ubuntu PPA for GIMP Painter. |
There always has to be that one guy. The guy that just isn’t quite on the page with everyone else. Maybe he’s obsessed with being as evil as possible in an otherwise good group, possibly he’s good but just likes to pick fights, or he just disrespects the other player’s time by talking out of game too much or being too distracted. These people aren’t bad people generally, they just honestly have trouble fitting into the group and cause group disruption either in game or out of game. So what are some ideas to help these players get along with the rest of your group while hurting the fewest possible people?
In my groups the biggest type of problem player I’ve found is generally the type that thinks the answer to any problem is the sharpened head of their axe. Some like to play more evil characters and others just don’t get that though they might just run in there swinging that’s not necessarily what the party wants to do. Some extreme examples in games I’ve been in are the lawful good elf ranger that thought he needed to talk to the king but the king wouldn’t listen, so this elf decided to try to lasso and then attack the king so he would be forced listen. Another example is a human warlock ruining hours of planning on how to deal with a pack of feral gnomes because he decided he’s racist against gnomes. The party had set up a whole long way of dealing with the gnomes that would be advantageous to everyone involved and this person just starts killing gnome’s on sight causing one of the largest instances of genocide in D&D history.
You have to wonder what these people were thinking and why they chose to antagonize the rest of the party. I’d say both of those examples have two different causes. In the first example the player was frustrated by a lack of direction. He didn’t work well without clear guidance and so he’d try to force the GM’s hand. When he got confused he would just do random, generally violent, things to try to figure out what he needed to do next. Sadly the GM of this game recently gave up on that campaign in large part because he let this player go on for too long and the player had literally wasted months of play and 10 or so main story leads. At the end there really was no way for the entire country the party was in not to hate the party and want to kill them on sight. So how best to deal with the frustrated player? This may sound like holding their hands too much, but for the sake of the other players when I’ve had that player in my campaigns if he is about to do something stupid I will explain more about the situation and specifically say things that make it obvious that what he’s doing is a clearly bad idea. Sometimes I’ll just have an NPC much stronger then that character hold him back if he’s really on a tangent. He is a good guy and not a bad player all the time, but he has ruined campaign sessions for people with his antics and those have to be dealt with. Sadly he continued to have a negative effect on the campaign and I eventually had to tell him he needed to change his play style or find another group. I see this as the absolute last option, but sometimes that’s the only way. He chose to find another group. We are still friends and he’s happier with his new groups which are more on the belief that if it’s an NPC it should be killed at some point.
The other example is a bit darker. The player had a character quirk (a very unrealistic one) that he had to kill gnomes on sight for no reason other then he randomly hated short things. Aside from this he was an antagonizer to the party. He would use area of effect spells without a care about hitting party members and would threaten nearly every NPC they met. He wanted to be a nearly evil character and in doing so brought down the fun for everyone else. So how did I deal with him effectively? I killed his character. My policy is if you do something stupid, specifically something you know will piss off everyone else and that you know is stupid…well, I’m not going to hold your hand. Usually I’ll say “Are you sure?” and if they continue I have very little mercy. His character had gotten out of hand and he needed to die. When he went to make a new character I enacted a rule that all new players must be Chaotic good or better. This seems a bit harsh, but the party had already positioned themselves as a generally good one so realistically they’d only accept other good characters into their ranks anyway. Oddly enough he plays good characters fairly well. He’s still a bit of a jerk, but a good one. And overtime he’s become someone that actually argues for party unity…which is odd considering there were multiple occasions where there would be violent in-game inter party fights caused by him. It turned out the character he needed to play was the good, but still very prideful, character.
Finally there’s the type of player that’s a burden on the game but for out of game reasons. Everyone accidentally does these types of things. We might not know the rules well enough or can’t think about what we should do so we take a while on our turn. There’s nothing wrong with that, unless it becomes a habit. Usually the cause is genuine ignorance of the rules or people getting bored. The problem with the rules is usually fixed by time. Players getting bored is another issue and really it needs to be worked from both sides. Oftentimes I’m to blame for part of it. Maybe the group gets into too many long out of game discussion (I’ve seen Star Wars sessions get entirely spent by talking about various rules or comics) or maybe combat or GM preparation for an encounter is taking too long. I try to fix this by limiting out of game discussion to short bursts (no matter how excited I am about the topic), making sure I am prepared enough before the session that I never need more than 60 seconds to refresh myself on what’s coming up next, and keeping combat moving by informing whoever’s next that they’re on deck. For larger groups where combat becomes even more cumbersome I sometimes even enact a 30 second rule. If you take longer then 30 seconds to take you’re turn you lose it. The other side of the coin is the player. Usually this can’t be handled in game, but sometime out of game when I can get them alone I will talk to them about the distractions. I’ll mention it’s slowing the campaign down and ask politely that they try to pay more attention. It is rather selfish to be willing to impact other negatively because you don’t want to be bored while paying attention.
Helping problem players become better players is a very difficult part of GMing. I don’t want to kick anyone out if I can help it because oftentimes given enough time around the right group of people they will become better players. People who can work as a team. But the needs of the many outweigh those of the few. If the player can’t change and your other players are thinking of leaving your campaign because of how much negativity that player brings then you may have to take more drastic measures. It’s very important, for the sake of everyone’s enjoyment of your campaign, that you identify problem players early on and deal with them. Letting it go and hoping they will get better on their own usually ends in heart break.
Tell us your problem player stories and your ideas on how to deal with the effectively in the comment area below.
[tags] Role Playing Games, Dungeons and Dragons, Geek, Game Mastering [/tags] |
A federal appeals court this week will review whether the government can secretly conduct electronic surveillance on Americans without first obtaining a warrant.
The case, to be brought before a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Wednesday, could have sweeping digital-privacy implications, and it represents one of the most direct challenges to the legal authority for government spying in the post-Snowden era. Many observers expect the case to ultimately reach the Supreme Court.
At issue is whether the FBI can use so-called national security letters, or NSLs, to compel companies to hand over communications data or financial records of certain users for the purposes of a national security investigation. These letters permit the FBI to collect telephone and Internet data of suspects without court approval and they often place a gag order on companies, which prevents them from disclosing the government order.
National security letters have been around since the late 1970s but have grown in importance and frequency in recent years. Hundreds of thousands of such letters have been issued since the post-9/11 USA Patriot Act expanded their authority, and an overwhelming majority have been accompanied by gag orders. The Justice Department argues that NSLs are necessary to protect national security and thwart terrorist attacks.
But in 2011, an unidentified telecommunications company, represented by open-Internet activists with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, challenged the authority of an NSL it received, as well as the gag order preventing public disclosure.
Last year, the case landed in front of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who ruled that the FBI's use of NSLs represented an unconstitutional breach of the First Amendment. She found the limited, after-the-fact judicial oversight of NSLs insufficient and ordered the government to cease using them and, additionally, to halt enforcement of their gag orders.
But Illston allowed the government 90 days to appeal, and because of "significant constitutional and national security issues at stake," enforcement of her ruling was stayed.
Illston's opinion, which was seen as a startling rebuke of intelligence agencies' surveillance powers, came months before former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked a trove of top-secret documents revealing the size and scope of several of the government's surveillance programs. The Snowden revelations have broadened the significance of this case, privacy hawks argue.
"From the standpoint of vindicating our First Amendment rights and establishing a principle that there are limits to what governments can do, [this case] is extremely important," said Andrew Crocker, a legal fellow with EFF. "You can't deny that the public eyes [are] on national security investigations and how the government uses its legal authorities to collect information on Americans."
The case has also attracted attention from some privacy hawks on Capitol Hill, where a yearlong effort to reform the government's surveillance practices remains in limbo. In a friend-of-the-court brief, Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Thomas Massie, Jared Polis, and Anna Eshoo warned that NSLs "are profoundly problematic because the FBI has extraordinary discretion to issue these demands unilaterally and shroud them in secrecy."
The lawmakers additionally noted that the Justice Department's own inspector general has "documented widespread misuse" of NSLs, which they say are so secret they are difficult to monitor.
"Because Congress must depend on information reported by the FBI to conduct oversight, and NSL recipients are barred from disclosing even the most basic information about these demands, it is exceedingly difficult to evaluate the Bureau's use of this controversial power," the lawmakers wrote.
Crocker said that most of what the public knows about NSLs comes from inspector general reports, which can often be opaque and heavily redacted. One such report released by the Justice Department in August found that the FBI had unintentionally spied on the data of some Americans who were not the intended targets of investigations because of routine typographical errors.
"We found that the FBI's corrective measures have not completely eliminated potential intelligence violations resulting from typographical errors in the identification of a telephone number, email address, or Social Security number in an NSL," the report read. It also noted that the FBI had fulfilled 23 of 28 prior recommendations for improving the agency's use of NSLs.
In the wake of Snowden's leaks, the government has attempted to appease some of the concerns surrounding its surveillance programs, with mixed results. In January, shortly after President Obama pledged to reform the NSA's spying apparatus, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced a policy change to allow companies to reveal more details about the number of national security orders they receive.
But those relaxed restraints, which allow for reporting on the quantity of NSLs received every six months, but only within bands of 1,000, have been roundly criticized by tech companies and transparency advocates as not going far enough. (Even if a company received zero requests for data via NSLs, for example, the disclosure could only read 0 to 999.)
On Tuesday, Twitter announced it filed a suit in federal court seeking to publish the full details of its semi-annual transparency report.
"It's our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users' concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance—including what types of legal process have not been received," wrote Ben Lee, Twitter's vice president of legal affairs, in a blog post. "We should be free to do this in a meaningful way, rather than in broad, inexact ranges."
Wednesday's oral arguments are before a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The court is often regarded as the most liberal of the appeals circuits in the United States.
(Image via Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock.com) |
Liberalism's death song
What does the Trump victory mean? It means that liberalism as a culture, as a governing philosophy, is dead. Like any revolution, it will take time to propagate, time for the old regime to die off (metaphorically). But it will happen. Americans retook control of the country. Now we know that it must be fought for at every step, at every “safe space,” at every "the Constitution is for slaveholders."
We are up to that job, now that we know (a) that if we don't fight, the country is destroyed and (b) that therefore there is a mission in fighting. It is not our role to be becomingly reticent, becomingly polite when someone pushes us out of the way, whether it is a liberal judge or some loudmouth radical. We can't retire and assume "everything will be okay." It won't, and we know that now. That gives significance to the fight, to attending the school board, to voting on the petitions, to supporting politicians who want to rein in the judiciary. The MSM are laughably clueless about why they lost. They think it was this fact, or that reporter, or some editor. The press threw itself behind the liberal model. It is a key characteristic of liberals that they think opposition to them is not part of the process, but is illegitimate. The press sees constitutional republicanism as evil. The MSM seeks not to report the facts, but to create the narrative – not to report history, but to make it. The only problem they have is that in the free market, when your product fails, you fail. Liberals have a lazy, smug self-regard. That is the result of 50 years of unbroken victories in the culture wars. (Even Reagan didn’t really damage them. He was frying other fish. He pushed the Soviet Union onto the scrap heap of history, which is enough for any president.) In a constitutional republic, the judiciary is there to decide questions of fact, not of law. It may even be necessary to rein in the Supreme Court by limiting either its jurisdiction or the reach of its decisions – i.e., adopt Lincoln's approach that a Supreme Court decision applies only to the parties to the case, not universally. The Supreme Court was envisioned by the Founders as the ultimate guardian of the Constitution, of the individual against the state. But since it was captured by the left, it has become the leader of the charge to destroy the Constitution and substitute for it the sensibilities of right-thinking people. Of Ruth Bader Ginsburg rather than We the People. Uhh…nope. Thrilling times. |
Graduate students working as teaching and research assistants at Loyola University Chicago have voted by a modest margin to unionize, marking one of the first grad student union elections since a major federal ruling concluded they are employees.
A ballot count Wednesday at the National Labor Relations Board's Chicago regional office revealed 59 percent of the 120 votes cast were in favor of joining Service Employees International Union Local 73, according to the union. About 210 graduate students who are part of the bargaining unit were eligible to vote.
The election is decided by the majority of ballots that are cast, though the union will represent all 210 in the unit, which includes all part-time and full-time grad students who work as teaching assistants, research assistants, program assistants and fellowship teachers at Loyola's College of Arts and Sciences, except those in the theology department.
Yelyzaveta DiStefano, 23, a first-year graduate student in Loyola's applied social psychology Ph.D. program who voted to unionize, said she hopes it is a step toward better wages.
DiStefano, who works as a research assistant and teaching assistant, said she has run out of money between paychecks, has had to rely on her partner to buy groceries and has had her cellphone cut off three times since starting the job last year because she didn't pay the bill. She said she earns $2,000 a month before taxes for nine months of the year.
"No one should be having to face the situation of not meeting their basic needs," DiStefano said. Another major concern for grad students is health insurance, which the university does provide, but DiStefano said the coverage and copays are not good.
In a written statement after the vote count, John Pelissero, Loyola's provost and chief academic officer, said that "it is unfortunate that such a small percentage of the voting group determined the outcome for so many others."
He continued: "While we are disappointed with the result, we will work through the NLRB's processes and procedures to bargain a contract for the represented graduate assistants through SEIU Local 73."
The university had urged graduate students to consider the drawbacks of unionizing in a series of communications over the past two months. It cited union dues that could cost 1.5 to 2 percent of their compensation, SEIU's limited experience in higher education and the fact that students' individual needs could be overlooked when stipends, benefits and other terms of the working relationship are bargained by the union.
"It is your right to unionize," Pelissero said in a note in January. "However, we believe that maintaining a direct working relationship with you — without interference from an organization like SEIU Local 73, which may not understand our University, mission, or values — gives our University, faculty, graduate assistants, and other students the best opportunity to build on the improvements that we have made and will continue to make."
But DiStefano said that direct relationship, in her experience, did not exist.
"I've never spoken to an administrator, I've never had the chance to air any of these grievances, I had no say in the contract," she said.
Loyola also stressed that it was committed to improving its relationship with graduate assistants, acknowledging feedback on "a number of topics, including the health insurance plan, available funding (i.e. for conferences), and the feeling that the roles and responsibilities that graduate assistants are asked to take on are not properly recognized and respected by the University as a whole," Pelissero said in another note to students posted to the university's website. "If we have fallen short, I apologize."
The Jesuit university had argued at an NLRB hearing in December that it should not be under the agency's jurisdiction on religious freedom grounds because "we have the right to define our own mission and govern our institution in accordance with our values and beliefs, free from government entanglement." The NLRB rejected that position.
Loyola is now among three private universities in the nation with graduate student unions and the first to be represented by the SEIU.
New York University recognized its own grad student union voluntarily in 2013.
A handful of union elections have been held since a major NLRB decision in August that grad students are employees covered by federal labor laws, a reversal of a prior decision from 2004.
Columbia University grad students in New York, whose petition to form a union kicked off the case that led to the NLRB's decision, voted overwhelmingly in December to join the United Auto Workers, which now represents 3,500 Columbia grad students.
A vote among grad students at Harvard University in Cambridge to join the UAW was too close to call.
Duke University grad students are in the midst of a mail-in election.
Graduate students are the latest focus of organizing efforts in higher education. Private universities have seen a surge of union drives for part-time adjuncts and full-time nontenured faculty, much of it driven by SEIU.
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(Reuters) - An Ohio coroner, abiding by family wishes, has performed an external examination instead of a full autopsy on the body of the U.S. student who was held prisoner in North Korea for 17 months and sent home in a coma, the agency said on Tuesday.
The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office was still conferring on Tuesday with doctors at a Cincinnati hospital who were treating Otto Warmbier, 22, before reaching any conclusions about his death a day earlier, investigator Daryl Zornes said.
Investigators also were continuing to review radiological images and awaiting additional medical records requested by the coroner, Zornes told Reuters.
He declined to estimate how long it would take for the coroner’s office to complete its inquiry. Preliminary autopsy findings had been expected later on Tuesday or on Wednesday.
There was no immediate word from the family about why relatives declined an autopsy, which may have shed more light on the cause of the neurological injuries that left him in a coma.
Warmbier’s death came just days after he was released by the North Korean government and returned to the United States suffering from what U.S. doctors described as extensive brain damage.
Warmbier, an Ohio native and student at the University of Virginia, was arrested in North Korea in January 2016 while visiting as a tourist. He was sentenced two months later to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal an item bearing a propaganda slogan from his hotel in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, the nation’s state media said.
The circumstances of his detention and what medical treatment he received in North Korea remain unknown. The United States has demanded North Korea release three other U.S. citizens it holds in detention: missionary Kim Dong Chul and academics Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song. (Graphic of Americans held by North Korea: tmsnrt.rs/2pmE3ks)
Warmbier’s death has only heightened U.S.-North Korean tensions aggravated by dozens of North Korean missile launches and two nuclear bomb tests since last year in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The North Korean government has vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped intercontinental missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.
Warmbier’s family has not specified how he slipped from a comatose state to death, but said in a statement on Monday that the “awful torturous mistreatment” he endured while in captivity meant “no other outcome was possible.”
Relatives have said they were told by U.S. envoys that North Korean officials claimed Warmbier contracted botulism after his trial and lapsed into a coma after taking a sleeping pill. Fred Warmbier, the student’s father, has said he disbelieves this account.
North Korea’s government said it released Warmbier last week on “humanitarian grounds.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he had spoken with Warmbier’s family and praised them as “incredible.”
“It’s a total disgrace what happened to Otto,” Trump told reporters in the White House, where he was meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. “And frankly, if he were brought home sooner, I think the results would have been a lot different.”
FILE PHOTO - Otto Frederick Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who has been detained in North Korea since early January, attends a news conference in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo February 29, 2016. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo/File Photo
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the administration would “continue to apply economic and political pressure” on North Korea, in conjunction with U.S. allies and China, “to change this behavior and this regime.”
Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday he appreciated efforts by Chinese President Xi Jinping “to help with North Korea,” adding “It has not worked out. At least I know China tried!”
The government of China, North Korea’s main ally, said Warmbier’s death was a tragedy. |
There’s more to our speech pattern around here than the accent.
Massachusetts is the third-fastest talking state in the nation, according to a study done by analytics company Marchex.
The company’s “Institute studied more than four million phone calls placed from consumers to businesses from 2013–2015, using technology that automatically monitors speech, silence, ringtones and hold times, to uncover speech patterns from residents in all 50 states,’’ according to a press release on their website.
The only states that ranked higher than Massachusetts were Oregon and Minnesota. These top three rankings are reflective of larger patterns: The fastest talkers in America are mostly located in the Pacific Northwest, upper Midwest, and New England.
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The slowest talkers are concentrated in the South: Mississippi, Louisiana, and South Carolina rounded out the bottom of the list.
The study also found Massachusetts to be the 14th most talkative state (which was determined by the number of words used in callers’ conversations) and the 28th least patient state, putting us right smack dab in the middle of the list of “states most likely to hang up when put on hold.’’ |
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