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At a rally in Panama City, Fla., Oct. 11, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton will turn the United States into a "banana republic" if she becomes president. (The Washington Post)
The Wall Street Journal reports that Donald Trump and his advisers have hatched a fiendishly clever strategy for the race’s final stretch:
Donald Trump, faced with opposition inside and outside his party, plans to renew the nationalist themes that built his base and amplify his no-holds-barred attacks against Hillary Clinton to try to depress Democratic voter turnout, his advisers said. Following the release of a tape-recording of his lewd comments about women and several high-profile Republican defections over the weekend, Mr. Trump has effectively given up the conventional wisdom of trying to reach voters far outside his core of support, one high-level Republican supporter said…. Mr. Trump, in fact, is trying to use his break with many party leaders as a lever to ramp up support among his base, which includes many voters who feel equally estranged from the party establishment. The decision means that a campaign already marked by intensely personal attacks is primed to grow even uglier in the remaining four weeks. Mr. Trump plans to keep up a relentless assault on Mrs. Clinton, including her use of a private email server and allegations about her husband, former President Bill Clinton, with the intention of keeping some of her supporters home on Election Day, his advisers said.
After Sunday night’s debate, I speculated that Trump’s conduct — he installed Bill Clinton’s female accusers in the audience; repeatedly attacked Hillary directly over Bill’s womanizing; and said Hillary should be in jail — suggested he had adopted a strategy designed to pull Clinton down into the pig slop with him.
Now the Journal report has confirmed from the inside that this actually is his elaborately conceived strategy. Indeed, the Journal also reports that this closing game plan was developed as an answer to the sex tape revelations:
On Friday, all attention turned to the video of Mr. Trump’s talking about groping women’s genitals and forcibly kissing women. Mr. Trump huddled with advisers at the Trump Tower building in New York City that night. That is when they resolved to implement the “scorched-earth” strategy that had been held in reserve, one adviser said.
In other words, Trump and his advisers have concluded that the sex tape probably closes off the option of winning back voters “outside the core of his support,” as the Journal puts it, which means, of course, suburban swing voters and college-educated whites, particularly women. Now his only remaining hope is to slime up Clinton as much as possible and hope for a magically super-sized turnout among angry white working class men driven into a frenzy by Trump’s theatrics.
Viewed in the context of this reporting, Trump’s strategy at the last debate makes a whole lot more sense, if that’s the right word for it. He perhaps thought that looming over Clinton, prowling around in the background, rubbing her face in Bill’s affairs, and pugnaciously threatening to her face to throw her in jail would excite those core supporters. Remember, the Post reported that Trump and his advisers had actually hatched an even more confrontational plot — to place Bill’s accusers in the Trump family box and perhaps even get them to directly confront Bill on national television. But that scheme was thwarted by the debate organizers.
As for the notion that dragging Clinton down into the mud might succeed in dampening her supporters’ enthusiasm and turnout, I suspect Clinton decided not to take Trump’s bait during the debate for precisely this reason, and will continue working to avoid doing so in the final weeks. If the Clinton camp can get the balance right here, continually reminding voters of Trump’s stream of racism, misogyny, and abusiveness, while avoiding getting hit by the mud spatter herself, Trump’s double-down-on-the-ugly strategy could end up having the opposite effect, driving up turnout among core Democratic voter groups.
But that aside, contained in this new reporting is an important concession of sorts. After the second debate, there was a lot of chatter about how Trump had “stopped the bleeding.” It’s now clear, though, what the Trump campaign was really up to here: The most important “bleeding” that had to be staunched was the hemorrhaging of support from Republican elected officials who were terrified of the politics of the sex tape. By putting on a thumping good show of attacking Bill’s affairs and fantasizing about jailing Hillary, Trump showed GOP base voters that he is a fighter, making them more enraged at those feckless GOP elites who are abandoning him just because things are getting a bit rough. That backlash may be making it harder for GOP lawmakers to keep running away from him. Indeed, multiple GOP elected officials who had called on Trump to withdraw from the race are now publicly rethinking that stance and are confirming they’ll still support him. Thus, Trump’s debate performance really did stop this bleeding.
But Trump is also bleeding in another way. Before the sex tape broke, large majorities of college-educated whites — voters Trump simply must improve among — were already convinced that Trump is sexist, bigoted, and temperamentally unfit for the presidency. The sex tape probably made that worse, and it’s unlikely that Trump’s most recent debate performance did anything to mitigate that. Indeed, the real message in the Journal reporting is that the Trump campaign has basically given up on stopping that particular bleeding. |
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SCOTLAND should start its own currency instead of trying to forge a formal agreement to share sterling after independence, according to economic experts.
The view is at odds with the Scottish Government's aim of securing a monetary union after a Yes vote on September 18.
First Minister Alex Salmond has repeatedly rejected calls to set out a "plan B", such as a new currency or carrying on with sterling regardless.
Chancellor George Osborne ruled out a formal union last month.
Dr Angus Armstrong, of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said the Chancellor's position is "entirely rational".
He told Holyrood's Economy Committee: "The issue becomes, since that's been ruled out, what would be in an independent Scotland's best interests?
"Based on the aspiration, pointed out in the White Paper, to build a Scotland which reflects the values and aspirations of Scottish people, then I think you want to have something that allows you the policy levers to be able to do that.
"There is, in my view, only one option which allows you that full range and that would be your own currency."
Concern has been raised that a new currency would create new transaction costs to cross border trade.
Dr Armstrong said experience in other countries suggests there may not be a big difference, highlighting Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and what happened when Ireland broke its link to the UK currency in 1979.
"Looking at the trend of Irish exports to the rest of the United Kingdom... it's very hard to discern a break in the trend in exports," he said.
"That's not to say there's no effect, but it looks like the effect may be fairly small based on much of the evidence."
A new currency, pegged to sterling, would also be in the interests of the rest of the UK, he suggested.
Professor Jo Armstrong, an economist with the Centre for Public Policy for Regions at University of Glasgow, told the committee there are pros and cons for all currency options for Scotland.
"If I'm truly independent and I want full access to levers of power, I would want to try and make my own currency work," she said.
"That has got lots and lots or risks associated with it but it allows me to have absolutely full control of the fiscal levers, which is what an independent country would want."
The comments were welcomed by the Scottish Green Party, which backs independence but wants the SNP to consider a new currency for the country.
Green MSP Alison Johnstone, a member of the Economy Committee, said: "It is increasingly clear that a Yes vote opens up opportunities that a No vote is extremely unlikely to. The need to create a fairer and simpler system of taxes has never been greater, and if we want to make different economic choices from Westminster we will need flexibility on currency in the longer term.
"There are of course a range of views on the way forward but crucially Scotland would get to decide. If we want an economy that works for everyone we need to put democratic decisions at its core."
Professor David Simpson, a Harvard-educated economist who has worked for the UN, World Bank, European Commission and Standard Life, told the committee that a currency union is likely, however.
In a written submission, he said: "A currency union based on sterling remains the most likely outcome following independence because it is in the best interests of not just Scotland but of England as well.
"It has been suggested that to work properly, a currency union requires political union, but the historical experience of those monetary unions between sovereign states that have been successful provides evidence to the contrary.
"It would be quite possible for Scotland to keep the pound following independence without entering into any formal currency union.
"Indeed, this would not only be possible but, if Scottish interests alone were to count, it would be desirable.
"The Bank of England would not act as a guarantor for Scottish banks or the Scottish Government.
"This is an advantage, not a disadvantage. It was precisely the implied promise of a bailout from the European Central Bank that allowed so many eurozone banks and governments to get themselves into a crisis of excessive debt." |
Billy Corgan ranks high on the list of music’s most vexing personalities, but The Smashing Pumpkins frontman seems to have finally found his match in conspiracy theorist and noted crazy person Alex Jones. When Corgan appeared on Jones’ Infowars talk show last month, he achieved an almost transcendental level of ignorance by comparing “social justice warriors” to the KKK. But, whoo boy, it looks like he was just warming up.
As Stereogum points out, another segment of that interview has been posted online in an Infowars video that introduces Corgan as a “musical icon and great patriot.” Corgan certainly expresses a lot of, ahem, patriotic ideas in the interview, expounding on how he feels about Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Let’s just say Corgan isn’t feeling the Bern:
“I can’t believe that we’re even having this discussion, if you can understand when I say that to you humbly. To be talking in America in 2016 about Mao is a good idea, and a socialist is running for president and that’s OK, and we’re going to go back to these crazy tax rates where we’re going to completely disempower the innovators in our country because the new technocratic class wants to keep their position and they want to keep anybody else from coming in the game… I mean, it’s just crazy to me.”
Corgan seems to have Sanders’ message of social empowerment mixed up with somebody else’s, but why stop him while he’s on a roll? After making the broad generalization that “people in the entertainment industry do not care about facts,” he delivered a hard-hitting take on the people who protest outside of Donald Trump rallies:
“When I watch some of the clips that you guys have been been putting up at some of these protests, I have no respect for what these people are doing. They’re shutting down free speech… If they have that level of vitriol for let’s say Donald Trump as a candidate, because they feel it’s antithetical to what they believe in, where is the five times greater condemnation for those societies that are treating their people far worse than just words and ideas? It’s always interesting to me how people kind of pick their spots.”
Corgan’s talk on free speech then devolves into the typical New World Order stuff Infowars is known for, complete with some totally eye-opening comparisons to George Orwell’s Animal Farm and The Matrix. If you feel like losing some IQ points, watch the complete interview below. |
Tonight’s Geminids are going to be the biggest meteor shower of this year, and you absolutely should not miss it. Here’s when, where, and how to watch the Geminid meteor shower—and what you should be looking for when you do.
What are the Geminids?
The Geminids are a mid-December meteor shower (this year peaking Sunday, December 13th) formed by the debris of comet 3200 Phaeton burning up in our atmosphere. Phaeton is unusual in that it was only recently recognized as a comet at all.
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For many years, astronomers thought that Phaethon was really a large asteroid, due to its total lack of ice. Eventually, researchers figured out that Phaethon’s lack of ice was simply due to how close its path was to the sun, and they reclassified it as an extinct comet or a “rock comet.” That extinct comet is responsible for the Geminids you’ll see this weekend.
Top image: 2014 Geminids over Nevada / David Kingham; Image of comet: Artist’s concept of rock comet 3200 Phaeton / NASA-JPL
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The Geminids are a fairly young shower—people didn’t even begin to keep records on the meteor shower until around the American Civil War. Initially, it was a light enough shower that it barely registered for any but the most hardcore of 19th-century astronomy geeks. Since then, though, the number of meteoroids simply exploded. Today, the Geminids are almost always the largest meteor shower of the year—and 2015 will be no exception.
This weekend’s Geminids are expected to blaze through the skies at a steady clip of 120 meteors per hour, according to NASA, though some observatories (like Slooh) are suggesting we could see up to 150. The closest we’ve seen to that in 2015 were the Perseids, which at their peak only reached 100 meteors per hour. In short, this will be an amazing show that you absolutely shouldn’t miss.
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Image: 2014 Geminds / Scott Butner
It’s not just the numbers of meteroids that you’re going to see that makes this weekend’s shower so exceptional; it’s also the meteors themselves—and some unusual behavior you may see when you look above.
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Image: 2012 Geminids over South Dakota / David Kingham
A Strange Show
Because Phaeton is a strange comet, the behavior of its meteoroids is also a little unusual. One of the marks of the Geminids is that—instead of the mix of ice, rock and assorted space debris you usually see falling in a meteor shower—these are just pieces of the rock comet breaking away. This means the meteoroids are more substantial than you see in most showers, which lets them fall deeper into our atmosphere and also creates longer arcs.
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Image: 2012 Geminids composite / NASA Marshall
The Geminids are also an usually slow shower—averaging at about 22 miles / second. This is excellent news for meteor-watchers because it means that you have a better chance of spotting some of those stunningly long trails as they spread across the sky.
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When you do spot those trails, you should also be on the lookout for something else: Color. Like last month’s Leonids, the Geminids are famous for showing up in something other than black-and-white. This is because of the elements that compose the meteoroids. While the Leonids often show up in shades of green and purple, the Geminids more commonly sport shades of yellow, blue, and green.
Image: 2013 Geminids / StarryEarth
So, How Do I Watch?
One of the (many) wonderful things about the Geminids is that you have pretty much the entire night to watch them. Although they’re expected to reach their peak in the pre-dawn hours of Monday, December 14, anytime after 9 p.m. on Sunday, December 13 should give you an excellent view of the show.
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This year should be especially good, though, because the new moon is on December 11th. By the 13th, it will still be just barely visible and is expected to set early in the night—excellent news for visibility. Skies should be dark, making clouds the biggest visibility worry. If you’re lucky enough to have a clear night, you won’t be disappointed.
Video: 2012 Geminids timelapse / Kenneth Brandon
What do I need?
There is one big drawback to the Geminids: In addition to being the biggest meteor shower of the year, they are also typically the coldest. In previous editions of Sky Guide, I’ve suggested you bundle up as needed for your own personal level of comfort—the time for such flippancy is past.
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This is a real winter meteor shower, friends, and this is not a drill. Hat, gloves, a warm coat, a flask of something warming (whether bourbon or coffee), blankets: these are your weapons in the fight against the cold and only by having them at the ready can you expect to last the night.
Images: Geminds 2013 / Dirk Essel
And you’re going to want some time out there because the meteoroids should be falling fairly thick. To spot them, a good bet is to start by looking at the radiant (the spot where the meteoroids appear to originate) and then cast your gaze outwards over the full sky.
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Go ahead and bring a star wheel or a sky-mapping app along with you to help find it. You can also find it simply by locating the constellation Gemini (it’s just slightly to the left of Orion) and looking right above.
Image: Geminids radiant, NASA / JPL
I usually recommend laying a blanket out on the ground or lying back on your car as the best way to get a full, overarching view of the sky. Not this time. Even if you don’t have snow, the ground is likely to be cold enough to send you inside quicker than you want.
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If you do get chased back inside, either by sky-blocking clouds or the chill, all is not quite lost. You can still catch up on the action online: Slooh always has a nice feed of the show broadcasting from the Canary Islands.
But really, the joy of meteor showers is in watching them live and in-person. So do a little preparation, and (with a little cooperation from the weather) you’ll see something to remember this weekend.
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About
Steve Austin.
Austin Powers.
Steve Austin Powers.
This project is to fund the creative process which will lead to the undoubted ultimate sketch, standup, possibly even film(??!) character of all time. A badass loner who doesn't trust anyone. A man out of time. A guy who drinks beers how a crazy person would and shakes his arms around. A man who loves women and cravats. Just think of all the things this guy could do.
POSSIBLE SKETCH IDEA:
STEVE AUSTIN POWERS: Oh Hell yeah baby! Mamma Austin didn't raise no fool baby! (making cat noises and clawing at the camera)
BANK TELLER(Sexy lady): Sir this is year 1990s and youre behavior is sdrivng me crazy.
STEVE AUSTIN POWERS: (is riding around the bank on an ATV shooting a tiny gun into the air)
Seems great right? IT IS. Here's the problems:
1. It's only three lines long
2. I didn't spell very well.
3. short on detail! Lets get more specific!
With your money I could flesh out this sketch. BUT THATS NOT ALL.
Here are some questions:
What does steve austin powers look like? What kind of combination of the two men's respective theme music does his music sound like? What form does his disrespect of women take? WHO IS HIS DAMN VILLAIN??? A COMBO OF VINCE MCMAHON AND DR EVIL??? OR WHAT????
I want to know the answer to these questions. And now that you've heard them, you do too. Here's the problem. I can't sit around and imagnineer this all day. I got a damn job. BUT WITH YOUR HELP! I can quit my job and FULL TIME develop the following:
1. ALL DETAIL OF THE CHARACTER
2. Vince/ Dr Evil combo, possibly named Dr. Evince. (IT WAS ME AUSTIN! IT WAS ME ONE BEEEEEEEELLLLION PERCENT)
3. Pay a professional band and studio to record his theme music
4. Purchase costume and props for the character
5. Hire actors to play non-Steve Austin Powers roles in work in progress items
6. Develop a screenplay as well as a series of 7 comedy sketches for the character
7. Fly me to Los Angeles and New York City to pitch the above screenplay and or sketches to every studio and television production company and theater in the USA
8. Pay me a modest living stipend while I do all of the above, as well as a fair wage for my role as Steve Austin Powers
To quote rage against the machine: It has to start somewhere, it has to start somehow. What better place than here, what better time than now?
We can create something great, together. I know we can. Thank you. |
I’ve heard of chia jam here and there, but I had yet to make it until recently. The thought of adding chia into jam is such a fascinating and why-haven’t-I-thought-of-this-before kind of thing.
Chia, the tiny little seed that’s becoming more popular by the day, is packed with healthy fatty acids, fiber, and protein. When in a liquid, chia also expands and becomes gel-like, making it a perfect natural thickener…and also perfect for jam.
The greatest thing about chia jams is just how simple and easy they are to make. You cut your fruit, cook it down, add some chia, let it sit for about ten to twenty minutes, and you’ve got jam! It really can’t get quicker and more homemade than that.
Chia gives me a way to make jam without having to buy anything outside of what I normally buy and use. I don’t make enough jam or preserve-type things to warrant buying pectin, what you would usually use to make jam. I prefer how natural and wholesome chia is over processed pectin. Pectin also doesn’t come close to having the nutritional prowess that chia does.
To give this strawberry jam some flair and earthiness, I added some dried tarragon. Feel free to use fresh if you’ve got some handy, or swap it out with another herb you love with strawberries.
Want more strawberry dishes from this series? You can find them here:
Nutrition DL: Strawberries
This recipe is part of a series called Nutrition DL. Nutrition DL gives you the download on seasonal fruits, vegetables, or pantry staples. Once you learn about the basics of the featured ingredient, I share a four recipes over four weeks to inspire and feed you with this great seasonal food. Check out other foods I’ve covered here.
Print Tarragon and Strawberry Chia Jam Ingredients 1 lb of strawberries, hulled and quartered
2-4 tbsp pure maple syrup, honey, or other natural sweetener (depending on sweetness of strawberries and your sweet preference)
1 tbsp dried tarragon
1 tbsp chia seeds Instructions In a medium saucepan, combine strawberries, tarragon and 2 tbsp of maple syrup (you can adjust to taste later). Bring fruit to a boil and let it boil until it breaks down and liquifies, about 10-15 minutes. If needed, gently mash fruit with a potato masher or fork to get the consistency you prefer. Taste jam and add any more sweetener, if needed. Add in chia and stir to combine. Cook for a minute, then remove from heat and let the jam sit for 10 minutes. If you want a thicker jam, add a teaspoon or so of chia seeds and let sit for 10 minutes more. Once jam has cooled, transfer to a jar or container and store in the refrigerator. Notes Adapted from Oh My Veggies 3.1 (c) 2013-2014 Small Eats |
WASHINGTON, DC — Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday morning that Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, an Obama-era policy protecting about 800,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors, will be rescinded.
Sessions did not take any questions after delivering his remarks. Initially, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders seemed to suggest that the announcement would be delivered by the White House, but instead the task was given to the Justice Department. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)
Starting on Wednesday, the administration will not accept any new applications for DACA. Registration in the program lasts for two years. Anyone whose registration expires in the next six months will have until Oct. 5 to apply for another two-year extension. But after DACA recipients' registrations expire outside the six-month window, they will not be able to reapply. This means, in part, that the hundreds of thousands of people who received work permits under the program will be forced to leave their jobs once their registrations expire.
Watch: The Trump Administration Just Announced The End Of DACA
"We cannot admit everyone who would like to come here," Sessions said. "It's just that simple."
He criticized the policy as "executive amnesty" and "overreach," and he said that it was only implemented after Congress failed to pass a similar program through the usual legislative process. He went on to say that the program contributed to the child migrant crisis on the Mexican border, and accused recipients of DACA of stealing American jobs.
In a statement issued from the White House Press Office after Session's press conference, Trump said, "I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents. But we must also recognize that we are nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws."
He continued: "We will resolve the DACA issue with heart and compassion – but through the lawful Democratic process – while at the same time ensuring that any immigration reform we adopt provides enduring benefits for the American citizens we were elected to serve. We must also have heart and compassion for unemployed, struggling, and forgotten Americans."
Reports have suggested for weeks that Trump was deliberating the future of the program. A group of Republican state attorneys general have forced the president's hand on the policy, which Trump previously said he would revoke immediately. If Trump refused to take action to curtail the program, the attorneys general would have sued the administration in opposition to the program — a case many observers expect they would win. Sessions is a longtime hardliner on immigration, and reports suggest that the attorney general was a strong advocate for ending DACA behind the scene.
Jim Acosta of CNN reported that administration officials said in a background call that DACA recipients would be treated like "any other person in the country illegally" after their status was rescinded.
Tuesday morning, Trump tweeted out encouragement to lawmakers to provide a legislative solution for the program's recipients: "Congress, get ready to do your job - DACA!"
House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement in response to Sessions' announcement, urging Congress to act to solve the problem DACA was designed to address.
"At the heart of this issue are young people who came to this country through no fault of their own, and for many of them it's the only country they know," he said. "It is my hope that the House and Senate, with the president's leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country."
Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader, asked for a vote on the the Dream Act, which would preserve protections for DACA recipients, "without delay."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced the administration's decision on Twitter, writing, "Americans know how heartless ending #DACA is; ripping apart families & telling ppl who have worked hard to become Americans they must leave."
Watch the replay of Sessions' press conference.
Write a letter to the editor of the White House Patch.
Follow us on Twitter.
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images |
Anchor Megyn Kelly has decided to leave Fox News to take a position at NBC, NBC News announced Tuesday.
Kelly will take a “triple role” at NBC, the network said — hosting a daytime news and discussion show, anchoring a Sunday night news show, and being a central part of the network’s special coverage of politics and other big events.
Kelly's "The Kelly File" was the second-most-watched show on cable news, behind only Fox's "O'Reilly Factor." Kelly is a 12-year veteran of Fox.
Her contract with the network expires over the summer.
“Megyn is an exceptional journalist and news anchor, who has had an extraordinary career” NBC News president Andy Lack said in a statement. “She’s demonstrated tremendous skill and poise, and we’re lucky to have her.”
“While I will greatly miss my colleagues at Fox, I am delighted to be joining the NBC News family and taking on a new challenge,” Kelly said in a Facebook post “I remain deeply grateful to Fox News, to Rupert, Lachlan and James Murdoch, and especially to all of the FNC viewers, who have taught me so much about what really matters. More to come soon.” The New York Times first reported Kelly’s move.
Trump took exception to a question by Kelly about his past comments about women, criticizing her on stage and later saying in an interview that Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever” during the debate.
Trump in January skipped a Fox News debate over his continued feud with the network and Kelly. But he sat down with Kelly for a one-on-one interview later in the campaign. |
The last and most stubborn myth is that of irreversibility. Whenever idealists say that they want to abolish nuclear weapons, so-called realists shake their heads and say, in tones of patient condescension, “You can’t stuff the nuclear genie back in the bottle.”
This is a specious argument. It’s true that no technology is ever disinvented, but technology does fall out of use all the time. (If you don’t believe me, try to get tech support on any electronic device more than three years old.) Devices disappear either because they are displaced by better technology or because they simply weren’t good. The question isn’t whether nuclear weapons can be disinvented, but whether they are useful. And their usefulness is questionable, given that no one has found an occasion to use them in over 67 years.
NOT everyone wants nuclear weapons. What most people don’t realize is that 12 countries have either abandoned nuclear programs, dismantled existing weapons, as South Africa did in the early 1990s, or handed them over, as Kazakhstan did after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. By contrast, only nine have nukes today (the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea).
It’s often assumed that Israel would be the last nation to give up nuclear weapons, given its history and a deep sense of responsibility to protect the Jewish people after the horrors of the Holocaust. But Israel has a powerful conventional military, is allied with the strongest country in the world and its leaders have a keen appreciation of military realities. They understand that nukes pose a greater danger to small countries than large ones. Twenty nuclear weapons used on Israel would do far more overlapping damage than 20 used on Iran.
Small nations have always been vulnerable. In a world without nuclear weapons they would preserve themselves as they always have: by forming alliances with the powerful and avoiding antagonizing neighbors.
France, not Israel, would most likely be the last country to give up nuclear weapons, which help preserve its image as a world power. In a nuclear-free world, France would just be another middle-size power with great cuisine. The real value of nuclear bombs is as status symbols, not as practical weapons.
America and other nuclear powers must pursue the gradual abolition of nuclear weapons, but it will not be easy. Many leaders have little interest in giving up power, real or perceived. Any agreement would have to include stringent inspections and extensive safeguards. It would have to include all current nuclear-armed states in a complicated diplomatic process. But bans on other dangerous but clumsy armaments, like chemical and biological weapons, have been negotiated in the past. These bans — like laws — are sometimes broken. But the world is far safer with the bans than it would be without them. |
I always wanted to see all the little things that happen when loading a web page in Firefox. I know how it works well as a Gecko developer, but to actually see the interaction and chaining is not at all always obvious, unless you study crazy NSPR logs. Hence, I started a development of a tool, called event tracer, to get a timeline showing the hidden guts.
Example screenshot will tell the story the best way, a trial run of www.mozilla.org load:
Planning improvements
At this time the work is not complete. There is a lot more to make this an actually useful development tool and my next steps are to hunt those requirements down.
I am using about:timeline to verify patches I review do what they intend to do. It can also help find hidden bugs.
However, using about:timeline for discovery of perfomance suboptimal code paths showed up being not that simple. Events are just spread all over around and connection between them is not easily, if at all, discoverable.
Hence, this needs more thinking and work.
First thoughts to improve are to more focus on “the resource” and a single object dealing with it. It might be better to show what all events are happening on e.g. a single instance of an http channel or http transactions then to tortuously hunt them somewhere in the graph. There is some simple way to highlight and filter, but that is not enough for an analytical view.
Then, I’m missing a general way to easily recognize how things are chained together. So, I’d like to link events that are coming one from another (like http channel creates an http transaction, then a connection etc.) and present the timeline more like a gantt chart plus show a critical path or flow for any selected pass through.
From inspecting the timeline it should be visible where bottlenecks and long wait times worth fixing are. At this time I don’t have a complete clear plan on this, though.
Still here? Cool :) If you have any though or ideas for how to use the data we collect and visualize as a valuable source for the performance optimization surgery please feel free to share them here. More on how the timeline data are produced check bellow.
How it works
This event track on the image is produced with a special code instrumentation. To get for instance “net::http::transaction” traces, following 3 places of the code have been instrumented (in blue):
1. WAIT – record time when an http transaction is scheduled:
nsresult nsHttpTransaction::Init(uint32_t caps, nsHttpConnectionInfo *cinfo, nsHttpRequestHead *requestHead, nsIInputStream *requestBody, bool requestBodyHasHeaders, nsIEventTarget *target, nsIInterfaceRequestor *callbacks, nsITransportEventSink *eventsink, nsIAsyncInputStream **responseBody) { MOZ_EVENT_TRACER_COMPOUND_NAME(static_cast<nsAHttpTransaction*>(this), requestHead->PeekHeader(nsHttp::Host), requestHead->RequestURI().BeginReading()); MOZ_EVENT_TRACER_WAIT(static_cast<nsAHttpTransaction*>(this), "net::http::transaction");
2. EXEC – record time when the transaction first comes to an action, it is the time it gets a connection assigned and starts it’s communication with the server:
void nsHttpTransaction::SetConnection(nsAHttpConnection *conn) { NS_IF_RELEASE(mConnection); NS_IF_ADDREF(mConnection = conn); if (conn) { MOZ_EVENT_TRACER_EXEC(static_cast<nsAHttpTransaction*>(this), "net::http::transaction"); }
3. DONE – record time when the transaction has finished it’s job by completing the response fetch:
nsHttpTransaction::Close(nsresult reason) { LOG(("nsHttpTransaction::Close [this=%x reason=%x]
", this, reason)); ... MOZ_EVENT_TRACER_DONE(static_cast<nsAHttpTransaction*>(this), "net::http::transaction"); }
The thread timeline where an event is finally displayed is the thread where EXEC code has been called on.
What is the exact definition of the WAIT and EXEC phase is up to the developer now. For me the WAIT phase is any time an operation is significantly blocked before it can be carried out, it’s the time having the main performance affect we may be in particular interested in shortening. Few examples:
time spent in a thread’s event queue – duration from the dispatch to the run
time spent waiting for an asynchronous callback such as reading from disk or network
time waiting for necessary resources, such as an established TCP connection before an object can proceed with its job
time spent waiting for acquirement of a lock or a monitor
How to bind a URL or any identifying info to an event
The following instrumentation is used (in red):
nsresult nsHttpTransaction::Init(uint32_t caps, nsHttpConnectionInfo *cinfo, nsHttpRequestHead *requestHead, nsIInputStream *requestBody, bool requestBodyHasHeaders, nsIEventTarget *target, nsIInterfaceRequestor *callbacks, nsITransportEventSink *eventsink, nsIAsyncInputStream **responseBody) { MOZ_EVENT_TRACER_COMPOUND_NAME(static_cast<nsAHttpTransaction*>(this), requestHead->PeekHeader(nsHttp::Host), requestHead->RequestURI().BeginReading()); MOZ_EVENT_TRACER_WAIT(static_cast<nsAHttpTransaction*>(this), "net::http::transaction");
Here the http transaction event is set a host + path of the resource it loads.
The object’s this pointer, that needs to be properly cast by the developer, is what sticks all together. This is the main difference from how usual profiling tools work. Event timeline is providing a view of event chaining crossing thread and method boundaries, and not just a pure stack trace.
View details of a tracked event
Each event track is bound with e.g. a URL it deals with, where applicable. You can inspect the URL (the associated resource) and more details when an event is clicked on:
Wait between is track of the time the event spent waiting, i.e. the time the event has been scheduled and time of the execution start, both since the time tracking has been turned on. The number in parentheses is simply the wait phase duration.
Execution is track of time spent by execution, i.e. when the intended job it self has started and when it has actually finished. The parenthesized number is how long the job execution took.
Posted from is name of the thread the event has been scheduled at.
The Filter button is used to quickly filter this particular event plus it’s sister events out. How it work is described bellow.
The Zero time button is used to shift the “time 0.000” of the timeline to the start time of the inspected event, so that you can inspect recorded timing of other events relative to this one particular.
mxr link will open results of search for the event name in the code. This way you can quickly inspect how this event timing is actually instrumented and collected right in the code.
Filtering timeline events
You can filter events using two filtering functions:
By type of an event (e.g. “net::nttp::transaction”, “docshell::pageload” etc.)
By name of a resource an event has been associated with (e.g. “www.mozilla.org”, “/favicon.ico” etc…)
Filter by type – currently there are following event types so far implemented (instrumented). Yyou get this check box list after the tracer run when you click filter events at the top bar:
Each event has a namespace, e.g. for “net::http::transaction” the namespaces are “net::” and “net::http::”. You can turn on or off the whole set of events in a namespace easily. Currently there are only “net::” and “docshell::” top level namespaces worth mentioning.
Filtering by resource, i.e. usually the URL a particular event or set of events have been bound to, is also possible when you click filter resource:
You can enter the filter string manually or use the provided autocomplete. The by-the-resource filtering works as follows:
1. we inspect whether the string set as the filter is a substring of the event resource string
2. we inspect whether the event resource string is a substring of the string set as the filter
If one of these conditions passes, we display the event, otherwise, we hide it.
This way when you enter “http://www.mozilla.org/favicon.ico” as a filter, you see the http channel and transaction for this resource load, as well as any DNS and TCP connection setups related to “www.mozilla.org”.
How to use about:timeline your self
Create an optimized build of Firefox with --enable-visual-event-tracer configure option
configure option Install about:timeline extension
Run Firefox
Go to about:timeline
Press the orange [ Start ] button, you get the message the trace is running
Proceed with your intended actions, e.g. a page load, and let it finish
Return to about:timeline tab and press the [ Stop ] button
Wait a little to get your events timeline details
So, here it is. It’s a work in progress tho. I’ll keep updates. |
US President Donald Trump addressed the media on April 6 after an air strike against Syria. Credit: U.S. Department of Defense via Storyful
SOME of Donald Trump’s most loyal campaign supporters are criticising his decision to strike Syria, charging him with breaking his promise to keep the US out of another war in the Middle East.
Commentators on the far right have also criticised him for launching the strike without seeking congressional approval first — something he said on Twitter in 2013 would be a “big mistake.”
The President must get Congressional approval before attacking Syria-big mistake if he does not! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2013
Paul Joseph Watson, an editor at the conspiracy theorist site Infowars, said on Twitter that Mr Trump “was just another deep state/neo-con puppet.” He added, “I’m officially OFF the Trump train.”
I guess Trump wasn't "Putin's puppet" after all, he was just another deep state/Neo-Con puppet.
I'm officially OFF the Trump train. — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 7, 2017
Similarly, white nationalist Richard Spencer, also condemned the attack and hinted at supporting Democrat Tulsi Gabbard in the 2020 presidential election. Ms Gabbard met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in January and on Thursday criticised the missile strike as shortsighted and reckless.
Far-right commentator Ann Coulter has also voiced her opposition to the air strike and criticised Mr Trump in a tweet.
Trump campaigned on not getting involved in Mideast. Said it always helps our enemies & creates more refugees. Then he saw a picture on TV. — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) April 7, 2017
However, some of Mr Trump’s traditional adversaries have given support for the decision to launch the strike.
On the Democratic side, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered praise for the military action, claiming it was the “right thing to do.”
“Making sure Assad knows that when he commits such despicable atrocities he will pay a price is the right thing to do,” Schumer said in a statement. “It is incumbent on the Trump Administration to come up with a strategy and consult with Congress to implement it.”
House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi also gave mild approval for the attack, issuing a statement that called it “a proportional response to the regime’s use of chemical weapons.”
She added, however, that if Mr Trump “intends to escalate the US military involvement in Syria, he must come to Congress for an Authorization for Use of Military Force.”
Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham released a joint statement that said the action was a “first step” while calling for a cohesive plan for action in the war torn country.
“Building on tonight’s credible first step, we must finally learn the lessons of history and ensure that tactical success leads to strategic progress,” the statement read.
“That means following through with a new, comprehensive strategy in co-ordination with our allies and partners to end the conflict in Syria.”
US Tomahawk missiles, launched from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea, targeted airstrips, hangars, control towers and ammunition areas in Sharyat, central Syria, according to officials.
They suspect a mixture of chlorine and a nerve agent were used in Syria’s attack on the largely opposition-held Idlib province.
INTERNATIONAL REACTION
Britain has backed Mr Trump’s air strikes against Bashar al Assad after the “barbaric” chemical attack on Idlib which killed at least 72 people.
Downing Street called the targeted assault by US cruise missiles in the early hours as an “appropriate response” to the Syrian regimen.
The British government has offered its full support to Mr Trump after he ordered the strike, reports The Sun.
On Friday morning, a No 10 spokeswoman said: “Overnight, the US has taken military action against the Syrian regimen, targeting the airfield in Shayrat which was used to launch the chemical weapons attack earlier this week.
“The UK Government fully supports the US action, which we believe was an appropriate response to the barbaric chemical weapons attack launched by the Syrian regimen, and is intended to deter further attacks.”
The Defence Secretary confirmed the UK was given advance notice of the air strikes last night, but was not asked to get involved.
Sir Michael Fallon told the BBC his US counterpart James Mattis had notified them “this was to be a US-only operation”.
He suggested the strikes were a one-off, saying they were “designed to deter” more chemical attacks.
And he appeared to rule out the UK joining action in the future, telling Radio 4’s Today program: “We’ve all got to work much harder. We’re not committed to military action against Syria. Our parliament considered that before back in 2013 and turned it down.
“But we are involved in trying to get a political settlement in Syria and we will all be working harder to do that now.” |
Hillary Clinton is ahead in the polls in five key battleground states according to Public Policy Polling figures released today.
She leads her Republican rival Donald Trump in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia - which have a combined 86 of the 270 electoral college votes required to win the election.
However, Clinton only holds single digit leads in all those states with a margin of error of roughly 3.5% in each.
Poll: Majority of voters in five key swing states say Clinton won debate https://t.co/ehh18pc9uC pic.twitter.com/MGu3YBmwWg — The Hill (@thehill) September 29, 2016
She holds a 7-point lead in Colorado, a 3-point lead in Florida, a 4-point advantage in North Carolina, a 5-point lead in Pennsylvania and a 6-point lead in Virginia in head-to-head polling.
Clinton also polled favourably among younger voters across the board.
!!! Younger voters in key swing states say Hillary was the big debate winner - @ppppolls https://t.co/4nqNdKzzLP pic.twitter.com/HPHkN9cxDU — Mark Elliott (@markmobility) September 29, 2016
Meanwhile, in a separate NBC poll taken directly after the debate, Trump is trailing among independent female voters.
27% of likely women voters said the they thought worse of Trump since the debate while 30% said their opinion of Clinton had improved.
The survey also found that 68% of Trump's supporters haven't changed their opinion of him after the showdown.
Overall, the poll found 52% who watched the debate thought Clinton won, 21% went for Trump while 26% felt neither candidate did enough to win the contest. |
Keith Olbermann on March 30, 2015. [YouTube]
Broadcasting legend Keith Olbermann has a provocative new video piecing together a predicted end game for the resignation of President Donald Trump.
The segment began with the reading of a tweet from CNBC’s John Harwood, who Olbermann described as a small-c conservative journalist.
prediction just in from top R strategist: Trump resigns "once Mueller closes in on him and the family," Pence makes Rubio VP, "GOP recovers" — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 19, 2017
Olbermann went to list a number of recent news items about the investigation into Russian collusion and obstruction of justice.
“For a while now, I have thought the Trump presidency would end suddenly,” Olbermann said. The longtime broadcaster then told a humorous story from 1998, when NBC asked Olbermann to step-up for political coverage with Tim Russert because it was thought Bill Clinton might be resigning that very evening.
“This was, of course, the Clinton-Lewinski story,” Olbermann explained. “And it was breaking that suddenly and unexpectedly and for weeks now I have been anticipating that Trump’s last day in office will dawn like all the others. And then around dinner time it will suddenly break that he is about to resign.”
“I don’t know if that’s next Tuesday or next year, but I think whenever it is, that is what it will feel like,” Olbermann predicted.
He then re-read part of Harwood’s tweet, “prediction just in from top Republican strategist: Trump resigns ‘once Mueller closes in on him and the family.'”
“Would that work for you?” Olbermann asked. “Yeah it would!”
Watch: |
Crunchyroll announced on Friday that it will publish Roji Karegishi's manga tie-in to Studio Trigger and Mari Okada's Kiznaiver anime on its Crunchyroll Manga platform. Chapter #0 will launch worldwide on Friday at 8:00 p.m. EDT. Dengeki Maoh magazine will publish the manga simultaneously in Japan.
The manga's Japanese publisher, Kadokawa, is a new publisher for Crunchyroll Manga.
Crunchyroll will stream the anime series starting on April 9 at 11:30 a.m. EDT. The first two episodes will premiere at Sakura-Con on Sunday at 2:30 a.m. PDT. The event will screen the first two episodes, and then it will have a live stream of the early screening event in Japan, which will feature the voice actors Yuuki Kaji and Hibiku Yamamura.
The series will premiere on Tokyo MX, Tochigi TV, Gunma TV, and BS11 on April 9 at 11:30 p.m. The series will also air on TV Aichi and ABC Asahi Broadcasting, and it will also stream on Niconico on Sundays at 10 p.m.
The anime's setting is a fictional Japanese city named Sugomori City, which is built on reclaimed land. But as the years go by, the city's population is decreasing. One day, Sonosaki tells her classmate Katsuhira: "You have been selected to be a Kiznaiver." The Kizuna System, which allows Katsuhira to share his wounds, connects him to the classmates whose lives and personalities completely differ from his. The Kizuna System is an incomplete system for the implementation of world peace that connects people through wounds. All those who are connected to this system are called Kiznaivers. When one Kiznaiver is wounded, the system divides and transmits the wound among the other Kiznaivers. |
This article was first published in July 2013
Rich and powerful elites have long dreamed of world control. The ambitious Romans, Attila the Hun, great Muslim leaders of Medieval Spain, the Mughals of India all exercised immense influence over different parts of the globe in set periods of recognised ascendancy.
Sometimes tribal, sometimes national, sometimes religious, often dynastic, their success defined epochs, but was never effectively global until the twentieth century. At that point, with the future of the British Empire under threat from other aspiring nations, in particular Germany , a momentous decision was taken by a group of powerful and determined men, that direct action had to be taken to assert their control, and that of the British race, over the entire civilised world. It has grown from that tiny select cabal into a monster that may already be beyond control.
“One wintry afternoon in February 1891, three men were engaged in earnest conversation in London. From that conversation were to flow consequences of the greatest importance for the British Empire and to the world as a whole.”
So begins Professor Carroll Quigley’s book The Anglo American Establishment. It may read like a John Le Carre thriller, but this was no spy fiction. The three staunch British Imperialists who met in London that day, Cecil Rhodes, William Stead and Lord Esher, were soon joined by Lords Rothschild, Salisbury, Rosebery and Milner, men whose financial, political, and administrative powers set them apart. Some of these names may not be familiar to you, but that is a mark of the absolute success of this group. From the outset they insisted on secrecy, operated in secret and ensured that their influence was airbrushed from history. They believed that white men of Anglo-Saxon descent rightly sat at the top of the racial hierarchy and they fully understood the impending threat from a burgeoning Germany whose modern, expanding economy had begun to challenge British hegemony on the world stage.
The above named elites drew up a plan for a secret society that aimed to renew the bond between Great Britain and the United States [1] and bring all habitable portions of the world under their influence and control. The U.S. had grown rapidly in self-esteem, wealth and opportunity since the declaration of independence in 1776, but Anglo-American connections remained strong and would embroil her in the long-term plan for one world government. The meeting in 1891 was, in effect, the birth of the New World Order cabal.
Great financiers frequently used their fortunes to influence questions of peace and war and control politics for profit. Cecil Rhodes was different. He was determined to use his vast fortune not simply to generate ever-increasing profit, but to realise his dream, a dream he shared with his co-conspirators. Rhodes turned the profit objective on its head and sought to amass great wealth into his secret society in order to achieve political ends, to buy governments and politicians, buy public opinion and the means to influence it. [2] He intended that his wealth should be used to grasp control of the world, secretly. Secrecy was the cornerstone. No one outside the favoured few knew of the group’s existence. They have since been referred to obliquely in speeches and books as “The Money Power”, “The Hidden Power” or “the men behind the curtain”. All of these labels are pertinent, but we have called them, collectively, the Secret Elite.
Carroll Quigley revealed that Secret Elite influence on education was chiefly visible at the exclusive English private schools, Eton and Harrow, and at Oxford University , especially All Souls and Balliol Colleges . [3] This immensely rich and powerful group was given intellectual approval and inspiration by the philosophy of John Ruskin, professor of fine arts at Oxford. He spoke to the Oxford undergraduates as members of the privileged ruling class, telling them that they possessed a magnificent tradition of education, rule of law and freedom. He championed all that was finest in the public service ethic, duty and self-discipline, and believed that English ruling class tradition should be spread to the masses across the empire. [4]
But behind such well-serving words lay a philosophy strongly opposed to the emancipation of woman, had no time for democracy and supported the “just” war.[5] Ruskin advocated that control of the state should be placed in the hands of a small ruling class. Social order was to be built upon the authority of superiors, imposing upon their inferiors an absolute, unquestioning obedience. He was repelled by the notion of levelling between the classes and by the disintegration of the “rightful” authority of the ruling class. [6]Ruskin’s philosophy was music to the ears of the elitists. It gave their lust for global power the blessing of academic approval. What they did, they would claim, was not for them, but for mankind. They would rise to power on the spurious justification that the world would consequently be a better place for humanity.
Inspired by Ruskin, Cecil Rhodes and his accomplices created the secret society with an inner core of trusted associates called “The Society of the Elect”, who unquestionably knew that they were members of an exclusive cabal devoted to taking and holding power on a world-wide basis. [7] A second outer ring, larger and quite fluid in its membership, was named “The Association of Helpers”. At this level members might not have known that they were an integral part of, or inadvertently being used by, a secret society. Many on the outer edges of the group, idealists and honest individuals, may never have been aware that the real decisions were made by a ruthless clique about whom they had no knowledge. [8]
The man who exposed the secret society, Carroll Quigley (1910 – 1977), was the highly esteemed professor of history at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University , and a lecturer at Princeton and Harvard. He revealed that the organisation was able to “conceal its existence quite successfully, and many of its most influential members… are unknown even to close students of British History”. [9] Quigley’s greatest contribution to our understanding of modern history came with his books, The Anglo-American Establishment and Tragedy and Hope, A History of the World in Our Time. The former was written in 1949 but only released after his death. His disclosures placed him in such potential danger from an Establishment backlash that it was never published in his lifetime. In a 1974 radio broadcast, Quigley warned the interviewer, Rudy Maxa of the Washington Post, “You better be discreet. You have to protect my future as well as your own.” [10]
Quigley had received assistance of a “personal nature” from individuals close to what he called the “Group”, but “for obvious reasons” he could not reveal their names. [11] He made it clear that evidence about them was not hard to find “if you know where to look,”[12] and it has to be asked why generations of historians have failed to pursue his trail. Though sworn to secrecy, Professor Quigley revealed in the radio interview that Sir Alfred Zimmern, the British historian and political scientist, had confirmed the names of the main protagonists within the secret society. Without a shadow of doubt, Zimmern himself was a close associate of those at the centre of real power in Britain. He knew most of the key figures personally and was himself a member of the inner core of the secret society for twelve years between 1910 and 1922. [13]
The enigma of Professor Quigley’s work lies in his statement that while the secret cabal had brought many of the things he held dear close to disaster, he generally agreed with its goals and aims. [14] Were these merely words of self-preservation? Be mindful of his warning to Rudy Maxa as late as 1974. Quigley clearly felt that these revelations placed him in danger. Unknown persons removed his major work, Tragedy and Hope, from the bookstore shelves in America , and it was withdrawn from sale without any justification soon after its release. The book’s original plates were unaccountably destroyed by Quigley’s publisher, the Macmillan Company, who, for the next six years “lied, lied, lied” to him and deliberately misled him into believing that it would be reprinted. [15] Why? What pressures obliged a major publishing house to take such extreme action? Quigley stated categorically that powerful people had suppressed the book because it exposed matters that they did not want known. The reader has to understand that we are discussing individuals whose power, influence and control were unrivalled.
From the very start, each of the initial conspirators brought valuable qualities and connections to the society. Cecil Rhodes was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and master and commander of a vast area of Southern Africa which some were already beginning to call Rhodesia . His wealth had been underwritten by brutal native suppression [16] and the global mining interests of the House of Rothschild, [17] to whom he was answerable. William Stead was the most prominent journalist of his day and a voice to which ordinary people listened. Lord Esher represented the interests of the monarchy from Queen Victoria ’s final years, through the exuberant excesses of King Edward VII, to the more sedate but pliable King George V. His influence was immense because he operated between monarchs, the aristocracy and leading political figures. He chaired important secret committees, was responsible for appointments to the Cabinet, the senior ranks of the diplomatic corps and voiced strong personal opinion on top army posts. [18] Esher exerted a power behind the throne far in excess of his constitutional position. His role of powerbroker on behalf of the Secret Elite was without equal. Indeed Professor Quigley dubbed him, “the greatest wire puller of the period.” [19]
Another name that pervaded all that was powerful and influential during this period was that of the Rothschild dynasty, and Quigley placed Lord Nathaniel (Natty) Rothschild within the very core of the secret organization. [20] Rothschild was all-powerful in British and world banking and virtually untouchable.
“The House of Rothschild was immensely more powerful than any financial empire that had ever preceded it. It commanded vast wealth. It was international. It was independent. Royal governments were nervous of it because they could not control it. Popular movements hated it because it was not answerable to the people. Constitutionalists resented it because its influence was exercised behind the scenes – secretly.” [21]
Taken together, the principal players, Rhodes, Stead, Esher, Rothschild and Milner represented a new force that was emerging inside British politics, but powerful old traditional aristocratic families that had long dominated Westminster , often in cahoots with the reigning monarch, were also deeply involved, and none more so than the Cecil family. Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, the patriarchal 3rd Marquis of Salisbury, ruled the Conservative Party at the latter end of the nineteenth century. He served as prime minister three times for a total of fourteen years, between 1885 and 1902 (longer than anyone else in recent history). When he retired as prime minister in July 1902, he handed over the reins of government to his sister’s son, Arthur Balfour. Lord Salisbury had four siblings, five sons and three daughters who were all linked and interlinked by marriage to individuals in the upper echelons of the English ruling class. Important government positions were given to relations, friends and wealthy supporters who proved their gratitude by ensuring that his views became policy in government, civil service and diplomatic circles. This extended ‘Cecil-Bloc’ was intricately linked to “The Society of the Elect” and Secret Elite ambitions throughout the first half of the twentieth century. [22]
Another member of the inner core, Lord Alfred Milner, offers cause for greater scrutiny because he has been virtually airbrushed from the history of the period. Alfred Milner was a self-made man and remarkably successful civil servant who became a key figure within the Secret Elite and absolutely powerful within the ranks of these privileged individuals. He and Rhodes had been contemporaries at Oxford University , and were inextricably connected through events in South Africa . Rhodes recognised in him the kind of steel that was required to pursue the dream of world domination, “I support Milner absolutely without reserve. If he says peace, I say peace; if he says war, I say war. Whatever happens, I say ditto to Milner.” [23] Milner grew in time to be the most able of them all, to enjoy the privilege of patronage and power, a man to whom others turned for leadership and direction.
When governor general and high commissioner of South Africa , Milner deliberately caused the Boer War in order to grab the Transvaal’s gold and use the economic resources of South Africa to extend and perpetuate Secret Elite control. He had the grace to confess in a letter to Lord Roberts, Commander in Chief in South Africa, that
“I precipitated the crisis, which was inevitable, before it was too late. It is not very agreeable, and in many eyes, not very creditable piece of business to have been largely instrumental in bringing about a big war.” [24]
This was no immodest boast. Alfred Milner’s matter-of-fact explanation displayed the cold objectivity that drove the Secret Elite cause. War was unfortunate, but necessary. It had to be. They were not afraid of war.
The Secret Elite’s war against the Dutch settlers began in October 1899 and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902. The Boer Republics were annexed to the British Empire . The Transvaal ’s gold was finally in the hands of the Secret Elite at a cost of some 70,000 dead on the battlefields, plus 32,000 dead in British concentration camps, including more than 20,000 children of Dutch descent. Some thirty thousand Boer farms were burned to the ground, livestock slaughtered, and the women and children put in British concentration camps. In the camps, the families of men fighting for the Boer army were punished by being put on half the already meagre rations with no meat whatsoever. [25] W. T. Stead, former member of the inner core of the Secret Elite who had resigned in disgust over the Boer War, was overcome by the evidence presented to him. He wrote,
“Every one of these children who died as a result of the halving of their rations, thereby exerting pressure onto their family still on the battle-field, was purposefully murdered. The system of half rations stands exposed, stark and unashamedly as a cold-blooded deed of state policy employed with the purpose of ensuring the surrender of men whom we were not able to defeat on the field.” [26]
20,000 children dying in British concentration camps were of little consequence to Milner. He was so driven that he ignored the weight of opposition ranged against him. He warned his friend, Richard Haldane: “If we are to build up anything in South Africa , we must disregard, and absolutely disregard, the screamers.” [27] It takes a very strong man to disregard the screamers, to ignore moral indignation, to put the cause before humanitarian concerns. Some frontline politicians find it all but impossible to stand against a torrent of public outrage, but those behind the curtain in the secret corridors of power can easily ignore ‘sentimentality’.
Milner’s period of stewardship in South Africa had a very important consequence. He administered the defeated Transvaal and Orange Free State as occupied territories, and recruited into the upper layers of his civil service a band of young men from well-to-do, upper-class, frequently titled families who became known as “Milner’s Kindergarten.” [28] They replaced the government and administration of the Boer republics, and worked prodigiously to rebuild the broken country. [29] The Kindergarten comprised new blood; young educated men – mostly Oxford graduates, with a deep sense of duty, loyalty to the Empire and capable of populating the next generation of the secret society. [30] In the period 1909-1913 the Kindergarten set up semi-secret groups, known as Round Table Groups, in the United States and the chief British dependencies.
Take Canada as an example. Numerous Canadian Round Table groups were established from 1909. Lionel Curtis and Philip Kerr of the Secret Elite’s inner core [31] went on a four-month trip to Canada in the company of William Marris from the “Association of Helpers.” The object of the trip was to lay the foundations for Round Table groups, to reinforce the values of the British Empire and prepare them for a war against Germany. They carried a letter from Alfred Milner to his old friend Arthur J. Glazebrook asking him to help establish the groups. Glazebrook became one of the most devoted and loyal friends of the Secret Elite’s mission, and so successfully completed the task that for twenty years he was head of the groups throughout Canada . Vincent Massey, a Balliol College , Oxford graduate and lecturer in modern history at Toronto University, was another important operative for the Secret Elite in Canada . He would go on to hold senior cabinet and diplomatic posts and became governor of the prestigious private school, Upper Canada College , and the University of Toronto . [32] Sir Edward Peacock, housemaster at Upper Canada College , and Edward Rogers Wood, a prominent financier and businessman, were likewise very close to the Canadian branch of the Milner group. [33] Other members of the Secret Elite connected to Canada were, Sir George Parkin, Percy Corbett, Sir Joseph Flavelle and George P. de T. Glazebrook. [34] The latter was the son of Milner’s old friend Arthur Glazebrook. He too had studied at Balliol College , Oxford and went on to teach history at the University of Toronto.
The Round Table Groups in Canada , as elsewhere, were merely different names for “The Association of Helpers” and only part of the secret society, since the real power still lay with “The Society of the Elect”. This all-powerful inner-core would bring in new members from the outer ring as was deemed necessary. [35] The alliance of powerful investment bankers, politicians, diplomats and press barons shared the same unwritten purpose, the destruction of German imperial power and the confirmation of Anglo-Saxon domination of the world.
Money was never a problem for the Secret Elite. As we have seen, Natty Rothschild, the richest man in the world, was directly involved from the beginning, but the ‘Money-Power’ extended well beyond that single source. The Rand multi-millionaires, Sir Abe Bailey and Alfred Beit were members of the inner core [36] and always willing to finance Secret Elite proposals, fund their propaganda groups, and back Milner. Sir Ernest Cassel, an investment banker and one of the wealthiest men in pre-war Europe , was likewise involved. Cassel , a close friend of King Edward VII, acted as go-between for the British government and provided personal funds for Lord Esher. [37]
Other great financiers and bankers, centred in the City, the financial and banking district of London, shared the vision of a single world power based on English ruling class values. The world had entered an era of financial capitalism where these wealthy international investment bankers were able to dominate both industry and government if they had the concerted will to do so. [38] This “Money Power” seeped into the British Establishment and joined the aristocratic landowning families who had ruled Britain for centuries. Together, they lay at the heart of the Secret Elite.
In his “Confession of Faith”, Cecil Rhodes had written of bringing the whole uncivilized world under British rule, and the “recovery” of the United States to make the “Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire,” [39] by which he meant a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America working in tandem with like minds in England. Clearly the United States could not be “recovered” by force of arms, so Rhodes dream was expanded to include the wealthy elites in the U.S. who shared a similar mind-set.
Rhodes suffered from heart and lung problems and was aware that his projected life span was limited. He wrote several wills to ensure that his fortune would be used to pursue his dream. Part of his strategy was to gift scholarship places at his alma mater, Oxford University , in the belief that exposure to British culture, philosophy and education would strengthen the best young minds from the colonies and, most importantly, the United States . Rhodes scholarships favoured American students, with two allocated for each of the fifty States and Territories, but only sixty places for the entire British Empire . The “best talents” from the “best families” in the US were to be nurtured at Oxford , spiritual home of the Secret Elite, and imbued with an appreciation of “Englishness” and “retention of the unity of the Empire.” [40] Professor Quigley revealed that “the scholarships were merely a façade to conceal the secret society, or, more accurately, they were to be one of the instruments by which the members of the secret society could carry out his [ Rhodes ] purpose.” [41]
The Secret Elite appreciated America ’s vast potential, and adjusted the concept of British Race supremacy to Anglo-Saxon supremacy. Rhodes ’s dream had only to be slightly modified. The world was to be united through the English-speaking nations in a federal structure based around Britain . [42] Alfred Milner became the undisputed leader of the secret society when Cecil Rhodes died in 1902. Like Rhodes , he believed that the goal should be pursued by a secret political and economic elite influencing “journalistic, educational and propaganda agencies” behind the scenes. [43]
The flow of money into the United States during the nineteenth century advanced industrial development to the immense benefit of the millionaires it created, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Vanderbilt and their associates. The Rothschilds represented British interests, either directly through front companies or indirectly, through agencies they controlled. Railroads, steel, shipbuilding, construction, oil and finance blossomed in an oft-cut throat environment, though that was more apparent than real. These small groups of massively rich individuals on both sides of the Atlantic knew each other well, and the Secret Elite in London initiated a very select and secretive dining club, The Pilgrims, that brought them together on a regular basis.
On 11 July 1902, an inaugural meeting was held at the Carlton Hotel [44] of what became known as the London Chapter of The Pilgrims Society, with a select membership limited by individual scrutiny to 500. Ostensibly, the society was created to “promote goodwill, good friendship and everlasting peace” [45] between Britain and the United States , but its highly secretive and exclusive membership leaves little doubt as to its real purpose. This was the pool of wealth and talent that the Secret Elite drew together to promote its agenda in the years preceding the First World War. Behind an image of the Pilgrim Fathers, the persecuted pioneers of Christian values, this elite cabal advocated the idea that “Englishmen and Americans would promote international friendship through their pilgrimages to and fro across the Atlantic ”. [46] It presented itself as a spontaneous movement to promote democracy across the world [47] and doubtless many of the members believed that, but The Pilgrims included a select collective of the wealthiest figures in both Britain and the United States who were deeply involved with the Secret Elite. They shared Rhodes ’ dream and wanted to be party to it.
The New York branch of The Pilgrims was launched at the Waldorf-Astoria on 13 January 1903, [48] and comprised the most important bankers, politicians and lawyers on the Eastern Seaboard. They established a tradition of close interaction with British and American ambassadors. [49] The ambassadorial connections with The Pilgrims would prove absolutely crucial in linking the Foreign Secretary in London and the Secretary of State in Washington to the Secret Elite and its agenda for war. A number of the American Pilgrims also had close links with the New York branch of the Secret Elite’s Round Table.
In Britain , at least eighteen members of the Secret Elite, including Lords Rothschild, Curzon, Northcliffe, Esher and Balfour attended Pilgrims dinners, though the regularity of their attendance is difficult to establish. Such is the perennial problem with secretive groups. We know something about the guests invited to dinner, but not what was discussed between courses. [50] In New York , members included both the Rockefeller and Morgan dynasties and many men in senior government posts. Initially, membership was likewise limited to 500. [51] The power-elite in America was New York centred, carried great influence in domestic and international politics, and was heavily indulgent of Yale, Harvard and Princeton Universities . They conducted an American version of what Carroll Quigley termed the Secret Elite’s triple-front-penetration of politics, the press and education. [52] The Pilgrims Society brought together American money and British aristocracy, royalty, government ministers and top diplomats. It was indeed a special relationship.
Of all the American banking establishments, none was more Anglo-centric than the J. P. Morgan bank, itself deeply involved with The Pilgrims. An American, George Peabody, established the bank in London in 1835. In 1854 he took on a partner, Junius Morgan, (father of J. P. Morgan) and the bank was renamed Peabody , Morgan & Co. When Peabody ’s retired in 1864 it became the J. S. Morgan bank.
The Rothschilds had developed a close relationship with Peabody and Morgan, and following a crash in 1857 saved the bank by organizing a huge bailout by the Bank of England. Although American by birth, the Morgan family wore their affinity to England like a badge of honour. Despite stinging criticism from Thomas Jefferson that Junius’s father-in-law, the Rev John Pierpont, was “under the influence of the whore of England ,” [53] Junius sent his son to the English High School in Boston . J. P. Morgan spent much of his younger years absorbing English traditions, and was an ardent anglophile and admirer of the British Empire.
In 1899 J. P. Morgan travelled to England to attend an international Bankers Convention and returned to America as the representative of Rothschild interests in the United States . [54] It was the perfect front. Morgan, who posed as an upright Protestant guardian of capitalism, who could trace his family roots to pre-Revolutionary times, acted for the Rothschilds and shielded their American profits from the poison of anti-Semitism. In 1895 the Rothschilds had secretly replenished the US gold reserves through J.P. Morgan, and raised him to the premier league of international banking. [55] In turn, his gratitude was extended to another Rothschild favourite and leading figure in the Secret Elite, Alfred Milner. In 1901, Morgan offered Milner a then massive income of $100,000 per annum to become a partner in the London branch [56] but Milner was not to be distracted from the vital business of the Boer War. J. P. Morgan was an Empire loyalist at the heart of the American Establishment.
A second powerful bank on Wall Street, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., also served as a Rothschild front. Jacob Schiff, a German who ran the bank, came from a family close to the Rothschilds.[57] He had been born in the house his parents shared with the Rothschilds in the Jewish quarter of Frankfurt . [58] Schiff was an experienced European banker whose career straddled both continents, with contacts in New York , London , Hamburg and Frankfurt . His long-standing friend, Edward Cassel of the Secret Elite, was appointed Kuhn, Loeb’s agent in London . Schiff even dined with King Edward on the strength of Cassel ’s close friendship with the King. [59] Jacob Schiff had married Solomon Loeb’s daughter and, backed by Rothschild gold, quickly gained overall control of the Kuhn, Loeb Bank. [60] Schiff in turn brought a young German banker, Paul Warburg, over to New York to help him run the bank. Paul and his brother Max had served part of their banking apprenticeships with Natty Rothschild in London . Like the Peabody-Morgan bank in London , the Warburg family bank in Hamburg had been saved by a very large injection of Rothschild money, and undoubtedly acted as a Rothschild front thereafter.
On the surface there were periods of blistering competition between the investment banking houses and international oil goliaths J. D. Rockefeller and the Rothschilds, but by the turn of the century they adopted a more subtle relationship that avoided real competition. A decade earlier, Baron Alphonse de Rothschild had accepted Rockefeller’s invitation to meet in New York behind the closed doors of Standard Oil’s headquarters on Broadway. Standard’s chief spokesman, John D Archbold [61] reported that they had quickly reached a tentative agreement, and thought it desirable on both sides that the matter was kept confidential. Clearly both understood the advantage of monopolistic collusion. It was a trend they eventually developed to their own advantage. By the early years of the twentieth century much of the assumed rivalry between major stakeholders in banking, industry and commerce was a convenient façade, though they would have the world believe otherwise.
Consider please this convenient façade. Official Rothschild biographers maintain that the dynasty’s interests in America were limited, and that the American Civil War led to “a permanent decline in the Rothschild’s transatlantic influence”. [62] All our evidence points in the opposite direction. Their associates, agents and front companies permeated American finance and industry. Their influence was literally everywhere. J. P. Morgan, the acknowledged chieftain of the Anglo-American financial establishment was the main conduit for British capital [63]and a personal friend of the Rothschilds. Jacob Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb, another close friend of the Rothschild family, worked hand-in-glove with Rockefeller in oil, railroad and banking enterprises. Jacob Schiff the Pilgrim was both a Rothschild agent and a trusted associate of J. D. Rockefeller the Pilgrim. Morgan, Schiff and Rockefeller, the three leading players on Wall Street, had settled into a cosy cartel behind which the House of Rothschild remained hidden, but retained immense influence and power. Control of capital and credit was increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer men until the rival banking groups ceased to operate in genuine competition. [64]
This trans-Atlantic financial collusion underpinned the Anglo-American bond on which the Secret Elite built their dream of world domination. Political control moved hand in glove with the Money-Power. One of the problems the Secret Elite had to contend with was democracy, even the very limited choice that British and American democracy had to offer. Professor Quigley observed that Alfred Milner, and apparently most members of the Secret Elite, believed that “democracy was not an unmixed good, or even a good, and far inferior to the rule of the best…” [65] They, of course, believed themselves “the best” and their morality did not exclude the use of warfare to carry out what they deemed to be their civilising mission; a new world order based on ruling class values in which they would be first amongst men.
In Britain , faced with an electorate that frequently changed allegiance from the Conservative party to the Liberal party and back again, the Secret Elite selected reliable and trusted men to hold high office in both parties. Conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, a member of the inner circle of the Secret Elite, [66] and Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne began the transformation of British Foreign policy towards war with Germany in the sure knowledge that senior Liberals would continue that policy if and when the people voted for change. Herbert Henry Asquith, Richard Haldane and Sir Edward Grey were Milner’s chosen senior men in the Liberal Party and “objects of his special attention”. [67] Their remit was to ensure that an incoming Liberal government maintained a seamless foreign policy that served the grand plan. Their Secret Elite connections were impeccable. Together, with their good friend Arthur Balfour, they were intimately involved with the inner circles of the cabal. Their duty was to the King, the Empire, to Milner’s dream, to Rhode’s legacy. They confronted the same problems, analysed the same alternatives and agreed the same solution. Germany had to go.
The senior Liberals, Asquith, Grey and Haldane, conspired to undermine the anti-war Liberal Party leader Campbell-Bannerman from within and were supported by both the Conservative party leaders and King Edward VII, himself a key figure inside the Secret Elite. Every major step taken by the British Foreign Office from 1902 onwards was dictated by the overall objective to destroy Germany . Treaties with Japan , the Entente Cordiale with France and all of its secret clauses, the secret conventions agreed between King Edward and the Russian Czar had that single purpose. Simply put, the large field armies of France and Russia were needed to crush Germany .
In the United States , and indeed in France , political power was guaranteed by financial incentives and the appointment of suitable candidates, in other words through bribery and corruption. Senator Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island was chosen by the Secret Elite to be the voice of “sound economics” in the Senate. A wealthy businessman and father-in-law of J.D.Rockefeller Jr., Aldrich was known as “Morgan’s floor broker in the Senate.” [68] Shameless in his excesses, he used public office to feather his own very large nest. Public service was to him little more than a cash cow through which he built a ninety-nine roomed chateau and sailed a two hundred foot yacht. [69] Over a two-year period the Money-Power worked steadily on their chosen Senator to turn him into an “expert” on banking systems. Congress appointed a National Monetary Commission in 1908 with Aldrich as Chairman to review U.S. banking. Its members toured Europe , supposedly collecting data on various banking systems. Aldrich’s final report, however, was not the product of any European study tour, but of a collective conspiracy.
In November 1910, five bankers representing Morgan, Rockefeller and Kuhn Loeb interests, met in total secrecy with Senator Aldrich and the Assistant Secretary to the U.S. Treasury on Jekyll Island , an exclusive playground of the mega-rich off the coast of Georgia . Of the seven conspirators, five, Senator Aldrich, Henry Davison, Benjamin Strong, Frank Vanderlip and Paul Warburg, were members of The Pilgrims. [70] Their objective was to formulate a Central Banking Bill that would be presented to Congress as if it was the brainchild of Aldrich’s Monetary Commission.
The proposed “Federal Reserve System” was to be owned entirely by private banks, though its name implied that it was a government institution. Individuals from the American banking dynasties, including Morgan, Warburg, Schiff and Rockefeller, would hold the shares. It was to be a central bank of issue that would have a monopoly of all the money and credit of the people of the United States . It would control the interest rate and the volume of money in circulation. The Federal Reserve System constructed on Jekyll Island had powers that King Midas could never have contemplated. The objective was to establish a franchise to create money out of nothing for the purpose of lending, get the taxpayer to pick up any losses, and convince Congress that the aim was to protect the public. [71]
The Aldrich proposals never went to a vote. President Taft refused to support the Bill on the grounds that it would not impose sufficient government control over the banks. The Money Power decided that Taft had to go. Their support in the 1912 Presidential election swung behind the little known Woodrow Wilson. The speed with which Wilson was bounced from his post at Princeton University in 1910, to Governor of New Jersey in 1911, then Democratic Party nominee for the Presidency in 1912 made him the Solomon Grundy of U S politics.
Not only did the Secret Elite put their man in the White House, they also gave him a minder, Edward Mandell House. Woodrow Wilson was President of the United States but this shadowy figure stood by his side, controlling his every move. House, an Anglophile who had been part educated in England , was credited with swinging the 1912 Democratic Convention in Baltimore behind Wilson . [72] He became Woodrow Wilson’s constant companion from that point onwards, with his own suite of rooms in the White House. He was also in direct, sometimes daily contact with J. P. Morgan Jr, Jacob Schiff, Paul Warburg, and Democrat Senators who sponsored the Federal Reserve Bill. [73] Mandell House guided the President in every aspect of foreign and domestic policy, chose his Cabinet and formulated the first policies of his new Administration. [74] He was the prime intermediary between the President and his Wall Street backers. [75] The Anglo-centric Money Power had complete control of the White House and finally established its central bank in time for the Secret Elite’s war.
Ponder the significance of this coincidence. Provided with huge sums of Secret Elite money rerouted via St Petersburg , French politicians, newspapers and journalists were effectively corrupted to elect the Revanchistwarmonger candidate Raymond Poincare to the Presidency of France. By February 1913, two major powers, The United States and France, had new Presidents who were elected to office through the machinations of the Secret Elite. They had positioned key players in the governments of Britain , France , and the United States and exerted immense influence over the foreign ministry in Russia . Politics, money and power were the pillars on which the Anglo-Saxon elite would destroy Germany and take control of the world.
All that was left to concoct was a reason for war. The Kaiser’s refusal to be drawn into direct confrontation with France and Britain over crises in Morocco in 1905 and 1911 demanded a rethink. Public hysteria in Britain about spies was developed into a cottage industry, with barely literate novels and wild articles in Northcliffe’s papers portraying Germany as a dangerous warmongering nation of Huns preparing to pounce on an unsuspecting and ill-prepared Britain . Similarly in France , through blatant bribery and corruption, both the press and the Revanchistesin French politics fomented anti-German sentiment. But Germany remained stubbornly unwilling to become involved a European war.
From 1912 onwards the Secret Elite looked to the Balkans to provide the excuse for war. Alexander Isvolsky, their top Russian agent, had been strategically moved to Paris , from which vantage point he directed the Balkan agitation. The mix of ethnic diversity, religious animosities, political intrigue and raw nationalism was deliberately provoked into two brutal Balkan wars which in themselves could have brought about a pan-European war, but the Kaiser refused to take the bait.
Something more dramatic, more sensational, was needed. The notion propagated by many historians that world war was ‘inevitable’ or that the world ‘slid’ into war is crass. Chance was not involved. It required a complex set of manipulated events engineered by determined men to set the fuse. What remained was a spark to ignite that fuse. It came with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir-apparent to the Austrian Empire, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. Millions of words have been written to describe the events in Sarajevo that day, but none have ever revealed the trail of complicity that led from the gunmen back to the Secret Elite in London . Be certain of one thing. It was not the man who fired the bullet that caused a world war.
Thus war engulfed the known world to a degree that had no precedent. Histories have been written to explain away the reasons why, histories that favoured the victors and twisted the truth to blame Germany . How history has been manipulated, how evidence has been removed, burned, shredded or otherwise denied to genuine researchers remains a crime against truth, against humanity. The received history of the First World War is a deliberately concocted lie. Not the sacrifice, the heroism, the horrendous waste of life or the misery that followed. No, these were very real, but the truth of how it all began and how it was unnecessarily and deliberately prolonged beyond 1915 has been successfully covered up for a century.
Professor Quigley stated,
“No country that values its safety should allow what the Milner group accomplished – that is, that a small number of men would be able to wield such power in administration and politics, should be given almost complete control over the publication of documents relating to their actions, should be able to exercise such influence over the avenues of information that create public opinion, and should be able to monopolize so completely the writing and the teaching of the history of their own period.” [76]
Never were truer words uttered in dire warning. These Founding Fathers, the Secret Elite, began with Rhodes’ secret society and expanded across the Atlantic , always away from the public eye. They were deniers of democracy, men who always pursued their own malevolent agenda, who used this very process to advance their power. What they achieved in causing the First World War was but the first step in their long term drive to a new world order.
Gerry Docherty is a former head teacher. Jim Macgregor was a family doctor. They took early retirement and worked full time together for the past five years researching and writing Hidden History, The Secret Origins of the First World War – described at the Edinburgh International Book Festival as a “fascinating and incendiary book”. It reveals how historical accounts of the war’s origins have been falsified to conceal the guilt of the secret cabal of rich and powerful men (described in this article) and explains their manipulations and deceptions. Perhaps it will suffer the same fate as Carroll Quigley’s work, for there are many with cause to wish it suppressed. If you have an open mind and seek answers that have not been forthcoming, if you are prepared to dig further into a hugely important aspect of history, we invite you to read it.
For details visit the authors’ blogsite at firstworldwarhiddenhistory.wordpress.com.
Notes:
[1] W.T. Stead, The Last Will and Testament of Cecil John Rhodes, p. 62.
[2] Stead, The Last Will and Testament, p. 55.
[3] Carroll Quigley, The Anglo-American Establishment, p. 6.
[4] Carroll Quigley, Tragedy &Hope, pp.130-31.
[5] Joan Veon, The United Nations Global Straightjacket, p. 68.
[6] J. A. Hobson, John Ruskin, Social Reformer, p. 187.
[7] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 3.
[8] Edward Griffin, The Creature from Jekyll Island , p. 272.
[9] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, pp. 4-5.
[10] Interview can be heard at www.youtube.com/watch?v= JeuF8rYgJPk
[11] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. x
[12] Ibid.
[13] www.youtube.com/watch?v= JeuF8rYgJPk
[14] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. xi
[15] www.youtube.com/watch?v= JeuF8rYgJPk
[16] Neil Parsons, A New History of Southern Africa , pp. 179–181.
[17] Niall Ferguson, The House of Rothschild, The World’s Banker, p. 363.
[18] James Lees-Milne, The Enigmatic Edwardian, pp. 162-8.
[19] Quigley, Tragedy & Hope, p. 216.
[20] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 311.
[21] Derek Wilson, Rothschild: The Wealth and Power of a Dynasty, pp. 98-99.
[22] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, pp. 16-17.
[23] Stead, Last Will and Testament, p.108.
[24] Thomas Pakenham, The Boer War, p.115.
[25] Emily Hobhouse, The Brunt of War and Where it Fell, p. 174.
[26] W.T. Stead, cited in Hennie Barnard, The Concentration Camps 1899–
1902 at www.boer.co.za/boerwar/ hellkamp.htm
[27] Pakenham, The Boer War, p. 483
[28] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 7.
[29] Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, p. 138.
[30] William Nimocks, Milner’s Young Men p. 21
[31] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p.312.
[32] Ibid., p. 7
[33] Ibid., pp. 86-7.
[34] Ibid., p.314.
[35] Ibid., p. 4.
[36] Ibid., p. 312.
[37] Quigley, Tragedy & Hope, p. 216.
[38] Ibid., pp. 60-61.
[39] Stead, Last Will and Testament, p. 59.
www.publicintelligence.net/ the-last-will-and-testament- of-cecil-john-rhodes-1902/
[40] Ibid. p. 34.
[41] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 33.
[42] Ibid., p.49
[43] Ibid.
[44] Anne Pimlot Baker, The Pilgrims of Great Britain , p. 12.
[45] New York Times, 3 March 1903.
[46] Baker, Pilgrims of Great Britain, p.13.
[47] E.C. Knuth, The Empire of The City, p.64
[48] Baker, The Pilgrims of the United States , p.3.
[49] Baker, Pilgrims of Great Britain, p.16.
[50] While it is possible to list all of those in whose honour these dinners were organised, the individual members who attended remains a secret.
[51] Baker, Pilgrims of the United States , p .9.
[52] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 15.
[53] Webster G Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin, George Bush; the Unauthorized Biography, p.136.
[54] W.G.Carr, Pawns in the Game, p. 60.
[55] G. Edward Griffin, interview
www.://educate-yourself.org/ cn/ gedwardgriffininterview02apr04 .shtml
[56] Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, p. 951.
[57] Ron Chernow, The Warburgs, pp. 46-8.
[58] Stephen Birmingham, Our Crowd, p. 175.
[59] Chernow, The Warburgs, p. 51.
[60] Carr, Pawns in the Game, p. 61.
[61] Initially an outspoken critic of Standard Oil, Archbold was recruited by Rockefeller to a directorship of the company, where he later served as vice president and then president until its ‘demise ’ in 1911.
[62] Ferguson , House of Rothschild, p. 117.
[63] Chernow, Titan, The Life of John D Rockefeller Sr., p. 390.
[64] Edward Griffin, The Creature from Jekyll Island , p. 436.
[65] Quigley, Anglo American Establishment, p. 134.
[66] Ibid., p. 312.
[67] Terence H. O’Brien, Milner, p. 187.
[68] Gary Allen, None Dare Call it Conspiracy, Chapter 3, p8.
[69] Chernow, Titan, p. 352.
[70] Organisation for the Study of Globalisation and Covert Politics,
https://wikispooks.com/ISGP/ organisations/Pilgrims_ Society02.htm
[71] Griffin , Creature from Jekyll Island , p. 23.
[72] Ibid., p. 240.
[73] Ibid., p. 458.
[74] George Sylvester Viereck, The Strangest Friendship in History: Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House, p. 4.
[75] Ibid., pp. 35-7.
[76] Quigley, Anglo-American Establishment, p. 197. |
NEWS RELEASE FROM ECPD:
On 10-05-12 at approximately 6:30 p.m. a vehicle pursuit began in the City of Altoona involving several agencies. The pursuit continued into the City of Eau Claire when Eau Claire Police officers became involved in the pursuit.
The pursuit led into the 3rd Ward area of Eau Claire where the suspect vehicle crashed and the suspect fled on foot.
A short time later a home invasion was reported in that area and the caller advised that the suspect was armed.
The suspect acquired another vehicle and shortly after leaving the 3rd Ward was spotted again by police at which time a second pursuit ensued.
This pursuit ended in the area of Culvers where an Eau Claire Police Officer shot the armed suspect in the parking lot.
The suspect was transported to a local hospital and did not survive his injuries.
The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin State Patrol will be assisting in the investigation of this incident.
The suspect is not being identified at this time. The Eau Claire Police will not be answering any further questions at this time.
Further information will be provided in the near future after further investigations.
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EAU CLAIRE, Wis (WEAU) - WEAU.com is following developments after a chase through parts of Eau Claire.
(CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO THE RIGHT TO VIEW A SLIDE SHOW. HOVER OVER TO FIND "ARROWS" TO CLICK THROUGH)
We're still getting details.
We know it went down part of Clairemont past London road.
The Chase went on S. Hastings Way northbound.
We're talking around the Starbucks, the bowling alley, etc.
Brackett is blocked especially around the Culver's. Our news team heard at least 8 gunshots.
One of our reporters on the scene tells WEAU.com at least one person was taken away in an ambulance. It wasn't immediately known who that person was.
WEAU.com is learning police are planning on an extended investigation, so roads may remain partially blocked in the area for some time.
Brackett at S. Hastings way will likely remain closed until sometime Saturday morning.
The Eau Claire police spokesperson is at the scene, but not talking at the moment. We believe he will have some information to release soon.
Stay with WEAU 13 News for the latest on this breaking story and follow us on Facebook, for instant updates with pictures from the scene. |
A poll asking male students which female classmate they wanted to have "hate" sex with was too much to bear for Ryan Millet, a fourth-year Dalhousie University dentistry student and member of the misogynistic Facebook group Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen, according to his lawyer.
He blew the whistle on the 12 other members. "To see something so targeted and violent and hateful against someone that you care about is something else," Mr. Millet said in an interview with the Halifax Chronicle Herald. "That's not me. That's not what I'm about. And the people who know me would agree."
Facing a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday, Mr. Millet, 29, is the first, and only, member of the Facebook group to come forward and make his story public.
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Early last month, the father of three, who is originally from the American Midwest, quit the group, informed a female colleague that she was the target of offensive and sexist comments, and allowed her into his account so that she could gather the evidence for a complaint, his lawyer, Bruce MacIntosh explained in a statement provided to The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Millet told the Chronicle Herald he was added to the group and did not deliberately join it. It has been operating since their first year – and some posts were offensive, including one he reported to Facebook and it came down, he said.
"Really, the posts weren't super extreme," he said. "Obviously there were some foolish, boyish posts but the extreme inappropriateness and disturbing nature of the specific hate post that eventually came out – there was nothing of that insane level that caught my eye until it happened."
It was posted on Dec. 6, 2014 – which, ironically, was the 25th anniversary of the shooting deaths of 14 women at Montreal's École Polytechnique.
"When it did happen there were a few of us in the group that were immediately 'whoa,' shock factor, very upset, disturbed by the post," he said. "We honestly felt like the guys who posted it would come to their senses within minutes and realize this is was way too far."
Like the other members of the Facebook group, the university has suspended Mr. Millet from clinical activities and he cannot graduate until his suspension is lifted.
He talked about how close the class is – and so the hateful posts were made that much more upsetting to him. In the interview with The Chronicle Herald, he said he stayed in the Facebook group because he felt that even if he disagreed with some of the things being said he wasn't going to completely ignore them.
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"Ryan, alone amongst the Facebook group, took a vocal stand against those offensive posts," writes Mr. MacIntosh. "He alone forced the removal of earlier Facebook entries that were similarly disrespectful."
"Mr. Millet asked that his hearing be conducted in public, but his request was denied, said his lawyer. The "primary female target of the hateful Facebook poll," who Mr. MacIntosh identifies in his statement as "anonymous Student AB," is to appear before the discipline committee to say she "supports his legal efforts to have his suspension expunged from his student records," the lawyer said.
The university did not respond to repeated requests for comment. After the Facebook group came to light, it sparked protests by both staff and students of the university demanding the men's expulsion and ignited a discussion about rape culture across the country. The university has shielded their names and those of the female students as it has established a restorative justice process to deal with the matter. However, Alberta, B.C., Ontario and Nova Scotia dental regulatory bodies have said they will ensure that any of the male students from the Dalhousie 2015 class who apply for licences to practise will be scrutinized for "good character."
Mr. Millet's lawyer said he feels it is important that his story and identity be made public because it's about more than having his suspension lifted.
"I have advised my client that there is little value in winning the easy battle on suspension, if he loses the subsequent war on dental licensing and the trust of his patients," Mr. MacIntosh writes.
There are 19 women and 19 men in the core group of the fourth-year dentistry class. Shortly after the scandal broke, Mr. Millet wrote a letter of apology to his female classmates, which leaked to the local press.
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"While I did not play a direct involvement in the hurtful comments brought forth, I apologize for being a bystander," wrote Mr. Millet. "No father can stand idly by with this happening and consider himself a man. I knew it was time to step forward. My children deserve to know their father did the right thing.
"To the direct victims: I am eternally sorry for the damage caused by what has occurred. You deserve far more respect as daughters of God, and for the hard work you have devoted to getting to this point in your career," his letter said.
There has been much criticism about the restorative justice process. Some critics and students have argued that it was hurried to control any more damage to the school and a proper investigation of exactly who was involved was never conducted.
Last week, four of the female students released an open letter saying they will not participate in the restorative justice process, expressing concern that the university was pressuring them into it and "silencing our views, isolating us from our peers, and discouraging us from choosing to proceed formally."
Mr. MacIntosh is also critical of the process. In his statement, he writes, "… both perpetrators and victims alike were prematurely enticed into a restorative justice system which started with acceptance of guilt.
"To be clear, my client agrees restorative justice is an invaluable legal and social tool for those guilty of unprofessional conduct. However, that tool should only be used after there has been a due diligence finding of guilty conduct, not assumption of guilt by association with others."
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He added that Mr. Millet, as well as the 12 other students, has "been publicly pilloried and secretly convicted, without due process or the right to be heard. At least three separate times in the last month, a Dental School [sic] internal process has met behind closed doors and found him guilty of 'blatant unprofessionalism,' without once demanding a due diligence investigation or offering the opportunity to be heard." |
Nicholas Kristof is in Palestine, though like all mass media journalists he calls it "the West Bank." He has just discovered that many Palestinians are resisting the Israeli occupation nonviolently, though scholars of nonviolence started writing about the Palestinian resistance over 20 years ago. So Kristof is "waiting for Gandhi," as the title of his latest New York Times column puts it, or at least a "Palestinian version of Martin Luther King Jr."
Perhaps I should not be so cynical. Kristof has gained fame as a crusader for human rights, especially women's rights. Now he's taking a real risk by advocating for Palestinian rights and praising Palestinian resistance. Any hint of Israeli wrong-doing has undone many U.S. liberals in the past. And Kristof is giving more than a hint. His previous column detailed Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and clearly sympathized with their plight. He praised the work of Rabbis for Human Rights as "courageous and effective voices on behalf of oppressed Palestinians."
Kristof himself deserves praise for placing the Palestinians alongside all the other victims of oppression he has written about so eloquently. He's moving the mass media one more tiny step toward more honest and balanced reporting on the Israel/Palestine conflict.
But if a writer is not careful, every step forward can also be a step backward. By calling for a Palestinian Gandhi, Kristof clearly suggests that Palestinian resistance so far has fallen short of his high moral standards. He complains that "many Palestinians define ‘nonviolence' to include stone-throwing," so even when they claim to eschew violence their protests "aren't truly nonviolent."
That reinforces a self-serving stereotype we've been hearing from supporters of Israeli policy for decades: We Jews want peace, they say. We've even got an organized peace movement. But there's no Palestinian equivalent. It seems like those Palestinians are all a bunch hot-heads, implacably bent on violence. How can we make peace with them?
That kind of stereotyping spurs even more extreme views that are all too familiar: There's "no partner for peace" on the Palestinian side. "Those people" are so steeped in violence, there's no reasoning with them. They only understand one thing: force. And at their worst they ask: What else can you expect from Muslims?
I'm sure Nick Kristof didn't mean to promote that kind of simplistic anti-Palestinian prejudice. He sees good guys and bad guys on both sides. But when you are a top columnist for the nation's top newspaper, you are supposed to be smart enough to understand the implications of your words, to know what people can (and some inevitably will) read between the lines.
I don't know Kristof, so I can't say why he might have fallen into this trap. But I know the U.S. mass media coverage of the issue pretty well. Even when they begin to break out of their reflexive "pro-Israel" shell, mass media journalists are still plagued by lines of thinking that are so old, so deeply ingrained, that they go unnoticed. "Ain't it a shame those Palestinians are so violent. If only they'd turn to more peaceful ways, all would be well," is perhaps the oldest and deepest of those lines.
So it's not surprising that, even when a prominent columnist appeals for sympathy for the victims of oppression, he ends up indirectly but all too obviously blaming the victims.
Palestinians might well ask, "Who the hell is Nicholas Kristof to tell us how to resist the occupation anyway?" That's a good question. What can he really know about their situation after being with them for a day or two? Critics of American journalism have long noted the declining quality of our news from other countries. The main culprit, many say, is the ignorance of journalists who show up in a place for a few days or even a few weeks and write for the folks back home as if they were experts.
At a deeper level, there's the ever-present tendency among the stenographers of imperial power to assume that they've got the right to preach truth to "the natives" and tell them how to live their lives.
Even if Kristof had been living in Palestine for years, though, the question would still remain: Does he, or any non-Palestinian, have the right to tell an oppressed people how to resist their oppression? Maybe they do, if they've joined the resistance and taken all the risks involved for a long enough time to earn that right. But neither Kristof nor most any of the other non-Palestinians who call for a Palestinian Gandhi fit that description.
I've been teaching and writing about, and advocating nonviolence for a long time. From the beginning, I felt in my gut that I don't have the right to tell oppressed people to keep their resistance nonviolent, since I haven't shared in their suffering.
Eventually, I found in Gandhi's own writings a powerful theoretical argument to explain my gut feeling. It starts with the heart of Gandhi's teachings. He would have rejected the premise of Kristof's column: that nonviolence is a smarter tactic for the Palestinians, the best way to get what they want. For Gandhi, nonviolence was never a tactic or a way to win anything. It was a way -- the only way, he insisted -- to act out moral truth in daily life. The core principle of Gandhian nonviolence is to do the right thing in every situation, regardless how painful or even lethal the consequences.
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In other words, nonviolence is not about figuring out how to make the other side -- even when they are brutal oppressors -- change their ways. It's not about making others change their ways at all. Gandhi said that such efforts are senseless, because we cannot control the choices of others. All we can control is our own choices, trying to make sure that they are as morally correct as possible.
So telling other people what to do, how to live their lives, or even how to resist oppression simply doesn't fit Gandhi's vision of nonviolence. It's only about changing our own ways.
But when Gandhi spoke about controlling our own choices, he included in "our" not just himself as an individual but his people. That's why, in the vast corpus of Gandhi's writings, you'll sometimes find indictments of British colonialism and insistence that the British must leave India -- in effect, telling the other side what to do -- but far more often you'll find indictments of Gandhi's own Indian people and insistence that they (Gandhi said "we") stop cooperating with oppression.
If you're looking for another Gandhi, then, look for someone who addresses his own people's policy choices rather than telling others about what they're doing wrong and how to fix it. Kristof made a nod in that direction when he repeated the words of Palestinian nonviolence advocates like Moustafa Barghouthi, Ayad Morrar, and Iltezam Morrar. He could have found plenty of others. They've got the right to call for a Palestinian Gandhi, since they are talking to their own people.
The only thing Nick Kristof has the right to do -- and the obligation, Gandhi would have added -- is to address his own American people about the choices that Americans are making. If any Americans are publicly waiting for the next Gandhi to appear, they should be waiting and hoping for him or her not in Palestine or any foreign country, but right here in the U.S. of A.
Kristof, given his immense readership and influence, has a special responsibility. Rather than flying half-way around the world for a few days and lamenting his failure to find another Gandhi, he could be doing what Gandhi did: writing about America's failure to stand on the side of justice, which is the only way to stand on the side of peace.
As Gershon Baskin, Israel's leading expert on conflict resolution, recently wrote, the U.S. must play a central role if Israel and Palestine are to forge a just peace settlement. The two parties mistrust each other so deeply that they need a truly even-handed third party to bring them together and guarantee adherence to a peace agreement.
Though the Obama administration has moved a bit closer than its predecessors to an even-handed approach, it is still far from the genuine neutrality that the Palestinians must see if they are to come to any negotiating table. Foolish steps like bolstering Israel's nuclear arsenal are bound to move Israel and Palestine away from the peace that both sides need so badly.
For the sake of that peace, it's we Americans, not the Palestinians, who need to take up the torch of nonviolence. Until we do, it seems hypocritical to be blaming Palestinians for failing to live up to Gandhian standards.
But that does not mean we should sit around "waiting for Gandhi." The Mahatma surely would have scolded Nick Kristof and all of us who waiting for some extraordinary charismatic leader to rescue us from our wars and injustice. It's easier to wait for someone else to do the job than to heed the charge Gandhi famously left us: Be the change you want to see in the world.
We Americans have already had our Gandhi. And while we elevated him to the status of a heroic King, most of us conveniently forgot the most difficult parts of his message, his call to recognize our own nation as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world and to practice nonviolence no matter what the consequences.
Now, instead of waiting for another miraculously gifted leader, we should each be speaking out and acting up, doing whatever little bit we can. We may not see the greatness of a Gandhi or King again for a very long time. But that's no reason to give up the quest for nonviolent resolution of our problems. It's all the more reason for each of us to take responsibility for ourselves and our own people, to stop telling others what they should do and start, right now, changing what we do.
Meanwhile, when oppressed, militarily occupied people resist, let's recognize that it's not our place to tell them what means they should or should not use -- and certainly not when our own nation is contributing so much to their oppression. |
Some say VR is the future. Others say it's a fad. What we want to know is - what do YOU think?
Virtual reality is certainly one of the most interesting aspects of gaming right now, and over the past few months, we've seen an increasing number of developers jumping onto the VR bandwagon. But despite there being a great deal of hype surrounding the technology, opinions about it vary wildly. Some think it's going to be the Next Big Thing, while others feel it's niche technology for hardcore enthusiasts only. But what we want to know is - what do you think? Are you going to be an early adopter of the technology, or are you a sceptic? We're looking forward to hearing your opinion!
While you formulate your response, here's the USgamer team's take on VR tech.
Jeremy Parish Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Parish
"Thanks, but no thanks."
The fundamental idea behind VR — immersive visuals — is a pretty great one, and it's nice that we've taken enough baby steps toward realizing the dream that corporations are willing to show their rough drafts in public, but man… the tech is not there at all. Having tried PSVR, Hololens, and Oculus are basically like being surrounded by PS3 graphics on an all-encompassing low-resolution LCD screen. It's like being wrapped in a Game Boy Advance screen while little gremlins rendered in last-generation game graphics throw stuff at you. Neat for about 30 seconds, and exhausting thereafter.
Of course, that will rectify itself in due time. But even then, that won't resolve the bigger issue, which is that wearing a bulky, clumsy headset makes for an uncomfortable experience and also makes you look like a giant tool. No one looks cool wearing VR gear, which is why you never see VR stage demos. Enticing as the prospect of paying nearly $1000 to look stupid while clumsily interacting with bad game graphics sounds… nah, I'll pass. Not to get political here (too late!), but right now I kind of see VR the way I see Donald Trump's presidential campaign: A clownish, frankly horrifying disaster that no one actually wants, and yet it just keeps hurtling inexorably forward.
Unlike Trump, VR will eventually turn out OK. The price will come down, graphics and resolution will improve, and VR devices will move more toward the Hololens end of the spectrum in terms of wearability and comfort. Also unlike Trump, VR holds tremendous promise for the fields of science and education! In the meantime, I would personally like to thank all the people with tons of disposable income for being the test cases with which VR is refined into something that doesn't resemble a comedic car wreck. I look forward to joining you crazy one-percenters circa 2024.
Jaz Rignall Editor-at-Large Jaz Rignall
I'm an old-schooler who remembers VR when it got its first outing in the 90's. It was interesting then, and still remains interesting now, but I'm not completely enamored with the technology, despite the fact that it's evolved significantly over the years. I've played numerous VR demos, particularly Elite and Adr1ft, and while most were impressive, they remind me somewhat of 3D TV technology: It's something great to look at, but I've yet to see that killer app that makes me want to own my own pair of VR goggles.
What seems to separate most VR games from "normal" ones is the immersive experience they offer, but there's a premium to pay for that. Not just the out-of-pocket expense of purchasing a headset and needing a decent PC to run it, but also having to wear the technology which, despite strides forward in design, I still find comfortable only for short periods of time. Also, although they're good, I've yet to try a headset whose screen really blows me away. So far, the experience has always been slightly blurry for me. That might well be my long-sightedness, but if it's an issue for me, that means other people will have similar problems.
Ultimately, I think VR is guaranteed a place in gaming, especially over the long-term - but I think it will be more of a niche thing for some years to come. Something that appeals to those who really love that immersive experience, and are happy to pay the price for it. To be honest, I'm more excited about AR technology. I loved Microsoft's Hololens experience at last year's E3, and am very interested to see where it might go. Like VR, it's a long way from being perfect, but I just like the concept a little more.
Mike Williams Associate Editor Mike Williams
I've lived that virtual reality life from the beginning. I tried the original show model at E3 years ago, playing Doom 3 in VR without my glasses on because the headset wasn't built for them. It was a rough experience, but the potential was apparent immediately.
The technology has only gotten better. Over time. The screens have gotten better, the hardware is much lighter and more comfortable. I can see home VR as a thing now. Unfortunately, the sticker shock is in full swing. I certainly can't afford $599 for an Oculus Rift, nor can I drop $799 on an HTC Vive. I'm pretty much hoping that PlayStation VR comes in cheaper, but I'm not really holding my breath.
Do I think virtual reality is the future video technology through which we'll consume all of our games? Lord no. that's said, I do believe VR has its place in gaming and other markets. I legitimately think it's a game-changer, once the price comes down and developers get an understanding of what the technology can really do. I never really felt that way about 3D, which definitely came across as a gimmick rather than something that would really expanding gaming.
I'm probably the closest USgamer has to a VR guy, even if I'm not as gung-ho as some of my journalistic counterparts. Hopefully, I can snag a headset sooner rather than later. I'd totally be that early adopter type if my money was right, but those are the breaks.
Kat Bailey Senior Editor Kat Bailey
I'm on record as being a VR skeptic. I wrote the following earlier this year:
"For now, VR's true potential remains elusive. It's certainly worth pursuing, but platform holders have yet to prove to me that it can be more than an expensive toy for hobbyists. If anything, mainstream game development is actually trending away from VR as Steam, PSN, and Xbox Live are flooded with minimalist, old-school indie games. You could argue that VR will be the 3D IMAX movie of the future - a premium experience for the biggest games of the year - but even the most expensive movie tickets will only run you about $30. It's much tougher to sell mainstream audiences on paying $599 up front for that sort of experience. So I remain a VR skeptic. I'm not willing to write off VR entirely, but neither am I going to spend the equivalent of two consoles on potential, especially when that potential may have already been reached."
That said, it's hard to deny the amount of time and money being thrown at VR. I'm in the process of prepping for the Game Developers Conference right now, and every other appointment is on Oculus, HTC Vive, or Morpheus. Developers are excited, and why not? It's always fun to experiment with new gameplay experiences. I'm just not sure that it will ever receive any kind of mainstream penetration beyond the hardcore hobbyists who want it for their cockpit games and the like. Facebook and Sony are making huge bets that VR will be the way to experiment games and media in the future, and I frankly don't see it.
Nevertheless, the momentum is undeniable. I look forward to wearing a lot of sweaty goggles at GDC.
Nadia Oxford Staff Writer Nadia Oxford
Short answer: I think VR is here to stay. Kids are being introduced to the technology via Happy Meals and Cola-Cola, so unless they collectively reject it, I believe headsets will be a permanent part of the gaming landscape.
Long answer: Yes, VR is sticking around, but it’s not going to be a mainstay in the games industry until the companies behind the push can work out a couple of big problems.
First: Cost. Oculus Rift is $599 USD. HTC Vive is $799 USD. Prices are considerably higher outside the US, thanks to the country’s strengthening dollar. A game console is already a big investment for a family, and I can’t see the average “only-on-weekends” gamer picking one up (and if they do, it’ll probably be for a titillating web-surfing experience rather than games).
Second: There’s the issue of comfort. I suffer from motion sickness, and the prospect of even trying VR terrifies me. Just thinking of the technology gives me a headache and a flippy stomach. Valve swears the HTC Vive doesn’t cause motion sickness, but I once got barfy from a 3D Harvest Moon game. If Gaben is that confident, he should look me up as a test case.
I also have fibromyalgia, and my neck and shoulders are a bad problem area. Keeping a headset strapped to my face for any amount of time would be an issue, unless the Oculus Rift is lighter than air. I don’t think it is.
Still, I’m a child of the ‘80s and ‘90s, so I’m interested to see where VR goes from here. Bring on the neon-splashed digital dystopian worlds made of boxes and polygons! |
The previous time that Donald Trump supposedly solicited Hillary Clinton’s assassination from his campaign podium, the reverberations were massive. A Democrat super PAC reached out to “high-level contacts” in the FBI to demand Trump’s arrest, right about the same time a Clinton campaign staffer was drafting a fundraising email based on Trump’s comments.
As Twitchy reported, Trump on Friday served the media another supposed solicitation to assassinate his opponent, saying at a rally in Miami that Clinton’s bodyguards should be disarmed, adding, “Let’s see what happens to her” — not the best ad lib following a horrible week for the Clinton campaign.
No one freaks out over anything gun-related like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who after the Pulse nightclub massacre decided to blame Republicans for selling guns to ISIS. In August, Murphy scolded Trump for inspiring “unstable people with powerful guns and an unhinged hatred for Hillary,” and on Saturday he tweeted that Trump would have blood on his hands were anything to happen.
Hey @realDonaldTrump, if you keep suggesting your supporters kill @HillaryClinton, someone will listen. The blood will be on your hands. — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) September 17, 2016
Twitchy regular Joyce Carol Oates agreed, adding that supporters of He Whose Name Must Not Be Spelled (Cher has settled on a toilet emoji) would only cheer if Clinton were killed.
This would only boost his polls. Supporters would cheer as they do now at rallies to the cry "Burn the witch!" https://t.co/WQPn2sSlCe — Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) September 17, 2016
If only Kira Ayn Davis would show up right about now …
Do you seriously think T***p's supporters would not cheer? Perhaps you are too calm/ comatose. https://t.co/BQwSuwBsBq — Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) September 17, 2016
@JoyceCarolOates This is politics.Politics is not life. The day after whomever is elected we'll all get up &go to work like the day before — ImRightUrWrong (@RealKiraDavis) September 17, 2016
Except for the millions of unemployed, but yes. Even those who have sworn to move out of the country will be right where they were the week before.
Hope you are correct but this sounds like (pardon the expression) "white privilege." complacency not for non-whites. https://t.co/A9H0o9ZPjb — Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) September 17, 2016
Oh, please. Complacency is for white folk — which came as a surprise to Davis: writer, blogger, Breitbart Spirit Award winner, and well-known non-white person.
And now enjoy @JoyceCarolOates accusing me of #WhitePrivilge b/c I choose not to by hysterical about elections https://t.co/B9a4UwDxHG — ImRightUrWrong (@RealKiraDavis) September 17, 2016
.@JoyceCarolOates I'm sure @RealKiraDavis appreciates you explaining to her how black people feel. — Amelia (@AmeliaHammy) September 17, 2016
@JoyceCarolOates, Please tell us more what black people think, Ms. Whitey McMayonaise. — Chica'sBailBonds (@irinamoises) September 17, 2016
@RealKiraDavis @JoyceCarolOates Jesus. I thought she was a Dead White Author. Good for her… I suppose. — Matthew Hopkins (@General_Hopkins) September 17, 2016
@JoyceCarolOates I'm sure @RealKiraDavis appreciates you blacksplaining to her. Having white liberals tell her how to think is helpful. — The Gift of Brodigan (@brodigan) September 18, 2016
@bob_owens @JoyceCarolOates any black person who doesn't hold the right opinions at the right time is the face of white privilege. — ImRightUrWrong (@RealKiraDavis) September 17, 2016
@JoyceCarolOates oh good lord. No I do not pardon ur expression. Its not complacency to choose productivity over Twitter hand-wringing. — ImRightUrWrong (@RealKiraDavis) September 17, 2016 |
The Singapore-made Terrex 2 armoured infantry carrier has been shortlisted by the United States Marine Corps as the war machine that could be ferrying the elite troops to war zones as soon as 2020.
If chosen, the eight-wheeled amphibious vehicle will replace the ageing and lumbering troop carriers that the marines have been using since the 1970s.
Today, the Terrex is being used by the Singapore Armed Forces to provide foot soldiers with added cover and speed in the battlefield. It also gives them invaluable near real-time updates of enemy and friendly troop positions.
Clinching the Marine Corps deal, worth some US$1.5 billion (S$2.1 billion), will be the biggest coup for Singapore Technologies (ST) Kinetics, which designed and built the Terrex 2.
The defence contractoralso sold more than 100 Warthog - also known as the Bronco - armoured personnel carriers to the British military in 2008 for $330 million.
ST Kinetics' rival in the two-year- long evaluation is British defence manufacturer BAE Systems.
The Pentagon on Tuesday said each firm will have to build 16 vehicles to be delivered from January till 2017 for field tests, with the eventual winner producing more than 200 vehicles by 2020.
For this project, ST Kinetics is teaming up with US defence firm Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The Fortune 500 scientific, engineering and technology company, based in Virginia, will be in charge of wiring up the Terrex's weapons systems, among other things.
The Singapore-US consortium beat three other rivals, including industry heavyweight Lockheed Martin, to get this far.
Mr Jon Grevatt, Asia-Pacific defence industry analyst at military publication IHS Jane's, said it was an achievement for ST Kinetics to emerge as a serious contender for a major US military contract, adding: "Singapore's defence technology community is moving in the right direction and Singapore's continual investments in indigenous capabilities are paying off."
He noted that many countries, faced with shrinking defence budgets, want to get bang for their buck with customised, rather than off-the-shelf, capabilities.
"ST Kinetics knows it cannot just export now. It's about joining hands with foreign companies with local know-how to accurately meet the market's demand." |
With the baseball season heading into its final quarter, the Orioles likely will be making their pennant push without pitching coach Rick Adair, who was granted a leave of absence for personal reasons Friday and was replaced, at least temporarily, by bullpen coach Bill Castro.
Castro's spot will be filled by former Orioles left-hander Scott McGregor, who had been the pitching rehab coordinator in Sarasota for the past two seasons.
Manager Buck Showalter held a brief, closed-door meeting with his team before the clubhouse opened to the media Friday afternoon to, among other things, discuss the staffing changes. The specific reasoning for the decision — the second time in three seasons that the pitching coach has the left the team — was not detailed to the players or the media. Adair declined to comment Friday.
“When things are personal, I know everybody here knows what that means. It's not a matter of closing ranks or whatever, it's just we all have some things in our lives we need to take care of that are more important than this, believe it or not,” Showalter said. “We are just fortunate to be in an organization that's willing to do those things and we're fortunate to have people like Billy and Scott that can make it seamless. That's nothing to do with the job Rick was doing; Rick's doing a good job. There are some challenges we all have that we need to take some time and take care of.”
When asked whether Adair could return to the team in 2013, Showalter said, “Hope so. We'll see. That's up to how it goes. I'm not going to put a time frame on that.”
In 2012, the Orioles won 93 games under Adair's tutelage despite having a rotation with only one pitcher making at least 20 starts. The club's ERA was 3.90, sixth-best in the American League and 14th in the majors. Heading into Friday, the staff's ERA has jumped to 4.27, 11th of 15 teams in the AL and 25th in the big leagues. The Orioles have used 25 pitchers overall and 14 have started games compared to 26 in all of 2012 with 12 starting at least one game.
Adair, 55, joined the Orioles staff before the 2011 season as bullpen coach but took over pitching coach duties in June of that season when his good friend Mark Connor stepped down. Under contract through 2014, Adair, who has also been the pitching coach in Cleveland, Detroit and Seattle, seemingly brought some stability to a position that has changed frequently in the past — often in conjunction with the Orioles' myriad managerial switches of the past two decades.
If Adair were to hold the job until his contract expires next year, he would have the longest uninterrupted tenure as Orioles pitching coach since Mark Wiley from 2001 to 2004. At this point, however, Castro becomes the 10th person to serve as Orioles pitching coach in the past 16 seasons.
“This is not Billy's first rodeo. He's been a pitching coach in the big leagues and has been with us for two years,” Showalter said. “Billy's a very talented guy who is very adept at the job and job description. Players know him and like him and he's been part of a reason for our success, just like Rick has. And to have someone there like Scotty, who has been a jack-of-all-trades for us, he's been very instrumental last year and this year in the rehab program.”
Castro, 61, is in his second season with the Orioles and his 20th as a major league coach. A former big league pitcher, he spent most of his life in pro ball with the Milwaukee Brewers. He was their bullpen coach from 1992 to 2008 and served one season, 2009, as the Brewers' pitching coach.
“I felt uncomfortable when Buck talked to me about it. I want to be a pitching coach in the big leagues, but I don't want it to be this way,” said Castro, who was also the pitching coach for the Dominican Republic team that won the 2013 World Baseball Classic. “We'll do the best we can, and I'll hold it down until Rick gets back.”
Castro said his past experience as a big league pitching coach, and his familiarity with the staff, should ease the transition.
“It will be different because now everything's on my shoulders. But I've done this before and I'll be able to handle the guys,” Castro said. “I'm pretty comfortable with everybody here and I think the guys are comfortable with me. So I don't think it will be anything that drastic.”
Without naming specific members of the organization, Showalter said the club had internal alternatives to Castro and McGregor but that “this was the most seamless. I can give you three or four [qualified] guys but it'd be robbing from Peter to pay Paul. The priority, obviously, is the major league club and the pitching staff and we felt like, all things considered, this was the best way to go for whatever period of time it is.”
Adair and Showalter met on Thursday, but the decision was not made public until Friday. For many of the players, the news was fresh when they entered the clubhouse.
“It surprised me, just because I didn't know,” said starter Chris Tillman, who said he hopes to reach out to Adair soon. “But I think we are all on the same page here. I think we all know what we need to do and will go about our business the same way we have been.”
Tillman has now had four pitching coaches — counting Castro — in his five big league seasons with the Orioles.
“I think it's going to be easier this time because Billy has been around here for two years. He's out there for every bullpen; he knows what we're working on,” Tillman said. “He knows what makes us click.”
Castro and Adair had a strong working relationship and kept communication lines open, so Orioles reliever Tommy Hunter said he doesn't expect there to be any learning curve for the pitchers or for Castro.
“You can't really tell Rick something that Bill doesn't know and you can't tell something to Bill that Rick doesn't know about. So it's kind of like the Mom-Dad relationship growing up where you always have to ask Mom and then Mom says, ‘Go ask Dad,'” Hunter said. “It's kind of funny to think of it like that, but these guys are pretty on the ball as far as communication goes.”
Almost all of the Orioles pitchers also have worked with McGregor, who has coached at various levels in the system and been an instructor during spring training. One of the most successful and popular pitchers in club history, the 59-year-old McGregor was the Orioles' interim bullpen coach for parts of the 2011 season after Connor stepped down.
“I always told them I'd do whatever they needed me to do,” McGregor said. “And I got the call and I'm here. I'm just trying to help out however I can.”
[email protected] |
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. Thomson Reuters
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump met with the wife of an imprisoned Venezuelan opposition leader in February and tried to sympathize with her husband's plight by comparing life in the White House to that inside a Venezuelan prison, The Washington Post reported on Friday.
Lilian Tintori, who is married to the Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, was at the White House to discuss human rights in Venezuela.
Many view Lopez as a political prisoner sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison in 2015 on trumped-up charges related to a period of deadly antigovernment protests in 2014.
During the visit with Tintori, the president seemed unfamiliar with her and her experiences, The Post reported, though he reportedly knew enough to have "praised her past as a reality television star in Venezuela's version of 'Survivor.'"
The president and the first lady also reportedly tried to commiserate with Tintori through a source of their own discomfort: the White House.
Melania Trump said she sympathized with what Lopez had gone through in jail in Caracas, Venezuela, adding that the White House felt as confining as prison, two people familiar with the meeting told The Post. Donald Trump reportedly agreed.
The first lady's spokeswoman denied that she made that comment, telling The Post that Trump "only offered words of encouragement and strength."
After their meeting, the president gathered Tintori, Vice President Mike Pence, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for a photo, tweeting the final version with a call to release Lopez.
Tintori was reportedly elated with the meeting and Trump's condemnations of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government.
In the months since, Trump has leveled more sanctions on Venezuelan officials and businesses, imposed a travel ban on some Venezuelans and their families, and excoriated Maduro during an address to the UN General Assembly. |
Kurdish forces in the Syrian town of Kobane repulsed a new attempt by Islamic State fighters to cut off the border with Turkey Saturday as troops battled the jihadists in neighbouring Iraq.
It came as the US military said it had unleashed 25 more air strikes in Syria and Iraq since Friday, hitting Islamic State (IS) jihadists and oil infrastructure they control.
But while Washington said it saw "encouraging" signs, it warned the raids might not prevent the fall of Kobane, and its priority remained the campaign against IS in Iraq.
Despite a wave of coalition air strikes in recent weeks, Iraqi forces are struggling to regain and hold ground from jihadists.
As fighting raged, Iraqi MPs finally agreed on the choices of defence and interior ministers to spearhead the pushback, in a moved welcomed as a "very positive step forward" by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Heavy IS mortar fire hit the Syrian side of the border crossing with Turkey which is the Kurdish fighters' sole avenue for resupply and the only escape route for remaining civilians, Kurdish official Idris Nassen told AFP.
At least three rounds crashed onto Turkey's side of the border, one of them near a hill where the Turkish army is deployed, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
The jihadists launched a fierce attack from the east towards the border gate before being pushed back, Nassen said.
IS suffered heavy losses in the fighting and was forced to send in reinforcements, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The jihadists lost 21 of their people to air strikes and another 14 in ground fighting on Friday, the Britain-based monitoring group said. The Kurds lost three of their fighters.
UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura warned earlier this month that about 12,000 civilians remained in and around Kobane and risked "massacre" if the jihadists cut off the border.
Overnight coalition air strikes on IS targets elsewhere in Syria killed 10 civilians, the said the Observatory, which has a wide network of sources inside the country.
'Iraq our main effort'
Of 15 air strikes in Syria since Friday, 12 were aimed at "degrading and destroying their oil producing, collecting, storage and transportation infrastructure," the US Central Command said.
Three other strikes in Syria hit two IS fighting positions near Kobane and a military camp in mainly jihadist-held Raqa province.
The US commander overseeing the air war hailed "encouraging" signs in the defence of Kobane, but said the town could still fall and that Iraq remained the coalition's priority.
"Iraq is our main effort and it has to be, and the things that we're doing right now in Syria are being done primarily to shape the conditions in Iraq," said General Lloyd Austin.
In Baghdad, MPs on Saturday approved defence and interior ministers after weeks of delay.
Khaled al-Obaidi, a Sunni who was named defence minister, was a senior officer in the air force of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
Gaining some level of support from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority -- many members of which are deeply mistrustful of the Shiite-led government and view the armed forces as an instrument of repression -- will be key to pushing IS back.
The American secretary of state congratulated Iraq's Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi.
"We had a very positive step forward in Iraq today," said Kerry. "These were critical positions to be filled, in order to assist with organising the effort" against the IS.
On Saturday, Spain announced it would begin training Iraqi forces later this year to battle Islamic State fighters.
Defence Minister Pedro Morenes made the announcement in Washington, where he has been meeting senior US officials.
Iraqi government troops are battling IS on two fronts -- in the Anbar provincial capital of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and near Tikrit, Saddam's hometown.
Ramadi is in a shrinking patch of territory in the predominantly Sunni Arab province where forces loyal to the Shiite-led government still hold ground, and its loss would be a major blow for Baghdad.
On Friday and Saturday, 10 air strikes targeted IS in Iraq, including five near the strategic Mosul Dam, north of Baghdad, the US military said.
But security in the capital also remains a problem with bombings killing nearly 50 people in the past two days alone.
The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously called for increased support for the Baghdad government in the face of the "vicious string of suicide, vehicle-borne and other attacks" in the capital.
The IS jihadists have committed a wave of atrocities including massacres of ethnic minority civilians and captured soldiers, and beheadings of Western aid workers and journalists.
In Syria's northern province of Aleppo, IS jihadists on Thursday executed a man they accused of filming their headquarters, and displayed his body on a cross, the Observatory said.
Meanwhile, two IS fighters, one just 15, were executed after being captured near Kobane by Arab allies of its Kurdish defenders, the monitoring group said.
First Published: Oct 19, 2014 09:01 IST |
Madrid: About 35 African migrants, including at least one rescued at sea from an overcrowded wooden boat, are among the top prize winners of Spain's Christmas lottery, according to the owner of the lottery agency that sold more than 1000 tickets that shelled out 400,000 euros ($602,480) each.
The winners who bought the tickets in the southern coastal city of Roquetas de Mar included migrants from Senegal, Mali and Morocco, agency owner Jose Martin told La Voz de Almeria newspaper in a story published on Thursday.
Among them was a Senegalese man named Ngame who told Spanish media that he and his wife were rescued by Spain's coast guard in 2007 when their boat with about 65 people aboard was travelling from Africa's western coast toward Spain's Canary Islands.
Outside the lottery agency, Ngame was in tears as he clutched a photocopy of his winning ticket with the number 79,140. He thanked Spain for saving his life and giving him the chance to play the country's world famous lottery. |
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NEW ORLEANS — A new health care provider network for LGBT seniors in New Orleans launched this week, Best of New Orleans reports.
The Greater New Orleans LGBT Elders Provider Network, launched Jan. 26, is designed to help address the health needs of the estimated 20,000 LGBT seniors who live in the region. As more people have come out over the years, LGBT senior needs are expected to be significant in coming years as the population of those 65 and older is expected to nearly double in the next 20 years as Baby Boomers reach retirement age.
The network targets therapists, case workers, doctors, business owners and health care students who may come in contact with LGBT seniors. Jim Meadows, director of New Orleans Advocates for GLBT Elders (NOAGE) told Best of New Orleans that LGBT seniors often struggle with isolation and are less likely to share information about their sexuality or gender identity with doctors. |
Former NFL player and scout Bucky Brooks knows the ins and outs of this league, providing keen insight in his weekly notebook. The topics of this edition include:
» What's going on with Aaron Rodgers and the underwhelming Packers offense?
» Why Minnesota's offense might be more potent without Adrian Peterson.
» Is Tavon Austin worth the big-money deal he signed this offseason?
But first, a look at the massive concern for an offseason darling ...
* * * * *
All offseason, the Oakland Raiders were touted as one of the teams poised to break out. But judging by what we've seen over the first two weeks of the 2016 campaign, a porous defense could prevent Jack Del Rio's squad from making a legitimate run at a playoff berth.
On paper, the unit appears promising, as it features All-Pro terror Khalil Mack and a bunch of high-profile offseason additions, including linebacker Bruce Irvin, cornerback Sean Smith and a pair of playmaking safeties (first-round pick Karl Joseph and Pro Bowl veteran Reggie Nelson). But after allowing 500-plus yards in back-to-back games, Oakland ranks dead last in a host of defensive categories (total defense, passing defense and yards per play, to name a few).
Sure, the Raiders have faced a pair of quality quarterbacks in Drew Brees and Matt Ryan. Since 1940, though, no NFL team has allowed more total yards in its first two games than Oakland's 1,035. When I read that nugget in the NFL Media research packet, I was stunned. But I was truly horrified by what I saw from the Raiders' defense when I popped in the tape of their first two games. The unit not only lacked gap discipline and hustle against the run, but the secondary completely failed to hold up in man or zone coverage. And then there's the lack of a legitimate pass rush from a front line that features a monster (Mack) and a big-money speed rusher (Irvin). Seriously, what gives?
Now, I know two games don't make a season, but teams will exploit vulnerabilities that show up on tape -- and Oakland's defense has been completely exposed by a pair of NFC South offenses. The unit has surrendered big plays at an alarming rate, as evidenced by the fact that the Raiders are yielding an astounding 8.02 yards per play. While the run defense has been spotty at best, the Raiders have repeatedly failed to keep things in front of them. The secondary, in particular, has allowed the ball to fly over the top -- Oakland has yielded five passing plays of 40-plus yards (a league high).
Studying the All-22 Coaches Film, I could point out several poor plays from a number of defensive backs, but Sean Smith quickly has become the guy offensive coordinators have targeted. Despite coming over as a big-money free agent in the offseason, the eighth-year veteran has struggled at right corner for the Raiders. He has been spun around like a top in press coverage and his lack of top-end speed has been routinely exposed on vertical routes.
Against the Saints , in particular, Smith had a tough time defending the deep ball, as Willie Snead and Brandin Cooks took turns wearing him downfield. Smith just lacks the movement skills and agility to shadow shifty receivers, and New Orleans took advantage of this by using double moves and stutter-step releases to tie him in knots on the perimeter. Looking at the video clip below, Snead runs a "sluggo" (slant and go) on the veteran corner and Smith is unable to effectively defend the route due to poor eye discipline, shoddy technique (he didn't backpedal during the initial phase of the route) and lack of explosive quickness:
Later in the game, Smith surrendered a 98-yard score to Cooks with the same glaring issues showing up on the tape. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound corner failed to get his hands on Cooks to disrupt the route, and his poor technique (Smith didn't kick-slide or take a six-inch step to the outside to mirror Cook's speed release) allowed the Saints burner to win a foot race down the boundary on the fade route:
Although the technical flaws are correctable, the lack of athleticism and burst displayed by Smith on those plays will encourage future opponents to attack the veteran early and often, to see if he can hold up on the island without help.
Naturally, it is easy to cite Smith as one of the biggest issues plaguing the defense, but the Raiders haven't gotten quality play from their safeties, either. Reggie Nelson and Keith McGill repeatedly have been out of position between the hashes, leaving huge voids for quarterbacks to find receivers running free to the post or down the seams. These are certainly the vacant areas of a single-high defense, but the Raiders' deep players have failed to shrink those windows with proper alignment and positioning.
It's possible that the insertion of Karl Joseph into the starting rotation could improve the play between the hashes. With McGill starting the first two games of the season at strong safety, the No. 14 overall pick was limited to special teams duty. But he was a terrific ballhawk and playmaker at West Virginia prior to suffering a season-ending knee injury during his senior season. And reporting through this week has indicated that he's going to get his chance on defense this Sunday at Tennessee. He could add a much-needed spark to the unit.
Here's another thing: The pass defense will improve dramatically if/when the team cranks up its pass rush. To this point, the Raiders' vaunted front line has been a non-factor on passing downs. The unit has amassed just two sacks and failed to wreak the kind of havoc many expected when the team added Irvin to a group that features a two-spot All-Pro (Mack) with the skills to be a true game changer off the edge.
One of the reasons Oakland's pass rush hasn't been able to get untracked: a lack of "tee off" opportunities. The Raiders have failed to win on first down (i.e., hold opponents to three yards or fewer) and the inordinate amount of "mix" downs (offense can run or pass in a manageable situations) has prevented defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. from dialing up five- and six-man pressures, which create one-on-one opportunities for Mack and Irvin. With the unit unable to hunt the quarterback in advantageous situations, the pass rush has been neutralized by opponents using play action or misdirection (bootleg/naked) passes.
Speaking of Mack and Irvin, the Raiders still need to get more from their designated pass rushers off the edges. Mack, in particular, must be a bigger factor as a pressure player on the outside. After tallying 15 sacks in 2015, the 6-foot-3, 250-pounder has been neutralized at the point of attack and rarely come close to even sniffing the quarterback in the pocket. In fact, he has yet to register a sack or tackle for loss through two games, and his ineffectiveness has been quite surprising, considering how well he finished last season (with 11 sacks over the team's final eight games).
Looking at the tape, I believe opponents have done a better job of crafting game plans that limit Mack's one-on-one chances. For instance, the Falcons used a variety of multiple-tight end personnel packages and formations that forced Mack to fight through two or three bodies on the way to the quarterback. With Mack's game built on a variety of power-based maneuvers instead of finesse moves, he is unable to quickly overpower multiple blockers to get into the quarterback's face before the ball is released.
The absence of Mario Edwards Jr. (who's currently on IR with a hip injury) is also affecting Mack's production as a pass rusher. Edwards, at 6-3 and 280 pounds, is a disruptive penetrator capable of winning with speed or power at the line of scrimmage. Although Edwards' sack totals fail to accurately portray his impact, opponents respect his game and routinely double-team him at the point of attack, giving Mack more freedom to operate off the edge. Edwards played a major role in Mack's success down the stretch in 2015, and it's not a coincidence that the All-Pro hasn't had a sack in the past four games (going back to last December) without Edwards on the field.
With Edwards not expected to return to action until the latter half of the season, Norton needs to find a way to unleash his top pass rusher and get his defense back on track. Whether that's moving Mack around the field (he's primarily lined up at LDE/LOLB thus far) or using more stunts, Norton must do everything he can to maximize No. 52's talents. Otherwise, Oakland's defensive woes could prevent a talented young team from making the tournament.
ASK THE LEAGUE: What's up with Aaron Rodgers and the Pack attack?
After watching Aaron Rodgers and the Packers' offense struggle at Minnesota in a prime-time matchup, the Twitterverse has been buzzing about the two-time MVP's play. Critics have started to question whether Rodgers is still on top of his game and if the offense can get back on track after being mired in a slump for nearly a year. I placed a few phone calls to some of my buddies around the league to get their take on what's going on with Rodgers and Co. Here is what I asked -- and their responses:
What's wrong with Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers' offense?
AFC defensive coach: "Rodgers is still special, but he makes his plays off extended plays -- their explosives come off scrambles or him running around in the pocket. They don't have a strong running game and they lack exceptional receivers, so he has to make magic happen. It's hard to live on improvisational plays in this league."
NFC scout: "The quarterback isn't playing well -- and he hasn't since last season. He is making rookie mistakes from the pocket. They also need more speed on the perimeter. They have some fast guys on the roster -- Jeff Janis, Ty Montgomery, and Trevor Davis -- but those guys aren't getting onto the field. They should think about putting those guys in the mix to give him some help."
AFC pro personnel director: "Rodgers is still a great player, but their offensive line is not very good. They've had lots of changes along the front line and it hasn't come together yet. Plus, Jordy Nelson isn't healthy on the outside. By mid to later in the season, they will be fine."
MY TAKE
The Packers' offense has been out of whack for quite a while now, going well into last season. Like most observers, I thought Green Bay's offensive woes would be solved by the return of Jordy Nelson. The Packers' WR1 had emerged as one of the most explosive playmakers in the league prior to his knee injury in 2015, and his presence made life easier for the rest of the pass catchers on the field. But Nelson's return hasn't sparked the team's passing game and the receivers continue to struggle against tight coverage. Opponents are challenging the Packers' receivers at the line of scrimmage and they are simply unable to separate down the field. With defensive coordinators frequently using two deep safeties over the top to eliminate the deep ball (Cover 2-Man), Green Bay's having a tough time consistently moving the ball through the air.
It's the most important position in football -- and the most enigmatic. Michael Silver talks to players, coaches and executives about a nearly impossible job: quarterbacking an NFL team in 2016.
Eddie Lacy and the Packers' sputtering ground game has contributed to the lack of explosiveness from the offense. Green Bay's RB1 is averaging just 55.5 yards per game thus far in 2016, and defensive coordinators refuse to commit extra defenders to the box with an unproductive back in the "dot" position. The Pack's glaring weaknesses on the outside are exposed when defenders are allowed to focus on stopping the pass and shutting down a one-dimensional attack.
As far as Rodgers, the former MVP is not playing well and his frustration has led to undisciplined play from the pocket. Rodgers is electing to play sandlot football in hopes of producing big plays, instead of patiently picking apart opponents by targeting checkdowns or underneath receivers in the route progression. Although he has always bought time and extended plays when the pocket collapses, Rodgers is beginning to move around and scramble before the play has fully developed. This has not only disrupted the flow of the offense, but it has made it hard for Mike McCarthy to get into a rhythm as a play caller, with a number of long-yardage situations on tap. With miracle plays hard to find on the script, the Packers need everyone, including the star QB, to pick up their play and help the offense get back on track.
NEXT-GEN STATS: Why Minnesota could be better without Adrian Peterson
Adrian Peterson is unquestionably one of the best runners in NFL history, but the Minnesota Vikings' offense might improve with him on the sidelines until at least November due to a torn meniscus. I know that statement will draw the ire of "All Day" fans, but let's be honest: He has started to show signs of decline over the last year, and the offense has been stuck in neutral whenever he is on the field.
Despite leading the NFL in rushing in 2015 with 1,485 yards, Peterson has been one of the worst runners in the league over the past 10 games (including the playoffs), averaging just 3.3 yards per carry since Week 11 of last year (the lowest figure in football for a back with at least 100 carries). He has only topped the 100-yard mark twice during that 10-game span, and before going down with the knee injury, he started off the 2016 campaign with just 50 rushing yards in 31 attempts. Peterson's putrid average of 1.6 yards per carry ranks as the worst in the NFL since 1970 for a player with at least 30 totes through the first two games of a season.
In a bottom-line business, it's hard to continue to lean on a player who's failing to produce at a high level, but the Vikings certainly felt obligated to continue to hand the ball off to a guy with three NFL rushing titles and a 2,000-yard season on the résumé. Last season, Peterson accounted 45.5 percent of the Vikings' offensive touches (the highest mark for an NFL player) and 29 percent of the team's scrimmage yards (also an NFL high). That's a lot of work for a running back over age 30 in a young man's league.
Now, I know I'm being a little hard on Peterson, and his supporters will point out that his mere presence on the field helps the rest of the Vikings' offense work, but the numbers and film don't support that argument. Defensive coordinators were not loading the box with eight-man fronts (or plus-1 schemes that position an extra defender near the line of scrimmage to defend the run) with No. 28 in the backfield. According to Next-Gen Stats, Peterson faced an eight-man box on only five offensive snaps in 2016. I know the eyeball test will lead to some disputes over those numbers, but the Vikings' tendency to use run-heavy sets with two or three tight ends in tight or clustered alignments clouds the evaluation. Those defensive fronts aren't necessarily "plus 1" schemes. Thus, Minnesota just didn't face as many loaded boxes as many anticipated with Peterson on the field.
This brings me back to why the Vikings might be in better shape without Peterson.
Although the veteran back prefers to run from the "dot" position in an I-formation, the use of under-center sets or condensed formations doesn't play to the strengths of the Vikings' best offensive players: Sam Bradford and Stefon Diggs. This point is frequently overlooked with No. 28 on the field, but Minnesota's top weapons are most effective operating from spread formations with a shotgun snap. Bradford and Diggs excelled as collegians in spread offenses and they were most effective against the Packers when operating from open formations.
Looking at the All-22 tape, it was obvious Bradford was very comfortable directing the offense with the receivers in wide alignments across the field. The clever use of doubles (2x2), trips (3x1) and empty formations allowed the veteran signal caller to quickly sniff out the coverage and immediately get the ball into hands of his receivers on the perimeter. In addition, the space created by the spread alignments enabled Diggs to use his spectacular stop-start quickness and route-running skills to work away from coverage over the middle of the field. This led to Bradford compiling a 149.1 passer rating when targeting the Vikings' WR1 in the contest.
But the success of Bradford and Diggs is not a one-game aberration. Despite critics taking the Vikings to task for acquiring the oft-injured quarterback, Bradford has performed at a very high level going back to the middle of last season. Since November 2015, he has compiled a 68.5 percent completion rate (fourth-best in NFL in that span), an average of 280.6 passing yards per game, a 12:4 touchdown-to-interception ratio and a 99.6 passer rating. Those numbers not only suggest that Bradford is a capable passer, but that he can carry an offense on the strength of his right arm.
Diggs is clearly entrenched as the Vikings' top receiver after posting back-to-back 100-yard games to start the season. He is an electric playmaker with outstanding hands and ball skills. In addition, he is a crafty route runner with a number of slick releases and stems that make him nearly impossible to cover on the perimeter. With opponents unable to effectively bracket or double-team Diggs, Minnesota quarterbacks have enjoyed outstanding success when targeting the second-year pro (completing 16 of 20 targets for 285 yards and a touchdown, with a 135.4 passer rating).
I know it's crazy to imagine the Vikings' attack humming without No. 28 playing a major role, but Peterson's diminishing production made it necessary to tweak the offensive approach regardless of whether he was injured or not.
THE REBUTTAL: Is Tavon Austin really a No. 1 receiver?
That's the question that immediately came to mind when I heard the reports of the four-year, $42 million extension that Austin signed with the Los Angeles Rams near the end of training camp. Why in the world would the Rams commit big bucks to a receiver who averaged 41 catches and 378 yards per season over his first three NFL campaigns? I couldn't figure out how the Rams planned to get a return on their investment, seeing how they've failed to get the ball to the ultra-explosive -- but diminutive -- playmaker since he arrived as No. 8 overall pick of the 2013 NFL Draft.
That's why I had to make a trip to the Coliseum to get a first-hand look at how the Rams would showcase their most dynamic weapon on the perimeter. Most importantly, I wanted to talk to a few folks to see if I could get the scoop on why Austin is such an essential piece of this organization's offensive puzzle for this season and beyond.
Before I dig into this subject, I think it's important for me to reveal how I initially viewed Austin as a draft prospect. The 5-foot-8, 176-pound playmaker was an electric multipurpose weapon at West Virginia. Austin flashed impressive stop-start quickness, burst and running skills with the ball in his hands. Although he was exposed to a limited route tree as a slot receiver in the Mountaineers' spread offense, it was easy to see his potential as a catch-and-run specialist from the slot. In addition, I thought his potential as a gadget player (direct-snap runs, reverses, bubble screens and fly sweeps) could make him a nice complementary playmaker on a team with an established No. 1 receiver on the field.
Despite my intrigue with his talent and potential, I did have some reservations about taking Austin at the top of the draft, due to his small stature and undefined game. I worried about investing a top pick in a player viewed as a specialty playmaker, and I openly questioned whether Austin could ever live up to the lofty expectations that accompany a top-10 grade. WR1s in this league are expected to be consistent 1,000-yard players, or at least guys who deliver game-changing plays (touchdowns, receptions of 25-plus yards and/or punt returns) every week. Inherently, Austin headlined a pre-draft story I penned on the most overrated prospects in the Class of 2013.
Looking at his pro performance thus far, I believe it is fair to say the Austin hasn't lived up to the standard that most expect from a receiver taken eighth overall. He has failed to produce a 1,000-yard season to date and has only scored 19 total touchdowns (nine receptions, seven rushes and three punt returns) in 46 career games. Sure, he is coming off a season where he produced as a multipurpose playmaker, converting 104 offensive touches (52 receptions, 52 rushing attempts) into 907 scrimmage yards, but those numbers still aren't quite WR1 stats.
When I asked Austin about his role, he dismissed the notion that he is a classic No. 1 receiver.
"I'm an 'ATH' [athlete]," Austin told me. "I might not have the best numbers, but by the end of the each game, I will have some kind of impact."
I thought that answer was insightful because he used the "ATH" term that's often voiced by recruiting analysts when evaluating top high school prospects. Analysts normally tag two-way players or multi-position playmakers as athletes on those lists. It is viewed as a term of endearment in some circles because it speaks volumes about the prospect's combination of speed, athleticism and playmaking ability. Thus, it makes sense for Austin to see himself in that light, based on his history as a high school player (two-time Maryland State Player of Year as a running back/slot receiver/returner at Dunbar High School in Baltimore) and collegian.
When Austin dropped that nugget on me, it led me to pause and rethink how I should view him, based on his skills and the way that he should be deployed. The fourth-year pro is unquestionably an electric playmaker capable of putting the ball in the paint when he gets chances on the perimeter as a runner/receiver. As a natural punt returner with explosive speed, quickness and wiggle, Austin excels at making defenders miss. His ability to create explosive plays with the ball in his hands makes him a dangerous guy to defend.
That brings me back to why the Rams paid big money to keep Austin in the fold for the foreseeable future. He is unquestionably the team's second-best offensive weapon behind Todd Gurley. In addition, he is the only receiver on the roster with the speed and explosiveness to threaten opponents on the outside and prompt defensive coordinators to alter their game plans. Thus, the team was compelled to reward him for his impact potential, despite his marginal production.
And actually, looking back at Austin's contract numbers (four years, $42 million), the Rams are essentially paying him like a top-tier WR2, according to league standards. His contract falls in line with the deals inked by Doug Baldwin (four years, $46 million), Allen Hurns (four years, $40.6 million) and Emmanuel Sanders (three years, $33 million). Although their roles on their respective teams vary, those guys are essentially viewed as low-level WR1s or top-notch WR2s around the league. Considering Austin's value to the Rams, the contract is sensible, based on how he impacts the offense as a primary playmaker.
When I spoke to a couple of Rams scouts about Austin and why it was important to retain him, they repeatedly told me that he is a "playmaker" and he has the potential deliver the "splash plays" the team needs in the passing game. While they acknowledged that they might've overpaid him a bit, the Rams wanted to send a clear message that they want to retain "their guys" when they come up as free agents.
Remember, the Rams dismissed a few long-term veterans (Chris Long and James Laurinaitis) and failed to re-sign a couple of core players, including Janoris Jenkins and Rodney McLeod, who had been key contributors. This led several vets to wonder if the team would commit big money to "homegrown" guys. Deals like Austin's help maintain chemistry and continuity in the locker room.
On the field, the Rams are still attempting to come up with a plan for Austin. When I spoke to members of the coaching staff in the offseason, I was told that he could be used as a Julian Edelman-type playmaker -- that he could catch 80 to 100 balls on a variety of option routes, short crossers and "flash" screens that take advantage of his skills as an electric "ATH" on the perimeter. Although it hasn't come to fruition to this point, Austin could eventually justify his big payday as the Rams' No. 1 option in the passing game, despite the critics taking exception to his substandard production as a WR1.
Follow Bucky Brooks on Twitter @BuckyBrooks. |
A table:
Playoff Hitting Team PA OPS Nationals 197 0.716 Blue Jays 264 0.713 Indians 203 0.694 Dodgers 263 0.679 Red Sox 108 0.655 Giants 192 0.616 Cubs 219 0.613 Rangers 110 0.575 Mets 32 0.354 Orioles 38 0.321
Here are the 10 playoff teams, sorted by playoff OPS. You see that all the figures are fairly low — this is always the case, because hitting is tougher in the playoffs. But at the bottom, the Orioles went away after one game. The Mets went away after one game. The Rangers got swept. Then there are the Cubs! The Cubs rank seventh, and they’re by far the worst among the four teams remaining. Point being, the Cubs haven’t hit much. They’re still in a good position, all things considered, but they haven’t hit much.
So what, right? It’s literally 219 plate appearances. It’s literally six games. That’s practically nothing. I just found a six-game stretch around the turn to September where the Cubs hit equally poorly, and nobody noticed. The easiest possible answer here is to point to the size of the sample. But, these are the playoffs, which means all the details matter. And there’s another factor here, one that makes easy and absolute sense.
One of the things I kept hearing all summer was that the Cubs were beating up on lousy opponents. And, yeah, they definitely were, which is what good teams are supposed to do against lousy opponents. The Cubs’ overall numbers were slightly inflated in part because they simply didn’t have to play against themselves. But it’s not like the Cubs *only* hit well against crap. They were pretty good, no matter what, and there are lots of ways to try to show this, but I’ll show you one way in particular.
I gathered a table of every single pitcher to pitch against the Cubs in 2016. I then sorted all the pitchers into four groups, in ascending order of adjusted FIP, or FIP-. I used this as a proxy for talent. The group with the best pitchers averaged a weighted 72 FIP-. The next group came in at 93. The two remaining groups came in at 112 and 147. You go from really good pitchers to really bad pitchers. Once everything was sorted, I started calculating how the Cubs’ hitters performed against the pitchers. The group with the smallest sample against the Cubs still had just short of 1,300 plate appearances.
Here’s a table, showing the relevant data:
Cubs Offense by Pitcher Quality Group PA Cubs OPS League OPS Cubs K-BB% League K-BB% Very Good 1290 0.667 0.632 18% 19% Pretty Good 1899 0.739 0.716 13% 13% Pretty Bad 1759 0.775 0.782 9% 10% Very Bad 1387 0.916 0.893 4% 6%
You can pretty much ignore the last two columns. Those are just there to show the Cubs never really got undisciplined. The meat is in the OPS columns. Take the Very Good group of pitchers, the ones who averaged a 72 FIP-. The Cubs had 1,290 plate appearances this year against those pitchers, and they managed a somewhat paltry .667 OPS. Yet, the league averaged a .632 OPS against the same pitchers — Cubs included — so you see the Cubs were still good, relatively speaking. They were above-average against the very good pitchers. They were above average against the pretty good pitchers, and the very bad pitchers. They were slightly below-average against the pretty bad pitchers, which is odd, but probably nothing. I didn’t, for example, control for the specific Cubs hitters facing each group. This research was done somewhat with simplicity in mind.
The Cubs can hit, and the Cubs did hit. They pretty much hit against all pitchers, but when you’re talking about the best pitchers, then suddenly even good hitting starts to look a little like lousy hitting. And now we can finally get to the very fundamental point. The Cubs, in these playoffs, have come to the plate a combined 219 times. During the season, the pitchers they’ve faced allowed a weighted-average OPS of .610. That’s .610, which, for example, is in between the OPS figures allowed by Jon Lester and Madison Bumgarner. Roberto Osuna allowed a .603 OPS. Max Scherzer, .619. Not every opposing pitcher has been equally good, but on balance, it’s been kind of like every Cubs plate appearance has come against a Cy Young candidate.
The pitchers in the Very Good group, once more, allowed a combined .632 OPS. The playoff schedule has been tougher than that. So now the Cubs’ .613 OPS makes a lot more sense. You’d still expect it to be something better than that, but, oh, by the way, the Cubs also have a team playoff BABIP of .224. Playoff BABIPs are typically somewhat suppressed, but not like that, and the Cubs haven’t been hitting the ball too weakly. There have been some easy outs, sure, but fold in a few more base hits, and the Cubs would be right where they should be. You can’t expect a lineup to slug when the pitchers on the mound are playoff-caliber. That’s what the Cubs have gone up against, Giants closers be damned.
This is all almost embarrassingly simple. I feel a little bit weird even putting it together into a post, because it’s stuff you all probably understand. But there’s a point to always keep in mind: In the playoffs, there’s almost no such thing as a bad pitcher. As such, offense is bound to suffer, and no lineup’s immune. The Cubs have shown they can hit good pitching. They just don’t dominate good pitching, because nobody does, and what’s happened in the playoffs isn’t a shock. It’s normal, and today’s Rich Hill assignment doesn’t promise to make things a whole hell of a lot easier. |
Donald Trump warned U.S. companies of “retribution or consequences,” such as a massive tariff, if they leave the country.
In a series of early morning tweets Sunday, Trump said companies with offshore factories would face a 35% tax on products they want to sell back in the U.S.
“The U.S. is going to substantialy [sic] reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its products back into the U.S. without retribution or consequences, is WRONG!” the president-elect wrote. “There will be a tax on our soon to be strong border of 35% for these companies wanting to sell their product, cars, A.C. units, etc., back across the border.”
The proclamations came after Trump’s intervention with Carrier, who decided to keep about 1,000 jobs in Indiana instead of moving them to Mexico. Carrier will receive economic incentives worth $7 million, in a deal negotiated by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the current governor of Indiana. Despite the Carrier deal, the company still plans to close a plant in Huntington, Indiana, moving about 700 jobs to Mexico.
The U.S. is going to substantialy reduce taxes and regulations on businesses, but any business that leaves our country for another country, — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
fires its employees, builds a new factory or plant in the other country, and then thinks it will sell its product back into the U.S. …… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
without retribution or consequence, is WRONG! There will be a tax on our soon to be strong border of 35% for these companies …… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
wanting to sell their product, cars, A.C. units etc., back across the border. This tax will make leaving financially difficult, but….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
these companies are able to move between all 50 states, with no tax or tariff being charged. Please be forewarned prior to making a very … — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016 |
More than 50 hospitals in England have been given the green light to miss key waiting time targets this year to help ease their financial problems.
The move is part of a package of measures taken by NHS bosses after hospitals exceeded their budgets by a record amount last year.
Fines for missing targets in A&E, cancer and routine operations have been scrapped altogether.
And a new failure regime is being set up for the worst-performing trusts.
It will see regulators parachute senior managers into the hospitals to help devise plans to get them out of trouble.
Five trusts - Barts Health in London, Croydon Health Services, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, Norfolk and Norwich Hospitals and North Bristol - have been placed into the new regime immediately, with another 13 threatened with the prospect.
But the relaxation of rules over waiting times is the most radical element of the announcement made by bosses at the three national bodies that oversee the health service - NHS England and the regulators NHS Improvement and the Care Quality Commission.
Hospitals have been struggling to hit their targets for some time and will now no longer be fined for missing the four-hour A&E target, the 62-day target to get cancer treatment and the 18-week goal for routine operations, such as hip and knee replacements.
Instead, they will have to simply improve on their current performance to get their slice of the extra money being invested in the NHS this year.
Each hospital has been given its own target for improvement and, crucially for some and particularly in regards to A&E, it allows them to get the funding without achieving the official targets by March.
This is the case for 53 out of the 139 trusts running A&E units, five cancer hospitals and three sites doing routine operations.
Targets and fines: How they work
A&E: 95% of patients are meant to be dealt with in four hours. When this is exceeded a fine of £120 per patient is levied. The fines are capped so that when performance drops below 85% no more penalties are imposed.
Routine operations: 92% of patients are meant to start treatment within 18 weeks. When the numbers waiting longer than this exceed that threshold hospitals are fined £400 per patient. Once it drops to 90% the level of the fines are capped.
Cancer: Hospitals are meant to start treatment on patients who receive an urgent referral by a GP within 62 days for 85% of patients. Fines of £1,000 per patient are levied when patients wait longer. There is no cap.
The move was criticised by the Patients Association. Its chief executive Katherine Murphy said: "This is the slippery slope back to the bad old days of never-ending waiting times and uncertainty - with patients left endlessly on A&E trolleys and waiting for life-changing operations. Where is it all going to end?"
Health bosses believe the measures will help the NHS get the deficit down to £250m this year after an overspend of £2.45bn was posted in 2015-16, the highest ever recorded and triple what it was the previous year.
That figure also covered the budgets for mental health units and ambulances, but it was the hospital sector that ran into the most difficulties with nearly nine in 10 ending the year in the red.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said this was a make-or-break period.
"Precisely because the pressures across the NHS are real and growing, we need to use this year both to stabilise finances and kickstart the wider changes everyone can see are needed."
But Nigel Edwards, of the Nuffield Trust think tank, predicted the measures being taken on their own would not be enough.
"My big worry is what happens next. I fear that in order for hospitals to virtually eradicate their deficits the next steps could be a series of brutal service reductions and bed closures - which will shock an unprepared public."
Meanwhile, it has emerged the financial problems in hospitals almost meant the Department of Health failed to balance its budget overall, which could have meant sanctions from the Treasury.
The department managed to cover the overspend by trusts by drawing on surpluses elsewhere in the health service, which meant it finished £210m in surplus on a budget of nearly £115bn.
Performance against the 62-day target for treatment starting Nation Target (proportion seen in 62 days) Performance from January to March England 85% 82% Northern Ireland 95% 71.4% Scotland 95% 91.8% Wales 95% 83.9%
But this came only after it raided the capital budget, which is set aside for buildings and maintenance, by £950m, and identified £417m of extra income from national insurance receipts which it had failed to declare initially - something officials blamed on an "administrative error".
Auditors said the steps taken this year to balance the books were not sustainable and should be considered a one-off.
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The 2015 MLB regular season is winding down. After 159 regular season games, the majority of major league baseball players approach this weekend knowing they are almost done with the grind for the year. They are thinking of vacations, mai tais, taking their kids to school every day, dance recitals, family birthday parties, etc. You know, all that stuff we often forget they completely miss out on for 8 months of the year.
But for teams like our very own Kansas City Royals, the real season is just about to begin. The AL Central division winners have been rather obtusely coasting through September to what was an almost certain playoff berth. Regardless of whether they are able to clinch home field throughout said playoffs, only the most callous person could not look back at the 2015 regular season and call it a tremendous success.
This team was supposed to regress. We were picked by many pundits to finish third or fourth or even fifth in the division. But in what we’ve come to accept as typical Royals fashion, the boys in blue shut out the voices and found their way to the most successful regular season as a franchise since 1980.
So in completely arbitrary media fashion, we here at Royals Blue present the 2015 Royals Regular Season Awards.
For you acronym loving types, that comes out to RRSAs …
The Kevin Appier Most Valuable Starting Pitcher RRSA goes to …
Steady Eddy Volquez
Some of you may remember some jack hole predicting before the season that Volquez would end up going down as Dayton Moore’s worst free agent signing ever. That guy, whereas a consummate gentleman, scholar and ballroom dancer, could not be happier to be wrong.
Although Volquez didn’t post sparkling numbers as a whole (198.1 IP, 3.58 ERA, 1.311 WHIP, 152K vs 70 BB), the veteran took the ball every fifth day and was good for a 2.3 WAR, the third highest of his career.
For a starting rotation that underachieved as a whole, he was a rock steady performer.
The Dan Quisenberry Most Valuable Relief Pitcher RRSA goes to …
Wade Davis
Davis had one of the best seasons for a relief pitcher in history. Pitchers are not supposed to keep a line of .96 ERA / 430 ERA+ / .807 WHIP / 10.3 K / per 9 over an entire season.
A little perspective: Mariano Rivera, often rightfully considered the best relief pitcher in the history of the game, never finished a season with a sub 1 ERA, never even came close to that ridiculous 430 ERA+, and only finished with a lower WHIP or higher K per 9 once in his illustrious career (2008 and 1996 respectively).
The George Brett Most Valuable Hitter RRSA goes to …
Kendrys #PulledPork Morales
Excluding our power hitting secret weapon Chris Young, Morales leads the team in HR (22), doubles (41), walks (57), RBI (106), SLG (.487), OPS (.848) and OPS+ (129). He has performed above and beyond any expectations and should be a shoe-in for AL Comeback Player of the Year.
The Frank White Most Valuable Defender RRSA goes to …
Lorenzo Cain
#LoCain was so good in the field last year that it cost him a gold glove (in case you don’t remember, he was often shifted to right late in games to make up for the “interesting” fielding prowess of Aoki, therefore giving the Royals a three-headed defensive hydra in the outfield of Gordon-Dyson-Cain. It is widely thought the fact that he spent so much time in right was why he didn’t win the gold in center).
Pick almost any non-arm advanced defensive stat you like and you’ll likely find Cain in the top 3. Even though Kiermaier is having pretty damn good year as well, the internet has learned not to poke the Royals fan base. Cain will bring home gold this year.
The “insert any of the god awful middle infielders of the 2000s here” Least Valuable Batter RRSA goes to …
Omar Infante
I don’t hate Infante like a lot of people do. He was signed to an all-things-considered modest 4 yr/30.25 million dollar deal at a time we thought we were one or two pieces away from being legit contenders. Also remember this was pre-2014 Royals, which means we had to offer extra years or money to lure free agents.
But man, this year was historically rough for Omar. Of all 2B in MLB with 400 or more plate appearances, #VoteOmar ranks dead last or second to last in every offensive category.
His .234 OBP over 455 plate appearances is the stuff of legend. Not good legends like unicorns or Tom Cruise trying to stop the lord of darkness mind you, more like the one where the witch tries to put the kids in the oven.
The Albie Lopez Least Valuable Pitcher RRSA goes to …
Jeremy Guthrie.
Again, I don’t hold the level of pure hatred in my heart for #JGuts that some do. After all, his story will probably go down as one of the best trades for GMDM in his Royals tenure, regardless of how truly awful Guthrie has been a whole this year.
What does awful look like? Over 148.1 IP (which is fairly remarkable in its own right as you will see), JGuts has a 5.95 ERA, 69 ERA+, 1.551 WHIP and has given up 29 HR (most of which came in one inning in New York). The tightrope artist has fallen many more times this year than he has stayed up.
Team MVP
Eric Hosmer
There are obviously many more reasons and advanced statistics why a team wins or loses a ballgame than one player’s performance, but there is definite correlation for this team when it comes to Hosmer. Back in June I posted a piece about how the Royals perform when he is on versus when he slumps. Simply put, when he was on fire, so was the team. When he struggled, so did the team.
In the 155 games Hosmer has appeared in this season, the team has gone 92-63. He has appeared in every game the Royals have won and the team lost all four games he didn’t play.
Even further, in those 92 wins, Hosmer hit .341/.469/.536 with 13 HR, 79 RBI, 57 strikeouts and 43 walks. In the 63 losses, Hosmer hit .238/.324/.350 with 5 HR, 12 RBI, 50 strikeouts and 20 walks.
Couple that with gold glove defense at first and an increasingly bigger role as a team leader, Hos takes the crown as this team’s overall most valuable player.
With playoff baseball at the K less than one week away, the Royals are sitting pretty at the end of their best regular season in 35 years. How we remember the 2015 Royals as a whole will largely be determined by how they perform in the playoffs. A division series exit would surely be viewed as just one more in a long line of disappointments for KC sports fans, one that would sting for quite some time. Conversely, a world series title would be something cherished by this deserving fan base forever.
Regardless of how the season finally ends, let us not forget the tremendous spring and summer that was.
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Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dr Dobbin says doctors who use the programme see about a 20% fall in anti-depressant prescribing
The confidence-building techniques of Olympic athletes have been adapted into a self-help programme for people with anxiety and depression.
The positive mental training programme was developed by Edinburgh GP Dr Alastair Dobbin and Sheila Ross, a public health specialist, and has been endorsed by the Royal College of GPs.
"Being an Olympic athlete is all about developing resilience," said Dr Dobbin.
"It's about being able to bounce back if you have a bad performance, but stressed and depressed people who are often living in very deprived circumstances need to have these tools every bit as much as an Olympic athlete."
Dr Dobbin and Ms Ross developed the programme after finding that techniques commonly used by sports psychologists were especially helpful when used on the patients they were seeing in depression clinics.
One of those patients was Jacky Borthwick. She was suffering from anxiety and depression which had manifested itself in a fear of travelling on buses.
"I think it was lack of control," she said. "You can't jump on and off when you want, you have to wait. Being stuck in traffic, it was like being out of control."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Could a series of self-help CDs offer an alternative to anti-depressants?
The psychological techniques are on CDs which Jacky was given to take away with her. She found them extremely helpful.
She said: "It's amazing how many of your problems disappear when you can relax. It just gives you an amazing sense of confidence and you do feel that you can go on and do things which are causing you problems."
Jacky has put the CDs onto her MP3 player and listens to them when she is faced with stressful situations. She has not needed anti-depressants or any other treatment since she was given the CDs in 2006.
Dr Dobbin says doctors who use the programme report a fall in anti-depressant prescribing of about 20%.
"After trying it out, we went on to do a research trial with Edinburgh University and we found out it was extremely effective," he added.
Further research is due to be published in the New Year.
Dr Dobbin and Ms Ross have formed a charity to promote the programme and a one-day training course which GPs need to complete in order to prescribe the self-help CDs.
Those who have been through the course can prescribe it on the NHS, and 50,000 patients have used it so far.
Dr Dobbin says his colleagues welcome the opportunity to offer patients something other than pills or a long wait to see a therapist. |
"Atomic model" redirects here. For the unrelated term in mathematical logic, see Atomic model (mathematical logic)
This article is about the historical models of the atom. For a history of the study of how atoms combine to form molecules, see History of molecular theory
The current theoretical model of the atom involves a dense nucleus surrounded by a probabilistic "cloud" of electrons
In chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a scientific theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms. It began as a philosophical concept in ancient Greece and entered the scientific mainstream in the early 19th century when discoveries in the field of chemistry showed that matter did indeed behave as if it were made up of atoms.
The word atom comes from the Ancient Greek adjective atomos, meaning "indivisible".[1] 19th century chemists began using the term in connection with the growing number of irreducible chemical elements. Around the turn of the 20th century, through various experiments with electromagnetism and radioactivity, physicists discovered that the so-called "uncuttable atom" was actually a conglomerate of various subatomic particles (chiefly, electrons, protons and neutrons) which can exist separately from each other. In fact, in certain extreme environments, such as neutron stars, extreme temperature and pressure prevents atoms from existing at all.
Since atoms were found to be divisible, physicists later invented the term "elementary particles" to describe the "uncuttable", though not indestructible, parts of an atom. The field of science which studies subatomic particles is particle physics, and it is in this field that physicists hope to discover the true fundamental nature of matter.
History
Philosophical atomism
The idea that matter is made up of discrete units is a very old idea, appearing in many ancient cultures such as Greece and India. The word "atom" (Greek: ἄτομος; atomos), meaning "uncuttable", was coined by the Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers Leucippus and his pupil Democritus ( c. 460 – c. 370 BC).[2][3][4][5] Democritus taught that atoms were infinite in number, uncreated, and eternal, and that the qualities of an object result from the kind of atoms that compose it.[3][4][5] Democritus's atomism was refined and elaborated by the later Greek philosopher Epicurus (341 – 270 BC), and by the Roman Epicurean poet Lucretius ( c. 99 – c. 55 BC).[4][5] During the Early Middle Ages, atomism was mostly forgotten in western Europe, but survived among some groups of Islamic philosophers.[4] During the 12th century, atomism became known again in western Europe through references to it in the newly-rediscovered writings of Aristotle.[4]
In the 14th century, the rediscovery of major works describing atomist teachings, including Lucretius's De rerum natura and Diogenes Laërtius's Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, led to increased scholarly attention on the subject.[4] Nonetheless, because atomism was associated with the philosophy of Epicureanism, which contradicted orthodox Christian teachings, belief in atoms was not considered acceptable by most European philosophers.[4] The French Catholic priest Pierre Gassendi (1592 – 1655) revived Epicurean atomism with modifications, arguing that atoms were created by God and, though extremely numerous, are not infinite.[4][5] Gassendi's modified theory of atoms was popularized in France by the physician François Bernier (1620 – 1688) and in England by the natural philosopher Walter Charleton (1619 – 1707).[4] The chemist Robert Boyle (1627 – 1691) and the physicist Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) both defended atomism and, by the end of the 17th century, it had become accepted by portions of the scientific community.[4]
John Dalton
Near the end of the 18th century, two laws about chemical reactions emerged without referring to the notion of an atomic theory. The first was the law of conservation of mass, closely associated with the work of Antoine Lavoisier, which states that the total mass in a chemical reaction remains constant (that is, the reactants have the same mass as the products).[6] The second was the law of definite proportions. First established by the French chemist Joseph Louis Proust in 1799,[7] this law states that if a compound is broken down into its constituent chemical elements, then the masses of the constituents will always have the same proportions by weight, regardless of the quantity or source of the original substance.
John Dalton studied and expanded upon this previous work and defended a new idea, later known as the law of multiple proportions: if the same two elements can be combined to form a number of different compounds, then the ratios of the masses of the two elements in their various compounds will be represented by small whole numbers. For example, Proust had studied tin oxides and found that there is one type of tin oxide that is 88.1% tin and 11.9% oxygen and another type that is 78.7% tin and 21.3% oxygen (these are tin(II) oxide and tin dioxide respectively). Dalton noted from these percentages that 100g of tin will combine either with 13.5g or 27g of oxygen; 13.5 and 27 form a ratio of 1:2. Dalton found several examples of such instances of integral multiple combining proportions, and asserted that the pattern was a general one. Most importantly, he noted that an atomic theory of matter could elegantly explain this law, as well as Proust's law of definite proportions. For example, in the case of Proust's tin oxides, one tin atom will combine with either one or two oxygen atoms to form either the first or the second oxide of tin.[8]
Dalton believed atomic theory could explain why water absorbed different gases in different proportions - for example, he found that water absorbed carbon dioxide far better than it absorbed nitrogen.[9] Dalton hypothesized this was due to the differences in mass and complexity of the gases' respective particles. Indeed, carbon dioxide molecules (CO 2 ) are heavier and larger than nitrogen molecules (N 2 ).
Dalton proposed that each chemical element is composed of atoms of a single, unique type, and though they cannot be altered or destroyed by chemical means, they can combine to form more complex structures (chemical compounds). This marked the first truly scientific theory of the atom, since Dalton reached his conclusions by experimentation and examination of the results in an empirical fashion.
A New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808). Various atoms and molecules as depicted in John Dalton 's(1808).
In 1803 Dalton orally presented his first list of relative atomic weights for a number of substances. This paper was published in 1805, but he did not discuss there exactly how he obtained these figures.[9] The method was first revealed in 1807 by his acquaintance Thomas Thomson, in the third edition of Thomson's textbook, A System of Chemistry. Finally, Dalton published a full account in his own textbook, A New System of Chemical Philosophy, 1808 and 1810.
Dalton estimated the atomic weights according to the mass ratios in which they combined, with the hydrogen atom taken as unity. However, Dalton did not conceive that with some elements atoms exist in molecules—e.g. pure oxygen exists as O 2 . He also mistakenly believed that the simplest compound between any two elements is always one atom of each (so he thought water was HO, not H 2 O).[10] This, in addition to the crudity of his equipment, flawed his results. For instance, in 1803 he believed that oxygen atoms were 5.5 times heavier than hydrogen atoms, because in water he measured 5.5 grams of oxygen for every 1 gram of hydrogen and believed the formula for water was HO. Adopting better data, in 1806 he concluded that the atomic weight of oxygen must actually be 7 rather than 5.5, and he retained this weight for the rest of his life. Others at this time had already concluded that the oxygen atom must weigh 8 relative to hydrogen equals 1, if one assumes Dalton's formula for the water molecule (HO), or 16 if one assumes the modern water formula (H 2 O).[11]
Avogadro
The flaw in Dalton's theory was corrected in principle in 1811 by Amedeo Avogadro. Avogadro had proposed that equal volumes of any two gases, at equal temperature and pressure, contain equal numbers of molecules (in other words, the mass of a gas's particles does not affect the volume that it occupies).[12] Avogadro's law allowed him to deduce the diatomic nature of numerous gases by studying the volumes at which they reacted. For instance: since two liters of hydrogen will react with just one liter of oxygen to produce two liters of water vapor (at constant pressure and temperature), it meant a single oxygen molecule splits in two in order to form two particles of water. Thus, Avogadro was able to offer more accurate estimates of the atomic mass of oxygen and various other elements, and made a clear distinction between molecules and atoms.
Brownian Motion
In 1827, the British botanist Robert Brown observed that dust particles inside pollen grains floating in water constantly jiggled about for no apparent reason. In 1905, Albert Einstein theorized that this Brownian motion was caused by the water molecules continuously knocking the grains about, and developed a hypothetical mathematical model to describe it.[13] This model was validated experimentally in 1908 by French physicist Jean Perrin, thus providing additional validation for particle theory (and by extension atomic theory).
Discovery of subatomic particles
The cathode rays (blue) were emitted from the cathode, sharpened to a beam by the slits, then deflected as they passed between the two electrified plates.
Atoms were thought to be the smallest possible division of matter until 1897 when J.J. Thomson discovered the electron through his work on cathode rays.[14]
A Crookes tube is a sealed glass container in which two electrodes are separated by a vacuum. When a voltage is applied across the electrodes, cathode rays are generated, creating a glowing patch where they strike the glass at the opposite end of the tube. Through experimentation, Thomson discovered that the rays could be deflected by an electric field (in addition to magnetic fields, which was already known). He concluded that these rays, rather than being a form of light, were composed of very light negatively charged particles he called "corpuscles" (they would later be renamed electrons by other scientists). He measured the mass-to-charge ratio and discovered it was 1800 times smaller than that of hydrogen, the smallest atom. These corpuscles were a particle unlike any other previously known.
Thomson suggested that atoms were divisible, and that the corpuscles were their building blocks.[15] To explain the overall neutral charge of the atom, he proposed that the corpuscles were distributed in a uniform sea of positive charge; this was the plum pudding model[16] as the electrons were embedded in the positive charge like plums in a plum pudding (although in Thomson's model they were not stationary).
Discovery of the nucleus
The Geiger-Marsden experiment
Left: Expected results: alpha particles passing through the plum pudding model of the atom with negligible deflection.
Right: Observed results: a small portion of the particles were deflected by the concentrated positive charge of the nucleus. Expected results: alpha particles passing through the plum pudding model of the atom with negligible deflection.Observed results: a small portion of the particles were deflected by the concentrated positive charge of the nucleus.
Thomson's plum pudding model was disproved in 1909 by one of his former students, Ernest Rutherford, who discovered that most of the mass and positive charge of an atom is concentrated in a very small fraction of its volume, which he assumed to be at the very center.
In the Geiger–Marsden experiment, Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden (colleagues of Rutherford working at his behest) shot alpha particles at thin sheets of metal and measured their deflection through the use of a fluorescent screen.[17] Given the very small mass of the electrons, the high momentum of the alpha particles, and the low concentration of the positive charge of the plum pudding model, the experimenters expected all the alpha particles to pass through the metal foil without significant deflection. To their astonishment, a small fraction of the alpha particles experienced heavy deflection. Rutherford concluded that the positive charge of the atom must be concentrated in a very tiny volume to produce an electric field sufficiently intense to deflect the alpha particles so strongly.
This led Rutherford to propose a planetary model in which a cloud of electrons surrounded a small, compact nucleus of positive charge. Only such a concentration of charge could produce the electric field strong enough to cause the heavy deflection.[18]
First steps toward a quantum physical model of the atom
The planetary model of the atom had two significant shortcomings. The first is that, unlike planets orbiting a sun, electrons are charged particles. An accelerating electric charge is known to emit electromagnetic waves according to the Larmor formula in classical electromagnetism. An orbiting charge should steadily lose energy and spiral toward the nucleus, colliding with it in a small fraction of a second. The second problem was that the planetary model could not explain the highly peaked emission and absorption spectra of atoms that were observed.
Quantum theory revolutionized physics at the beginning of the 20th century, when Max Planck and Albert Einstein postulated that light energy is emitted or absorbed in discrete amounts known as quanta (singular, quantum). In 1913, Niels Bohr incorporated this idea into his Bohr model of the atom, in which an electron could only orbit the nucleus in particular circular orbits with fixed angular momentum and energy, its distance from the nucleus (i.e., their radii) being proportional to its energy.[19] Under this model an electron could not spiral into the nucleus because it could not lose energy in a continuous manner; instead, it could only make instantaneous "quantum leaps" between the fixed energy levels.[19] When this occurred, light was emitted or absorbed at a frequency proportional to the change in energy (hence the absorption and emission of light in discrete spectra).[19]
Bohr's model was not perfect. It could only predict the spectral lines of hydrogen; it couldn't predict those of multielectron atoms. Worse still, as spectrographic technology improved, additional spectral lines in hydrogen were observed which Bohr's model couldn't explain. In 1916, Arnold Sommerfeld added elliptical orbits to the Bohr model to explain the extra emission lines, but this made the model very difficult to use, and it still couldn't explain more complex atoms.
Discovery of isotopes
While experimenting with the products of radioactive decay, in 1913 radiochemist Frederick Soddy discovered that there appeared to be more than one element at each position on the periodic table.[20] The term isotope was coined by Margaret Todd as a suitable name for these elements.
That same year, J.J. Thomson conducted an experiment in which he channeled a stream of neon ions through magnetic and electric fields, striking a photographic plate at the other end. He observed two glowing patches on the plate, which suggested two different deflection trajectories. Thomson concluded this was because some of the neon ions had a different mass.[21] The nature of this differing mass would later be explained by the discovery of neutrons in 1932.
Discovery of nuclear particles
In 1917 Rutherford bombarded nitrogen gas with alpha particles and observed hydrogen nuclei being emitted from the gas (Rutherford recognized these, because he had previously obtained them bombarding hydrogen with alpha particles, and observing hydrogen nuclei in the products). Rutherford concluded that the hydrogen nuclei emerged from the nuclei of the nitrogen atoms themselves (in effect, he had split a nitrogen).[22]
From his own work and the work of his students Bohr and Henry Moseley, Rutherford knew that the positive charge of any atom could always be equated to that of an integer number of hydrogen nuclei. This, coupled with the atomic mass of many elements being roughly equivalent to an integer number of hydrogen atoms - then assumed to be the lightest particles - led him to conclude that hydrogen nuclei were singular particles and a basic constituent of all atomic nuclei. He named such particles protons. Further experimentation by Rutherford found that the nuclear mass of most atoms exceeded that of the protons it possessed; he speculated that this surplus mass was composed of previously-unknown neutrally charged particles, which were tentatively dubbed "neutrons".
In 1928, Walter Bothe observed that beryllium emitted a highly penetrating, electrically neutral radiation when bombarded with alpha particles. It was later discovered that this radiation could knock hydrogen atoms out of paraffin wax. Initially it was thought to be high-energy gamma radiation, since gamma radiation had a similar effect on electrons in metals, but James Chadwick found that the ionization effect was too strong for it to be due to electromagnetic radiation, so long as energy and momentum were conserved in the interaction. In 1932, Chadwick exposed various elements, such as hydrogen and nitrogen, to the mysterious "beryllium radiation", and by measuring the energies of the recoiling charged particles, he deduced that the radiation was actually composed of electrically neutral particles which could not be massless like the gamma ray, but instead were required to have a mass similar to that of a proton. Chadwick now claimed these particles as Rutherford's neutrons.[23] For his discovery of the neutron, Chadwick received the Nobel Prize in 1935.
Quantum physical models of the atom
The five filled atomic orbitals of a neon atom separated and arranged in order of increasing energy from left to right, with the last three orbitals being equal in energy . Each orbital holds up to two electrons, which most probably exist in the zones represented by the colored bubbles. Each electron is equally present in both orbital zones, shown here by color only to highlight the different wave phase.
In 1924, Louis de Broglie proposed that all moving particles—particularly subatomic particles such as electrons—exhibit a degree of wave-like behavior. Erwin Schrödinger, fascinated by this idea, explored whether or not the movement of an electron in an atom could be better explained as a wave rather than as a particle. Schrödinger's equation, published in 1926,[24] describes an electron as a wavefunction instead of as a point particle. This approach elegantly predicted many of the spectral phenomena that Bohr's model failed to explain. Although this concept was mathematically convenient, it was difficult to visualize, and faced opposition.[25] One of its critics, Max Born, proposed instead that Schrödinger's wavefunction described not the electron but rather all its possible states, and thus could be used to calculate the probability of finding an electron at any given location around the nucleus.[26] This reconciled the two opposing theories of particle versus wave electrons and the idea of wave–particle duality was introduced. This theory stated that the electron may exhibit the properties of both a wave and a particle. For example, it can be refracted like a wave, and has mass like a particle.[27]
A consequence of describing electrons as waveforms is that it is mathematically impossible to simultaneously derive the position and momentum of an electron. This became known as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle after the theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg, who first described it and published it in 1927.[28] This invalidated Bohr's model, with its neat, clearly defined circular orbits. The modern model of the atom describes the positions of electrons in an atom in terms of probabilities. An electron can potentially be found at any distance from the nucleus, but, depending on its energy level, exists more frequently in certain regions around the nucleus than others; this pattern is referred to as its atomic orbital. The orbitals come in a variety of shapes-sphere, dumbbell, torus, etc.-with the nucleus in the middle.[29]
See also
Notes
Further reading
Bernard Pullman (1998) The Atom in the History of Human Thought , trans. by Axel Reisinger. Oxford Univ. Press.
, trans. by Axel Reisinger. Oxford Univ. Press. Eric Scerri (2007) The Periodic Table, Its Story and Its Significance , Oxford University Press, New York.
, Oxford University Press, New York. Charles Adolphe Wurtz (1881) The Atomic Theory , D. Appleton and Company, New York.
, D. Appleton and Company, New York. Alan J. Rocke (1984) Chemical Atomism in the Nineteenth Century: From Dalton to Cannizzaro, Ohio State University Press, Columbus (open access full text at http://digital.case.edu/islandora/object/ksl%3Ax633gj985). |
I sometimes help out with logistics when Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn is traveling for a speech or a debate. I’m used to people asking me what hotel chains Barry prefers or what he likes to eat, but in September when Barry was debating Religious Right attorney Mat Staver at Liberty University, I got a question I hadn’t heard before: The folks at Liberty wanted to know if Barry or anyone traveling with him would be armed. The school had no objection to Barry or a member of his party carrying a concealed weapon, they just wanted to know beforehand.
I’ll admit I was a little taken aback. I guess I shouldn’t have been. Nor am I surprised by recent comments by Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., who has recommended that students at the school carry concealed weapons so “we could end those Muslims before they walk in and kill.”
It’s always disturbing to hear someone who holds himself out to be a Christian leader speak so casually of killing others, and Falwell has admitted that he could have used less inflammatory language. As President Barack Obama reminded the nation last night, it’s terrorists we’re fighting, not all Muslims.
Falwell’s comments came in the wake of the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., where a married couple murdered 14 people and wounded many more. It has since been revealed that the couple, who were Muslims, were likely radicalized and had become enamored of the terrorist group ISIS.
Gun control is not a church-state issue, and Americans United takes no stand on it. I’m sure that some of our members own guns for sport and self-defense. I also know that responsible gun owners (like my late father, who was an avid hunter) recognize the importance of proper firearms training.
In Virginia, people seeking concealed-carry permits aren’t required to demonstrate any proficiency with a weapon or even show that they know how to use one. They can go to a shooting range and learn to use a weapon if they like, but there is another option: They can take a gun safety course online and pass a short test. This can be done in as little as 10 minutes without ever touching a gun. A number of companies offer these classes for a small fee, and they pretty much guarantee that anyone can pass.
Think about this for a minute: Falwell is essentially urging young people who may have had no training in firearms to buy guns and wear them around campus in case Muslim terrorists attack.
Now think about this: In San Bernardino, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik wore body armor and were armed with high-power, semi-automatic assault rifles. What chance would a 21-year-old student with a handgun that he or she may have rarely if ever used stand against them?
In cop shows and movies, clever heroes often overcome impossible odds, outwit terrorists and save the day. In real life, you’re much more likely to end up getting mowed down. Only a very foolish person would confuse big-screen fantasy with real-world outcomes.
My son is a high-school senior and is applying to colleges for the fall. Of course Liberty University was never on his list, but as we’ve gone through the process, I’ve talked with a lot of parents who are diligently helping their kids find just the right school.
I don’t know if any of them are looking at Liberty for their sons and daughters, but if they are, they might want to reconsider. I hear the president there is a bit of a bigot – and rather ill-informed to boot. |
Marine Species Threatened by Deep-Sea Mining
News: Oct 03, 2017
Underwater mining poses a great danger to animals inhabiting the seafloors. A new research study describes the most abundant species, a sponge, which can now be used to regulate mining operations and help us better understand their environmental impacts.
Less than half of our planet’s surface is covered by land. The rest is water, and this environment is home to an enormous range of animal species, most of which remain undiscovered and thus have not yet been named.
Threatened by Mining Activities
A newly discovered species, Plenaster craigi, has turned out to be the most abundant species on the ocean floors. Its habitat is dominated by nodules, which are metal balls the size of grapefruits that have been formed over millions of years and that are found in most big oceans at depths of over 4 000 metres. A new study involving researchers from the University of Gothenburg finds that, as deep-sea mining companies remove the nodules in order to extract the metals inside them, Plenaster craigi will probably disappear entirely from the affected areas.
‘Modern society, with its power lines and advanced batteries, has a great need for cobalt, nickel and copper, metals found in high concentrations in so-called polymetallic nodules on the Pacific seafloor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone,’ says Thomas Dahlgren from the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg.
Needs an Undisturbed Environment to Survive
The sponge Plenaster craigi must filter the water to find small particles with nutrients and energy that after being formed at surface level several kilometres above have slowly fallen down to the bottom.
‘There is not a whole lot of material that makes it all the way to the bottom. Most of it gets eaten by zooplankton and small fish on its way down and is returned to the food web in the ocean’s upper sunlit layer. Consequently, Plenaster craigi must filter large amounts of water to survive. This makes it vulnerable to the sand and mud stirred up when the nodules are harvested and pumped the 4 000 metres to the collection barges waiting at the surface,’ says Dahlgren.
New Species Can Reveal Effects of Deep-Sea Mining
Since 2013 when the sponge was first discovered, the species has temporarily been referred to as Porifera sp. A. Following the recent species description (see link to the article below), the sponge has now been assigned a permanent name, Plenaster craigi.
Plenaster craigi is the only known species of the newly defined genus Plenaster, which means ‘many stars’. Craigi was included in the name to honour Professor Craig Smith at the University of Hawaii, who led the two expeditions during which the animal was first discovered and collected.
The new species can now be used to explore how deep-see mining of minerals affects an environment that has not been touched for billions of years.
Thomas Dahlgren from the University of Gothenburg’s Department of Marine Sciences in Sweden and Uni Research in Norway participated in the study together with researchers from the National University of Singapore and the Natural History Museum in London.
Title: A new genus and species of abyssal sponge commonly encrusting polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, East Pacific Ocean.
The article is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14772000.2017.1358218?needAccess=true
Contact: Thomas Dahlgren, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg, tel.: +46 (0)31 753 80 05, email: [email protected]
Photo:
Top: Polymetallic nodules with Plenaster craigi. White line is 1 cm.
Photos by Adrian Glover, Thomas Dahlgren and Helena Wiklund.
BY: Carina Eliasson
Originally published on: science.gu.se |
Make sure you listen to this while viewing: grooveshark.com/#!/s/The+Black… Ah... Glenn with the Masamune+ and Magus with his Doom Sickle. What's not to love? Not only are these two some of my favorite Toriyama characters, but they're also some of my favorite characters in all of fiction. This is a scene from "The Oath" ending, which is perhaps the best ending. (The ambiguous ending is just fantastic.) I have some pretty sweet ideas to expand the Chrono story and I still hold out hope that maybe Square will make a third game one day. Well, I don't want them to ruin it like they tried to ruin CT on DS... but if they got good writers (like yours truly) I think it'd be easy to make a sweet bridge game.It was a pleasure to draw this, it's been far too long since I've drawn anything Chrono. (For reference, check out my very first attempt at Magus, some years ago: deezer509.deviantart.com/art/M… [alternate] fav.me/d8hx044 |
On Wednesday morning, Liberal MPs at their weekly caucus meeting decided amongst themselves to stop applauding each other during question period.
The next two ensuing afternoons were not wholly without clapping on the government side — the rote act of putting one's hands together whenever a colleague finishes speaking is so deeply ingrained a habit at this point that absent-minded MPs still found themselves applauding, often awkwardly stopping themselves after a clap or two — but the relative quiet was still remarkable.
Question period has long since devolved into a contest of cheering partisans incessantly applauding each other lest anyone watching at home be left with any doubt about the righteousness of what was just said.
By comparison, not clapping seems almost dignified. As if the chamber were a place for serious matters, not the scene of some sporting event. And surely the Liberals might benefit from a contrast with louder caucuses.
No clapping and then a compromise
A few hours after the Liberal caucus made that decision at its weekly caucus meeting, Maryam Monsef, minister of democratic institutions, met with Nathan Cullen, her NDP critic, for a chat. "That was interesting," Cullen said as he walked into the foyer to speak with reporters afterwards.
Discussions between the New Democrats and the Liberals continued into Wednesday evening and by Thursday morning they had a deal to move forward with an electoral reform committee on which seats would be proportionally allotted by popular vote, the Liberals abandoning their proposal of a committee on which they would hold a majority of seats.
Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef and NDP critic Nathan Cullen completed an agreement on an electoral reform committee on Thursday. (Canadian Press)
"We heard the opposition's concerns that we were perhaps behaving in a way that was resembling more the previous government than the kind of approach and tone that we promised throughout the electoral campaign," the Prime Minister explained on Thursday, crafting a moment of self-congratulatory humility, "and we're happy to demonstrate that absolutely we're looking for ways to better work with our colleagues in the House, to better hear from Canadians and their concerns and I look forward to working towards reforming our electoral system with the input of as many Canadians, including opposition parties, as possible."
This was something like Justin Trudeau's party trick of falling down a flight of stairs without hurting himself.
Possibly the Liberals should have gone with the NDP's proposal from the start. But then, in having to publicly change their position, perhaps they managed to make a more noticeable show of their willingness to compromise (Look at us! We're not above changing our minds!).
Regardless, the result is that Trudeau seemed suddenly to be doing politics differently once again, precisely two weeks after the elbow incident in which he seemed in danger of epitomizing a government that was manhandling Parliament.
Questions of intent
A day before the compromise, Bruce Anderson, the pollster and strategist, noted that nearly two-thirds of respondents to a survey by Abacus Data last month were of the belief that the Liberal government's push for electoral reform was motivated not by partisan self-interest, but by a desire to "to improve the system so voters feel it better reflects their view."
That mirrors a general finding by Abacus in May that 76 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that Justin Trudeau "tries to do the right thing for the country."
That is a presumption of good intent that Trudeau can burn through or bolster with his government's behaviour.
It is exactly that question of intent that Conservatives have targeted with their suggestions that the government is planning to impose a system (the ranked ballot) that would most benefit the Liberal party.
The Conservative insistence on a referendum before any new system is introduced could also be seen as a matter of self-interest (the Conservatives might be better off with the current first-past-the-post system and a referendum might favour the status quo). But a referendum has the distinct benefit of resting on the easily defensible democratic principle that the public should decide.
Reid was responding to the Liberal-NDP deal on Electoral Reform 0:43
How to reform federal elections
The committee compromise complicates Opposition claims that the Liberals are angling to game the system. And if the committee process concludes with a proposal that, say, the Liberals, New Democrats and Greens agree on, and some number of civil-society groups and columnists support, the reformers might also have a claim to legitimacy..
(Of course, multi-party agreement might have resulted from the previous committee structure too, but, now that no one party will have a majority on the committee, it's necessary.)
The premise that process matters is ingrained in various segments of Liberal policy (resource development, climate change policy) and in the constant rhetoric and practice of "consulting" with Canadians.
In making a deal on the electoral reform committee, the Liberals said they wanted to get past talking about the process.
As the minister of democratic institutions happily noted upon explaining her willingness to compromise, "We intend to do politics differently, and this is us demonstrating that."
When Ensight consulted voters after last year's election, they found that voters "had little knowledge of specific policies proposed by Trudeau and, frankly, did not care to know," the firm's Will Stewart wrote recently. "What voters we spoke with were focused on was the way in which Trudeau would govern."
The last six months of fussing and fumbling were likely a hint of how fraught the process of finding a new electoral system might be.
But in getting agreement on the process the Liberals might stand a better chance of getting to an acceptable policy.
Still, it would be rather premature for them to applaud themselves just yet. The long and potentially treacherous task of enacting a wholesale reconfiguration of the federal electoral system still remains. |
Many had given up on NOW being an advocate and defender of all women, but rather believed it's main job was defender of liberalism and attacker on anything that was not on the liberal agenda....That some women were more equal and deserving of fair treatment than others.
For other points of view visit Carroll Standard:
In yet another example of the high-tech lynching that occurs to strong, conservative woman, Newsweek tried to harpoon Michelle Bachman with an unflattering picture on its cover. But after years of hypocritical silence, NOW (National Organization for Women) finally stepped up to the plate and defended Congresswoman Bachman.NOW took a firm stand against the front page picture used by Newsweek. It depicts GOP Presidential contender Bachman as a wild eyed crazy woman, something the DNC and its liberal henchmen in the press have been foisting on the American public ever since she reached national prominence. I'd like to see Newsweek post a picture on its cover of DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schults in her natural state.Monday, NOW spoke out against Newsweek’s most recent cover, which features an extreme close-up of Michele Bachman and the title “The Queen of Rage.”Said NOW president Terry O’Neill. “Casting her in that expression and then adding ‘The Queen of Rage’ is sexist. Gloria Steinem has a very simple test: If this were done to a man or would it ever be done to a man – has it ever been done to a man? Surely this has never been done to a man.”....Well Terry, it has been done to men and it will probably happen again, but that is beside the point. Your organization needed to step up and defend ALL women, not just the liberal democrat ones.Well that image has been somewhat changed when it issued a statement condemning Newsweek for the atrocious picture.I suppose a Brava! is appropriate for the belated defense of Michelle Bachman. But many more kudos would come down if NOW did its job as a defender of all women regardless of political persuasion. That includes Sarah Palin and the vicious treatment she has received at the hands of the main stream press.Perhaps NOW could assign full time bodyguards for Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman as the political season heats up. That might help atone for the past dereliction of duty on NOW'S part. |
LIMA, Peru — The authorities here are investigating the killing of an environmental advocate and indigenous leader who died along with three other men in a remote region of the Amazon jungle that he had sought to protect from illegal logging.
The advocate, Edwin Chota, 54, was a leader of the Ashaninka Indian village of Saweto, near the Brazilian border. Mr. Chota was killed after leaving Saweto on Aug. 31, while on his way to meet with leaders from another Ashaninka village some days walk away, according to his widow, Julia Pérez, and media reports.
Three other Saweto leaders accompanying him were also killed, officials said.
It took several days for villagers to discover the killings and make the trip by river to the regional capital, Pucallpa, to report the crime. Environmental and indigenous advocates announced the deaths over the weekend.
“What we have is the statements of the widows and the village leaders that the community was threatened on many occasions by people associated with logging in the area,” said Patricia Balbuena, a vice minister of culture in charge of indigenous issues, reached by telephone in Pucallpa on Wednesday. |
NASA's most ambitious Mars exploration mission yet is set for launch on Saturday, and the rover has one hot energy source.
Gone are the fly's-wing-like solar panels that provided electricity for earlier rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
Instead, the rover for the Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, carries 10.6 pounds of plutonium-dioxide pellets. The system is designed to allow the vehicle to operate where sunlight is so weak or the spacecraft's mission is so demanding that solar panels are impractical.
"You can operate with solar panels on Mars, you just can't operate everywhere," said Stephen Johnson, who heads the space nuclear systems technology division at the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, in a statement. "This gives you an opportunity to go anywhere you want on the planet, not be limited to the areas that have sunlight, and not have to put the rover to sleep at night."
The power source is known as a multimission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), and other versions have been incorporated into spacecraft designs since the 1960s. In January 2006, NASA launched an RTG on the New Horizons spacecraft, which is now more than half way to its planned 2015 flyby of Pluto. Even the Mars rovers Sojourner, Spirit, and Opportunity have carried small plutonium-fueled heaters to keep the vehicles' electronics warm.
The RTG on Curiosity uses the contrast between heat of plutonium's radioactive decay and the chilly temperatures on Mars to generate electricity.
What are the launch risks?
The form of plutonium used, plutonium-238, is unsuitable for nuclear explosive. The primary risk, according to physicists, comes if finely ground plutonium is inhaled or ingested along with with food.
The units housing the plutonium-dioxide pellets have undergone rigorous tests under conditions one might expect to see if a rocket carrying an RTG-bearing spacecraft has to be destroyed before it reaches orbit, NASA and US Department of Energy officials have said.
By some accounts, six missions since the 1960s, including the aborted Apollo 13 mission and Russia's Mars 96 mission, have ended with RTGs burning up high in the atmosphere or plunging into the ocean after surviving reentry. While early models released radioactive material as craft burned up on reentry, later models appear to have survived reentry and impact intact without releasing radioactive material.
NASA's environmental-impact statement for this launch puts the risk of a release from a launch-area accident at 1 in 420. But the agency's calculations put the risk of adverse health effects to any single individual from an accident near the launch site at less that 1 in 1 million.
Although the technology has been deemed safe, protests have arisen over the use of RTGs, reaching a crescendo during the run-up to NASA's 1997 launch of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. The tandem spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004. The Cassini orbiter is currently touring Saturn and its moons.
Cassini's RTGs carry between 25 and 33 pounds of plutonium. Unlike the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which hosts 10.6 pounds of plutonium-238 and will head directly for the red planet, Cassini returned to Earth's neighborhood for a gravitational boost on its way to Saturn, providing the anxious with a second potential window for a mishap.
By contrast, the New Horizons mission and – so far – Mars Science Laboratory have seen little in the way of opposition.
Needed: more plutonium
The biggest concern among planetary scientists now is that the Mars Science Laboratory and other long-duration missions planned for the decade may be the last of their breed, according to Ralph McNutt, chief scientist in the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory's space division.
The reason: Plutonium-238 supplies are dwindling, and efforts to produce more are sputtering in an uncertain budget climate.
"If we don't get our act together and get restarted on this, the doors are going to close on a big piece of the future" of space exploration at destinations ranging from the moon to the solar system's outer reaches, he says.
The US stopped producing plutonium-238 in 1988, he says, estimating that between 40 and 70 pounds of the deep-space power source remains in stock.
Efforts to restart production, under way since 2010, have slowed to a crawl over who pays: NASA, the US Department of Energy, or both. Lawmakers in Washington initially opted to have the two agencies share the cost. But recent budgets have funded NASA's contribution, but not the Department of Energy's contribution, to the effort, pegged at between $70 million and $150 million to resume production.
In the meantime, engineers are developing an alternative to the RTG that uses plutonium-238 to drive a Stirling engine to generate electricity. For the same amount of juice, the new design is said to require one quarter of the plutonium current RTGs require.
"That would make better use of existing stocks," says the Idaho national Laboratory's Dr. Johnson in an interview.
Dr. McNutt agrees, but suggests we'll still need RTGs while the new power source is being developed. To use a new power source on a billion-dollar-class mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, for instance, would probably require a 28-year test, since scientists would want to see how it performs over a period two times longer than the duration of the mission.
That could create additional delays – and add costs associated with delays – for an already expensive mission.
The alternative, giving up on plutonium to help generate electricity, would represent its own kind of setback to space exploration, McNutt adds. |
Character Sheets have long been one of the most-requested features for us to add to Roll20. Until now we’ve hesitated to add them simply because we didn’t have a vision for how to do them “right.” However, with the new Data Delve update, we went back to the drawing board to see if we could find a way to create a character sheet feature that was easy to use, easy to customize, and truly enhanced the online playing experience, rather than slowing down gameplay more than a paper sheet. Today we’re pleased to show a preview of our work so far.
Using a Character Sheet
Roll20 has had “character” entries in the journal for quite a while. About a year ago we added functionality for Attributes and Abilities. The intent behind that feature was to allow you to store some of the information about your characters that you frequently use in-game for rolls and the like. However, there were several flaws to this method: there was no way to have a “template” that every character in your game started with; the attributes listing didn’t look like the game’s sheet, which could confuse new players who were used to the paper sheet; and the steps required for editing the attributes to add or remove them wasn’t very straightforward.
The new Roll20 Character Sheets system addresses all of those points. Here’s a preview of it in action (Savage Worlds is just used as an example):
When creating your campaign, you select a character sheet template to use. Once you’re in the game, all of the characters in your game automatically have that template set up and ready to go when they are created in your Journal. Sheets look exactly like a paper sheet, including images, different types of fields (checkbox, text, number, drop-down selection, etc.), and a familiar layout. Advanced functionality allows you have repeatable sections (such as a skills list) and attributes that can auto-calculate their values based on other attributes (for example, a Bluff Check mod based on your underlying stat).
In addition to the familiar bevy of attributes that you can include on a sheet, Roll20 Character Sheets can also include built-in rolls. You can put the button for the roll anywhere you want on the sheet, providing a quick-and-easy way to roll a bluff check or an attack directly from the sheet. You can also name these rolls and they are available just like Abilities (so you can use them in your own Macros, Abilities, etc.). This is a powerful system which will allow sheet designers to include everything you need to play a game even if you don’t know anything about how Roll20 Macros or Attributes work. Just open the sheet, fill in the values, and then click the buttons to perform your rolls.
We’ve also gone back and re-thought the UI interaction surrounding sheets. We know that you might frequently want to have several sheets “open” at once for quick access. Now you can double-click the top of the sheet to minimize it. Move it out of the way along the bottom or top of the screen, then when you double-click it again it will re-open exactly where you had it before. You can use this feature to keep several sheets open at once and quickly switch between them, great for fast-paced combat scenarios.
Community Sheet Library
There will be two options for Character Sheets: you can choose from a pre-made community-created library of sheets, or if you can create your own sheet from scratch.
Our guess is that the vast majority of users will just want to use a community sheet, as they will be high-quality, match the “official” sheet for each game system, and allow a level of standardization on the site (if you know how to use the standard Roll20 Pathfinder sheet, you can easily join any Pathfinder game and start playing right away). Our intent is to allow anyone to submit a sheet they’ve created to be used as the community sheet a game system – we hope to have sheets for games ranging from Pathfinder to Lady Blackbird! Once a sheet is accepted into the community library, any Roll20 user can use that sheet in their games. It will also then be open-sourced on Github so that others in the community can contribute toward maintaining and improving it in the future.
If you are a more advanced user who really wants to dig in and customize things, you can do so by using HTML and CSS to build your own sheet from scratch. (Note: Creating a custom sheet from scratch will only be available to Mentor subscribers at launch).
Building a Sheet
Character sheets in Roll20 are simply HTML and CSS. HTML is used to define the layout of the sheet, including adding fields, setting default values for attributes, and laying out the structure of the sheet. CSS is used to style the sheet, allowing you to match the look of the sheet to that of the game’s motif.
There’s a built-in editor that allows you to switch between editing the HTML and CSS of a sheet, as well as providing a preview of what the sheet will look like in-game which is updated in real-time. You can also, of course, edit your sheets in external programs and then paste in the HTML/CSS if that’s your preference.
You can also create attributes which reference other attributes (for example, a “Str Mod” attribute that is “Str / 2”), create roll buttons which provide built-in rolls on the sheet itself, add repeating sections which allow the user to create multiple entries of a section, and more!
There’s even more coming for sheets, including a Sheet Vault which allows you to have a Character attached to your Roll20 account which you can use in multiple games, so stay tuned for future blog posts.
The new Character Sheets are available today on the Dev Server for our Mentor subscribers (not a Mentor? Consider upgrading to support us). Sheets will launch for everyone when the Data Delve update goes live in May. |
FC Barcelona’s captain, Andrés Iniesta, sat down with El Periodico to talk about the recently completed season and his feelings regarding the upcoming European tournament. You can read the original interview, in Spanish, here.
Great end to the season. You finished it in good form.
The feeling is very good, because it’s the one you’re left with after the last game, the final, but I’ve felt this was all through the season. I’ve felt very good, I’ve played as I wanted, and I’ve enjoyed being a football player a lot, beyond the numbers. The satisfaction of going out on the pitch and being pleased with what you’re doing. At the same time, this is a feeling that, looking towards the future, makes me very optimistic about next season.
Do you note that confidence, is it something you perceive, that you work on?
When I enter the pitch I already know what I’m going to find, more or less, how the football will flow. You already know how fast you are, how awake you are. During the game some things can change, but I am aware of my sensations very fast, including the day before, you start visualizing everything. It’s something that I’ve learned and noted over time and something you start controlling.
You’ve been very regular at the highest level.
Yes, that’s the perception I have. In the end, it’s an accumulation of situations, the dynamic of the team, the coach who is always aware of how we are and takes care of us. Not because of my age, because I don’t think I’m old or very tired, but in a lot of phases he has taken care of me. It’s what needs to be done in order to perform, you have to be fully fit.
In the Cup final you had some illusionist worthy moments. Even in slow motion it’s not clear what you did in some plays. Is it all just thinking? Is it instinct?
No, it’s how I am. These are my qualities, I am a footballer for things like these and with time I’ve enhanced them. I am who I am, not better or worse than others. I do a lot of things without thinking. In football there’s almost no time to think, the mind works really fast during the game, I think without thinking, you do things and sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. The final required that the players with more experience took that responsibility, because we were in a bad situation.
Sometimes it looks as if you don’t run and you run more than the rest…
The sensation on the pitch is different from what you can perceive from the outside. When you watch it, the movements aren’t aggressive, they’re natural and maybe that fools you. But on the pitch you have to move very quickly. Do I watch my games afterwards? Yes, of course.
There’s a play next to the touchline, when it looks like you have no way out, you’re boxed in and surrounded and you easily find a way out…
Well, when I do that, I examine what is happening. Even though I’m looking at the ball, I see if the others move. In that situation, for example, I go to the touchline, step on the ball and the Sevilla player thinks that I’m going to go that way and I sense that he will do that movement and I go the other way. Each of us has his potential. But, in the end, the one who dominates the ball is the one in control.
There was a moment when people said that you weren’t good for this Barça…
I don’t know how many people thought that, but I did hear that, especially last season. All changes require adaptation time. I know that if I feel good I will play. I can do 10 or 12 km, but I feel that if I am myself I can play in any system and in any team. Of course, here we’re used to seeing everything as being negative when things don’t work.
In recent years important and valuable people for the team and for you have left: Puyol, Valdés, Xavi… Now you’re the team’s first captain.
It’s the law of life. In some years I will leave and the others will remain. Being Barça’s captain makes me feel very good, more responsible about everything, not just myself, but what I represent and who, starting with my teammates. And that, along with winning and continuing to win, add value. If we wouldn’t have won, Iniesta would be a disaster of a captain who doesn’t help, doesn’t have the required character, something that I don’t know exactly what it involves. I suppose that’s how it goes. Even in 200 years it will still be this way. Out of 10 people there’s only 2 or 3 who can look beyond the current moment, without focusing on the result, on the day to day, and make a more global evaluation.
Do you feel like you’re a better player now?
I don’t feel better, but I do feel somewhat different. I don’t know if I should say more complete. Maybe now I have the job of helping more, like more of a midfielder, with more influence on the game and in helping bring out the ball from the back and maybe that conditions me in terms of getting up the pitch. But I haven’t lost the essence that has always characterized my game, my label. If I just had this part and had lost the other one, without my 1v1s, without those plays, I wouldn’t feel as accomplished as I do now. Something would be missing.
You’ll never lose that.
Well, maybe when I’m 35-36, I don’t know (laughs). What makes me happy is knowing that I’m still myself, not that a system or a way of playing change me. I have other aspects, but I’m still me.
When you look at your achievements, don’t you get dizzy? If someone had told what you’d win 10 years ago…
I don’t know how to label it. I don’t know what people perceive, I can’t measure their pride, I know their happiness because I see it in the celebrations. But something like this won’t ever happen again. I hope it does, but what we’ve done over the last 10-12 years is unthinkable, incalculable, no team in the world has done it. What makes you feel powerless are the moments when it seems like it’s not valued enough. No one has won two trebles in six years. Sometimes I’m at home, relaxed and I think: “It’s incredible, this isn’t real, this doesn’t exist.”
It’s easy to take your foot of the pedal, to think you’ve won everything already…
The thing is we’ve won during a long period of time and that isn’t easy in sport. In the end what moves you is the passion for football, that’s what keeps you going, keeps you wanting the best for your club, for your family, for yourself. For me, this is the best era in the world. It’s a privilege and a reason of great pride to have landed in this era and in this moment in life, in this team, with these players… There’s nothing better than this. Doing your job and being recognized in the whole world, people coming up to you and saying “thank you for what you’re doing”, that’s priceless. It’s not winning, like they’re saying now: what do you prefer, the Champions League or the double? The concept isn’t this or that or what has more value. It’s not about picking one of those. It’s the fact that Barça has won six out of the last 8 leagues. You say that and no one can say anything else, they can’t compare it with anything because it’s brutal. I wonder how come there are some who don’t understand this. Regardless of the team they support. If it had been Madrid who did this, it would bother us, but we would have to recognize it and accept it. You look at it and no matter what team would have done it it’s insane.
And now the Euros. Is it easy to change the chip? Are you not saturated?
We’re used to it. We had some vacation days and we cleared out heads. And it’s also good because it’s a different team, a different dynamic and environment. And we have a nice challenge in front of us.
Just like Barça’s cycle is exceptional, the national team has also made history. And you can do something no one has done before: win three Euros in a row.
What we’ve lived at Barça has had a great influence on winning what we’ve won with the national team. And it started with Luis Aragonés changing that football mentality and the profile of the players. I still think that we have a very good team and that if we do things well we’re not inferior to anyone and we’re going to be there, fighting for the trophy. If we do things like we did them at the World Cup, where it seemed like we had won before playing, it doesn’t matter what team you have.
Does the memory of Brazil weigh on you?
It doesn’t weigh on us, but it’s present. Brazil did us well because it taught us to be more calm, in the sense that you have to go step by step. It’s a good warning and we have that in mind. It helps you not to believe anything, to know that everything is difficult. The group we have is very strong, with three teams of a similar level. If you’re not at 100% in everything the rival will surely beat you.
Do you have any special goal saved for this?
You never know. Destiny will decide. But it doesn’t matter who scores. The goals belong to everyone. |
KOLKATA: NTPC started power generation from India’s largest floating solar power plant at Kayamkulam in Kerala , on Friday.The 100 kWp floating solar generation plant, largest of its kind in India, was indigenously developed as a part of ‘Make In India’ initiative, at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Plant (RGCCPP) in Kerala’s Kayamkulam district, the company said in a statement.Solar panels mounted on floating boards that hold them in place saves land usage and has been found to be efficient than the ones installed on land.These floating platform were indigenously developed by NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance, the R&D arm of NTPC Ltd , in collaboration with Central Institute of Plastic Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Chennai and a patent has been applied for.The system was installed by Swelect Energy Systems Ltd, Chennai with support from NETRA & NTPC Kayamkulam station in a short span of 22 days."Such systems are fast emerging as an alternative to conventional ground mounted photo-voltaic systems which are land intensive. It has various benefits like conserving water through reduction of evaporation, increased generation due to cooling effect on the panels and requires lesser installation time than conventional land mounted ones,” NTPC said in a statement.These could be installed on saline water environments too. Installation potential of such type of systems in India is huge because of abundance of water bodies, within NTPC, the potential is approximately 800 MW in various reservoirs of existing stations. Particularly in Kerala, due to abundant availability of water bodies and lack of enough land.NTPC has already started working on scaling up such type of system for MW scale installation. |
An online harassment campaign directed at a former employee of Electronic Arts, blaming her for the poor animations in Mass Effect: Andromeda, has summoned a defense from BioWare.
This afternoon, the studio published this statement:
It is an oblique rebuttal of this claim, made yesterday by Ethan Ralph, that the "lead facial animator" at Electronic Arts' Montréal studio is a woman who ascended to that role only because of her celebrity as a cosplayer.
BioWare's statement above refutes that she ever was in a position of leadership, or that she is currently employed by the studio. It's unclear what her status with BioWare is or was. We’ve reached out to an Electronic Arts representative to confirm.
Ralph's post yesterday, igniting the harassment campaign, included a screenshot of Allie Rose-Marie Leost's Twitter page in which she identified herself as "lead facial animator for Mass Effect: Andromeda." That claim has since changed.
Mass Effect: Andromeda launches Tuesday on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. The game is available in preview on Electronic Arts' EA Access and Origin Access subscription services.
In the preview window, it has come under intense fire for its poor character animations, particularly in dialogue sequences where facial animations, coupled with sequenced dialogue, give off a robotic vibe emblematic of role-playing games from one or more console generations ago. These deficiencies won’t be patched by or before launch.
More like Mass Effect: Androids because
YOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/K4JdhQ5dcc — Nibel (@Nibellion) March 16, 2017
Still, given the numerous people involved in the final presentation of character models in a game, from motion capture through to final animation, the accusation of a single person being responsible seems like quite an overreach.
GamerGate, however, has been preoccupied with the conspicuous inclusion of women, minorities or other marginalized groups, whether as characters in a video game story or on a development team. Its many sympathizers openly and vehemently resent the inclusion or publicity of either as an insincere social indoctrination by politically correct forces. Their hostility is typically channeled through social media or Reddit.
Leost is also a cosplayer, though her Facebook page seems to have been taken down in the wake of this controversy. Ralph is well known as a GamerGate advocate through his site, The Ralph Retort.
The journalist Brad Glasgow, who has written extensively about GamerGate, deplored the blaming of Leost for the problems Mass Effect: Andromeda is facing. |
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, August 16, 2017
The United Nations' free speech expert is weighing in against the Federal Communications Commission's proposal to gut the net neutrality rules.
"We express serious concern with the proposed rule changes, which may significantly roll back protections for net neutrality and unduly interfere with freedom of expression online in the United States," David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, writes in comments filed with the FCC. Edison Lanza, a free speech expert for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, joined in the comments.
The FCC's net neutrality rules, passed 3-2 in 2015, classified broadband as a utility service and imposed some common carrier rules on Internet service providers. The regulations include three "bright-line" prohibitions -- a ban on throttling or blocking content and on charging companies higher fees for prioritized delivery. The rules also include a "general conduct" standard that broadly prohibits Internet service providers from unreasonably impeding the ability of consumers and content providers to reach each other.
Earlier this year, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai proposed that the agency reverse the decision to classify Internet access as a utility service -- a move that observers say may deprive the agency of the authority to stop broadband providers from throttling or blocking material, or from engaging in paid prioritization. Pai also proposed abolishing the "general conduct" standard.
The FCC is currently seeking comment on Pai's proposed changes, as well as on the three bright-line rules.
Kaye and Lanza urge the agency not to water down the three bright-line net neutrality rules. "We are concerned that the repeal or weakening of these rules will permit broadband providers to block or throttle Internet traffic associated with competing services, or charge more for access to certain types of Internet data at regular speeds, such as video streams," they write. "Particularly concerning is the prospect of paid-prioritization schemes, where broadband providers speed up prioritized content and force all other non-prioritized content into slow lanes."
They also say the general "conduct standard" enables the FCC to police questionable practices by providers. "We are concerned that the elimination of such discretion will remove regulatory oversight in a rapidly changing digital environment where broadband and edge providers continue to experiment with and roll out new methods of managing and pricing access to Internet traffic and content," they write. |
Bill and Hillary Clinton will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20 in Washington, D.C., aides confirmed to CBS News on Tuesday.
The announcement, which was first reported by New York magazine, comes after it was announced that former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush would attend the inauguration. Last month, former President Jimmy Carter, 92, announced that he would attend the inauguration.
Sources told New York magazine that the Clintons decided to attend out of a sense of duty and respect for the democratic process.
Mr. Trump won the Electoral College 306-232 while Clinton, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state, beat Mr. Trump in the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes.
Since the election, Clinton has been lying low except for events for the Children’s Defense Fund and a tribute to retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, near the end of last year. She has also run into some of her neighbors in the woods near her home in Chappaqua, New York.
CBS News’ Steve Chaggaris contributed to this report. |
Millionaire child abuser and girlfriend accused of trying to extort £2.5m from missing Madeleine McCann's parents are arrested in Portugal hideout
Danilo Chemello and girlfriend Aurora Peperia Vaz arrested in Portugal
Allegedly attempted to claim £2.5m reward for info on Maddie McCann
Couple were arrested on the same charges in 2007 but released
A couple accused of trying to extort money from missing Madeleine McCann's parents have been arrested at a hideaway in Portugal.
Italian Danilo Chemello and his Portuguese girlfriend Aurora Pereira Vaz hit the headlines in 2007 after being seized in southern Spain over the alleged bid to get their hands on a £2.5 million reward offered for information on Madeleine's whereabouts.
The case never came to trial despite lurid reports about their past and the discovery of newspaper cuttings about Madeleine in their luxury home in Sotogrande, southern Spain.
Arrested: Italian Danilo Chemello is led away by Portuguese police from a rented house in the coastal resort of Estoril near Lisbon where they had been living under false identities
The couple managed to relocate to the Algarve despite Mr Chemello being wanted by authorities in France.
They were arrested at a rented house in the coastal resort of Estoril near Lisbon on Wednesday - where they had been living since January under false identities with two teenage children.
Portuguese police said they acted on three European arrest warrants.
Millionaire ex-construction tycoon Chemello, 67, is set to be extradited to France shortly after being remanded in jail following a court appearance in Cascais near Estoril, while Ms Vaz, 60, is expected to be kept in Portugal.
A French court sentenced them to 18 months in jail for making a false birth register around the time they are believed to have set up home on the Algarve.
Led away: Portuguese police also arrested Chemello's Portuguese girlfriend Aurora Pereira Vaz from the resort this week
The pair failed to turn up in court and an arrest warrant was issued.
Mr Chemello, convicted and caged along with Ms Vaz for 10 months for child abuse in a separate case for feeding his stepdaughter dog food and locking her in a bedroom with her hands and legs tied with tape, is also wanted for trying to blackmail the French judge who jailed them.
He was reportedly sentenced to three years in prison in his absence after hiring a private detective to probe the woman's judge's private life and then using the information to blackmail her.
Ms Vaz and Mr Chemello tried to to get their hands on a £2.5 million reward offered by Kate and Gerry McCann for information on Madeleine's whereabouts
Italian authorities accused the couple of kneecapping Vaz's husband Alberto Tana during a bitter custody battle over her daughter in Rome in 1996.
Lost child: Madeleine McCann disappeared during a family holiday in Portugal in 2007
Although cleared of ordering the shooting, both were given 16-month jail sentences for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and firearms offences.
The teenage children living with Vaz and Chemello in Portugal are understood to be her two children.
They have been taken to a children's home in Portugal.
One neighbour at their home in Estoril, home to Europe's largest casino, told a local paper he had never seen them playing in the street and said he thought they weren't even going to school.
Specialist anti-kidnap police stormed the couple's house in Sotogrande in June 2007 to arrest them over their alleged bid to extort money from Madeleine McCann's parents.
At the time they were said to have tried to claim a £2.5 million reward through a Malaga-based lawyer.
Chemello and Vaz appeared in a closed court hearing before he was transferred to Spain's National Criminal Court for an extradition hearing on an unrelated matter and she was released on bail.
It is not yet clear whether the case against them has been dropped or was still being investigated by a court in San Roque near Cadiz – and it may be that it has simply been put on hold while the other cases against them are dealt with.
The arrests came on the eve of an announcement by Scotland Yard it has opened a formal investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance.
British police have formally asked the Crown Prosecution Service to submit an international letter of request to Portuguese authorities for assistance in obtaining evidence relating to their inquiries.
The Metropolitan Police has asked for a small number of its officers to be present in Portugal for the inquiries there.
It has also said it still believes there is a chance Madeleine is alive and it is investigating 38 "persons of interest" from five European countries, including 12 British nationals.
A spokesman for the office of Portugal's Attorney General, which archived the Madeleine McCann investigation in July 2008, said today: 'No request for mutual judicial assistance from the UK has yet been received.'
Arrested: Italian Danilo Chemello, 67, and his Portuguese girlfriend Aurora Pereira Vaz, 60, pictured in their younger years, have been arrested in Portugal over accusations they tried to extort millions from Madeleine McCann's parents
Pedro do Carmo, head of Portugal's Policia Judiciaria, added: 'Investigations in Portugal are carried out by the Department of Public Prosecution and the Portuguese police.
'But requests from foreign authorities to be present arrive fairly frequently.'
Portugal's Ministry of Justice is expected to be tasked with authorising the request when it arrives.
The three European arrest warrants they executed were issued by France and Italy for a man aged 67 and a woman aged 60, a spokesman for Portugal's PSP police, which arrested Chemello and Vaz, said. |
There were scenes of grief at the site of the Martin Place siege, as mourners hugged and consoled each other in front of hundreds of floral tributes to the hostages who lost their lives.
Groups of people hugged and cried as they gathered at the site where Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson and barrister Katrina Dawson died following the 17-hour siege.
The PM visited the scene this afternoon among hundreds of mourners. (9NEWS) ()
Hundreds have laid flowers at the scene, including Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, NSW Premier Mike Baird and Australia's most senior Muslim cleric, the Grand Mufti Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed.
Mr Abbott visited the memorial and signed the condolence book with his wife Margaret.
Aerial photos of the flowers at the memorial. (9NEWS) ()
In a press conference this evening, Mr Abbott described the hostages as "decent" people going about their ordinary lives.
He said the nation had been thoroughly impressed with the police operation and thanked Sydney for its response to the tragedy.
"Every Sydneysider can feel quietly proud of the way this city has handled one of the most difficult 36 hours in our history," he said.
"Australia will always be a free and open and generous society."
It is believed some were friends of the victims. (9NEWS) ()
Cafe manager Tori Johnson was one of the people killed in the siege. Supplied) ()
The Homicide Squad will investigate the three deaths after the siege, which will be treated as a critical incident.
Johnson's parents Ken and Rosemary have remembered him as "their beautiful boy" in a statement released via radio host Ben Fordham.
"We are so proud of our beautiful boy Tori, gone from this earth but forever in our memories as the most amazing life partner, son and brother we could ever wish for," the statement read.
"We'd like to thank not only our friends and loved ones for their support, but the people of Sydney; Australia and those around the world for reaching out with their thoughts and prayers."
Barrister Katrina Dawson. (Supplied) ()
The couple also offered their "heartfelt sorrow for the family of Katrina Dawson".
Dawson, 38, died of a heart attack on the way to hospital after police stormed the cafe about 2am.
Four of the hostages were staff members from the nearby Westpac bank who had dropped into the cafe for their morning coffee.
Sheik Man Haron Monis has been named as the gunman. (AAP) (AAP)
Night falls over Martin Place, as a captor holds hostages at gunpoint. (9NEWS) ()
Fordham called into 2GB this morning to tell listeners the Johnson family had requested he read out the statement on air. He said he was a "mate of a mate" of Dawson's father.
Read the full statement released by Tori Johnson's family here.
Five of the hostages were taken to hospital for treatment to injuries suffered during the gunfight.
- A 75-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder and is now in a stable condition.
- A 52-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the foot and is now in a stable condition.
- A 43-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the leg and is in a stable condition.
- Two pregnant women, aged 35 and 30 respectively, were assessed for "health and welfare purposes" and are now in a stable condition.
- A 39-year-old police officer, believed to be a sergeant, suffered minor facial injures from shotgun pellets. He was treated at hospital and discharged.
Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said police stormed the cafe after hearing "a number of gunshots from inside".
"To the people of Sydney, this was an isolated incident… it was an act of an individual and should not change how we go about our business," Commissioner Scipione told reporters this morning.
He praised the hostages for their courage during the ordeal.
Sheik Man Haron Monis during one of his recent court appearances. (AAP) (AAP)
"They were just buying a cup of coffee and got caught up in this affair... they were caught up in this room and needed to make hard decisions," he said.
He also confirmed no explosives were found inside the building, despite some earlier reports.
Two escapees from the Lindt cafe were reportedly shaken by the ordeal. (Nine) ()
Dawson was a well respected lawyer who worked for a firm on Phillip Street and had dropped into the cafe to grab a coffee before starting work yesterday.
The NSW Bar Association has paid tribute to Dawson.
"Katrina was one of our best and brightest barristers who will be greatly missed by her colleagues and friends of the NSW Bar," association president Jane Needham SC said in a statement.
"She was a devoted mother of three children and a valued member of her floor and of our community."
She also topped her bar exams and is the sister of well-known media barrister Sandy Dawson.
Johnson had worked at the Lindt Cafe for more than two years and had reportedly worked in the service industry in the US and Australia.
The dramatic events of early this morning brought to a head a siege which had paralysed the city from 10am yesterday morning when the self-styled Muslim cleric Monis took the group of 17 people hostage.
Iranian-born Monis was shunned by the mainstream Muslim community for his radical views and was on bail at the time of the attack in relation to the murder of his ex-wife.
He first came to the attention of police when he penned letters to the families of dead Australian soldiers seven years ago. He had also been charged with more than 50 allegations of indecent and sexual assault, reported to have occurred while he operated as "spiritual healer".
The PM and his wife signed the condolences book. (9NEWS) ()
On Friday, his latest appeal in relation to the sending of letters to deceased Australia soldiers was dismissed by the High Court.
Monis escaped jail time over the incident was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond in September 2013.
He had been quiet for nine hours in the lead up to the storming of the building when a man sprinted from the cafe with his hands raised.
After dropping to the ground he was frisked by police and taken away.
Another group of five then ran out the door to safety.
A bang from inside the building was heard and was quickly followed by a second loud report when a seventh hostage ran into the arms of police.
Police opened the door and used live ammunition and several stun grenades.
The seventh hostage was then ushered away before more gunfire erupted.
NSW Premier Mike Baird has called for calm following the incident.
"In the past 24 hours, this city has been shaken by a tragedy we'd never thought possible – we are a peaceful and harmonious society which is the envy of the world," he said this morning.
"We must go about our useful business, we must work, we must talk to our family, we must talk to our friends.
A hostage is seen going to the front door of the Lindt cafe to switch off the lights. (Getty) ()
"But we must come together… we are stronger together and we will get through this."
It is believed 11 people escaped or were rescued, after five escaped yesterday afternoon.
"What ISIL has done recently is actually claim credit for a number of these lone actor attacks even if there is no intelligence, let alone evidence, to indicate that it had a connection to these individuals," security expert Neil Fergus, who is the chief executive of Intelligent Risks, said.
"It has even claimed responsibility on the internet for the attack in Melbourne involving the stabbing of two police officers and the death of the perpetrator."
"So it will again try to use this type of tragic event to [spread] its message.
One of the first hostages to escape raises his hands as he approaches armed police. (Getty) ()
"They will try to claim it is one of their terrorist events and the reality is that we've got a very disturbed criminal individual who has carried out this attack with some very murky political agenda but it will now go into the litany of these lone wolf attacks that seem to have been occurring around the globe in recent months."
Police said their operation had now concluded but the matter would now be handed to the Professional Standards Command, which handle all police shootings. Forensic officers remain at the scene and it is understood Monis' body has not been removed from the building.
Heavily armed police are also still at the scene and a bomb detection robot was earlier seen entering the building.
The families of those being held captive had gathered at a nearby St James building earlier in the evening.
After the gunfire erupted, they paced the stairs at the front of the building, as police tried to usher them inside.
HOSTAGE-TAKER: Radical cleric named as siege mastermind
THE FAMILIES: Anxious wait for families gathered in CBD
SURVIVOR'S TALE: The horror of being taken hostage
#ILLRIDEWITHYOU: Twitter campaign sprouts during siege
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his wife Margaret pay their respects. (9NEWS) ()
TUESDAY IN TOWN: What commuters, workers can expect today
Throughout the night, hostages had been huddled in the cafe in the darkness.
The gunman had earlier rotated the hostages for around two hours at a time for stints pressed against the glass windows of the shop.
The gunman was reportedly "extremely agitated" after the escape of five hostages yesterday afternoon and was seen shouting at the remaining hostages.
One of the hostages to flee the siege was Lindt cafe worker Elly Chen, whose escape, caught by cameramen gathered at the distant barricades, evoked an outpouring of relief from friends on her Facebook page.
A male escapee was taken to St Vincents Hospital to be treated for shock and a pre-existing heart condition and was in a satisfactory condition.
Social media had been employed by the gunman, with reports hostages have been directed to relay his demands via Facebook accounts and to contact media outlets, however police had urged the gunman to speak directly to negotiators.
The shocking siege turned Martin Place and surrounding streets - Sydney's government, legal and financial heart - into a ghost town with roads empty of pedestrians and travelled only by speeding police and emergency vehicles with lights flashing.
Office workers were evacuated from buildings during the day via ladders, out of windows and down fire escapes.
Earlier, two hostages had contacted 9NEWS with demands from the gunman.
The view from the air of the Martin Place memorial. (9NEWS) ()
9NEWS reporter Mark Burrows says it was "upsetting in the extreme" to speak with two hostages, both women, inside the cafe this afternoon, who both contacted the station's newsroom at the demand of the gunman.
Burrows said he could hear the gunman in the background "clearly ... outlining his demands", which 9NEWS refused to air in cooperation with authorities.
Burrows said the first woman "sounded remarkably calm as she detailed (the gunman's) demands".
She asked Burrows to pass on a message to her husband, who also remarked that his wife was "always so cool in a crisis".
The second woman Burrows spoke to was "agitated" that nothing seemed to be happening, the journalist said.
"She also relayed more of his demands but he (the gunman) would not come to the phone," Burrows said.
"It was upsetting in the extreme to hear these women talking ... women who should be at home with their families ... who are now plunged into a deadly situation."
The alarm was raised about 9.45am after onlookers reported a man with a shotgun taking hostages in the cafe.
In the first hours of the siege, hostages were forced to hold what appeared to be an Islamic flag, identified as a Shahada flag, in the cafe window reading: "There is no god worthy of worship except Allah and Muhammad is his messenger."
The flag is used by the group Jabhat al-Nusra - which preaches jihad and has links to terror groups ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Mr Abbott condemned the act but shied away from labelling it terrorism.
"He (the offender) sought to cloak his action in the symbolise of the ISIL death cult," he said.
"These events do demonstrate that any country as free, as open, generous and safe as ours is vulnerable to acts of politically motivated violence.
There were emotional scenes at Martin Place as hundreds paid their respects to those who died. (9NEWS) ()
"But we are ready to deal with these people, professionally and with the full force of the law."
Australia's national terror alert level was lifted to high in September just before two people were charged in raids in Sydney amid reports there was a plot to behead a member of the public in Martin Place.
Mr Abbott said at the time there was no specific information behind the decision.
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019 |
Seething over this Pope's demonstrated compassion towards the poor, his embrace of immigrants, and his exhortations to preserve the natural environment, the Republican Party has apparently settled on a strategy of, quite literally, demonizing him. In a stunningly wretched column truly worthy of the unofficial mouthpiece of the GOP, Fox News Channel's "Senior Judicial Analyst" and former Judge, Andrew P. Napolitano makes the breathtaking leap to linking Pope Francis to the Biblical Antichrist:
The pope has seriously disappointed those who believe the Roman Catholic Church preserves and teaches the Truth. The Truth is Christ risen and unity with Him. It is not a debate about the minimum wage or air conditioning. Pope Francis is popular on the world stage, and the crowds love him. But if he fails in his basic duties as the pope, if his concern is more for secular than sacred, if he aids the political agenda of the atheistic left, he is a false prophet leading his flock to a dangerous place, where there is more central planning and less personal liberty.
"At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. . . . For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time"
'You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun."
One well-known New Testament false prophet is the false prophet mentioned in the Book of Revelation. The Apocalypse's false prophet is the agent of the Beast, and he is ultimately cast with it into the lake of "fire and brimstone" (Revelation KJV). He is also called the Beast from the earth and is an infiltrated agent of the Antichrist within the Church, sent to destroy and deceive the Christian faith.
The false prophet of the end times is described in Revelation 13:11-15. He is also referred to as the “second beast” (Revelation 16:13, 19:20, 20:10). Together with the Antichrist and Satan, who empowers both of them, the false prophet is the third party in the unholy trinity. The apostle John describes this person and gives us clues to identifying him when he shows up. First, he comes out of the earth. This could mean he comes up from the pit of hell with all the demonic powers of hell at his command. It could also mean he comes from lowly circumstances, secret and unknown until he bursts on the world stage at the right hand of the Antichrist. He is depicted as having horns like a lamb, while speaking like a dragon. The horns on lambs are merely small bumps on their heads until the lamb grows into a ram. Rather than having the Antichrist’s multiplicity of heads and horns, showing his power and might and fierceness, the false prophet comes like a lamb, winsomely, with persuasive words that elicit sympathy and good will from others. He may be an extraordinary preacher or orator whose demonically empowered words will deceive the multitudes. But he speaks like a dragon, which means his message is the message of a dragon. Revelation 12:9 identifies the dragon as the devil and Satan.
Most people with a working familiarity with the New Testament will recognize the term "false prophet" as articulated in the Gospel of Matthew:Likewise, in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas encounter a "false prophet" named Elymas Bar-Jesus whom Paul essentially renders blind, cursing him as a tool of the Devil:Generic references to "false prophets" are also found in the Epistles of Peter and John. But there is a deeper, more sinister connotation associated with the epithet, one which would beto Evangelical Christians who make up a significant portion of the Republican base. The False Prophet is an actual person described in the Bible, specifically the Book of Revelations:The False Prophet of Revelations is the embodiment of evil and is generally perceived in Apocalyptic theology (to which many Evangelicals subscribe) as, one who deceives the masses through confidence and trickery:The key point here is that this False Prophet is a leader on the world stage (significantly this is the exact phrase employed by Napolitano). He is a messenger of the Antichrist, appearing at his "right hand." Napolitano leaves it to the imagination whom this Antichrist might be, but for a good number of Republicans it is in fact President Barack Obama.
This is the dog-whistle about Pope Francis now being transmitted by the Republican Party to its Evangelical base. The right-wing Washington Times and Newsmax, neither of which I will link to, have also laid the "F" word at the Pontiff's feet this week, using the same terminology. The coordination among the right's media organs reflects the degree of fear occasioned by the Pope's embrace of what they consider "leftist" positions on climate change and immigration, two of the GOP's most sacred cows. The first, climate change, goes directly to the source of their funding, the fossil fuel industry, the most visible personages being Charles and David Koch. In terms of sheer political clout in the Republican Party nothing approaches fossil fuel conglomerates and their desire for deregulation permitting them to drill, dig and pollute at will. There is a reason that every single GOP's Presidential hopeful either denies outright or claims insufficient knowledge of climate science. It is a required policy position demanded by their donors. Those same donors have the most to fear from a marked shift in public opinion regarding the reality of climate change. That is why this Pope must be marginalized at all costs. Napolitano, who is Catholic, attacks the Pope on changing Catholic policy towards annulments and abortion, but the core of his message--and the message of other prominent voices on the right--is to paint Francis as an anti-capitalist demon. The "central planning" shibboleth waved by Napolitano and his ilk--a clear allusion to Marxism--is a reference to any government regulation of corporate interests, most importantly those of the fossil fuel industry.
The second issue striking fear into the heart of the GOP is the Pope's inclusive message on immigration. Anti-immigrant hatred is the only glue that holds the Republican coalition together, as has become glaringly obvious in the candidacy of Donald Trump and the scrambling by the rest of the GOP field to keep up or even outdo him with anti-Latino and Hispanic positions. Without this glue the entire Republican structure begins to fall apart, and the interests of the Kochs and others like them are imperiled.
It's bad enough that the Republican Party tries to manipulate the genuine religiosity of its base supporters to preserve its own wealth and power. In trying to foment fear and hatred of this Pope through such dog-whistle rhetoric, the Republican Party has succeeded in debasing itself even more than it has already done with its ignorant policies. |
BOX SCORE
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and the rest of the San Jose Sharks gathered around the Campbell Bowl for a celebratory picture after winning the Western Conference final.
In that moment, all those past playoff disappointments and collapses were forgotten. It will take four more wins to put to rest those questions about if they had the fortitude to win it all.
Captain Joe Pavelski scored an early goal, Joel Ward added two more and the Sharks advanced to their first Stanley Cup final in franchise history by beating the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Wednesday night in Game 6 of the Western Conference final.
"It's a pretty cool feeling," Thornton said. "Obviously it's our first time. It was pretty neat to get this done at home. The fans here have waited so long, 25 years. We've waited 18 years or so. So it's a great feeling."
Joonas Donskoi also scored, Logan Couture had an empty-netter and Martin Jones made 24 saves as a Sharks team notorious for postseason letdowns will play for the championship that has eluded Thornton and Marleau since they entered the league as the top two picks in 1997.
Thornton assisted on Pavelski's goal less than four minutes into the game to set the tone and Marleau had two assists in the third period that set off chants of "We Want The Cup! We Want The Cup!"
"We're just enjoying the ride right now," Marleau said. "We've had some really good teams over the years."
Despite making the playoffs 16 times in 18 seasons and winning the second-most games in the NHL since the start of the 2003-04 season, the Sharks have been known for their soul-crushing playoff disappointments.
They won just three games in three previous trips to the conference final, were knocked out twice in four seasons by a No. 8 seed and most notably blew a 3-0 series lead to lose in the first round to Los Angeles in 2014.
The impact of that loss lasted for a while as San Jose missed the playoffs entirely last season. But led by first-year coach Peter DeBoer and bolstered by some key acquisitions by general manager Doug Wilson, the Sharks recovered this year and are now only four wins from a championship.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final will be Monday night. The Sharks will either host Tampa Bay or visit Pittsburgh, depending on which team wins Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final Thursday night.
"It's a great moment for those guys who have put in a lot of work but we still have another series to go," Couture said. "We still have four more wins to try to get. It's another step. This is the third one now. We're ready for that next challenge."
With the loss, the Blues' postseason woes continue as the franchise still seeks its first championship and first trip to the Cup final since 1970. Coach Ken Hitchcock's second goalie change of the series did not work as Brian Elliott allowed four goals on 26 shots in his return to the net.
Vladimir Tarasenko, a 40-goal scorer in the regular season, got his first points of the series when he scored twice in the third period but it was too late for the Blues, who still trailed 4-2.
"It stings right now," captain David Backes said. "Six more wins and we're having parades on Market Street. Right now ... not enough."
This was the first time in San Jose's history that the team played with a trip to the Stanley Cup final on the line. The atmosphere in the Shark Tank reflected the high stakes with the fans at a frenzy during pregame introductions and the "Let's Go Sharks!" chants starting soon after the puck dropped.
The Sharks fed off that energy and were buzzing early as Hitchcock predicted before the game. St. Louis nearly silenced the crowd when Alexander Steen got a chance in the slot early in the period but Jones robbed him with a glove save.
That led to a breakaway for Thornton, who missed the net on his chance. But Pavelski recovered the puck behind the net and before Elliott knew what was happening, Pavelski tucked the puck in on a wraparound for his NHL-leading 13th goal of the playoffs.
San Jose added to the lead early in the second when Ward tipped a point shot from Brent Burns past Elliott to make it 2-0.
Ward's second goal and another by Donskoi in the third period removed any drama and allowed the fans to celebrate and the Blues to ponder their missed opportunity.
"They're hurting right now," Hitchcock said. "We're all hurting. "You don't want this to be our best opportunity. You want this to be a building block."
Notes
Marleau played his 165th career playoff game, the most ever for someone who never played in the finals. Thornton is next on the list with 150 games, followed by Curtis Joseph with 133. ... The only franchise that has played longer than San Jose without going to a Cup final is Arizona, which began NHL play as the Winnipeg Jets in 1979-80. |
June 2, 2017
Reading Time: 2 minutes
We all know how challenging it is to keep students occupied. Math is one way to fire their imagination and keep their young minds busy. However, this is not happening today considering how math is popularly taught by rote. Children today think that math is all about numbers, equations, complex diagrams, protractors and graph sheets.
Is that all there is?
Math experts from Cuemath have listed 4 principles of deeply effective math learning that you can get familiar with to keep your students interested and on track with math.
Understand the goal of math learning Use the why-behind-the-what approach Get your math tools right Help students learn from mistakes
1. Understand the Goal of Math Learning
Math is a life skill and that is how you should look at it. Students should understand how concepts tie into their lives. This helps them relate to the concept and builds interest.
Let’s say, while learning numbers, a student understands that 10>1. Help them now differentiate between 300 mm rainfall and 3,000 mm rainfall.
Academic knowledge alone is useless. Applying concepts to life is where the beauty of math lies.
Afterall, no one learns the piano just to get certified, the goal is to make music for audiences.
2. Use the why-behind-the-what approach
Using this approach will benefit your students immensely. Understanding why a concept works instead of simply memorising steps is so much easier. Once students understand the working of a concept, they will never need to remember steps.
Take a look at this video that explains “why” the addition algorithm works.
3. Get Your Math Tools Right
Using tools to help students understand concepts would be helpful not just for them but for you too. You can use these tools to teach math by following the concrete-pictorial-abstract framework.
Concrete learning happens when a child touches to internalise the basics of concepts. Once the basics are set and the child can “see” math, introduce pictures to develop pictorial learning and finally move on to abstract concepts of math.
4. Help students learn from mistakes
Making mistakes are a sign of active learning. However, it is crucial to find out why the error played out that way. When students learn from mistakes, it helps them internalise concepts and learn better.
Follow these principles for effective math learning among your students and overtime, you would be able to build on these and frame your own principles.
Have a few? Share them with us, we’d love to hear. |
Remarks as delivered by President Barack Obama in a speech at a summit on countering violent extremism at the U.S. State Department Thursday.
President Barack Obama: Thank you very much. (Applause.) Thank you, John. Good morning, everyone. I want to thank John Kerry, not only for his introduction, but for the outstanding leadership of American diplomacy. John is tireless. If he has not visited your country yet, he will soon. And I want to thank you and everybody here at the State Department for organizing and hosting this ministerial today.
Mr. Secretary General, distinguished guests, we are joined by representatives from governments, because we all have a responsibility to ensure the security, the prosperity and the human rights of our citizens.
And we’re joined by leaders of civil society, including many faith leaders, because civil society -- reflecting the views and the voices of citizens -- is vital to the success of any country. I thank all of you and I welcome all of you.
We come together from more than 60 countries from every continent. We speak different languages, born of different races and ethnic groups, belong to different religions. We are here today because we are united against the scourge of violent extremism and terrorism.
As we speak, ISIL is terrorizing the people of Syria and Iraq and engaging in unspeakable cruelty. The wanton murder of children, the enslavement and rape of women, threatening religious minorities with genocide, beheading hostages.
ISIL-linked terrorists murdered Egyptians in the Sinai Peninsula, and their slaughter of Egyptian Christians in Libya has shocked the world. Beyond the region, we’ve seen deadly attacks in Ottawa, Sydney, Paris, and now Copenhagen.
Elsewhere, Israelis have endured the tragedy of terrorism for decades. Pakistan’s Taliban has mounted a long campaign of violence against the Pakistani people that now tragically includes the massacre of more than 100 schoolchildren and their teachers. From Somalia, al-Shabaab terrorists have launched attacks across East Africa. In Nigeria and neighboring countries, Boko Haram kills and kidnaps men, women and children.
At the United Nations in September, I called on the international community to come together and eradicate violent extremism. And I challenged countries to come to the General Assembly this fall with concrete steps we can take together. And I'm grateful for all of you for answering this call.
Yesterday at the White House, we welcomed community groups from the United States, and some from your countries, to focus on how we can empower communities to protect their families and friends and neighbors from violent ideologies and recruitment.
And over the coming months, many of your countries will host summits to build on the work here and to prepare for the General Assembly. Today, I want to suggest some areas where I believe we can focus on as governments.
First, we must remain unwavering in our fight against terrorist organizations. And in Afghanistan, our coalition is focused on training and assisting Afghan forces, and we’ll continue to conduct counterterrorism missions against the remnants of al Qaeda in the tribal regions.
When necessary, the United States will continue to take action against al Qaeda affiliates in places like Yemen and Somalia. We will continue to work with partners to help them build up their security forces so that they can prevent ungoverned spaces where terrorists find safe haven, and so they can push back against groups like al-Shabaab and Boko Haram.
In Iraq and Syria, our coalition of some 60 nations, including Arab nations, will not relent in our mission to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL. And as a result of a separate ministerial here yesterday, many of our governments will be deepening our cooperation against foreign terrorist fighters by sharing more information and making it harder for fighters to travel to and from Syria and Iraq.
Related to this, and as I said at the United Nations last fall, nations need to break the cycles of conflict -- especially sectarian conflict -- that have become magnets for violent extremism. In Syria, Assad’s war against his own people and deliberate stoking of sectarian tensions helped to fuel the rise of ISIL.
And in Iraq, with the failure of the previous government to govern in an inclusive manner, it helped to pave the way for ISIL’s gains there.
The Syrian civil war will only end when there is an inclusive political transition and a government that serves Syrians of all ethnicities and religions. And across the region, the terror campaigns between Sunnis and Shia will only end when major powers address their differences through dialogue, and not through proxy wars. So countering violent extremism begins with political, civic and religious leaders rejecting sectarian strife.
Second, we have to confront the warped ideologies espoused by terrorists like al Qaeda and ISIL, especially their attempt to use Islam to justify their violence. I discussed this at length yesterday. These terrorists are desperate for legitimacy. And all of us have a responsibility to refute the notion that groups like ISIL somehow represent Islam, because that is a falsehood that embraces the terrorist narrative.
At the same time, we must acknowledge that groups like al Qaeda and ISIL are deliberately targeting their propaganda to Muslim communities, particularly Muslim youth.
And Muslim communities, including scholars and clerics, therefore have a responsibility to push back, not just on twisted interpretations of Islam, but also on the lie that we are somehow engaged in a clash of civilizations; that America and the West are somehow at war with Islam or seek to suppress Muslims; or that we are the cause of every ill in the Middle East.
That narrative sometimes extends far beyond terrorist organizations. That narrative becomes the foundation upon which terrorists build their ideology and by which they try to justify their violence. And that hurts all of us, including Islam, and especially Muslims, who are the ones most likely to be killed.
Obviously, there is a complicated history between the Middle East, the West. And none of us I think should be immune from criticism in terms of specific policies, but the notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie. And all of us, regardless of our faith, have a responsibility to reject it.
At the same time, former extremists have the opportunity to speak out, speak the truth about terrorist groups, and oftentimes they can be powerful messengers in debunking these terrorist ideologies. One said, “This wasn’t what we came for, to kill other Muslims.” Those voices have to be amplified.
And governments have a role to play. At minimum, as a basic first step, countries have a responsibility to cut off funding that fuels hatred and corrupts young minds and endangers us all. We need to do more to help lift up voices of tolerance and peace, especially online.
That’s why the United States is joining, for example, with the UAE to create a new digital communications hub to work with religious and civil society and community leaders to counter terrorist propaganda.
Within the U.S. government, our efforts will be led by our new coordinator of counterterrorism communications -- and I’m grateful that my envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Rashad Hussain, has agreed to serve in this new role. So the United States will do more to help counter hateful ideologies, and today I urge your nations to join us in this urgent work.
Third, we must address the grievances that terrorists exploit, including economic grievances. As I said yesterday, poverty alone does not cause a person to become a terrorist, any more than poverty alone causes someone to become a criminal.
There are millions, billions of people who are poor and are law-abiding and peaceful and tolerant, and are trying to advance their lives and the opportunities for their families.
But when people -- especially young people -- feel entirely trapped in impoverished communities, where there is no order and no path for advancement, where there are no educational opportunities, where there are no ways to support families, and no escape from injustice and the humiliations of corruption -- that feeds instability and disorder, and makes those communities ripe for extremist recruitment.
And we have seen that across the Middle East and we've seen it across North Africa. So if we’re serious about countering violent extremism, we have to get serious about confronting these economic grievances.
Here, at this summit, the United States will make new commitments to help young people, including in Muslim communities, to forge new collaborations in entrepreneurship and science and technology. All our nations can reaffirm our commitment to broad-based development that creates growth and jobs, not just for the few at the top, but for the many.
We can step up our efforts against corruption, so a person can go about their day and an entrepreneur can start a business without having to pay a bribe.
And as we go forward, let’s commit to expanding education, including for girls. Expanding opportunity, including for women. Nations will not truly succeed without the contributions of their women. This requires, by the way, wealthier countries to do more. But it also requires countries that are emerging and developing to create structures of governance and transparency so that any assistance provided actually works and reaches people. It's a two-way street.
Fourth, we have to address the political grievances that terrorists exploit. Again, there is not a single perfect causal link, but the link is undeniable. When people are oppressed, and human rights are denied -- particularly along sectarian lines or ethnic lines -- when dissent is silenced, it feeds violent extremism. It creates an environment that is ripe for terrorists to exploit. When peaceful, democratic change is impossible, it feeds into the terrorist propaganda that violence is the only answer available.
And so we must recognize that lasting stability and real security require democracy. That means free elections where people can choose their own future, and independent judiciaries that uphold the rule of law, and police and security forces that respect human rights, and free speech and freedom for civil society groups. And it means freedom of religion -- because when people are free to practice their faith as they choose, it helps hold diverse societies together.
And finally, we have to ensure that our diverse societies truly welcome and respect people of all faiths and backgrounds, and leaders set the tone on this issue.
Groups like al Qaeda and ISIL peddle the lie that some of our countries are hostile to Muslims. Meanwhile, we’ve also seen, most recently in Europe, a rise in inexcusable acts of anti-Semitism, or in some cases, anti-Muslim sentiment or anti-immigrant sentiment. When people spew hatred towards others -- because of their faith or because they’re immigrants -- it feeds into terrorist narratives.
If entire communities feel they can never become a full part of the society in which they reside, it feeds a cycle of fear and resentment and a sense of injustice upon which extremists prey. And we can’t allow cycles of suspicions to tear at the fabric of our countries.
So we all recognize the need for more dialogues across countries and cultures; those efforts are indeed important. But what’s most needed today, perhaps, are more dialogues within countries -- not just across faiths, but also within faiths.
Violent extremists and terrorists thrive when people of different religions or sects pull away from each other and are able to isolate each other and label them as “they” as opposed to “us;” something separate and apart. So we need to build and bolster bridges of communication and trust.
Terrorists traffic in lies and stereotypes about others -- other religions, other ethnic groups. So let’s share the truth of our faiths with each other. Terrorists prey upon young impressionable minds. So let’s bring our youth together to promote understanding and cooperation.
That’s what the United States will do with our virtual exchange program -- named after Ambassador Chris Stevens -- to connect 1 million young people from America and the Middle East and North Africa for dialogue. Young people are taught to hate. It doesn’t come naturally to them. We, adults, teach them.
I’d like to close by speaking very directly to a painful truth that’s part of the challenge that brings us here today. In some of our countries, including the United States, Muslim communities are still small, relative to the entire population, and as a result, many people in our countries don’t always know personally of somebody who is Muslim. So the image they get of Muslims or Islam is in the news. And given the existing news cycle, that can give a very distorted impression.
A lot of the bad, like terrorists who claim to speak for Islam, that’s absorbed by the general population. Not enough of the good -- the more than 1 billion people around the world who do represent Islam, and are doctors and lawyers and teachers, and neighbors and friends.
So we have to remember these Muslim men and women -- the young Palestinian working to build understanding and trust with Israelis, but also trying to give voice to her people’s aspirations.
The Muslim clerics working for peace with Christian pastors and priests in Nigeria and the Central African Republic to put an end to the cycle of hate. Civil society leaders in Indonesia, one of the world’s largest democracies. Parliamentarians in Tunisia working to build one of the world’s newest democracies.
Business leaders in India, with one of the world’s largest Muslim populations. Entrepreneurs unleashing new innovations in places like Malaysia. Health workers fighting to save lives from polio and from Ebola in West Africa. And volunteers who go to disaster zones after a tsunami or after an earthquake to ease suffering and help families rebuild.
Muslims who have risked their lives as human shields to protect Coptic churches in Egypt and to protect Christians attending mass in Pakistan and who have tried to protect synagogues in Syria.
The world hears a lot about the terrorists who attacked Charlie Hebdo in Paris, but the world has to also remember the Paris police officer, a Muslim, who died trying to stop them. The world knows about the attack on the Jews at the kosher supermarket in Paris; we need to recall the worker at that market, a Muslim, who hid Jewish customers and saved their lives.
And when he was asked why he did it, he said, “We are brothers. It's not a question of Jews or Christians or Muslims. We're all in the same boat, and we have to help each other to get out of this crisis.”
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for being here today. We come from different countries and different cultures and different faiths, but it is useful for us to take our wisdom from that humble worker who engaged in heroic acts under the most severe of circumstances.
We are all in the same boat. We have to help each other. In this work, you will have a strong partner in me and the United States of America.
Thank you very much. (Applause.) |
Last month, Minnesota State Representative Phyllis Kahn introduced a bill (HF 2966) that would allow atheists and Humanists to officiate wedding ceremonies, something currently reserved only for religious leaders:
Civil marriages may be solemnized by atheist or humanist celebrants who have been appointed by the boards of directors of self-identified atheist or humanist organizations that sponsor training for such individuals. An atheist or humanist group appointing such celebrant must be registered as a nonprofit with the Minnesota Office of the Secretary of State and must have tax-exempt status as an educational organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
This week, State Senator John Marty introduced an identical bill (SF 2958) in the Senate. (Both Kahn and Marty are members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.)
The bill’s language was drafted and lobbied for by the Minnesota Atheists , showing how one group can lead the way to serious change. It’s strange that they even need to do this but we’ve seen similar battles successfully fought in New Jersey and Washington D.C. (though not Indiana , where Secular Celebrants still have no legal powers).
There’s no good reason to oppose this bill, though I don’t put it past some legislators… Either way, Minnesota Atheists deserves a lot of credit if and when this passes.
(via Raw Story. Image via Shutterstock) |
Another year. (By Geoff Burke / USA TODAY Sports
Yesterday, I called all my favorite Washington Capitals fans — serious Capitals fans. The kinds of guys who wear red, white and blue Capitals jerseys. I couldn’t reach any of them. Frankly, I’m worried about them.
How much can a Capitals fan endure?
That’s a 100-percent perfectly appropriate lead paragraph for a Caps column on this morning. Turns out it was written in April. Of 1989.
It was the start of Post column by the great William Gildea, headlined “Capitals are missing indefinable something; Latest collapse proves talent only goes so far.” Which would be a 100-percent appropriate headline for a Caps column on this morning. Even though it’s 28 years old.
The Caps, for many, are now defined by their playoff failures in the Rock the Red Era. They’ve had nine playoff appearances in 10 years, none lasting past the second round. They’ve amassed a 3-7 record in Game 7s. They’ve scored five total goals in their final five games over their past five playoff seasons.
But for the diehards, this isn’t some outlandish millennial blip. This is a seamless part of a long, gruesome and almost incomprehensible history. The team has been doing this to people for 30 years. There have been suggestions that this year’s dead end was especially painful, and I’m not the one to judge. But it seems to me there is a numbing effect from this scabrous past. The Game 7 loss to Montreal in 2010 felt shocking and jarring to me, then still a Caps newcomer. Even last year, which we all saw as the start of a new era, seemed more deflating.
This time, it just felt like the Caps Capped.
Washington Capitals fans sound off after Game 7 loss (again) to the Pittsburgh Penguins. (Dalton Bennett,Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)
When you kind of expect the worst, it’s hard for the worst to be surprising.
I didn’t have much to say at the start of this season, because it seemed pointless to talk about optimism and building for the playoffs and learning from past mistakes. Instead, I wrote a column about optimism and building for the playoffs and learning from past mistakes, consisting entirely of copy-and-pasted sentences from past columns. It was cynical and obnoxious and possibly lazy (although it took a lot of work), but it seemed appropriate. And, sadly, the same move now seems appropriate again.
It remains cynical and obnoxious, and if you’re feeling at all on edge, I would recommend clicking somewhere else. But maybe there’s a bit less pain if you see this year’s disappointment not as an event specific to 2017, or to the Rock the Red Era, but as just one slice from more than 40 years of pain.
Anyhow, here it is. Twenty-one different stories from 15 different seasons. The bibliography is at the bottom. The only changes were substituting generic nouns for specific names, and removing a couple giveaway words. If you tried to guess which years were attached to which sentences, trust me, you would fail.
Capitals are missing indefinable something; Latest collapse proves talent only goes so far
By 30 years of Washington Post staff writers
Yesterday, I called all my favorite Washington Capitals fans — serious Capitals fans. The kinds of guys who wear red, white and blue Capitals jerseys. I couldn’t reach any of them. Frankly, I’m worried about them.
How much can a Capitals fan endure? (1989)
“Just silence, the sound of silence,” said one fan “It’s over. It’s just done. Wake up tomorrow, and I don’t know. …”
I don’t know either. Let’s ask a player.
“If someone came to your work and stepped on your desk or punched you in the head, that’s how I feel,” he said. (2010)
With the Capitals, the regular season is like a night on the town. In the playoffs, everybody finds out the town closes down at midnight. (1989)
The Capitals played in the Stanley Cup finals this year. Unfortunately for them, they did so in their minds.
“This was our year,” one winger said. (1986)
When the Capitals played their best hockey this season, there was no better team in the NHL. The Capitals’ scoring, which was spread nicely among a dozen players during the season, failed to materialize in the playoffs. (2000)
“You know,” said the coach, “there are not a lot of rewards for finishing high in the regular season.” (1986)
The Caps’ funeral room is now an annual visit like a wake: a mix of sadness, what-might-have-been and the self-delusion that may be a requirement to play such a painful, disfiguring sport.
“This was the best team, as a team, that we’ve had,” a defenseman said. “Depth, coaching, structure, system, we had it. But things happen. This result doesn’t reflect how bad we wanted it.”
Unfortunately, that has been the Caps’ response to playoff losses since Biblical times, when they blew a two-game lead to the Pharisees. (2013)
That’s why almost nobody in town believes in the Caps. That’s why almost nobody in town thought the Capitals would actually win the series against Pittsburgh. Capitals fans have been conditioned by past failures to expect the worst. (1996)
They had momentum, but they couldn’t close. They couldn’t push the puck past a second-string goalie. (1996)
“It’s terrible feeling now,” one forward said. “It’s probably [the] best team I played [for].” (2012)
Good intentions, good results, then playoff mortification, year after year, followed by the same mantra: There’s nothing wrong. We were just unlucky or injured. Next year: our turn. Keep the sellouts coming. (2011)
Sometimes, this Caps’ cavalcade of misfortune almost gets to be too much to bear. How much pain and bad luck can you watch and call it entertainment? That’s why many fans simply view these annual disasters as comedy. It’s a defense mechanism against appreciating how hard, and well, the Capitals sometimes play, even when they end up in their normal role.
As much as anything, the Caps may need to fight against the sense of fatalism that has surrounded the team for so long. Somehow, the Capitals need to spit in the eye of every bad break and every debatable call they meet in the playoffs. Otherwise, they will always seem haunted when they reach the postseason. They will always have that extra ghost of past failure with them. (2003)
It all feels so depressingly familiar, almost like walking down a street, hoping the neighborhood has changed — oblivious to the fact a manhole cover has been removed seconds before you fall through in utter agony.
You walk down the same street the next year and fall through again, same time, every May. (2013)
Not the coach, not his star player, not the capacity crowd on hand at Verizon Center could believe that a season that began amid hopes of a ticker-tape parade down Pennsylvania Avenue had instead ended in ignominy.
“I have nothing to say right now,” said one forward, who, like his teammates, is headed home for a long summer, one that begins with more questions than answers. (2010)
“We just didn’t rise to the occasion,”the coach said. “Our top players have to all contribute. All weren’t able to. Some guys played extremely well, but we did not have the consistent, disciplined play throughout the whole lineup we had through the year.” (1986)
This is what Washington has for a hockey team: A never-ending series of players who work hard, always get to the playoffs and then just don’t have what it takes to go anywhere. It’s getting rather tiresome.
When the coach spoke of “organizational baggage,” he had a point to make: It’s not about these guys per se, it’s about this organization. “I have a hard time,” he said, “buying into the organization’s successes and failures being heaped upon the current players.” (1996)
What do the Capitals need? A few more good men. Ones who will make them better, but maybe more importantly, make them believe in themselves. Lift the burden of their uncertainties. Some fellows with big hearts and sharp pencils to take names. (1989)
The worst part is, the Capitals players had themselves believing they had the team, the talent and enough ornery players to tap in the puck when the supernovas couldn’t. They actually had convinced each other they could bring one of the four North American major team-sport championships to Washington for the first time since the Redskins last won the Super Bowl in 1992.
Shockingly, this Cup-or-bust franchise is now dispersing to different parts of the globe to inexplicably watch the rest of the NHL playoffs. (2010)
“I really thought this was the year for this team,” the goalie said. “In all my years, this is the best chance I’ve had. (1992)
It was a team built for the postseason, with a blend of scoring, defense, leadership and depth. It had, as one player said, “that special feeling all year.” (2016)
“Just pure disappointment,” a defenseman said. That’s what it is. I’m so disappointed and [ticked] off that we lost, it’s not even funny.” (1995)
“Disappointing,” a forward said. “Disappointing.”
“It’s a lot to digest right now,” a defenseman said. “Guys are hurt, for sure.” (2015)
“Over seven games, I think we beat them in every category except the final result. That tends to make you look for sympathy and ask, ‘Why us?’ ” said the general manager. “But you have to remember that good teams find ways to win.”
Except the Capitals, otherwise a good team. (1987)
For many Washingtonians, the Caps long ago ceased to be a mere hockey team. They’re turning into the stuff of larger legend. Each spring they surpass themselves in ritual suffering. You laugh because crying seems excessive. But nobody deserves this sort of annual embarrassment. Yet nobody knows how to stop it. (1995)
Pull the covers back over your face. Get back in that ball. And don’t set the alarm. When you wake up, eventually, it’ll all be the same as it ever was. (2017)
Bibliography. (All stories come from The Washington Post.)
Gildea, William. (1989, April 16.) “Capitals are missing indefinable something; Latest collapse proves talent only goes so far.”
Steinberg, Dan. (2010, April 28.) “Caps lose Game 7, D.C. fans suffer again.”
Fachet, Robert. (1986, April 29.) “Picking up the Pieces and Looking Ahead; Capitals, With Mind on Cup, Overlooked Matter at Hand.”
Gildea, William. (2000, April 23.) “They Were Just a Shooter Short.”
Boswell, Thomas. (1986, April 29.) “Capitals Should Digest Some Humility.”
Kornheiser, Tony. (1996, April 30.) “It’s a Gag We’ve Heard Before.”
Carrera, Katie. (2012, May 12.) “Washington Capitals fall to N.Y. Rangers in Game 7.”
Boswell, Thomas. (2013, May 14.) “Washington Capitals’ playoff exit: A tradition that’s getting old.”
Boswell, Thomas. (2011, May 6.) “It’s time for the Caps to trade their road map for a new GPS.”
Boswell, Thomas. (2003, April 21.) “After Meltdown, a Familiar Letdown.”
Wise, Mike. (2013, May 14.) “Capitals stars no longer young, certainly outgunned.”
El-Bashir, Tarik. (2010, April 29.) “Top-seeded Washington Capitals knocked out of Stanley Cup playoffs by eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens.)
Frey, Jennifer. (1996, April 29.) “The Song Remains The Same.”
Wise, Mike. (2010, April 29.) “Mike Wise on the Washington Capitals’ stunning loss to the Montreal Canadiens.”
Wilbon, Michael. (1992, May 3.) “No Choking This Time: The Better Team Won.”
Steinberg, Dan. (2016, May 10.) “The best season in Capitals history ends in a painfully familiar spot.”
Hochberg, Len. (1995, May 20.) “Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda; Caps Dumbfounded By Loss to Penguins.”
Prewitt, Alex. (2015, May 13.) “Rangers continue Game 7 mastery of Capitals.”
Boswell, Thomas. (1987, April 20.) “Ah, Suspense! Oh, Shoot — Inevitability.”
Boswell, Thomas. (1995, May 19.) “There They Go, Again.”
Svrluga, Barry. (2017, May 10.) “Say it again, Capitals: Round 2, Game 7, Loss.” |
Lancaster police now say a woman falsified a story of kidnapping and rape following a car crash.
Police said the woman will be criminally charged.
Investigators said she reported she was driving southbound along North Memorial Drive on Monday, when she was rear-ended.
That's when the woman alleged a man pulled out a knife and forced her back into her own car, struck her across the face several times and threatened to kill her if she did not do exactly what he said.
Police said she told them she woke up more than four hours later and ran to a neighbor's door for help. That neighbor then called 911.
Her father's car is back in his driveway. It had been missing after the woman's alleged tall tale.
"We were kind of shocked but hopefully we can get her into rehab," said Chuck Mettler.
Mettler had just a few comments after learning his daughter made up the story.
He spoke with 10TV earlier in the day before police said she made up the incident. He thought she was using his car to run an errand.
"She went up to Meijer's to get me a birthday cake and she was on her way back from there," said Mettler. "She's breaking down, crying. She blames herself."
Tuesday night, Lancaster detectives said they learned that story was not true.
They said the alleged victim lied about the kidnapping and rape to cover up the fact she was using her father's car for drug activity.
"The drug situation in Lancaster is out of control and something needs to be done," said Mettler.
Police say charges against the woman will be coming soon.
Watch 10TV News and refresh 10TV.com for more information.
Previous Story: Lancaster Woman Says She Was Raped After Fender-Bender |
Armed with nothing but your pop gun and your fists, take out the invading creatures, arcade-style, in Go Go Sniper.
Inspired by the single-screen arena classics, Go Go Sniper boasts a combo-based scoring system that rewards risky play. By punching enemies, you make them faster, angrier, and worth more points! Line them up and shoot to create a high-scoring combo, but be careful; some creatures might shoot back!
Trying the game for the first time? Start with Tour Mode, where you progress through various stages with unique architecture. After mastering the Tour, face a never-ending onslaught of enemies and compete for the high score in Infinite Mode. Whether you're a beginner, veteran, or anywhere in between, Go Go Sniper has the perfect challenge for all.
Try Go Go Sniper today; it's worth a shot.
Note: Please wait a bit for the game to load; its file is 11MB.
Changes
6 August 2017
The game is now downloadable! Please note that the download is Windows-only; other operating systems must play the game online.
6 March 2017
Special thanks to Reddit users ReflextionsDev, Cassiyus, and olaf_from_norweden: there are now options to choose control schemes! Choose between either 2 buttons and a three-way joystick (with up on the stick to jump) or 3 buttons and a two-way joystick (with a dedicated jump button).
4 March 2017
Fixed the two known issues detailed from 27 February 2017.
Changed the title screen's logo by one pixel.
Fixed a glitch introduced in the previous version where the rolling boulder never spawned. Now, survive in Infinite Mode long enough to see it!
27 February 2017
Added a new obstacle, a rolling boulder, to Infinite Mode. Survive for a long time and you might see it!
Changed the "hit" color of the Shot Stopper (rock) from red to blue to indicate that it is not damageable.
Changed the layout of Infinite Mode's level to increase its difficulty.
Known Issues to be fixed: In very rare situations, scoring may fail to award the correct amount of points.
"Pacing" motion locks certain enemies into an unintended movement pattern. |
A Democratic congressman who represents a Texas district bordering Mexico says in a new interview that "a miracle" is needed to pass legislation this year to protect young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) told The Houston Chronicle, however, that he does not see Congress passing new legislation this year to replace the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
"We're trying to put as much leverage on Republicans as we can, but they are saying early next year. I was hoping we could do it by the end of the year and maybe a miracle will happen, but I don't see it right now," Cuellar told the newspaper.
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"I hate to put it so cold, but do you shut down the government for 800,000 people at the expense of 320 million Americans? That's really what you're looking at."
President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE in September said he would rescind the Obama-era DACA program, which protected certain young immigrants from deportation, but provided Congress with six months to pursue a legislative replacement.
Democratic lawmakers have pushed for a fix to DACA to be included in an end-of-the-year spending bill, a prospect that Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE (R-Wis.) said last month is not on the table.
Rep. Joaquin Castro Joaquin CastroHouse votes to overturn Trump's emergency declaration On The Money: House votes to block Trump emergency declaration | McConnell unsure if Trump move is legal | Fed chief sees 'conflicting signals' from economy | Governors bullish on infrastructure after Trump talks | Big win for AT&T-Time Warner deal The Hill's Morning Report - Dems appear to have votes to counter Trump on emergency MORE, another Texas Democrat, told the Chronicle that an immigration bill has the most viability this year.
"Once the Congress gets beyond that, it will become harder to leverage support for DACA into successful legislation," Castro said. |
Matt Yglesias echos a reader’s concern about Occupy Wall Street lining up with “End the Fed” rhetoric driven by the Paul camp (“Occupy Gainesville Facebook page is currently full of posts about the evil of fractional reserve banking, the danger of inflation, & other such Ron-Paulishness”), and wonders what can be recommended to get people interested in monetary policy and the Fed.
I’d really like this audience’s reactions, particularly when it comes to blog posts, videos, online materials or other general thoughts. My friend Andrew Bossie is doing some teach-ins on monetary policy at the Occupy Wall Street New York, and we have been thinking of ways to formalize it for the audience – there’s a huge demand from people who want to learn.
For online stuff that comes to mind, there’s Matt’s article and Paul Krugman on the babysitters’ co-op. I really like Chris Hayes’ paper from early on, The Case for Inflation, which places it against the Washington Consensus of the past 30 years and the changing battle of ideas over economics. At one of the Federal Reserve panels we did, Josh Bivens of EPI outlined Five Ways to Determine a Strong Liberal Member of the Federal Reserve, which I thought was very helpful.
One thing I’ve noticed after talking with people on this topic is that it is important to split the Federal Reserve as financial regulator from the Federal Reserve’s role in monetary policy. For some people trying to figure it out, they hear Federal Reserve and they immediately think financial sector bailouts. They think “monetary policy” is some version of AIG bonuses, the New York Fed hand-waiving bad books, Alan Greenspan ignoring FBI investigations and consumer reporter on fraud in the subprime market, and TARP. They think regulatory capture, etc. And they are right to be pissed about all these things in the financial markets.
But it is important to explain that this is very different from monetary policy. Indeed, paying interest on reserves, opportunistic disinflation and an indifference to high unemployment – the things that the left-liberals concerned about monetary policy bring up as major problems – are things that Wall Street likes, or at least doesn’t mind at all.
In fact, the biggest attacks from left-liberal spaces against expansive monetary policy has been to collapse this distinction, and make it seem that monetary policy is only about goosing banker bonuses. From Matt Taibbi (“big banks and Wall Street speculators are real, immediate beneficiaries of [QE2]”) to Shahien Nasiripour (“When it comes to helping Wall Street and corporate America, the Federal Reserve spares no expense,” with Ryan Avent response), many criticism of QE2 have gone along these lines. The idea that tight money hurts creditors and rentiers and loose money helps them is a new, incorrect, one. Nobody seemed to report that the AFL-CIO supported QE2 and additional monetary expansion.
It is entirely consistent to support “Audit the Fed” legislation and expansive monetary policy like QE2 and beyond (Dean Baker, for one, does). And the transparency argument over the bailouts should carry over to transparency on monetary policy. The biggest question mark I have right now is whether or not the Federal Reserve will kill any recovery – especially if driven by new fiscal stimulus – if inflation goes above 2%. How much do they emphasize their obligation to maximum employment versus inflation? These are incredibly important considerations.
More generally, James Kwak’s friend wondered “about the Tea Party: when has there been a populist movement that wanted to make money harder?” Indeed up until the Tea Party, all populists movements wanted looser money. Here’s Father Coughlin, the Glen Beck of the Great Depression, who was a monster but was right on monetary policy:
Many factors had conspired to create the Great Depression, Coughlin explained, but one loomed larger than all the others: a “cursed famine of currency money” . . . . Denouncing America’s rigid adherence to the gold standard (“Wedded to the false philosophy that gold is the value and not the measure; that it is the master and not the servant . . . we have been overwhelmed by catastrophe”), he urged immediate revaluation – a doubling of the price of gold per ounce from the present level of $20.67 to $41.34. The government would thus be able to issue twice as much currency on the basis of its existing gold supply. Revaluation would encourage, indeed, almost force the wealthy to put their “hoarded dollars” back into circulation; it would enable debtors to bear mortgages and other loans more easily; it would promote peace by making America’s allies better able to repay their wartime debts; and, most important of all, it would stimulate the economy sufficient to restore jobs and create prosperity for all.
Who has a very clear argument for a general audience (key on general audience) on why the Gold Standard is a bad idea? There’s a Breakdown episode with Liaquat Ahamed about it that was good, Yglesias had a post, Josh Barro had an article and David Frum has several keeping their right flank in check.
What else would you emphasize? |
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have long been used for quick and accurate views on overall performance. They provide technical, input-based metrics (uptime counts, downtime, response time, etc.) that highlight areas of strength and weakness. But what do these SLA metrics really mean to your business? Do the outcomes direct actions that result in a happy customer?
Not necessarily. SLAs are most of the times technical. They don’t directly relate to your customer and so, measuring them alone is an outmoded practice. To understand what is happening with your business and what it means to your customer today, you need to focus on monitoring business services AND experience. This means measuring the user experience, or eXperience Level Agreements (XLAs) and correlating the results back to your technical SLAs. For example: Is your shopping application still available for customers? How long does it take to connect with iDeal and finish the payment? Is the content on your website still loading fast enough?
By focusing on XLAs, the user experience and business outcomes, in addition to SLAs and key performance indicators (KPIs), you can take your IT Service Management to the next level. Why? Because once you've achieved your SLA goals, your job is done. But XLAs challenge you to improve yourself. For example, let’s say this year you've reached your 99% uptime goal. That’s great! But how did your customers experience your business services? Do you have any idea what their state of satisfaction is, overall? Probably not. Measuring XLAs provides this insight, as well as an opportunity to continuously improve your services and your business.
PS. We're building a new, Algorithmic IT Operations platform that provides full stack insight and investigation across teams and tools. Click here to learn more.
Here’s an overview of some of the other differences between SLAs and XLAs:
SLAs:
are hard and technical related KPIs
are from a technical perspective inside your organization
relate to a finger-pointing culture - "that's not my problem"
XLAs:
are based on soft and business impact related KPIs
are from a user perspective outside your organization
relate to an involved culture within your organization - "I want to improve"
So, should you stop measuring your SLAs all together? Definitely not. You still need to capture these important technical metrics. But it’s important to go one step further and correlate all this data to your desired business outcomes for a more accurate, holistic picture. Now is the time to transition from traditional SLAs and redefine new ones based on business requirements that meet customer needs.
In other words, ”SLAs are dead, long live SLAs!”
So, where to start?
According to a report on user experience management and business impact, there are five key categories to measure, ranked by priority:
Business impact: optimize business outcomes of IT delivered business services based on user interactions.
Performance: monitor and optimize effective delivery of business services to end consumers regarding performance and security.
Service usage: understand frequency and other usage patterns that leverage IT delivered business services.
User productivity: optimize end-user interaction with business services.
Design: optimize effective design and business services content for end consumers regarding navigation and relevance.
This goes way beyond Application Performance Management (APM). Measuring the user experience is a shared investment across all IT teams, throughout the IT landscape and requires a whole new way of thinking in IT service management.
With this in mind, we developed StackState. StackState gives you the ability to correlate technical SLAs to your desired business outcomes by providing a real-time overview of your full IT stack. This includes all the business processes, services, software systems, applications and hardware/cloud infrastructure components you use to facilitate the business services that are vital to your customers’ experience and your revenue.
Want to learn more about StackState? Request a free guided tour to get a better understanding of our solution. |
Retired Supreme Court justice Ian Binnie was careful last month to avoid linking his report on Senate expenses to the Mike Duffy trial, but several of his findings strike at the heart of the P.E.I. senator's criminal proceedings
"I was very circumspect not to get into issues that would overlap or conflict with the Duffy trial. It's a totally different process," Binnie said when he released his report on "questionable" and inadmissible expenses identified by the auditor general.
A central issue in Duffy's case was the designation of the senator's home in P.E.I. as his primary residence, which made him eligible to claim meals and other expenses for his time in Ottawa, despite the fact that he has lived and worked in Canada's capital for decades.
Duffy's trial reconvenes tomorrow to hear the judge's ruling on 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery. Duffy pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Binnie was asked to adjudicate on a similar issue when reviewing the auditor's findings for Conservative Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu.
The 'fiction' of primary residence
Boisvenu claimed Sherbrooke, Que., was his primary residence even though he had lived in the Ottawa region for the majority of time under consideration by the auditor general's investigation.
Binnie wrote in his report that Boisvenu had no right to claim living expenses and per diems in 2012 because he spent only 45 days at his "primary" residence in Sherbrooke, in large part due to divorce proceedings.
Binnie dismissed the claim that financial statements and a provincial health card alone — items Duffy also referred to as proof of residence in his case — were enough to determine a senator's primary residence.
"Regardless of the various registrations, Senator Boisvenu was in fact resident in [the National Capital Region] in 2012," he wrote. "If in fact the senator was not primarily resident in Sherbrooke in 2012, he ought not to receive financial allowances based on the fiction that he was."
Boisvenu's lawyer argued that there was nothing in the Senate rules that demanded a senator spend a certain number of days at their primary residence, something Binnie acknowledged was true.
Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu faced many of the same questions about his primary residency that were adjudicated during Mike Duffy's trial. Former Supreme Court Justice Ian Binnie's findings on this file might be problematic for Duffy. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)
But the former justice said that a degree of common sense should be considered when filing living expense claims, saying anything else would be disingenuous.
"Primary residence is a matter of fact," he concludes. "A senator is not entitled to claim travel status when he is living at what is in fact his primary residence," adding that Boisvenu should be compelled to repay the $20,467.33 in expenses he had claimed.
Duffy's criminal defence lawyer, Donald Bayne, has tried to present a similar defence as that employed by Boisvenu, arguing that Senate rules around residency were vague at best. Duffy needed to deem his Cavendish cottage as his primary residence as it was his home in the province he was appointed to represent, Bayne argued.
Duffy claimed living expenses and per diems not because he was out to defraud the Senate, but rather to fulfil his constitutional obligations as the senator for P.E.I., Bayne said.
Duffy says he was forced to file claims
Duffy himself said in court he was told by Senator David Tkachuk — the then-Conservative chair of the Senate's internal economy committee — to file the expenses so as not to "create any light between you and any other senator who's on travel status when they're in Ottawa but most particularly any P.E.I. senator."
"He said ... to not do so could create controversy about whether or not you are truly a Prince Edward Island senator, a resident of P.E.I., you're constitutionally qualified, you must do this," Duffy said Tkachuk told him.
Senator David Tkachuk says he told Mike Duffy that if he was living in Ottawa he shouldn't be claiming living expenses and per diems. Duffy told a different story in court, insisting that Conservative leadership in the Senate pressured him to file expense claims to assert his legitimacy as a senator from P.E.I.
But in his report, Binnie said the expense claims are a matter of Senate administrative policy and are not a reflection of a senator's constitutional right to represent a province in the Red Chamber.
"This has nothing to do with his constitutional qualification to continue to sit as a senator for Sherbrooke," he said of Boisvenu's case. "The issue here is the Senate travel policy, not the constitution."
Tkachuk has challenged Duffy's testimony, telling reporters he remembers their conversation about living expenses much differently.
"I would have told them that if you're staying here in Ottawa that you should be claiming expenses, because your primary residency is in your home province. And if I was living here in Ottawa, and that was [my] primary residence, I shouldn't be claiming expenses," Tkachuk said, echoing the conclusion reached by Binnie.
Duffy faces expulsion
The speculation will stop Thursday when Charles Vaillancourt, the judge who presided over Duffy's trial, delivers his ruling.
If Duffy — who is currently on a leave of absence from the Senate with pay — is convicted of just one criminal charge and receives anything other than a discharge at sentencing, he will be suspended from the upper house, a Senate spokesperson told CBC News.
His $142,400 a year salary would immediately be cut off. The resources that are available to a senator, including his office, staff, and research budget (which has been at the heart of his criminal proceedings), would also end.
Duffy's suspension would remain in effect until all of his legal avenues have been exhausted.
If a conviction is upheld after an appeal, it would then be up to his fellow senators to decide whether a permanent expulsion is appropriate.
If Duffy is cleared of all criminal charges, he will return to work right away as if the whole matter — a three-year long legal saga — had never happened. |
A couple of weeks back, the Greater London Authority released the excitingly-named London Infrastructure Plan 2050: a suite of documents proposing everything from a new orbital railway line to better flood defences.
The plan is largely a response to the fact the capital’s population is growing at the fastest rate in decades. At some point in the very near future (6th January 2015, the GLA estimates) London will breach the previous population record of 8.6m that it set in 1939. And that growth is not slowing down. By the middle of the century, it’s likely to increase by nearly a third to hit 11.3m; it could get as high as 13.4m.
This, as you can imagine, that will put quite a strain on the city’s infrastructure. In case you haven’t had the chance to read the entire plan yourself, here are some salient points:
1. London could have high-speed trains to Stuttgart, Strasbourg and Geneva
One of the plan’s transport priorities is extending the rail links into Europe. This would take some pressure off airports, reduce freight traffic on the motorways and, best of all, make for a wider range of city breaks. The proposed network could look like this:
They’re even thinking about installing an “additional cross-channel rail tunnel” to accommodate more international rail journeys. This plan, though, isn’t included in the cost estimates.
2. Where the extra Londoners live will depend on where the infrastructure goes
The report includes some nifty visualisations which shows how different policies would affect the city’s population density. If it continues with its current policies, by 2050, London’s population density could look like this:
Basically that’s a lot of people in the centre and along the river, but far fewer as you head out of town.
But different options are also on the table. One is to increase density in London’s various “town centres”. If that happens, the report’s authors reckon London’s population would look like this:
Suddenly, that’s lots more people in far flung places like Coulsdon, Upminster, and Feltham. That would mean that any growth in population happens in areas that already have decent shops, facilities and transport inks.
3. London needs faster broadband
Broadband, or “High speed connectivity”, actually gets a whole supporting document to itself (in city planning circles, that’s a pretty big deal). The government is aiming for 99 per cent of the population to have access to “superfast” connections, which can be as fast as 300Mbps, by 2018. At the moment, the average British broadband connection runs at just 12 Mbps.
But the areas with the darker grey dots on this map have speeds of just 2 Mbps connectivity:
In other words, much of the capital is stuck in a broadband blind spots.
If the GLA gets its way, a city-wide Connectivity Advisory Group would be given the job of monitoring the capital’s broadband speeds and trying to plug the gaps. One possible solution is to re-use the ducts that borough councils use for CCTV systems as a housing for broadband wiring; another is creating communications hubs for communities to use – like New York’s plans for Wi-Fi phone boxes.
4. The money doesn’t have to come from Westminster
“Throughout these documents runs a golden thread,” Boris Johnson says in his introduction to the planning document. “London government needs more financial powers to invest in London’s infrastructure and support its growth.”
That “golden thread” is surprisingly literal. Delivering this plan will take a lot of money: £1.3 trillion, according to Arup, the engineering consultancy that worked on the plan. Based on the city’s current population of 8.4m, that’s a cool £154,762 per head.
Asking for a sum of this sort isn’t likely to win the capital many friends in places like Birmingham and Leeds, that are crying out for public investment themselves. But, as Boris says, this money doesn't have to come from the national government. The report highlights the work of the London Finance Commission, which called on the government to devolve property taxes to the city authorities; it wants the city to have greater powers to borrow, too.
In this way, London would be able to finance its own infrastructure needs, without needing to compete for cash with the rest of the country. (While we're at it, why not devolve powers to the country's other city regions, too?)
5. Someone didn’t check the transport document’s back page.
Well, you can’t plan everything. |
New Options for Managing Character Sets in the Microsoft C/C++ Compiler
The Microsoft C/C++ compiler has evolved along with DOS, 16-bit Windows, and 32/64-bit Windows. Its support for different characters sets, code pages, and Unicode has also changed during this time. This post will explain how our compiler has worked in the past and also cover some new switches provided by the C/C++ compiler in Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 CTP, specifically support for BOM-less UTF-8 files and controlling execution character sets. Please download this and try it out. For information on other compiler changes in Update 2, check out this post.
There are some great resources online that describe Unicode, DBCS, MBCS, code pages, and other things in great detail. I won’t try to reproduce that here and will cover the basic concepts quickly. The Unicode Consortium site is a great place to learn more about Unicode.
There are two main aspects to understanding how our compiler deals with different character sets. The first is how it interprets bytes in a source file (source character set) and the second is what bytes it writes into the binary (execution character set). It is important to understand how the source code itself is encoded and stored on disk.
Explicit indication of Unicode encoding
There is a standard way to indicate Unicode files by using a BOM (byte-order mark). This BOM can indicate UTF-32, UTF-16, and UTF-8, as well as whether it is big-endian or little-endian. These are indicated by the sequence of bytes that results from the encoding of the U+FEFF character into whatever encoding is being used. UTF-8 is encoded as a stream of bytes, so there isn’t an actual “order” of the bytes that needs to be indicated, but the indicator for UTF-8 is still usually called a “BOM”.
Implicit indication of encoding
In the early days of Windows (and DOS) before Unicode was supported, text files were stored with no indication of what encoding the file was using. It was up to the app as to how to interpret this. In DOS, any character outside of the ASCII range would be output using what was built in to the video card. In Windows, this became known as the OEM (437) code page. This included some non-English characters as well as some line-drawing characters useful for drawing boxes around text.
Windows eventually added support for DBCS (double byte character sets) and MBCS (multi-byte character sets). There was still no standard way of indicating what the encoding of a text file was and the bytes would usually be interpreted using whatever the current code page of the system was set to. When 32bit Windows arrived, it had separate APIs for UTF-16 and another set for so-called “ANSI” APIs. These APIs took 8-bit characters that were interpreted using the current code page of the system.
Note: in Windows you cannot set the code page to a Unicode code page (either UTF-16 or UTF-8), so in many cases there is no easy way to make an older app understand a Unicode encoded file that does not have a BOM.
It is also common nowadays to encode files in UTF-8 without using a BOM. This is the default in most Linux environments. Although many Linux tools can handle a BOM, most tools won’t generate one. Not having a BOM actually makes many things simpler such as concatenating files or appending to a file without having to worry about who is going to write the BOM.
How the Microsoft C/C++ compiler reads text from a file
At some point in the past, the Microsoft compiler was changed to use UTF-8 internally. So, as files are read from disk, they are converted into UTF-8 on the fly. If a file has a BOM, we use that and read the file using whatever encoding is specified and converting it to UTF-8. If the file does not have a BOM, we try to detect both little-endian and big-endian forms of UTF-16 encoding by looking at the first 8 bytes. If the file looks like UTF-16 we will treat it as if there was a UTF-16 BOM on the file.
If there is no BOM and it doesn’t look like UTF-16, then we use the current code page (result of a call to GetACP) to convert the bytes on disk into UTF-8. This may or may not be correct depending on how the file was actually encoded and what characters it contains. If the file is actually encoded as UTF-8, this will never be correct as the system code page can’t be set to CP_UTF8.
Execution Character Set
It is also important to understand the “execution character set”. Based on the execution character set, the compiler will interpret strings differently. Let’s look at a simple example to start.
const char ch = ‘h’;
const char u8ch = u8’h’;
const wchar_t wch = L’h’;
const char b[] = “h”;
const char u8b[] = u8″h”;
const wchar_t wb [] = L”h”;
The code above will be interpreted as though you had typed this.
const char ch = 0x68;
const char u8ch = 0x68;
const wchar_t wch = 0x68;
const char b[] = {0x68, 0};
const char u8b[] = {0x68, 0};
const wchar_t wb [] = {0x68, 0};
This should make perfect sense and will be true regardless of the file encoding or current code page. Now, let’s take a look at the following code.
const char ch = ‘屰’;
const char u8ch = ‘屰’;
const wchar_t wch = L’屰’;
const char b[] = “屰”;
const char u8b[] = u8″屰”;
const wchar_t wbuffer[] = L”屰”;
Note: I picked this character at random, but it appears to be the Han character meaning “disobedient”, which seems appropriate for my purpose. It is the Unicode U+5C70 character.
We have several factors to consider in this. How is the file encoded that contains this code? And what is the current code page of the system we are compiling on? In UTF-16 the encoding is 0x5C70, in UTF-8 it is the sequence 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0. In the 936 code page, it is 0x8C, 0xDB. It is not representable in code page 1252 (Latin-1), which is what I’m currently running on. The 1252 code page is normally used on Windows in English and many other Western languages. Table 1 shows results for various file encodings when run on a system using code page 1252.
Table 1 – Example of results today when compiling code with various encodings.
File Encoding UTF-8 w/ BOM UTF-16LE w/ or w/o BOM UTF-8 w/o BOM DBCS (936) Bytes in source file representing 屰 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x70, 0x5C 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x8C, 0xDB Source conversion UTF8 -> UTF8 UTF16-LE -> UTF-8 1252 -> UTF8 1252 -> UTF-8 Internal (UTF-8) representation 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xC3, 0xA5, 0xC2, 0xB1, 0xC2, 0xB0 0xC5, 0x92, 0xC3, 0x9B Conversion to execution character set char ch = ‘屰’;
UTF-8 -> CP1252 0x3F* 0x3F* 0xB0 0xDB char u8ch = u8’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-8 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 wchar_t wch = L’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70 0x5C70 0x00E5 0x0152 char b[] = “屰”;
UTF-8 -> CP1252 0x3F, 0* 0x3F, 0* 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0x8C, 0xDB, 0 char u8b[] = u8″屰”;
UTF-8-> UTF-8 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xC3, 0xA5, 0xC2, 0xB1, 0xC2, 0xB0, 0 0xC5, 0x92, 0xC3, 0x9B, 0 wchar_t wb[] = L”屰”;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0 0x00E5, 0x00B1, 0x00B0, 0 0x0152, 0x00DB, 0
The asterisk (*) indicates that warning C4566 was generated for these. In these cases the warning is “character represented by universal-character-name ‘\u5C70’ cannot be represented in the current code page (1252)”
The error C2015 is “too many characters in constant”
These results probably doesn’t make nearly as much sense as the simple case of the letter ‘h’, but I’ll walk through what is going on in each case.
In columns one and two, we know what the encoding of the file is and so the conversion to the internal representation of UTF-8 is correctly 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0. The execution character set is Windows code page 1252, however, and when we try to convert the Unicode character U+5C70 to that code page, it fails and uses the default replacement character of 0x3F (which is the question mark). We emit warning C4566 but use the converted character of 0x3F. For the u8 character literal, we are already in UTF-8 form and don’t need conversion, but we can’t store three bytes in one byte and so emit error C2015. For wide literals, the “wide execution character set” is always UTF-16 and so the wide character and wide string are converted correctly. For the u8 string literal, we are already in UTF-8 form internally and no conversion is done.
In the third column (UTF-8 with no BOM), the on disk characters are 0xe5, 0xb1, and 0xb0. Each character is interpreted using the current code page of 1252 and converted to UTF-8, resulting in the internal sequence of three two-byte UTF-8 characters: (0xC3, 0xA5), (0xC2, 0xB1), and (0xC2, 0xB0). For the simple character assignment, the characters are converted back to codepage 1252, giving 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0. This results in a multicharacter literal and the results are the same as when the compiler encounters ‘abcd’. The value of a multicharacter literal is implementation defined and in VC it is an int where each byte is from one character. When assigning to a char, you get conversion and just see the low byte. For u8 character literals we generate error C2015 when using more than one byte. Note: The compiler’s treatment of multicharacter literals is very different for narrow chars and wide chars. For wide chars, we just take the first character of the multicharacter literal, which in this case is 0x00E5. In the narrow string literal, the sequence is converted back using the current code page and results in four bytes: 0xe5, 0xb1, 0xb0, 0. The u8 string literal uses the same character set as the internal representation and is 0xC3, 0xA5, 0xC2, 0xB1, 0xC2, 0xB0, 0.For a wide string literal, we use UTF-16 as the execution character set which results in 0x00E5, 0x00B1, 0x00B2, 0.
Finally, in the fourth column we have the file saved using code page 936, where the character is stored on disk as 0x8C, 0xDB. We convert this using the current code page of 1252 and get two two-byte UTF-8 characters: (0xC5, 0x92), (0xC3, 0x9B). For the narrow char literal, the characters are converted back to 0x8C, 0xDB and the char gets the value of 0xDB. For the u8 char literal, the characters are not converted, but it is an error. For the wide char literal, the characters are converted to UTF-16 resulting in 0x0152, 0x00DB. The first value is used and 0x0152 is the value. For string literals, the similar conversions are done.
Changing the system code page
The results for the second and third columns will also be different if a different code page than 1252 is being used. From the descriptions above, you should be able to predict what will happen in those cases. Because of these differences, many developers will only build on systems that are set to code page 1252. For other code pages, you can get different results with no warnings or errors.
Compiler Directives
There are also two compiler directives that can impact this process. These are “#pragma setlocale” and “#pragma execution_character_set”.
The setlocale pragma is documented somewhat here https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/3e22ty2t.aspx. This pragma attempts to allow a user to change the source character set for a file as it is being parsed. It appears to have been added to allow wide literals to be specified using non-Unicode files. However, there are bugs in this that effectively only allow it to be used with single-byte character sets. If you try to add a pragma set locale to the above example like this.
#pragma setlocale(“.936”)
const char buffer[] = “屰”;
const wchar_t wbuffer[] = L”屰”;
const char ch = ‘屰’;
const wchar_t wch = L’屰’;
The results are in Table 2, with the differences highlighted in Red. All it did was make more cases fail to convert and result in the 0x3F (?) character. The pragma doesn’t actually change how the source file is read, instead it is used only when wide character or wide string literals are being used. When a wide literal is seen, the compiler converts individual internal UTF-8 characters back to 1252, trying to “undo” the conversion that happened when the file was read. It then converts them from the raw form to the codepage set by the “setlocale” pragma. However, in this particular case, the initial conversion to UTF-8 in column 3 and column 4 results in 3 or 2 UTF-8 characters respectively. For example, in column 4, the internal UTF-8 character of (0xC5, 0x92) is converted back to CP1252, resulting in the character 0x8C. The compiler then tries to convert that to CP936. However, 0x8C is just a lead byte, not a complete character, so the conversion fails yielding 0x3F, the default replacement character. The conversion of the second character also fails, resulting in another 0x3F. So, column three ends up with three 0x3F characters for the wide string literal and column 4 has two 0x3F characters in the literal.
For a Unicode file with a BOM, the result is the same as before, which makes sense as the encoding of the file was strongly specified through the BOM.
Table 2 – Example of results today when compiling code with various encodings. Differences from Table 1 in red.
File Encoding UTF-8 w/ BOM UTF-16LE w/ or w/o BOM UTF-8 w/o BOM DBCS (936) Bytes in source file representing 屰 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x70, 0x5C 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x8C, 0xDB Source conversion UTF8 -> UTF8 UTF16-LE -> UTF-8 1252 -> UTF8 1252 -> UTF-8 Internal (UTF-8) representation 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xC3, 0xA5, 0xC2, 0xB1, 0xC2, 0xB0 0xC5, 0x92, 0xC3, 0x9B Conversion to execution character set char ch = ‘屰’;
UTF-8 -> CP1252 0x3F* 0x3F* 0xB0 0xDB char u8ch = u8’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-8 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 wchar_t wch = L’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70 0x5C70 0x003F 0x003F char b[] = “屰”;
UTF-8 -> CP1252 0x3F, 0* 0x3F, 0* 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0x8C, 0xDB, 0 char u8b[] = u8″屰”;
UTF-8-> UTF-8 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xC3, 0xA5, 0xC2, 0xB1, 0xC2, 0xB0, 0 0xC5, 0x92, 0xC3, 0x9B, 0 wchar_t wb[] = L”屰”;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0 0x003F, 0x003F, 0x003F, 0 0x003F, 0x003F, 0
The other pragma that affects all of this is #pragma execution_character_set. It takes a target execution character set, but only one value is supported and that is “utf-8”. It was introduced to allow a user to specify a utf-8 execution character set and was implemented after VS2008 and VS2010 had shipped. This was done before the u8 literal prefix was supported and is really not needed any longer. At this point, we really encourage users to use the new prefixes instead of #pragma execution_character_set.
Summary of Current Issues
There are many problems with #pragma setlocale.
It can’t be set to UTF-8, which is a major limitation. It only affects string and character literals. It doesn’t actually work correctly with DBCS character sets.
The execution_character_set pragma lets you encode narrow strings as UTF-8, but it doesn’t support any other character set. Additionally, the only way to set this globally is to use /FI (force include) of a header that contains this pragma.
Trying to compile code that contains non ASCII strings in a cross platform way is very hard to get right.
New Options in VS2015 Update 2
In order to address these issues, there are several new compiler command-line options that allow you to specify the source character set and execution character set. The /source-charset: option can take either an IANA character set name or a Windows code page identifier (prefixed with a dot).
/source-charset:<iana-name>|.NNNN
If an IANA name is passed, that is mapped to a Windows code page using IMultiLanguage2::GetCharsetInfo. The code page is used to convert all BOM-less files that the compiler encounters to its internal UTF-8 format. If UTF-8 is specified as the source character set then no translation is performed at all since the compiler uses UTF-8 internally. If the specified name is unknown or some other error occurs retrieving information on the code page, then an error is emitted. One limitation is not being able to use UTF-7, UTF-16, or any DBCS character set that uses more than two bytes to encode a character. Also, a code page that isn’t a superset of ASCII may be accepted by the compiler, but will likely cause many errors about unexpected characters.
The /source-charset option affects all files in the translation unit that are not automatically identified. (Remember that we automatically identify files with a BOM and also BOM-less UTF-16 files.) Therefore, it is not possible to have a UTF-8 encoded file and a DBCS encoded file in the same translation unit.
The /execution-charset:<iana-name>|.NNNN option uses the same lookup mechanism as /source-charset to get a code page. It controls how narrow character and string literals are generated.
There is also a /utf-8 option that is a synonym for setting “/source-charset:utf-8” and “/execution-charset:utf-8”.
Note that if any of these new options are used it is now an error to use #pragma setlocale or #pragma execution-character-set. Between the new options and use of explicit u8 literals, it should no longer be necessary to use these old pragmas, especially given the bugs. However, the existing pragmas will continue to work as before if the new options are not used.
Finally, there is a new /validate-charset option, which gets turned on automatically with any of the above options. It is possible to turn this off with /validate-charset-, although that is not recommended. Previously, we would do some validation of some charsets when converting to internal UTF-8 form, however, we would do no checking of UTF-8 source files and just read them directly, which could cause subtle problems later. This switch enables validation of UTF-8 files as well regardless of whether there is a BOM or not.
Example Revisited
By correctly specifying the source-charset where needed, the results are now identical regardless of the encoding of the source file. Also, we can specify a specific execution character set that is independent of the source character set and results should be identical for a specific execution character set. In Table 3, you can see that we now get the exact same results regardless of the encoding of the source file. The data in green indicates a change from the original example in Table 1.
Table 4 shows the results of using an execution character set of UTF-8 and Table 5 uses GB2312 as the execution character set.
Table 3 – Example using correct source-charset for each source file (current code page 1252). Green shows differences from Table 1.
File Encoding UTF-8 w/ BOM UTF-16LE w/ or w/o BOM UTF-8 w/o BOM DBCS (936) Bytes in source file representing 屰 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x70, 0x5C 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x8C, 0xDB Source conversion UTF8 -> UTF8 UTF16-LE -> UTF-8 UTF8 -> UTF8 CP936 -> UTF-8 Internal (UTF-8) representation 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 Conversion to execution character set char ch = ‘屰’;
UTF-8 -> CP1252 0x3F* 0x3F* 0x3F* 0x3F* char u8ch = u8’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-8 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 wchar_t wch = L’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70 0x5C70 0x5C70 0x5C70 char b[] = “屰”;
UTF-8 -> CP1252 0x3F, 0* 0x3F, 0* 0x3F, 0* 0x3F, 0* char u8b[] = u8″屰”;
UTF-8-> UTF-8 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 wchar_t wb[] = L”屰”;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0
Table 4 – Using an execution character set of utf-8 (code page 65001) correct /source-charset for file encoding
File Encoding UTF-8 w/ BOM UTF-16LE w/ or w/o BOM UTF-8 w/o BOM DBCS (936) Bytes in source file representing 屰 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x70, 0x5C 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x8C, 0xDB Source conversion UTF8 -> UTF8 UTF16-LE -> UTF-8 UTF8 -> UTF8 CP936 -> UTF-8 Internal (UTF-8) representation 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 Conversion to execution character set char ch = ‘屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-8 0xB0 0xB0 0xB0 0xB0 char u8ch = u8’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-8 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 wchar_t wch = L’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70 0x5C70 0x5C70 0x5C70 char b[] = “屰”;
UTF-8 -> UTF-8 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 char u8b[] = u8″屰”;
UTF-8-> UTF-8 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 wchar_t wb[] = L”屰”;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0
Table 5 – Using an execution character set of GB2312 (code page 936)
File Encoding UTF-8 w/ BOM UTF-16LE w/ or w/o BOM UTF-8 w/o BOM DBCS (936) Bytes in source file representing 屰 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x70, 0x5C 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0x8C, 0xDB Source conversion UTF8 -> UTF8 UTF16-LE -> UTF-8 UTF8 -> UTF8 CP936 -> UTF-8 Internal (UTF-8) representation 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0 Conversion to execution character set char ch = ‘屰’;
UTF-8 -> CP936 0xDB 0xDB 0xDB 0xDB char u8ch = u8’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-8 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 error C2015 wchar_t wch = L’屰’;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70 0x5C70 0x5C70 0x5C70 char b[] = “屰”;
UTF-8 -> CP936 0x8C, 0xDB, 0 0x8C, 0xDB, 0 0x8C, 0xDB, 0 0x8C, 0xDB, 0 char u8b[] = u8″屰”;
UTF-8-> UTF-8 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 0xE5, 0xB1, 0xB0, 0 wchar_t wb[] = L”屰”;
UTF-8 -> UTF-16LE 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0 0x5C70, 0
Do’s, Don’ts, and the Future
On Windows, save files as Unicode with a BOM when possible. This will avoid problems in many cases and most tools support reading files with a BOM.
In those cases where BOM-less UTF-8 files already exist or where changing to a BOM is a problem, use the /source-charset:utf-8 option to correctly read these files.
Don’t use /source-charset with something other than utf-8 unless no other option exists. Saving files as Unicode (even BOM-less UTF8) is better than using a DBCS encoding.
Use of /execution-charset or /utf-8 can help when targeting code between Linux and Windows as Linux commonly uses BOM-less UTF-8 files and a UTF-8 execution character set.
Don’t use #pragma execution_character_set. Instead, use u8 literals where needed.
Don’t use #pragma setlocale. Instead, save the file as Unicode, use explicit byte sequences, or use universal character names rather than using multiple character sets in the same file.
Note: Many Windows and CRT APIs currently do not support UTF-8 encoded strings and neither the Windows code page nor CRT locale can be set to UTF-8. We are currently investigating how to improve our UTF-8 support at runtime. However, even with this limitation many applications on the Windows platform use UTF-8 encoding internally and convert to UTF-16 where necessary on Windows.
In a future major release of the compiler, we would like to change default handling of BOM-less files to assume UTF-8, but changing that in an update has the potential to cause too many silent breaking changes. Validation of UTF-8 files should catch almost all cases where that is an incorrect assumption, so my hope is that it will happen. |
For this exchange I received 3 gifts. The first is a copy of Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov. I love good sci-fi and I'm a fan of Asimov so this was an excellent choice, and I am looking forward to reading it :)
I also received some foil origami paper. Another excellent gift, as I'm always running out of the foil paper because you usually only get one or two in a packet. There are a variety of colours here and they are a good size too so are much appreciated!
Finally I received a toy for my cat, Ptolemy. Unfortunately I couldn't find him to get a photo with it, as he was probably out hunting real mice. This will help in get some practise in so he can catch even more in the future.
Thankyou for a brilliant selecton of well thought out gifts :) |
Anyone who meets 16-year-old pole vaulter Kaitlyn Merritt of Santa Margarita can easily envision her one day becoming an astronaut, mountain climber or F-15 fighter pilot.
It's in her DNA to never stay on the ground for too long.
"When I was little, my parents said I used to climb everything," Merritt said. "I climbed the cabinet. I climbed the couch."
So it's only natural that Merritt has become the best female pole vaulter in the nation for her age group. She set a national sophomore record and a meet record on Saturday in the Arcadia Invitational when she cleared 13 feet 8 inches.
"She's very amazing," said her pole vault coach at Santa Margarita, Mandie Rowell. "She's fast, she's strong, she's very coachable."
She's a daredevil who loves soaring through the air, which makes her the perfect pole vaulter.
She was a gymnast until seventh grade.
"I loved the sport, but it got to be a lot of hours, and I just got burned out on it," she said. "There was so much other stuff I couldn't experience with gymnastics because I was in the gym so many days a week, so many hours." |
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany’s biggest news publisher Axel Springer has scrapped a move to block Google from running snippets of articles from its newspapers, saying that the experiment had caused traffic to its sites to plunge.
The logo of the German publisher Axel Springer is seen outside its headquarters in Berlin August 7, 2013. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Springer said a two-week-old experiment to restrict access by Google to some of its publications had caused web traffic to plunge for these sites, leading it to row back and let Google once again showcase Springer news stories in its search results.
Chief Executive Mathias Doepfner said on Wednesday that his company would have “shot ourselves out of the market” if it had continued with its demands for the U.S. firm to pay licensing fees. Springer had sought to restrict Google’s use of news from four of its top-selling brands: welt.de, computerbild.de, sportbild.de and autobild.de, the company said.
Springer, which publishes Europe’s top-selling daily newspaper Bild, said Google’s grip over online audiences was too great to resist, a double-edged compliment meant to ram home the publisher’s criticism of what it calls Google’s monopoly powers.
Publishers in countries from Germany and France to Spain have pushed to pass new national copyright laws that force Google and other web aggregators to pay licensing fees - dubbed the Google Tax - when they publish snippets of their news articles.
Under German legislation that came into effect last year, publishers can prohibit search engines and similar services from using their news articles beyond headlines. Last week, Spain’s upper house passed a similar law giving publishers an “inalienable” right to levy such licensing fees on Google.
Seeking to capitalize on the German law, two weeks ago VG Media - a consortium of around 200 German publishers, including Springer - said that Google could no longer publish snippets of text and images from their publications.
Google complied and ran only headlines of articles to limit their liability. It requires publishers who want their content to continue to show up in Google search results to give it explicit permission to do so and freedom from any liability for licensing fees under such laws.
CALL TO REGULATORS
Springer said traffic flowing from clicks on Google search results had fallen by 40 percent and traffic delivered via Google News had plummeted by 80 percent in the past two weeks.
Doepfner said the resulting dramatic drop in traffic to his company’s publications was proof of Google’s overwhelming power in the search market. He said he hoped lawmakers, courts and competition regulators would take action to curb its powers.
“Others will have to pick up the ball now,” the Springer boss told reporters on a conference call following the publication of the Berlin-based company’s quarterly results.
A Google spokesman in Germany praised Springer’s decision.
“The decision shows that Google is making a significant contribution to the economic success of news publishers,” the spokesman said.
He said Google delivers more than half a billion clicks to German news sites per month. The search company has paid more than one billion euros in online advertising fees to German media publishers in the last three years, the spokesman said.
“Google wants to work in the future with publishers on new models to promote their websites and apps to increase traffic and to support digital publishing,” he said.
The German cartel office in August decided not to pursue a complaint against Google by a group of publishers, including Springer, saying that the scope of new legislation was not yet entirely clear.
Google is the target of a European antitrust investigation into the operations of its online search business. The U.S. firm accounts for more than 80 percent of the European Internet search market and more than 90 percent of that in Germany.
The European Union’s new digital commissioner Guenther Oettinger said last month that he was mulling a regional Internet copyright levy, taking aim at Google.
Last year, Google agreed to pay 60 million euros ($75 million) into a special fund to help French media develop their presence on the Internet, but search engines will not pay publishers in France for displaying content. |
Navy Has Picked the First Two Carriers to Fly MQ-25A Stingray Unmanned Aerial Refueling Tankers
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) and USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77) will be the first two carriers to field the Navy’s MQ-25A Stingray unmanned aerial refueling tanker, a spokesperson told USNI News.
The two carriers will receive upgrades to include the control stations and data links needed to control the tanker, Naval Air Systems Command spokeswoman Jamie Cosgrove told USNI News.
Bush was the first carrier to have an unmanned aerial vehicle to perform an arrested landing on its flight deck in 2013 in a test of the Northrop Grumman X-47B UAV.
It’s unclear when the Norfolk-based carriers will be upgraded, but several sources have told USNI News that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson intends to accelerate the deployment of the Stingray and get it on carrier decks as early as 2019.
The aircraft is in high-demand because it would help alleviate the burden on the carrier air wing’s current refueling aircraft: the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Anywhere from 25 to 30 percent of Super Hornet sorties are used for refueling missions, USNI News has previously reported.
A Navy spokesperson told USNI News on Monday the program was “too pre-decisional” to comment on the operational introduction of the MQ-25A tanker.
Service leaders have said they wanted the capability by 2020.
The service is set to release the request for proposals (RFP) to the four competitors for the business – General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman – later this year.
The Fiscal Year 2018 proposed budget included $222 million for research and development of the MQ-25A.
News of the first carriers set for the MQ-25A introduction comes as the Navy decided to reprogram $26.7 million for control systems and data link installation the MQ-25A will need to operate from an aircraft carrier, taking that money from the USS George Washington (CVN-73) during its four-year midlife refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) in the Fiscal Year 2017 budget.
Most of the attention for the Stingray program has been on the air segment, the data link and control stations make up the other two-thirds of the program and are being developed by the Navy inside NAVAIR.
While the Stingray program cycled through several iterations – the low-observable and heavily armed Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) and the subsequently blended light-strike and long-endurance surveillance UCLASS created drastically different concepts for the airframes – the fundamental work of the links and the control stations remained largely unchanged. The data link and control station will also be able to interface with future unmanned airframes as they’re developed for the service.
Through the churn of the requirements for the air segment, the Navy has not outlined its next steps for unmanned carrier aviation beyond the limited goals for the MQ-25A.
However, the UCLASS control system will be able to quickly add new aircraft to capable carriers, USNI News understands. |
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Washington DC is forecast to get 20 to 28 inches of snow. Naturally, the capitol is preparing for the impending blizzard by hoarding Lunchables, half & half and Chunky Monkey according to this tipster photo taken at Safeway last night.
Meanwhile up here in New York, the forecast is bit more uncertain. The current advisory is a less-than-metropolis-paralyzing 4 to 8 inches, with this corollary that makes any prediction useless Since "the forecast area will be along the northern edge of the storm system," we could get "more snow" or "little or no snow." But don't let that make you second-guess your evening date with a pint of Ben & Jerry's.
Urgent!: There is no more produce or canned soup on sale at the Fairfax, Va., Wegmans except for — can't tell really — jalapenos, ginseng and a few cans of Chef Boyardee. |
I'd like to start this off by apologizing to all of the nV fans that aren't happy with all of this. It's not fair to you guys that it had to happen like that. You guys are really the only ones I want to apologize to, because you're the only ones that deserve it. All of the pros that are tweeting about the situation seem to just throw their two cents in, or just try to juice their tweets while twitter is exciting.
Basically what had happened was we were at dinner and Ant asked Joe and I if we were thinking about replacing them with Crim and Karma. We were honest with them, and of course they were upset. I told them that I would be teaming with Ian for sure, I think anyone in Call of Duty currently would. This is irrelevant though, gotta stay on topic. I could use this to just throw a bunch of people under the bus, but I don't care for all that drama stuff. What I care about is the nV fans. I'm sure we lost a ton last night and that's okay, I feel for you. If I liked a team and that happened it would be hard for me to like them either. Nothing was set in stone by any means, but Kap was pissed off. I also understand his perspective. He was angry and I guess going to twitter with it sounded like a good idea. I didn't tweet at all because we still have a tournament to play and figured I'd just get some rest and let them cool off as well.
Anyways, I don't want to sit here and give you reasons why I entertained the idea of dropping those two or leaving or blah blah blah. At the end of the day, every pro player besides like Nade and Scump play for their livelihood at tournaments. So yes, I try to make sure I am as confident as possible in my teams when I go to them. You may view it as sketchy or whatever but none of this is ever personal. This is a business, once people understand that it should be a little easier on them.
Moving forward, we still have a tournament to play and yes it'll probably be awkward, although I think we all want to win still. I just want to apologize to any nV fan that may have been heartbroken last night. I also just woke up so this was kind of just a bunch of thoughts in a row, and probably had some grammatical errors. So sorry for that too. Anyways have a good day everyone.
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Feature Photo: Feature Photo: bortescristian / Photo above: MikeMiley
When I started working as a customer service agent for an airline, I knew my job would involve placating difficult passengers.
BUT I NEVER considered three of those passengers would be snarling pomeranians.
I heard them before I saw them. Their high-pitched yelps ricocheted across the San Francisco International Airport’s departure concourse. Everyone in the check-in line turned to see where the commotion was.
“I’m checking in for the red-eye to New York,” the dogs’ owner said briskly. She placed her luggage on the scale and one of the pomeranians leapt onto the top of it, growling protectively and baring his teeth.
“Romeo!” The woman scolded, pulling at his leash. “Sorry, they’re not normally like this,” she said with an embarrassed smile.
“They?” I questioned, peering over the counter top. “How many dogs do you have with you?”
“Three,” she answered, curtly. And before I could inform her about the airline’s ‘one-pet-per-passenger’ policy, she hastily added, “They’re my emotional support animals.”
Emotional support animals, as the US Department of Transportation defines them, are “animals that assist persons with disabilities by providing emotional support.”
As I looked from the three barking, hysterical dogs to the middle-aged woman standing before me, I wondered what sort of emotional support they could possibly lend someone. They looked more frightened about their impending flight than she did.
But of course, I couldn’t ask her, because that would have meant violating a 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act that states airlines cannot inquire as to why a person requires a service animal.
The law was enacted to protect the privacy of the truly disabled, but it’s also created a loophole for those without a disability wishing to cheat the system and avoid the $100 fee that airlines levy on people traveling with a pet. Basically, anyone can pass their pooch off as an emotional support animal by purchasing a $10 “Service Animal” vest off the Internet (no documentation is required).
Although the traveler could be asked to produce a letter from a mental health professional, airlines are so afraid of getting slapped with a discrimination lawsuit that they rarely ask to see one. In fact, the Department of Transportation goes as far as to urge “carriers not to require documentation.”
Service animals (such as those that assist the blind or deaf) aren’t new to air travel. Service animals have been assisting the physically disabled since the 1920’s and are trained in a wide-variety of tasks, from fetching medication to detecting seizures or pulling wheelchairs.
But emotional support animals are not service animals.
They don’t assist with a physical disability but rather, an emotional one (such as agoraphobia) and aren’t required to undergo any training whatsoever. Unlike therapy dogs, who work in hospitals and rehab centers, are certified and bred for their gentle, calm demeanor, emotional support animals aren’t even required to be house-broken.
They’re pets.
Pets with a fancy title maybe, but pets nonetheless.
And while under normal circumstances, a pet would have to ride in a carrier under the seat or in the cargo hold, thanks to a 2003 guideline set forth by the D.O.T, emotional support animals can now sit on the floor or on their owner’s lap, free of charge.
Just like service animals.
This isn’t to say that emotional support animals don’t provide a valuable service for those who truly depend on them. Anyone who has experienced the unconditional love of a dog couldn’t dispute the fact that they and other pets provide love and comfort… especially to those suffering from anxiety or depression.
But is that enough to allow them an all-access pass on aircraft? And where do we draw the line? If an untrained Pumba the Warthog can fly for free because he provides emotional support, then why not an uncertified house plant? My bonsai tree offers me comfort, shouldn’t I be allowed to bring him on board, free of charge, as well?
Because as it is, what qualifies as an emotional support animal is only limited to the imaginations of the owners of the pets and the doctors who “prescribe” them. As long as the animal doesn’t pose a threat to the safety of the other passengers on board, any animal (with the exception of snakes, rats, or spiders) can be considered fit for the job.
And that includes ducks, monkeys and even pigs. In the last six months, I’ve checked in three emotional support parakeets and several emotional support cats and I even know of an agent who once assigned a bulkhead seat to a miniature pony.
“This isn’t to say that emotional support animals don’t provide a valuable service for those who truly depend on them.”
And what about the passengers who may not feel so happy about sharing their legroom with Mister Ed? Or what about those with pet allergies? While airlines may try their best to accommodate those allergic to pet dander (by moving them to the rear of the plane, for example), the D.O.T specifically states that the “inconvenience of other passengers is not sufficient grounds to deny a service animal carriage in the cabin.”
Once, while I was preparing to board a flight, a captain stormed off the plane and approached the gate podium. “Tell me,” he inquired in a low voice, “What the Hell is the deal with these emotional support animals?”
After I informed him of the regulations, he shook his head in disbelief. And then told me about how he’d spent part of his last flight chasing down an emotional support dog who’d escaped away from his owner’s grip and run amok under the seats, frightening the passengers.
The dog had eventually found a hiding spot near the aft lavatory, where he’d urinated on someone’s handbag.
“They’re turning our airline into a circus,” he fumed. And I had to agree.
What’s the solution?
Do we ban emotional support animals from air travel because of the actions of an untold number of dishonest people? Perhaps a simple solution would be to require that emotional support animals receive the same training that therapy animals or service animals receive. While that training can be expensive (up to $60,000 according to the New York Times), it would weed out the fakers from the legitimately disabled.
Or maybe the real problem lies with why people feel they have to rely on emotional support animals in the first place. Because if people are so afraid to fly that they need Old McDonald’s farm on-board with them, then perhaps what they need isn’t a more relaxed definition of the term “handicapped” but rather, a better therapist. |
Good morning, my friends! Did you catch our food pics yesterday? No? Well, then, this recap will come in handy!
After a disappointing start – for us, as we lurked around Epcot all day Wednesday waiting for a soft opening that never came – the “party” kicked off right on schedule.
Food & Wine is no longer a World Showcase party. Future World (near Imagination Pavilion) has really gotten into the act and is home to Active Eats, Coastal Eats, Earth Eats, and Flavors from Fire.
The first entrée we enjoyed was Epcot’s Roasted Verlasso Salmon with Quinoa Salad. Formerly served by Patagonia, it can, now, be found at Active Eats.
As usual, it an incredibly outstanding bite. Great flavors. Perfectly prepared. A definite “must do”!
Sticking with seafood, a few steps away, we sampled the Lump Crab Cake with Napa Cabbage Slaw at Coastal Eats next.
The cake, itself, was fantastic. The accompanying slaw was flavorless. Step that up a bit, Epcot, and the dish will really “pop”!
Time for something “meaty”, we popped by Flavors from Fire and grabbed their Roasted Pork Wings with Korean BBQ Sauce.
Mrs. All in WDW said, “Best thing in the festival. Huge portion. I don’t care if I ever have chicken wings again. Just give me these”!
My beloved Lamb Meatball from New Zealand was our next course. The meatball, itself, as usual, was perfect! The bread bowl was good.
Having said that, I felt that the chutney, like last year, delivered a bit too much sweetness. Spice it up, New Zealand!
Australia’s Grilled Lamb T-Bone – a new recipe in 2017 – was a huge disappointment.
Over the past few years, this booth’s lamb chop has been Mrs. All in WDW’s festival-favorite. No more. Sadly, this version was tough, hard to cut, and horrible.
The defending festival “champion” – at least as far as we’re concerned – the Kalua Pork Slider at Hawai’i kicked off the festival with a lackluster effort.
The pork was phenomenally tender, as usual, but the dish’s accompanying mayo lacked its traditional ‘zing’. Plus, the bun – which seemed different from past years – was subpar.
Finally, we followed the rules. Remember our “Top 10 Rules for Successfully Conquering Food & Wine!”?
Rule #5: Share a table! If someone asks to share your table, by all means, say ‘yes’. It might be you looking for a place to dine next time!
In doing so, another Guest allowed us to present her dessert – Australia’s coconut-laden Lamington.
She and her husband agreed with Mrs. All in WDW and I with respect to the booth’s failed lamb dish. Fortunately, her dessert renewed her faith in Australian cuisine.
There you go, folks. Day #1 is complete. Stop back later this morning! Pictures will be pouring forth all day long! |
Marvin Jones hauls in a 48-yard pass in the second quarter in front of Harold Jones-Quartey. (Photo: Daniel Mears / Detroit News)
First down
While the Lions didn’t gain any cushion in the NFC North race, the team did jump the Seahawks for the No. 2 seed in the NFC.
Obviously the focus is the next game, and it’s a tough one with a trip to New York to face the Giants (8-4 entering Sunday), but the Lions now control their destiny for a first-round bye in the playoffs.
Green Bay has won three straight and can still claim the NFC North if Detroit stumbles the next two weeks in New York and Dallas. That would set up a winner-take-all game at Ford Field in the final week of the season.
Second down
Lions wide receiver Marvin Jones was held under 100 yards for the ninth consecutive game, but his impact against the Bears was far more significant than the box score indicates.
Jones led the Lions with four receptions for 67 yards, but the receiver drew three penalties totaling 66 yards, with two coming on Detroit’s first touchdown drive.
“He did a tremendous job,” coach Jim Caldwell said. “I just think he really competed. Those two pass interference calls made a huge difference, and then, obviously, the one catch down the field that he had coming back low to the ground. He did a lot of things.”
That catch, a 48-yard reception in the second quarter, saw Jones execute scramble rules as quarterback Matthew Stafford eluded pressure, converting a 3rd-and-16 and setting up a Matt Prater field goal.
Third down
Khyri Thornton had started six of the past seven games, but he was a healthy scratch against the Bears, paving the way for rookie A’Shawn Robinson to get the start.
The Lions defensive tackle rotation has been a turnstile this season. Stefan Charles struggled to crack the lineup early in the season, but has maintained a role. Tyrunn Walker, a starter to open the season, was benched a few weeks back, but has worked his way back into a role. Now Thornton is on the outside looking in.
One thing is clear, Robinson has continued to impress. He had a relatively quiet game on the stat sheet, netting two tackles, but he’s been a disruptive force, particularly batting down passes. He leads the defensive linemen with six.
Fourth down
Rookie running back Dwayne Washington was questionable coming into the game with an ankle injury, and that forced him to the sideline in the fourth quarter, but before it did, he had his most productive game on the ground, gaining 64 yards on 16 carries.
Combined with Zach Zenner, who churned out 36 yards on seven touches, the pair helped the Lions dictate the tempo and control the clock, especially in the second half where they amassed 78 of their 100 yards. |
Autism 'could be triggered by very low doses of anti-depressants or other chemicals found in water supply'
Just traces of drugs appear to bring on disorder
Scientists test fish swimming in water contaminated with low levels of medication
Disorder appears to be combination of environmental and genetic factors
Autism in genetically vulnerable people could be triggered by very low levels of chemicals found in the water supply, researchers have discovered.
Experts from the University of Idaho in the US were 'astonished' to find that just traces of common medication such as anti-depressants can bring on the disorder.
They made the discovery by observing the changes in the genetic pathways of fish swimming in water contaminated with psychoactive drugs .
Flushed away: Traces of psychoactive drugs found in our water supply could trigger developmental disorders, scientists believe
Lead scientist Dr Michael Thomas said: 'While others have envisioned a causal role for psychotropic drugs in idiopathic autism, we were astonished to find evidence that this might occur at very low dosages, such as those found in aquatic systems.'
The fish were exposed to two kinds of anti-depressants - Prozac and venlafaxine - and a drug used to control seizures, called carbamazepine.
Concentrations were comparable with the highest estimated environmental levels.
Fascinating find: Scientists examined fish swimming in water contaminated with small doses of anti-depressants or anti-seizure drugs
They found patterns of gene activity in the fathead minnows that mimicked those seen in humans susceptible to the developmental disorder.
WHAT IS AUTISM AND HOW IS IT TREATED? Autistic spectrum disorders begin in childhood and last through adulthood.
Symptoms include problems with social interaction, an impaired ability to communicate and unusual patterns of thought and physical behaviour.
There is no cure for ASD but a wide range of treatments can help improve symptoms.
The number of cases of ASD has increased over the past 20 years, but many believe this is due to improved rates of diagnosis.
The findings, published in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE, suggest a potential environmental trigger for autism in genetically vulnerable people, the authors of the study claim.
It could radically change treatment for the one in 100 children in England who have autism, improving doctors' understanding of how to prevent or treat the disorder.
The genetic pathways affected were the same as those associated with 'idiopathic' autism spectrum disorders, whose cause is unknown.
Experts suspect the disorders were brought about by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Caroline Hattersley, Head of Information, Advice and Advocacy at The National Autistic Society, said: 'It’s important that we expand research into the causes of autism. We know that environmental and genetic factors have some role to play, but our understanding is still very limited as it’s such a complex disability. |
The United Nations on Monday raised its estimate of the number of protesters killed in the Syrian uprising to 2,600, as it announced the appointment of three investigators to look into human rights abuses in the country, where President Bashar al-Assad has defied international condemnation of the crackdown, even among his dwindling allies.
The new death estimate, by the United Nations Human Rights Council, came three weeks after the council convened an emergency session at its Geneva headquarters and called on Mr. Assad to end the crackdown on the uprising, which began in March against his family’s four decades in power. The council’s estimate of Syrian deaths during the protests had been 2,400 through mid-August, suggesting that Mr. Assad has not eased his tough stance.
Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva that “the situation in Syria is still dire.”
The three-member panel appointed to investigate Syrian abuses will be led by Sérgio Pinheiro of Brazil, the former United Nations investigator of political repression in Myanmar. The other two members are Yakin Erturk of Turkey, a sociology professor and an authority on women’s rights, and Karen Abu Zayd, an American who is the former head of the United Nations agency that administers relief to Palestinian refugees.
It remained unclear precisely how the panel will investigate the abuses in Syria, because Mr. Assad has not granted the panel permission to visit the country. |
A bill to ease financial burdens on criminal offenders, which can lead to their continued entanglement in the justice system, is being opposed over concerns that it would cut funding for state and county governments.
In Washington and many other states, judges have the authority to assign additional fees, known as legal financial obligations (LFOs), when sentencing convicted defendants. In its original form, House Bill (HB) 1390 sought to eliminate the current 12 percent interest attached to such fees. Recent recommendations to the bill seek to change the interest rate to four percent instead. Groups opposing the bill include a professional debt collectors organization and the Washington Association of County Clerks, while supporters include the NAACP, Superior Court Judges Association, and the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The Washington Office of Public Defense found that 80 to 90 percent of people charged with felonies have poverty-level incomes. After they are released from incarceration, many offenders find themselves in deeper debt, and stay in the criminal justice system longer if they can’t pay off their debt.
Offenders are typically required to make monthly payments toward their LFO, and can face penalties if they fail to do so. These penalties can include community service, suspension of driver license, or jail time. Offenders can petition the court to reduce the LFO or waive the interest.
“HB 1390 would create a fairer system and would promote public safety by assisting the successful re-entry of people to society while prioritizing restitution to crime victims and their families,” said ACLU Communications Director Doug Honig.
“This bill provides much needed reform to the state’s unfair system of court-imposed debts that punishes poor people for their poverty,” he said.
Washington currently has one of the highest LFO interest rates in the nation at 12 percent. Of that interest, 25 percent goes to the state general fund, 25 percent goes to the state judicial system, and 50 percent goes to the county, a quarter of which earmarked for local courts.
A Ways & Means committee staff member gave a rough estimate of the bill’s financial impact, based off a prior fiscal note. This analysis found a four percent interest rate would result in an annual loss of $30,000 to the state general fund and a $60,000 loss to county governments.
However, some believe the Ways & Means analysis underestimated the financial impact of the bill. Representatives of the Washington Collectors Association (WCA), an organization of professional debt collectors in the state, testified in opposition to the bill before the committee last week, expressing concerns the interest rate cut would result in the loss of millions to the state. A new fiscal note was ordered March 1 to provide a more accurate estimate.
“Our major concern with this bill is the drastic financial impact to counties and courts, particularly to district and municipal courts,” said Kelsi Hamilton of the WCA.
Washington State Association of Counties senior policy director Brian Enslow added, “Interest accrual should not be eliminated. It serves as a mechanism to encourage the offender to pay off the underlying obligation.”
Under the bill, courts can only apply LFOs if an offender is financially sufficient to pay them. To determine this, courts take into consideration the offender’s financial resources and the burden that the cost would impose.
The bill passed out of the House unanimously on Feb. 3, but must pass the Senate before Thursday, when the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn. |
The Micro Four Thirds system is an open system that anyone can join, and therefore there are cameras and lenses from a large range of companies, all sharing the same lens mount. For example, you can use Olympus Micro Four Thirds (sometimes shortened to MFT or M43) lenses on Panasonic cameras, and vice versa. You'll find Micro Four Thirds lenses made by Panasonic, Olympus, Sigma, Samyang, Voigtlander, Leica and many others. In fact, we've reviewed over 80 M43 lenses! So to help you pick the best lens for you, we've listed the top 39 scoring lenses we've reviewed here.
If you want to, you can purchase/find more information about each lens listed by clicking the green Amazon buttons featured below each product. It doesn't cost you anything extra when you press our Amazon buttons but by using our Amazon Affiliate links when ordering anything online, you are supporting the site - thank you.
Other top lists we've put together so far this year include the Best Sony E FE Mount Lenses, Top Cameras Around £250 and Top 10 Fujifilm Lenses Reviewed.
* Clicking 'Buy on Amazon USA' will redirect you to the Amazon store for your country. If you are in the UK please use the 'Buy on Amazon UK' button.
Optically, this lens is currently amongst the best performers available for the Micro Four Thirds format due to its delivery of high sharpness, with low CA and distortion. As well as these plus points, the Leica DG Nocticron 42.5mm f/1.2 ASPH. also features an optical stabilisation system, Nano Surface coatings to suppress flare and a manual aperture ring. It may cost a fair few pennies, but it will be money well spent, especially as the price isn't obnoxious in any way.
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The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO combines great build quality with excellent performance and those two factors alone make it a winner in our eyes. However, when this is combined with the unique zoom range it offers along with the fast f/2.8 aperture, it scores a few more points. Image quality is excellent, the lens handles well and it's not badly priced either.
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When the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN C lens was put to the test, we were pleasantly surprised to find that under the unassuming exterior was a superb compact lens that really delivers the goods. Even without considering the price, which is a bit of a bargain, the lens is an absolute gem. Sharpness is of a very high order, CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very much under control and flare is not a problem either.
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The Leica DG Elmarit 200mm f/2.8 Power O.I.S is a cracking good lens that is highly functional, with a very useful teleconverter that extends the possibilities. Yes, the price hurts, but the alternatives hurt even more. This is such a pleasure to use and the results are just as satisfying, even with the fairly modest pixel count of the Panasonic Lumix G6. A definite Editor's Choice.
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Panasonic has produced here a telephoto zoom that is exceptionally easy to handle, produces excellent results and is priced realistically against the competition. Compared to full frame marques, it is priced very competitively when we consider what job the lens does.
Not only that, but the compact, light construction mirrors the size of the MFT cameras and follows the ethos of the MFT system. It is easy to see the attraction of lighter, smaller cameras and lenses, especially when the quality is still extremely high.
So, on various levels, a lovely lens and an Editor's Choice.
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With a reasonable price, excellent sharpness across the frame from maximum aperture, useful optical stabilisation and life-size magnification at its closest focusing distance, you can't really ask for more. The compact size and light weight will also help make this lens one that will win over many admirers.
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Panasonic's 35-100mm is a fine lens that is priced reasonably, especially when compared to lenses covering the same angles of view for 35mm format, with the added bonus of being much more compact, and lightweight. Picture sharpness is excellent and chromatic aberrations are kept under control well throughout the zoom range. Distortion is well controlled and we didn't experience any issues with flare when shooting with the Panasonic Lumix G Vario X 35-100mm f/2.8.
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Combining a compact, lightweight design with great optical performance, the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f/2.8 Macro lens is positioned at a great price point. Micro Four Thirds camera owners interested in macro photography should definitely add this lens to their wish list. In fact, even if you have no interest in macro photography, the quality this lens delivers and its price make it a good option for portraiture fans on a relative budget also.
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This lens is a very good buy for Micro Four Thirds camera owners who are looking for a dedicated macro lens. It's lightweight, compact, sharpness is excellent from maximum aperture and optical stabilisation works well. Plus, as the price has dropped, the Panasonic Leica DG Macro-Elmarit 45mm f/2.8 ASPH is even better value for money.
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Those looking for a compact telephoto lens should certainly add the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f/4.0-5.6 Asph Mega O.I.S. to their list of considerations as it ticks plenty of boxes. Optically it performs better than it's reasonable price tag suggests it should and it's compact enough to be barely noticeable in a camera bag when travelling. Sharpness levels are excellent and chromatic aberrations are pretty well controlled throughout most of the zoom range. Falloff of illumination towards the corners is fairly typical for a lens of this type and the petal-shaped hood does an excellent job of shielding the lens from extraneous light that may cause issues with flare.
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There is no doubt that the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 45mm f/1.2 is a superb lens and one that would be a pleasure to own. The factors that come with that really more concern the cost, which is fairly high, and the applications that a photographer might have in mind. A 90mm-equivalent lens is a very useful optic for portraits, landscapes, short-range sports and architectural details. With perfect drawing, the architectural uses are probably as relevant as the potential for portraits.
It will be an easy decision for those with the cash ready or those who have a commercial use.
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With a robust, dust- and splashproof construction, this lens is ready for all eventualities. As well as its strong build, the lens also offers outstanding sharpness through much of the zoom range at maximum aperture, chromatic aberrations are well controlled throughout most of the zoom range and distortion is well corrected in camera. A petal-shaped hood is supplied with this lens but even without the hood, the Olympus M.Zuiko ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO is very resistant to flare.
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The image quality of the Olympus M.Zuiko 25mm f/1.8 ED offers is excellent, with sharpness being particularly good in the centre of the frame from maximum aperture. It's well built, lightweight and reasonably compact so it's not that noticeable when carrying it around in a camera bag but some may consider the price a sticking point for what is, essentially, a 50mm f/1.8 equivalent. Chromatic aberrations are well controlled as too is falloff of illumination, distortion and flare.
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There's little to find fault with this lens as sharpness is outstanding from maximum aperture. Falloff, distortion and fringing are all also well controlled and Panasonic camera owners will appreciate the optical stabilisation it offers. Build quality is excellent and the Panasonic LUMIX G 42.5mm f/1.7 ASPH. is also lightweight which is always a plus point.
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Whether this lens is fitted to A Sony NEX, or Micro Four Thirds camera, the telephoto focal length and fast f/2.8 maximum aperture make this optic a perfectly good lens for portraiture for not a lot of money. Sigma hasn't skimped on build or optical quality and it is capable of delivering pin-sharp results from maximum aperture. Build quality of the Sigma 60mm f/2.8 DN A lens is very good so when you combine this with its excellent performance, it's a worthwhile investment.
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The Panasonic Lumix G X VARIO 12-35mm f/2.8 is a weather-sealed professional spec zoom lens that delivers sharp, contrasty images that have low CA and distortion. Focusing is fast and the optical image stabiliser allows sharp hand held images to be taken at shutters speeds as low as 1/10sec at 35mm, which is roughly three stops slower than the usual rule of thumb would allow otherwise.
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For a kit lens, the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42mm f/3.5 - 5.6 II actually performs really well. There's excellent sharpness in the centre throughout the zoom range and optical image stabilisation allows sharp shots to be taken just over half the time at 1/10sec at 42mm, which is roughly three stops slower than the usual rule of thumb would dictate. Those with existing Panasonic optics may also find the compact size and manual zoom control appealing.
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This compact lens should make an ideal addition to any Micro Four Thirds or Sony NEX camera kit. The Sigma 19mm f/2.8 DN A Art M43 is lightweight, compact and offers excellent optical performance. Couple this with fast focus speeds and good build quality and you're on to a winner.
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The lightweight, fast autofocus and excellent build should win the Sigma 30mm f/2.8 EX DN A lens many fans, especially with the price being so competitive. The lens is capable of producing excellent images, even at maximum aperture, and overall, it's a really excellent lens to add to your kit bag.
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This lens should definitely find a home in Micro-Four-Thirds camera owner kit bags as the levels of sharpness it offers make it very good value for money. In fact, those looking for a moderately wide angle lens with a fast maximum aperture have hit the bullseye with this lens. Autofocus is quick, precise and virtually silent and distortion is so low, it shouldn't pose any issues.
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This premium compact telephoto lens sports a fast f/1.8 maximum aperture and is compatible with all Micro Four Thirds cameras. The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital 75mm f/1.8 provides a field of view equivalent to a 150mm lens used on a 35mm camera, and the bright f/1.8 maximum aperture allows your subject to be isolated with shallow depth of field. It's well built, incredibly sharp and is a joy to use.
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22. Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary
The Sigma AF 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary lens gives excellent performance, a reasonable price and a very bright f/1.4 maximum aperture, which all add up to a very desirable package, that will be appealing for both Micro Four Thirds and Sony E-Mount photographers.
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The Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 12mm f/1.4 ASPH. produces images that can only be described as fantastic. The overall level of sharpness is very good and becomes outstanding at the centre over most of the aperture range. No lens is perfect, but we have here a very exciting prospect for MFT format users with a lens that provides a unique bright f/1.4 aperture and excels at producing superb images.
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During testing, this lens proved itself worthy, by delivering images with outstanding sharpness, whilst handling well and sporting a robust dust and moisture resistant construction. The lens may be a little prone to flare, but given the extreme angle of view on offer and the compact size of the lens, this flaw may be something many will be able to forgive.
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All in all, a lot of thought and skill has gone into this lens and it is certain to find favour amongst Olympus MFT sports and wildlife photographers. The Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS Pro is compact, relatively lightweight and has excellent ergonomics. Picture quality is superb and outstanding sharpness combined with fast and silent AF, a highly effective IS and very well controlled CA make this lens an excellent choice.
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34. Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 8-18mm f/2.8-4 ASPH.
The Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 8-18mm f/2.8-4 Asph. is a pleasure to use, but the greatest pleasure is arguably in the outstanding sharpness, giving a real punch to images. The pleasure extends to enjoying fine engineering as well, because there is the high quality of the construction and finish to enjoy for its own sake.
In summary, this lens lives up to its Leica tag and should serve very well for many years of use.
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By producing a diagonal fisheye lens with a fast f/1.8 maximum aperture, Olympus has created something unique. Not only will the fast aperture allow for shooting in low light conditions with the expansive field of view you'd expect of a fisheye, but it also delivers outstanding sharpness and robust build in a compact package.
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The Voigtlander Nokton 42.5mm f/0.95 is capable of delivering images of exceptional quality, as well as opening up extra creative opportunities due to the shallow depth of field possible at such fast apertures. It's built well, handles well and although it is a specialist lens, it will be worth every penny of the asking price to those who will make the most of this lens' features.
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An update to the original Panasonic Lumix 20mm f/1.7 ASPH. lens, the new model offers the same optical performance as the original lens, but features a new design, including updated metal design, improving over the plastic parts on the old model. There's a very slight improvement in resistance to flare, as well as a contrast and the redesign has also improved the position of the surrounding plastic closest to the lens. With the same excellent image quality, reasonable value for money, and compact size, this new model should be just as popular as the original and is an excellent choice for Micro Four Thirds users.
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Overall, the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 is an all-around good performer and it produces sharp images with a good level of contrast. CA levels are low, distortion is very well controlled and flare is rarely an issue. The lens is also pretty good value for money.
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This lens is a manual focus lens, and also available for almost all lens mounts, with support for full-frame lenses, so is likely to be large on a Micro Four Thirds camera. The lens is well made, has a very high standard of performance, and a reasonable price tag. Without a doubt, the Samyang 20mm f/1.8 ED AS UMS adds up to being a very good deal.
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If you find you have trouble keeping in touch with coworkers that you used to work with or an old manager you'd love to use as a reference, Mingly is a new webapp that makes it easy for you to stay in touch and up to date with your personal and professional network as major events take place in their lives. It doesn't replace your social networks, but it does help you use them more efficiently.
Mingly is completely free, and available as a webapp, a Gmail plug-in, and an email digest that all serve to keep you up to date on what's going on in the lives of the people you really want to stay in touch with. Sure, you could just log in to Facebook and look to see who has a birthday coming up, or head to LinkedIn and see who's been promoted recently or who'll be in your town on a business trip, but Mingly combines all of that data into a single place that's easy to check—or in the case of the email digest and Gmail plugins, comes right to you instead of forcing you to go looking for it.
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To use Mingly, you'll have to sign in with a Google account. Then you can connect the webapp to Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter—whichever networks you'd like to use Mingly with. Once you're set up, you can interact with people right in the Mingly webapp, or go to your networks individually to talk to friends with major events coming up. Best of all, you can customize which people and types of events you want to be notified about. If you'd prefer to use it to stay in touch with your professional network, you can omit birthdays and other personal events, for example. Do you think there's room for social aggregators and assistants like Mingly, or is the access they require to provide their services too high a price for what you get? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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A recent article in the New York Times shines a light once again on the dark culture and practices of the New York Police Department. Planting guns and drugs on innocent people, lying under oath, falsifying reports, making up imaginary “eye witnesses” and even murder through neglect or excessive force have been par for the course for the NYPD.
When occasionally these police are found by a court of law to have committed these crimes, the city pays millions of dollars to compensate the victims.
Just this past Sunday New York City comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, agreed to pay $17 million to settle three claims of “wrongful criminal convictions.” The settlements announced will see the city paying $7.15 million to Robert Hill, who spent about 27 years in prison as an innocent man; $6 million to Alvena Jennette, who spent about 20 years in prison; and $3.85 million to the estate of Darryl Austin, who died in prison in 2000 after 13 years of wrongful incarceration.
The settlements are the third, fourth and fifth deals in major civil rights cases reached by Stringer since he took office a year ago.
The two earlier deals were a $6.4 million settlement last February with David Ranta, who was imprisoned for 23 years after being wrongfully convicted of murder, and a $2.25 million agreement in October with the family of Jerome Murdough, a homeless veteran who died at Rikers Island in an overheated jail cell. Jerome was arrested and ultimately murdered by police forces for the “crime” of sleeping in a public housing staircase.
Stringer said in December that he also hoped to settle a $75 million claim filed by the family of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who died last summer after an officer used a chokehold during a confrontation with the police on Staten Island.
What connects the three most recent pay outs by the City for wrongful convictions is retired homicide detective Louis Scarcella who the NY Times described as “a flashy officer who handled some of Brooklyn’s most notorious crimes during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s.” The NYPD’s Conviction Integrity Unit has said after pressure from the NY Times that they will reopen every murder case that resulted in a guilty verdict after being investigated by Detective Louis Scarcella.
According to the New York Times the newspaper “examined a dozen cases involving Mr. Scarcella and found disturbing patterns, including the detective’s reliance on the same eyewitness, a crack-addicted prostitute, for multiple murder prosecutions and his delivery of confessions from suspects who later said they had told him nothing.”
City officials like Stringer have tried to distance the stories of retired detectives like Louis Scarcella from the NYPD officers operating today saying things like, “The 1980s were a difficult time in our city’s history… and in a certain way, we are sort of unearthing the tangled history of that time period in our court system today.”
This attempt to suggest that officers no longer manufacture false evidence leading to incarceration is clearly a maneuver to purposely hide the truth from the public. Stringer knows very well the story of NYPD undercover officer Steve Anderson, for instance, who testified for two days in 2011 on the common practice of “attaching bodies” to drugs, a term he used to describe the practice of planting drugs on individuals in order to keep statistics-driven sergeants from questioning officer “productivity.”
In that case, The New York Times once again reported that detective Anderson had become “numb” to the process after four years of being on a narcotics team based in Brooklyn and Queens.
“It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators (who are the top officer in a police division) … Seeing it so much, it’s almost like you have no emotion with it,” Anderson testified.
Apologists for the NYPD know very well about the reports that came out just this week detailing how the Brooklyn DA’s office is looking into at least half a dozen cases going back to 2007 at the 67th Precinct, where cops are accused of planting and fabricating evidence to secure convictions of innocent men.
One of the men who was almost legally lynched by these group of officers, 53-year-old Jeffery Herring, was just acquitted this past Thursday of weapons possession charges when a confidential police informant was never produced, despite a judge’s order that the witness appear in court.
In researching the case, a lawyer for Herring found other cases involving the same group of police officers with suspiciously similar stories. In the other cases, defendants also said the guns were planted, with the police saying that “officers saw the suspects storing the guns in plastic bags or handkerchiefs.”
According to the NY Times: “After the arrests, more similarities arose: The use of confidential informers was suddenly mentioned months into the proceedings, and the informers were never produced in court even after judges’ and lawyers’ requests. Judges had called some of the police version of events ‘incredible,’ and the accounts ‘extremely evasive.’”
According to most reports, over the past five years the city has spent close to half a billion dollars ($428 million) in payouts to victims of police brutality or misconduct. In most capitalist publications these millions of dollars are portrayed as a waste of tax payer money while in reality the money is a pittance compared to the compensation our unjustly treated people rightfully deserve. The real waste here needs to be counted in the billions of minutes of precious human life needlessly spent inside the
inhumane prisons of the United States. |
Well, that's my take on the museum, but below, I'll offer another voice, one that's even more invested in this museum than I am.
My Interview with the Curator of EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum, Nathan Mannion
I want to offer a huge thank you to Nathan as well as the EPIC Museum's staff and administration who wholeheartedly supported me in creating this article on the Epic Museum in Dublin. I was able to catch up with Nathan, and add a strong personal touch what The Irish Emigration Museum is all about.
1. What is the primary goal or objective of EPIC? What do you hope tourists take from it?
The primary goal of our museum is to share, record and display Ireland’s stories of emigration over the last 1,500 years. We highlight how the 10 million emigrants who left this island and their descendants, grew into the vibrant global Irish diaspora community we have today.
We hope that our visitors leave EPIC with a more profound understanding of how emigration has shaped Ireland and how, in turn, the Irish have helped to shape the wider world. Our exhibition includes over 330 individual stories of emigration, drawn from all over the globe so there are usually a few memorable stories for everyone.
2. This is a fairly new museum. Why was it important that this museum came into existence?
The founding of the museum was a landmark day for the country. Before EPIC opened last year there was nowhere Irish citizens or visitors to Ireland could go to learn more about our island’s emigrant tradition, or how our 70 million strong diaspora community came into being, despite the central role emigration has played in Ireland history. That there was a need for just such a cultural attraction has been demonstrated in the overwhelmingly positive feedback we have received from our visitors during the last year.
3. What has the response been to the museum up to now? Are there any particular personal stories you can recall that highlight the impact of this museum?
As mentioned our visitors’ responses to our exhibition have been fantastic. Thanks to the consistently positive reviews we’ve received on TripAdvisor over the last 12 months we now rank among the top five museums in Ireland. From suffering and exile to opportunity and success the saga of Irish emigration is of course an emotional one and many of our visitors are quite moved during their time in the museum. Three stories stand out in my memory in particular.
The first was a visitor from the United States who runs a project which documents the stories of Ireland’s LGBTQI community abroad. After his visit he contacted me to let me know he was moved to tears to see this aspect of our emigrant heritage recognised and featured in the museum. It was the first place he had ever seen it displayed publically. This was incredibly validating for us as an institution.
The second was an Irish woman who turned out to be the grandniece of a wonderful man named Father Michael Kelly who is featured in our Belief gallery. Following our chance encounter she was able to connect me with Father Kelly directly. Now in his late 80’s he has lived in Lusaka, Zambia for over 60 years and is fondly referred to as the country’s ‘Grandfather of Education’ having taught generations of Zambian students at every level. We now correspond regularly and he often tells me he feels honoured to be included in our exhibition. Nearly 80 of the people featured in the museum are alive today and it’s immensely gratifying when they visit and you know they’re happy with how we tell their story.
Finally the third story I’d like to share is really more of a phenomena. One of our galleries explores how contemporary Irishness is celebrated globally today and includes footage from a selection of St. Patrick’s Day parades and Irish festivals held across the world. Hardly a day goes by without a visitor remarking that they’ve spotted themselves among the crowds or in the audience of one of the shows! Little did many of them know when they attended those events they would end up in a museum in Ireland!
4. As far as museums go, this is extremely technologically advanced with an emphasis on the digital. Why was that important to convey a message from the past?
EPIC is Ireland’s first fully digital museum. Each of our 20 galleries has been fitted out with the most advanced technology available; some of which has yet to be used anywhere else in the world. We intentionally chose this path rather than a more traditional museum experience because it allows us to update our content easily in real-time and expand our collections. For example, only three weeks ago we added another 7 stories to our ‘Changing the Game’ Gallery to highlight the involvement of the Irish diaspora in rugby overseas. As emigration is both historic and contemporary it’s important for us to be able to add new stories quickly.
The interactivity also aids learning, visitors aren’t overwhelmed with information but instead are free to engage with it at their own pace and take in as much (or as little) as they’d like without feeling fatigued.
Finally it’s far more fun for example to take part in an interactive quiz on infamous Irish emigrants than to read the same information on a small panel; people generally are a lot more comfortable engaging with new information when they’re enjoying it!
5. What do you think those who left on ships (and otherwise) so long ago would think if they were able to visit the museum today?
The museum covers an awful lot of history. From 6th century missionary emigration to Scotland and mainland Europe right through fifteen turbulent centuries of famine and flight, penal servitude and banishment, recession and economic migration the Irish have come overcome a lot of challenges but we’ve also left our mark around the world. If any of the historic emigrants featured in our museum were to visit I’d like to think that, just like their contemporary counterparts, they too would be pleased to be featured, if not somewhat surprised that their story is still being told in the country they left behind, centuries after their departure. I know I certainly would.
As always, dear reader, thanks very much for stopping by. I hope this was both informative and enjoyable, and that if you do decided to head to the EPIC Museum in Dublin, you'll appreciate it as much as I did. Also "as always," I'd love to hear your feedback, so please leave any questions or comments below the post, and I'll make sure I find the time to get back to you. Thanks!
If you liked the article, don't forget to pin it! |
Everton will have to pay a massive €50m (£45.85m, $58.8m) fee if they want to attain the services of Benfica forward Raul Jimenez.
Despite the arrivals of Wayne Rooney and Sandro Ramirez, the Toffees are still looking for an additional striker to spearhead their attack following the departure of Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United.
Manager Ronald Koeman said following Everton's 1-1 draw at Manchester City that if the club wanted to compete with other squads, that they would "need a striker in as well" along with other notable positions.
Previously linked with a loan move for Chelsea's exiled striker Diego Costa, Portuguese publication Record now reports that Everton have had a €30m (£27.5m, $35.3m) offer rejected for Jimenez.
The Portuguese champions instead believe they can receive a fee of €50m for the former Atletico Madrid striker, having previously received a similar offer from a Chinese club back in the January transfer window.
"There was a good offer economically for Benfica and for me also, but the important thing is that I decided that I want to stay in Benfica," Jimenez said after he rejected the move in January.
"I am very happy and in Europe I can continue to grow as a player, because I believe I have a promising future. What I want is football glory before money.
"The fans of Benfica always treat me very well and support me. When I go out on the street they recognise me, they tell me that I am doing very well. All of this pleases me."
In addition, Everton also face competition from Ligue 1 champions Monaco who are interested in the Mexican international. The same report claims Leonardo Jardim's side have also had a €30m bid rejected for Jimenez as they prepare for the potential departure of Kylian Mbappe.
It remains to be seen as to whether Jimenez is worth the steep price tag slapped on him by Benfica, let alone whether a European club is willing to lodge a bid as the 26-year-old has only scored 12 league goals since the start of the 2015/16 season.
The Tepeji native also notably had a disappointing spell at Atletico Madrid, scoring just once in 27 games in all competitions during the 2014/15 season. However, with options running out at this point of the transfer window, Everton may need to stump up the extra funds. |
Lore of the Clans: Thank You
Vampire: The Masquerade
Yesterday I sent off the last redlines to the writers for Lore of the Clans, thus closing the open development process for the book. Because of the staggered nature of open development, I’ve already gotten a few drafts back, but I’m expecting to get the majority of them in October. From there, I’ll revise, kick the drafts over to the teams working on V20 Dark Ages and Ghouls to make sure the material is connecting (or at least disconnecting in interesting and intentional ways), and then the usual editing/layout/art/book phases. There may be a Kickstarter in there somewhere, and I already have some ideas of interesting goals for that. To keep the book on track, though, I don’t anticipate any more drafts being posted online.
I did want to take a moment to thank everyone to participated. Some folks were a little more aggressive than others, and a few seemed very eager to add random numbers and spaces into the text for some reason. It was stressful, chaotic, and intense, but in the end it was worth it. Many of the conversations reaffirmed my instincts, but a few were very surprising, and helped me reassess my assumptions on some parts of the material. There was also a lot of small details from some of the more obscure books that I think will make the whole product feel much richer. Without going into a full changelog (there’s a few more rounds of revisions to go through, so I don’t want to say something’s definitely changing at this stage), I can say that every single Clan was shaped by the discussion provided, and in every chapter there was at least one noteworthy shift in the material that came directly from this process.
So, thank you for continuing to be the passionate, engaged, dynamic community that has kept this game aloft for so many years. Each open development process is a new experiment, a new way of baring our souls, but each time you’ve been collectively very positive and productive. I know Rites of the Blood was dramatically improved because of you, and I hope the same will be true of Lore of the Clans. |
Bonar Stewart Bain (February 4, 1923 – February 18, 2005)[2][3] was a Canadian actor and the identical twin brother of actor Conrad Bain, who starred in the television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes as Phillip Drummond and Maude as Arthur Harmon. He once played a fictional "evil" twin to Conrad ("Hank Bain") in an episode of SCTV, as well as Arthur (Conrad Bain)'s twin brother Arnold on Maude.
In popular culture [ edit ]
Bain figures in the lyrics to "Bober," a song from the Mike Keneally Band's 2004 album Dog. Keneally sings that his dog, Bober, was "half-named after Conrad Bain's brother."[4]
Filmography [ edit ]
Draw! as Poker Player (1984)
as Poker Player (1984) Running Brave as University Professor (1983)
as University Professor (1983) SCTV Network as Hank Bain (Zontar) (1981)
as Hank Bain (Zontar) (1981) Powder Heads as Dispatcher (1980)
as Dispatcher (1980) Maude as Arnold Harmon ("Vivian's Surprise") (1977)
References [ edit ] |
Brandon Weeden has won the starting QB job. (Jason Miller/Getty Images) Brandon Weeden has won the starting QB job. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
After two impressive preseason outings, Brandon Weeden has won the starting quarterback job in Cleveland, multiple outlets report.
Weeden was battling with veteran Jason Campbell, who becomes the backup.
"Brandon has earned this job," head coach Rob Chuzkinski said Tuesday, per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "He's gained my complete trust. I felt like the timing was right.''
Weeden, 29, was a first-round pick by the Browns in 2012, but the regime that selected him — General Manager Tom Heckert and head coach Pat Shurmur — has since been replaced. He’s performed well in new coordinator Norv Turner’s vertical passing scheme, averaging 9.2 yards per attempt thus far. The 31-year-old Campbell started one game for the Bears last season.
Weeden struggled mightily as a rookie, throwing more interceptions (17) than touchdowns (14) while completing 57.4 percent of his passes, 27th in the NFL.
In two preseason starts with the Browns, Weeden has completed 18 of 25 passes for 229 yards and three touchdowns.
Barring injuries, five 2012 NFL Draft picks will open the 2013 season as the starting quarterback.
https://twitter.com/MaryKayCabot/status/369835304242266112 |
Gardaí have appealed to two men who assisted the emergency services at the scene of a fatal road crash at Skibbereen in west Cork yesterday morning to contact them.
The men arrived at the scene within minutes of the crash at a roundabout on the N71 bypass at 1.45am yesterday morning.
Megan Johnston, 22, from Skibbereen died in the crash.
Two of her friends, a man and a woman, remain in a critical condition in intensive care at Cork University Hospital.
Two other men are also being treated in hospital, while another man has been released.
Gardaí are also appealing to the occupants of a Skoda Octavia car that parked at Hurley's Garage on Ilen Street moments after the crash to contact them on 023 8821 570.
They do not believe this car was connected to the crash, but say the occupants may have witnessed the crash or have important information in relation to it. |
There is a sense of inevitability about the impending impact of this new age of austerity. We all now expect unemployment to rise, services to be cut and individuals and families to face real hardship.
"We knew it had to come," is a common refrain. But there seems little by way of any serious attempt to mitigate the impacts and improve the resilience of our communities. These communities are today at greater risk. In the past, societies have coped with periods of crisis by drawing upon reserves of communal spirit and by using local institutions and collective activities which are particularly important in harder times. For many communities there are now no resources to draw upon.
The decline of traditional bonds and especially the demise of local clubs and societies and the links with neighbours and within families themselves is often exaggerated, but is nevertheless real for many communities. This, combined with increasing pressures from lack of job security and economic uncertainty, creates a breeding ground for blame, tension, misunderstandings and extremism.
Many community-based organisations, often funded on a shoestring and run by just a handful of dedicated staff and volunteers, provide some of the vital glue that holds communities together. Cutting off cash for grassroots groups may be an easy option but could be a false economy. Given the tendency for a blame culture to emerge in times of hardship – and we have seen the biggest rise in Far Right activity in recent years – now is not the time to lose sight of any local work which is building bridges between communities.
On a simple economic level, all the anecdotal evidence points to how crucial decisions about investments by potential employers are made on the reputation of specific towns, cities and regions. Any potential for disruption is obviously bad for business, but so is any lingering sense of malaise or bad feeling about a place.
Firms will simply avoid, or choose to move away from, areas where there are community breakdowns and that will mean greater economic divide and more investment required by government to support them.
Perhaps just as important is the way that people tend to leave poorer areas as they succeed in getting a job or finding the wherewithal to do so. People will only stay in an area if they have a sense of belonging and believe it can support and provide for them. Poorer areas are often faced by the flight of financial and human capital.
Keeping grassroots cohesion activity going will be essential as a means of seeing many communities through the economic downturn, helping groups worst hit by redundancies, and preventing individual problems becoming whole community tensions.
For cash-strapped local authorities, it is inevitable that voluntary sector groups will be targeted. We are fortunately already seeing more evidence of mainstreaming of community cohesion, where the statutory sector does consider cohesion issues as part of its day job in housing, education and other services.
But even if such a switch became universal, it would not be sufficient. Funding needs to be saved for the many fantastic schemes and committed local people working on projects like Aik Saath's community cohesion project in Slough. This scheme supports inter-cultural dialogue among young people through shared activities and residential events.
Similarly, at the Side by Side project, weekly drama sessions are used as a way of interacting, bonding and learning about identity, communication, cultural misunderstandings, belonging, home, difference and similarity. Another example of great work is at the Barton Hill Together Project in Bristol, aimed at addressing a very specific community tension in a tower block which had seen a sharp rise in new migrants. The project helps the community tackle a rise in racist behaviour, violence and arrests through events, shared festivals and play schemes organised by residents.
The most effective cohesion schemes are always those that are owned and organised by local people – those that are done by them, not to them.
• Ted Cantle, is a professor at iCoCo (the Institute of Community Cohesion), Coventry University, and wrote the government's official inquiry report into the 2001 riots in Oldham and Burnley |
Low-key tour of 8-acre property comes a day after public again voiced opposition to Providence River location
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — PawSox principal owner Larry Lucchino late Wednesday afternoon walked among the weeds of the Victory Place property in the Jewelry District as he looked for options to the team's search for a new ballpark site.
Lucchino's low-key tour, in the company of his young special assistant Dan Rea, comes a day after team representatives ran into another mass of Rhode Islanders dead-set against the team's preferred site — a prime piece of land alongside the Providence River designated for a public park.
"We wanted to give it the due diligence it deserved," Lucchino said as he stood near Eddy Street on the edge of the 8-acre Victory Place site.
Lucchino decided to look at the privately-owned Victory Place site in the Jewelry District, he said, after the people who packed a Tuesday forum on the Pawtucket Red Sox ballpark plan once again brought up the site as an alternative to the team's preferred Providence River site.
About 240 people attended the forum sponsored by Leadership Rhode Island and the Harvard Business School Association of Southeastern New England — another public venue in which those opposing the stadium widely outnumbered supporters.
Besides finding a site for a new stadium, Lucchino also has had to hammer out with state officials a new public financing package to help pay for the team's proposed move from Pawtucket to Providence. Lucchino told The Journal earlier this month he has dramatically renegotiated the deal with representatives of the General Assembly and the governor's office. The details have not been made public by Lucchino or state officials.
The owner of Victory Place, the vacant Jewelry District land, made a public pitch in April for his property to be the site of a minor-league baseball park. JAG Investment Realty LLC, which owns a 7.5-acre site on Eddy Street alongside Route 95, said the property is well positioned to be an alternative site for a Triple-A ballpark if plans fall through to locate one on the I-195 land intended to be a park.
The Victory Place site, which once was home to a jewelry factory complex, already has undergone an environmental cleanup and is the subject of a tax stabilization agreement with the city.
The real-estate holding company won approval from the City Council for a tax-stabilization agreement that caps property taxes on the land at $20.6 million over 13 years. There would be no property taxes paid in the first three years.
When first approached by a Journal reporter as he walked the site Wednesday, Lucchino said the land was not under serious consideration as a ballpark location.
"Not really," he replied. "We've just heard so much about it. We're just checking it out."
Then he turned and walked away, onto the weedy lot.
After he walked off the land about 20 minutes later, Lucchino said the ownership group he leads had rejected the site because it felt the land was too far from downtown. But his tone softened as he watched commuters from the nearby hospital complex drive past the site.
Lucchino also was asked about the tax agreement and environmental work that have been completed on the Victory Place site.
"That's something I didn't know," Lucchino said.
[email protected] | @PaulEGrimaldi
[email protected] | @PatrickAnderso_ |
Leaked documents show that when the province’s freshly-appointed education minister was a trustee with the city’s public school board six years ago he pushed for approval of a new headquarters despite the fact district administrators had no clear plan of how to pay for the escalating cost of what had become a $285-million deal.
Gordon Dirks made the motion to approve the 20-year lease at a 2008 meeting of the Calgary Board of Education even though an internal report obtained by the Herald shows the construction price and rental payments for the Beltline tower had jumped by nearly half in the previous 10 months.
The documents show trustees were told the “potential” sources of the money needed to make the payments — now more than $12.5 million annually — included redirecting revenues then being used to maintain and operate schools and tapping possible proceeds from future sales of surplus properties in Calgary’s volatile real estate market.
Despite the financial uncertainties that now surrounded a building that had been quietly approved in principle four years earlier, Dirks and his then colleagues — including current incumbents Lynn Ferguson and Pamela King — unanimously approved the lease.
Since staff moved into the 200,000-square-foot tower three years ago and the CBE started paying rent that keeps rising by two per cent annually, the board has also had to struggle with provincial funding that has failed to keep pace with either enrolment growth or inflation.
Students now face larger class sizes and parents must pay higher fees as the CBE tries to balance an operating budget in which the line item for its new head office represents over one per cent of total expenditures.
The 2008 report shows the go-ahead from Dirks and his fellow board members came at the urging of board bureaucrats and amid growing impatience by the private sector firms that had been chosen as much as three years earlier to help build the new headquarters.
“CBE partners in the project (manager Bentall Real Estate Services LP and construction firm Ellis Don) are feeling frustrated about the lengthy planning time that has been required,” the secret document said.
“A sense of urgency is being experienced ... as it has taken several years to proceed.”
While the report said the $43.50 cost per square foot for space was in the range of market rates, a study done around the same time by commercial realtor Avison Young pegged the asking price for new construction on Beltline properties at $34 per square foot, nearly 22 per cent less than what the CBE agreed to pay.
Jack Bannon of Citicore Associates has said there were also ample signs of an impending oversupply that would cause rental rates to drop when the CBE gave the project the go ahead in early 2008 because dozens of buildings and millions of square feet were in the construction pipeline.
“This board lease is one of the worst real estate deals in Calgary’s history,” Bannon said in a subsequent report.
Neither Ferguson nor King were available for comment.
While Dirks has talked with other media outlets since his appointment Monday, his press secretary indicated the minister was too busy meeting stakeholders to speak with a Herald reporter for this story. |
Dog of police officer killed in İzmir attack waits for his return
Banu Şen - İZMİR
A dog cared for by police officer Fethi Sekin, who was described as a hero after preventing a larger-scale attack outside an İzmir courthouse on Jan. 5, has continued to wait at the spot where he lost his life in the assault.Sekin, who had worked in front of the courthouse for 10 years until the attack, looked after a stray dog named Zeytin near the facility. Camera footage of the attack also showed Zeytin running after Sekin during the incident.The militants allegedly sought to enter the courthouse where they presumably would have caused a greater loss of life, but they were prevented from doing so by Sekin’s actions. Sekin was killed in a subsequent clash with the militants, while a stray bullet also killed court employee Musa Can as he watched from a window.The dog has reportedly stayed in the area where Sekin was killed.Some friends of the killed officer also said he loved animals almost as much as people.Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the man’s family to express his condolences on Jan. 8.Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy chair Öznur Çalık visited the officer’s widow, Rabia Sekin, and his family in the eastern province of Elazığ. Erdoğan expressed his condolences via Çalık’s phone, saying he hoped Sekin would rest in peace.“You know, our martyrs’ place is the nearest place to our dear prophet. Thus, you will be mentioned as a martyr’s wife and your place will be near him in the eternal universe,” he said.Erdoğan also said Sekin had prevented a massacre with his sacrifice.“Our brother Fethi prevented a serious disaster in there. In fact, he also became a second Ömer. We have been saying there was not just one Ömer Halisdemir. We will walk differently to the future with this example,” he said.Halisdemir was one of the first loyalist soldiers to die during the July 15, 2016, coup attempt after killing one of the main coup plotters, Semih Terzi.Sekin’s wife also asked Erdoğan that he help look after her children.“My children lost their father, but they have another father in you. I want you to look after them,” she said.Erdoğan responded, saying the Turkish state accepted the children of fallen soldiers as a trust.“The state of the Republic of Turkey is strong to protect these trusts. Do not worry about this. We will stand by them, including in their education,” he said. |
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The names include some players who have become Pro Bowlers, like Patrick Peterson, and others who aren’t even in the league anymore, like Rod Isaac. Richard Sherman knows them all.
They are the names of all the defensive backs who were chosen in the 2011 NFL draft before the Seahawks selected Richard Sherman with the 154th overall pick. Sherman said today on NFL AM that he can name every single defensive back who was chosen before his name was finally called two years ago.
“Nothing is going to change the fact that I was drafted 154, fifth round, 23rd pick. Nothing’s going to change that. Five rounds of teams just passed, passed, passed, passed. I know every single one of them. I know every DB. I know everyone who went ahead of me,” Sherman said.
Sherman said he decided as he was being snubbed to use it as motivation.
“I was like, I’m going to do whatever it takes to become a high-profile guy. I’m going to earn the respect. If they’re not going to give it like they’ve given it to all the rest of these guys, I’m just going to take it,” Sherman said.
Sherman has definitely taken it: Just two years after lasting until pick No. 154, Sherman is one of the best players in the NFL. |
With all the masses of column inches currently being devoted to the future of Gareth Bale it has almost gone unnoticed that Tottenham have been quietly going about the makings of a very satisfactory transfer window. Of course, just how satisfactory will be determined by whether Bale stays or goes; presumably we will learn more about Real Madrid's intentions over the coming days although as yet, while astronomical figures plus various possible player makeweights are being bandied about seemingly willy-nilly, it appears that no actual bid has been received by Spurs.
Though the general consensus is that there will inevitably be an eventual bid that's too huge to turn down, it's a big call to make for the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy. He knows that players such as Bale are rare treasures, and quite possibly irreplaceable even with (a reinvested) £100m. There are probably no more than a dozen players who can turn a game single-handed, conjure a goal out of nothing, produce moments of magic that make the difference. When you are in possession of one, you try to hang on to him as long as possible and Levy knows that without Bale Spurs' chances of gaining a Champions League spot are diminished.
The saga is likely to have ruined his holiday, which up to now had seemed well-deserved after a fine early foray in the transfer market. Boosted by the presence of the new technical director, Franco Baldini, one of the game's most respected operators, the club have spent more than £50m to push on from last season's fifth-placed finish.
The signing of the Brazilian international midfielder Paulinho has already provoked some very positive reviews from me in a previous blog – and since then the club have acted efficiently to add two new names to their attacking department.
This week Spurs smashed their transfer record by paying up the £26m release clause of Valencia's Spain international Roberto Soldado. There's little doubt that this is a big investment for a 28-year-old with very limited or no resale value but, considering the huge sums paid for international top forwards this summer, such a mega-deal now seems par for the course for a high-scoring striker from a top European league.
The deal also follows the current trend in which established (as well as challenging) top clubs opt for the finished product at premium prices, instead of the recent much-favoured approach of buying up-and-coming talents who are still some years away from their career peak. It's a symptom of today's demands for rapid success, with Champions League places so crucial to finances that missing out can see you fall behind your rivals.
It could be too that Spurs sense there's a big chance now to catch up with the top four; though Chelsea and, especially, Manchester City have predictably spent huge money already, Arsenal and Manchester United seem to be struggling to capture their targets and Levy hopes splashing the cash will give Spurs an extra edge over their rivals in red.
Certainly their latest signing should prosper in a side that tends to enjoy plenty of possession and control of the ball in their attacking third. Compared with the similarly aged Alvaro Negredo – who cost Manchester City £6m less but outscored the new Spurs man by one league goal last campaign – Soldado is quicker and more agile. While they're both aggressive and quick on the trigger inside the penalty area, Soldado, with his direct, relentless movement and pace can cause more damage on the break, whereas the left-footed Manchester City centre-forward offers more of a holding-up game.
Arguably not the most elegant front man, the former Valencia striker is always likely to go for power before delicate precision and, though he's sometimes criticised for his streaks of inconsistency, Spurs have signed a determined, strong-minded forward with plenty of personality.
I'm also intrigued to see what impact Spurs' other recent signing, the Belgium international Nacer Chadli, is likely to have on the Premier League. Many clubs – English as well as European – have been monitoring the 24-year-old at Twente over the past year, some leaving Enschede with glowing reports on an explosive winger with good technical ability, others remaining perplexed over Chadli's occasional tendency to drift in and out of games and slightly worrying recent injury record (he missed a quarter of each of the past two seasons through injuries).
A right-footed wide player who operates mainly on the left, the Belgian of Moroccan origins combines lightning pace – especially when finding space to stretch his long legs over 20-30 metres – with unpredictability in one-on-one situations and a finely calibrated shot on goal as his most eye-catching forte. Though ostensibly signed to be initially a squad player, the £7m Chadli is well-suited to André Villas-Boas's attacking schemes and provides the Portuguese head coach with another creative alternative going forward.
On a more surprising note, Spurs also parted company with their promising centre-back Steven Caulker, who joined Cardiff City in an £8m move. Already capped by England, the defender looked increasingly confident and dominant during his appearances under Villas-Boas last season and, with him 21 years old, one would have thought the academy product would play an important part over the years to come. The sale of Caulker (incidentally another fine capture by Cardiff) leaves the squad with just three out-and-out central defenders, which inevitably forces the club back on to the market in search of an upgraded replacement.
One such option may be the Romanian international Vlad Chiriches. According to reports in Romania, the Steaua Bucharest player – who enjoyed a fine Europa League campaign last season – is said to have been very close to joining Spurs before the £7m bid was turned down at the last minute by Steaua's incarcerated club boss, Gigi Becali. Perhaps not quite yet in the Gica Popescu category of cultured defenders, Chiriches does however stand out with his mobility, pace, strong personality on the pitch and ability to take the ball out of defence. His assurance on the ball is possibly one explanation why Villas-Boas was seemingly happy to consider a 23-year-old Romanian in the place of a homegrown talent.
Tor-Kristian Karlsen is a Norwegian football scout and executive, formerly the chief executive and sporting director at Monaco. He has previously worked as a scout for Grasshopper, Watford, Bayer Leverkusen, Hannover and Zenit St Petersburg and as sporting director for Fredrikstad |
Once again, Deadeye, was kind enough to again provide me with his account of the events happening currently in Greece. It seems though second rounds of demonstrations and street fighting between the police and demonstrators have erupted, sporadically in diferent areas, but the Greeks themselves are changing their aims.
We’ve almost had another execution in Athens.
A group of pupils were discussing about the upcoming demonstration, in the 18th of December, outside their school in the district of Peristeri. Someone fired two shots, wounding a 17 year old. Fortunately, he was shot at his arm and now he’s recuperating. Police came to investigate the crime scene 14 hours later, while they insisted that the shooter fired with an airgun. The projectile that was extracted from the kid’s arm proved it was actually a 38 caliber pistol, arousing suspicions about the initial false claims made by the police.
We’ve had several squats, occupations and take overs.
The major labour union, widely known for being a sell-out, was taken over by anarchists and invites workers to participate in free councils through which workers will coordinate their forces with the general outbreak.
More radio and TV stations are being occupied for a few minutes to broadcast news, straight from the street. Reporters are intensively trying to bring back the “Christmas spirit” and discourage further political action.
Three main Athenian universities have been occupied that act as the movement’s headquarters, where massive discussions take place and issue brochures and newspapers. The Polytechnic school, the Law school and the Economic Studies school. The government never had any control over the students in universities, for several reasons. First and foremost, universities are considered asylums. No policemen, soldiers or any kind of weaponry is allowed inside. However, the last 3 years they try to pass an educational law through which, students’ rights will be significantly decreased and occupations like these will be severely weakened.
In other cities, more occupations take place that act similarly, as local headquarters in which future political action is talked through and defined. Universities, city halls and various public buildings.
Almost all universities and most schools have been shutted[sic] down by their students. Demonstrations are being constantly programmed.
The above was part 1. Deadeye provides updates as to the latest happenings in Athens and the take-overs of the union, TV stations and city halls. He also responded to queries regarding the nature of the Greek university’s and how the Greek government has virtually ceded all control to the student protestors, while discussing the future,
Its not just Greek anarchists that are involved in this. There’s a strong left movement in Greece that is participating in a very militant fashion these days.
However, the smashing and burning is more or less over. Banks, surveilance cameras, cop stations and mega-stores have received their message for the time being. The street fighting continues sporadically but only for defensive purposes. I’d say we’re mostly focusing on the info-war that has been waged lately by the media and we’re trying to provide our version of the facts.
Our demands, for now, are limited in law-enforcement, educational and labour issues. Abolition of riot police, disarmament of police officers, abolition of the latest educational and labour laws that weaken worker and student syndicalism and self organization.
We intend to literally paralyze the state, in a financial and functional level, with constant strikes and demonstrations.
In regards to further questioning about the attacks on reporters by protesters, Deadeye had said,
Concerning the article, I’m not aware of some certain incident in which a journalist has been victimized, so I cant name or count them, but its common knowledge that reporters are traditionally greeted with aggressiveness by leftists and anarchists, as they systematically undermine our struggle and openly lie, so its quite possible that the story is true.
Let me remind you how they took sides from day one, adopting the cop’s story until eye witnesses stepped up. A TV channel went far enough to edit the video taken from the balcony, depicting the murder. They removed the sound and added their own with sounds of smashing and shouting, in order to back the cop up and his claims of 30 anarchists attacking him.
And if I may take the very dangerous liberty of adding further information here, any reader who has been following these events for its duration would have heard reports from earlier on that Journalists had also been met with hostility by police. While the article speaks solely about the Anarchists attacking journalists, it leaves out events such as the following,
…riot cops attacked at Korai Str in Athens, arresting at least four students. One of the arrestees was a 13 year old girl; nearby journalists who reacted to her brutal arrest were also beaten up heavily.
It would be more accurate, in fact, to state simply that journalists are met with hostility in general based on their profession and how previous journalists have covered the same events. The curious thing is that reports of police brutality against journalists occurred early on in the demonstrations when the media had sided with the Anarchists due to mass public outrage at what was essentially an execution. Later, however, the reporters have returned to siding with police and no doubt their reports have been less than accurate regarding the “self-described” Anarchists, explaining the hostility against journalists from both sides of the conflict at one time or another. In fact, Deadeye finishes this post with a departing piece of wisdom;
Where a cop’s nightstick can’t reach, a reporter’s lie can.
And how true it is. The events unfolding are going to come down to spin. Who can spin it better and faster. Obviously, the government and the police have the advantage of a massive media organisation that is sympathetic to it. These media outlets are then connect to others the world over who have a tendency to merely copy the article/report, repackage it and distribute. This means that any error or lie won’t just be repeated among a small area where people may see it for what it is, but it will be repeated the world over and millions of people will take it for gospel. I have met many even now who take the Greek Anarchists to be thugs and even murderers. But let us move on.
In the following article on the Australian website, we get valuable pieces of information as well as examples of propaganda,
Police also clashed with protesters after a separate demonstration against racism that was attended by about 200 people in Syntagma Square.
“Migrants are killed, schoolchildren are killed,” said banners carried by the protesters who marched to the Greek parliament. Protesters threw garbage at police who ringed a Christmas tree on the main square.
This piece is interesting in that it implies that police are targetting all demonstrations and it’s curious that this particular demonstration was anti-racism. Though the article doesn’t say, and I wouldn’t expect it to, I wonder if anyone belonging to the Golden Dawn organisation was present.
Then there are these two events that carries a certain Robin Hood feel,
Masked men broke into the building housing the offices of Tiresias SA, a company that keeps records of delinquent debtors and cardholders, and firebombed the company’s offices. The fire was extinguished but the company’s offices were destroyed, witnesses said.
In Nea Philadelfia, a western suburb of Athens, demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at the police academy and torched six police vehicles parked nearby, without causing any casualties, police said.
But, as always, whenever something that could be construed as “positive” about the demonstrators is mentioned, it has to be matched with something negative, chiefly, the following,
In Thessaloniki, anarchists occupied a cinema in the city’s main square and threw cakes andsweets[sic] at Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos and one of hisdeputies.[sic]
The mayor was attending an open-air Christmas event near the theatre, distributing the sweets to children with sickle-cell anaemia when the rioters disrupted the event. Protesters emerged from the theatre and attacked a nativity scene, throwing away the Christ figure.
Now this is an interesting one. If it did indeed happen as depicted in the article, which is rare, than the Anarchists are just downright evil, or so we’re inclined to believe due to the article’s stance. How could they prevent candy from being given by the generous mayor to sick little children? This is just too “good” to be entirely accurate and strikes as a possibley brilliant example of propaganda. Now, working on the assumption that the article is accurate, it is possible to understand why the Chistmas event was attacked. It’s another repeat of the over-commercialised Christmas line and has become a symbol of consumerism. The particular note of a Jesus figure being thrown away is merely a result of a small atheist rebellion in a country renowned for its strict orthodox faith. Whether it’s right or wrong, I’ll leave it up to the reader to debate, as I personally don’t particularly agree with this choice in target. That being said, however, in the scale of things the Anarchists haven’t taken a life and as far as mistakes go, this is a relatively small one that handed an easy victory to the Greek government in the PR war that is being raged. |
Kelly Knight Craft will be nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump as the next ambassador to Canada, according to a statement from the White House.
The White House has reached out to officials at the Canadian embassy in Washington to make their intentions known.
Before appearing at a Senate committee in Ottawa Wednesday CBC asked David MacNaughton, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., if he knew when Knight Craft would take up her new role.
"No, I mean obviously any ambassador has to be approved through their system, I don't know when that may or may not happen," he told CBC.
Knight Craft is married to American billionaire coal magnate Joe Craft. He's the president and CEO of Alliance Resource Partners L.P., the second-largest coal producer in the eastern United States, which operates 10 coal mine complexes in five states, according to the company's website.
"I deeply appreciate the President's confidence in me, and am looking forward to the Senate confirmation process," she said in an email to CBC.
The pair have collaborated on political fundraising and both support the University of Kentucky.
Knight Craft serves as a member of the university's board of trustees.
Knight Craft was appointed to the U.S. delegation at the UN in 2007 by former president George W. Bush, advising the U.S. ambassador on various issues, including U.S. engagement in Africa, according to her bio on the University of Kentucky's website.
She is also involved in charitable work, including the Salvation Army of Lexington, Ky.
Last June, Bloomberg reported that Trump promised he would keep two top Republicans, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, in their leadership posts — a key factor in the Crafts' decision to raise money for the then presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
"That is a big priority for Joe and I — and from talking directly to Donald Trump I know for a fact it is a big deal to him," Knight Craft told Bloomberg at the time. "He made that very clear."
The U.S. ambassador's office has been vacant since the departure of Bruce Heyman, who was named by former president Barack Obama. Heyman had offered to help Trump's transition team get up to speed on key issues on the Canada-U.S. file, but his offer was met with silence.
He resigned in January after the Trump transition team delivered a blanket mandate for all politically appointed ambassadors to leave their posts by inauguration day. |
Landon Donovan set another record -- in this case, the MLS career assist mark -- Robbie Keane burnished his MVP credentials, and the L.A. Galaxy stayed atop this week's Power Rankings thanks to a 3-0 win over Toronto FC. This week also sees the continued rise of the New England Revolution, who move up three spots after an impressive win over the Columbus Crew.
1. L.A. Galaxy (no change)
Landon Donovan grabbed the spotlight, setting the all-time career assist record in a 3-0 win over Toronto, and Robbie Keane scored twice, but Marcelo Sarvas showed once again he's one of L.A.'s glue guys as his dead-eye pass set up Keane for his opener. The Galaxy looks unstoppable at the moment.
2. Seattle Sounders (no change)
With the Sounders obliterating Colorado 4-1, the focus is increasing on the home-and-home set with L.A. to finish the regular season that will likely decide the Supporters' Shield. Seattle's defense could will require some sharpening in order to edge out the Galaxy.
3. New England Revolution (+3)
The Revs' season MVP -- Lee Nguyen -- and its MVP of the last few weeks -- Jermaine Jones -- both scored to give New England a 2-1 win over Columbus. But the MVP of the game had to be goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth, who delivered several impressive saves to preserve the victory.
Jermaine Jones is proving to be a valuable addition to the New England Revolution as he has two goals and two assists in five games.
4. D.C. United (+1)
A year removed from one of the most dreadful seasons in MLS history, United clinched a playoff spot with a 0-0 tie against Sporting Kansas City. There's still a bit of work to do to clinch the top spot in the Eastern Conference, but 2014 has seen an impressive turnaround for DCU.
5. Real Salt Lake (-2)
Is possession overrated? RSL seemed to prove that Sunday, losing to lowly Chivas USA despite having a 74.2-25.8 edge in possession. In the process, RSL squandered a golden opportunity to solidify its hold on third place in the Western Conference. Now it could get drawn into the dreaded play-in game.
6. FC Dallas (-2)
If Dallas faces off against Vancouver in the playoffs, it should be dandy considering the feistiness that has characterized the two most recent encounters, including Saturday's 2-0 win by the Caps. A playoff spot is a near certainty, but to do some damage in the postseason, Dallas will need Fabian Castillo back in the lineup.
7. New York Red Bulls (+2)
The team may or may not be for sale. Thierry Henry may or may not be retiring. Who knows what the future holds for Tim Cahill, who has chosen country before club and was red-carded late against Houston? None of it was enough to distract the Red Bulls, who prevailed 1-0 thanks to Henry's goal.
8. Columbus Crew (-1)
One team's stellar goalkeeping is another side's bad finishing. The Crew certainly played well enough to get a draw against New England, but couldn't convert some clear chances. Waylon Francis' silly second yellow card for delaying a throw-in didn't help either, and Federico Higuain is suspended now as well.
9. Vancouver Whitecaps (+4)
At the time, Vancouver's August acquisition of Mauro Rosales seemed of the ho-hum variety. But on Saturday the Argentine was everywhere, setting up both of Sebastian Fernandez's goals in a 2-0 win over FC Dallas. The Caps remain just a point ahead of Portland for the final playoff spot in the west.
10. Philadelphia Union (-2)
The Union -- or goalkeeper Rais M'Bolhi, to be precise -- threw away two points against Chicago, as the keeper's errant outlet pass gifted the Fire its equalizer. Four points out of fifth place with three games to play, Philly's playoff prospects are looking grim.
11. Sporting Kansas City (-1)
Sporting KC stopped the bleeding in a 0-0 tie with D.C United, and perhaps more importantly, it seemed to solve its recent defensive frailties. Alas, defender Seth Sinovic will be suspended for next week's tilt against Chicago. Given SKC's threadbare corps of defenders, that's the last thing Peter Vermes needs.
12. Toronto FC (-1)
TFC bore little resemblance to a playoff team in losing to the Galaxy, though L.A. has been doing that to a lot of teams lately. Now a four-game run-in beckons, and it is hoped that the sight of Jermain Defoe returning to the field will provide the necessary boost to TFC's attack.
13. Portland Timbers (+1)
Without the injured Will Johnson and the suspended Diego Valeri, Portland dug deep to carve out a 2-1 road win over San Jose thanks to two Rodney Wallace goals. Portland's last three opponents are tougher than Vancouver's, but the race for the last playoff spot should go down to the wire.
14. Houston Dynamo (-2)
Houston's playoff hopes were dealt a hammer blow thanks to a 1-0 defeat against New York, and only the crossbar prevented a larger margin of defeat. Not even a game in hand on most of the Dynamo's playoff rivals seems enough to save them now.
15. Chicago Fire (no change)
Rais M'Bolhi's aforementioned largesse combined with Robert Earnshaw's delightful chip saw Chicago snag a road point in midweek, and the Fire continued their tying ways against Montreal. Not that there was much doubt, but Chicago was officially eliminated from the postseason.
16. Montreal Impact (no change)
Marco Di Vaio officially announced his retirement, which further obscured the improved defense the Impact has been playing of late. Montreal has conceded just two goals in its last four games, including Sunday's 0-0 draw against Chicago.
17. Chivas USA (+2)
Was Sunday's 1-0 win over Real Salt Lake the last in Chivas USA history? It could very well be, but the Goats will take it just the same, their first victory since July. The announced crowd of 12,271 -- almost double the team's average -- provided a boost as well.
18. San Jose Earthquakes (-1)
The Quakes called Rodney Wallace's two deflected goals "dumb luck." It's about the the only kind San Jose has had of late. Pablo Pintos' late red card could also be classified under the "dumb" category, which may well result in a vacation for the rest of the season for the defender.
19. Colorado Rapids (-1)
Another capitulation, this time at home to Seattle, extended the Rapids' franchise-record winless streak to 11 games. Marvell Wynne's spread-eagle jump that resulted in a handball and a Seattle penalty was just one of several head-shaking moments.
Jeff Carlisle covers MLS and the U.S. national team for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @JeffreyCarlisle. |
Army members beat man to death and set his corpse on fire just minutes after president addresses them with hopeful speech
Even in a country where public lynchings have become a regular occurrence, it proved some acts of inhumanity still have the power to shock.
Ten minutes after Catherine Samba-Panza, the interim president of the Central African Republic (CAR), addressed the army at a hopeful ceremony, some of its members broke ranks to stab, stamp and pelt a man to death, drag his corpse through the streets and set it on fire, then film it on their phones.
The killing illustrated the fragility of Samba-Panza's authority over a nation torn by sectarian loathing and violence. Among the deepening crises are accounts of towns where the entire Muslim population has fled or been killed and allegations that supposedly neutral African peacekeepers are siding with rebel leaders.
At Wednesday's ceremony in the capital, Bangui, hundreds of uniformed soldiers in the national army – which had fallen apart after a coup almost a year ago – stood to attention as Samba-Panza, who was elected last month, spoke of her "pride in seeing so many elements of the Central African Republic Forces reunited".
But soon after she left, the mood quickly turned as the soldiers spotted a man they suspected of belonging to the largely Muslim rebel group known as the Seleka.
An Associated Press (AP) journalist at the scene reported: "His name was Idriss, and he was standing among them. They accused him of being an infiltrator, there to spy for Seleka. Out came the first knife. 'I will kill him with my own hands,' shouted one man who had come to enlist in the national army.
"The very men expected to protect civilians used knives, bricks and their own feet to attack the man. Troops from the tiny African nation of Burundi surrounded the wounded man to protect him from the growing crowd. He lay wounded on his back and still alive for about five minutes."
Interim president Catherine Samba-Panza greets the commander of French peacekeepers. Photograph: Laurence Geai/NurPhoto/Rex
The AP report continued: "But as the crowd moved closer, the peacekeepers withdrew, not even firing warning shots. The attack resumed. Some stabbed him while others kicked him in the face. Still others pelted him with concrete blocks as a crowd cheered.
"A police officer jumped out of his truck to try to halt the gruesome attack and was accosted by the crowd and accused of being a traitor. Senior officers managed to extract him from the mob and sped away with him in their pickup. The crowd dragged Idriss's corpse through the street, dismembered it and set it ablaze."
For more than half an hour, large crowds including children stood and watched the body burn, filming it on their phones, according to researchers from Human Rights Watch. When French forces arrived at the scene, they told the crowd to disperse, and reacted with horror when a young man walked up to them holding the severed leg of the lynching victim and then threw it on the fire.
Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, said: "What should have been a moment of hope for the security of the Central African Republic turned into a horrific scene of bloodletting and mutilation. It is absolutely essential for President Samba-Panza to condemn this act of barbarity and prosecute the attackers."
Bouckaert and his colleagues said that in the past two weeks in Bangui they had witnessed mobs carrying out two lynchings and observed three other attempts that peacekeepers prevented.
In one case, they said, the Human Rights Watch team placed their car between a mob and its intended victim and took him to safety at a nearby Rwandan peacekeepers' base.
The coup in March 2013 triggered months of turmoil and bitter hatred toward the Seleka, leaving anyone accused of collaborating with them vulnerable to attack. The rebels' 10-month rule was marked by human rights abuses, and sparked a Christian armed movement known as the Anti-Balaka, which also has been accused of atrocities.
Christians form the majority in the CAR and in recent weeks most of the attacks in Bangui have targeted Muslims, forcing many to flee. Other towns have emptied of Muslims altogether.
On Wednesday Bouckaert posted on Twitter: "At 1730 hrs on Feb 5, Bozoum's historic Muslim presence ceased 2 exist, 2,100+ remaining Muslims evacuated 2 Chad in 16 trucks 12 pickups."
A street vendor in a refugee camp at Bangui airport. Almost a million people have been displaced by fighting and many towns have been emptied of Muslims. Photograph: Siegfried Modola/Reuters
Human Rights Watch has also said the Seleka rebels are regrouping in the north-east and accused Chadian peacekeepers of aiding the movements of Seleka leaders. "If the African Union is truly going to protect civilians in the Central African Republic, it needs to rein in the rogue activities of the Chadian peacekeeping troops," Bouckaert added.
There are now 5,000 African peacekeepers and 1,600 French troops on the ground. The UN children's agency, Unicef, has urged the international community to do everything it can to prevent the "human tragedy" in the CAR from turning into "a human catastrophe". Samba-Panza has pledged to "fully secure the greater part of the country" within a month.
Caesar Poblicks, an analyst at the London-based consultancy Conciliation Resources, said one of the greatest challenges facing Samba-Panza was a sense of triumphalism among the Anti-Balaka. "They feel like they brought about all the recent changes and the triumphalism is turning to defiance," he said.
"They were attempting to demand a ministry of defence position at their meeting with Samba-Panza. They have even objected to the choice of sports minister. Someone needs to be assertive enough to say: 'Anti-Balaka, you are not the CAR army'."
On Wednesday Bouckaert tweeted poignantly: "Painful 4 me 2 report on #CARcrisis endless atrocities--have @UCSB degree in African Studies, deeply believe in Africa's humanity, beauty." |
The DSC Ed and Radio Le Mans’ John Hindhaugh took the opportunity to pop over to Oreca’s Signes factory during the FIA WEC prologue weekend, the promised 15 minutes with the legendary Hugues de Chaunac turned into something altogether longer as his infectious enthusiasm for endurance racing left his diary in tatters!
Where are we with the Rebellion R One project right now?
“The main thing is that we got that the green light to go with the programme quite late, at the beginning of April (2013).
“Normally for a project of this complexity the minimum is around 16 months – We’ve reduced that to just 12 months.
“The target we gave ourselves was to deliver the car between 20 March and 30 March and I think we will have just two weeks delay against that target.
“It was a huge job, a completely new car from a clean sheet of paper with a fairly small team. We are not a major manufacturer with 60 people in a design office. Secondly there are problems with suppliers. For this year we have new regulations in LMP1 and, of course, Porsche is coming. We have new regulations too in Formula One and so all of the suppliers are unbelievably busy and that has led to difficulties in getting parts for the car within the deadlines we set for ourselves.
‘We work a lot with many of these suppliers and we know the difficulties they are facing but it has given us a number of problems to deal with for our project with Rebellion and we hope now to have the car on its wheels between 9 and 13 April, those dates depending on when the remaining parts arrive with us.
“We are disappointed to have missed our targets but it is important to understand what, and to understand that it is not running months behind but rather two or three weeks.”
And is there yet a final decision on when the car will race?
“We are going to take the final decision with Bart next week (this week) when we have a good view of the situation, on whether it is possible and sensible to aim for Silverstone. By the middle of the week we will be able to see exactly where we are.
And when will the second car be ready?
“It is just one week behind the first car.”
Onto LMP2, there is a performance evolution of the current 03 now possible, and we believe that is coming in time for Le Mans. How big a step can we expect from the 03R?
“It is not such a big step, in LM2 we are careful with the team’s budgets. The regulations would allow us to do more, but we need to ensure that we are in step with our customers budgets.
“We are taking the sensible view to make sure that the primary consideration is the financial health of our customer base so this will just be a small evolution mainly on the front of the car.”
And then onto the next new car, the LMP2 Coupe the 05? Where is that project sitting currently?
“The target is to have a car running by the end of this year, or the beginning of next year.
“I have ensured though that we are focused completely for the moment on the R One and with that project moving to a different stage we are just now starting on the new P2. Really we are just at the beginning.
Clearly the 05 will have a test and development phase, but do you have customers already lined up?
“Yes.”
And are they existing Oreca customers, or new customers?
“Both. As you know with LMP2 we are the manufacturer with the most cars out there, currently with around ten teams running our cars. Some of those teams have already told us that they want the new car, and that they want it as soon as possible.
“We have also been approached by other (non LMP2) racing teams over the past 6 months. There are several that have found the endurance scene attractive, and to have real potential.
“I think we do particularly well because our customers know that we are very focused on customer support and I think that’s why we keep our customer base, and to grow it, because they see, and experience, that with our presence at the circuits we are looking to do the best we can to supply them with the parts and the advice and support that they need.
“This is certainly the case in the USA with the Formula Le Mans/ LMPC where the customers are very happy with the support that we can give to them at the track, and between races.”
And after the carnage we saw at Sebring, how easy has it been to keep up to speed with the demand for parts from the LMPC runners?
“There have been absolutely no problems at all. Spare chassis are available where needed, there is one always available in the USA and another here. We can make up another tub in two weeks but we have no problem.
“In fact I would say that we are a little surprised because after the number of accidents that we saw we were expecting a big list of part needed but actually it was not so big, completely manageable.
“One of the things we found at Daytona, and again at Sebring is that many of the teams are waiting for the last minute to take the parts. It was a surprise to us, something new, when the teams arrived at the track they go to our transporter and want the parts off the shelf, like a supermarket!
“That’s probably a reaction to our good level of customer support, and that means we have had to adapt again to a different sort of demand.”
Would you ever have imagined that the car (the FLM09) would have this long a competitive life?
“No, it has been a big surprise. But having said that I think it is because of the quality of the car, reliability and performance, and the fact that the cars are all performing very closely.
“Far more important though has been the response we have had over customer support. It has helped us to get more and more new customers, including for instance in LMP2 KCMG.”
The FLM car though is closer to the end of it career than its beginning, LMP3 is coming. Are Oreca interested?
“Yes, we are very interested in the concept but at the same time we are discussing with the ACO where the LMP3 needs to be. We have to be careful with LMPC being a little expensive.
“I don’t think that LMP3 has to be an LMP2 ‘less less’ it has to be, for me, a CN ‘+++’
One or two of the smaller manufacturers, they have some concerns about the cost caps that are being discussed are too low for them to be able to engage with the concept.
Clearly Oreca and the bigger manufacturers would like as much business as possible, but do you think it’s important in terms of the variety, and to encourage new companies to come forward, to ensure that LMP3 is accessible to the smaller makers?
“I certainly think that a cost cap is required, but I am saying to the ACO, and they are listening, the first thing to see if there is a market, and to establish how big that market is, and can become.
“The challenge in this part of the market is to attract drivers and in the current market those drivers have offers from GTE and GT3 cars as well as LMP2 for those that want to do Le Mans.
“The ACO absolutely understand why this is so important, and they understand too that for the last several years the racing car market has been not so nice, really quite difficult.
“It HAS to be decided on the firm basis of understanding who the potential customers are, and what they want from a product. In the case of LMP3 the reality is that you are up against the current GT market.
“To achieve success there you need for the cars to be not too expensive to build, but even more than that the running costs need to be contained, and the regulations stable.
“Look, for instance, at the LMP2 customers from the start of the new regulations – Some are now racing these cars for the fourth consecutive year, that is cutting the cost of acquiring the original car in four parts €80,000, nothing relatively speaking to invest. But then the running costs need to be considered, particularly at an entry level.”
And what about GT? Oreca have a proud history in that market with Dodge/ Chrysler and with Saleen. You still have strong links with manufacturers. Have you been involved in discussions over the new regulations for GT and GT + and what do you think should come out of the current talks?
“I have not been involved directly with the discussions on the GT regulations but I have been asked for my pout of view, and my feelings, around the debate.
“In fact several of the key points are as we have just discussed about LMP. You have to be very aware of what the customers want and expect. Costs are the absolute key, in particular the running costs.”
“There will always be areas where the manufacturers want more freedom to develop but it is most certainly an easier thing to place limits on that in GT than it is, for instance, in LMP1.
Might Oreca become involved in the GT market again?
“We are always open minded and yes we have been approached by some manufacturers who are interested in our expertise and technical knowledge.
“At the same time we are always careful to take our time over any choices we make in such programmes. If you start to work with one (manufacturer) you must forget all of the others.
“For instance, many people are expecting us to be again involved with Viper because of the success we had with the older car some time ago but you have to be very sure that you would have the right product for the market right now.
“We have had some discussions, some contacts, much interest and definitively I can say that over the last two years we have been approached by several different car manufacturers to develop, sell and provide customer support for such programmes including marketing and events activities.
What about the marketplace in general – We’ve seen in the close season customers move between Oreca and Onroak – Is the competition friendly, and is there enough of a marketplace to sustain this sort of competition?
“The market is very small, that’ something I have repeated to the ACO – Be very careful the market is very small.
“Our business model is very different from Jacques’. He’s a good friend and he is investing his own money whereas at the end of the year, or the end of the month we need to make it pay.
“Jacques can withstand the cost of design and development of a new car whereas we need to have a business case to support that level of investment.
“With the other specialist manufacturers there is normal level of economic competition, with Jacques though it is different, last year for instance he put together works team with his own money and won Le Mans and the World Championship.
“If Oreca made a decision to win Le Mans then we could certainly do it, but you cannot do that AND have customers, you have to choose, and that is what we have done, and this year it is more what Jacques has done too!”
In Europe, in particular in the ELMS, we have seen a resurgence in the LMP2 market, but in America things are a lot slower in P2?
“Europe is good this year but you have aways to be careful because in the case of several of our customers it is their 3rd or 4th year with an Oreca car so their budget is smaller and smaller.
“In the US, I was in Daytona and in Sebring, I am not convinced personally that the merger between DP and P2 can work because there is a complete difference of culture.
“In America you need a big engine, you need noise and power and they don’t care about technology. For LMP2 it’s just technology.
“They want several hundred horsepower and don’t care about carbon tubbed safety. They can accept it but they are not interested in mandating it.
“So I think in the end it will not be easy to mix two cultures – European technology vs the other side with power, noise etc! It’s good to see the situation this year, to see how they are trying to balance, but I am not convinced at all that it can work because the approach is so different.”
Oreca has been involved with so many manufacturers at Le Mans, Peugeot, Mazda, Chrysler, Audi and now Toyota (plus engines for Nissan) – What next?
“Good question! To decide what’s next we first have to win with Toyota – That will come, I am sure, this year. An exclusive for you!
“One thing is for sure, Toyota have made it very clear to us that with the introduction of our team within the Toyota LMP1 programme they have been able to tie a short cut to the potential that they already have. They are clearly happy, they have again extended our contract ”
And it is seamless, there is no differentiation to the outside world between Toyota, TMG and Oreca staff on that team?
“No and I think that is a major strength of what we do and how we do it from a manufacturers point of view.
“For instance when we ran the SEAT effort in the WTCC to the outside world it was simply SEAT, not Oreca, there was never any question of looking for or asking for anything other than king the best we could for the manufacturer that was employing us to represent them and to win!
You work too with Nissan (on the LMP2 customer engines)
“That work is done by our engine shop at Magny Cours where we have around 50 people working.
“We have so many manufacturers coming to Magny Cours for assistance because we have a very high level of technology there – We are working in rally with Skoda and with Peugeot, Renault and Citroen.We do other manufacturer work too in one-make series where we have the capability and the capacity to support multiple programmes.”
When we think about Oreca we think of Le Mans, GT Racing, Rally, Rally Raid, single seaters, Touring Cars, and Ice racing amongst many, many others – Is there anything left that you would like to do?
“For the moment I would like to stay in motorsport – Sometimes I have some dreams about perhaps taking football team, it has become something of a joke with my family!
“Then all the friends that I have in football remind me that there you have 30-40 young players that you cannot control – That perhaps would be less of a pleasure!
“In racing there are some things that I would still like to do, but one thing that I am not really attracted by is Formula One. It is a different planet, a different world the people are…..
“I have had the opportunity several times to do it, with Ligier, with Prost etc it’s too difficult to understand, too political.
“One thing that I perhaps have always had in my mind, but I don’t see that there will be an opportunity, maybe one day, would be the Indianapolis 500. Mainly because it is one of those big, big events and it would be great to say that we have raced there and won, rather than the technical challenge. It’s a real world for specialists.
Hugues you are guided by emotion?
“Sadly yes!”
You say that but it’s something that other racers can connect with, we saw that most graphically with your reaction when your team won overall at Sebring?
“Everyone here would tell you that I run this company by emotion and for emotion I invest everything in the company. I have no boat, no castle, nothing!
“At the same time it is good, all the guys here, we are now more than 200 people, they all know that I put everything I can into research and development just to help us to win races and at the same time retain the balance to keep a normal company around me.
“I have seen so many companies in one moment fall victim to their owner’s disconnection from the market realities and I am determined that this will never happen here. I want to be realistic and I have good people around me to help with that.
“I have built in the centre of this company one of the best motorsport operations in Europe, in good financial health and re-investing in growing the company, making a big investment for instance now in composites, to become more independent, more re-active and quicker to deliver.
“I believe, and I think we all here believe, that there is a lot more to come.”
GG and JH |
Story highlights Sen. Sanders' supporters said hacked DNC emails showed the party favored Clinton in the presidential primary
Former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, a CNN political commentator, said Trump should address threats to US elections
Trump's tweet comes as Congress and special counsel Robert Mueller probe Russia's efforts to influence the US election
(CNN) President Donald Trump lashed out at Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in a tweet Sunday morning, saying the former secretary of state "colluded" with the party in the presidential primary to defeat Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"Is she allowed to so collude?" the President asked. "Unfair to Bernie!"
Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic Party in order to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders. Is she allowed to so collude? Unfair to Bernie! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2017
The tweet is an apparent reference to a cache of nearly 20,000 hacked Democratic National Committee emails released by WikiLeaks nearly one year ago that Sanders' supporters' said bolstered their claims that the party favored Clinton.
The tweet comes as congressional committees and Department of Justice special counsel Robert Mueller continue investigations into Russia's efforts to influence the US election and the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian officials, including allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia in an effort to defeat Clinton during the presidential campaign. Trump, his campaign and Russian officials have denied any collusion took place between them.
Without mentioning Sanders' name, one of the hacked DNC emails appeared to show a DNC staffer asking others to ask the candidate about his faith, saying it would weaken him in the eyes of Southern voters. Another seemed to depict an attorney for Clinton's campaign advising the committee on how to defend her against an accusation by the Sanders campaign of not living up to a joint fundraising agreement.
Read More |
Mark Felt died last week at the age of 95. For those who don't recognize that name, Felt was the “Deep Throat” of Watergate fame. It was Felt who provided Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post with a flow of leaks about what had happened, how it happened and where to look for further corroboration on the break-in, the cover-up, and the financing of wrongdoing in the Nixon administration. Woodward and Bernstein's exposé of Watergate has been seen as a high point of journalism, and their unwillingness to reveal Felt's identity until he revealed it himself three years ago has been seen as symbolic of the moral rectitude demanded of journalists.
In reality, the revelation of who Felt was raised serious questions about the accomplishments of Woodward and Bernstein, the actual price we all pay for journalistic ethics, and how for many years we did not know a critical dimension of the Watergate crisis. At a time when newspapers are in financial crisis and journalism is facing serious existential issues, Watergate always has been held up as a symbol of what journalism means for a democracy, revealing truths that others were unwilling to uncover and grapple with. There is truth to this vision of journalism, but there is also a deep ambiguity, all built around Felt's role. This is therefore not an excursion into ancient history, but a consideration of two things. The first is how journalists become tools of various factions in political disputes. The second is the relationship between security and intelligence organizations and governments in a Democratic society.
Watergate was about the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington. The break-in was carried out by a group of former CIA operatives controlled by individuals leading back to the White House. It was never proven that then-U.S. President Richard Nixon knew of the break-in, but we find it difficult to imagine that he didn't. In any case, the issue went beyond the break-in. It went to the cover-up of the break-in and, more importantly, to the uses of money that financed the break-in and other activities. Numerous aides, including the attorney general of the United States, went to prison. Woodward and Bernstein, and their newspaper, The Washington Post, aggressively pursued the story from the summer of 1972 until Nixon's resignation. The episode has been seen as one of journalism's finest moments. It may have been, but that cannot be concluded until we consider Deep Throat more carefully.
Deep Throat Reconsidered
Mark Felt was deputy associate director of the FBI (No. 3 in bureau hierarchy) in May 1972, when longtime FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover died. Upon Hoover's death, Felt was second to Clyde Tolson, the longtime deputy and close friend to Hoover who by then was in failing health himself. Days after Hoover's death, Tolson left the bureau.
Felt expected to be named Hoover's successor, but Nixon passed him over, appointing L. Patrick Gray instead. In selecting Gray, Nixon was reaching outside the FBI for the first time in the 48 years since Hoover had taken over. But while Gray was formally acting director, the Senate never confirmed him, and as an outsider, he never really took effective control of the FBI. In a practical sense, Felt was in operational control of the FBI from the break-in at the Watergate in August 1972 until June 1973.
Nixon's motives in appointing Gray certainly involved increasing his control of the FBI, but several presidents before him had wanted this, too, including John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Both of these presidents wanted Hoover gone for the same reason they were afraid to remove him: He knew too much. In Washington, as in every capital, knowing the weaknesses of powerful people is itself power — and Hoover made it a point to know the weaknesses of everyone. He also made it a point to be useful to the powerful, increasing his overall value and his knowledge of the vulnerabilities of the powerful.
Hoover's death achieved what Kennedy and Johnson couldn't do. Nixon had no intention of allowing the FBI to continue as a self-enclosed organization outside the control of the presidency and everyone else. Thus, the idea that Mark Felt, a man completely loyal to Hoover and his legacy, would be selected to succeed Hoover is in retrospect the most unlikely outcome imaginable.
Felt saw Gray's selection as an unwelcome politicization of the FBI (by placing it under direct presidential control), an assault on the traditions created by Hoover and an insult to his memory, and a massive personal disappointment. Felt was thus a disgruntled employee at the highest level. He was also a senior official in an organization that traditionally had protected its interests in predictable ways. (By then formally the No. 2 figure in FBI, Felt effectively controlled the agency given Gray's inexperience and outsider status.) The FBI identified its enemies, then used its vast knowledge of its enemies' wrongdoings in press leaks designed to be as devastating as possible. While carefully hiding the source of the information, it then watched the victim — who was usually guilty as sin — crumble. Felt, who himself was later convicted and pardoned for illegal wiretaps and break-ins, was not nearly as appalled by Nixon's crimes as by Nixon's decision to pass him over as head of the FBI. He merely set Hoover's playbook in motion.
Woodward and Bernstein were on the city desk of The Washington Post at the time. They were young (29 and 28), inexperienced and hungry. We do not know why Felt decided to use them as his conduit for leaks, but we would guess he sought these three characteristics — as well as a newspaper with sufficient gravitas to gain notice. Felt obviously knew the two had been assigned to a local burglary, and he decided to leak what he knew to lead them where he wanted them to go. He used his knowledge to guide, and therefore control, their investigation.
Systematic Spying on the President
And now we come to the major point. For Felt to have been able to guide and control the young reporters' investigation, he needed to know a great deal of what the White House had done, going back quite far. He could not possibly have known all this simply through his personal investigations. His knowledge covered too many people, too many operations, and too much money in too many places simply to have been the product of one of his side hobbies. The only way Felt could have the knowledge he did was if the FBI had been systematically spying on the White House, on the Committee to Re-elect the President and on all of the other elements involved in Watergate. Felt was not simply feeding information to Woodward and Bernstein; he was using the intelligence product emanating from a section of the FBI to shape The Washington Post's coverage.
Instead of passing what he knew to professional prosecutors at the Justice Department — or if he did not trust them, to the House Judiciary Committee charged with investigating presidential wrongdoing — Felt chose to leak the information to The Washington Post. He bet, or knew, that Post editor Ben Bradlee would allow Woodward and Bernstein to play the role Felt had selected for them. Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee all knew who Deep Throat was. They worked with the operational head of the FBI to destroy Nixon, and then protected Felt and the FBI until Felt came forward.
In our view, Nixon was as guilty as sin of more things than were ever proven. Nevertheless, there is another side to this story. The FBI was carrying out espionage against the president of the United States, not for any later prosecution of Nixon for a specific crime (the spying had to have been going on well before the break-in), but to increase the FBI's control over Nixon. Woodward, Bernstein and above all, Bradlee, knew what was going on. Woodward and Bernstein might have been young and naive, but Bradlee was an old Washington hand who knew exactly who Felt was, knew the FBI playbook and understood that Felt could not have played the role he did without a focused FBI operation against the president. Bradlee knew perfectly well that Woodward and Bernstein were not breaking the story, but were having it spoon-fed to them by a master. He knew that the president of the United States, guilty or not, was being destroyed by Hoover's jilted heir.
This was enormously important news. The Washington Post decided not to report it. The story of Deep Throat was well-known, but what lurked behind the identity of Deep Throat was not. This was not a lone whistle-blower being protected by a courageous news organization; rather, it was a news organization being used by the FBI against the president, and a news organization that knew perfectly well that it was being used against the president. Protecting Deep Throat concealed not only an individual, but also the story of the FBI's role in destroying Nixon.
Again, Nixon's guilt is not in question. And the argument can be made that given John Mitchell's control of the Justice Department, Felt thought that going through channels was impossible (although the FBI was more intimidating to Mitchell than the other way around). But the fact remains that Deep Throat was the heir apparent to Hoover — a man not averse to breaking the law in covert operations — and Deep Throat clearly was drawing on broader resources in the FBI, resources that had to have been in place before Hoover's death and continued operating afterward.
Burying a Story to Get a Story
Until Felt came forward in 2005, not only were these things unknown, but The Washington Post was protecting them. Admittedly, the Post was in a difficult position. Without Felt's help, it would not have gotten the story. But the terms Felt set required that a huge piece of the story not be told. The Washington Post created a morality play about an out-of-control government brought to heel by two young, enterprising journalists and a courageous newspaper. That simply wasn't what happened. Instead, it was about the FBI using The Washington Post to leak information to destroy the president, and The Washington Post willingly serving as the conduit for that information while withholding an essential dimension of the story by concealing Deep Throat's identity.
Journalists have celebrated the Post's role in bringing down the president for a generation. Even after the revelation of Deep Throat's identity in 2005, there was no serious soul-searching on the omission from the historical record. Without understanding the role played by Felt and the FBI in bringing Nixon down, Watergate cannot be understood completely. Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee were willingly used by Felt to destroy Nixon. The three acknowledged a secret source, but they did not reveal that the secret source was in operational control of the FBI. They did not reveal that the FBI was passing on the fruits of surveillance of the White House. They did not reveal the genesis of the fall of Nixon. They accepted the accolades while withholding an extraordinarily important fact, elevating their own role in the episode while distorting the actual dynamic of Nixon's fall. Absent any widespread reconsideration of the Post's actions during Watergate in the three years since Felt's identity became known, the press in Washington continues to serve as a conduit for leaks of secret information. They publish this information while protecting the leakers, and therefore the leakers' motives. Rather than being a venue for the neutral reporting of events, journalism thus becomes the arena in which political power plays are executed. What appears to be enterprising journalism is in fact a symbiotic relationship between journalists and government factions. It may be the best path journalists have for acquiring secrets, but it creates a very partial record of events — especially since the origin of a leak frequently is much more important to the public than the leak itself.
The Felt experience is part of an ongoing story in which journalists' guarantees of anonymity to sources allow leakers to control the news process. Protecting Deep Throat's identity kept us from understanding the full dynamic of Watergate. We did not know that Deep Throat was running the FBI, we did not know the FBI was conducting surveillance on the White House, and we did not know that the Watergate scandal emerged not by dint of enterprising journalism, but because Felt had selected Woodward and Bernstein as his vehicle to bring Nixon down. And we did not know that the editor of The Washington Post allowed this to happen. We had a profoundly defective picture of the situation, as defective as the idea that Bob Woodward looks like Robert Redford. Finding the truth of events containing secrets is always difficult, as we know all too well.
There is no simple solution to this quandary. In intelligence, we dream of the well-placed source who will reveal important things to us. But we also are aware that the information provided is only the beginning of the story. The rest of the story involves the source's motivation, and frequently that motivation is more important than the information provided. Understanding a source's motivation is essential both to good intelligence and to journalism. In this case, keeping secret the source kept an entire — and critical — dimension of Watergate hidden for a generation. Whatever crimes Nixon committed, the FBI had spied on the president and leaked what it knew to The Washington Post in order to destroy him. The editor of The Washington Post knew that, as did Woodward and Bernstein. We do not begrudge them their prizes and accolades, but it would have been useful to know who handed them the story. In many ways, that story is as interesting as the one about all the president's men. |
Derryn Hinch says he is negotiating with Greens before referral of senators to high court over dual citizenship
Derryn Hinch and the Greens are negotiating a move to force all foreign-born senators to show proof of revocation ahead of the referral of three senators to the high court over their dual citizenship.
The Justice party senator told Guardian Australia: “The Greens and I are talking about a move for all foreign-born senators to show proof of revocation.”
Parliament returns from a winter recess on Tuesday and referrals are expected for former Greens senators Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam as well as the Nationals senator Matt Canavan over their dual citizenship, which has placed them in contravention of section 44.
Tony Abbott questions postal plebiscite legality ahead of marriage equality debate Read more
But a cloud remains over the One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts, who has said he wrote to British officials on 6 June last year – three days before nominations closed for the federal election – saying that if he had British citizenship, he fully renounced it. According to the senator, the British high commission did not confirm Roberts had renounced his citizenship until 5 December.
Hinch previously said he would refer Roberts to the high court to clear up the citizenship issue but on Monday he told Guardian Australia he would talk to Roberts before confirming any move.
It is likely the citizenship referrals will happen when the Senate returns on Tuesday shortly after midday.
While the the marriage equality debate has blown a hole in the Turnbull government’s agenda, there are several major bills and reports expected in parliament this week.
The corrupting benefits bill is the first government item in the Senate. It would outlaw making or receiving payments that encourage unions to improperly trade off workers’ rights.
The media reform bill is also due before the Senate this week and the Greens’ communications spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, has said the Greens could consider supporting the package if there were safeguards to encourage quality independent journalism.
The Greens and One Nation are negotiating on the government attempts to change cross-media ownership laws, including the scrapping of the two out of three rule, which would mean media moguls could control television, newspapers and radio stations in the same market.
Greens support would be contingent on protections for the public broadcasters ABC and SBS against attempts by One Nation to cut the public broadcasters and tax incentives to support journalism.
Australian government set for bruising encounter over marriage equality Read more
“It’s no surprise that News Corporation and Rupert Murdoch want to expand their empire,” Hanson-Young told the Australian Financial Review. “We are, of course, worried about media diversity but we are also very concerned about making sure we find ways to retain quality, independent journalism and not seeing smaller players hung out to dry.”
The Turnbull government also wants to dump the 75% reach rule, which prevents Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and the Ten Network from owning their regional affiliates, due to restrictions on a TV network broadcasting to more than 75% of the population.
Labor supports scrapping the reach rule but not the two out of three rule, on the grounds that Australia already has one of the most concentrated media markets in the developed world.
For the bill to pass, the Turnbull government needs the Greens or One Nation, the Nick Xenophon Team and two other crossbench senators.
The Senate will also debate competition laws, otherwise known as the effects test – an issue that has long split the Liberal and National parties.
The bill relates to section 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act to prohibit corporations with substantial market power from engaging in conduct that has the effect of substantially lessening competition in markets in which they directly or indirectly participate.
Labor is opposed to the effects test but it has the support of the Greens and expected to pass.
The Senate report into the government’s university changes that amount to $2.8bn in cuts to universities is due out on Wednesday.
Coalition fails to dent Labor lead in Newspoll, despite support for Turnbull Read more
Under the changes, university students’ course fees will rise from between $2,000 to $3,600, students will have to repay student loans when their income reaches $42,000 instead of $55,000 and they will have to repay 46% of the total course cost instead of 42%.
Universities will face an efficiency dividend or cuts of 2.5% in 2018 to 19. The new proposal replaces the 2014 Abbott government budget plan to cut the sector by 20%.
In spite of the Senate report, the higher education bill is yet to pass even the lower house.
Also on the notice paper is the bill to remove the investment ban on carbon capture and storage technologies under the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). Labor is opposed to the move, describing it as a hollow gesture given the Coalition’s $460m cut to research and development in the area. |
Crank the music in Music City.
With a hat trick from Colton Sissons, last-minute goals from Filip Forsberg and Austin Watson, and another solid outing from Pekka Rinne in the net, the Nashville Predators made history Monday night, eliminating the Anaheim Ducks from the playoffs with a 6-3 victory in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals and advancing to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance.
Without power-play success early on, the Preds found themselves with few shots on goal, even with Anaheim having backup goaltender Jonathan Bernier making his first career postseason start in place of the injured John Gibson. But they made those few shots count, putting two pucks past Bernier in the first period despite the absence of a sidelined Ryan Johansen and putting an early claim on a shot to take on either the Ottawa Senators or defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins for a title.
The Ducks kept on pounding, though, pulling within one on an Ondrej Kase score in the second. Even after Sissons restored the two-goal lead with his second goal, Anaheim refused to bow down against Nashville's blue line.
Anaheim ultimately sent more than 40 shots at Rinne, fighting against a late 1-3-1 trap ordered by Peter Laviolette and knotting the game at 3 with a little more than 11 minutes left in regulation.
That proved to be far too much time for the Predators, who sent Nashville into a frenzy with three consecutive third-period scores of their own -- a third by Sissons, an empty-net glider from Forsberg and a second from Austin Watson.
Forsberg's score, which put the Predators up by two with less than three minutes to go, all but confirmed Nashville's wild postseason story would gain another chapter.
Outnumbering their opponents with more than double the total of shots on goal Monday despite missing two injured forwards, the Ducks could not convert on the power play, going 0-for-4 against the dependable Rinne. Nashville advanced despite a depleted roster in Game 6, overcoming physical shortcomings with the relentless nature that drove it past the Chicago Blackhawks in the opening round and the St. Louis Blues in round two.
The aggressive push that turned a potential Anaheim comeback into a home-ice blowout.
And the frenetic pace that mirrored the intensity of a Tennessee fan base set to play host to its first Stanley Cup Final.
Look out, Pens or Sens. Because the Predators have not been quiet about their surge through the postseason, and if their resilient battle Monday that doubled as a showcase of Nashville's scoring talent is any indication, they are far from done. |
Thousands of US government employees under permanent surveillance are being investigated for signs of “greed”, “ego”, money worries, disgruntlement or other flaws in the hope of intercepting the next big official leak, according to a document obtained by Chelsea Manning.
The extent of the government’s internal surveillance system designed to prevent massive leaks of the sort linked to WikiLeaks and the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is revealed in the document, published here by the Guardian for the first time. The US soldier, who is serving 35 years in military prison as the source of the 2010 WikiLeaks disclosure of secret state documents, requested her own intelligence file under freedom of information laws.
The file was compiled under the “Insider Threat” program that was set up by President Obama in the wake of Manning’s disclosures. The file shows that officials have been using Manning’s story as a case study from which they have built a profile of the modern official leaker in the hope of catching future disclosures before they happen.
At the start of the 31-page file, government officials list the eight characteristics that agents should look for in employees as telltale signs that they might be tempted to reveal state secrets. The character traits are called “Insider Threat motives”.
Those surveillance categories are themselves extracted from an analysis of Chelsea Manning’s story. In the document Manning is referred to in male gender pronouns as the file was composed on 14 April 2014 – nine days before the prisoner was legally allowed to change her name as part of her transition as a transgender woman.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The list of what the Insider Threat program describes as the motives exhibited by the prototypical leaker. Photograph: Chelsea Manning
The Insider Threat analysis claims that Manning displayed several of those eight core motives of the prototype leaker. Before she transmitted hundreds of thousands of secret documents to WikiLeaks, she showed signs of disgruntlement, the file states.
She also subscribed to the ideology that all information should be made public, which the officials suggested stemmed from her association with “self-proclaimed ‘hackers’”.
In an opinion article in the Guardian, Manning said that the use of subjective labels in her file such as “greed”, “disgruntlement” and “ideology” meant that virtually every government employee could be targeted under the Insider Threat program. “The broad sweep of the program means officials have been given a blank check for surveillance.”
Manning writes that the program “works against innovation, creativity and the prevention of institutional corruption. Perhaps this is the real intent … to instill fear and project dominance throughout the intelligence community, the military and among government employees and contractors at large.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Insider Threat program’s assessment of Chelsea Manning’s motives. Photograph: Chelsea Manning
The government has already put about 100,000 military and civilian employees and contractors under what it calls “continuous evaluation”, according to documents obtained by Steven Aftergood at the Federation of American Scientists. He told the Guardian that the character traits deployed in the Insider Threat file on Manning were strikingly similar to the formula used to detect traitors and spies during the cold war.
Back then they used the acronym Mice, standing for “money, ideology, coercion or ego”. Aftergood said that the cold war record showed that the focus on those characteristics were not all that successful in sniffing out vulnerabilities. “They are not necessarily useful ways of predicting what an individual will do – that remains difficult though not entirely impossible.”
The expansion of the Insider Threat program has raised fears among whistleblower groups that it will spread paranoia among employees and make it increasingly difficult for workers who have concerns about corruption or other misconduct to sound the alarm. Thomas Drake, a former NSA senior executive who blew the whistle on problems and inefficiencies within the agency was prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act, said that the program was a form of mass surveillance of the government’s own workers that he likened to a dystopia.
“It puts employees under ‘continuous evaluation’ – interesting phrase – for all their activities including their outside actions and financial accounts. Whistleblowers and those who speak truth to power, especially when it’s about national security, are going to get hammered.”
In an Insider Threat presentation from last year, officials placed Drake and Snowden – two whistleblowers who sounded the alarm about what they saw as government excesses for no financial gain – within a gallery of “those who have done us harm” alongside Soviet spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hannsen and Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Insider Threat program’s assessment of Chelsea Manning’s motives. Photograph: Chelsea Manning
Jesselyn Radack, who heads the Whistleblower and Source Protection program at ExposeFacts and who represents both Drake and Snowden, called Insider Threat a “modern-day McCarthyism that has friends and colleagues spy on and report each other. It effectively stifles workplace free speech, dissent and is openly trying to deter whistleblowers.”
The Insider Threat file on Manning suggests that the soldier’s gender dysphoria – where her gender identity is out of sync with her gender at birth – was also a character trait that could have been used to predict her desire to leak state secrets.
Chase Strangio, the ACLU lawyer who represents Manning in her legal disputes with the US military relating to her gender transition, said that the file was yet another example of the soldier’s voice and identity being used against her. “They are using her gender identity to suggest it fits into an offender profile.”
Strangio said the implication of the document was that anyone who pushes back on injustice against LGBT people within the military should be considered an insider threat. “We are seeing that argument used over and over again in Chelsea’s case.” |
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