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Photo by XiaoXiao Sun on Unsplash
7 User Experience & Usability Statistics You Must Know
Megan Wilson Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 23, 2014
Improving user experience means building better connections for users across a variety of devices, especially smartphones and tablets. And in order to build this enhanced experience, there are a number of considerations that can help designers better meet their users’ needs.
Luckily, a number of mobile usability studies have recently been completed to help designers better understand the UX and how they can respond to many of their users’ biggest challenges.
Here are 7 User Experience and Usability Statistics that you need to know in order to build responsive apps and design:
1. Security is a still a significant fear for most users.
Studies report that fear of stolen data is reported as often as accessibility and screen size as reasons why users won’t enter credit card or banking info on smartphones or tablets. Since most users won’t enter credit card information on an app, or on a cluttered website, consider this in your design.
2. Default mobile screens are unnecessary and unpleasant, according to recent user interviews.
Sources have found that users often find interacting with mobile screens frustrating and a difficult transition from other devices. Mobile screens, while often more simple, are also a difficult transition for the user, leaving them frustrated and less likely to engage.
3. With over 20 apps on each smartphone or tablet, studies suggest that most users forget or have forgotten what apps they’ve downloaded.
This means that apps that are hard to use, or too different from the webpage will be quickly forgotten altogether or deleted. Often users find they are prompted to download an app during a visit to a website, only to find that the app is less user friendly than the website itself. Consider this when designing an app that transitions easily between desktop and mobile devices.
4. Because of a small screen size, visual appearance of data and accessibility is more important for users on a smart phone or tablet than it is on a website.
Efficiency is key. If users have to scroll on their smartphones or tablets or if they find the information is scattered, too small or overwhelming on the phone, users will not engage.
5. Tablet users engage with about as many pages as desktop computer users.
On average users of tablets view about four times as many pages as smartphone users. And not only do tablet and computer users engage with more pages but tablets are used mostly in the evening hours at home between 7 and 10 pm. Sources say this is because less than half of users have purchased cellular data plans for their tablets.
6. Most users prefer shopping on websites using a desktop or a tablet.
Citing both security issues as well as the importance of a full keyboard, users are more likely to use smartphones to research product availability or price shop while in a store, but more likely to make purchases from a desktop or tablet.
7. One of the biggest user complaints while using mobile browsers is with the prompting to download apps.
Since most users want to interact with a richer page than an app can provide, most don’t enjoy the interruptions or find it an easy transition from website to app. In fact, the distraction of an app prompt can discourage participation in the site altogether. We know that if a website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, users will move on. When users are interrupted or delayed while using an app or website, they will abandon it.
With this data, you’re prepared to better understand your users’ experiences to and facilitate more user-friendly design. By remaining committed to finding better more accessible, user-friendly design you’re demonstrating commitment to the user. Since 48% of users believe that a poorly functioning website indicates that a business simply does not care, remaining committed to good user experiences is essential. |
The distant future is a politician’s most useful friend — it is where every good and noble thing they promise actually happens. It is where the clutter of present events and the roiling fortunes of this busy harsh and confounding world do not impinge on their their wildest wishes.
For example, under Ontario’s green ambitions, we are given to understand the goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a full 80 per cent by 2050. This is Premier Kathleen Wynn’s pledge, a commitment that will take merely 35 years to be tested — a generous breathing space by any standards for a political commitment, and which happily just might be the identical term it takes to learn all there is to know about the infamous billion-dollar cancellation of a couple of Ontario gas plants a couple of elections ago.
We have long since learned, and from a thousand examples, that the promises of most politicians barely survive the time it takes to make them. Antiques like me remember the bitter mocking Pierre Trudeau once gave Robert Stanfield on the latter’s promise to introduce wage and price controls — “Zap! You’re frozen!,” said the wily Trudeau — only to pirouette mere days after an election to introduce … wage and price controls.
Everyone uses energy. The country’s economy is inextricably bound up with energy. Yet those provinces who supply it, and offer jobs and security to the rest of us, are the only ones continually in the dock
Pledges three, four or 10 decades out are perfect vapourings. To call them useless is to elevate their dignity. To build present-day policy under the umbrella of such projections is to blend fantasy and irresponsibility.
Essentially that’s what we have been watching at the premiers’ conference this week in St. John’s. Those premiers who are extremely confident on the events of 2050 — Quebec’s and Ontario’s being the leaders, Rachel Notley of Alberta looking very much like an ally — and who are awash in self-esteem about how their ardent “commitments” to reduce global warming (the ignis fatuus of our day) want the present to act as hostage for their dreams.
One premier, however, who seems seriously stuck in the present, and who is unaccountably concerned with such trivial matters as Canadian jobs and the contribution the energy industry has made to all parts of Canada, who has the outlandish idea that the use of the word “oil” in public is not a pure blasphemy, takes a different view. Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall is utterly untinged with the mysticism of some of his fellow premiers, and astonishingly — it is very “incorrect” to say obvious things — mounts a public defence of the central industry of this entire country.
How outrageous he has been can be gleaned from just a few of his remarks. “There is a growing sense of frustration in the West that our economies have been creating significant opportunities for all Canadians….” is one of those statements. It carries the clear implication that since this is so – the Western oil industry has helped all Canadians – it is a little more than curious there is so little encouragement or support for that industry. Indeed, it’s rather the opposite. Any opportunity to hobble it, or to put it in harness to an environmental agenda, is leaped at by some. In this contest 2050 always wins over 2015.
Premier Wall had the nerve to allude to the new and trendy concept of “social license.” He didn’t add, but he very well could have, that there was no talk of “social license” when it came to getting jobs in the oil industry, or contracts with companies outside the west, or working with university science and engineering programs, or contributing to the national economy during the most turbulent economic period in a generation. The venue of the conference, Newfoundland, is the grand illustration of all these points. Offshore oil, and western oil, salvaged Newfoundland during its greatest economic and cultural crisis since Confederation.
On the great pipeline debate he was ruthless enough to put the matter in very plain terms, which in the context of global warming is a faux pas of unimaginable dimensions. “In terms of a license to build a pipeline, or in this case, simply convert a pipeline to move western energy across the country, how about $10 billion in equalization?” This was terribly bad manners. To talk about equalization in 2015, and draw a connection with oil coming out of the sea and land today, when the discussion could have been about the world applauding the forward vision of Ontario and how it will have cooled the world circa 2050, was so very déclassé.
Ms. Notley of Alberta, whom one would have thought would be onside with this line of thought, to the contrary, seemed to take some offence. She accused Mr. Wall of “showboating.” Au contraire. The showboating, if any is to be noted, really is in the camp of those who prattle on about their “specific” commitments in a year when all of them will be so long out of office that it will be necessary to look up their names in the mid-century’s version of Wikipedia. “Showboating” might better describe holding Canada’s major job-creating industry hostage to the ideology of an aggressive and debate-intolerant global warming industry. Or, it might really fit another premier, who hosts the Qatar-rich Al Gore — who received $500 million not long ago from that oil-gurgling fiefdom — to offer advice on Ontario’s stumbling, confused and costly green policies. (I’d mention the recent protest visit to Ontario from another Nostradamus, Jane Fonda, but there is no need to be sadistic.)
Finally, Mr. Wall might have thrown one more cat in the midst of the self-satisfied pigeons. Why are the producers of energy given all the weight of environmental opposition, and not the users? The users of course are everyone — business, industry generally, manufacturing in particular, automobile companies and all who drive, schools, towns, households and even those who manufacture solar panels and the great whirring windmills of our future. Everyone uses energy. The country’s economy is inextricably bound up with energy. Yet those provinces who supply it, and offer jobs and security to the rest of us, are the only ones continually in the dock.
There is something seriously illogical here, and it is pleasing to see one premier with the daring to state how very illogical it all is. If he’s around in 2050, we should make him prime minister.
National Post |
We’re constantly working to make ROBLOX Studio the most feature-rich yet user-friendly game-development environment possible. This week, we’ve launched Module Scripts, which essentially allow you to create and save libraries of code, and share them between scripts. The benefits are myriad: your code can be broken into smaller pieces and shared (rather than replicated), your code is better organized, and you save time hunting and fixing bugs, to name a few. We’re hoping the use of Module Scripts becomes a common practice among our scripters — writing organized code is one of the best ways to get a game off the ground and keep it running smoothly.
Be more organized than ever
The chief benefit of Module Scripts is efficiency. If you’re a game developer, you might find yourself replicating functions that apply to multiple parts of your game. If there’s a bug in that code, you end up spreading it, which can turn into a major problem quickly. Module Scripts are similar to the current “BindableFunctions”, though they’re easier and more efficient to use.
Let’s say your game has three types of NPCs (non-player characters), but they all behave the same. A Module Script would allow you to apply a single piece of code to all three types of NPCs. There’s no replication.
Here’s a sample Module Script:
-- Workspace.ModuleScript (a ModuleScript) local MyModule = {} function MyModule.WalkToPlayer() print("Walking to player") -- ... end function MyModule.AttackPlayer() print("Attacking player!") -- ... end return MyModule
Now, here’s an example of a script utilizing the Module Script:
-- Workspace.PetScript (a Script) local fluffinessRating = 34 local helperModule = require(Workspace.ModuleScript) helperModule.WalkToPlayer()
And another example of a script utilizing the Module Script:
-- Workspace.OgreScript (a Script) local smashAndBash = true local helperModule = require(Workspace.ModuleScript) helperModule.WalkToPlayer() helperModule.AttackPlayer()
Here are some general rules about Module Scripts:
ModuleScripts do not execute on their own, unlike other kinds of scripts
ModuleScripts source can be executed by using the new global function “require()”
“Require()” takes one argument — a reference to a ModuleScript Instance
ModuleScripts are like large functions — each ModuleScript should have a return statement as a Lua value returning from the call to Require()
ModuleScripts can be require()ed regardless of where it is in the instance tree. They can also be require()ed even if they’ve never been in the DataModel
ModuleScripts will run at most one time — if two scripts require() the same ModuleScript Instance, that script will run once, and produce the same exact return value to both require()ers
ModuleScripts are allowed to yield, and when they do, any script currently require()ing will yield as well
We hope this features makes developing games a faster and easier experience. Keep an eye on the blog in the coming weeks — there are more exciting ROBLOX Studio features coming soon. To discuss this new feature with other developers, the Scripting Helpers forum is a good place to start. |
Randy Gier, CEO, Rave Restaurant Group. Photo: Pie Five Pizza
The rapidly growing fast-casual pizza segment continues to grow within the industry with consolidation and new brands creating increased competition for the “next big thing” in the restaurant industry. One of the leaders, Pie Five Pizza, has been able to grow to 91 restaurants and over 400 currently in development across the U.S.
I was able to get a perspective from Randy Gier, the CEO of Pie Five Pizza parent company Rave Restaurant Group. I wanted to get the perspective of a Chief Executive Officer on marketing, branding and advice to share with marketers. Being a previous CMO and with over 25 years of industry experience, Randy has a unique perspective as a CEO and was able to share some thoughts with me on the segment and some suggestions for building a brand.
Explain to the readers what your approach is towards marketing, and the importance of brand building from a CEO role.
My personal experience as a CMO allowed me to bring a different perspective to Rave and pinpoint exactly where we needed to boost our efforts and focus our energy. Marketing is instrumental in giving the entire team a perspective on seeing the business through the eyes of the consumer because they are privy to so many channels and data points. It’s so important not to get caught up in seeing the customer through the eyes of the business. We create opportunities from this customer insight by solving problems on behalf of the consumer. My mentor at PepsiCo, Roger Enrico, once told me marketing is in charge of the 5 most important words in business which are “because the customer said so.” I couldn’t agree more!
I would also say go big. You can’t make a big impact on a brand by being timid. You must push yourself on new menu innovations, marketing campaigns, training programs and in all communication. It’s OK to be a little controversial as long as you stay true to your brand and always keep the customer top of mind.
You really have two tough competitive segments. What are you seeing in the pizza industry — and also fast casual?
Everyone loves pizza. People have big blow ups over the best pizza. When is the last time you saw someone fight over a burrito? There is passion for our category and that is energizing! The restaurant industry as a whole is very competitive. We’re all working to gain a bigger piece of the pie. The ability to give consumers options to customize their favorite food has been a game changer in the fast-casual industry.
Consumers are very conscious about the sources of their foods. Their knowledge of ingredients and nutrition is better than any other generation. They are looking for authentic food options made from all natural, farm-fresh ingredients that taste good but are also served fast. This has really fueled the popularity of the fast-casual restaurant industry and continues to drive growth and innovation in the segment.
Can you share your thoughts on “communicating with customers” versus the traditional model of talking to them?
Marketing has really evolved from talking AT a customer to having real conversations and genuine engagement. Today’s guests want to feel like they are part of a brand. I like to call it call it the “Norm effect.” Remember the TV show Cheers where everybody knows your name? Although it’s impossible for a chain to know everyone’s name, they must do a better job of personalizing the experience for each taste and guest experience. We use new technologies, restaurant culture, social channels and our loyalty platform to create a personalized experience for each guest. The “Norm effect” is about inclusion and it involves every touchpoint of the business.
What consumer trends are you seeing that the restaurant industry should take notice of?
Today’s customers are more involved, more knowledgeable and more in control of their dining choices than ever before. They are looking for brands, companies and even political candidates that treat them as individuals. This extends to their restaurant experiences. It’s become more than an expectation of great service and good food — that is just basic. They know they can have it all. They want chef-inspired menus that are served fast at a fair price in a fun environment.
Guests also crave complete transparency and want to customize their food to meet dietary needs like gluten-free or vegan. I think this is why fast-casual pizza is so hot right now. At Pie Five, we offer gluten-free, vegetarian or even Paleo. With four artisan dough option, we have the best variety and guest experience in the segment. We make everything in store and all right in front of the customer, with all natural ingredients, shredded, chopped, mixed, proofed and baked in house every day. And, we can serve up fresh baked pizza in just 5 minutes! Hard to beat that value proposition!
Pie Five plays up customization with four different doughs as well as gluten-free, Paleo and vegetarian menu options. Photo: Pie Five Pizza
Tell me about your philosophy toward social media.
Social media is another opportunity to engage with our guests and really get to know them. We have such a vibrant, quirky brand voice and we use social to create unique content focused on engaging and intriguing our guests versus being a hard-sell. We use social channels as a two-way conversation. It’s all about them. We ask fans to tell us about their experience with us, post their pizza creations and involve them in the process. Our guests are the reason we do what we do and their perspective on the experience is invaluable. User generated content is just another way we connect with our customers and let them lead the conversation. Sometimes our loyal customers sell our concept even better than we do.
Favorite quote?
One of my favorite quotes is “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” Continued innovation is imperative to success in our industry.
What advice would you give to marketers in dealing with their CEO?
The most important thing is to make sure everything you do builds the brand AND drives sales. Don’t settle for one without the other. Push yourself to have campaigns that accomplish both. Create affinity and stay ahead of the curve.
Correction: July 11, 2016: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Rave Restaurant Group's CEO. The proper spelling is Randy Gier. |
Author contributions: J.D., L.R.R., J.A.W., and M.J.W. designed research; J.D., L.R.R., M.P.P., X.-m.Z., Y.L., and T.O.M. performed research; J.D. and L.R.R. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; J.D., L.R.R., and M.J.W. analyzed data; and J.D., J.A.W., and M.J.W. wrote the paper.
Synaptic transmission involves the release of neurotransmitters that activate receptors on postsynaptic cells. The results reveal that protons fulfill the criteria for a neurotransmitter and that they activate postsynaptic acid-sensing ion channels. This activity facilitates synaptic plasticity, a requirement for learning and memory in the amygdala.
Stimulating presynaptic terminals can increase the proton concentration in synapses. Potential receptors for protons are acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs), Na + - and Ca 2+ -permeable channels that are activated by extracellular acidosis. Those observations suggest that protons might be a neurotransmitter. We found that presynaptic stimulation transiently reduced extracellular pH in the amygdala. The protons activated ASICs in lateral amygdala pyramidal neurons, generating excitatory postsynaptic currents. Moreover, both protons and ASICs were required for synaptic plasticity in lateral amygdala neurons. The results identify protons as a neurotransmitter, and they establish ASICs as the postsynaptic receptor. They also indicate that protons and ASICs are a neurotransmitter/receptor pair critical for amygdala-dependent learning and memory.
Here, we tested the hypothesis that protons are a neurotransmitter and that ASICs are the receptor. Criteria to identify substances as neurotransmitters have been proposed ( 34 ). Beg and colleagues ( 35 ) used these criteria to conclude that protons are a transmitter released from Caenorhabditis elegans intestine to cause muscle contraction. Key questions about whether protons meet criteria for a neurotransmitter are: Does presynaptic stimulation increase the extracellular proton concentration? Do protons activate currents in postsynaptic cells? Can exogenously applied protons reproduce effects of endogenous protons? What is the postsynaptic proton receptor? We studied lateral amygdala brain slices because amygdala-dependent fear-related behavior depends on a pH reduction ( 36 ). In addition, ASICs are abundantly expressed there, and ASIC1a −/− mice have impaired fear-like behavior ( 36 – 38 ).
Although these observations raised the possibility that protons might be a neurotransmitter, postsynaptic ASIC currents have not been detected in cultured hippocampal neurons ( 31 , 32 ), and whether localized pH transients might play a signaling role in neuronal communication remains unclear. In previous studies of hippocampal brain slices, extracellular field potential recordings suggested impaired hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) in ASIC1a −/− mice ( 20 ), although another study did not detect an effect of ASIC1a ( 33 ). Another study using microisland cultures of hippocampal neurons suggested that the probability of neurotransmitter release increased in ASIC1a −/− mice ( 32 ).
ASICs are potential targets of reduced extracellular pH. ASICs are Na + -permeable and, to a lesser extent, Ca 2+ -permeable channels that are activated by extracellular acidosis ( 13 – 19 ). In the brain, ASICs consist of homotrimeric and heterotrimeric complexes of ASIC1a, ASIC2a, and ASIC2b. The ASIC1a subunit is required for acid-activation in the physiological range (>pH 5.0) ( 20 , 21 ). Several observations indicate that ASIC are located postsynaptically. ASICs are located on dendritic spines. Although similar to glutamate receptors, they are also present on dendrites and cell bodies ( 20 , 22 – 24 ). ASIC subunits interact with postsynaptic scaffolding proteins, including postsynaptic density protein 95 and protein interacting with C-kinase-1 ( 20 , 24 – 29 ). In addition, ASICs are enriched in synaptosome-containing brain fractions ( 20 , 24 , 30 ).
Although homeostatic mechanisms generally maintain the brain’s extracellular pH within narrow limits, neural activity can induce transient and localized pH fluctuations. For example, acidification may occur when synaptic vesicles, which have a pH of ∼5.2–5.7 ( 1 – 3 ), release their contents into the synapse. Studies of mammalian cone photoreceptors showed that synaptic vesicle exocytosis rapidly reduced synaptic cleft pH by an estimated 0.2–0.6 units ( 4 – 6 ). Transient synaptic cleft acidification also occurred with GABAergic transmission ( 7 ). Some, but not all, studies also reported that high-frequency stimulation (HFS) transiently acidified hippocampal brain slices, likely as a result of the release of synaptic vesicle contents ( 8 , 9 ). Neurotransmission also induces a slower, more prolonged alkalinization ( 10 , 11 ). In addition to release of synaptic vesicle protons, neuronal and glial H + and HCO 3 − transporters, channels, H + -ATPases, and metabolism might influence extracellular pH ( 10 – 12 ).
Results and Discussion
Presynaptic Stimulation Induces ASIC Excitatory Postsynaptic Currents. We found that an acidic pH stimulated currents in lateral amygdala pyramidal neurons, and ASIC1a−/− neurons lacked those currents ( ). We also stimulated cortical inputs and recorded excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs). Under basal conditions, wild-type (WT) and ASIC1a−/− EPSCs had similar amplitudes ( ), and previous studies showed similar NMDA and AMPA receptor currents in cultured hippocampal neurons of both genotypes (20). After glutamate receptor (GluR) blockade with AMPA and NMDA receptor blockers, a small component of the EPSC remained ( ). HFS of cortical inputs also generated postsynaptic currents after GluR blockade (Fig. S1). Open in a separate window ASIC1a−/− neurons lacked the current that was revealed in the presence of GluR blockers ( and Fig. S1). Amiloride, which blocks ASICs (albeit a nonselective blocker) (39), inhibited the current ( ). The decay times of EPSCs were faster after glutamate receptor (GluR) blockade (Fig. S2), indicating that EPSCs observed in the presence of GluR blockers are likely not GluR-mediated. As an additional test of whether the GluR-independent EPSCs were caused by ASICs, we altered their subunit composition by eliminating ASIC2. Earlier work showed that ASIC current desensitization was slowed in cultured ASIC2−/− neurons (41). Consistent with that, we found prolonged GluR-independent EPSC decay times in ASIC2−/− lateral amygdala slices ( ). Together, these results indicate that presynaptic stimulation activates postsynaptic ASICs. Thus, they suggested that protons were the neurotransmitter.
Protons and ASICs Are Required for Synaptic Plasticity. Activation of postsynaptic ASICs by presynaptic stimulation suggested that this process might influence synaptic plasticity. To assess synaptic plasticity in lateral amygdala brain slices, we measured LTP. LTP is a prolonged increase in the strength of synaptic transmission after intense presynaptic stimulation and may be a correlate of the synaptic plasticity. We applied HFS to cortical inputs and assayed excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), the depolarizations induced by test pulses delivered to cortical inputs. Immediately after HFS, EPSPs increased in slices from WT and ASIC1a−/− mice ( ). However, LTP was strikingly reduced in ASIC1a−/− slices, decaying to baseline 15 min after HFS. Open in a separate window Finding that ASICs were required for induction of amygdala LTP suggested that an increase in protons was involved. If that is the case, then reducing or increasing pH buffering capacity should enhance or minimize, respectively, a stimulus-induced fall in pH, and thereby increase or attenuate LTP. Although maintaining solution pH at 7.4, reducing pH buffer capacity strikingly enhanced LTP, and increasing buffer capacity diminished LTP ( ). Attenuation of LTP by increased pH buffering was not a result of inhibition of EPSPs or irreversible changes in brain slices (Fig. S6). Together, these results suggest that increased protons and ASICs are required for normal synaptic plasticity.
Exogenous Application of Protons Induces LTP and Requires Glutamate. To further test the hypothesis that protons are a neurotransmitter, we examined the effect of applying exogenous protons. Similar to in cultured neurons (45, 46), we found that a puff of acid (pH 7.0–6.0) elicited action potentials in lateral amygdala neurons, and pH 6.8 generated the greatest number of action potentials ( ). Therefore, we gave three short puffs of pH 6.8 artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) and recorded EPSPs ( and Fig. S7). Acidic puffs induced LTP in WT, but not ASIC1a−/−, neurons. Open in a separate window To learn whether an acidic solution is sufficient to induce LTP or whether glutamate signaling is also required, we applied an NMDA receptor blocker. Inhibiting NMDA receptors substantially attenuated acid-induced LTP ( ). Eliminating the presynaptic test pulses to decrease glutamate release also prevented acid-evoked LTP ( ). Thus, both proton-ASIC and glutamate-GluR activities were required for LTP.
Protons Fulfill the Criteria for a Neurotransmitter. Criteria for identifying substances as neurotransmitters have been proposed (34). We used the following criteria to gauge whether protons are neurotransmitters. Chemical is present in the presynaptic cell. Synaptic vesicles have a pH of 5.2–5.7 (3), and the presynaptic cell cytoplasm contains protons. Stimulation of the cell releases the chemical. Our data indicate that presynaptic stimulation causes transient extracellular acidification, and the greater the stimulation, the greater the increase in protons. Synaptic acidification, which has been estimated at 0.2–0.6 pH units at cone photoreceptor synapses (4, 5), might arise when synaptic vesicle exocytosis releases protons. Although calculations suggest that the number of free protons in a synaptic vesicle might be quite small, DeVries (4) has discussed that protons are buffered within vesicles and that buffers will be deprotonated on vesicle fusion. Alternatively, it has been proposed that sources of protons might be the H+-ATPase, which faces the synaptic cleft after vesicle fusion, and/or Na+/H+ exchange (4, 6, 7). Irrespective of the mechanism, our results are consistent with earlier studies indicating that presynaptic stimulation acutely increases the proton concentration (4–7). There is a postsynaptic receptor. We conclude that ASIC channels are the postsynaptic proton receptors because eliminating ASIC1a eliminated ASIC-dependent EPSCs, GluR EPSCs and ASIC EPSCs manifested different decay times, the biophysical properties of ASIC-dependent EPSCs changed as predicted when ASIC channel subunit composition was altered, PcTX1 and amiloride inhibited ASIC-dependent EPSCs, and ASICs localize to the postsynaptic membrane (20, 23, 24, 26). Exogenous application of the chemical mimics the endogenous response. We found that applying exogenous protons induced action potentials, as well as LTP. A mechanism to terminate neurotransmitter action exists. After acidification, we found that extracellular pH rapidly recovered and alkalinized. Several processes may restore and increase pH, including proton diffusion, pH buffering, and activity of membrane transporters (11). Increased interstitial pH after neurostimulation has also been reported in other preparations (11, 42, 47). Previous studies showed that raising extracellular pH before an acid stimulus reduced steady-state inactivation and increased the amplitude of ASIC currents (43, 44, 48). Thus, alkalinization might prepare postsynaptic ASICs for subsequent stimuli, and thereby maximize their current. Blocking the receptor blocks the activity of the neurotransmitter. Disrupting the ASIC1 gene eliminated the effect of exogenously applied protons, ASIC-dependent EPSCs, and acid-evoked LTP. Amiloride and PcTX1 also blocked ASIC EPSCs. |
Scientists achieved the "holy grail of high-pressure physics" last month, when physicists from Harvard University claimed they'd successfully turned hydrogen into a metal - something researchers had been struggling to achieve for more than 80 years.
And not only had they made the material, but they were also the first to stably keep it in the lab, making it the only sample of metallic hydrogen anywhere on Earth. But now the team has bad news - the sample has disappeared.
The metallic hydrogen was being stored at temperatures around 80 Kelvin (-193 degrees Celsius and -316 degrees Fahrenheit), and at incredibly high pressures between two diamonds in a type of vice.
But further testing around a week ago caused the diamonds to break and the vice to fail, and the researchers haven't been able to find a trace of the metallic hydrogen since.
That doesn't necessarily mean it's been destroyed - the sample was only around 1.5 micrometres thick, and 10 micrometres in diameter - a fifth the diameter of a strand of human hair - so it's possible it's stable somewhere and missing.
But it's also a possibility that, once the pressure of the diamond vice broke, the hydrogen dissipated back into a gas, which suggests that the material isn't stable at room pressure - one of the material's predicted properties.
Team leader Isaac F. Silvera, who has spent more than 45 years working on metallic hydrogen, said for now they can't speculate on the fate of the sample.
"Basically, it's disappeared," he told ScienceAlert over the phone. "It's either someplace at room pressure, very small, or it just turned back into a gas. We don't know."
He admits to being disappointed, but they're now focussed on creating an improved diamond vice, and hope to produce another metallic hydrogen sample in the coming weeks.
"We're preparing a new experiment to see if we can reproduce the pressures we achieved the first time, and reproduce our metallic hydrogen," he said.
The failure happened on Saturday, February 11, when the team was preparing to pack up the sample and move it to the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago for further testing.
So why is metallic hydrogen such a big deal? As the name applies, the material is a metallic form of hydrogen.
Hydrogen is one of the best-studied elements in the Universe - and in its natural state, it's definitely not a metal. It's not shiny and it doesn't conduct electricity.
But back in 1935, researchers predicted that under certain high-pressure conditions, hydrogen could take on metallic properties.
Ever since, scientists have been trying to make metallic hydrogen in the lab - something that's proven difficult due to the ridiculously high pressures they need to maintain.
But Silvera and his team finally managed to do it in October last year, using two synthetic diamonds as a type of vice to squeeze the sample.
As the pressure increased, the researchers actually saw with their own eyes as the sample turned from transparent, to dark, and then to shiny and metallic.
It was a huge deal, not just as a proof-of-concept, but because metallic hydrogen is predicted to have some pretty crazy and useful properties - like being a superconductor, capable of carrying current without resistance.
The material also stores so much energy in its bonds that it could be used as "the most powerful rocket propellant ever discovered".
While waiting for their research to be published in the journal Science last month, the team kept the sample in the diamond vice at extremely cool temperatures, and conducted initial tests in the lab. Importantly, they measured the reflectivity of the sample to confirm that it was metallic.
They also shone a low-powered red laser into the set-up to measure the pressure, calculating that it was between 465 and 495 GPa - around 4 million times more pressure than the atmospheric pressure at sea level on Earth, and nearly 20 times the pressure initially predicted would be required to achieve metallic hydrogen.
But there were a lot of tests they didn't do. Wary of destroying their sample before the journal article came out, the team didn't measure if their metallic hydrogen was a liquid or a solid.
They also didn't measure whether it could conduct electricity, which is an important feature of metals.
As a result, there's been a lot of skepticism and controversy over whether they'd even made metallic hydrogen in the first place.
"I don't think the paper is convincing at all," Paul Loubeyre, a physicist at France's Atomic Energy Commission in Bruyères-le-Châtel, who wasn't involved in the research, told Nature last month.
To conduct further tests, Silvera and his team were planning to ship the sample to the synchrotron at the Argonne National Laboratory. Before they sent it off, they used the low-powered red laser to measure the pressure of the system once more.
But this time, the energy from the laser immediately destroyed the system, and caused one of the diamonds to disintegrate.
"As soon as we turned the light on, 'click', the diamonds broke. One of them catastrophically, it just became powder," explained Silvera.
"It's one of the things we knew had happened to other teams, but we thought we'd been safe. We'd already tested it before, but evidently something changed over time. Perhaps defects developed in the diamond, perhaps there was diffusion of hydrogen. We don't know what happened."
Silvera is confident that they'll now be able to make more metallic hydrogen - if not in this next round of experiments, soon afterwards.
And he hopes that repeating the process will help to convince some of the doubters.
"This disappearance doesn't say anything about the validity of the sample. Anyone who does high pressure works knows that you have failures like this. The important thing is the measurements that we made of the reflectance, and those are solid," he told ScienceAlert.
"So it's not a setback, it's just a disappointment that we were unable to make more measurements on the sample."
"There's always going to be people who are skeptical of things and my advice to them is to try to reproduce the experiment - we've shown exactly what we did to get to the high pressures and achieve the metallic hydrogen in the lab, so other teams can try it too," added Silvera.
"That's the scientific method, and it's better than just complaining about our results."
In the next round of experiments, the team will use a different type of synthetic diamond that will hopefully be more stable.
They've also learnt their lesson, and next time won't keep the sample around for so long before performing further measurements on it.
"It could be if you keep a sample around for a long time it can deteriorate in some way, so once we get a sample up to high pressure next time, we will try to do the important measurements as rapidly as we can," Silvera explained.
We have our fingers crossed for them, and will be watching the results closely. |
Devin Booker wasn’t a member of the Suns in 2015 when the team traded Goran Dragic, Isaiah Thomas and basically half the roster right at the deadline. Dragic had already boarded the team bus before being called off and informed he was traded to the Heat.
If Booker had been there, he would have known better about celebrating before the deadline. Trades can’t happen after 3 p.m. ET, but news trickles out later. Booker learned that the hard way with P.J. Tucker.
According to Cronkite Sports’ Gavin Schall, Booker was already celebrating Tucker remaining in Phoenix seconds before Tucker learned he was traded to Toronto.
Tucker had been with the Suns since 2012 after the team gave him an NBA opportunity following five seasons overseas. He was understandably upset to leave Phoenix.
The Suns added Jared Sullinger and two second-round picks for Tucker.
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# Artist - Title (Remix) 01 grab Yellow Claw & Flux Pavilion ft. Naaz - Catch Me Candlelight Remix ) MAD DECENT
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JacobGoddard (23.2k) 137 Submit Cue Changes Add a (live) video from this event for a track not listed here |
Photo by Contributed Photo /Times Free Press.
Learn More Learn more about Chattanooga’s electric car-sharing program at greencommuter.org/chattanooga or at www.facebook.com/greencommuterchattanooga Initial list of car-sharing stops; more to come … › CARTA: Lookout Mountain Incline Railway, two cars › CARTA: Shuttle Park South, one car › CARTA: Shuttle Park North, one car › CARTA: Shuttle Park North Shore, two cars › Chattanooga Theatre Centre at Coolidge Park: four cars › United Methodist Neighborhood Centers Inc.: The Bethlehem Center, two vehicles
Initial list of car-sharing stops; more to come… • CARTA: Lookout Mountain Incline Railway, two cars • CARTA: Shuttle Park South, one car • CARTA: Shuttle Park North, one car • CARTA: Shuttle Park North Shore, two cars • Chattanooga Theatre Center at Coolidge Park, four cars • United Methodist Neighborhood Centers Inc.: The Bethlehem Center, two vehicles
Chattanooga, meet some of the new electric cars at your service: Iris, Pearl, Ross, Coolidge, Frazier, Smokey, River and Hamilton.
Those Tennessee-centric (Iris is the state flower; Pearl is the state gem) and Chattanooga-centric names were given to eight of the Nissan Leaf electric cars that become available tomorrow for car-sharing at a number of locations.
"Each car has a name tag. It says, 'Hello, my name is,'" said Green Commuter electric car-sharing program Manager Allyson Witt. She explained the names will help drivers remember which rental car is theirs and that it "gives some personality behind the vehicles."
Through the car-sharing program, drivers can rent a Leaf, which has a range of about 90 to 100 miles on a charge, for $9 an hour or $45 a day. Applicants need to go online to Green Commuter's website and prove they have a clean driving record and pay a $25 application fee and $50 annual membership fee (which for a limited time will be provided as a $50 driving credit.)
Drivers then will be able to use Green Commuter's app to find a nearby rental electric car, use a Smartphone to unlock it and start the engine.
No key is involved in the app-based system.
It's like the city's existing bike share program. Except, for now anyway, the cars have to be returned to where they were picked up, while the blue-and-yellow bikes can be dropped off at any bike station.
"For now, it is round trip, so you have to take [the car] back to where you got it," Witt said.
Only about a dozen cars are expected to be operational tomorrow at a limited number of stations. Eventually, 20 Leafs will be available for rental by such users as downtown dwellers who don't own cars and families that have downsized to one car.
CARTA Executive Director Lisa Maragnano said last month the typical motorist spends nearly $10,000 a year buying, insuring and operating a car, and the new car sharing program could help many people limit their transportation spending. Fewer vehicles would, in turn, free up downtown parking spaces and reduce urban pollution, program backers said.
This is the first-ever launch of a car-sharing program by Green Commuter, a Los Angeles-based startup business that was chosen by the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority, the city's bus service, which funded the program through a $3 million grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority. CARTA will equip some of the electric car charging stations with solar panels that will feed electricity into EPB's power grid.
"Electric vehicles and solar-assisted vehicle charging maximizes the benefits of clean energy by reducing emissions, encouraging solar power and expanding electric transportation in Chattanooga," TVA spokesman Scott Fiedler said. "We hope that all of our efforts will increase the use of electricity as an alternative vehicle fuel source to lower transportation costs and improve our environment."
TVA is sponsoring the program partly to help entice more motorists to try driving electric vehicles, which could help the federal utility gain new business and could help level TVA's load by recharging car batteries at low-demand periods.
Chattanooga is the first mid-sized city in the United States to get an electric car-sharing program, Fiedler said, which puts the Scenic City in the ranks of larger cities such as Seattle and Indianapolis.
Green Commuter's kickoff event tomorrow includes free pizza from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the fifth floor of the Edney Building at 11th and Market streets, and a contest on Green Commuter Chattanooga's Facebook page to name two of the 20 cars. Along with the Tennessee- and Chattanooga-centric names, the other car names are just typical ones, Witt said, including Marlene, Stephanie and Alex.
"We have two vehicles, as part of our launch, we're allowing the community to name," Witt said.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at [email protected] or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.
Updated Oct. 12 at 9:55 p.m. with additional details. |
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Pep Guardiola is a manager known for his meticulous attention to detail.
Whether it be tactics, training or team selection, the Manchester City boss leaves no stone unturned in his quest to get the very best out of his side.
Apparently, that includes making sure the ball boys are fully briefed on team tactics.
During City's 5-0 win against Crystal Palace, Guardiola was spotted giving some very detailed instructions to a young ball boy at the Etihad.
(Image: Sportimage)
(Image: High Football/Youtube)
The Spaniard clearly had a very specific point he wanted to get across to the young man - and he explained exactly what that was after the match.
"If you analyse 30 minutes in the first half, we were not ready to be there.
"Maybe over 90 minutes you cannot be there all the time. But it was slow.
"If there was a foul, no-one went to take the ball and start to play. There was five, ten seconds before someone goes to take the ball and start to play. When this happens everything is slow.
"So the ball boys were slow, everybody was slow. And we have to create in the game, to provoke the game. And we didn't for most of the time in the first half."
(Image: Alex Livesey)
(Image: Alex Livesey)
So, essentially, Guardiola wanted everyone - ball boys included - to speed up the play.
Given that the score went from 1-0 at half-time to 5-0 at full-time, he got what he wanted.
"In the second half, you could see immediately that the team was ready," he continued.
"We started well but after that we forgot that the ball should be moved. And the first half the ball was at the players' feet; it's not good.
"There were too many touches. When that happens everything is slow and our rhythm is slow and concede counter attacks and anything can happen. But in the second half we had tempo, patience and attacked quick." |
In 1914, the American Century began. This year the American Century ended. America’s foreign policy is in a state of collapse, America’s economy doesn’t work well, and American democracy is broken. The days when other countries looked to the U.S. as a successful model of foreign policy prudence, democratic capitalism and liberal democracy may be over. The American Century, 1914-2014. RIP.
A hundred years ago, World War I marked the emergence of the U.S. as the dominant world power. Already by the late nineteenth century, the U.S. had the world’s biggest economy. But it took the First World War to catalyze the emergence of the U.S. as the most important player in geopolitics. The U.S. tipped the balance against Imperial Germany, first by loans to its enemies after 1914 and then by entering the war directly in 1917.
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Twice more in the twentieth century the U.S. intervened to prevent a hostile power from dominating Europe and the world, in World War II and the Cold War. Following the end of the Cold War, America’s bipartisan elite undertook the project of creating permanent American global hegemony. The basis of America’s hegemonic project was a bargain with the two major powers of Europe, Germany and Russia, and the two major powers of Asia, Japan and China. The U.S. proposed to make Russia and China perpetual military protectorates, as it had already done during the Cold War with Germany and Japan. In return, the U.S. would keep its markets open to their exports and look after their international security interests.
This vision of a solitary American globocop policing the world on behalf of other great powers that voluntarily abandon militarism for trade has been shared by the Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama administrations. But by 2014 the post-Cold War grand strategy of the United States had collapsed.
China and Russia have rudely declined America’s offer to make them subservient military satellites, like Japan and Germany. China has been building up its military, engaging in cyber-attacks on the U.S., and intimidating its neighbors, to promote the end of American military primacy in East Asia.
Meanwhile, Russia has responded to the expansion of the U.S.-led NATO alliance to its borders by going to war with Georgia in 2008 to deter Georgian membership in NATO and then, in 2014, seizing Crimea from Ukraine, after Washington promoted a rebellion against the pro-Russian Ukrainian president.
There are even signs of a Sino-Russian alliance against the U.S. The prospect excites some neoconservatives and neoliberal hawks, who had been quiet following the American military disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in a second Cold War against a Sino-Russian axis, the European Union, with its economy comparable to America’s, will not provide reliable support. Russia is a nuisance, not a threat to Europe. China doesn’t threaten Europe and Europeans want Chinese trade and investment too much. In Asia, only a fool would bet on the ability of a ramshackle alliance of the U.S., Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia to “contain” China.
The U.S. still has by far the world’s most powerful and sophisticated military — but what good is it? Russia knows the U.S. won’t go to war over Ukraine. China knows the U.S. won’t go to war over this or that reef or island in the South China Sea. As Chairman Mao would have said, America is a paper tiger.
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The U.S. military was able to destroy the autocratic governments of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya — but all the foreign policy agencies of the U.S. have been unable to help create functioning states to replace them. Since 2003, Uncle Sam has learned that it is easier to kick over anthills than to build them.
In addition to having a huge military that for the most part can neither intimidate strong adversaries nor pacify weak ones, America has an economy that for decades has failed to deliver sustained growth that is widely shared.
Apart from a revival of oil and gas production in the U.S., the economy’s main area of comparative strength has been technological innovation. The rise of self-driving vehicles and the “internet of things” are promising developments. But these mostly involve the extension of existing information technology to new sectors. The American tech economy has been living on intellectual capital accumulated before the 1980s, when the Defense Department funded the early breakthroughs in information technology. Compared to earlier breakthroughs like transistors and satellites, most of today’s innovations are trivial and contribute little or nothing either to living standards or national industrial power: “Hey, give me a billion dollars for my app that tells you when to pick up your laundry!”
The picture is even bleaker when we turn our gaze from Silicon Valley to the rest of the American economy. The manufacturing sector has been decimated by subsidized imports from China, Japan and other mercantilist countries, and by the decisions of many American multinationals to shut down American factories in order to exploit cheap labor and take government subsidies in other lands. America’s infrastructure is decrepit, but Congress cannot even agree about how to fund the aging interstate highway system, much less invest in twenty-first century transportation and communications systems. Most of the jobs being created in the U.S. are in the low-wage, non-union, no-benefit service sector where millions are trapped in the status of the “working poor.”
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Among the biggest beneficiaries of the current American economic system are not entrepreneurs or innovators, but parasites who owe their wealth to rigged markets or government subsidies. The “parasite load” in the U.S. economy includes many in the financial industry who expect that the federal government will socialize their losses but let them keep their profits — profits taxed at low rates, or hidden from taxation altogether. Other parasitic special interests include the predatory monopolies of America’s health care sector — the pharma industry, which charges Americans far more for the same drugs than it is allowed to charge in Canada, Europe or Asia; physicians, who tend to be paid much more in the U.S. than in other countries with comparable health outcomes; and price-gouging hospitals. Much of America’s higher education industry, too, is riddled with parasites, including bankers who profit from lifelong debt serfdom by Americans who take out student loans and empire-building university administrators who fund personal entourages with public and private money.
Suppose a delegation from a developing country were to visit various First World nations in search of models. What on earth could the U.S. teach them? How to enrich bankers who add little or no value to the economy? How to ensure that citizens pay far more for medical goods and services that cost much less everywhere else? How to make citizens go into debt to get an education? How to import multitudes of poor foreign workers to compete with native workers, even though the country is suffering from massive and persistent underemployment? How to allow many employers to pay wages so low that workers are forced to use public welfare services to survive?
All right, let it be stipulated that the world’s greatest military hasn’t been very successful either at intimidating other great powers like China and Russia or frightening warlords in Mad Max wastelands into obedience. And let’s concede that any country that chose the post-1980s U.S. economic system as its model would be certifiably suicidal. Aren’t we still the world’s greatest liberal democracy?
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The U.S. remains a paragon of liberalism and democracy compared to many foreign dictatorships and anarchies, of course. But the proper comparison is with other advanced industrial democracies. By that test, current American democracy offers little for Americans to take pride in.
Personal freedom? These days, Europeans insist on far more protections for individual privacy against government surveillance or corporate exploitation of our data than we Americans have been. While most civilized countries long ago abolished the death penalty, the U.S. has recently been among the world’s leaders in executions, surpassed only by Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. For the most part, we allegedly freedom-loving Americans can’t be bothered to protest government data mining, corporate data mining and the occasional mistaken execution of innocent Americans by bungling state governments.
Elections? The U.S. still uses the unfair British colonial era plurality voting system, long jettisoned by most modern democracies in favor of alternatives like proportional representation. Partisan state legislatures cynically gerrymander districts to favor the party in power in the state capital. Having been captured by the neo-Confederate White Right, the Republican Party in one state after another is trying to change voting laws to minimize voting by disproportionately black and Latino low-income voters. And politicians of both parties have to grovel and scrape before a small number of billionaires, in order to win in the “money primary” that weeds out politicians who can’t find some hedge fund manager or casino owner to bankroll them.
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I do not mean to imply that other societies are doing much better than the U.S. at the moment. The European Union is suffering from a self-inflicted austerity policy disaster, China under its kleptocratic Communist Party is facing slowing growth and popular discontent, and so on. The end of the American Century won’t be followed by the Chinese Century or the European Century. The emergence of a multipolar world means it won’t be anybody’s century.
With two lost wars in a decade, a stalled economy choked by parasitic lobbies and a political system dominated by billionaires, you would think there would be a sense of crisis in America. But neither party is willing to acknowledge the severity of our problems, much less contemplate the radical structural changes that are necessary to address them.
Those on the right who denounce “crony capitalism” perversely tend to focus on government aid to a productive industry like the Export-Import Bank, while averting their gaze from the most egregious examples of economic parasitism — finance-industry predators and the predatory medical-industrial complex. For their part, neoconservatives are in complete denial about the limits to American power illustrated by the debacles in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and, earlier, Vietnam. (To be sure, we did defeat Grenada and Panama).
The mainstream Clinton-Obama Democrats, whose politics is a legacy of the booming 1990s, are also unable to acknowledge how bad things really are. Admitting that American foreign and domestic policies for decades have almost completely failed to achieve their stated goals would tend to cast doubt on the record of the two Democrats, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who have occupied the White House for four of the six presidential terms since the 1992 election. Instead, many mainstream Democrats would have us believe that all that is needed to fix essentially sound foreign and domestic policies is a Democratic congressional supermajority and a few tweaks — a bit more multilateralism and foreign burden-sharing in foreign policy, slightly bigger subsidies for low-income households at home.
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The U.S. is facing a triple crisis — a crisis of foreign policy, a crisis of economics and a crisis of democracy. The American republic has renewed and rebuilt itself during even greater crises in the past, and can do so again. But the first step is to drop the happy talk and chest-thumping and flag-waving and be honest with ourselves about the severity of the problems confronting us. |
Apple in a rare overnight update on Tuesday issued what appears to be critical fixes to accessibility features in all three iOS iWork apps, returning full VoiceOver navigation and editing functionality to Pages, Numbers and Keynote.
With the new updates, Apple's Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet and Keynote presentation apps move to version 2.5.4 and resolve issues that prevented UI navigation and content editing using VoiceOver. In addition to the VoiceOver patch, Pages no longer blurs text on certain devices when the Speak Screen option is activated.It is unclear how long the iWork accessibility problems persisted, but the launch of iOS 8.4 last week could be a contributor given its proximity to Apple's fix. Ironically, Apple recently created a special App Store section highlighting popular apps that successfully integrate VoiceOver compatibility, including the iWork apps updated tonight.First introduced with OS X 10.4 in 2004, VoiceOver is a gesture-based screen reader that lets users interact with onscreen graphical interfaces relying on touch and sound, not sight. The feature subsequently migrated to iOS and is now offered in some capacity across all Apple platforms, including Apple Watch. Earlier this year, the technology garnered Apple a Helen Keller Achievement Award for improving quality of life for the vision impaired.The latest versions of Pages Numbers and Keynote come in at 279MB, 245MB and 463MB, respectively and are free downloads for existing users. New customers can purchase the apps from the iOS App Store for $9.99 each. |
As soon as I heard from the University of Edinburgh , where I’m reading politics and international relations, that my application to spend two terms at the University of Mississippi had been accepted, a whole montage of images flashed across my mind. Swamps, trucks, guns, the twanging of a banjo: the idea struck me as downright exotic.
Because mine is a four-year course, Edinburgh gives you the option to study abroad – and I’d long had my eye on the US. The “American College Experience” has always gripped my imagination, as I think it does for many of my age group. Gorgeous cheerleaders, crazy frat parties and gridiron football games all figure in US colleges’ pop-cultural myth.
The answer, in the case of Ole Miss, is: “Hell, yes.”
Upon arrival I was immediately struck by how dominant football is, literally: the stadium has 60,000 seats, roughly the capacity of the Emirates Stadium in London. And I could not have anticipated the size and multitude of fraternity and sorority (“Greek”) houses, nor the number and shapeliness of heartbreakingly attractive students.
Admittedly, Ole Miss has a few advantages over other colleges in America in this department. Newsweek magazine ranks it as the “hottest” college in the country and while the weather is indeed very warm there, it is not the weather that’s being referred to.
I found myself at a frat party within my first week, and it was roughly as crazy as I’d been led to expect. My uniqueness as a foreigner got me in the door (these parties tend to be highly exclusive, “fraternities” comprising groups of men who don’t much like other men getting in the way of their, er, fraternising). Within my first fortnight I’d been out with cheerleaders, who seemed eager – if baffled – to answer my questions on the whole culture surrounding football.
It’s impossible to underestimate how important it is to university life. Football forms the biggest social event, with “tailgating” – or gatherings before, during and after the games – attracting tens of thousands of alumni, teaching staff and townspeople.
A male member of the cheerleading squad (who knew?) impressed me greatly by doing a standing backflip on a concrete sidewalk while fairly intoxicated.
I had been dimly aware that the American South is famous for its hospitality, but was unprepared for a level of friendliness that would have been faintly nauseating if it weren’t so seductive. Wherever I went, people smiled at me with their gleaming, perfect teeth.
On my first day a woman spotted me trying to read a map and drove me into town. The cab driver who delivered me to my room helped me unpack. Being from London I assumed they were all just softening me up in order to rob me, or that I must have some foreign look that made me seem in some way mentally ill and deserving of pity; in due course, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was the norm.
The vibe on campus was such that one could immediately strike up conversation with a stranger. At home this atmosphere had just about lasted through freshers’ week; here, it persisted throughout the year.
All this socialising didn’t hugely detract from my academic experience. I had more face time with and more regular assessment from professors, and greater interaction with classmates than at Edinburgh. This is partly because American universities are more like a secondary school (students start at 18, and there’s no such thing as a gap year); but what one loses regarding a sense of adulthood and responsibility, one gains in security, clarity and daily exhortations to contribute.
A laid-back attitude and general reluctance to sweat the small stuff became uppermost in my daily mentality, and I can say with complete confidence that this was a boon in my academic, athletic and social college life. This is not to say my fellow students were slobs or lazy. Manners are important in Mississippi, and at big social occasions (namely football games) I have never seen so many students in one place all trying to look smart.
Before going I had been a little worried about whether I’d need a car or not. I knew (from the movies) that Americans drove everywhere, even at college.
My fears were soon put to rest. Oxford would not be there if Ole Miss hadn’t been established next door (technically, the university is itself a town called “University”). Everything is built around the campus and you can get anywhere without much difficulty — and someone will always offer to drive you anyway.
I spent my time at Ole Miss in a constant slight state of disbelief that the “American College Experience” was living up to the myth – and then some.
This brings me to probably the question most asked about my spell there, put bluntly: “Is it really racist down there?” Hollywood’s interpretation of the South is not exactly glowing. While also not being incorrect, it does not take the form one would expect.
There appeared to be little or no antagonism along racial lines, only a sense of “mutual segregation”. White guys hung out with white guys and vice versa, with little to no interracial dating. Certain uncomfortable words were thrown around drunkenly in company, which I admit I found surprising.
But these encounters were fewer and farther between, however, than I had been led to believe and, all in all, I left with nothing but good things to say.
I have arrived back in an unchanged Edinburgh with a load of work to do, a Southern accent that can best many a New Yorker, a year that I will remember for ever and dozens of friends I’ll stay in touch with.
It’s good to be home, but I can’t wait to get back.
Details of admissions and courses at the University of Mississippi: www.olemiss.edu/prospective
General information on studying abroad: Uni in the USA and Beyond: The Definitive UK Guide to University Abroad, available via web or eBook from www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk |
A couple of years after the academic and statistical skullduggery of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other promoters of the global warming scare, and the shabby attempt at a comeback by the eco-centimillionaire, Nobel laureate and Oscar-winner, Al "Settled Science" Gore, it should be possible to develop a consensus for a less hair-raising (and harebrained) notion of climatic developments.
In the first decade of the new millennium, carbon emissions rose by 28.5 per cent without any discernible change in world temperature. The main ingredient in the carbon emission increase was a 47 per cent jump in coal consumption, the chief source for electricity generation in the largest carbon-footprint country of all, China. (This did not deter the Chinese from po-facedly demanding compensation from the advanced countries at the farcical Copenhagen Environment Conference two years ago, as it took the chair of the G-77 of aggrieved developing countries, demanding that the West pay massive Danegeld for the effrontery of their prior economic progress.)
The whole cap-and-trade, tax-and-limit movement has collapsed, just four years after the now thoroughly discredited IPCC announced that "most" of the world's average temperature increase in the last 60 years was "very likely due" to "anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions." The increase in that time is one centigrade degree, and the evidence of the last decade, which is the period when the connection to such emissions has been sought, debunks the notions that there is any increase and that there is any relationship to human-generated carbon emissions.
The incontestable need for increased energy production has overwhelmed the brief and delusional consensus behind the deranged boondoggle of cardigan-clad builders of windmills and solar panels. (Both business administration and psychiatry faculties of the future will want to know what possessed T. Boone Pickens to bet $1 billion on windmills.)
The effort to turn ecological alarms into another club applied to the public policy cranium of the United States, including by such eminences of the Ecopraetorian Guard as Barack Obama and Tom Friedman, has also collapsed. In the past decade, American carbon emissions have declined by 1.7 per cent, (largely because of a heavy American transition from coal to shale-derived natural gas), while Chinese carbon emissions have risen by 123 per cent. The Chinese will be a good deal less indulgent of the eco-flagellators than the U.S. has been. One of the most delicious ironies of this turn of events has been the fact that Europe, despite all its self-regulation and Gadarene charge into the Kyoto environmental fantasy and its obsessive-compulsive fault-finding opposite, supposed American eco-insouciance, have earned substantially larger carbon footprints over the last decade.
The charlatans and zealots who promoted or allowed ecology to become the ultimate broad church gathering together everyone from the bird-watchers and butterfly collectors with their binoculars and nets, to the loopy militants chaining themselves to trees and trying to climb the anchor chains of visiting U.S. Navy vessels, should be allowed to subside without a sadistically prolonged stay in the pillory. (The amiable Tom Friedman can retrofit himself to redoubled agitation for the right of every newborn babe to an iPad.)
We can all agree that pollution is bad and must be curbed, that environmental vigilance is essential and must be made more scientifically rigorous, and that more abundant energy is desirable to create jobs and generalize prosperity and not just mindless consumption. The exposure of the IPCC excesses cannot be allowed to mask complacency, profligacy, and humbug.
In the aftermath of the gigantic meltdown of the international left in the 1990s, the environmental movement suddenly became the great shelter for all who wished to assault the triumphant West, including the domestic carriers of what Malcolm Muggeridge described prophetically as "The Great Liberal Death Wish." The pastoral, the faddish, the iconoclasts, all set up a cry like a mad scrum of fox-hunters, cockahoop. As they disperse, we should be on heightened alert against some new reassembly under new and deceptively false colors. The West should drill for oil, convert to natural gas, (including automobiles), and pursue energy efficiency and cleaner air and water in always that are not neurotic or sociopathic. |
BMW files patent for electric turbocharger
Nov 4, 2011, 2:04pm ET
by Drew Johnson
BMW has officially filed a patent for its rumored electric turbocharger.
It's been reported on these pages before that BMW was toying with the idea of an electrically-power turbocharger, and a new patent suggests the German automaker is moving forward with those plans.
BMW has officially submitted plans for an electric turbo to the the German patent office, suggesting the technology could become a reality in the not-too-distant future. In fact, the next-generation M3 could arrive with the technology sometime in 2014.
Working in tandem with a larger, conventional turbo, the electric unit use a small electric motor to power its turbine during the transition from idle to load, which BMW says greatly reduces the phenomenon known as turbo lag - the period it takes a conventional turbocharger to spool up. In addition to boosting performance, the electric turbo also increase fuel efficiency as it helps keep the engine in its optimum operating zone.
BMW has yet to announce any production plans for the electric turbo, but the time is certainly coming. The German automaker will likely initially use the electric turbocharger on its higher-end performance cars to defray development cost, but the fuel-saving technology could eventually spread to lower-end vehicles.
References
1.'BMW Patents Its...' view |
OPENING MILONGA AT LAS PUERTAS EVENT CENTER
SATURDAY ALL-NIGHT MILONGA
MIXER
NEW THIS YEAR!
Win a weeklong stay at the Marcel de Buenos Aires - A sustainable boutique hotel in BsAs.
New for 2018! Every person who register's for the festival, either during our one-day half-price sale on Sunday, August 5, or anytime thereafter until registration closes on October 11, will be entered into a drawing for a one-week stay at the amazing Marcel de Buenos Aires!
See bottom of page for Terms and Conditions*.
*Terms and Conditions
Prize (one week stay for two at The Marcel Buenos Aires) will be awarded to one individual who has either registered for the 2018 Albuquerque Tango Festival online, or has mailed in a paper registration form, or who has simply mailed in his or her name and address during the resgistration period (August 5 through October 11, 2018) and requested to be included in the drawing (no pruchase required).
On-site registrants will not be elgible for the drawing.
Prize will be awarded by random drawing conducted Saturday night, October 21, 2018 at the Albuquerque Tango Festival.
Prize expires if not used within 24 months of being awarded. Prize may not be sold or otherwise transfered for consideration. Not all dates may be available and booking at hotel is based on room availability.
Marcel de Buenos Aires
Sustainable boutique hotel with
Belgian eco-design
calle Venezuela 2763
Buenos Aires
cell. & whatsapp
+54 911 57 20 09 60
www.marceldebueno saires.com
SHOE EXCHANGE
CAKE!
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
Over 30 hours of milongas with world-class DJs
Three full days of group classes (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday)
Our giant 3,000 SF main dance floor and two large auxillary floors, all in a 14,000 square foot ballroom!
Custom-baked cakes at evey milonga
One of the friendliest, most welcoming tango communities anywhere.
A fantastic venue, the Hotel Albuquerque at Old Town, which offers abundant space and which is adjacent to Old Town, which puts over 13 cafes, restaurants, galleries, and shops a short stroll away.
A tango shoe exchange. Bring your used shoes, and pick up a pair of used shoes for a great price. Each year during our shoe exchange event we accept consignments for, and sell, hundreds of pairs of slightly used tango shoes!
A wonderfully welcoming mixer to help you meet new dance partners.
Fantastic free warm up classes Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
No one turned away or "wait listed" due to gender or preference of follower or leader role.
ALSO NEW THIS YEAR!
Shoe exchange will now last from Friday through Sunday! In prior years the shoe sale only lasted a few frantic hours. Now you will have more time to shop for used shoes and a larger window to claim the proceeds from your sold shoes.
LIKELY THE MOST CELEBRATED AND WELL-ATTENDED TANGO FESTIVAL IN THE U.S .
Nearly 700 dancers participated in our 2018 event. If you are interested in attending our 2019 festival, which will take place on November 7 through 10, please set a reminder for the first Sunday in August (August 4, 2019), when we will have our 10th annual one-day, 1/2 price festival pass sale! Nearly 80% of participants buy their pass during this one-day sale. Join us for our 10th year!
2019 HALF PRICE PASS SALE
Our 10th annual 24-hour, half-price sale will take place this year on the first Sunday in August, August 4th. Set a reminder or sign up for a reminder email to be sent to you on the day of the sale. Reminder email. |
One of Google's self-driving car prototypes has been involved in an injury accident for the first time.
A Lexus SUV with sensors and cameras installed by the tech giant was rear-ended in Google's home city of Mountain View, California, where more than 20 prototypes have been self-manoeuvring through traffic.
The three people on board, who complained of minor whiplash injuries, were checked at a hospital and cleared to go back to work following the July 1 collision, Google said. The driver of the other car also complained of neck and back pain.
In California, a person must be behind the wheel of a self-driving car being tested on public roads to take control in an emergency. Google typically sends another employee in the front passenger seat to record details of the ride on a laptop. In this case, there was also a back seat passenger.
According to an accident report Google filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Google's SUV was travelling at about 15mph in self-driving mode behind two other cars as the group approached a junction with a green light.
The first car slowed to a stop so as not to block the junction as traffic on the far side was not moving. The Google car and the other car in front of it also stopped.
Within about a second, a fourth vehicle hit the rear of the Google car at about 17mph. On-board sensors showed the other car did not brake.
The driver of that car reported "minor neck and back pain". The SUV's rear bumper was slightly damaged, while the vehicle that struck it lost its front bumper.
Mountain View police responded, but did not file an accident report.
Google has been a pioneer of self-driving technology, which it believes will be safer and more efficient than human-driven cars. This is the 14th accident in six years and about 1.9 million miles of testing, according to the company.
Google has said that its car has not caused any of the collisions, though in 2011 an employee who took a car to run an errand rear-ended another vehicle while the Google car was out of self-driving mode.
In a blog posted yesterday, the head of Google's self-driving car programme, Chris Urmson, said his SUVs "are being hit surprisingly often by other drivers who are distracted and not paying attention to the road".
In an interview, Mr Urmson said his team was exploring whether its cars could do something to alert distracted drivers before a collision. Honking the horn would be one possibility, but Mr Urmson said he worried that could annoy residents of Mountain View. |
St John’s M1 announced this week that they officially have the smallest cox of any rowing club in Cambridge.
Speaking at their boat club, captain Richard Littleworth said: “Having measured our cox last week, we can categorically confirm that we have the smallest that Cambridge has ever seen. We hope that this will give us an advantage in the Lent bumps.”
Littleworth said how pleased they were with their cox: “We’ve been very lucky. Despite being so tiny, our cox will always be up in the morning and ready to go.”
After last year’s bumps, in a bid to get rid of any excess weight on the boat, the John’s rowers considered removing their cox entirely. But they found that with their small cox present they could maintain their rhythm and stroke rate and that they were able to finish.
Littleworth went on to reveal how competitive this aspect of rowing can be: “Among rowers, cox size is taken very seriously and leads to some serious insecurities. We are extremely proud to have our tiny cox and we’re feeling very optimistic about the upcoming season.”
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SCANDAL: Kuwait, Fiji & Albania coaches say Ballon d’Or was rigged & their votes were changed
Danish paper BT and Norwegian daily Dagbladet have published a scandal overnight claiming that the coaches of Bolivia, Equatorial Guinea, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Kuwait and Vanuatu are all complaining that the recent Ballon d’Or was rigged.
In shocking revelations, the paper have quotes from the coaches claiming that their votes for the 2013 Ballon d’Or winner were artificially changed in order that Cristiano Ronaldo should win this year’s gong ahead of Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery.
Jorvan Vieira, the 60-year-old Brazilian head coach of Kuwait, is quoted by BT saying:
I think there has been any fraud here, I voted for Ibrahimovic.
According to FIFA’s official list of the votes cast, Vieira voted, in descending order, for Messi, Neymar and then Ronaldo. According to FIFA, Vieira, contrary to his assertion, never voted for Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Beefing up their story in the face of the serious accusations, BT also have quotes from the Fiji national team coach Juan Carlos Buzzetti who is alleged to have voted for Ronaldo, then Ribery then Robert Lewandowski:
I voted for Cristiano, Messi and Ribery. I have in no way voted Lewandowski, he is not on par with the other three.
Perhaps the most biting claims of cheating have been levelled by Albania’s national team coach Giovanni Di Biasi, with the 57-year-old Italian going on the record in Dagbladet saying:
I gave five points to Ronaldo, three to Messi and one to Ibrahimovic. I did not give five to Ibrahimovic. This is bullshit and lies.
These latest revelations come days after Qatar’s national coach Fahad Al Zarraa said “I was told by my president to vote for Ronaldo to help Blatter clean up his image as a token of appreciation for bringing the World Cup here.”
A full list of all the votes cast in the race for the 2013 Ballon d’Or award can be seen here. |
It's 'unprecedented' for the Supreme Court justice to appear before the House, notes Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas
Published 11:09 AM, November 29, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (SC), stood as one of the witnesses as the House committee on justice continued deliberations on an impeachment complaint filed against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on Wednesday, November 29.
De Castro’s appearance came a day after the Supreme Court en banc unanimously decided to allow her testimony before the House panel. Sereno recused from the voting.
It’s a rare occurrence in a case that’s gone the farthest in the impeachment process.
“Unprecedented” was how House Majority Leader Representative Rodolfo Fariñas decribed De Castro’s appearance before the committee. Fariñas, who represents the first district of Ilocos Norte, took the first round of questions for the SC associate justice.
“I welcome this opportunity because this will be the right time for me to explain to everyone the process that we have in deciding cases in the Supreme Court. This is also the proper venue where I can correct the misinformation that has been spread many times during this period,” said De Castro, who was accompanied by SC court administrator Midas Marquez.
De Castro was invited by the committee to testify on at least 4 points Gadon cited as supposedly impeachable offenses.
These include Sereno’s creation of the Regional Court Administration Office in Region 7, an alleged falsified temporary restraining order on party-list proclamations, clustering at the Judiciary and Bar Council, and the case involving former Solicitor General and now Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza.
The committee is determining probable cause in the complaint filed by lawyer Larry Gadon.
It will do so until the first week of December. By December 13, committee chairman Reynaldo Umali wants the committee’s eventual report – on whether to reject the complaint or impeach Sereno – to be tackled before plenary.
Several times in the 3 previous hearings to determine probable cause, Gadon has asserted that it’s De Castro who is best equipped to explain the circumstances surrounding these cases.
Aside from De Castro and Marquez, the following Supreme Court officials and employees have been invited by the committee:
Associate Justice Noel Tijam
SC Clerk of Court Felipa Anama
SC Public Information Office chief Theodore Te
Deputy Clark of Court En Banc and Chairperson of the Special Committee on Retirement and Civil Service Benefits Chairperson Anna-Li Papa-Gombio
Technical Working Group Special Committee on Retirement and Civil Service Benefits Chairperson Jocelyn Fabian
Chief Judicial Staff Officer of the Employee's Welfare and Benefits Division Charlotte Labayani
Judicial and Bar Council Executive Officer Annaliza Ty-Capacite
former Associate Justice Arturo Brion
Not everyone attended the Wednesday hearing, however.
Brion, for instance, asked to attend at a later date because he was sick. Te asked to appear only after the Supreme Court releases its resolution allowing them to attend the hearing “if they so wish.” – Rappler.com |
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The CIA has published online nearly 13 million pages of declassified records, including papers on the US role in overthrowing foreign governments, but some of the most mind blowing information is in reference to the secret ‘Star Gate’ telepathy project.
The details of CIA’s “Project Star Gate” are riveting, and expose uncharted waters to be researched as far as there is virtually no mainstream science or pop culture awareness of the phenomena exposed in the project – and is often ridiculed as the stuff of science fiction.
The revelations come as part of a massive almost 13 million file dump of declassified reports – that are now available on the internet for the first time.
Project Star Gate, was the code name for a CIA project that attempted to harness what until now has been thought of as “supernatural” or psychic abilities for military and intelligence use – noting in some of the documents that the method was “passive,” “inexpensive,” and that there was “no known defense.”
The papers show how the CIA was attempting to harness these abilities in individuals to spy on people and alter important objects, amongst other abilities.
One of the processes described, called “Psychoenergetics,” described a “mental process” where a person can “view,” “communicate,” or alter objects that are located in different space or time away from the subject. It also describes things such as remote viewing, where people can see objects that are located in another place, as well as telekenisis, which is the ability for someone to move objects they are not physically in contact with.
The declassified files suggest that CIA officials in charge of Project Stargate believed that they had some success utilizing and harnessing these amazing extrasensory abilities, but noted perceived limitations. Reports reveal that remote viewing was to only be used to collect information in conjunction with other methods, and that intelligence gained through remote viewing “should not stand alone.”
Project Stargate was officially concluded in in 1995, when the existence of the program was declassified, with the CIA reporting that it hadn’t proven useful enough and that previous results that seemed to show the veracity of telepathic powers had been doctored.
The length of time the project was acknowledged to be in existence, nearly 20 year, suggests that it the results of the project were promising enough to keep funding it to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars over two decades. The idea that the program simply became public in 1995, and was ended after 20 years, is a naïve proposition. There is great likelihood that the program was simply rolled over into another Special Access Black Budget Program (SAPs) – meaning that all of the information and findings within these programs remains secret and unknown to the mainstream world.
From these (SAPS) we have unacknowledged and waived SAPs. These programs do not exist publicly, but they do indeed exist. They are commonly referred to as ‘deep black programs.’ A 1997 U.S. Senate report described them as “so sensitive that they are exempt from standard reporting requirements to the Congress.”
For the CIA to receive million of dollars in funding, to study these phenomena, suggests there was a level of initial and continued success that precipitated the continued money flow and nearly two decades of research — something you wouldn’t do for a tech without serious potential and promise. The explanation that they studied these abilities for almost 20 years then decided they didn’t work and cancelled the program, while possible, doesn’t really sound very credible.
Note that the military industrial complex has keenly studied this technology, while mainstream science and academia steadfastly refuse to fund research into this area of study — going so far as to shun and ridicule any legitimate academic that would dare attempt research into this discipline as a pseudoscientist.
The fact that these numerous telepathic abilities have been so intimately studied by our own government, in secret, while the public has been allowed to believe these types of abilities are akin to the realm of fantasy raises a very interesting question; If these powers exist, as evidenced by the research, then why has their existence been withheld from the general public?
As modern research has explored the mind/matter relationship, we have come to understand that consciousness, or factors associated with consciousness, actually have an observable effects on what we call the material world. These effects can be so small they are not even distinguishable by the human eye, but do exist on a quantum level.
Please share these exciting discoveries to help awaken others to the true human potential that likely resides within all of us! |
Back in 2010, CNBC did an extensive report on student debt, part of which highlighted a website called studentloanjustice.org. The site was created to give borrowers advice on dealing with their loans. Its founder, Alan Collinge, defaulted on his own debt and then joined a fight to restore consumer protections to such loans. He told CNBC that he has heard multiple stories of drastic solutions to the burden: suicides and people leaving the country to escape what they can’t manage. Just last month, a Wisconsin man was arrested while trying to rob a credit union because of $250,000 in student loan debt that he couldn’t pay; he saw prison as his best option.
Since the report by CNBC, alarm bells have been getting louder over what is happening to our young people as well as what a threat the enormous, snowballing debt poses to the country. On Saturday, New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow called the situation a “dangerous new normal”, concluding that:
“Our national educational aspirations and the debt crisis that they’re creating are colliding. We are on an unsustainable track. This will not end well.”
The problem seems unresolvable, especially by desperate students. According to an analysis by economist Donghoon Lee of the Federal Reserve Bank, student loan debt is the only household debt that has risen through the ‘Great Recession’ and is now the second largest debt nationwide, after mortgage debt. Between 2004 and 2012, both the number of borrowers and the average amount they owed rose by 70%. The poorest households, of course, owe the largest percentage of their income. The bottom one-fifth owe 24% of their incomes to education loans.
We’ve created a vicious cycle in this nation. College degrees are absolutely essential to making a decent living, but in the current economic climate, graduates can’t find jobs, or are underemployed, so they can’t meet the payments on the loans that enabled them to get those degrees. At the same time, funding for education has been slashed by state and local governments. From 2001 to 2012, appropriations for education fell by a third while tuition rose by 40%. It’s an impossible quagmire for young adults who know they need a degree in order to compete in today’s society.
The charts in Donghoon Lee’s analysis clearly lay out all the elements of the problem: the growth of student loans, the increase in debt delinquency, the rise of student debt in relation to other debt, and also the reasons why a college education is a necessity. What is not obvious is that the debt is adversely affecting both ends of the age spectrum: the students themselves and, often, their parents who also went into debt to educate their children.
The consequences for the individual are enormous. As Martha C. White recently wrote for Time:
“The fallout from falling behind on a student loan can literally last for decades. Unlike most other debts, student loans are almost impossible to discharge in bankruptcy. Most student loans are federal loans, and the government can garnish paychecks, withhold tax refunds, and pursue other means for getting their money back.”
The consequences for society are also vast. White continues:
“The broader economic implications are troubling. Graduates struggling to dig out from a mountain of student debt also tend to put off getting married, buying homes, and having kids. And … they’ll have less spending power when they do eventually buy big-ticket items like homes and cars.”
In other words, the prospects for economic recovery for the nation, including a housing recovery, are dimmed by the direness of the situation. Even those who keep up with their repayment schedules will have far less disposable income with which to stoke other parts of our economy. As William E. Brewer, Jr., president of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, said in a recent report:
“Take it from those of us on the frontline of economic distress in America: This could very well be the next debt bomb for the U.S. economy.”
When the debt bomb goes off, as it soon might, average Americans will learn whether the federal government deems them as worthy of a bailout as it does big banks and auto companies. If not, we all will suffer the consequences.
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When I went to law school, it absolutely shocked me to learn how much the legal academy despises legal practitioners. In fact, laypeople might not know that for those who aspire to teach in a law school, it is considered to be a negative to have “too much” practice experience. The conventional wisdom is that once you’ve practiced for three years, that’s all you need in order to be a professor. More than that, and you’re considered to be “too experienced.” Less than that, however, is just fine. Go poke around some law school websites and look at the C.V.s of law professors. You may find some experience there, but you’ll be shocked at how many people with a few months of experience practicing law are responsible for training the next generation of lawyers.
We don’t teach you how to practice law. We teach you how to “think like a lawyer.” PFFFFFT!
One infamous quote that gets batted around the practical blawgosphere is this one:
We don’t want law school to be lawyer-training school. When we cave in to demands of that sort from the ABA and assorted study commissions, we actually invite alienation among law students and lawyers. Legal education should appreciate the depth of the legal discourse and explore its rich complexities. It should operate on a graduate-school level and graduate people truly learned in the law. –Marquette Prof. David Papke.
Papke took a beating for this from the practical blawgosphere. See, e.g., Greenfield, Gideon, Tannenbaum, and Bennett. Of course, no full-time law professors criticized him. Nobody wants to upset the academic apple cart — more appropriately described as a circle jerk.
Is it any wonder then that law schools don’t usually teach law students jack about how to practice law? Can you imagine any other profession where it would be a bona fide occupational requirement that you should be relatively (if not entirely) inexperienced in whatever it is you are teaching? As Tannenbaum put it:
In medical school we teach students about the body, its organs, how it works, how it reacts to certain factors, and what causes disease and sickness. Then the “doctors” do a “residency” where they focus on the practicalities of “doctoring.” In law, we give “lawyers” a degree, that they can immediately frame, hang up in an office and greet unknowing clients. The law school having “done their job.” Some law schools embrace clinical programs and practical education, others, believe that a practicing lawyer is evidence of the failure of the law school’s education. Apparently the people trying cases and arguing motions are not well versed in the law. They’re “just lawyers.” (source)
With this as an introduction to the legal academy, there are a couple of stories going around in which the legal academy either acknowledges its uselessness, or it damn well ought to. At least to those of you outside the bubble, it should demonstrate that legal education is broken and should be completely overhauled and reinvented.
Go Solo — Even though we didn’t teach you a damn thing!
A dispatch laugh from the guild of “I don’t know how to do it, but I’ll teach others how.” At least one law school is suggesting that students consider going solo after graduation.
Back in the “good old days,” (last year) law students went to law school for three years. While at law school, (for the most part) they attended lectures by, by and large, professors who never practiced law. They learned nothing. After three years, some law firm picked up that student on the basis of his grades in his “think like a lawyer” classes, and then gave him two years worth of paid training until he had a clue how to practice law.
That’s how I became a lawyer.
When I got my shiny new Georgetown Law degree, but had absolutely no clue how to draft a notice of appearance. I had no idea how to bill a client. My memos of law were like law review articles. My client letters were even worse. A client would ask a simple question and get a 10 page, well-written and well-researched treatise on the issue – but that isn’t what a client is looking for. Fortunately, I had patient mentors who told me “forget all the crap you learned in law school, we will teach you how to be a lawyer now.”
Unfortunately, the legal profession is in a state of free-fall because clients have gotten sick of paying for first-year associate billing when the first-year associate doesn’t know a damn thing about how to practice law. Clients are, correctly, saying that they shouldn’t have to pay to train new lawyers. So clients don’t want to pay to train them, but the law schools don’t want to train them either. So, they tell them to go solo!
Should we really turn out a few thousand solo practitioners a year who have been taught by those who couldn’t hack it as practitioners? Then what? Just have them “figure it out” on their own? This all as a reaction to the glut of lawyers created by — you guessed it, the academy.
I have news for the academy. If they want to turn out solos (which isn’t a bad idea) they had better get over this idea that law schools are not lawyer-training schools. That is precisely what they should be — or they should be shut the hell down.
I’m trying to do my part, but I am only one professor. In my classes, I require students to do projects like (gasp) client advice letters. I also require my students to submit bills with each assignment. When I have pro-bono cases, I try and drag in as many students as I can to help out. In other words, I try and turn my classes into lawyer training, despite the fact that some would call this blasphemy.
When you learn how to be a doctor, you work on cadavers until you learn how to work on real people. When you learn to fly a plane, you spend some time in the simulator. If you want to be a lawyer, you still need to attend law school. Unfortunately, most of the legal academy doesn’t think it should stoop to actually teaching students how to be lawyers. Even if law schools wanted to, how could they? The majority of tenured law professors don’t know how to be lawyers either. With that kind of “training,” dumping hundreds of clueless solos on the market will result in: 1) an avalanche of legal malpractice suits; 2) a hailstorm of unethical and unprofessional behavior by solos who lack the institutional mentors to teach them better; and, 3) a swarm of unsupportable litigation by desperate solos who are just trying to pay the rent.
Oh, but for $41,500, we’ll train you now.
One law school has reacted to the economic collapse by offering law students one more year of law school. Yes, for the bargain basement price of $41,500, and another year of your life, UCLA will actually teach students what they THOUGHT they were getting for the first three years of tuition payments — how to practice law.
In response to the changing employment situation for graduates of U.S. law schools, UCLA School of Law announced today that it is reopening its LL.M. program application process for the 2009-10 academic year, and will accept up to 20 additional students who are graduates of U.S. law schools, including deferred hires. The newly admitted LL.M.s will have the option of participating in the new Transition to Practice program, which will focus on enhancing the practical skills and development of the new lawyer. The program will replicate significant parts of the learning that comes in the first year of practice, but in a controlled learning environment. (source)
An LLM to teach you how to practice? This is what the students should have been getting all along for the cost of their JD!
This new “program” at UCLA is an admission that law school is severely broken. Many people already say that law school is a year too long. I partially agree. It is a scam. You spend three years of your life and $120,000 to take law classes from people who, by and large, have no idea how to practice law. After those three years, you aren’t even prepared to take the BAR EXAM! You have to spend the next summer, and another couple thousand dollars, taking a bar preparation course. $120,000 and most law schools don’t even bother to teach you how to pass the bar (my school does have a bar prep course). Those that do are mocked by the “prestigious” end of the academy.
So now UCLA is going to let you pay for yet another year of school, after you’ve paid for your JD and your bar preparation course, to “replicate significant parts of the learning that comes in the first year of practice, but in a controlled learning environment.”
Three questions:
1) Why the hell isn’t UCLA, and every other law school, already doing that for their students? This is the very thing that the academy has rejected for years… I guess if you’ll pay them for another year, they’ll lower themselves to such pedestrian pursuits.
2) I wonder who UCLA is going to get to teach in this LLM program. Their best professor, Eugene Volokh, didn’t even know about the plan. And, as much as I admire him (if I were President, he would be my first choice to fill a Supreme Court vacancy), I’m not sure how much practical experience even he has. If the LLM program is nothing more than a few more full-time, “I practiced for 13 months and then clerked for a judge and now I teach theory and write law review articles” types, I can’t see how it will be remotely useful.
3) What kind of an abject fool would actually pay to attend this program? Honestly, anyone with this LLM on their resume should be blackballed as someone too incompetent to be a lawyer in the first place.
Anyone with the poor judgment to pay an ADDITIONAL $41,500 to “replicate significant parts of the learning that comes in the first year of practice, but in a controlled learning environment” is a complete asshat, and I wouldn’t want them handling my parking tickets — let alone my valuable legal work. They will be paying $41,500 to get less experience and practical training than they could get for free from an unpaid internship in a law office.
What if they can’t find an internship? If you graduate with a JD and you can’t find someone to hire you FOR FREE, then the market has spoken. You should be doing something with your life, but practicing law is NOT it.
But, have no fear: I have an alternative!
Announcing the “Practical LLM Program in First Amendment, Intellectual Property, and Internet Law”
If you are a prospective UCLA LLM student, send me a copy of your resume and a cover letter. I only require that you delete any reference to which law school you attended from your resume, because I don’t think that alma mater means jack. I’m not impressed by my own, and I’m certainly not going to be impressed by yours.
If you are accepted to the program, I will let you work in my office as an associate attorney (you’ll need to pass the Florida or Massachusetts bar first). I’ll teach you how to practice law in a REAL learning environment (none of this “controlled” bullshit). I’ll not only teach you how to actually draft pleadings, do real legal research, actually litigate and/or do transactional work, but I’ll also teach you how to talk to a client, develop clients, and how to practice with ethics so that you don’t develop a reputation for being a douchebag. Even better, I’ll have you work on a few pro-bono free speech cases that I might not have otherwise taken. At the end of the year, I guarantee you that you’ll be MUCH better prepared to practice law than any donkey who spent $41,500 at UCLA, AND you’ll have one year’s worth of experience on your resume. Plus, I can assure you that you will work on at least one really fun free speech case.
If you are selected, tuition for this program is $20,750 (half UCLA’s tuition). For that price, you will get your own office, your name on the door, and all of your overhead covered. You will be expected to generate at least $80,000 in collections — as the overhead for a new attorney is about $100,000.
If you don’t have the money up front, never fear. I can put you on a payment program, and I’ll let you work a flexible schedule so that you can have another part time paying job. However, you’ll need a sizable portion up front, and if you are late on your payments, you’ll be expelled.
After six months, if you are showing a profit, you’ll start getting paid a salary based on your profitability. If you can demonstrate adequate progress, talent, ethics, sense of humor, financial success, and future promise during that year, I will guarantee you a job as as an associate for at least one more year once you finish the program. That year WILL be a paid gig. Your salary will be based on your performance during the “LLM program.”
Even better than that, if you show that you can make it rain (and I’ll teach you how to do that too), you very well may become a partner with me. You know how long that will take? As long as it takes you to prove to me that it will be more profitable to be your partner than to lose you.
Any takers? Operators are standing by.
Hat tip to TaxProf for the story on UCLA’s program.
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Technorati : imbeciles, law practice, legal education, misc
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After almost two decades in the NHL, veteran defenseman Andrew Ference says he is prepared for life after hockey and that he will likely retire if the Edmonton Oilers buy out his contract after the season.
"I think that's it for me," Ference told ESPN.com in a phone interview Friday morning. "More than likely [the Oilers] will probably buy me out this summer, and we'll probably part ways. That's it."
Ference, 36, was placed on injured reserve in January and is planning to have hip surgery to repair a torn labrum. He has been limited to six games this season and last played Nov. 27 at Detroit.
"Nothing is written in stone yet, but surgery is probably 95 percent that I'm getting it. All the other stuff, you can read between the lines. I've been around long enough," Ference said with a chuckle.
Ference signed with the Oilers as a free agent in July 2013 and served as team captain until this season. His current contract, with a cap hit of $3.25 million, expires after the 2016-17 season.
Originally selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the eighth round of the 1997 NHL draft, Ference also played for the Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins, winning the Stanley Cup with Boston in 2010-11 and making two other finals appearances.
Andrew Ference says winning a Stanley Cup will make it easier to step away from hockey. Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images
Because his name is etched into the Stanley Cup, Ference said it makes the decision to step away from the game a lot easier.
"I would have a completely different mindset if I never won the Cup," he said. "I always would have been really bitter, losing in Calgary. When you lose, you never get over it until you actually win. It's awful, but since we won in Boston, everything else is cream on top."
Ference has 43 goals and 182 assists in 907 career NHL games.
"I've been blessed -- 100 percent," he said. "I've always said it takes a ton of hard work, but you need a huge boatload of good luck and good timing. I feel like I've had that. You think about the different kinds of trades you've been through and landing on certain teams where it just works. Everything, from the moment I got drafted by Pittsburgh and there are injuries and I get my chance to play, going to Calgary and getting to the finals, and the same with Boston and having a good team there. I've been so fortunate to be on good teams and be a part of really amazing experiences.
"You work hard and do your part, but there are so many other factors that you have no control over. It works out for some guys and don't work out for others. I never lost sight of that, and I'm so lucky to have that stuff in my career."
A longtime environmentalist, Ference will finish school this spring after studying corporate sustainability from the Harvard Extension School. He is also a partner in a couple of venture capital startups in Edmonton and Boston.
"Finishing and seeing the end in sight but having other interests in life has been so key," Ference said of his decision to move on from hockey. "I try to preach that to all those young guys, like have other interests and get involved in other stuff because it makes this transition a lot easier and have confidence going into the next phase of your life without spinning your wheels, wondering what the hell you're going to do with yourself." |
Video (02:18) : Maxx Williams caught three TD passes in the Gophers' 51-14 rout of Iowa. CineSport's Justin Termine and the Star Tribune's Joe Christensen recap the victory and talk about the Gophers' fast start.
Jerry Kill could tell from the looks on his players’ faces that they needed a mental and physical break after their devastating loss at Illinois two weeks ago.
So the Gophers coach took advantage of the bye week, giving them extra time off, keeping practices shorter and crisp. He even trimmed his pregame pep talk Saturday, joking that some of his longer-winded speeches left players feeling like they were in a board meeting.
Maybe those new tactics were the difference. Or maybe these Gophers were just ready to deliver a once-a-generation beatdown to their hated southern border rival.
The Gophers fell behind Iowa early again but stormed back in stunning fashion, scoring 51 unanswered points in a 51-14 victory before an announced crowd of 49,680 at TCF Bank Stadium.
Mitch Leidner completed 10 of 13 passes for 138 yards and four touchdowns, with three thrown to Maxx Williams. And the Gophers defense made the Iowa offense look like it might want to try something different — like quilting.
The Gophers (7-2, 4-1 Big Ten) stormed across the field to grab the Floyd of Rosedale Trophy and waded through a mob of fans who gathered to celebrate the most lopsided victory over Iowa since the 49-7 drubbing at the Metrodome in 1998.
Gallery: Gophers 51, Iowa 14 Gallery: Gophers 51, Iowa 14
Then, back in the locker room, Kill jumped into the middle of the players’ mosh pit and danced a jig, bending his knees and twisting at the waist as he punched his fists in the air.
“Oh, they give me a hard time,” Kill said. “I’m hard on players. I’m a disciplinarian, and so forth. So if they’re going to play hard for you, you’ve got to show ’em that you’re a human being and have fun. … I can’t dance anyway.”
If the four-point loss to last-place Illinois was the low point of the season, this was arguably the new high point of Kill’s four-year tenure.
It’s the first time since 1967 that the Gophers have won Floyd and the Little Brown Jug from Michigan in the same season. Minnesota also won Paul Bunyan’s Axe from Wisconsin that year, under Murray Warmath, and Kill’s Gophers will have a chance to claim that trophy on Nov. 29.
But first there was some recent history to overcome against Iowa. The Hawkeyes (6-3, 3-2) had throttled Northwestern 48-7 last week and had dominated the Gophers each of the past two years. The combined halftime scores from those two humbling Gophers defeats: 41-0.
Last year, Iowa outgained the Gophers by 299 yards. This time, Minnesota outgained Iowa 429-205. It would have been worse, but Iowa patched together an 81-yard drive against the Gophers’ second-stringers to score a meaningless touchdown with 14 seconds remaining.
“They controlled both lines and pretty much dictated the tempo of the game,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said.
On the game’s opening drive, the Hawkeyes converted three times on third down on a 76-yard touchdown drive. But the Gophers answered with a 64-yard touchdown drive of their own, capped by a 9-yard run by KJ Maye.
The Gophers defense stymied Iowa from there. The Hawkeyes went 0-for-8 on third down after converting their first five attempts. Minnesota won the turnover battle 3-0. And with Leidner in a zone, the Gophers went 10-for-15 on third down.
“I didn’t really see that one coming,” Leidner said. “I thought it was going to be a back-and-forth battle all day. So it was cool to see that scoreboard at the end of the game.”
It was still tied 7-7 when the Gophers got a partially blocked punt from speedy Eric Murray. On the next play, Leidner hit Donovahn Jones for a 44-yard touchdown, and on the next drive, Leidner found Williams for a 9-yard score, making it 21-7.
The onslaught was dizzying. On Iowa’s next play, Steven Richardson sacked Jake Rudock, causing a fumble, and Jack Lynn recovered at the Hawkeyes 22. Seconds later David Cobb stiff-armed a would-be tackler and scampered 6 yards for a touchdown.
Cobb finished with 16 carries for 74 yards. The Gophers never relented, as they geared up for another big home game next week against Ohio State. The 37-point victory was the Gophers’ most lopsided Big Ten win since they defeated Indiana 63-26 in 2006.
“Was I concerned going into the game? You bet,” Kill said. “As a coach, you just don’t know. I don’t think they know in the NFL sometimes, but with young kids 17, 18, 19 years old, you’re not sure. They’ve got a lot going on in their lives. But they came to play today.”
And by game’s end, they were all dancing with a bronze pig. |
It's not supposed to work this way.
USC is supposed to be in NCAA jail. The Trojans are in the midst of playing under NCAA sanctions stunning in their severity, sanctions designed to cripple the program's ability to succeed.
Matt Barkley's return as USC quarterback puts the Trojans in position to contend for the national title. Harry How/Getty Images
Yet there the Trojans stand in their once-customary position of No. 1 in the ESPN Power Rankings. Quarterback Matt Barkley, who eschewed the first round of the NFL draft to return for his senior season, is a Heisman favorite. So much for NCAA president Mark Emmert's attempt to be tough on rule breakers.
USC might even serve as inspiration for Penn State, which just got thrown under the NCAA jail, once everyone in State College stops fuming over how the Trojans swooped in and signed the Nittany Lions' most coveted player, tailback Silas Redd.
Yes, the NCAA did nothing as one team on probation signed a player from the roster of another team on probation. It's just another way that the Trojans have creatively closed the gap created by the Reggie Bush case.
"Our goal was just to maximize the situation we were put in," USC coach Lane Kiffin said. "We didn't know exactly what that's going to mean."
Kiffin might be a devotee of the pro-set offense -- USC still uses a fullback, for heaven's sake -- but the university's strategy to deal with the NCAA sanctions is straight out of a spread playbook. USC stretched its opponent -- the penalties -- wide enough to find the open places. And then the school attacked.
In 2010, the NCAA smacked USC with a loss of 10 scholarships per year for three years and an overall limit of 75, 10 below the FBS maximum. Kiffin laid out for university president Max Nikias and athletic director Pat Haden the difference between serving the penalties immediately and appealing them.
He created a chart showing the impact of the scholarship cuts if taken immediately. Years of undersigning by Kiffin's mentor and predecessor, Pete Carroll, combined with the departure of several players who transferred after the Trojans suffered a bowl ban, left USC with 67 scholarship players as it entered the 2010 season. If Kiffin could bring in only 15 players per year beginning in 2011, it would be difficult to climb back to full strength.
The administration might have decided to file an appeal for the same reason that anyone files an appeal -- to look for relief. But USC also filed an appeal to game the system. By delaying the scholarship penalties until the appeal had been heard -- and denied -- the Trojans could sign a full class of recruits in February 2011. In fact, because several players enrolled in January, the Trojans signed 31 players, well over the limit of 25. (Early enrollees may be assigned to the previous year's allotment.)
"I have to give a lot of credit to the university and to the president, Max Nikias," Kiffin said. "There were a lot of people saying to go the other way and just take it and get it over with. He had belief in our plan. And it was very glaring, very glaring what it would have done to our program not to sign that big class."
Coach Lane Kiffin showed athletic director Pat Haden and university president Max Nikias the difference between serving the penalties immediately and appealing them. Cal Sport Media/AP Images
By effectively delaying the scholarship limits, USC set up the 2012 season as the eye of its storm. The Trojans have more experience and more players this season as they return to championship eligibility. Those assets are likely to diminish over the next two seasons as the scholarship reductions exact a greater toll.
Kiffin used the full complement of scholarships with the coming shortfalls in mind.
"We signed a kicker, a punter and a snapper so that we wouldn't have to for the next four years," Kiffin said.
Place-kicker Andre Heidari, who made 15 of 17 field goals and all 50 of his extra-point attempts, made the All-Pac-12 team as a freshman. Punter Kris Albarado and long-snapper Peter McBride redshirted.
"You've got scholarship players at the three specialist positions," Kiffin said. "My point is that isn't for this year. That's for a long time. That's why it's so big. Those guys are either sophomores or redshirt freshmen. They still have three or four years."
Kiffin also signed two quarterbacks, Max Wittek and Cody Kessler, and redshirted both, the post-Barkley years in mind. The rest of the class included four players who reached the starting lineup -- juco corner Isiah Wiley, linebacker Lamar Dawson, left guard Marcus Martin and, like Heidari, freshman All-American Marqise Lee -- and some talented players whom Kiffin insisted on redshirting.
Between those guys and the redshirt freshmen whom Kiffin threw onto the field last year, USC might start as many as 10 sophomores this season.
"I'm really glad we went in that direction," Kiffin said. "Not, 'We gotta win now; we went 8-5 [in 2010]. Now we gotta show people we can win.' We've got a long-term plan."
As well as Kiffin has played the cards dealt him, and as loud as the hype over Barkley and his teammates has become, USC still has a narrow window. From the base of 67 scholarships two years ago, all of the program's maneuvering has done a little more than tread water. Kiffin estimated that the Trojans will begin the season with 71. Since he plans to redshirt nine freshmen, that leaves USC with a roster of 62 available players.
In 2010, with so few players, Kiffin basically refused to allow his players to play full-contact football in August. When the season began, the Trojans' defense played as if it didn't know how to tackle. Kiffin now lets his first-team defense tackle his second-team offense and hopes that tackling drills will do the rest.
That means the Trojans can afford few injuries. Already, starting defensive end Devon Kennard tore a pectoral muscle during the summer and will miss a good chunk of the season.
"We're going to have to manage it really well by the way we practice," Kiffin said, "by the way we play in the games, rotations of people, special teams. But if you're going to have a really good year with a reduced roster, you've got to have some luck, and you've got to find a way to stay healthy."
It is a narrow window. The Trojans are trying to squeeze through it. |
WASHINGTON – After commuting the sentences of 72 prisoners earlier this month, President Obama today commuted the sentences of 79 more prisoners. Of today's 79 grants, 54 were in cases supported by Clemency Project 2014. That brings the total number of commutations granted by President Obama to date to 1,023, of which 523 were supported by Clemency Project 2014.
“With more than 1,000 grants of clemency, President Obama has ensured that 1,000 families will sit at a dinner table this week or in the not-too-distant future and give thanks together,” said Cynthia W. Roseberry, project manager for Clemency Project 2014. “More than half of these applicants and their families were helped by the dedicated lawyers and staff of Clemency Project 2014. We include today’s grants in our list of things for which we give thanks.”
Clemency Project 2014, an unprecedented, wholly independent effort by the nation's bar, has recruited and trained nearly 4,000 volunteer lawyers from diverse practice backgrounds and completed screening of over 35,000 of the more than 36,000 federal prisoners who have requested volunteer assistance. The Project's painstaking review of these cases revealed that the overwhelming majority of those requests were by applicants who did not meet the criteria put forward by the Department of Justice in April 2014. To date, Clemency Project 2014 has submitted more than 2,400 petitions to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
For “A Living Death: Life Without Parole for Nonviolent Offenses,” visit:
https://www.aclu.org/report/living-death-life-without-parole-nonviolent-offenses
For more information about Clemency Project 2014, visit:
www.clemencyproject2014.org
For more information about the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project, visit:
https://www.aclu.org/issues/criminal-law-reform |
Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks during the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015. With Vice President Joe Biden officially out of the presidential race, the nation's first nominating contest between front-runner Hillary Clinton and Sanders is gaining steam, according to a new Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
October 28, 2015 is one of those dates that Muslim-Americans will never forget. At a town hall meeting at George Mason University, one of the attendees--a young Muslim-American student and aspiring international human rights attorney--expressed the anguish of an entire community:
"Being an American is such a strong part of my identity, but I want to create a change in this society," she said. "I'm so tired of listening to this rhetoric saying I can't be president one day, that I should not be in office. It makes me so angry and upset. This is my country."
In response, a major Presidential candidate--a man who by most objective standards most won over America's heart during the first Democratic Debate--invited her over to join him on the stage.
As he embraced her, he also embraced her cause: The elimination of Islamophobia, xenophobia, and every other brand of bigotry and racism that has long festered in our country's "us versus them" political discourse since time immemorial:
They told white workers who were earning pennies an hour, 'Hey, you think you're in trouble, but you're better off than the blacks. And they told straight people, 'You're better off than those gay people.' And they pitted men against women. It's always playing one group against another. That's how the rich got richer while everybody else was fighting each other. Our job is to build a nation in which we all stand together. ""
He concluded with a simple pledge:
And you are right. There is a lot of anger being generated and hatred being generated against Muslims in this country, that's absolutely correct. There is hatred being generated against immigrants in this country. And if we stand for anything, we have got to stand together and end all forms of racism in this country. I will lead that effort as President.
The entire moment is worth watching and re-watching (possibly with tissues), and then worth showing to both your grandparents and your kids. In the span of a few minutes, Bernie Sanders demonstrated to the entire nation and the world the absolute best of true American values--and everything that American politics can and should be.
He did not aim for any applause lines or to target any specific "demos" or "test groups"-he opened up about his own deep scars from the horrors of bigotry and spoke from the heart on how that has shaped his worldview.
Longtime Passenger on the Bernie Express
Full disclosure: As many of my friends (and certainly all of my family members) already know, I am an unabashed Bernie Sanders supporter. I have been an admirer of his tireless advocacy on social justice issues since I watched the subprime mortgage crisis unfold as a horrified, disgusted and anxious college sophomore. Bernie's dedication for enforcing accountability and addressing the root causes of income inequality inspired me in a way that even Obama-fever (and I was certainly as infected as any of his biggest supporters in Chicago!) did not.
This past summer, I had the amazing opportunity to attend his standing-room-only town hall meeting in Columbia, South Carolina just prior to leaving our country to begin my Fellowship, and it was like watching a Bollywood movie in the motherland.
The audience cheered the heroes (Free education! Healthcare! Infrastructure!) and booed the villains (The Koch Brothers! Lobbyists! Irresponsible Wall Street speculators!). Yet Bernie is not just rhetoric. He practices what he preaches and has never ran negative ads. He does not accept money from entrenched corporate interests and as a result, his top donors are from various labor unions and individual contributors rather than investment banks, the pharmaceutical industry, and media conglomerates.
Likewise as a passionate (and at times I'm sure, insufferably outspoken) advocate for international human rights, I greatly admire Bernie's impressive foreign policy track record. As most folks already know, he was one of the few Congressmen who had the courage and foresight to defy the warmongers and oppose the Iraq War. Yet even more recently, he was the first Congressman to boycott Bibi Netanyahu's seditious and warmongering Congressional address--yes the same Bibi Netanyahu who just acquitted Hitler in favor of indicting the Palestinians). Despite the fact that unconditional support of Israel has long been one of the truly bipartisan "safe" positions, while any criticism of Israel--much less open support for Palestine--has long been considered the lethal third rail of politics, Bernie has already distinguished himself as a moral advocate for peace through equitable justice:
The bottom line is that Israel must have the right to exist in peace and security, just as the Palestinians must have the right to a homeland in which they and they alone control their political system and their economy.
As the current sole superpower, our nation has special obligations and responsibilities to not only the current international community, but future generations. It is clear to me that President Sanders can establish and pursue a foreign policy which truly values human rights, dignity, and justice for all the world's citizens-one which first seeks to do no harm and champions humanitarianism.
A Historic Presidency: First nonChristian POTUS
The Muslim-American community is not some one-issue monolith, and there are clearly a multitude of reasons why I support Bernie. Thus this act of decisively un-politicianlike compassion for and unyielding solidarity with the Muslim American community is just one more reason why he has both of my votes-and why it should be clear that Hilary should NOT take the Muslim vote for granted for the crucial primary. Yet while if elected Hilary would of course be our nation's first (and grossly long-overdue) first female POTUS, it should be pointed out that President-elect Sanders will be our FIRST non-Christian POTUS*!
Aside from our Deist Founding Fathers, electing our first Jewish President will be such a watershed moment in our nation's history, and will send such a massive message to the world. We Muslims can help elect our nation's first Jewish President-one who is decidedly not a living caricature of Emperor Palpatine-and we can break a million stereotypes and misconceptions in the process.
And you know what the best part is? Unlike Hilary's oft-repeated quest to become the first female POTUS (and how that is the decisive factor which differentiates her from Barack Obama), Bernie has never tried never tried to capitalize on this and score political points. God knows the media never highlights it either (whose luminary journalism instead can be summarized as "OLDEST ELECTED PRESIDENT EVER LULZ"), but Bernie remains committed to discussing the issues that actually affect ordinary Americans over turning this into a personality contest over who has the the more compelling personal story.
So let me say what Bernie will not: This man has ONE HELL of a compelling story. The son of Polish immigrants who lost so many family members to the horrors of the Holocaust. The man who graduated from an elite bastion of political and economic neo-liberalism, yet dedicated his life to advocating for the poor and marginalized. A man who marched with Martin Luther King himself--but will never mention it as a means to score political points. A man who joined the Young People's Socialist League in an era where even suspicion of being a "dirty commie-socialist" was a virtual death sentence for your political career and social life-and a man who actually ran and won as an independent democratic socialist in a nation where two party system dynastic politics is the order of the day.
"Strategic Voting": A Cowardly Subversion of the Democratic Spirit
Yet the biggest hesitancy to vote for Bernie does not come from his political record or pedigree. It comes down to a far that he's "too progressive" to win a general election-and that a vote for Bernie in a primary will be a gift for whoever the GOP Clowncar spits out for the general election. I know this firsthand, because some of my own family members have this view.
We can learn much from our Canadian neighbors. They just had a historic election, and many Canadian voters--especially Muslim Canadian voters--who were desperate to rid themselves of Stephen Harper's decade-long reign of terror had the same fears-that a vote for the outspokenly Progressive Thomas Mulcair's New Democratic Party was a gift for Harper's Conservatives. The result? Stephen Harper's Conservatives got demolished and those fears of Harper retaining the throne were unfounded. Yet through strategic voting, Canada's progressives passed also over a far more progressive force in favor of the establishment left-and the charismatic yet inexperienced boyish dynastic inheritor who leads it. While our Canadian neighbors finally liberated themselves from the decade long nightmare they have been living under, many feel they simply settled for some chicken that will do.
The ultra-cynical and calculating nature of "hedging your bets" through "strategic voting" represents one of modern democracy's shortcomings-the insecurities of the voters themselves. It is especially distressing and disheartening to see the proliferation of this practice in the Muslim-American community, since many of us fled from decidedly undemocratic, authoritative or hopelessly corrupt systems of governance where the true value of votes is often subverted if not outright rendered meaningless.
While a broader understanding of the concept an "informed" vote may include such political calculations, a genuinely meaningful vote should reflect the candidate who wins over your mind and heart. So for all of my aforementioned family members, friends, and the general American electorate, my one plea is simply this: Trust the American electorate to vote smart and do the right thing. Vote for the candidate who has earned your vote-not the one who merely serves as a compromise for your fears.
#FeelTheBern, insha'Allah
A large part of my own moralistic worldview is shaped by my understanding about the central tenets of my faith. The Qur'an commands humanity thus:
Allah commands justice, the doing of good, and giving to kith and kin, and He forbids all indecent deeds, and evil and oppression: He instructs you, that ye may receive admonition
I fully trust Bernie to both a President and Commander-in-Chief who will use might for right and do the right thing--and while I certainly do not speak for this immensely vibrant and diverse family of communities--I call on my fellow Muslim Americans to entrust him to do the same. Support him because he has long been fighting in the trenches for those without a voice. Support him because of his courage and dedication to social justice. Support him because he stays true to his principles, and conducts his campaign and himself in a manner which transcends politics as usual and truly makes him a role model. |
NORMAN, Okla. – While his rise to coaching stardom was abrupt, OU head coach Lincoln Riley is making the most of it.
In June, OU head football coach Bob Stoops announced that he was retiring and was handing over the position to offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley.
He had spent the previous two seasons as Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, presiding over one of the nation’s most powerful offenses.
Despite being one of the youngest head coaches in the country, Riley says he was ready to make the most of the opportunity.
“I was hired here because I’m ready. Coach Stoops knew I was ready. That’s the best endorsement I could ever hope for. I’m not here to usher in a new era of OU success- this is already a championship-level program. I’m just lucky enough to have the opportunity- along with the players, the assistants, the students, the alumni and the fans- to help write the next chapter,” he wrote in the Player’s Tribune.
It seems like he was right.
The Sooners have been firing on all cylinders through the first three games, especially in an upset over Ohio State in Columbus.
Now, we’re getting a better look at Riley’s official contract with the university.
Riley is set to make $3.1 million in his first year of a five-year contract, which extends through January 31, 2022. That total will increase by $200,000 each year throughout the contract.
However, there is room to grow with success.
Riley can receive a $75,000 bonus if the Sooners win a Big 12 Championship. He could also receive $75,000 to make the College Football Playoffs and $125,000 more to win a semifinal game. If the Sooners win a national championship, Riley will receive a $250,000 bonus.
His contract states that he can also increase his pay with accolades off the field.
Riley can get a $125,000 bonus for a 100 percent graduation rate, $25,000 if he’s named Big 12 Coach of the Year and $50,000 if he’s the Associated Press National Coach of the Year. |
Silk Cakes To Open Retail Store in Forest Hills View Full Caption
QUEENS — When it comes to art, this takes the cake.
Silk Cakes, the Lower East Side bakery known for its elaborate and Asian inspired wedding cakes, is opening its second location, in Forest Hills, the owners said.
The bakery, at 98-14 Metropolitan Ave., will start serving pastries by the end of November or in early December.
The new location will be a retail store, unlike the Lower East Side bakery, which is by appointments only, the owners said.
Silk Cakes was founded by Judy Lai, a graduate of the International Culinary Center in Manhattan. Lai was also a pastry instructor at the school, before opening her own boutique bakery in 2006.
Lai, whose parents came to New York from Hong Kong, said that in designing her cakes, she likes to use Chinese letters, Asian fabric patterns as well as floral and animal shapes common in Asian art, such as koi fish.
She also uses a number of Asian ingredients, including green tea, black sesame and Japanese lemon.
"Living in New York City, because it is such an ethnically diverse metropolitan area, exposes me to many facets of all the different Asian cultures and so I get inspired looking at Asian art and Asian fashion as well as having access to an array of Asian cuisines that the city has to offer," said Lai, whose father was also a chef.
Lai, who also makes cakes for special occasions like birthdays or baby showers, transforms dough into all kinds of shapes, from turtles and castles to fish tanks and igloos.
Oftentimes customers tell her what they would like, and Lai comes up with a design that reflects their request.
“She has to envision it in her head and figure out how she is going to go about it,” said Judy’s sister, Amy Lai, who does marketing for the company. “It takes a lot of time.”
For her cakes Lai usually charges about $8 per slice, but the price may be higher depending on how elaborate the design is, Lai said.
The retail store in Forest Hills, as first reported by Edge of the City, will offer the bakery's most popular cakes and a variety of pastries.
“We want people to try our cakes beyond those for special occasions,” said Amy Lai, who has lived in Forest Hills for 5 years. Her sister Judy is also planning to move to the neighborhood soon, Lai said. |
MANDEL NGAN / AFP Jared Kushner (Afp)
L'indiscrezione è arrivata dal Washington Post: gli inquirenti che stanno indagando sul 'Russiagate', ovvero i possibili rapporti segreti tra l'amministrazione Trump e la Russia, avrebbero individuato un alto funzionario della Casa Bianca come "persona di interesse". Molte testate puntano il dito su Jared Kushner, l'influente genero del presidente degli Stati Uniti. Il quotidiano della capitale Usa scrive infatti che sotto la lente dei federali ci sarebbe un "consigliere senior della Casa Bianca, vicino al presidente". Gli indizi sembrerebbero quindi puntare su Kushner, e ciò spiegherebbe il brusco licenziamento di James Comey, che stava indagando sul Russiagate. Il Washington Post, inoltre, parla di una figura attualmente in carica come "senior advisor". Non può quindi trattarsi dell'ex consigliere per la sicurezza nazionale Michael Flynn, che fu costretto alle dimissioni per aver mentito sui suoi contatti con l'ambasciatore russo, Sergei Kislyak. Va però sottolineato che al momento nessuna testata accusa esplicitamente Kushner, salvo l'Independent. Il quotidiano britannico cita però come unica fonte il tweet un collaboratore del New York Magazine, Yashar Ali, il quale sostiene di aver avuto la conferma da quattro persone.
"Senior advisor" è una carica. Andrebbero quindi esclusi membri dell'amministrazione, come il segretario di Stato Rex Tillerson e il ministro della Giustizia Jeff Sessions, che pure hanno avuto contatti con il Cremlino. Il Washington Post ricorda, tra le figure dell'amministrazione che hanno avuto rapporti con i russi, Tillerson, Sessions e Kushner. Ciò ha portato in molti a "dedurre" che l'indiziato non possa che essere lui. In realtà c'è un altro uomo che ha lo stesso titolo alla Casa Bianca: il giovane consigliere politico Stephen Miller, che era stato portavoce di Sessions quando era senatore, ovvero ai tempi delle relazioni con Mosca che erano state rimproverate al ministro della Giustizia. Ha invece il titolo di "senior counselor" Steve Bannon, padre spirituale della cosiddetta alt-right, l'estrema destra sovranista americana. Bannon, dal punto di vista politico, è sicuramente più in sintonia con Putin di Kushner. Non risultano però indiscrezioni su concreti abboccamenti con Mosca del 'chief strategist' della Casa Bianca, escluso dal Consiglio per la Sicurezza Nazionale proprio in seguito ai forti contrasti con Kushner, in particolare sulla strategia da adottare in Siria. Anzi, il mese scorso il New York Times aveva riportato le preoccupazioni di Bannon sull'eventualità che Kushner potesse essere indagato. Sempre il New York Times aveva scritto che, nel compilare la documentazione necessaria a entrare nel Consiglio per la Sicurezza Nazionale, nella quale viene chiesto di nominare tutti i funzionari stranieri incontrati nei precedenti sette anni, il genero di Trump aveva omesso i suoi contatti con il già citato Kislyak e con il banchiere Sergei Gorkov. |
After over 3 years of work, China has debuted its first ever Tibetan-language search engine: yongzin.com (which means “teacher” in Tibetan). The front page sports the bright blue, red, green, and yellow that are well-known to Google users, but the search results are very much a reflection of China’s, and not Google’s, priorities. According to the Wall Street Journal:
A quick image search for the Dalai Lama, for example, requires sifting through pages of results before locating any of the man that Chinese authorities have previously dubbed a “jackal in Buddhist monk’s robes.” Instead, users are offered photos of various Tibetan artifacts and images of official press briefings, as well as an image of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy adorned with the words, “Tibet is a part of China.”
An image provided by QZ.com showed that the Dalai Lama isn’t entirely absent from the website; in an image search of the Dalai Lama one image of him does show up among many others, including one of a PRC soldier and a young girl.
The idea behind the search engine is to provide something to Tibetan speakers so that they don’t have to use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to circumvent China’s Great Firewall – which can be an ever-moving target given changing developments in VPN detection and crack-downs by China and new methods of evasion on the parts of VPN companies. While in China last month, I found out that my usual VPN, Private Internet Access, did not fair well against China’s Firewall. So I picked up ExpressVPN for the month and had mostly great internet access (google, gmail, facebook, etc).
Tibetan speakers in China will now have this option, which might be helpful for those not searching for politically sensitive items. The downside, however, is that it may dissuade them from regularly checking in with non-Chinese / non-censored sites for news and information. Stories such as that of the nun who recently committed suicide as Chinese authorities destroyed a religious city will almost certainly be blocked. |
An incredible display of just how loyal a dog can be was caught on tape.
The footage shows the Labrador retriever refusing to leave the side of another dog that was killed by a car.
A driver who saw the dogs on a La Puente street put down traffic cones to alert other drivers and shoot the video. The black female Labrador retriever can be seen next to the one that was fatally struck.
The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control said the 2-year-old dog, who they've named Grace, appears to have been well cared for, but nobody has come forward to claim her so she is up for adoption.
If you'd like to adopt Grace, call the Baldwin Park Animal Care Center at (626) 962-3577. Grace's impound number is A4416170. |
By Michelle Nichols and David Brunnstrom
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia urged "hot heads" to calm down on Friday as the United States admitted it felt "challenged" by North Korea's warning that it could test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific and President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un traded more insults.
Trump called the North Korean leader a "madman" on Friday, a day after Kim dubbed him a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard" who would face the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history" in retaliation for Trump saying the U.S. would "totally destroy" North Korea if it threatened the U.S. or its allies.
"We have to calm down the hot heads," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters at the United Nations, where world leaders gathered this week for the annual U.N. General Assembly. "We continue to strive for the reasonable and not the emotional approach...of the kindergarten fight between children."
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson expressed hope in an interview with ABC that sanctions and "voices from every corner of the world" could lead North Korea back to talks, but admitted intensifying rhetoric had left Washington "quite challenged."
North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, warned on Thursday that Kim could consider a hydrogen bomb test of an unprecedented scale over the Pacific. Ri, who is due to speak to the United Nations on Saturday, added that he did not know Kim's exact thoughts.
In response, Tillerson said U.S. diplomatic efforts would continue but all military options were still on the table.
North Korea's six nuclear tests to date have all been underground, and experts say an atmospheric test, which would be the first since one by China in 1980, would be proof of the success of its weapons program.
A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington was taking Kim's threat seriously and added that any atmospheric test would be a "game-changer."
But he said there were questions about North Korea's technical capabilities and Washington did not give "too much credence" to Pyongyang taking such action. "There's a certain amount of bluster that's taken for granted when you're dealing with North Korea," the official told Reuters.
'UNACCEPTABLE'
Pyongyang conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has launched dozens of missiles this year as it accelerates a program aimed at enabling it to target the United States with a nuclear-tipped missile.
Lavrov on Friday again pushed a proposal by Moscow and Beijing for a dual suspension of North Korean weapons tests and the U.S.-South Korean military drills to kick-start talks. Lavrov suggested that a neutral European country could mediate.
He described the exchange of insults between the U.S. and North Korean leaders was "quite bad, unacceptable."
U.S. Treasury and gold prices rose while the Japanese yen strengthened on Friday as the exchange of barbs fueled geopolitical jitters and drove investors into assets considered safer during times of turmoil.
The latest round of rhetoric began on Tuesday when Trump, in his first address to the United Nations, made the threat to destroy North Korea, a country of 26 million people. He also called Kim a "rocket man" on a suicide mission.
"His remarks ... have convinced me, rather than frightening or stopping me, that the path I chose is correct and that it is the one I have to follow to the last," Kim said in the statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency on Friday, promising to make Trump "pay dearly for his speech."
South Korea said it was the first direct statement of its kind by a North Korean leader. Japan, the only country to suffer an atomic attack, called the North Korean threat to conduct an atmospheric test "totally unacceptable".
'MADMAN'
Trump on Friday tweeted: "Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before."
The White House said on Friday that Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in had agreed to Seoul's "acquisition and development of highly advanced military assets" and to increased deployment of U.S. strategic assets in and around South Korea on a rotational basis." It did not name specific weapons systems.
On Thursday Trump announced new U.S. sanctions that he said allows the targeting of companies and institutions that finance and facilitate trade with North Korea. Then when asked if diplomacy was still a possible, he said: "Why not?" |
You may not have played The Elder Scrolls Online, but there’s a high possibility you’ve heard about it. Of course, who hasn’t? Launched in 2014 by Zenimax Online Studios, ESO had a very rough start to life as an MMORPG. Promises were made and broken. For starters, the freedom to quest and explore at freewill didn’t exist. Players couldn’t explore the world on their terms in ways that The Elder Scrolls RPGs were known for. To make matters worst, friends couldn’t play together which completely made the MMORPG factor obsolete.
Today, The Elder Scrolls Online is almost a different game. Majority of the complaints from launch have been addressed. Fan favorite Elder Scrolls guilds like the Thieves Guild and The Dark Brotherhood have been added. The game is now on consoles, reaching a wider audience for revenue benefits. Level gated mechanics have been removed with the One Tamriel update, and gone are the days of player limitations. Level scaling arrived as well. On top of all that in the past year and a half, regular developer updates have hinted at things to come and they are worth the wait too. So why should players get excited for 2017? The answer is because the developers aren’t stopping with the good news. Here are some pointers that explains why The Elder Scrolls Online is worth checking out this year.
Return To Morrowind
Possibly the best news to hear as an Elder Scrolls fan is that we are going to be able to revisit the popular zone of Morrowind. Morrowind as a standalone RPG game received a cult following and propelled the series into garnering a huge fan following. The success of the adventures in Vvardenfell is the reason franchise successors Oblivion and Skyrim exists. So understandably, ESO players are naturally hyped. Recent DLCs are also making fans anticipate the quests and stories in Morrowind, because the quality has been excellent.
The Arrival Of Player Housing
Almost every MMORPG out there has player housing, and now The Elder Scrolls Online is getting theirs as well. Called Homesteads, players can now purchase homes in Tamriel. Houses can be bought in different sizes for either in-game gold or Crowns. What I love about Homesteads is how awesome the decorating system is. Besides the usual hook-and-place mechanic, the items are also fully functional. You can craft, read and do much more with them. Player housing adds more to the overall enjoyment of The Elder Scrolls Online. In between quests and PVP. In between questing and PVP, it would be great to wind down in your own little home or mansion.
A Brand New Class
Four years later, The Elder Scrolls Online is finally getting a new class in June with the Morrowind DLC. The Warden will feature three new skill lines that are based on nature, such as ice, nature and animal companions. These are completely different from the existing classes and skills, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how good the class will be. But it’s definitely the best time to add to the existing pool of classes. Over four years, players have exhausted every build and strategy out there for their classes. Therefore, the Warden adds much needed diversity to everyone’s gameplay.
2017 is shaping up to be a great year for both The Elder Scrolls Online and its players. These three major updates only adds more quality content that will make the MMORPG more appealing than before, and one must wonder what else Zenimax Online Studios has in store for us.
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BEAVERTON, OR—Saying that he has to deal with this shit every single night, local 6-year-old Andrew Neel was exasperated to learn Thursday that the bedtime story his mother would be reading him was once again from the fucking Bible, sources confirmed. “Oh, please no, not another one of these,” Neel reportedly said to himself upon hearing his mother begin telling yet another tale about shepherds, adding that he’s listened to the account of that little shit Zacchaeus probably a hundred fucking times now and that he just wants to hear a regular goddamn bedtime story with a talking frog or a modern kid who maybe has some sort of magical adventure, even if it’s Amelia fucking Bedelia. “Dammit! It’s the same freaking thing every time: Someone gets into some trouble, but then he has faith in God and everything turns out okay. Christ, I’m just going to pretend to fall asleep to get this damn thing over with.” Neel added that he would likely be able to enjoy the Bible stories much more if his parents would just read him some of the awesome gory shit. |
Last week marked the ninth anniversary of the United States's invasion of Afghanistan, and the beginning of the 10th year of the current international engagement there. In the coming months, the US, Nato and its international allies will take a hard look at the current military counterinsurgency strategy, and the prospects for peaceful reconciliation. Both strategies are likely to be challenged by the absence of key ingredient to their success – Afghan trust in international efforts.
My organisation, the Open Society Foundations, recently asked 250 Afghans across Afghanistan who or what they thought was contributing to the escalation of conflict in Afghanistan, and, in particular, whom they blamed for the high civilian casualties and other civilian losses that have been such a flashpoint among the Afghan population.
Despite statistics suggesting insurgents are disproportionately responsible for civilian harm, our analysis found that Afghans blamed international forces as much, if not more, than insurgents. Few spoke warmly about the Taliban. But the vast majority described international forces as equally brutal toward civilians, and equally, if not more responsible for civilian casualties, detention abuses and other concerns.
They said international forces were often indiscriminate, and that many civilian deaths could have been prevented through better targeting, intelligence or coordination (pdf). "When an accident happens, or there is an attack against Nato troops, then Nato troops react and start firing on people. They never think about those around them as human. They think every person on the street is their enemy," said a man from western Herat province.
Most alleged more horrific stories of international forces shooting people point blank in front of their families, of kidnapping women and returning their dead bodies, or of firing on or abusing children. Many also accused international soldiers of giving weapons or supplies directly to the Taliban; transporting insurgents to peaceful areas, of international forces planting bombs or mines or paying suicide bombers and then blaming the Taliban.
Many Afghans said the fact that the insurgency was spreading despite the increase in troops made them doubt international intentions (pdf) in Afghanistan. "The international forces are not honestly trying to bring peace. In 2001 and 2002, they could eliminate all the Taliban in a week, but now there's only a handful and they don't seem to be able to get rid of them," a man from southern Kandahar province said.
Though many rumours and negative characterisations are intentionally spread by the Taliban, we heard these negative perceptions as much from relatively pro-western and educated urban populations as from those ethnicities and geographic areas least sympathetic to the Taliban movement and its propaganda (pdf).
Our analysis also suggested that while propaganda and bias against foreigners play an important role, these negative perceptions have spread so widely because they ring true with legitimate grievances against international forces. Insurgents looking to paint the international community in a bad light need look no further than the last nine years of civilian casualties, incidents of abuse, and harsh detention conditions – acts easily exaggerated due to the general lack of transparency or accountability of international forces to the Afghan public.
That these issues are a big obstacle to winning hearts and minds has certainly been recognised by western policymakers, and there have been significant policy reforms to address them – for example, tactical restrictions on airstrikes that risk civilian deaths. Yet, western military and civilian officials have tended to cherrypick the issues they are willing to change, while allowing other problematic behaviours to continue, to the effect that:
• Though airstrikes have been reduced, night-time house searches, which result in fewer deaths but often cause greater offence and community terror, have increased.
• Despite promises of "population protection", the strategy of pushing troops closer to Afghan villages in contested areas has made these areas much more dangerous for civilians due to increased insurgent suicide bombs and IEDs.
• Overall promises to stop abuse and stem corruption seem hypocritical when international forces and intelligence units continue to hire or subcontract out security support to unaccountable Afghan guards often affiliated with insurgents and criminals, and a track record of killing, kidnapping and extorting money from the population.
• Greater willingness to recognise civilian deaths in some instances are countered by continued foot-dragging and non-transparent investigations in many other incidents involving civilian harm, particularly where special forces or intelligence units are involved.
This deeply inconsistent approach to civilian protection has often contrasted with western rhetoric – which only makes Afghans doubt all the more western promises, and which undermines or negates positive changes of policy.
More than any metrics about insurgents captured or roads built, the gulf between Afghans and the international community is perhaps the most concerning red flag for the Nato mission in Afghanistan. For any resolution of the conflict to be sustainable, it must be brokered from a base of trust – something the international military and policy community currently do not have, given the record of the last nine years. Many Afghans see the international community, particularly the international military force, as an entity they are forced to interact with, rather than engage with as a trusted partner. This does not engender productive relationship where differences of view can be negotiated, but simply a jockeying for position among groups where the priorities are, first, immediate survival, and then, short-term power grabs.
The one positive finding from our research was that despite the negative attitudes towards the international community, most Afghans we spoke to still wanted international involvement in Afghanistan. They still supported the presence of foreign troops and continued international engagement in the country. This suggests that for all the missteps of the last nine years, there is still time to turn the situation around. But only if the international community can take measures to become the consistent and trusted partner Afghans expect them to be. |
The Syllable by Syllable Commentary
Explaining the Benefits and Advantages of the Vajra Guru Mantra
By t he great tertön Karma Lingpa (14th century)
The Vajra Guru Mantra is the mantra associated with Guru Rinpoche, also known
as Padmasambhava. This is a draft translation of a treasure text which
explains the Vajra Guru Mantra. It was originally concealed during the time
of Padmasambhava in Tibet and later rediscovered by Karma Lingpa (14th
century) who brought it forth from its place of concealment and copied it
down on reams of gold. It is simply known as "The Syllable by Syllable
Commentary Explaining the Benefits of the Vajra Guru Mantra." It begins with
an invocation and then goes into a dialogue between Yeshe Tsogyal, the
spiritual consort of Padmasambhava, and Padmasambhava himself.
And so, Yeshe Tsogyal begins:
I, the woman Yeshe Tsogyal, having offered to you the inner and outer mandala on a vast scale, have the following request. Oh great teacher, Pema Jungne, you have been extremely kind to us, the Tibetan people, leaving for us a legacy that will benefit us now and in future lives. Your kindness is so great that we have never experienced anything like this before, nor will we ever experience anything like this in the future. In particular, so that now even though I am a humble person, I have no doubt that I will attain enlightenment.
In the future, sentient beings will have very short attention spans and a great many things will clutter and occupy their minds. Their characters will be rough and difficult to tame. They will develop many wrong views towards the sacred Dharma. In particular, a time will come when people will cast dispersions on the Secret Mantra teaching of the unsurpassable levels of tantra. At that time, all sentient beings will suffer heavily from disease, famine, and war. Because of the spread of these three calamities, in particular, China, Tibet and Mongolia will experience the same kind of turmoil as an ant's nest when it is destroyed, and the time will come for the
people of Tibet to suffer greatly. Though you have spoken at length of many skillful means to salvage what is possible from that situation, sentient beings in the future will not have the time to practice. Even though they may have some slight inclination to practice, they will encounter many great obstacles. Sentient beings will experience a great deal of disharmony. They won't be able to get along or reach any kind of accord, and in the wake of this, their behavior will become very impure. Bad times such as this will be
very difficult to avert. That being the case, what kinds of benefits and advantages would there be for those beings in the future were they to rely solely upon the Vajra Guru Mantra as their practice? I ask you to relate this for the benefit of individuals in the future who are not able to perceive this and therefore have to have it explained to them.
Then the great master, Pema Jungne replied:
Oh faithful lady, what you have said is so very true. In the future, such times will befall sentient beings and both in a temporary and in a long term sense, the benefits of the Vajra Guru mantra can be definitely be felt. Since my spiritual instructions and the methods of practice that I offer are immeasurable, I have hidden a great number of treasure teachings in the water, rocks, the sky and so forth. In these evil times, even individuals with fortunate karma will find it difficult to encounter these teachings. It will be difficult to bring together the necessary circumstances for these teachings to be revealed. This is a sign that the collective merit of beings is on the wane.
However, at such times, if this essence mantra, the Vajra Guru mantra, is repeated as much as possible, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, a hundred thousand times, a million, ten million, a hundred million times and so forth, if it is repeated in holy places, in temples, next to great rivers, in areas where gods and demons abound, if it is recited in these places by tantric practitioners with pure samaya, by people with monastic ordination who maintain their vows purely, by men and women who
possess faith in the teachings, if they give rise to bodhicitta on a grand scale and recite this mantra, then the benefits and advantages and energy of such practice are truly inconceivable. This will avert all of the negative forces of disease, famine, unrest, bad harvests and all bad omens and indications in all the countries of the world, such that the rain will fall in a timely manner for the crops so there will always be a plentiful supply of water for agriculture and for human and animal life, and all regions and areas will experience prosperity and auspicious conditions.
In this life, in future lives, and in the intermediate state between death and rebirth, these individuals who practice in this way will meet with me again and again. The very best of these individuals will actually meet me in their waking consciousness. Those of middling degree of attainment will meet with me again and again in their dreams. Gradually perfecting the different paths and levels of their practice, they will attain to the ranks of the masculine and feminine holders of intrinsic awareness in my pure land in the continent of Ngayab. Have no doubt of this.
If this mantra is recited a hundred times a day, merely a hundred times a day without interruption, one will become attractive to others and will effortlessly come by food and wealth and the necessities of life.
If one recites it a thousand or ten thousand times on a daily basis, one is able to literally overwhelm others with one's brilliance, in the sense of becoming very charismatic and influential in exerting a positive influence over others, and one will gain unhindered force of blessings and spiritual power.
If one repeats it a hundred thousand or a million times on a regular basis one will become capable of effecting an immeasurably great benefit for beings, exactly as one would wish to.
If one recites the mantra three or seven million times, one is never separate from the buddhas of the three times and one becomes inseparable from me. All the gods and demons of existence will attend to one and offer their praises.
In the most excellent cases, individuals will attain the rainbow body, and the final level of attainment in this lifetime. On a more middling level, at the moment of death, the mother and child aspects of radiant luminosity will meet. At the very least, individuals will behold my face in the bardo state and all the appearances of the bardo state will be free in their own ground such that these individuals will be reborn on the continent of Ngayab and from that vantage point, be able to accomplish an immeasurable amount of
benefit to beings. Thus the Guru replied to Yeshe Tsogyal.
She responded by saying:
Oh great master, it is extremely kind of you to have spoken of these vast and immeasurable advantages of the spiritual energy of this mantra. For the benefit of sentient beings in the future however, a detailed explanation would be of enormous benefit, and so I would ask you to speak in a brief way about the different syllables of this mantra.
To which the great master replied:
O daughter of good family, the Vajra Guru mantra is not just my single essence mantra, it is the very essence or life force of all the deities of the four classes of tantra, of all the nine yanas, and all of the 84,000 collections of dharma teachings. The essence of all of the buddhas of the three times, all of the gurus, yidams, dakas, and dakinis, dharma protectors, etc., the essence of all of these is contained and is complete within this mantra. How, you may ask, does this work? What is the reason for all these being complete with this mantra? Listen well and hold this in mind. Read it again and again. Write it out for the benefit of sentient beings, and teach
it or demonstrate it to beings in the future.
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM AH HUNG are the sublime, essence of the principles of enlightened body, speech, and mind
VAJRA is the sublime essence of the indestructible family
GURU is the sublime essence of the jewel family
PEMA is the sublime essence of the lotus family
SIDDHI is the sublime essence of the activity family
HUNG is the sublime essence of the transcendent family
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM is the perfect splendor and richness of sambhoghakaya
AH is the total unchanging perfection of dharmakaya, the manifest body of absolute reality
HUNG perfects the presence of Guru Padmasambhava as the nirmanakaya, the manifest body of emanation
VAJRA perfects all the heruka deities of the mandalas
GURU refers to the root and transmission gurus and the holders of intrinsic awareness
PEMA perfects the assembly of dakas and dakinis
SIDDHI is the life force of all the wealth deities and the guardians of the treasure teachings
HUNG is the life force of the dharmapalas, the protective deities
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM AH HUNG are the life force of the three classes of tantra
VAJRA is the life force of the monastic discipline and the sutra class of teachings
GURU is the life force of abhidharma and kriya (action) yoga, the first level of tantra
PEMA is the life force of the charya (conduct) yoga, the second class of tantra, and yoga (joining) tantra, the third class of tantra
SIDDHI is the life force of the mahayoga and anuyoga classes of teachings
HUNG is the life force of the ati yoga, the Natural Great Perfection (Dzogchen)
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM AH HUNG purify obscurations arising from the three mental poisons: desire/attachment, aversion, and ignorance
VAJRA purifies obscurations which stem from anger
GURU purifies obscurations which stem from pride
PEMA purifies obscurations which stem from desire/attachment
SIDDHI purifies obscurations which stem from envy/jealousy
HUNG in a general way purifies obscurations which stem from all emotional afflictions
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
Through OM AH HUNG one attains the three kayas
Through VAJRA one realizes mirror-like pristine awareness
Through GURU one realizes the pristine awareness of equalness
Through PEMA one realizes the pristine awareness of discernment
Through SIDDHI one realizes the all-accomplishing pristine awareness
Through HUNG one realizes the pristine awareness of basic space
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
Through OM AH HUNG gods, demons, and humans are subdued
Through VAJRA one gains power over malevolent forces of certain gods and demons
Through GURU one gains control over the malevolent forces of the Lord of Death and the cannibal demons
Through PEMA one gains control over the malevolent influences of the water and wind elements
Through SIDDHI one gains control over the malevolent influences of non-human forces and spirits bringing harm and exerting negative control over one's life
Through HUNG one gains control of the malevolent influences of planetary configurations and earth spirits
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM AH HUNG accomplishes the six spiritual virtues
VAJRA accomplishes pacifying activity
GURU accomplishes enriching activity
PEMA accomplishes magnetizing activity
SIDDHI accomplishes enlightened activity in general
HUNG accomplishes wrathful enlightened activity
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM AH HUNG avert all imprecations and curses
VAJRA averts the negative consequences of breaking one's samaya with the deities of pristine awareness
GURU averts the negative influences of the eight classes of gods and demons in samsara
PEMA averts the negative influences of nagas and earth spirits
HUNG averts the negative influences of gods, demons, humans, samsaric gods
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM AH HUNG defeats the army of the five mental poisons
VAJRA defeats anger
GURU defeats pride
PEMA defeats desire/attachment
SIDDHI defeats envy and jealousy
HUNG defeats the armies of gods, demons and humans
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM AH HUNG brings about the spiritual accomplishments or siddhis
VAJRA brings about the siddhi of peaceful and wrathful deities
GURU brings about the siddhi of the awareness-holders and the lineage gurus
PEMA brings about the siddhi of the dakas and dakinis and dharma protectors
SIDDHI brings about the mundane and supreme siddhis
HUNG brings about the siddhi of accomplishing whatever one wishes
OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG
OM AH HUNG transfers consciousness to the pure realms of experience
VAJRA transfers consciousness to the eastern pure realm of Manifest Joy
GURU transfers consciousness to the southern pure realm of Glory & Splendor
PEMA transfers consciousness to the western pure realm of Great Bliss
SIDDHI transfers consciousness to the northern pure realm of Excellent Activity
HUNG transfers consciousness to the central pure realm of Unwavering
If a physical form could demonstrate the benefit of even one recitation of OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG, the entire earth would not be sufficient to contain the merit. All sentient beings who see, hear, or remember this mantra will definitely be established in the ranks of the masculine and feminine awareness-holders. If it is the case that these words of truth of
the Vajra Guru mantra do not accomplish for sentient beings what they wish to accomplish just as I have promised, then I Pema Jungne, am truly deceiving sentient beings. But I have not deceived you, so you should practice according to my instructions.
Even if you are not able to recite the mantra for whatever reasons, you should mount it on the top of a victory banner, even when the wind touches it, and that wind touches sentient beings, it will free them without a doubt. Alternately, you may inscribe it in clay or carve it in stone. This will also guard the path upon which these syllables are placed and guard that region from malevolent effects. You may also write this mantra out in gold ink on dark blue paper and wear it as an amulet. When you die, if this amulet is burned with your corpse, rainbows will be seen and your consciousness will be transferred to the realms of Supreme Bliss. The benefits of writing out, reading or reciting this mantra defy any accurate measure and defy any standard measurement that could be applied. Having established this for the benefit of beings in the future, I am hiding this treasure. May it meet with a fortunate child of mine in the future who has good karma. |
by Obiora Embry
The 21st century has seen an increased national desire to become more environmentally friendly, and Kentucky is no exception. We have some of the most fertile soil in the United States, and with tobacco and coal on their way out the door, we need viable income alternatives that can steer us in a sustainable direction. As this is the case, one of the smartest moves that we Kentuckians can make is to write and enact legislation that will make the growing and selling of industrial hemp and marijuana legal again.
It is important to understand that there are differences between hemp and marijuana because they have different functions that are important to the present and future of Kentucky. In resolving some of the problems that we humans have created during the Age of Patriarchy, we will need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels, synthetics (including plastics), and trees. We will also need to heal the wounds of those who suffer from mental disorders, imbalances, diseases, and reduce the needless deaths caused by prescription drugs that medical marijuana can replace.
In achieving these goals, we the people need to resurrect locally and nationally the legal cultivation and selling of both industrial hemp and marijuana.
The Plant
In 2010, many people still think of industrial hemp and marijuana as being one and the same or indistinguishable, even though botanically speaking they are cousins. Hemp is an English word that has been used for varieties (i.e., cannabis sativa) of the Cannabis plant that have been bred and used for food, fiber, paper, fuel, seeds, oil, etc. Marihuana is derived from the Spanish word marijuana and has been used for Cannabis varieties that have been bred over time and used for medicinal, therapeutic, and/or recreational purposes like cannabis indica.
Hemp and marijuana both belong to the plant family Cannabaceae and genus Cannabis L. Although they originally belonged to different species, since the mid to late 20th century they have been botanically grouped together with six other species as Cannabis sativa L. This intentional grouping made it possible for the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 to classify marijuana and industrial hemp as the same plant, even though the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 made a distinction between industrial hemp and marijuana. The 1937 Act brought with it heavy taxes, excessive paperwork, and possible fines and/or prison time for marijuana commerce that led to a decrease in the cultivation and personal use of marijuana, thereby making it easier for later laws to make it illegal.
The Cannabis (genus or Cannabis L.) plant is a native of central Asia and may have been cultivated as early as 10,000 B.C. Around 3000 B.C., Ayurvedic medicine used bhang—produced from the dried and crushed leaves, seeds, and stems—to treat problems that included diarrhea, epilepsy, nausea, fever, diabetes, asthma, and menstrual disorders. In 2700 B.C., the first written record of medicinal usage is made in the pharmacopoeia of Shen Nung (one of the fathers of Chinese medicine) for constipation, gout, malaria, fevers, menstrual problems, and rheumatism.
The West came late to using marijuana as medicine, but in 1621 English clergyman Robert Burton wrote in The Anatomy of Melancholy that marijuana could be used for the treatment of depression. Between 1840 and 1900, more than 100 papers were written and published in Western medical literature about using marijuana to treat various diseases and ailments. Marijuana was listed in the United States Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary from around 1852 until 1941, which means that it was used for prescription and/or over-the-counter medicines. The United States Pharmacopoeia went so far as to list marijuana as one of the least toxic substances.
On the other hand, even though prescription (non-illicit) drugs have a much shorter history than marijuana, according to a 1998 study in the Journal of the American Association, the deaths caused by adverse drug reactions in hospitals have been listed as being between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
The Law
I am not an expert in law, but the actions taken by the federal government through the passage of laws by Congress related to the regulation of hemp and marijuana can be brought to the U.S. Supreme Court on their (possible) illegality.
This is because in United States v. Butler (1936) it was decided that the “regulation and control of agricultural production are beyond the powers delegated to the Federal Government” (United States v. Butler). This means states can argue that the Controlled Substances Act (a subset of The Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act) of 1970 is in violation of United States v. Butler because industrial hemp was an agricultural product prior to the Revolutionary War and was grown by farmers at the request of the federal government during World War II. (It will be harder for marijuana since it's name is of Spanish origin.) California is a good example of a state that is defending its rights in this regard.
Following the passage of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, Congress recommended the creation of a presidential commission to study marijuana because it did not want to permanently categorize marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance—an illegal drug with no medicinal uses—without having substantial knowledge about it. The commission, named the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, consisted of 14 members named by President Nixon and Congress. Of his allotted ten appointees, President Nixon named Raymond Shafer, former Republican Governor of Pennsylvania and former prosecutor, the chair of the commission.
In March 1972, The National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, commonly called the Shafer Commission, released their findings in “The Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse: Drug Use In America: Problem in Perspective.” One journalist cited the findings as the “most comprehensive review of marihuana conducted by the federal government.”
The commission advised that marijuana be treated similarly to alcohol in the Volstead Act of 1919 (used to enforce the 18th Amendment) in that an individual who possessed (including casual or non-monetary transfer) marijuana in public would be fined but would not receive a warrant or a record of any kind as the criminal justice system was to not be involved. Law enforcement could not search a private establishment without probable cause of “unlawful sale.” In addition, the Shafer Commission recommended changes to the treatment of marijuana—classified as contraband—in the Controlled Substances Act. Several members of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse also favored legalization of marijuana.
However, President Nixon denounced the report and started the “War on Drugs” through an onslaught of propaganda and myths that continue today through the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and other groups, which have made it difficult to enact state and federal legislation to re-legalize industrial hemp and marijuana.
Potential Benefits of Legalization
Medical marijuana has been made legal in thirteen states including Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
The first state to make the selling of medical marijuana legal was California with Oakland as the epicenter of the movement. In the summer of 2009, the citizens of Oakland voted to impose a 1.8% sales tax on the sale of marijuana that would go directly into the city’s general funds. According to Karen Klein in a recent article for Business Week, the Harborside Health Center, an Oakland marijuana dispenser, has a yearly revenue of $20 million and therefore pays Oakland approximately $360,000 annually through city taxes on medical marijuana. If California legalizes marijuana with the Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act, they anticipate additional yearly revenue of $1.38 billion. In California, newspapers have reported that some of the medical marijuana growers (many that were almost destitute a few years ago) are now achieving taxable and legal incomes that exceed $100,000.
Here in Kentucky, one online pro-legalization website, MarijuanaLobby.org, estimates that Kentucky loses an annual revenue of $38,750,000.00 it has yet to enact legislation to legalize marijuana—money that can help to buffer our expected budget shortfall.
In addition to the financial benefits of medical marijuana, the people can benefit from seeing a decrease in the prescribing of non-illicit drugs by doctors. This will greatly benefit Kentucky because the deaths attributed to prescription drugs disproportionately affect the rural population. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated in 2004 that, with its 164% increase from 1999 to 2004, Kentucky had one of the highest increases in accidental deaths due to deadly drug overdoses. To counteract this trend, the legal sale of marijuana should be promoted and established for those illnesses and ailments for which humans have known to benefit like AIDS, cancer treatment, glaucoma, pain reduction, seizure control, affective disorders (including depression), gout, etc.
The people can also benefit financially from being allowed to grow and sell marijuana legally. The ten-year depression (in the news it has been called a recession) has devastated families, single parents, small and even large businesses and has hurt those that live at or below the poverty line. Kentucky is one of the five poorest states, and in 2007, 17.2% of our population lived under the federal poverty level, which was about 4% higher than the national average.
Hemp, marijuana's illegal cousin, has long been known for its strength, durability, and vitality, which has made it one of the most functional agricultural products in history. The plant has more than 200 uses, including food (for humans and birds), fuel, oil, textiles (including canvas bags and clothes), plastics, paint, paper, livestock bedding and food, building materials, rope, sails, and now eco-friendly bricks that have a very low conductivity and good insulation in both the heat and cold. One acre of industrial hemp can produce more usable fiber than four acres of trees or two acres of cotton.
In addition, when growing hemp, insecticides, pesticides, and herbicides are not needed. It can also be used in crop rotation cycles (used in the system of organic gardening) to add vital nutrients back to the soil that are lost when growing crops like corn and tobacco.
It was reported in 1951 in A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky that Kentucky accounted for 50% of the industrial hemp production during the 1800s. In a 1998 study, The Center for Business and Economy Research at the University of Kentucky reported that if Kentucky were to create hemp processing plants that it would “have an economic impact of 771 full-time equivalent jobs and $17,600,000 in worker earnings.” Because of the increased desire for environmentally friendly and/or sustainable products in the past decade, the economic impact of industrial hemp may be more than reported.
The total amount of money lost in the United States and Kentucky from importing hemp and its by products is not known. However, based on the increase in popularity of hemp products, it can be assumed that we are losing millions, if not billions of dollars yearly in revenue from having to import hemp products.
By growing hemp on more than family farms, there is the real possibility of increasing the production capacity of industrial hemp for sale, which will increase the state’s taxable revenue streams. Since its cultivation will be legal, Kentucky will generate income through the sales tax (on non-food related hemp by-products), income taxes of the growers, from the processing plants, etc.
We the people and the states (through states’ rights) need to reassess our view of industrial hemp and marijuana. We must put an end to the demonization and fear mongering that keeps these plants and their products illegal. In doing so, we need to educate ourselves on the facts and work to change the laws at the state and national level, so we can collectively benefit from these agricultural products with histories as old as agriculture itself.
After we arm ourselves with knowledge, we need to lobby our state legislators to pass 2009 Senate Bill 131 (introduced in the Senate on 12 February 2009), which will legalize hemp production. We need to contact our state legislators to add industrial hemp and marijuana to be included in the crop diversification that resulted from House Bill 611. Lastly, we need to circulate factual information to our lawmakers in Frankfort, to our neighbors, farmers, gardeners, schools, public and private, and newspapers to educate the populace about the truth.
[Obiora Embry is a free thinker that has been doing independent research for 15+ years on a variety of topics including hemp and marijuana. He has addressed some of the common marijuana and hemp myths that can be read within the context of the article @ http://utgift.freehostia.com/KY/hemp_med_marijuana.]
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North of Center is a free bi-weekly paper located in coal-loving Lexington, KY. We cover sports, politics, music, film, and any other things that flow through the inner-Bluegrass region. If you're interested, we've now got a website: noclexington.com |
Putting the cancellation rumor behind, “Dragonball” brings forward exciting news about its trailer. ComingSoon is reporting that 20th Century Fox will debut the first trailer of the live-action adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s famous Japanese manga “Dragonball” attached to “Max Payne“, on October 17th. Whether the studio will release the trailer online before that is still unknown.
“Dragonball”, which is set to hit theaters on April 10, 2009, is the writing and directing product of James Wong, who wrote and directed Final Destination and Final Destination 3. The film stars Justin Chatwin (The Invisible) as Goku, a boy trying to honor his grandfather’s dying wishes by tracking down a set of seven Dragon Balls in order to prevent a bad guy from using them to take over the world. The film will also star Chow Yun-Fat, Jamie Chung, Emmy Rossum, James Marsters and Randall Duk Kim. |
U.S. attack on Baghdad, 2003 / Getty
Last week, the Pentagon told you the costs of the war on terror had eclipsed $1 trillion. Wednesday morning, a panel of academics experienced in war accounting says that’s only a down payment — and that its real, total cost is around $5 trillion.
Five trillion dollars: that’s $16,000 per American; $64,000 for a family of four.
The final tally of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan will reach at least $3.7 trillion, and could go as high as $4.4 trillion, according to a study done by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. Borrowing the money needed to fight the wars will cost an estimated additional $1 trillion through 2020, according to the study.
Its “Costs of War” study group brought together some two dozen academics to account for the wars’ costs — along with their casualties — amid sloppy record-keeping on both fronts. The study says an “extremely conservative” death toll is 225,000, with 365,000 wounded. U.S. dead include 6,000 troops and 2,300 contractors.
The report concludes:
However one judges the US waging of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan, at the very least, we should know what each of those wars has been like. We should know who has been killed, what kinds of wounds have been suffered, and what kinds of economic costs and consequences have been incurred. Those costs have been consistently minimized, misunderstood, or hidden from public view.
The reports’ authors are academics from Brown and Boston universities and other institutions, and give the wars’ costs a more rigorous scrub than the government, which has consistently under-estimated the wars’ costs and duration.
One gets a sense of the immense amounts of money being poured into security whenever one visits a federal installation ringed with new barricades manned by new guards, 24/7. The public airwaves in the capital are filled nonstop with ads from companies you have never heard of seeking to hire “personnel holding Top Secret/SCI clearances” for thousands of jobs funded by the U.S. Treasury. Washington subway billboards — especially those near the Pentagon — are crammed with huge glossy photographs of multi-billion-dollar weapon systems that defense contractors want the government to buy.
The study says, contrary to what the government told us last week, the cost of the war on terror since 9/11 is not $1 trillion but $2.5 trillion. “Our estimate is larger because we include more than the direct Pentagon appropriation for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the larger global war on terror; wars always cost more than what the Pentagon spends for the duration of the combat operation,” the report says.
The Pentagon spins the costs of its wars to the U.S. public the same way it spins the cost of its weaponry. Every aircraft the military buys, for example, carries several different price tags, depending on what is being measured. Here’s a tip: the Pentagon rarely cites the real cost of an airplane, which is the program’s total cost divided by the number of planes it is buying. Instead, it will cite the plane’s “fly-away” cost — which doesn’t include the development required to build it, and other hidden expenses. Such sleight-of-math can cut an airplane’s cost in half.
The study’s estimate of $4 trillion also includes items not counted by the Pentagon, including homeland security, veterans care and various developmental efforts. Then there is the additional $1 trillion in interest payments on the war debt.
The costs of the wars, especially in Iraq, were dramatically low-balled by the Bush Administration. Before the Iraq war began, Larry Lindsey, a top White House economic adviser, pegged the cost of the war at $200 billion; others said $300 billion. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared such numbers “baloney.” He also said that “it is unknowable how long that conflict will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.” The final U.S. troops in Iraq are slated to come home by the end of this year, nearly nine years after Rumsfeld made that estimate. Apparently, his cost estimates follow a similar trajectory. |
Gold Coating
Health and Medicine
Reflect on this. Many satellites carry gold-coated mylar sheets to protect them from solar heat. A thin layer of gold on an astronaut's helmet visor fends off dangerous effects of solar radiation. Satellite microelectronics that instantaneously relay data around the globe depend on gold components to ensure reliable, corrosion-resistant and static-free performance.
The growing use of gold in advanced technologies such as microelectronics, telecommunications, optics, aviation and space has increasingly made gold a vital strategic resource in U.S. technological and economic competitiveness.
In 1996, the Mars Global Surveyor blasted off toting a gold-plated telescope mirror, part of a laser device that is to chart the topography of the entire Martian surface over a two year period.
Epner Technology Inc. of Brooklyn, New York rose to the challenge of a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center requirement for the ultimate in electroplated reflectivity needed for the Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). The MOLA mirror, an unusually large one-half meter in diameter, was ground by OCA Applied Optics in Garden Grove, California. Made of beryllium, the MOLA mirror was coated by Epner Technology's Laser Gold® process, specially improved for the project. The resultant mirror coating proved exquisite.
Laser Gold is a proprietary process for electrochemically-deposited gold. In the near infrared wavelengths, Laser Gold's reflectance is an astounding 99.4 percent.
"We are not paranoid about our processes since the real secret in this business is in the controlling of those processes," says Epner Technology owner and CEO, David Epner. "Our strength comes from a lot of years of breaking the back of some really off-beat plating challenges," he says.
The gold coating on the MOLA mirror is a case in point. To give the telescope mirror the needed sensitivity, the Laser Gold coating was essential to mapping operations around Mars. Gold's extremely high-quality reflectivity is critical in the capturing of laser infrared radiation that is bounced back from Mars to the mirror's surface.
"What makes Laser Gold incomparable for the most sophisticated optical and laser applications like the Mars laser altimeter, where the margin for error is absolutely nil, is its extraordinary reflectivity, in combination with its cleanability and virtually perfect reliability and corrosion resistance," Epner says.
Thanks to the NASA push, adds Epner, improved Laser Gold-coated reflectors have found use in an epitaxial reactor built for a large semiconductor manufacturer. The reactor heats the silicon wafers inside a quartz bell jar with infrared energy from some 100 six-kilowatt quartz-halogen lamps. Behind these lamps are an array of Laser Gold -coated water-cooled
aluminum extruded reflectors.
The improved reflectivity of these reflectors has dramatically increased lamp life, says Epner, due to the lower power requirements that the
reflectors permit. The huge power consumption of these machines was also reduced with this increased efficiency. These reflectors will be sold worldwide to firms like Motorola, Epner says.
Once again, due to NASA's demanding quality needs, Epner's Laser Gold coating has also found use as a waveguide in Braun-Thermoscan's tympanic thermometer.
Epner Technology customers are the foremost fabricators in aerospace, defense, microwave and electronics, optics and semiconductors.
® Laser Gold is a registered trademark of Epner Technologies, Inc. |
Go back 30 years and the DAW - Digital Audio Workstation - as we know it today simply didn’t exist. Sure, we had MIDI sequencing software, which could be used to trigger synths, samplers and the like, but the computer was just one part of a much wider music-making setup.
As technology progressed, these sequencers became more powerful, with the introduction of larger and faster hard disks enabling us to record audio into them. The scene was then set for PCs and Macs to become the centrepieces of our studios; early versions of Steinberg’s VST standard made it possible to add plugin effects, and it wasn’t long before virtual instruments became a thing, too.
Still, even at the end of the century, there were those who scoffed at the idea of a wholly software-based studio, but we don’t hear them scoffing now (although, to be fair, they might just be scoffing very quietly). Yes, there’s still something to be said for involving a hardware synth or drum machine in your electronic music-making, but the fact that you can Do It All within a single piece of software is now undeniable.
Spoilt for choice
As far as DAWs go, the class of 2018 is certainly the most powerful yet. What’s more, these applications are getting more and more accessible, and offering alternative ways of working that will appeal to both beginners and diehard producers who are looking to change their creative ways. But the fundamentals of the DAW remain the same: fire one up and you can record, arrange, edit, mix and master your music right there on your computer.
These are the basics, but it’s also true that every DAW enables you to go about your music-making business in a slightly different way, and the right software for one person won’t be the right software for everyone. Ultimately, the best DAW will be the one that enables you to get your music-making done as effectively and painlessly as possible.
However, what’s life without a bit of healthy competition? This year, as in others, we asked you to pick the best DAW in the world right now by voting for your favourite, and you did so in your thousands. What follows is a ranked rundown of all the contenders, so you can get a good idea of each DAW’s strengths and weaknesses and see exactly what other musicians are using. |
Pig Info • Pigs have developed food preferences. Just like us, they don't all like the same foods. Pigs can be very picky eaters. • Most pigs love: cooked broccoli, pitted apricots, cucumbers, dark green lettuce, cooked potatoes, beets, grapes, pumpkins, all squashes, zucchini, snow peas, spinach, yams, kale, tomatoes, chard, carrots, pears, apples, berries, oranges, grapefruit, melons, pitted cherries, pitted peaches. • Some like, some don't like artichokes, asparagus, raw broccoli, brussel sprouts, arugula, eggplant, mushrooms, radishes, peppers, sprouts. • Most pigs detest cabbage, onions, corn husks, cauliflower. Favorite treats for visitors to bring: vegetarian dog biscuits, fresh fruit, uncooked pasta, wild bird seed (for chickens!), dried fruit, unsalted popcorn, unsalted peanuts, anything from the "Pigs Love" list. • Some pigs salivate in anticipation of food. Their mouths will be so foaming it looks like they have rabies. What should visitors do if they see this? Feed them a treat!! • All potbellied pigs have straight tails instead of curly tail like "big" pigs. • Pigs wag their tails when they are happy and content. • Pigs can bark an alarm call as a warning to others when they have been startled. • Pigs are the cleanest farm animals. They keep their sleeping quarters clean and "go" outside in the toilet areas. • Some pigs at the sanctuary have steadfast loyal friendships lasting for years. • It is common to butcher pigs at 5 to 6 months of age. Sadly this means most pigs are deprived of 95% of their lives. • The seasons affect the pigs like they do us. When we have long drawn out gray days of winter in the northwest with no sunshine for weeks at a time, the pigs may be irritable, depressed, short tempered and sleep more. • As spring approaches they are friskier, more social and friendly, and energized. To help the pigs through the winter blues we make sure the pigs get extra treats everyday, such as dried and fresh fruits, peanuts in the shell, popcorn, vegetarian dog biscuits and different types of grains. Something new and different and tasty helps brighten their days as well as ours. Winter is the time of year when we especially treasure our treat bearing, tummy scratching visitors and volunteers. • In a lifetime the average American meat-eater consumes 2,600 animals, including: 2,450 chickens, 118 turkeys, 33 pigs, 12 cattle and calves. You can make a difference three times a day to save animals by not eating them. You will feel better and the animals will thank you. • Our roosters always take care of the hens. If someone throws a treat out, the rooster will not eat. Instead they cluck and call to the hens as he shows them the treat by pointing at it over and over as he calls. Only after hens have eaten will the roosters eat. |
The buses and trains run on time. Your heating is automatically set to a comfortable, affordable level. No crime goes unrecorded and pollution levels are kept to a minimum. A smart city, driven by the Internet of Things, promises all these things, and it’s a vision recreated (and exploited) in Ubisoft’s new game, Watch Dogs. But is this merely a sci-fi vision, or a real glimpse at the future?
Back in March, Prime Minister David Cameron called the Internet of Things a “new industrial revolution”, pledging £73 million towards researching it for the benefit of the UK. From small intelligent traffic management systems to large-scale energy infrastructure developments, the Internet of Things could be integrated into city systems at every level in order to economise and increase the efficiency of countless aspects of modern urban life. There’s money to be made here, and money to be saved, and London’s not the only city in pursuit of this sensor-driven, technological utopia -- from Sydney to São Paulo, Beijing to Doha, it’s quickly becoming a priority for city planners across the globe. Milton Keynes, of all places, is becoming a hotbed of development in the area, set to become the first place in the UK to have a town-wide open access Internet of Things network within the next 18 months.
In Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs, it’s a very-near-future Chicago that’s taking the technological leap forward. Here, all major infrastructure is controlled by a central operating system (known in the game as the ctOS). Everything from traffic lights to bridges, fuse boxes to car-blocking bollards are run on a computer system, each networked together with the aim of creating an efficient (and easily-monitored) living space for its populace. It’s heady stuff, but not out of the question -- rather, Ubisoft’s teams are looking towards the logical end result of a city reliant upon the Internet of Things.
“We are dealing with ideas that are looking ahead, like the smart city -- no major city has smart infrastructure as complex as we’re producing in Watch Dogs,” said the game's lead writer Kevin Shortt.
“But we want it to feel contemporary so people can better reflect on the fact that this stuff could happen in their world. We never wanted to come off feeling sci-fi.”
As with many ideas that first found their roots in fiction, real-world smart cities are taking baby steps towards what’s seen in Watch Dogs. Barcelona is among the locations leading the charge. It already has a scheme up and running called project XALOC where select parking spots around the city are monitored by sensors in the ground. These can tell when a parking spot is occupied and, by relaying the information to a central station over the internet, is able to offer real-time updates on available parking slots to nearby billboards. Similarly, some of the city’s bins are equipped with sensors to inform refuse collectors as to when they need emptying, whilst the parks system uses moisture sensors in the ground to monitor exactly when the city’s green spaces need watering -- a system which government officials are hoping will reduce irrigation costs by as much as 25 per cent once perfected.
Elsewhere around the globe, Seoul, South Korea has massively improved the efficiency of its public transport systems by introducing NFC payments and radio-frequency identification systems, while its taxis are equipped with GPS technology to aid real-time monitoring of traffic and congestion. Boston, Massachusetts capital, has partnered with Schneider Electric to gather data from thousands of sensors across the city, installed in everything from street lights to public facilities in order to build up a real-time picture of the flow of its citizens and the activities they are engaged in, in an effort to improve public services. Similar schemes are being trialled all over the world.
But for every benefit, there’s a drawback -- these so-called “smart cities” come with their own security and privacy issues. Driven by data acquired by sensors both ambient and personal, buying into the concept of a smart city also requires an open-palmed approach to the sharing of an individual’s data. An Oyster card allows Londoners to quickly move through the city’s public transport system, but also allows the authorities to track every station a person has travelled through that day, for instance. Networked surveillance systems allow police to respond quickly and effectively in times of emergencies, but mean that an individual’s personal, potentially-sensitive moments are also being monitored somewhere. Who has access to this data, and how can we guarantee it’s not being abused?
Likewise, there’s the potential for data harvested by smart cities and the Internet of Things to mathematically justify actions without taking into account indefinable, human sympathies and urges. If a park’s sensors note that nobody has visited it that week, should an “efficient” sensor’s suggestion to turn it into a much-needed parking space be heeded? And what happens when public services become so efficient as to fail to cater to human whims? Or to render large chunks of the human workforce obsolete? The suggestion of the replacement of human-manned ticket offices in the London Underground in favour of automated machines resulted in major industrial strike action -- I for one would rather have a person to speak to should my Oyster card fail rather than an impersonal computer.
In Watch Dogs, these failings and vulnerabilities manifest themselves as the player’s ability to hack into Chicago’s ctOS infrastructure and bend it to their will. Taking the role of skilled and vengeful hacker Aiden Pierce, players are able to change traffic lights at critical moments to cause pile-ups, cause water mains to burst and remotely trigger security systems to create diversions -- all from a smartphone. Having a phone as the game’s primary weapon will perhaps require gamers to suspend their disbelief, but everywhere else the Watch Dogs team has strived for authenticity.
“We had to make sure that everything you do in the game was grounded somewhere in reality,” says Shortt.
“It can’t ever feel like superpowers -- Aiden’s not a superhero, he’s a guy with a powerful tool. That was always key for us. We’ve consulted with the guys from Kaspersky Labs, and we had them look at the script. They were great, and they were able to tell us ‘yes, these things are possible’ or ‘maybe tweak this a bit and it’ll make more sense’. But they never came back to us and told us that something was absolutely impossible. They might have questioned how we were getting to what we wanted to achieve, but it was never impossible.”
“When we first heard about the game we were really intrigued: Ubisoft was pretty accurate in terms of predicting upcoming threats and how cities might look like in five or 10 years," said Vitaly Kamluk, Principal Security Researcher with Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research & Analysis Team.
"Many of the in-game hacks have become reality already. The game conveys well what might happen if control over systems winds up in the wrong hands. You can seize this control yourself and see how it causes difficulties for people all around you. You can take it to extremes to bring chaos to the city. Your actions could even hurt or kill people.”
Benefits and potential drawbacks weighed up, should we fear or embrace the coming of the smart city? To fear it would be counter-productive, thinks Shortt, not to mention a waste of time given the pace at which the concept is progressing towards reality:
“I don’t think [the concept of a smart city] is frightening. I feel like it’s inevitable, frankly. We are going there, it’s going to happen. But I think there are a lot of questions that need to be asked before we jump ahead and turn a city into a smart city. We need to really think about security -- who is running it, who is controlling it, who has access to it, how secure is it. There’s all those things we need to consider. But I think it would be great to have a smart city that makes everything more efficient -- that brings your bills down, that makes your commute faster. There are opportunities to improve peoples lives with that. But there are risks. We need to be smart about it, we need to move carefully towards it.”
Watch Dogs hits stores today, May 27th, available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3 and PC, with a Wii U edition (tentatively) expected to follow in the autumn. Click here for more on the game. |
We got our first taste of Cashmere Cat’s collab with Ariana Grande a few weeks ago when the Norwegian producer dropped it at a show he played in New York. Today the full version dropped via MTV and there’s no doubt that it will be a hit. Ariana’s powerful vocals go perfectly with CC’s unique approach to music. Cashmere Cat has had a massive year already by releasing his amazing Wedding Bells EP, taking over the blogosphere with his Ryn Weaver collab, and working with Ludacris, Wiz Khalifa, and Jeremih on their hit “Party Girls”. “Be My Baby” won’t be out until August 25th on Ariana’s album “My Everything” but you can stream the song in its entirety below until then.
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Ariana Grande – Be My Baby (feat. Cashmere Cat)
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People stand in line for retail bargains. Why not free health care?
A thousand people gathered at a California Gucci outlet in the wee morning hours a few weeks ago, eager for Black Friday retail bargains. Seven times as many waited at the doors of the Macy’s flagship store in New York City, and a modern-day shantytown was erected on Thanksgiving night in an Oakland Best Buy parking lot. One can only imagine the frenzy that would have broken out if someone had started handing out high-quality, free health insurance worth as much as a dozen wide-screen televisions.
And yet the bargain outlets giving away health insurance this season are eerily quiet. As Benjamin Sommers and Arnold Epstein recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, 40 percent of people who qualify for free coverage through the government’s Medicaid program don’t sign up. In the worst-performing states, like Oregon, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, more than half the eligible people aren’t enrolled. Using adjusted estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, tens of millions of Americans don’t take the freebie, and tens of billions of dollars’ worth of coverage are left on the table.
That’s a huge problem for the architects of health reform, whose central aim is helping the 50 million Americans now without insurance. Much attention has been paid to the “individual mandate” in the landmark bill passed earlier this year, which has now been ruled unconstitutional by a Virginia federal court. But previous experience suggests that provision’s impact on rates would be trivial. The real driver of expanded coverage is a planned extension of free health care to anybody with an income below 133 percent of the poverty line—or 15 million Americans, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. This entitlement is the biggest new federal giveaway of health care since the creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
Unfortunately, people might not show up for the bargains. Consider what happened the last time we tried to give away more health care. In the late 1990s, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program made it easier for children to get Medicaid-style insurance, and by 2002, almost half of all American kids qualified for free coverage. As a result, the number of uninsured dropped from 12 million to 10 million, which was great news. But consider the missed opportunity: Among the 10 million children who still lacked coverage, 60 percent were eligible for free care but never signed up.
So why on earth would people camp out overnight to buy a discounted toy, while they ignore a windfall like free doctor visits for their kids?
Some of them may have their priorities wrong, but many don’t. The real problem is that state governments are trying to save money by keeping eligible people off the insurance rolls. In 2007, Health Affairs reported that fully one-third of all eligible but uninsured children had been booted out of Medicaid or SCHIP for no good reason, after being enrolled in the prior year. Some states make people file yearly or twice-yearly applications in order to stay covered, with in-person interviews and demands for a birth certificate. (Imagine being asked to retake your driver’s test twice every year.) Make an error on your paperwork or forget an appointment and your kid automatically loses coverage.
Why are some states so miserly? Because they have every incentive to trim the rolls. Insuring someone through Medicaid costs around $7,000 per year, and in 2008, the country spent $340 billion on the program. Only about half of that money came from the federal government, with the rest draining from state coffers. (The exact proportion varies from state to state.) Because they’re responsible for up to half the costs, states are given wide latitude to make their own Medicaid policies. That means places like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are very inclusive and manage to sign up about 80 percent of eligible people for free health care, while cash-strapped states like Arizona—where an actual death panel just decided to deny organ transplants to Medicaid patients—have far more restrictive policies and enroll only half of those who are entitled to free health insurance.
It’s clear why states might have worked against enrollment in the past, but according to the new law, the federal government will cover almost all the costs of people who are newly eligible for Medicaid. The states won’t be on the hook for the millions of names that might soon be entered in the books, yet they’re fighting the expansion of Medicaid benefits nevertheless. (Fourteen have sued to stop it.) So why are some state governments hell-bent on denying free care to needy people when it will hardly cost them a thing?
The answer lies in a little discussed provision of the law that aims to simplify enrollment into Medicaid. The law’s architects realized that giving away insurance wouldn’t be enough; they also wanted to force states to deal with the people who were already eligible for free care but had been squeezed out of the system. According to the new rules, you may soon be allowed to sign up for Medicaid via the Web, without any of those repeated in-person interviews. (Some states might start enrolling people into Medicaid automatically, just like how Medicare kicks in when people start collecting Social Security checks.) That’s a problem for states with low enrollment rates now. The federal government may be ready to pay for all the newly eligible people on Medicaid, but the states must cough up half the costs for all the previously eligible people who are added to the rolls under the simplified system.
Imagine what might happen in Florida. Once the welcome mat of new regulations gets rolled out, 2 million previously eligible but uninsured people could sign up for free coverage. (That would bring the state’s enrollment rates in line with, say, Pennsylvania.) Because those enrollees would get only a partial federal subsidy, Florida may be forced to chip in billions of dollars for the program. That liability terrifies state legislators already coping with drastic budget shortfalls. (Of course, these changes could have been avoided if they’d taken their obligations to the poor more seriously in the past.)
Without an explicit guarantee that more of these costs will be borne by the federal government, many states will fight tooth-and-nail against Medicaid expansion. They’ll drag their feet on good-faith efforts to increase enrollment. When the dust settles, it’s entirely possible that millions of Americans will remain uninsured. And then we’ll talk about another round of health care reforms.
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The 2015 GMC Acadia is a spacious, fuel-efficient and safe full-size SUV that clearly focuses on family needs above all else.
If you are shopping for a full-size SUV, it’s probably because you have outgrown a standard five-passenger vehicle and are trying to avoid the classic hockey-mom or soccer-dad vehicle – the minivan. If that’s indeed the case, look no further than the 2015 GMC Acadia. This vehicle offers most things the not-so-fussy buyer is looking for in a passenger hauler. The Acadia has solid fuel economy and exceptional interior space – with excellent crash scores to back that all up. All-in-all, the Acadia is a good family-focused vehicle that, for the most part, has something for everyone.
Decent Fuel Economy
Unlike some of the larger SUVs out there, the GMC Acadia was not based on a truck platform. This has resulted in not only a smoother and more comfortable ride for the passengers, but decent fuel efficiency as well – as far as SUVs go anyway.
The standard 3.6-litre V6 engine paired with front-wheel drive uses 13.8 liters per 100 kilometres in the city and 9.8 litres per 100 kilometres on the highway for a combined average of 12.4 litres per 100 kilometres. The same engine, but with all-wheel drive, averages 13.1 L/100 km. While these aren’t standout numbers, they are good overall, easily matching what’s on offer from the Ford Flex, Hyundai Santa Fe and Toyota Highlander.
Massive Interior Space
One of the benefits of driving such a large vehicle is, of course, that it comes with a lot of interior space, and the GMC Acadia does not disappoint in this aspect. The Acadia can carry up to seven or eight passengers, depending on the chosen configuration.
Front-row passengers are treated to generous amounts of head and legroom, which is something that carries over into the second row. And thanks to the sliding second-row seats, legroom can be increased even more – as long as your third-row passengers are still comfortable as well (duh!). The third row is actually large enough to accommodate two adults – assuming that second-row passengers are generous – and climbing back there is actually not too difficult due to superb accessibility. In reality though, the third row is definitely best suited for children, especially if you want adults to feel comfortable in the second row.
The cargo space in the Acadia is also very generous with a class-leading 24.1 cubic feet of space behind the third row. That number spikes to 70.1 cubic feet with the third row folded flat and, again, to 116.1 cubic feet with the second row stowed away.
Top Safety Ratings
Saving money on fuel and having lots of space for kids and cargo is important in a vehicle, but for some, making sure that the precious cargo (which includes people) is safe trumps all. If you’re one of those people, then the Acadia is the SUV for you since it’s easily one of the safest vehicles any amount of money can buy, and many of its optional features only add to this fact. From newly-installed airbags to a standard rearview camera system, the Acadia is constantly finding ways to keep up with the times. The Acadia has also had near-perfect scores in crash tests as OnStar technology, which is GM’s telematics system, is more than likely to keep you safe, should a crash ever happen.
Verdict
Choosing a vehicle to fit a growing family is not an easy task, but the Acadia helps to make the decision a little easier. A growing family means more money elsewhere, so why not save some on fuel economy? A growing family means they will take up space, so why not get them a vehicle with class-leading interior space? Finally, a growing family means a growing concern for safety and well-being, so why not ensure their safety and get into an Acadia today?
For more details on the 2015 GMC Acadia, be sure to check out our full review! |
MLB Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez, left, who started his career with the Great Falls Dodgers in 1990, gave the Electric City a shout-out on Twitter Thursday. (Photo: AP/File)
In 1993 Shelley and John Haffner traveled to Denver to see the Los Angeles Dodgers and check up on the young pitcher who three summers before had shared their Great Falls home.
The only thing Pedro Martinez was happy about, though, was seeing his friends.
"He was really mad," Shelley remembers. "The Dodgers had been using him as a reliever. He said 'Mom, I don't have to play baseball. I've got $30,000 and a house back in the Dominican and if they aren't going to let me play I'm gonna quit.' "
Shelley said Pedro had called her "Mom" since the teenager had stayed in the Haffner house while pitching for the Great Falls Dodgers in 1990.
She had some motherly advice for the young pitcher, too.
"I told him the Dodgers probably see you as a skinny little guy who can't pitch, but I know what you can do," Shelley said. "It wasn't too long after that they traded him to Canada (Montreal Expos). I think the Dodgers regretted that."
No kidding.
On Tuesday, Martinez was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He's the only former Great Falls star to earn election to the Hall as a player, although just a year ago Bobby Cox, who also had a glorious playing career in the Electric City, was inducted as a manager.
Pedro joins a select group of former Pioneer League players in the Hall of Fame, a list that includes Ryne Sandberg of the Helena Phillies, Andre Dawson of Lethbridge, Frank Robinson of Ogden and George Brett of the Billings Mustangs.
Martinez received overwhelming support from the writers in what was his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility.
"It's great," Shelley said. "I love it. Pedro deserves it."
Martinez played in the major leagues for 18 seasons and was listed as a 5-foot-11, 170-pounder. He was shorter and slighter than that as a 19-year-old in 1990, when Great Falls was managed by Joe Vavra and won Pioneer's Northern Division championship. Martinez was 8-3 with a 3.62 earned-run average, solid numbers to be sure.
But Hall of Fame? We saw him pitch several times that summer and recall that he was successful and polite — but perhaps not the best pitcher in the family. Older brother Ramon Martinez was in the midst of a 20-win season for the Dodgers in 1990.
Pedro was pretty small, though there was nothing minor-league about his arm. We have a vivid memory of one particular Sunday at the ballpark when Pedro helped us as an interpreter for Raul Mondesi, who was also on that 1990 Great Falls team and also stayed in the Haffner house.
Talk about a couple of great ballplayers playing for Great Falls. And Pedro turned out to be the greatest.
"He's pretty cool," Shelley said. "I don't look at him as a famous person. I just look at him as a person. I'm not really in awe of him, although I appreciate what he accomplished and am proud of him. But I just think of him as a great kid, which he is."
The Haffners housed professional baseball players for perhaps 10 years. The summer of 1990, Shelley said, was the best.
"Not that we didn't enjoy all the kids we had, because we did," she said. "But that was the most fun summer. We really bonded with Pedro and Raul."
Shelley hasn't talked to Pedro for several years, but she's Facebook friends with his wife, Carolina. When first contacting Carolina, Shelley asked if Pedro remembered her.
"She messaged me right back," Shelley said. "She said Pedro almost cried when he saw the message. We're just a small part of things from way back, but he remembers. He's just a great kid."
The 1990 Great Falls team had no less than five future major leaguers. Mondesi, who played 16 seasons in the bigs and batted .273 with 1,589 hits, including 271 homers, was regarded by many as the best prospect on the squad.
We now know different.
Martinez starred for the Expos and was a superstar for the Boston Red Sox.
"He really loved Boston," Shelley said. "That was like his second home. He met Carolina there."
Here's what Martinez, who has never ever been linked to performance enhancing drugs, told reporters in Boston on Tuesday afternoon:
"I wanted the chance to actually do something for my family and I took full advantage of it, once I was given the opportunity. Now the rest is history. … I took advantage of it, I respected it, I did it with integrity, I did it like there was no tomorrow. I'm glad I'm here today. In the future, I don't know what's going to happen. But it doesn't get any higher than this."
Shelley Haffner agrees.
"It's gone by fast," she said. "It seems like just a few years ago that he was here. I still think of him as a kid. Today is a great day. We're so proud."
Scott Mansch is Sports Editor of the Great Falls Tribune and has covered Pioneer League baseball since 1984. He can be reached at 791-1481 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GFTrib_SMansch |
Dame Judi Dench has revealed she is finding the sexual harassment scandal “very hard” as some of her “great friends” are among those accused.
The actress addressed the ongoing situation at the premiere of Murder on the Orient Express, telling reporters of her difficulty to stay close to those who have acted appallingly.
Speaking to Sky News she said: “It is scandalous, but it’s very hard when a lot of people concerned are great friends of yours too.
“I feel loyal to them and at the same time I feel appalled by what happened to a lot of young actresses who had no way of getting out of it.”
Dench – who plays Princess Dragomiroff in the murder-mystery – said the scandal is “getting a bit out of hand” and that people need to “behave better”.
Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Piven, Dustin Hoffman and Harvey Weinstein are among those who have had accusations levelled against them.
Dench previously worked with Weinstein on Mrs Brown, Philomena and Shakespeare in Love, for which she won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I.
She once claimed she was so close to the now disgraced Hollywood producer that she got a temporary tattoo of his initials on her bottom.
Her latest comments come weeks after she publicly condemned Weinstein, claiming she was “completely unaware” of the “horrifying” alleged sexual abuse offences.
Weinstein has been accused of harassment, assault and rape by scores of high profile actresses including Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Rose McGowan. He has denied any claims of non-consensual sex.
Murder on the Orient Express premiere - in pictures 31 show all Murder on the Orient Express premiere - in pictures 1/31 Johnny Depp attends the premiere of Murder on the Orient Express Dave Benett 2/31 Penelope Cruz Dave Benett 3/31 Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett 4/31 Sergei Polunin, Olivia Colman, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett/WireImage 5/31 Olivia Colman Dave Benett 6/31 Judi Dench Dave Benett 7/31 Simon Kinberg and Daisy Ridley Dave Benett 8/31 Kenneth Branagh Dave Benett 9/31 Willem Dafoe Dave Benett/WireImage 10/31 Johnny Depp Dave Benett 11/31 Penelope Cruz Dave Benett 12/31 Daisy Ridley Dave Benett 13/31 Johnny Depp Dave Benett/WireImage 14/31 Willem Dafoe Getty Images 15/31 Penelope Cruz Dave Benett 16/31 Johnny Depp Dave Benett 17/31 Sir Derek Jacobi Dave Benett/WireImage 18/31 Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett 19/31 Judi Dench Dave Benett/WireImage 20/31 Olivia Colman Dave Benett 21/31 Leslie Odom Jr and Nicolette Robinson Dave Benett 22/31 Sergei Polunin Dave Benett 23/31 Kenneth Branagh Dave Benett/WireImage 24/31 David Mills and Judi Dench Dave Benett 25/31 Daisy Ridley Dave Benett/WireImage 26/31 Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett 27/31 Olivia Colman Dave Benett 28/31 Daisy Ridley Dave Benett/WireImage 29/31 Lucy Boynton Dave Benett 30/31 Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett 31/31 Daisy Ridley Dave Benett/WireImage 1/31 Johnny Depp attends the premiere of Murder on the Orient Express Dave Benett 2/31 Penelope Cruz Dave Benett 3/31 Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett 4/31 Sergei Polunin, Olivia Colman, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett/WireImage 5/31 Olivia Colman Dave Benett 6/31 Judi Dench Dave Benett 7/31 Simon Kinberg and Daisy Ridley Dave Benett 8/31 Kenneth Branagh Dave Benett 9/31 Willem Dafoe Dave Benett/WireImage 10/31 Johnny Depp Dave Benett 11/31 Penelope Cruz Dave Benett 12/31 Daisy Ridley Dave Benett 13/31 Johnny Depp Dave Benett/WireImage 14/31 Willem Dafoe Getty Images 15/31 Penelope Cruz Dave Benett 16/31 Johnny Depp Dave Benett 17/31 Sir Derek Jacobi Dave Benett/WireImage 18/31 Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett 19/31 Judi Dench Dave Benett/WireImage 20/31 Olivia Colman Dave Benett 21/31 Leslie Odom Jr and Nicolette Robinson Dave Benett 22/31 Sergei Polunin Dave Benett 23/31 Kenneth Branagh Dave Benett/WireImage 24/31 David Mills and Judi Dench Dave Benett 25/31 Daisy Ridley Dave Benett/WireImage 26/31 Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett 27/31 Olivia Colman Dave Benett 28/31 Daisy Ridley Dave Benett/WireImage 29/31 Lucy Boynton Dave Benett 30/31 Michelle Pfeiffer Dave Benett 31/31 Daisy Ridley Dave Benett/WireImage
Murder on the Orient Express is in UK cinemas now. |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption William Hague: "This resolution calls for an immediate ceasefire"
UK forces are preparing to help enforce a no-fly zone over Libya after the UN backed "all necessary measures", short of an invasion, to protect civilians.
Downing Street has cautioned against earlier suggestions that British planes could be in action "within hours" and declined to put a timetable on it.
The UN resolution rules out a foreign occupation force in any part of Libya.
The cabinet met earlier and Prime Minister David Cameron is now making a statement to Parliament.
MPs will debate the issue later following Mr Cameron's statement, and there is set to be a Commons vote on Monday, government sources have indicated.
Labour have said they back the no-fly zone - meaning the government would be likely to carry the Commons vote.
Ceasefire call
The UN resolution imposes a "ban on all flights in Libyan airspace", with aid flights the only exception.
It authorises member states to "take all necessary measures" to "protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack", including in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, short of an putting an "occupation force" on the ground.
It also calls for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the violence, measures to make it more difficult for foreign mercenaries to get into Libya and a tightening of sanctions.
Analysis Contingency planning in the UK, France and Nato has been going on for weeks, but will now be accelerated. The UN resolution is so broad it allows military action against all threats to civilians - so could even involve bombing Col Gaddafi's forces on the ground if deemed necessary. Britain could contribute Tornado GR4 ground attack aircraft as well as reconnaissance and early-warning aircraft and tankers for air-to-air refuelling. The resolution means they could also attack Libyan helicopter gunships as well as Libya's fixed-wing aircraft, most of which are Soviet-era fighters as well as some more modern French Mirage F1s. However, many of the crucial final details still need to be worked out between the nations contributing to the mission to ensure that all the necessary means are in place. In full: UN resolution on Libya In quotes: UN Libya vote reaction
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said it was a "positive response to the call by the Arab League" for measures to protect Libyan civilians and was the culmination of "a great deal of hard work in the last few days" by France, the UK, Lebanon and the US.
"It is necessary to take these measures to avoid greater bloodshed," Mr Hague said.
Ten UN Security Council members backed the resolution while five abstained - nine votes were needed for it to pass.
France, the UK, Lebanon, the US, South Africa, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Colombia, Portugal, Nigeria and Gabon all voted in favour, while China, Russia, Brazil, India and Germany abstained.
Libyan reaction
Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces have recently retaken several towns seized by rebels in an uprising.
Rebel forces in Benghazi reacted with joy to the passing of the resolution but Said Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's son, said the resolution was "unfair" as the regime had "proved to everybody that there have been no air strikes against civilians".
In response, Libya has also closed its airspace to all traffic, according to EU air transport authorities.
Loyalist forces are bearing down on Benghazi, home to a million people. Forces loyal to Col Gaddafi have reportedly launched their first air attacks on the town, targeting the airport at Benina.
Col Gaddafi had earlier warned the rebels there that his troops were coming and to expect "no mercy".
Senior UN sources had said British and French warplanes could be in the air within hours of the UN vote to carry out initial air raids on Libyan positions, possibly with logistical support from Arab allies.
But No 10 sources have declined to put any timetable on possible British military engagement - or whether action could begin this weekend. The BBC's Defence Correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the UK and its allies had to decide what their initial targets would be and who would conduct the missions.
'Contingency plans'
Resolution 1973 Image caption The UK (middle) was one of the ten members of the UN Security Council to vote for the resolution Imposes "ban on all flights in Libyan airspace" except for aid planes
Authorises member states to "take all necessary measures" to "protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack"
Excludes occupation force
Toughens arms embargo by calling on all member states to "inspect, in their territory, vessels and aircraft bound to or from Libya"
Widens asset freeze to include Libyan Investment Authority, Central Bank of Libya and Libyan National Oil Company among others In quotes: UK reaction In quotes: International reaction UN backs action against Gaddafi
The resolution would permit air strikes on Libyan ground troops or allow attacks on Libyan war ships if they were attacking civilians.
A former head of the UK's armed forces said the "endgame" was to remove the Gaddafi regime.
"You can't attack him, so the point is that his military capability is what is sustaining him in power at the moment and he is trying to roll the opposition forces back, so they become the focus of the allied and coalition efforts," Lord Dannatt told the BBC.
A draft UN resolution tabled on Tuesday proposed a ban on all flights in Libya, authorised member states to enforce it and called on them to participate in it.
But on Thursday the US said the UN should go further and a new strongly-worded draft resolution was put forward calling for "all necessary measures short of an occupation force" to protect civilians under threat of attack.
Following the UN vote Mr Cameron had a half-hour phone call with US President Barack Obama and a White House spokesman said the leaders would "co-ordinate closely on the next steps" in conjunction with other allies.
The unrest in Libya started after the toppling of the long-time leaders of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt earlier this year.
Libyan protesters started to demand that Col Gaddafi step down after 42 years of autocratic rule and quickly seized much of eastern Libya. |
McDonald's founder Ray Kroc opened his first restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955. It is now the site of a McDonald's museum.
· There are more than 30,000 McDonald's restaurants in 121 countries.
· One in 200 people across the world visits a McDonald's daily.
· In 1974 McDonald's opened its first restaurant in the UK. Today more than 2.5 million people in this country eat at a McDonald's every day.
· McDonald's is the largest toy distributor in the world.
· In 1996 McDonald's overtook Coca-Cola as the best-known brand in the world.
· One in three of all cattle in the US bred for meat is used by McDonald's.
· One in eight Americans has worked for McDonald's.
· The average McDonald's Big Mac bun is covered by 198 sesame seeds.
· 96 per cent of US children can identify Ronald McDonald by name - second only to Santa Claus.
· On an average day, McDonald's restaurants in the US serve 2 million pounds of ground beef and 3 million pounds of potatoes.
· A typical Big Mac burger weighs in at 550 calories and 25 grams of fat.
· In Japan, where 'r' is rarely pronounced, Ronald McDonald is Donald McDonald.
· Every day, on average, 4.2 new branches of McDonald's will open across the globe. |
Former Alabama chief justice and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore on Sept. 26, 2017. (Brynn Anderson/AP)
Roy Moore's Senate campaign was jolted by an allegation Thursday that he initiated sexual touching with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32.
Moore (R) has denied the allegations. Alabama state Auditor Jim Zeigler (R), though, is taking it a step further. In some rather remarkable and often nonsensical comments, the Moore supporter's argument isn't that Moore didn't do these things, but that even the conduct described in The Washington Post's report is a-okay with both him and the law.
Zeigler's comments came in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Let's break them down:
“There is nothing to see here,” Alabama State Auditor Jim Ziegler told the Washington Examiner. “The allegations are that a man in his early 30s dated teenage girls. Even the Washington Post report says that he never had sexual intercourse with any of the girls and never attempted sexual intercourse.”
The first problem here is that the allegation isn't just that Moore “dated” 14-year-old Leigh Corfman but, rather, that he removed her clothes and touched her, and guided her hand to touch his penis. Corfman says this was unwanted.
And regardless of whether this was consensual, this kind of activity would sure seem to be illegal. As The Post notes, Alabama law in 1979, as now, placed the age of consent at 16. It would be “sexual abuse in the second degree” for someone 19 or older to engage in sexual contact with someone younger than 16 but older than 12, and sexual contact is defined as the touching of sexual or intimate parts.
Here's more from Zeigler:
Moore never had “sexual intercourse” with the girl. Their relationship “happened almost 40 years ago.” And finally, “Roy Moore fell in love with one of the younger women.” Moore began dating his wife Kayla around this time, according to Ziegler. “He dated her. He married her, and they’ve been married about 35 years. They’re blessed with a wonderful marriage and his wife Kayla is 14 years younger than Moore.”
Moore's wife, Kayla, is indeed 14 years his junior, but the law is less concerned with age differences and more concerned with whether one of the parties is a minor who isn't able to consent. A 70-year-old and a 56-year-old is not the same thing, for example, as a 28-year-old and a 14-year-old.
And finally, the pièce de résistance:
“Take the Bible — Zachariah and Elizabeth, for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist,” Ziegler says, choosing his words carefully before invoking Christ. “Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.” “There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here,” Ziegler concluded. “Maybe just a little bit unusual.”
First, there are issues with Zeigler's Bible references. Both Zachariah and Elizabeth were elderly when John the Baptist was born; it wasn't that she was young and Zachariah was “extremely old.”
Second, comparing modern age-of-consent laws to biblical times seems to be a slippery slope. Many things from 2,000 years ago don't apply today. Girls were often betrothed early in their teenage years, for example.
And third, there is something called the virgin birth. Here is the definition of virgin. As The Post's Michelle Boorstein writes in her piece breaking this all down:
In the Bible, Mary is the mother of Jesus, and Joseph became her husband. Beliefs about the specific story of Joseph and Mary and Jesus’ birth vary widely in Christian history and across traditions. Mary is referred to in scripture as a virgin, but there is disagreement about what that means. Generally, however, Christians believe that Mary was a virgin when he was born. Joseph is usually referred to as Jesus’ “father” or a father figure. ... Multiple evangelical leaders slammed Ziegler. “Bringing Joseph and Mary into a modern-day molestation accusation, where a 32-year-old prosecutor is accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl, is simultaneously ridiculous and blasphemous,” said Ed Stetzer, a pastor and church consultant who chairs the Billy Graham Center of Church, Mission and Evangelism at Wheaton College. “Even those who followed ancient marriage customs, which we would not follow today, knew the difference between molesting and marriage.”
Further reading: "Alabama state official defends Roy Moore, citing Joseph and Mary: ‘They became parents of Jesus’" |
Santucci Farm has to dump 40,000 pounds of tart cherries on the ground in a matter of weeks, and for other growers in northern Michigan it could be even more.
GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, Mi (WPBN/WGTU) -- A Facebook post of cherries being dumped in Grand Traverse County has gone viral after being shared more than 20,000 times.
"If there was ever a time not to drop a cherry, this would be it," said Owner of Santucci Farm, Marc Santucci.
Santucci Farm has to dump 40,000 pounds of tart cherries on the ground in a matter of weeks, and for other growers in northern Michigan, it could be even more.
It’s all in order to comply with the Cherry Industry Administrative Board’s cherry marketing order to maintain a price satisfactory to the farmer.
Santucci says he’d rather sell all of his cherries for a lower price than sell some of them for a higher price and have to dump the rest.
By seeing the images of cherries being dumped, Santucci hopes to spread the word about a rule he feels needs to be changed.
He’s encouraging everyone who’s bothered by the images to write letters to congress asking for a change.
"I posted it because I want people to know that we sometimes do stupid things in this country in attempt to do the right thing -- we end up doing the wrong thing,” Santucci said. “Unless we can make the people who count understand and know what's going on, we'll never change it."
Santucci says growers themselves are not allowed to give away the cherries they have to dump. The waste cannot be donated to food pantries or shelters.
The CIAB sends people out to make sure they’re actually on the ground. The cherries are then left there to rot.
The shelf life of tart cherries is less than two days unless they’re processed, which is why even if they could give them away, it would be hard because of how many there are. |
Population Map USA States PowerPoint
Population Map USA States PowerPoint for Presentations and Reporting
Compare Population density Map – USA States – Mercator and Anamorphic Map for clear Reporting and Presentations.
Definition U.S. States: The First Administration Level is a state of the 50 constituent political entities that shares its sovereignty with the United States federal government.
The population-Values (2010 Census Data) by states (Administrative Division: Admin-level-1 = First level, State / Commonwealth, Federal district, Territories / Commonwealth, Indian reservation).
For Management-Reporting use the Anamorphic Map to present the values.
Example Data, Source: 2010 Census, Revised June 19, 2013, R2.7.
Map definition by Population Density.
The selected statistical variable is a ratio between a mass and the surface of the shape (states) to which it is attributed. Heat-Map color definition: red = max, green = min values.
For Dashboards or KPI-Reporting it can be useful to compare both maps. Use the same color ramp or Heat-Map function to give clear information.
Excel Addin-Heatmap
Use the Excel-Addin US-County Heatmap to create own Heatmaps by states or County
Source – Excel-Heatmap Addin
Preview – USA Population density 2016 (est. values)
Data Values for the Maps |
A new program that helps people living with Crohn's and colitis find washrooms was launched in Calgary Thursday.
Participating businesses will have a sign on their door that reads 'Go Here,' indicating their bathroom is free to use, no questions asked.
Bathroom emergencies are rare occurrence for most people but a daily struggle for those with Crohn's disease.
Nearly 44 per cent of people with the disease have reported a washroom accident outside their home, according to president and CEO of Crohn's and Colitis Canada Mina Mawani.
"The need to be near a washroom limits family activities, running errands, and simple outings with friends," says Mawani.
The Go Here program also offers an app that shows the nearest washroom.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi says this is about having an inclusive society.
"It's being welcoming to people who want to use the facilities that already exist, but it makes a huge difference," said Nenshi.
Other cities across Canada plan to to join the program soon. |
Ever since Google Inc. bought Motorola Mobility – the costliest acquisition in the company's history – in 2012, observers have had a hard time figuring out what the point of the deal was.
So, it seems, has Google.
The search giant announced Wednesday that it will sell Motorola Mobility to Chinese computing giant Lenovo Group Ltd. for $2.91-billion (U.S.). Less than two years ago, Google bought the cellphone maker for $12.5-billion.
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However, Google will still hold on to the vast majority of Motorola's patents – an asset of considerable value as the company struggles to defend itself against myriad lawsuits from other smartphone and tablet manufacturers, as well as so-called "patent trolls." The patents were often cited as one of the reasons Google bought Motorola.
Under the agreement, Lenovo will receive a licence to the Motorola patents.
Coming at the end of a two-week stretch that has seen the company spend billions to acquire a couple of home-automation and artificial intelligence firms, the Motorola sale signals a sharp change of direction at Google. Gone is the obsessive focus on smartphones and tablets that defined the company's last few years. In its place is a broader, longer-term strategy that seeks to capitalize on a future in which everything from glasses to thermostats are connected to the Internet and to each other.
The Motorola sale confirms what some technology industry analysts suspected – that the search engine never quite managed to make Motorola's handsets a viable part of the larger Google ecosystem. Indeed, even as Google's Android operating system became the most popular mobile software in the world, generating billions for companies such as Samsung, Motorola devices continued to make up a tiny portion of the overall market.
"Clearly Motorola was a sicker patient than Google thought it was when they bought it in 2011," said independent technology analyst Carmi Levy. "If this deal does come to fruition and it involves the entire Motorola unit, it will go down as one of Google's biggest acquisition failures."
Initially, a Google spokesperson refused to confirm the deal on Wednesday afternoon, calling it "rumour or speculation." But as news broke in various media outlets, Google was forced to issue a statement providing details of the proposed deal.
"This move will enable Google to devote our energy to driving innovation across the Android ecosystem, for the benefit of smartphone users everywhere," Google CEO Larry Page said in a statement. "As a side note, this does not signal a larger shift for our other hardware efforts. The dynamics and maturity of the wearable and home markets, for example, are very different from that of the mobile industry."
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The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, will see Lenovo make two payments to Google. The first, worth about $1.41-billion, will be paid when the deal closes, in the form of $600-million in cash and $750-million in Lenovo shares. The remaining $1.5-billion will be paid in the form of a three-year promissory note, according to Google.
For Lenovo, the deal echoes a similar acquisition that helped the company establish a much bigger footprint in the personal computer business almost a decade ago. In 2005, Lenovo purchased the Thinkpad line of computers from IBM, instantly gaining access to a well-known industry brand. Using that brand as leverage, Lenovo has become one of the biggest and fastest-growing companies in the otherwise sluggish PC market.
Lenovo may hope to achieve similar success with smartphones. Even though Motorola controls a very small portion of the overall market, it is a recognized brand, and for two years has had an inside look at the latest improvements made by Google to the Android operating system.
"Lenovo clearly hopes that lightning will strike twice," Mr. Levy said. |
A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who killed a U.S. soldier will receive millions of dollars and an apology from the Canadian government, officials announced Tuesday.
Omar Khadr will receive $10.5 million Canadian ($8 million American) after the government struck a deal with Khadr’s lawyers in June, the Associated Press reported.
Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to murdering American special forces medic U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Christopher Speer.
U.S. troops captured Khadr when he was 15 after they suspected that he threw a grenade at Speer during a firefight at a compound suspected to be under al-Qaeda’s control.
Khadr was sent to Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, where a military commission charged him with war crimes.
After Khadr pleaded guilty, a judge sentenced him to eight years in addition to time already spent behind bars. The Obama administration quietly shipped Khadr from Guantanamo to Canada in 2012 so he could serve out the rest of his sentence in his home country.
The Canadian government granted Khadr bail in May 2015 after a judge rejected the Canadian government’s request to block Khadr’s release while he appeals his conviction.
Khadr appealed the conviction because he claimed he was coerced into making a guilty plea.
A Canadian Supreme Court ruling in 2010 said Canadian intelligence interrogated Khadr at Guantanamo Bay in 2003 under “oppressive circumstances,” using tactics such as sleep deprivation to get information out of him, and then shared the information with U.S officials.
Khadr’s lawyers filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Canadian government for wrongful imprisonment, arguing that the government did not protect its own citizen and worked with the U.S. to abuse Khadr in violation of international law.
His lawyers also argue that Khadr’s father, Ahmed Said Khadr, forced Omar Khadr into war because his family briefly stayed with Osama bin Laden when he was a young boy.
Upon his release from prison in 2015, Khadr asked Canada for “a fresh start” to continue his education, with the goal of working in health care after he apologized to the families of the victims. |
Starting from scratch is a tempting idea. There is something appealing about a clean slate. Next season the Sacramento Kings will have a new coach and a new arena. Why not a whole new roster? Blowing it all up with trades, downsizing, saving money, and hoarding draft picks are something that is often thrown out there as a good strategy for the Kings to implement.
It’s not a good strategy. Not here, not anywhere in the NBA really.
People’s perception of the last few losing seasons might be a bit skewed. That is because of one constant, and that constant is DeMarcus Cousins. When people talk about blowing up the team, they pretty much mean getting rid of Cousins. They argue that he (and his attitude) is the reason the team has done so poorly. This thinking ignores the previous owners not investing in the team and outright trying to sell it off. This also includes the rotating door of coaches, some of them not cut out for a head coach position and some that were never fully supported by a chaotic front office.
There is also the new ownership group clumsily trying to figure out how to properly run an NBA franchise. On top of that, you could argue (and I am) that the last few rosters have already been blown up, with players coming and going faster than the coaches. [related-category]
But no, it’s all Boogie’s fault. The two-time All-Star who was picked All-NBA 2nd Team two years in a row is who we need to get rid of. And some people out there want to get rid of him for pennies on the dollar (*cough* The Sac Bee *cough*).
Blowing the team up, starting from scratch and rebuilding for the next several seasons is not a strategy, it’s desperation. How well has it worked out for the 76ers (belief in the system, nope), or Magic (who also just got a new coach)? Boston was successful this season, but they are still sitting on all those draft picks and they were lucky to get Isaiah Thomas who had to travel from one dumpster fire through another in Phoenix. And that’s what we all have to realize, how much luck plays into it when you try and rebuild in the NBA.
What about the Timberwolves you say or even the Cavs? Well, it took LeBron James leaving Miami to greatly help both those teams out (not to mention Cleveland’s extremely lucky lottery picks). And guess who didn’t have to blow up their roster after the arguably greatest player of this generation left them? Miami.
Miami who made the playoffs again this season. Miami who has a strong, smart front office. They have a good coach who has a system, with everybody on the same wavelength working towards the same goal. They don’t need to rebuild. Do I even have to mention the Spurs as another example?
The Kings need an owner and front office that is on the same page with a coach that can reach the players, run plays and is secure in knowing what the GM wants him to do. And the players of the team need to work hard and buy into the system.
The NBA Draft is a gamble, not our savior. The brooding Boogie is an unstoppable All-Star that the Kings have under contract at a ridiculously cheap price. Blowing up the roster makes no sense.
“Clean Slate” and “rebuilding” are just buzz words. Draft smart, don’t overpay for free agents and gather players together that complement each other. The one thing the Sacramento Kings don’t need to do is act desperate because that’s what they have been doing for the better half of a decade. |
AMID a worsening downturn, bad conditions contribute to layoffs, which reduce spending and fuel debt defaults, which create layoffs, and so on. But in Dubai, contractionary conditions are actually shrinking the population:
With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.
The government says the real number is much lower. But the stories contain at least a grain of truth: jobless people here lose their work visas and then must leave the country within a month. That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai — once hailed as the economic superpower of the Middle East — looking like a ghost town. |
Algorithm Predicts Barack Obama Will Be Re-Elected President
by Eric Schulman and Daniel Debowy, August 11, 2012
Now that both major US political parties have announced their nominees for president and vice president, the Annals of Improbable Research U.S. Presidential Election Algorithm (Debowy and Schulman 2003) can be used to predict the results of the upcoming November election.
The algorithm predicts that the Democratic ticket of Barack H. Obama II and Joseph R. Biden Jr. will win the election in November 2012.
The algorithm was developed based on the experience of the major party candidates for president and vice president in each of the 54 U.S. presidential elections between 1789 and 2000 and correctly predicted the outcome of the 2004 and 2008 U.S. presidential elections.
Background: About the election-prediction algorithm
According to the algorithm, being a United States senator does not contribute to one’s electability for president or vice president, being president contributes five electability points per year, and being vice president contributes four electability points per year, so the Obama/Biden ticket has a total electability of 36. Williard M. Romney was governor for four years, giving him 44 electability points. However, Romney is the first Mormon to be a major-party candidate for president, which subtracts 110 electability points and results in his total electability being -66. Paul D. Ryan Jr. has spent 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, giving him 14 points of vice presidential electability, so the Romney/Ryan ticket has a total electability of -52.
A flawless history of correct projections
Although the Annals of Improbable Research U.S. Presidential Election Algorithm has a 100% rate of successful predictions, the majority of Republican Party voters do not appear to have accepted the validity of this algorithm. Schulman and Debowy (2010) found nine Republican candidates who would win the November election if they were the Republican presidential nominee and Ryan was the Republican vice presidential nominee, including two who actively campaigned for president (Timothy J. Pawlenty and Ronald E. Paul) and seven who decided not to do so (George E. Pataki, Michael D. Huckabee, David H. Petraeus, John E. Bush, Haley R. Barbour, Pyush Jindal, and Sarah L. H. Palin).
The behavior of the majority of Republican primary voters in 2012 appears to be consistent with the behavior of the majority of major party primary voters in 2008 in that neither appeared to take the Annals of Improbable Research U.S. Presidential Election Algorithm into account when making their choices for presidential candidate.
In 2008, the Democrats nominated Obama/Biden (total electability of zero), the weakest ticket since Barry M. Goldwater and William E. Miller (total electability of -96) lost to Lyndon B. Johnson and Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. (total electability of 17) in 1964. However, the Republicans nominated McCain/Palin (total electability of -104), the weakest ticket since Alton B. Parker and Henry G. Davis (total electability of -110) lost to Theodore Roosevelt and Charles W. Fairbanks (total electability of 37) in 1904. As a result, Obama/Biden won the election of November 2008, becoming the weakest ticket to win a presidential election since John Adams (total electability of zero) defeated Thomas Jefferson (total electability of -88) in 1796. |
Photographed by Andrew Brusso
My route to saner eating was more or less accidental. Two years ago, I was 57 and weighed more than I ever had.When I graduated from college, I weighed 165 pounds; when I stopped smoking, about five years after that, I weighed 180. Then, when my first daughter was born and I had started writing about food and doing some serious eating and drinking, I hit 190. Over the next 20 years, I managed to gain more weight, reaching 214.
I’m not a small person, so I didn’t look that heavy (I thought), but I was overweight and developed health problems. My cholesterol was up, as was my blood sugar (there’s diabetes as well as serious obesity in my family). I had a hernia, my knees were giving out, and I’d developed sleep apnea.
As a reporter and researcher for many years, I was writing a food column called “The Minimalist” for the New York Times and a book called How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. I had (and still have) no intention of becoming a vegetarian, but I could see the writing on the wall: Industrial meat production had gone beyond distasteful and alienating to become disgusting and dangerous (its link to global warming didn’t help); traditional, natural ingredients were becoming rare; and respectable scientific studies pointed toward the health benefits of eating more plant-based foods and fewer meat-based foods.
For me, the combination of cholesterol, blood sugar, and apnea was the real trigger. My problems were scary — and, according to my doctor, all easily remedied. For the cholesterol, I could take cholesterol-lowering drugs or eat less meat; for the blood sugar, I could eat fewer sweets; for the apnea, I could lose 15 percent of my body weight.
Everything pointed to a simpler style of eating. I started following a diet that was nearly “vegan until six.” Until dinner, I ate almost no animal products and no simple carbs (no white-flour products, junk food, or sugar-heavy snacks). At dinner, I ate as I always had, sometimes a sizable meal including animal products, bread, dessert, wine — you name it — or sometimes a salad and a bowl of soup. I also took several long walks each week (my bad knees couldn’t handle more).
Though few nutritionists would disapprove, this eating plan may seem counter intuitive. The opposite schedule (eating the day’s heaviest meal for lunch or breakfast) may make more sense for many people. But this suited me. I detest overly prescriptive diets that are impossible to follow, and the point was to eat more vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains and less meat, sugar, junk food, and overrefined carbs, without giving up foods I loved.
My results were striking. I had little trouble eating this way, I began feeling and sleeping better, and I didn’t think much about it for a month or two. It just made sense. A month later, I’d lost 15 pounds. A month after that, both my cholesterol and my blood sugar were down, well into the normal range (my cholesterol went from 240 to 180). My apnea was gone, and I was sleeping through the night. |
Tyler, the Creator and Frank Ocean have worked together many times, most recently on “911 / Mr. Lonely,” from Tyler’s latest album Flower Boy. In a new interview with Zane Lowe, Tyler discusses their collaborative process and more. “We’ve never ever in our life planned a collaboration,” he explains. “I’m always in the studio just making shit and he’s like ‘where you at?’” Regarding Frank’s verse on “911 / Mr. Lonely,” Tyler says, “[Frank] was like, ‘Let me try something.’ He just started saying ‘chirp chirp chirp chirp’ about 400 fuckin’ times.” Listen to the full discussion below.
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Elsewhere, Tyler talked about Channel Orange and Blonde, which he once called “[his] favorite thing from [Frank].” He told Lowe,
Blonde is so sick. I always tell him I like that shit way better than Channel Orange—and don’t like comparing! But, the looseness of structure and the chords and shit on Blonde speaks to me more than Channel Orange. But I think Channel Orange has a little bit more pop structures, which gets to people a little more.
Tyler recently announced cassette and vinyl editions of Flower Boy, both of which are on sale through tonight. |
The market for storing electricity is drawing not only startups building new technology but also new comers that want to build and install new projects. Meet Solar Grid Storage, a two-year-old, angel-funded startup which just completed a project that mixes batteries with solar panels and electric car charging stations in Maryland.
The Philadelphia-based company is one of a growing crop of storage project developers that has materialized in recent years to stake a claim in a young market that’s being shaped by public policies to promote clean energy use and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Solar Grid’s CEO, Tom Leyden, compares his company to SunEdison (s SUNE) and PowerLight, the two early players in designing and building solar power generation projects.
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SunPower (s SPWR), the Silicon Valley-based solar panel maker, bought PowerLight in 2007. Leyden was actually an executive at PowerLight and later in SolarCity (s SCTY), before joining Solar Grid. SolarCity has been marketing solar panels with lithium-ion battery systems from Tesla Motors (s TSLA).
Solar Grid develops projects that pair an array of solar panels with energy storage equipment that could not only provide backup power but also sell energy delivery services to local utilities and grid operators. It buys all of the necessary components and hires others to create lithium-ion battery packs using cells from Panasonic or LG, the inverters and the rest of the gear. It then puts the equipment inside a steel container and ships it to a customer. The company’s intellectual property lies in the designs of its inverters and algorithms for managing the charging and discharging of batteries, Leyden said.
Solar Grid also works on lining up financing for its projects, a particularly difficult challenge given that the energy storage market is so young and many banks aren’t willing to put money into what they consider unproven technologies. In fact, two of the big obstacles for growing the energy storage market are being able to show that energy storage technologies will work as promised over time and that there is good money to be made. Wells Fargo is going as far as installing a battery system at one of its corporate buildings in Southern California to collect this type of data.
Leyden declined to divulge the sources of his project funding but called them “boutique investors.” Solar Grid’s energy storage projects for now promise to deliver returns in the range of 12 percent to 15 percent, almost twice as much as what solar projects deliver these days, he said. The premium returns are necessary to attract investors. The company focuses on projects between 250 KW to 10 MW.
Leyden is working on raising a $50 million fund to finance 50 MW of energy storage projects. The money would cover the equipment, installation, operation and maintenance of the storage equipment over 10 years, he said. The solar portion of a project would be financed separately.
Solar Grid could either develop and build energy storage projects for its customers who then own the equipment, or it could own the projects and provide the energy delivery services. Owning the projects and making sure they don’t cause too much financial burden over time requires more capital and is seen as risky in a market that is in its infancy. That’s especially true for large projects serving the utility market.
In the recently completed project in Maryland, Solar Grid provided financing along with PNC Bank and Konterra, a real estate developer. The project, which includes solar, batteries and electric car charging stations, are located at Konterra’s headquarters.
Many energy storage project developers are targeting the East Coast, including in Maryland, which is served by PJM, a grid operator that has acted quicker than its peers to set up a payment system for energy storage services. PJM and other grid operators in the country are complying with a 2011 mandate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to promote the use of energy storage to help run the electric grid smoothly, especially when an increasing amount of solar and wind electricity is flowing into the grid.
One of the ways energy storage operators make money is to send bursts of power into the grid to help the grid run at its needed frequency. Beacon Power and AES Energy are some of the energy storage companies that are selling those grid-stabilizing services within PJM, which covers parts or all of 13 states and the Washington, D.C.
California also is gearing up to be an important energy storage market. The state is working on rules that will require its utilities to use energy storage services to stabilize a grid that will get a lot more solar and wind power in order to hit its goal to have 33 percent of the electricity supplies coming from renewable sources. California already is the largest solar energy market in the country thanks to that renewable energy mandate and incentives that encourage solar panel installations at homes and businesses. |
We haven't even seen one minute of footage from American Horror Story season six, but we've already got a feeling it might be the most terrifying outing yet.
Four bone-chilling new teasers have been unveiled on the show's Twitter, leading with a girl seemingly being abducted. Oh, and her body folds in HALF as she gets taken away.
It raises the possibility that season six could be revisiting Asylum's Extraterrestrials which, in case you don't remember, were characters that had been abducting individuals, including Evan Peters's Kit Walker, as part of an unknown experiment.
Another image is taken from last week's teaser in which a maiden is being tracked up a gothic staircase by a vampiric-looking beastie.
Perhaps the most horrifying new teaser, though, sees a nurse take some garden shears to wind chimes made of teeth.
But before you start coming to your own conclusions, remember that every teaser released for season six has been designed to throw American Horror Story fans off the scent of the season's theme, which remains unknown.
Golden Globe-winning star Lady Gaga stoked the confusion too on Instagram this week in a picture evoking her Hotel bloodsucker The Countess.
Basically, we're still no closer to working out the theme for the season, but while you mull that over, we're going to watch some cute animal videos on YouTube.
American Horror Story season six premieres on September 14 on FX. |
President Trump is once again trolling the media — and looking to turn tables on the big mockfest they had planned for him — by skipping the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday.
Instead of spending the evening getting skewered by a hostile Fourth Estate and a politicized comedian, Trump has opted to throw a party of his own with thousands of his supporters in Pennsylvania.
He tweeted, “Next Saturday night I will be holding a BIG rally in Pennsylvania. Look forward to it!”
That means much of the elite media will have to hang up their tuxes and stilettos and head to the Keystone State.
Trump is again sticking it to the professionals who get paid to cover him, this time by denying them the opportunity to get dressed up and hobnob with their colleagues, and yuk it up at his expense. He’s fed up with their one-sided coverage, and he knows exactly how to hit them where it hurts.
“Over the years you make a mistake, I fully understand when they hit you, but when they make stories up, when they create sources — ’cause I believe that sometimes they don’t have sources, you know, the sources don’t exist,” Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends,” which came as he continued his verbal assault on the left-leaning press, calling news organizations like The New York Times, CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS, “fake news.”
Normally, the Sunday shows would focus on highlights from the dinner. Now Trump will own the news cycle. He’s kneecapped the event known as “nerd prom.”
At first glance it may have seemed thin-skinned of Trump to announce in February that he wouldn’t attend the dinner. But when he can’t even host the Easter egg roll without ridiculous coverage comparing his crowds to Obama’s, it’s hard to argue the point.
He’ll be the first president since Ronald Reagan to be a no-show — and Reagan bailed because he was recovering from a gunshot wound from a failed assassination attempt.
Saturday marks Trump’s 100th day in office — a key benchmark on the effectiveness of a new president.
But Trump will be able to command that narrative.
It would have been incredibly entertaining to watch Trump interact with many reporters and news outlets that he calls fake news. But it will be more fun watching him toy with them in Pennsylvania while they play to an empty seat.
Jaclyn Cashman is co-host of the “Morning Meeting” show on Herald Radio. Tweet her @JaclynCashman. |
CLOSE New threats are coming from Pyongyang as the US and South Korea prepare for joint military drills.
A U.S. Air Force U-2 spy plane takes off on the runway at the Osan U.S. Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 21, 2017. (Photo: Lee Sang-hack, AP)
SEOUL — The U.S. and South Korea started their annual joint military exercises Monday amid threats from Pyongyang that the drills could spark a “second Korean war.”
North Korea’s official government newspaper Rodong Sinmun warned against "reckless behavior driving the situation into the uncontrollable phase of a nuclear war."
The newspaper said Sunday that North Korea possessed missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland “from anywhere and anytime as it pleases.”
“The (Korean Peoples Army) is keeping a high alert, fully ready to contain the enemies. It will take resolute steps the moment even a slight sign of the ‘preventive war’ is spotted,” the article said.
The military drills, called Ulchi Freedom Guardian, are held every summer and have long been viewed by North Korea as a preparation for war. The North vows a strong military response to the exercise each year. The exercises come after North Korea threatened to launch four ballistic missiles toward the U.S. territory of Guam, although tensions have appeared to ease in recent days.
More: North Korea warns of nuclear war if U.S. drill turns to 'actual fighting'
More: Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford: War with North Korea ‘horrific’ but nukes ‘unimaginable’
Ulchi Freedom Guardian is a “computer simulated defensive exercise designed to enhance readiness, protect the region and maintain stability on the Korean peninsula," the U.S. Defense Department said.
The 11-day exercise will involve 17,500 American troops and roughly 50,000 South Korean service members, according to the Pentagon and South Korea’s Defense Ministry. The number of U.S. troops has been reduced from last year’s 25,000. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday that the reduction simply reflects a need for fewer troops and is not a result of tensions with North Korea.
United Nations Command forces from seven countries — Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom — are also participating.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Monday that the exercise was a “defensive drill” and that North Korea shouldn’t use it "as a pretext for aggravating the situation."
"North Korea must understand that it is because of its repeated provocations that South Korea and the U.S. have to conduct defensive exercises, which in turn keeps the vicious cycle going," he said during a Cabinet meeting, according to the South Korean Yonhap News Agency.
A strong showing of top U.S. military brass is on hand for the exercises. Adm. Harry Harris, head of Pacific Command; Gen. John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command; and Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, have arrived in Seoul to view drills and meet with their South Korean counterparts.
Their visits come on the heels of a trip to South Korea last week by Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Both China and Russia proposed last month a halt on the exercises in exchange for a freeze on North Korean missile tests. However, Dunford last week emphasized that the military drills were "not currently on the table as part of the negotiation at any level.”
Tensions have remained high on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea has conducted 12 missile tests in 2017, and as President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have engaged in a war of words. In July, North Korea successfully launched two intercontinental ballistic missiles, which it claims could reach the U.S. mainland.
Trump warned that North Korea would face “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if Pyongyang kept threatening the U.S.
Kim backed off the plan to fire missiles in the vicinity of the western Pacific island of Guam last week, saying he would watch "the foolish and stupid conduct of the Yankees" before deciding whether to approve plans to launch the weapons, North Korean state media reported.
That prompted Trump to tweet that the North Korean leader made a "wise and well reasoned decision."
More: Amid North Korean crisis, Guam residents rally for peace
More: What it will take to avoid a catastrophic war with North Korea
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Since I have blogged recently about the problem caused by businesses bringing offshore workers to the UK I thought I would promote a Youtube video (see below) sent in by a reader.
This video, which is part of a campaign against government policy, explains how both the UK IT profession and the UK government suffer as a result of the practice of businesses bringing cheap IT workers to the UK to replace IT staff. More to the point allowing them to class a tax free allowance as part of the salary and avoid paying tax as a result.
See these blogs I wrote last week they also explain the issue but the video makes it clear:
Offshore IT workers in the UK avoid paying taxes but are not breaking the law.
Masochistic government IT offshoring rules that reduce tax revenue and increase discontent. |
Just because Apple and the FBI avoided an historic showdown in court this week over a previously issued court order for Apple to create a so-called “government OS” that bypasses normal iPhone security measures, that doesn’t mean the whole thing was tidily wrapped up.
For one thing, no legislative precedent was set here – at the eleventh hour, the FBI said it thinks a mysterious outside party (which may have now been identified) will be able to help it get inside an iPhone used by one of the San Bernadino shooters – leaving the law enforcement agency free to pursue a similar “test case” in the future. That’s why we probably shouldn’t be surprised if Congress eventually wants to get involved, since legislative rule-making today could prevent this kind of thing from having to be worked out over a protracted court proceeding tomorrow.
So far, though, the most knowledgeable members of Congress about this issue haven’t been heard from much. That’s because, as it turns out, there aren’t all that many of them.
Of the 535 members of Congress, BGR has only been able to identify four whose education background includes a computer science degree. Perhaps just as surprising: their responses when approached by BGR about the Apple-FBI battle were not particularly uniform and can be illustrated along a continuum that ranges from the specific to the non-existent.
Let’s take a look.
DON’T MISS: All the best new iPhone and iPad features in iOS 9.3
The lawmaker geeks include three Republicans and one Democrat. All four are members of the House of Representatives. They are Democrat Ted Lieu of California and Republicans Will Hurd of Texas; Bill Johnson of Ohio; and Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
“As someone who came to Congress with a technology-heavy background, I understand that this is a complex issue, one that is above the simplistic talking points that we are currently hearing,” Johnson told BGR. “There is no doubt that Americans care deeply about their privacy. I certainly do. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a number of high-profile security breaches that have only heightened this important issue. We have a right to be concerned about what happens to our personal data – and who can access it.”
Indeed, Apple CEO Tim Cook made a point of addressing privacy and customer data during the company’s new product unveiling event in Cupertino this week, repeating several of his now-familiar talking points. That Apple has a “responsibility” to protect its customers’ privacy and their data, for example, and that Apple feels that “we owe it to our country.”
The rest of Johnson’s answer shifts back to the government:
“The number one job of the federal government is to protect the American people and defend the homeland. I am hopeful that working together with private companies, in this instance, Apple, we can come to a resolution where privacy rights are protected and government agencies get valuable information they need to continue an investigation. It’s important that we get this latest example, being the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorists, right – and we set a precedent that protects the intellectual property rights of private companies, puts the American consumer at ease when it comes to privacy rights, and allows the federal government to get the information they need to continue their important counter-terrorism work.
“I am fully committed to defeating radical Islamic terrorism and ISIS, as this is a struggle that shows no sign of ending. Times are rapidly changing, and now we are at a junction where everyone needs to buy in – private companies, the average American who uses the newest technology, and the federal government – so we can stop terrorists from using our innovative technology as a weapon against us.”
A spokesman for Rep. Hurd, meanwhile, said the congressman – who’s a former CIA case officer and formerly was a senior advisor at a cybersecurity firm – hasn’t put out a formal statement on the issue. She directed us to an appearance Hurd made on CNBC at the end of February.
Speaking on the CNBC program “Squawk Box,” Hurd said among other things that he’s against government-mandated back doors into our devices and that the FBI appears to be over-reaching in the Apple and San Bernardino-related matter.
“I don’t understand what information the FBI thinks they don’t have,” he said during his interview. “How many weeks has it been since the initial threats and the initial attack?”
RELATED: It looks like we now know who’s helping the FBI crack the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone
Lieu’s response to the court order directed at Apple is arguably the most specific and confrontational of the bunch. In a statement his office released in the immediate aftermath of Apple’s court order, Lieu addressed the “slippery slope” aspect of the issue. Cook also went there in a long interview with TIME published in recent days.
Cook: “And the way that we simply see this is, if this All Writs Act can be used to force us to do something would make millions of people vulnerable, then you can begin to ask yourself, if that can happen, what else can happen? In the next senate you might say, well, maybe it should be a surveillance OS done. Maybe law enforcement would like the ability to turn on the camera on your Mac.”
During a congressional hearing last year, Lieu told law enforcement agents there that the idea of government-mandated back doors into products is “just stupid.” Here’s the response in full from his office in the wake of the Apple court order:
“The terrorist attack in San Bernardino was horrific and the tragic loss of innocent lives demands a strong response. I have several deep concerns, however, about the unprecedented court order that forces Apple to create software it does not have in order to provide a ‘back door’ way to weaken its smartphone encryption system.
“This FBI court order, by compelling a private sector company to write new software, is essentially making that company an arm of law-enforcement. Private sector companies are not—and should not be—an arm of government or law enforcement.
“This court order also begs the question: Where does this kind of coercion stop? Can the government force Facebook to create software that provides analytic data on who is likely to be a criminal? Can the government force Google to provide the names of all people who searched for the term ISIL? Can the government force Amazon to write software that identifies who might be suspicious based on the books they ordered?
“Forcing Apple to weaken its encryption system in this one case means the government can force Apple—or any other private sector company—to weaken encryption systems in all future cases. This precedent-setting action will both weaken the privacy of Americans and hurt American businesses. And how can the FBI ensure the software that it is forcing Apple to create won’t fall into the wrong hands? Given the number of cyberbreaches in the federal government—including at the Department of Justice—the FBI cannot guarantee this back door software will not end up in the hands of hackers or other criminals.
“The San Bernardino massacre was tragic but weakening our cyber security is not the answer – terrorism succeeds when it gets us to give up our liberties and change our way of life. We can take common sense security measures without trampling on privacy rights.”
The most disappointing response to the Apple-FBI issue from one of Congress’ computer science-related majors comes from Scalise, who majored in computer programming at Louisiana State University.
After some 15-20 calls to his D.C. office and almost that many emails, BGR got … no response. All but one call to the press officer in his D.C. office came with the reply, “She’s just stepped out.”
And so we wait. To see if it will actually come to this, to possibly enlisting congress – and its small set of folks with computer degrees – to write new legislation that clears up who can get access to our phones and data, and how. |
Home / Section: Comic strips
Exclusive: See Bill Watterson’s high school cartoons
When one reads most online bios of Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, most start with a birth date and then quickly jump to his time at Kenyon College where he drew cartoons for the college paper. But before Kenyon College, Bill contributed cartoons to his high school newspaper and yearbook. To my knowledge, these cartoons have not been widely circulated – I can’t find any of them on the web.
Last week I was contacted by a former editor of the high school newspaper in Chagrin Falls, OH where Bill grew up. She was the paper’s editor during the 1973-1974 school year when Bill was a sophomore. She describes 15 year-old Bill as quiet and reserved, “but unlike my other classmates, he always turned his work in by the deadline!”
This editor has rediscovered several copies of three different issues of the high school paper containing Bill’s early work and she’d like to find a home for these issues with one or more collectors. She has 21 copies of the May 13, 1974 which contains two of his comics. She also has seven copies of a Nov. 6, 1973 issue also containing two of cartoons. From her description she has two copies of one other issue that contains one comic.
If you would like to own one or more of these issues, please contact me ([email protected]) and I’ll put you in contact with the editor. Serious inquiries only, please.
With that said, let’s check out some of Bill’s earliest work:
Cartoon accompanying story of a fund raiser for Prom.
Making fun of the cafeteria food
A cartoon regarding “the annual battle of the classes on the football field”
In the comments, Brian Fies notes the rapid progression some artists experience during those early years. What we’re seeing above is a very non-exceptional high school artist. When we look at a mere three years later (1977, see below), we see a giant leap forward in artistry. Two years beyond that we see Watterson’s style starting to imagine. See examples below. These images below are pulled from the Rare Bill Watterson Art web site, a great resource on in the wild sightings of his work.
Here’s the artwork he did for the cover of a book of editorial cartoons (1977)
Here’s one of his first cartoons at Kenyon College.
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Experts are keeping an eye on several locations where ISIS may recognize formal affiliates in the future. Abu Sayyaf, a militant group in the Philippines that has already vowed allegiance to ISIS and carried out multiple abductions of foreign nationals, is seen as a likely candidate, as is an affiliate in Bangladesh, where ISIS-linked terrorists claimed credit for bombings of Shiite mosques last fall and a string of recent hacking deaths, including an academic and a Hindu tailor.
Other possibilities include Tunisia, which has exported the highest number of foreign fighters to ISIS of any country, and Somalia. ISIS claimed responsibility for two high-profile mass killings in Tunisia last year, both of which targeted tourist spots. In Somalia, ISIS has also been trying to attract enough defectors from the Al Qaeda-linked group Al Shabaab to declare an affiliate.
Beyond its affiliates, ISIS has absorbed an unprecedented number of foreign fighters from dozens of countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe. In its propaganda, ISIS advertises its ability to attract foreign recruits as a way to project the reach of the caliphate. While the wilayats serve as outposts for recruiting, carrying out attacks and gaining territory, the foreign recruits can be used to export terrorism.
“Tackling ISIS affiliates around the world must start with weakening or eradicating the organization in Iraq and Syria first.”
Authorities believe that a cell of French and Belgian ISIS recruits carried out the November 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, as well as the March 2016 suicide bombings in Brussels that claimed at least 30 lives.
Most concerning, officials say, is that the Paris and Brussels attackers represent only a small fraction of foreign fighters that have left Europe to join ISIS. The International Center for Counter-Terrorism -- The Hague estimated in April that between 3,900 and 4,290 fighters had traveled from Western Europe to join ISIS or other groups in Iraq and Syria.
Fighters from Europe in Iraq and Syria France: >900
Germany: 720 - 760
United Kingdom: 700 - 760
Belgium: 420 - 516
Sweden: 250 - 300
Austria: 230 - 300
The Netherlands: 220
Spain: 120 - 139
Denmark: 125
Italy: 87 Source: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague
The challenge authorities have had is tracking how many come back, and how many returnees are likely to carry out attacks. The Hague estimates that 30 percent of foreign fighters from Western Europe returned to their home countries, but it points out that "Not all foreign fighters are terrorists, and not all terrorists are foreign fighters."
European and Iraqi intelligence officials told the Associated Press following the Brussels attack that an estimated 400 to 600 ISIS fighters were trained specifically to carry out attacks in Europe.
ISIS has used its online magazine, Dabiq, to articulate the goal of "eliminating the grayzone" by using attacks to turn Western societies against their Muslim populations, thereby expanding the pool from which it can recruit.
Clint Watts, Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, is skeptical of ISIS's capacity for such a "grand design." He says while European recruits may be driven by personal vengeance, for ISIS, such terrorist attacks are retaliation for Europe's bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria. Watts said these attacks also give ISIS a moment in the spotlight, even as it loses territory in Syria and Iraq.
"You can do five attacks in North Africa, and you get a fraction of the media coverage you get for 30 people in Brussels."
As with the expansion-through-affiliates strategy, it all comes back to increasing the sphere of ISIS's seeming influence, said Khatib of Chatham House.
"ISIS tells its followers around the world to engage in opportunistic attacks whenever and wherever they can," she said. "That's part of the drive to present the organization as having global influence."
It's also why, Khatib said, one key to stopping the expansion of ISIS is for the West and its allies in the Middle East to eliminate the impression that ISIS central is "seemingly robust."
"Tackling ISIS affiliates around the world must start with weakening or eradicating the organization in Iraq and Syria first." |
Heat Energy - Heat occurs when MOVING PARTICLES GENERATE FRICTION through collisions. KINETIC THEORY states that all matter is made up of particles that are constantly in motion. Pick a particle in the simulation and follow it for a whole cycle of random motion. Heat occurs whenever two particles come in contact. The faster the particle, the higher its temperature. The slower the particle, the lower its temperature. A particle that isn't moving has NO temperature. This is called absolute zero. You may find a particle that seems to be still for a moment but it won't be long before it is knocked around by a faster one! ADDING heat to particles will cause two things... 1. SPEED UP 2. SPREAD OUT (EXPAND) REMOVING heat from particles will cause two OPPOSITE things to happen... 1. SLOW DOWN 2. GET CLOSER TOGETHER (CONTRACT) examples of examples of thermal expansion Thermal Energy (heat) is not the same as temperature. Heat energy Temperature The total amount of friction between all the particles in a substance. Can be calculated with the formula: H=mc t Heat = (mass)(specific heat)(change in temperature) The average speed of the particles in a substance Measured with a thermometer. metric: degrees Celsius or Kelvin English: Fahrenheit Compare a burning match with an iceberg.. Which has a higher temperature? Which has more thermal energy? The match has faster moving particles than the iceberg. A thermometer would read higher in the flame than buried in ice. A burning match has a higher temperature than an iceberg. The iceberg has a GREAT deal more molecules moving around than the match stick. Try melting an iceberg with a match. The iceberg has more heat (thermal energy) than a burning match. Not convinced yet? Try this question. Would you rather get a $1000 bill or a penny from everyone in St. Louis? A penny isn't much (like the motion of ice particles) but when multiplie a few million times it amounts to a prize much greater than the large bill. Heat flows from HOT to COLD until the temperatures are the same. When objects have the same temperature we say they are in " equilibrium ". HomeLab: Go to your refrigerator and feel around the back. What do you feel? You should be feeling warmer. This is the heat that used to be in your food. The refrigerator pumps the heat from the inside to the back. As long as it is plugged in, the inside will be losing its heat. Most people would say it "feels" cold in there. Challenge Question: You take a temperature reading in the kitchen. If you opened the refrigerator door and left it open, what would happen to the temperature in the kitchen? It is important to understand that there is no such thing as cold! "Hot" and "cold" are words that DESCRIBE the amount of heat. If I give you money you would be "rich". If I take your money you could be described as "poor". I cannot give you poor. If I give you heat energy you would be "hot". If I take away your heat energy you could be described as "cold". I cannot give you cold. I can only give and take HEAT Most people don't quite GET this point. For example, it's a cold winter day and you leave the door open when coming in from playing in the snow. Mom screams from the other room "CLOSE THE DOOR, YOU'RE LETTING IN THE COLD!!" You could say "Uh-hem, Mother, I'm not letting in the cold. I learned in science that basic laws of physics state that heat will flow TO a space that has less heat. Therefore, when I leave the door open I'm really letting OUT the heat that you have spent your hard-earned money on to keep our house comfortable." (I wouldn't recommend it though. Just close the door and be happy you're alive. Needless to say, you should probably not give Mom a lesson on keeping heat OUT when you leave the door open in the summer when the AC is on OR when you hang out with the refrigerator open when you choose your snack. ) Heat is transferred in 3 different ways 1. conduction direct contact between objects of different temperatures. If you were to touch a hot skillet the heat energy would travel FROM the skillet TO your hand. If you hold a snowball in your hand, it feels cold because the heat is leaving FROM your body and going TO the snow. The snow melts because of YOUR heat! You come into science class and the chair is cold. Sitting on a cold chair will start a battle between the particles in your body and the particles of the chair. Heat flows from hot to cold until the temperatures (speed of the particles) are the same. Eventually the chair will feel warm. This means you are not needing to pass heat to the chair anymore. You and the chair are the same temperature. If a material lets conduction happen quickly we say it is a "good CONDUCTOR" (it would then be a poor insulator) examples include: copper, iron, gold, metals in general If a material makes conduction happen slowly we say it is a "good INSULATOR" (it would then be a poor conductor) examples include: cotton, wool (hair),carpet, plastics, air, water, styrofoam, a vacuum (empty space) Water is a fantastic absorber of heat. Check out this demonstration below. As long as there is water in the cup the paper WILL NOT BURN! Heat is transferred in 3 different ways 2. convection the flow of heat through liquids or gases (fluids) Watch what happens when the red and blue dye reveal the current flow in this aquarium. This flow is a great example of CONVECTION! DAYTIME SEA BREEZE Imagine Florida being heated by the sun. The air above Florida speeds up, spreads out, becomes less dense and rises. The cool air from the Gulf, Atlantic and Caribbean moves in to take its place. This is called a sea breeze. At night the reverse takes place because the land is cooler than the water. NIGHTTIME LAND BREEZE When warm moist air is lifted into the cooler atmosphere by convection, clouds are formed. Thunderstorms are the result of incredible convection. Watch this "supercell" cumulonimbus cloud form. Heat is transferred in 3 different ways 3. radiation -an electromagnetic wave at the speed of light (infrared) Click on "Radiant" energy to learn more about heat that is really a form of LIGHT. A campfire gives off all three heat transfers. The logs and stones get HOT. Touching the logs would transfer heat to you. This is conduction. The heated air rises above the campfire. Cool air makes the camper's back cold. This is convection. The marshmallows are being cooked and the front of the camper is becoming warm. This is infrared radiation. Some things heat up quicker than others. because they are made of different materials It's 2:00 in the afternoon and not a cloud in the sky. You've been under the shade of your umbrella for a while and you want to take a swim. You step out barefoot from your umbrella and begin walking across the beach to the ocean. OUCH! is an understatement. The sand is painfully hot! You run across the sand as fast as you can. Finally you splash into the cool blue ocean. Your feet don't seem to be burning anymore. Why? The sun has been beating on the sand AND the ocean equally all day long. Why would the sand be HOT and the ocean NOT? Answer #1: The ocean is bigger than the beach. It takes more heat energy to raise the temperature of big things. Answer #2: The ocean is a fluid. The heat is constantly being moved around. Answer #3: Water and sand have different SPECIFIC HEATS. Specific heat is the amount of energy it takes 1 gram of a substance to raise in temperature by 1 degree Celsius. Specific heat tells us how quickly a substance will heat up or cool off. Download a chart listing the specific heat of many substances HERE. Don't even think about memorizing it though...that's why we make charts in the first place. One day you may use these numbers so much you remember them but not yet. Some things heat up quicker than others. because they are different colors. When light hits an object , two things can happen to the energy... 1. light is absorbed by the object and transformed into HEAT 2. light is reflected away still as light. Black ABSORBS all of the colors of the rainbow. White REFLECTS all of the colors of the rainbow. Colored objects reflect SOME and absorb SOME. We "see" the only colors that are reflected off the object to our eyes. More absorbed light will equal more heat! If enough heat is added or removed the particles will CHANGE STATE. |
Story highlights A new poll has Kelly Ayotte trailing badly behind her Democratic challenger, Maggie Hassan
Ayotte has struggled with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket
Washington (CNN) A key GOP interest group is set to run a new television ad calling on New Hampshire voters to re-elect their Republican senator as a check and balance for the White House.
The ad from the US Chamber of Commerce does not explicitly say the group believes Hillary Clinton will be president, but the intent is to make clear to voters that possibility is very real.
"America's future is far from certain," the narrator says over a picture of an empty presidential debate stage, followed by one of the White House.
"But no matter who the president is, New Hampshire needs a strong voice in the US Senate," the ad continues, declaring that incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte works across the aisle to get things done.
The ad reflects a growing sense among the establishment wing of the party that the White House is increasingly out of reach for its nominee, Donald Trump. Many Republicans are now shifting their focus to Capitol Hill, where the GOP's control of the Senate is on the line. Even the House, long seen as safely in Republican hands, could also be in play.
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Conservationists are asking for help naming a rare baby giraffe. The female calf was born at the Leo Zoological Conservation Center on Friday, and she needs a name. The unnamed baby is a Rothschild giraffe, which are rare and and classified as endangered.
The new addition was born to “Petal,” who is around 6 years old. Conservationists say she was standing independently and nursing in less than a half hour. The new baby is reported to be thriving and strong as she has bonded with Petal and is being well cared for.
As reported by Today, Marcella Leone, who founded and directs the conservation center, is pleased with the giraffe’s excellent health. She notes that the baby giraffe is still a newborn and will need to be monitored, but she is confident that she will continue to thrive.
Leone states that the birth was important to the center and the survival of the subspecies. The new baby is the conservation center’s fifth Rothschild giraffe. Worldwide there are approximately 670 of the subspecies left.
The Leo Zoological Conservation Center is seeking help to name the rare baby giraffe. Suggestions can be made on the website until Friday March 29. Zookeepers will choose the top ten names, and director Leone will make the final decision. The winning name is expected to be announced early next week.
The conservation center began when the founders transformed a gold course into an equestrian facility. In 2009 the Lionshare Educational Organization was founded, adding a conservation center.
The center is a state-of-the art facility dedicated to enhancing “the health and well-being of the animals’ bodies and minds.” As founder and director, Leone has dedicated her life to conservation, rescue, and rehabilitation of animals.
The giraffes were named after Lord Walter Rothschild, who worked with the subspecies during the 1800’s. The remaining Rothschild giraffes are primarily found in Kenya and Uganda.
Anyone who would like to help name the rare baby giraffe can visit the conservation’s website for more information.
[Image via deviantArt] |
Several mass killers, including Anders Breivik, Jared Lee Loughner and Adam Lanza, were active players of violent video games, including "Call of Duty.," shown here.
A decade after Evan Ramsey sneaked a 12-gauge shotgun into his Alaska high school, where he gunned down a fellow student and the principal and wounded two others, he described how playing video games had warped his sense of reality.
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“I did not understand that if I…pull out a gun and shoot you, there’s a good chance you’re not getting back up,” Ramsey said in a 2007 interview from Spring Creek Correctional Center, in Seward, Alaska. “You shoot a guy in ‘Doom’ and he gets back up. You have got to shoot the things in ‘Doom’ eight or nine times before it dies.”
Since Ramsey’s 1997 rampage, several other mass killers, including Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, have been linked to violent video games. And some experts worry that as the games get more violent and more realistic, so does their power to blur the line between fantasy and reality in alienated gamers.
SPECIAL SERIES Editor's Note: This is Part One in a series exploring the connection between video games and violence. Part One: 'Training simulation:' Mass killers often share obsession with violent video games Part Two: 'Frag him:' With today's ultraviolent video games, how real is too real? With today's ultraviolent video games, how real is too real? Part Three: 'Watch this:' How ultraviolent films differ from ultraviolent games How ultraviolent films differ from ultraviolent games Part Four: 'Case study: ' Has Grand Theft Auto finally grown up?
"Doom," the computer video game Ramsey described, was all the rage in the 1990s, but primitive by today’s standards, where gamers can play first-person shooters with movie-like graphics on high definition televisions.
“More than any other media, these video games encourage active participation in violence,” said Bruce Bartholow, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, who has studied the issue. “From a psychological perspective, video games are excellent teaching tools because they reward players for engaging in certain types of behavior. Unfortunately, in many popular video games, the behavior is violence.”
Harris and Klebold, who killed 12 fellow students and a teacher in 1999, were reportedly obsessed with “Doom.” Seung-Hui Cho, the 23-year-old who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University in 2007, was, according to the Washington Post, a big fan of violent video games, specifically “Counterstrike.”
Three more recent killers, Aurora, Colo., movie theater gunman James Holmes, Jared Lee Loughner, who killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabby Giffords, in a 2011 Arizona shooting, and Breivik, who killed 77 people in Oslo, all were active video game players.
Adam Lanza, the troubled 20-year-old behind last December’s school shooting in Connecticut which left 20 children and six adults dead, was an avid player of violent video games.
In some cases, murderers appear to have been reenacting specific video game episodes when they killed in real life.
“Anders Breivik said he actually used his video game ‘Call of Duty’ to train for mass murder,” Dr. Paul Weigle, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Joshua Center, in Enfield, Conn., told FoxNews.com. “He called it training simulation. And certainly there were some reports Adam Lanza saw Breivik as a rival, and he was also engaged in shooting games and even the same one.”
Wiegel also cited the case of Devin Moore, an Alabama teen with no history of violence when he was brought in by police on a minor traffic violation. Once inside the police station, he took a gun from a police officer and shot three officers, then stole a police cruiser to make his escape.
'It’s quite possible that playing this script out numerous times in the game influenced his decision-making -- and that is in fact what he said.' - Dr. Paul Weigle, child and adolescent psychiatrist
"Life is a video game,” Moore, who said he was inspired by the game ‘Grand Theft Auto,’" told police later. “Everybody's got to die sometime."
“It’s quite possible that playing this script out numerous times in the game influenced his decision-making, and that is, in fact, what he said,” Wiegel said.
Advocates of victims of mass shootings have taken aim at the companies turning profits in the multibillion-dollar gaming industry. The parents of the victims killed or injured by Michael Carneal, a 14-year-old who fired upon a group of classmates at Heath High School in West Paducah, Ky., in 1997, filed suit against a host of video game manufacturers in relation to Carneal’s obsession with violent games including “Doom” and “Mortal Kombat.”
The case was dismissed in 2001, with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that it was "simply too far a leap from shooting characters on a video screen to shooting people in a classroom."
Several experts agree with the court decision, telling FoxNews.com that the link is either inconclusive, or that playing violent video games can at most be just one of several causes that prompts people to kill.
“I think it’s the wrong question -- whether there is a link between mass shootings and violent video game play,” Dr. Doug Gentile, a research psychologist and associate professor at Iowa State University, told FoxNews.com. “I understand people want to look for a culprit, but the truth of the matter is that there is never one cause. There is a cocktail of multiple causes coming together. And so no matter what single thing we focus on, whether it be violent video games, abuse as a child, doing drugs, being in a gang -- not one of them is sufficient to cause aggression. But when you start putting them together, aggression becomes pretty predictable.”
Dr. Phyllis Koch-Sheras, past president of the American Psychological Association’s Society of Media Psychology and Technology, said the link between fantasy violence on computer or television screens and real violence that leaves people injured or dead needs more study.
“We have to be very careful about saying what causes what,” Koch-Sheras said. “There is a lot of debate on the issue. But this much is certain: We need to definitely be studying this more before the violent video games run amok.” |
The cast and crew of “Romantic Doctor Kim” have been rewarded with a vacation!
On January 11, a source from SBS’s “Romantic Doctor Kim” revealed, “Starting from January 20 to 24, [the cast and crew] will be leaving for a vacation to Cébu, Philippines as a reward.”
The source continued, saying, “Han Suk Kyu and Seo Hyun Jin will unfortunately not be attending the vacation due to their personal schedules, but the other actors will be going on vacation.”
Meanwhile, SBS’s “Romantic Doctor Kim” has been increasing in ratings with every episode. The latest episode of the drama reached 26.7 percent ratings nationwide according to Nielsen Korea. The drama will be airing a prequel episode featuring a special appearance from Kim Hye Soo on January 17.
Source (1) |
The road bond has passed, and jobs are ready to be filled in the Division of Highways before those projects get started.
The road projects under the amendment are expected to create thousands of jobs throughout the next several years, but there are about 500 that need filled now in the Division of Highways.
Right now the positions vary from inspectors for road and bridges, licensed commercial drivers, transportation workers, engineers, human resources representatives, finance and maintenance workers.
The Department of Transportation is in the recruitment process now and they anticipate that the list of 30 plus road projects will require up to 500 Division of Highways employees.
Director of Communications Brent Walker explained the hiring process will require a lot of work internally.
Once positions are filled, the specific road projects can be hired out to contractors. Walker said the Division of Highways will be working with Workforce West Virginia and the contractor’s association to find contracted workers to then bring in the thousands of jobs these projects will require throughout the next several years.
"Through the recruiting process to our team, to working with the private sector and getting new members to their team, I think it really can be part of what gov. Justice called a road to prosperity amendment but more of a road to prosperity economy recovery,” Walker said.
Right now, Walker said if you are a potential applicant for one of those positions, go to the Division of Personnel as the hiring process is getting started and let them know you are interested. The Division of Highways will also be visiting engineering schools like Marshall, West Virginia University and WVU Tech for job fairs. |
The film of a 1965 party at Moe’s Books that was recently discovered in the Berkeley dump was made by an Academy Award nominated screenwriter who was just starting out in the business when he shot the footage.
David Peoples, who arrived in Berkeley with his wife Janet in 1959 to attend Cal, shot the film of Moe Moskowitz arriving at his store on Telegraph Avenue in a Rolls Royce, dressed in a top hat, tails, and white gloves. Peoples had not watched the film in decades, and was surprised when a friend, who had seen the footage on Berkeleyside, contacted him to say it was on the Internet.
For Doris Moskowitz, the daughter of Moe and the current owner of Moe’s Books, finding out who made the film of the legendary party was a satisfying ending to a story that began when a scavenger brought the found footage into the store in November.
“Finding out that the maker of the film is wonderful guy who was nominated for as Oscar (who happens to be my best friend’s mom’s high-school friend) is surreal,” Moskowitz wrote in an email. “I love having the explanation for why the film feels complete even though it is less than three minutes. It tells a story about my dad that I had in my mind perfectly. (It’s) crisp, composed, complete. Finding him explains why this is so. Another cool thing is that it helps fill in the blanks around who was here at the store in the early days.”
Peoples was also delighted that the two-minute 41 second film – which had never been publicly shown – was suddenly being seen after 50 years.
“I think it’s fantastic, “ said Peoples, 75, who went on to write numerous lauded screenplays, including for the Academy Award-nominated Unforgiven, Blade Runner, 12 Monkeys, Lady Hawke, and The Day After Trinity.
When Peoples shot the footage of Moe Moskowitz getting out of a Rolls Royce and striding triumphantly into his store on Telegraph, he was just 25 and at the start of his career in the film business. He had moved from Connecticut to Berkeley to study English, and, after his graduation from Cal in 1962, went to work as a copy boy at the San Francisco Examiner to support his wife, Janet, and their two young daughters.
Peoples had long wanted to be a filmmaker, but had been rejected from film school. He eventually started to volunteer in the film department at KQED at a time when the legendary Irving Saraf, who was influenced by cinema verité and the work down by the Canadian Broadcasting network, led the department. Saraf shot documentaries and news footage all over the Bay Area. Peoples was eventually hired as a film editor at KQED.
The streets of Berkeley in the 1960s were teeming with protests, from the Free Speech movement to the fight for People’s Park to the anti-war movement. Influenced by Saraf, Peoples shot footage whenever he could, including the night that Moe Moskowitz threw a party with wine and champagne at his new store on Telegraph Avenue.
Peoples never did anything with the film. (He didn’t think it was particularly special.) He went on in 1968 to make a film about the Vietnam Way with Country Joe and the Fish, who also lived in Berkeley, and eventually made a living as a freelance film editor.
Peoples soon put down his camera and picked up his pen. He wrote Unforgiven (then called The Cut-Whore Killings) around 1976, but it wasn’t produced until Clint Eastwood made it into a movie 1992. He also wrote and directed Hero and other films.
Peoples’ wife, Janet, also became a screenwriter after working as a nurse and as a teacher at Merritt College, where her students included Huey Newton and Bobby Seal, who later went on to form the Black Panthers. The couple worked together on Jon Else’s documentary about J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Time After Trinity. They eventually decided to set aside their separate careers and write together. (They figured that co-writing would put them on the same vacation schedule.)
In the meantime, after running out of room at his North Berkeley home, Peoples put the footage of Moe Moskowitz arriving at his bookstore and other canisters of film in Extra Space Storage on Cedar Street. It sat there for three decades. In 2014, Peoples decided to empty his storage space. “It was costing me a fortune,” he said.
Peoples tried to find people and institutions to take his film, which was mostly news footage of the 1960s, but was only partially successful. He gave away some film to Urban Ore and some to San Francisco State University. “A lot of the stuff I had to throw out,” Peoples said.
But he didn’t think he threw away the footage of Moe’s party. He thought he had moved it back to his garage. But there was some sort of mix-up with the people helping to dispose of the contents of the storage locker and that footage made its way to the Berkeley transfer station on Second Street.
A scavenger picking through the dump came upon a few boxes of old film in November and saw “New Mo Cut” written on one can. The scavenger, who didn’t want his name used, unrolled the film and saw pictures of what looked like Moe Moskowitz. He was one of the store’s regular customers and he took the footage to the bookstore. Doris Moskowitz then asked Gibbs Chapman, a film technician for the Pacific Film Archive, and a customer, to repair the film.
Doris Moskowitz put the footage up on Moe’s Facebook page and contacted Berkeleyside. She didn’t know who made the film, only that it showed this 1965 party that was somewhat infamous.
Michael Hackenberg, a book dealer, saw the footage on Berkeleyside and emailed John Levy, a friend and client who had lived in Berkeley since the 1950s. He thought Levy, who had also shot footage during the turbulent 1960s, might know who made the film. It took Levy just a few seconds to realize that Peoples must have made the film. Levy and Peoples had been close in the 1960s, but the two men hadn’t seen one another in a decade. But Levy remembered Peoples talking about Moe.
“I knew right away it had to be David,” said Levy. “David was one of the first people I knew who liked Moe. I found Moe a bit rude. He was a character and David liked characters.” So Levy called up Peoples to tell him about the film.
When Peoples saw the film it was better than he remembered. “I thought someone had done a brilliant job of editing,” he said. It turns out “I had done a better job than I thought.”
Peoples thinks the party was to celebrate the opening of Moe’s Books at 2476 Telegraph Ave. Doris Moskowitz is less certain about this. Moe Moskowitz opened his first bookstore, Paperback Books, on Shattuck Avenue in 1959 and kept it there until 1961, according to Doris. He then operated Rambam from 1961-1963/1964 in the space on Telegraph Avenue now occupied by Shakespeare & Co. Moe Moskowitz then moved across the street to 2476 Telegraph and named the store Moe’s Books. In the film, there is a sign hanging off the Rolls Royce reading “Moe’s Books, To the Trade since 1965,” adding credence to Peoples’ memory that the party was to celebrate the grand opening.
Doris Moskowitz is hoping people will help identify those in the film. One of the party’s attendees has already been identified: the bearded man at the end of the video is Max Scherr, who ran the Steppenwolf Café at 2139 San Pablo Ave. for years. He sold it in 1965 for $10,000 and used the funds to start the Berkeley Barb, one of Berkeley’s most famous underground newspapers, in August 1965.
The story of finding the film in the dump and resurrecting it is prompting local filmmaker Siciliana Trevino to make a 15 to 20 minute documentary of the lost and found footage of the party at Moe’s Books in 1965. She is seeking funds to complete the project.
For Doris Moskowitz, finding the film and discovering that Peoples was the filmmaker is a boost to her psyche.
“I feel amazed and so deeply grateful that this could wash up on the shore,” wrote Moskowitz. “If I ever needed a sign that I am in the right place doing the right things by keeping the store going during this very difficult time, then this was it. Like a shot in the arm or sign of support from the universe, I feel so glad that I have stayed here tending Moe’s long enough for this to have arrived.”
“I really loved my dad. I thought that he embodied all the fun in the world and I had been so sad to miss this party, but what could I do, I hadn’t even been born yet.
“I think one reason why the film seems important to others is that it speaks of a time before Telegraph lost its sense of humor. I feel delighted to share it with people who might also enjoy the absurdity of his tux and the surreal buoyancy of his face.”
Related:
Film of famous Moe’s Books party found at Berkeley dump (02.20.15)
Moe’s Books gets $7,000 from author James Patterson (6.11.14)
Berkeley’s Moe’s Books honored with historical plaque (02.11.14)
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Now that the special election is over, the mainstream press can stop reporting on Alabama as if it were Mars. Have some sympathy with the voters in this state, please. Not for the first time, a populist demagogue snagged the Republican nomination. His opponent had all the predictable views of the Democrats, which is to say similarly attached to an old-world model of political control.
Those who held their nose and voted for the Republican didn't like his antics or views; they simply observed that once these people take office, they aren't even real people with much decision-making power. They just become part of one of two tribes that compete and cooperate to rule everyone in arbitrary ways. Choosing between the tribes is a strange calculation based on value primacy, life priority, and calculation concerning the least-dangerous threat.
The left is getting nuttier, the hard right is getting scarier, and the entire enterprise of political control seems ever more outmoded. The Alabama case provided no good option for people. It’s no one’s fault in particular that this happens. We’ve all been here before, as recently as the 2016 presidential election. This problem has been building for decades and is likely to get worse, as the fanatics who inhabit these realms become ever more intense.
The left is getting nuttier, the hard right is getting scarier, and the entire enterprise of political control seems ever more outmoded. Over the last century, we’ve seen these gigantic government institutions with hegemonic power. All that remains is the struggle for who gets to control them and these elections are the public vehicle we’ve traditionally relied upon to render a decision.
It was once believed that mass elections like this would bring peaceful outcomes to the struggle. Not so any more. It only pushes the conflicts into the future. The seething over the results begins as soon as they are announced, and the cries for revenge follow in short order. It is particularly dangerous when the results track racial and gender demographics so closely, inviting everyone involved to regard his or her neighbor as an enemy.
This winner of this election declared that his victory had united the state. That’s absurd. The losers will be madder than ever and swear that they too will have their day.
Direct Elections
It’s a decent time to remember that under the original US Constitution, the Senate was not supposed to be decided by a people’s vote. The Senate was appointed by state legislators. The idea was to temper the populism of the House of Representatives, ensure that every state had solid representation as a regional government, and provide some stability to foil democratic upheaval.
Then the Progressive Era came along, with its near-religious attachment to voting as a means of decision making, its aspiration for a unity state, and its distrust of constitutional restraint on the powers of the federal government. In 1913, the 17th amendment of the US Constitution was ratified. The stated intention was to eliminate perceived corruption and legislative deadlocks.
Sure enough, it did end some deadlocks, enabling an expansion of government power that would not have otherwise been possible. It also fundamentally changed the structure and political dynamic of Congress itself. The devolved structure of American government was upended and political rights of the states declined. The Senate became another version of the House, directly elected and thereby subject to the same demagoguery, factionalism, and demographic recrimination that characterized elections for the House.
Indeed, the struggle never ends, but it really should.
If you understand something of the times in which this amendment passed, you can discern the whole motivation: unleash centralized power to lord it over the whole nation, without the limiting factors of the stodgy, regionally attached, and power jealous Senate filled with people who actually believed in the idea of federalism.
It was all of a piece: the creation of the Federal Reserve, the legalization of income taxation at the federal level, and the direct election of the Senate. It was a triple blow to the original constitutional structure designed to limit government power.
Alabama Decided Nothing
The morning after the amazing display of the special elections, we are being told precisely what the voters decided in Alabama. In fact, the voters as a whole decided nothing. And President Trump, who thrives on conflict above all else, tweeted the point. “The Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!”
Indeed, the struggle never ends, but it really should. It’s hard to imagine who precisely benefits from these frenzies besides the rulers who gather the spoils from this bloodsport. And part of doing that is to render all results in absolutist terms: this person won and this person lost. But that’s just a numbers game, and heavily influenced by voter turnout.
In reality, the voting decision is taken on the margin. You very likely vote for someone not because you like him or her but because you fear the alternative even more. When elections become polarized, the hard core begin to rally as if losing were an existential threat. The sound bites become short, the talking points more incendiary, and the incentive to lie and smear rises.
This election served as a very public reminder (as if you needed one) that politics has become as preposterous as it is dangerous. What’s so frustrating about these election spectacles is that they have nothing to do with creating the good life. For that we have to look elsewhere, such as the newly emerging light we are seeing on the economic horizon. For the first time in decades, there is a chance that the job market is becoming active again, that incomes will rise, that inflation is solidly tamed, that the young generation will have new opportunities, that new products and inventions will continue to improve our lives.
None of this has anything to do with smears, epic struggles, revenge fantasies, and winner-take-all scenarios. The prospect of an improved economic environment is due to market forces that are gradually crawling out from under the burdens of bureaucracy, taxation, and regulatory strangulation that has characterized the work of government in all living memory. If we follow this light far enough, we can see a better way toward social and economic organization, one that relies on the voluntary means rather than the impositions of government power whether elected or unelected.
This election served as a very public reminder (as if you needed one) that politics has become as preposterous as it is dangerous, the prospect of ruling other people will always attract manipulative psychopaths, and government as we know it is a truly terrible way to order society. |
I received a great question about model data recently. A question I hear a lot that is about an extremely common situation that most Angular developers will face. The reason I think it comes up is that there are many examples showing different ways to code the situation, none of which are wrong, and none of which are absolutely right.
I found myself typing up the answer and realized that this is a great opportunity to share the thought process on how I think about these situations. You may agree with my conclusion, or you may disagree, and that’s cool. We’ll still be friends :) But I think what’s most important is to walk along the thought process so you can decide for yourself.
Sharing Data Among Controllers
Here is the question I received (in paraphrased format to shorten it)
Imagine we have a controller for the list of items. The Controller gets its data from some source such as a route's resolve . Where should I store the data? Is it architecturally correct to store it in the service right after the controller has been initialized and clean up the service in $on('destroy') callback? Or should I store the data in the $scope, for example, and call the service for saving/getting the data?
Laying out the situation, I imagine a route that has a resolve function that might call a customerService.getCustomers . This resolve could then inject its results into a CustomersController . Once in the controller, the data can be filtered, edited, or whatever. Then when the data changes, do we send that changed data back to a service, maybe even the same service customerService , and have it make the $http calls to update it on the back-end?
Or another options the author lays out is keeping the data in a service where it can be shared. This type of service acts as a client side model. This scenario might have the resolve get the data from customerService , then add it to a client side model customersModel , and then inject the model into the CustomersController . This allows the controller to manipulate the data in a Singleton service that can be shared among controllers.
The author goes on to outline the differing opinions on his team …
"in my opinion, the second variant doesn't allow to share (read or edit) the data from other controllers. However, my colleague's opinion is that service should be stateless, more like $http. What do you think on this matter?
What do I think? I think you are both right. Your colleagues say services like $http should be stateless. Yes, absolutely services can be stateless and if they are built that way. But services can also act as models with state and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Whittling it Down
OK, there are 3 scenarios I mentioned here:
Controller hosts the model, customerService just gets and saves, no sharing between controllers customerService service gets the data and hosts the data, many controllers manipulate it customerService gets the data, another customersModel hosts the model, and a controller manipulates it
Controller is the Owner
The first option works fine and is pretty good for many simple scenarios. Simple isn’t bad, it just means you don’t need to share the data across multiple controllers. You can still share between controllers and sub controllers and directives via $scope . If you are fine with going and getting the data and being stateless, this is a good option. I’ve written a lot of code like this and it’s ideal for get the data, manipulate the data, save the data … next!
Service is a Model and a Service
This pattern has been used a lot of places. An object takes on the role of both getting/sending data and hosting the model for the data. I’m not personally a fan of this pattern, but it is an oft used pattern. I don’t like mixing these concerns, but it does work and you won’t be thrown into jail by the Angular police. If you go here, it works, and you can share the service between multiple controllers.
Model Service and a Separate Action Service
I’d rather have 2 services. I like one service that gets and sends the data (handles the verbs) and one service that acts as the model (the nouns). This allows for more re-use, more clarity, and frankly just feels better to me. This is the pattern I used in my Angular and Breeze courses on Pluralsight where I wanted to share the data across multiple controllers. Once I get customers, I want all of the Views to have access to those customers without hitting the server again. I have the choice to refresh, but I wanted to cache them in a local service. This allowed me to change in one place and the changes are seen in all controllers that shared the model.
Summary
It is worth pointing out that whenever you cache data and hold state you need to consider when to refresh that state. It’s not hard, but you need consider which types of data you want to cache and which you do not want to cache. Anything that is volatile, like inventories, you may not want to hold state on. However, lists of customers or states or stores are less volatile and could be hosted in state. Either way, I don’t let this bother me in my choice, I just make sure I handle the state properly and refresh when needed.
Ultimately the best answer is to consider the options and weigh them for your app’s needs. I hope this helps get you there.
What would I do? I would not make a service that is a model and a service. That’s just not my style. I would start with making a service get the data and have the controller manipulate it. If I had need of sharing the data, I’d consider making a model and going to the 3rd option I mentioned. If I had a need to share data and create a model, I likely would have need for a rich model and that’s where model validation and dirty checking could play a factor too. That’s when i’d go even further and add in Breeze.
But in short, start with the simplest: service gets data and gives it to a controller. Then move to a model based solution when you need sharing. |
Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersSenate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Bernie Sanders Town Hall finishes third in cable news race, draws 1.4 million viewers Woman to undecided Biden: 'Just say yes' to 2020 bid MORE (I-Vt.) may be poised to win both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, and as Sanders soars, rival Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE is making the worst possible move of launching an all-out attack against him, which is the same mistake she made when she attacked Barack Obama in 2008.
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For some time, I have strongly advised people close to the Clintons to not go negative against Sanders. Clinton needs to inspire voters about why she should be president, not become a negative candidate who reminds voters of the kind of politics they want to end.
Remember — and this is a key point — that when Clinton attacks Sanders for the vision and programs he believes in, she is attacking the large numbers of Democrats and independents who believe in what Sanders believes and favor the same changes and reforms that he promotes.
The Clinton attack against Sanders is the worst possible move for her and for Democrats. Because Clinton has low ratings for trustworthiness, whereas Sanders's ratings are high, a Clinton attack against Sanders will backfire.
Even worse for Clinton, the problem is that she has never articulated an uplifting and exciting reason for voters to back her, and her negative attack against Sanders will drown out any positive message she may have, if she has one.
Clinton's attacks against Sanders sounds strangely similar to her attacks against Obama in 2008. She is charging — among many things — that Sanders does not offer a realistic program, which is both condescending and wrong and an insult not only to Sanders, but to the large number of Democrats who are with Sanders.
What a presidential candidate should do is offer a panoramic vision of how America can become better, mobilize support for that vision, seek an election victory with a mandate, and then negotiate with Congress from strength and make the compromises that must ultimately be made to win the most dramatic possible reforms. That is what important presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy did. That is what Sanders is doing.
What a presidential candidate should not do is identify with the status quo and oppose dramatic change even before the first ballot is counted and attack the change candidates as naive or unrealistic. This is what Clinton is doing with her negative attacks against Sanders.
Sanders proposes a healthcare system based on Medicare for all. Is Clinton criticizing all the Democrats and independents who agree with him? Would she have attacked Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson for proposing and enacting Medicare in the 1960s?
Sanders proposes a free public college education, paid for by a transaction tax on Wall Street speculators. Is Clinton criticizing young people and their moms and dads who would benefit greatly from a free public college education, or is she criticizing voters who favor a modest and fair speculation financial tax that would ask wealthy individuals and Wall Street firms to do more, to pay their fair share to help the next generation of students learn?
Sanders proposes bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act and breaking up big banks. Is Clinton attacking as naive and unrealistic the huge number of voters who favor breaking up big banks? Would Clinton have criticized Franklin Roosevelt as being naive and unrealistic when he pushed the original Glass-Steagall Act to passage in the 1930s?
Sanders proposes an increase in Social Security benefits at a time when those benefits lag far behind the cost of living for seniors. Is the Clinton attacking the senior citizens who deserve better than the status quo, in which this year seniors receive no increase in Social Security benefits at all?
Sanders is tapping a deeply held yearning in the electorate for big change and a nobler politics, and when Clinton attacks him for it, she is attacking the voters who demand this change and aligning herself with the lobbyists and special interests who oppose the very change and reforms that most voters want.
So as Sanders soars, Clinton attacks him, which gives Sanders the upper hand as Iowa and New Hampshire prepare to vote.
Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Chief Deputy Majority Whip Bill Alexander (D-Ark.). He holds an LL.M. degree in international financial law from the London School of Economics. Contact him at [email protected]. |
There are days when Wolfgang Schäuble's staff would prefer to be somewhere else. In Timbuktu perhaps, or up on the Acropolis. In any case, far, far away.
Last Thursday, the German finance minister rolled into an elevator in the Reichstag in Berlin. He was irritated, for he soon had to appear before the Affairs of the European Union Committee to defend a bailout plan for Greece that he didn't even believe in. "Grottenfalsch," as he would say -- "dreadfully wrong."
In his wheelchair, Schäuble leaned to one side and rubbed his face. "What about the appointment at 5:30 p.m.?" he wanted to know. "It's in the schedule," a staffer responded, immediately wishing he was somewhere else. "In the schedule?" When Schäuble gets irritated, he doesn't raise his voice. Instead he stretches out his vowels like a rubber band. "Scheeeeeeedule," he said, and then issued an order: "Call the chancellor's secretary and ask where it is."
He then inhaled, flashing a pugnacious smile and turned his wheelchair around. He then prepared for battle of a kind he had never before fought in his long political career -- a battle against the Greek government, against American economists, against large swathes of European public opinion and also, to some extent, against the chancellor herself.
Had it been up to Schäuble, Germany would have shown the Greeks the euro-zone door long ago. His problem, however, is that the chancellor doesn't share this sentiment. Merkel rejects his insistence because she doesn't want to go down in history as the government leader responsible for the disintegration of Europe.
If it were any other minister that had so persistently refused to endorse her line, she would likely have got rid of him long ago. But she can't do that with Schäuble. His hard line is precisely what makes him so popular among the Germans.
Moreover, Schäuble enjoys a special place in Merkel's cabinet. He has been a member of German parliament, the Bundestag, since 1972; he served under Helmut Kohl as interior minister and party leader; and he negotiated the reunification treaty in 1990. Shortly thereafter, he was shot and crippled by a mentally ill man. Schäuble isn't simply a politician, he's a piece of German history, and therefore untouchable. He even has the chutzpah to threaten Merkel with his resignation should she force him to act against his convictions. "If anyone were to try, I could go to the president and ask to be relieved of my duties," he told SPIEGEL in an interview.
A Curious Mix of Indecision and Brutality
But that freedom is now becoming an issue for Merkel. The euro summit last weekend came close to failing because Schäuble tried to push through such tough demands. And this from a finance minister who has done so much for European unity. Just three years ago, Schäuble won the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen for his contributions to the integration of the Continent, but is now regarded in southern European countries as the epitome of the ugly German. This too adds to the drama of Wolfgang Schäuble.
In past decades, the burden has always fallen on Germany to be the mediator in Europe. But only when Germany suppressed its own interests was it possible to find harmony in the complicated meshwork that is Europe, where the Catholic South meets the Protestant North and the rule-fixated Germans and the anarchistic Greeks come together. No one has internalized this rule more than Schäuble -- or so it seems. Now Germany's policy on Europe is revealing itself as a curious mix of indecision and brutality. That brutality, for the most part, comes from Schäuble.
It was undoubtedly the right move to impose strict reforms upon Greece. This was the only way to persuade countries like Slovakia and Latvia to release new funds. But last weekend's marathon summit in Brussels didn't only bring forth a new aid package for Greece. A new Germany was also presented, one with a rather uncomely face.
It was there that Schäuble raised the idea of pushing Greece out of the euro. It was a suggestion that broke a European taboo. Germany, of all countries, was showing another euro-zone member the door. Germany, whose rise is so closely linked to the solidarity and forgiveness of its neighbors.
The summit was therefore not merely a break in Germany's Europe policy. It also described the tragedy of Merkel and Schäuble, chained together yet increasingly working against one another.
The calamity began last Thursday when top members of Merkel's coalition government met at the Chancellery. Merkel was there, as was Schäuble, Social Democrat (SPD) leader Sigmar Gabriel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is also from the SPD. The idea was to prevent a rift with France, but the group also deliberated over how to proceed with Greece if it refused to implement the reforms demanded by its creditors.
Schäuble proposed a temporary Grexit, in such a situation. Merkel and the SPD leaders agreed, but for them it was little more than a thought experiment. Greece, they knew, would never willingly sign on to a Grexit.
A Greek Time Out
The next evening, though, Schäuble's state secretary, Thomas Steffen, sent out a paper with the title, "Comments on the latest Greek proposals," to a number of colleagues, including Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem. Under item No. 2, it said that if Athens does not comply with creditors' demands, the country could be encouraged to take a time out from the euro zone for at least five years.
Schäuble and his people see their proposal as an offer to cooperatively solve a Grexit -- at least that's the official line. But Schäuble also signaled to the Greeks that he could rally a majority of finance ministers to get behind a Grexit, even against Athens' will.
When Schäuble landed in Brussels on Saturday morning, he noted that his proposals were not incorporated into the ministers' working paper. It's not clear who was responsible. It could have been Italy, for example. Or France. Both countries staunchly oppose the expulsion of Greece from the euro zone. Schäuble was beside himself.
Schäuble first consulted with other conservative finance ministers belonging, as Schäuble's CDU does, to the European People's Party. Like Schäuble, most were in favor of a Grexit and the men hatched a plan for how they could force Greece from the common currency area. The ministers agreed to formulate such strict conditions for a third aid package that the Greek government would never be able to accept them. As a means to push Greece out of the euro, Schäuble had devised a so-called trust fund, into which all revenues from the sale of Greek assets would flow. For Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, that would have been impertinent enough. But the conservative ministers wanted to go even further and demand that the fund be located in Luxembourg, a stipulation Tsipras could not possibly accept.
When Schäuble arrived at the Eurogroup meeting later, he could at least chalk up a partial victory. He was able to get the Grexit idea, and the trust fund model, into the final document, but both of them were in square brackets, meaning the finance ministers were not in agreement. But still, European leaders received a draft text in which a euro zone without Greece was officially mentioned.
As Schäuble's proposal of a temporary Grexit became public over time, outrage ensued. "To Germany I say, enough is enough," Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said. Luxembourg's foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, and Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann complained that Schäuble obviously wanted to humiliate a European partner.
It quickly dawned on Merkel and her advisors just how explosive Schäuble's idea was. Suddenly she was seen all over Europe as a chancellor who wants to throw Greece out of the euro.
A Round of Four
As the summit began on Sunday at 4:15 p.m., the mood was depressed. European Council President Donald Tusk opened proceedings by asking whether everyone was in agreement about wanting to prevent a Grexit. The leaders answered in the affirmative, Merkel included.
Yet the finance minister's paper still remained the working basis for the negotiations and Merkel rejected Tusk's suggestion of formulating a shorter one. The chancellor wanted to keep Greece inside the euro and, at the same time, meet Schäuble's demands -- an almost impossible feat. Merkel's indecision tainted the summit from the get-go. Tusk quickly realized the futility of debating in the full round.
Instead, he convened a round of four that would negotiate three times that night. It would include Tusk, Tsipras, Merkel and French President François Hollande. They retreated to the "Salon du Président" on the European Council building's eighth floor. Tsipras requested to bring his new finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos. Merkel countered by saying that if Tsakalotos came, Schäuble would have to come too. For a moment, Tusk and Tsipras were speechless. Only then did they grasp the humor in Merkel's words.
Tsakalotos was allowed in while Schäuble stayed outside. The negotiations took 17 hours, lasting until 9 a.m. Monday morning. Around 4:15 a.m., as all of the leaders were again convening, it looked for the first time like an agreement might be possible and optimism quickly spread. Tsipras said he had to make a few phone calls to Athens, needing to speak to the Greek president and a few party leaders. When he returned, he said he could grudgingly accept all of the terms except Schäuble's privatization fund. "Absolutely unacceptable," he called it.
Tusk interrupted the meeting for the third time and upped the pressure. Finally, Merkel agreed to let Greece use part of the proceeds from the sale of Greek state assets for investments. But a dispute arose when it came to determining just how much. Tsipras wanted 50 percent, Merkel only 10. Hollande, Tusk and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte suggested 25 percent, or 12.5 billion ($13.6 billion). Tsipras and Merkel both refused. Merkel suggested adjourning and calling another summit for Wednesday. It was a moment at which the risk of a Grexit again seemed dangerously close. Schäuble would have reached his goal.
Tusk, however, categorically rejected an adjournment. He said if everyone left before reaching an agreement, he would announce that the negotiations had failed. An 86 billion rescue package had already been approved. It was inconceivable to think that a few billion euros more could cause the deal to collapse. Around 6 a.m., Eurogroup head Dijsselbloem called SPD chief Gabriel, asking for help. Gabriel, in turn, called Merkel and Hollande. Later, Djisselbloem would tell the SPD parliamentary group that "suddenly things worked that once seemed impossible." In the end, Merkel and Tsipras agreed. The summit was rescued.
Difficult for Tsipras
A Greek crisis, however, was not yet averted. The Brussels paper had effectively made Greece a ward of the euro zone. The government in Athens would have to cut pensions and raise taxes. National sovereignty would essentially be a fantasy. Asked during the press conference that followed the 17-hour negotiations which parts of the deal bore Tsipras' handwriting, Merkel answered: "It's there, namely in the high funding requirements."
Schäuble, for his part, would continue to insist that Greece leave the euro. A clear commitment to Athens, at least, was not discernable. Ultimately, it's Schäuble who has to hammer out the details of the next bailout package, and as things currently stand, he'll use every opportunity to make life more difficult for Tsipras.
From Schäuble's point of view, his insistence on a Grexit isn't anti-European, but rather a service to the greater community. He believes that Greece does not fulfill the prerequisites for being a responsible member of the euro zone. To him, it's a country that doesn't even have a functional tax system, but one which named Yanis Varoufakis to the position of finance minister, a man to took it upon himself to lecture all of Europe about economics.
Of course Schäuble knows he can't get around Merkel. If she's made up her mind, there will be no Grexit. On the other hand, the mood among German conservatives is clearly on Schäuble's side. The fact is, in terms of European policy, he's got more credibility than Merkel, who has never been able to shake the impression of lacking the appropriate amount of enthusiasm for Europe.
That's what makes it so difficult for the chancellor at the moment. She lacks the means to discipline Schäuble. She is fully aware of just how much negative attention her finance minister is attracting throughout Europe. French President Hollande recently complained to confidants that Merkel has always waffled when it came to Greece but also that she has never distanced herself from Schäuble and his Grexit plans -- not even in private.
Imposing Her Will
The euro crisis is driving a wedge between Berlin and Paris. Hollande is doing everything he can to prevent a Grexit, even if it means going behind Germany's back. Just two weeks ago, after the Greek referendum, Hollande and Merkel were in agreement that Athens must make its own reform proposals.
Merkel's people were thus surprised to learn that Hollande had provided the Greek premier with advisers to help him come up with a list of reforms. The plan to send French officials to Athens had been in the works for six weeks. On July 2, the social democratic leaders of France, Sweden and Austria, as well as Gabriel and the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, met in Evry, near Paris, to deliberate over a solution for Greece. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls suggested sending French finance officials to Athens to help the government there formulate its request for emergency funds. Faymann, Gabriel and Schulz all agreed.
Now, after the summit, Merkel sees herself in a role she never wanted. She's the woman who imposed her will on Europe. "The French president has fought hard for a solution," Austrian Chancellor Faymann said, while handing out no such praise to Merkel.
Germany's relationship with power has been precarious ever since the end of World War II. That has to do with its central location in Europe and its reluctance to use military force. Most of all, though, it has to do with its Nazi past. Any bravado or harsh words are immediately conflated with a resurgence of German megalomania.
The response to this problem by German policymakers has been the use of "soft power." Germany has led the Continent not with orders, but with persuasion and cooperation. Every chancellor has relied on the relationship with France in matters of European policy. This alliance prevents a split between the northern European Protestants and the southern Catholics.
But now, a fault line is threatening to emerge. In early 2013, the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben wrote an essay for the newspaper La Repubblica in which he implored the "Latin empire at the heart of Europe" to resist Germany's dominance. At the time, it seemed like the idea of an overexcited essayist, but now it's clear that the southern countries are increasingly opposing the Continent's germanization.
Merkel's people can sense this mood change. A few months ago, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut mused in a small group about Germany's changing role within the European Union. Meyer-Landrut was Merkel's European policy adviser for four years but soon he'll become the German ambassador to France.
Germany's Changing Position
Meyer-Landrut knows he has a reputation for being a tough negotiator. But it wasn't until the euro crisis that complaints about him from abroad began to pile up. It was said that the chancellor's adviser had presented his demands in a rude tone. He also apparently did not listen nor was he accomodating to other people's sensitivities. Meyer-Landrut, for his part, said he did not think that he had changed. It was more a question of Germany's position changing.
In the past, he said, Germany had always been the moderator. If Britain and France disagreed on, say, agriculture policy, it was up to the Germans to help them reach a compromise. Today, with matters concerning the euro, Germany finds itself in a different position. It must now enforce a policy regarded by its partners as extreme. This unavoidably changes perceptions of the country.
France, especially, has become much more critical. Pascal Lamy, a former EU commissioner for trade, recently said Europe was a constant struggle between discipline and solidarity. "The Germans," he said, "were exuding little solidarity and much discipline." It sounded like a reprimand.
Merkel pushed through her ideas with the logic of practical constraint rather than with the force of a brilliant speech. This method, however, clearly reached its limitations at the euro summit, in part, due to her indecision. France and Italy wanted to keep Greece in the euro no matter what, while Schäuble wanted a Grexit.
The compromise was that Merkel kept Greece in, but imposed conditions that could at least partly be described as penal. The euro crisis left Merkel with immense power; she now essentially shapes domestic Greek policy. But such power also calls for at least a smidgen of generosity, something she proved unwilling or unable to provide in the case of Greece.
At the post-summit press conference, it was with delight that she rattled off every condition Greece would have to fulfill, no matter how small. Really, the only thing that was missing was a declaration that she would provisionally take over the post of Greek prime minister, effective immediately.
Can Europe be led this way? Schäuble's stance in the euro crisis doesn't have to seem congenial, but at least it's based on a clear analysis of the situation. That analysis goes something like this: Greece is unable to handle the responsibilities that come with being a member of a common currency union. As a consequence, it must leave the euro. Merkel is like a teacher who disciplines unwilling students by smacking them across their fingers with a ruler. At most, this heightens their frustration, not their willingness to learn.
By Fiona Ehlers, Julia Amalia Heyer, Horand Knaup, Peter Müller, Ralf Neukirch, René Pfister, Christoph Schult and Timo Steppat |
New tech depend on Graphene Improves OLED displays quality
Researchers Team from South Korea has developed a new technology that improves the transparency and image quality of display panels in OLED displays by 40 to 60 percent, by integrating graphene into organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).
Transparent graphene-based electrode for OLED panels is not a new idea. The German Fraunhofer Institute is developing such electrodes for OLED panels as part of the European GLADIATOR project, and recently Graphene 3D Lab demonstrated a printed OLED lighting device with a graphene electrode. Plastic Logic (FlexEnable) demonstrated an E Ink display with graphene electrodes back in 2014, and the company is also working on an OLED panel using similar electrodes.
The Korean researchers explain that current metal (mostly silver) based electrodes have a limited viewing angle because of their internal light reflection, and the external light reflection affects the image quality. Graphene electrodes are more transparent and reduce the reflectance by 40-60 percent.
ETRI says that this technology will be especially suitable for transparent OLEDs and white-OLED based panels (WRGB, or WOLED technology). The scientists aim to continue this research and improve the graphene electrode performance.
What is WOLED display technology ?
Developments on AMOLED TV panels have been ongoing, but none has been up to commercialization level yet. With the existing fine metal mask (FMM) method, there are too many hurdles in the mass production of large-sized AMOLED TV panels. Hence, panel makers have been coming up with alternatives such as white OLED (WOLED) and “soluble” AMOLED panels for TV panels that can be mass produced, but there are no companies that are close to mass producing these panels.
In this regard, IHS has published three articles to review the “soluble” AMOLED technology as an alternative to mass produce AMOLED TV panels.
The last two articles dealt with a definition of the “soluble” AMOLED, its manufacturing process, the necessity of developing it, introduction to the companies developing it, and the issues with the development of the “soluble” AMOLED panel as well as the development flow. This article seeks to discuss whether WOLED and “soluble” AMOLED will be alternatives to the FMM method and whether there is a chance of commercializing these panels into TV products.
As one alternative, WOLED technology is being developed for the mass production of large-sized AMOLED panels. WOLED has an organic light-emitting layer structure in which more or less 15 layers (including two to three color emissive layers) are deposited by lamination. To this end, white light is created in the organic light emitting layer, and that white light goes through a color filter to create red, green and blue (RGB) colors.
Since WOLED creates RGB through a color filter and has a laminated structure, an open mask process is required. Therefore, the deposition efficiency is high and the process is relatively easy compared to the FMM process. In addition, it is relatively stable when processed in large-sized equipment. In theory, WOLED has many advantages in terms of production cost and in the level of difficulty, but it has some problems with yields and has to use a color filter, compromising on some benefits of the AMOLED, such as great color reproduction.
Keywords : AMOLED, Dispaly, OLED, WOLED
Category : Electronics |
It surprised no one last fall when Los Angeles and California at large overwhelmingly backed Hillary Clinton in her failed bid for the presidency. Just seven of the city’s 1,700 precincts went for Donald Trump.
But while nearly all of the surrounding region voted for the Democratic former secretary of state, one little chunk of Hollywood best known for the Church of Scientology’s “Big Blue” complex went red, picking the Republican billionaire instead.
The precinct, wedged between Hollywood Boulevard and Fountain Avenue, tipped to Trump by just three votes, 347 to 344. It marked the first time since at least 2000 that the area went Republican. In 2012, President Barack Obama defeated Gov. Mitt Romney by 81 votes, 316 to 235.
“I honestly can’t begin to fathom how or why that happened,” said Erin Lee, a precinct voter and one of several Clinton supporters who said they were shocked to learn that Trump had carried their neighborhood.
“How can that be?” asked Lemuel Balagot, another local voter. “I went for Hillary, and everyone I know besides me went for Hillary. … Who were the Scientologists for?”
Good question, and one that’s not easily answered — voting records don’t reflect how individual ballots are cast. The church, like other tax-exempt religious groups and nonprofit organizations, is barred by law from participating in political campaigns and assiduously avoids taking sides in elections.
“The Church does not engage in election activities and cannot do so,” Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw said in an emailed statement. “Such decisions are not a matter of faith. The Creed of the Church makes clear that Scientology is open to all. This would include anyone regardless of their race, color, creed or political affiliation.”
Church members and others in the neighborhood said there was little advertising or campaigning for either presidential candidate, and none they knew of related to the church. Nor did voters with stated Scientology ties appear to contribute significantly to either side: One man, who listed his occupation as “public relations” for the church, contributed $28 to Trump’s campaign, election records show.
Pouw said that nothing in The Times’ analysis of results “suggests a significant difference to the general leanings of the American people,” noting that Trump won by just a few votes, with neither candidate landing a majority. She also said the Times’ findings “inaccurately suggest a unique trend about a single religion.”
“Scientologists live and work in many other precincts in Los Angeles,” Pouw said. “The Church remained neutral in the presidential election as we always do. We support this country’s electoral process and America’s representative form of government, and respect the right of parishioners, our staff and clergy to vote for the candidate of their choice.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
Of the roughly 1,100 voters registered in the precinct, about half list addresses of Scientology properties. More than 250 voters listed addresses on L. Ron Hubbard Way, named for the science fiction writer who founded the church in 1954 and parlayed his self-help system, Dianetics, into a worldwide religion without a deity.
Some 170 voters in the precinct listed phone numbers at Scientology organizations as their primary numbers, according to The Times’ analysis. Although phone numbers are not required, statewide voter registration records show the most common one listed in California belongs to the church. So does the second most common number. And the fifth. And the sixth.
“Church staff members list whatever phone numbers they choose,” Pouw said. “I couldn’t speak for them. Many, but not all, have cell phones. Perhaps you should look at the voting trends of the religious orders of other faiths to see what phone number they may list or whether they vote.”
Few of those contacted by telephone or on public sidewalks near the landmark Scientology building, a former hospital on Fountain Avenue that serves as the church’s West Coast headquarters, would speak for the record about their votes.
Two women who identified themselves as church representatives approached a Times reporter on several occasions and told her she was making parishioners feel “harassed and uncomfortable” by asking questions — and then hovered nearby. A few times, church security guards rolled up on their bicycles. One suggested to a church member that he move along to his next course.
“We don’t talk to the press,” the member said.
Several spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity or using only their first names. None said there was any concerted effort by the church, its members or staffers to push for one candidate over the other.
“Scientologists are very conservative socially,” said one church member, who voted for Clinton. “Scientologists are very conservative in terms of economics and business. It really does make sense that it would be more aligned with the Republican Party.”
He said he based his perceptions of the political leanings of the church and its members on conversations with acquaintances, as well as Scientologists’ postings on Facebook and Twitter.
“They were divided between pro-Trump stuff that’s anti-government and seeing Hillary as part of the establishment, seeing Hillary as part of the elite,” he said. “Part of it was pro-Trump. A lot of it was more anti-Hillary.”
Among those who did proffer a theory for publication was James Kronwall, a registered Republican who lives on L. Ron Hubbard Way, and said he knew why the precinct went for Trump.
“Scientology is the No. 1 foe of psychiatry,” he said, adding that he and others in the church perceive Clinton to be an advocate for psychiatric programs.
Kronwall, a carpenter who said he’s been a member of the church for 40 years, didn’t vote for either Trump or Clinton. Instead, he was one of about 50 in the area who cast their ballots for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson.
“I wanted to make at least some kind of statement if I could,” he said.
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A team of doctors at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center are exploring new avenues to improve surgical preparations and patient care. The hospital recently partnered with the University of Cincinnati’s College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS) to produce a 3D printed heart model of a patient with a rare, life-threatening heart condition. 3D printed anatomical models derived from patient scans enable doctors to “practice” surgery in advance and assess possible complications for delicate procedures, improving the outcome of operations.
Dr. Ryan Moore and Dr. Michael Taylor from Cincinnati Children’s Heart Institute used Damon’s CT scan to generate a 3D reconstruction of his heart and convert it to a 3D printable file. Working closely with the CEAS Digital Fabrication Lab manager Sam Antoline, and his team of undergraduate engineering students, the 3D printed heart was fabricated with PolyJet-based 3D printing technology on the Objet260 Connex2 3D Printer from Stratasys using semi-translucent ABS and rubber-like TangoPlus materials. Antoline’s team was able to simulate characteristics of a human heart, experimenting with material-rigidity values (Shore A values) to create a model for surgeons and other medical personnel to use for pre-surgery planning.
31-year-old Damon Mallott was born with a complex congenital heart lesion for which he underwent creation of a single pumping chamber for his heart after multiple procedures as a child. The surgeries had proven to be a success, until recently when he started to develop severe heart-rhythm irregularities and a large blood clot in his heart. In order to improve his condition, he would need to undergo a challenging and rarely performed surgical procedure by Dr. David Morales, chief of cardiothoracic surgery. With the growing experience of 3D printing of congenital heart lesions at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Damon’s case provided the perfect opportunity to utilize a life-size scale model of his heart to stage his procedure.
This recent case is just one of over 20 successful heart surgeries performed as a result of surgical preparations with 3D printed heart models created through the collaboration of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Heart Institute and the University of Cincinnati CEAS digital fabrication laboratory. Simulating surgery with a replica of a patient’s heart provides surgeons and their staff with an opportunity to assess complications and develop the best possible surgical plan for complex and risky operations. This type of pre-planning has an enormous impact on patient care and recovery. Additionally, the models serve as a source for educational tools—both for surgical training and educating patients and their families—about medical conditions and possible complications.
The university’s CEAS Digital Fabrication Laboratory will continue to provide services for the continuing research at the Cincinnati Children’s Heart Institute. Working with 3D printing technology since 2006, the lab team has built various prototypes for programs ranging from the CEAS Medical Device Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program and aerospace research to university studies and combustion research. Antoline said a curriculum is likely to be developed in the near future, which would provide technical training to undergraduate students who are interested in learning more about 3D printing.
“We’re seeing a real demand for 3D printing technology at the university,” said Sam Antoline. “We’re producing prototypes and models for undergraduate capstones and university research across various departments. The detail we can achieve with this technology, and the ability to print with digital composite materials will definitely have a role within the university.”
This post is also available in: German Portuguese (Brazil) |
1984
No Surprise:
1984 Mass-Murderer Sajjan Kumar Walks
NEWS REPORT
No surprise.
A judge hand-selected by the government to molly-coddle a mass-murderer while presiding over his trial -- which was intentionally delayed by India's "justice" system and held only after 28 years had lapsed after the murders! - has proclaimed him 'not guilty' this morning (Tuesday, April 30, 2013) in a New Delhi court in India.
Also, not surprisingly, the judge was immediately hit by a shoe-missile -- a method commonly used in India by the public to express displeasure of a person misusing his power and authority -- emanating from the body of the court.
The accused, Sajjan Kumar, is a Congress Party politician and its former cabinet minister. The party is currently in power and heads the Government of India.
During the trial, under intense pressure to release the report, the Central Bureau of Investigation -- India's equivalent of the FBI -- had presented evidence to the court that there was a conspiracy of “terrifying proportion” between Sajjan Kumar and the police during the pogroms.
But District Judge J.R. Aryan had disclosed his cards early on, and revealed them throughout the trial, by constantly referring to the anti-Sikh genocide as "riots", a term embraced by the Hindu extremists in India who have consistently condoned the genocide of thousands of innocent men, women and children in 40 cities across India during the three days in November 1984.
sikhchic.com had, at the very outset of the trial -- almost 13 months ago -- posted an article showing how Judge Aryan had been sabotaging the trial in favour of the accused Sajjan Kumar, even though he was the presiding judge.
The struggle for justice continues.
Please CLICK here to read the expose on District Judge J.R. Aryan's shenanigans.
April 30, 2013
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1984 Mass-Murderer Sajjan Kumar Walks" * Your Name
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“Hunger stole upon me so slowly that at first I was not aware of what hunger really meant,” Richard Wright writes in the first chapter of his autobiographical tale Black Boy. The next few pages offer vignettes from his early life in Mississippi and Memphis — from standing hungry while his mother cooked for white families, to being forced to fight a gang of older boys, to living in a dismal orphanage. The chapter culminates in an adulthood encounter with his estranged father, by then a rural sharecropper who lived drudgingly as a “creature of the earth” after failing to find prosperity in the city. Wright reflects on his own life’s trajectory, which ended not in peonage but “undreamed-of shores of knowing” — and, ultimately, a legendary literary career.
We read these words, and thus know of Wright’s early life, precisely because he was able to escape the surly bonds of child poverty in Mississippi. When viewed through the lens of biography, his excruciating hunger and other early struggles are often mistaken as inspiration — of prologue to his greatness — rather than a scourge that stifles much more potential than it creates.
We Mississippians are guilty of glorifying (retrospectively) the poor upbringings of many of our most successful sons and daughters. Our narratives begin on a farm without indoor plumbing near Kosciusko, or a shotgun shack in Tupelo, or a sharecropper’s cabin in Sunflower County. The stories that follow take twists and turns — often, out of Mississippi — until our protagonists have attained enough fame to be recognized worldwide by only a single name: Oprah. Elvis. B.B.
These stories each have the appeal of happy endings. We rarely hear the ones that do not. Given that 32.4 percent of Mississippi’s children now live beneath the federal poverty line — and with data showing those born on the bottom are likely to stay there — that is a far, far larger number.
The latest poverty rate (and the many other stats in the above infographic) comes from the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s latest KIDS COUNT report on the condition of children in America. The 2014 release marked their 25th edition, which aggregated sixteen metrics under four umbrella categories: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. Each state was scored on these categories and assigned an overall ranking. [Read Mississippi KIDS COUNT director Dr. Linda Southward’s Rethink op-ed explaining their metholodogy].
[pullquote align=”right”]It’s time to make the elimination of child poverty Mississippi’s top economic development, education, health, criminal justice, and moral priority. [/pullquote]
Compared to our national peers, Mississippi ranked 50th best or first worst — whichever you dislike least. Mississippi’s children face the worst economic insecurity and the least-equipped homes and communities. Only two states face greater health and education challenges.
These statistics tell a devastating story, but one that lacks the critical ingredient of suspense. Mississippi has now finished dead last 24 times out of 25 chances. We’re so jaded about the scarlet “50” on our chests that the only remarkable occurrence is when we rise to 49th for a moment, as we did in the 2013 KIDS COUNT, before gravity pulls us back down to the bottom.
For many in Mississippi, ranking last on this and the myriad other national surveys can seem inevitable. The underlying problems can seem intractable. Instead of addressing entrenched deprivations head-on, it’s often easier to change the subject to one of those stories with a happy ending. Consequently, the handful of Mississippians who have risen from poverty to prominence occupy more space in our imaginations — and our TVs, books, blogs, etc. — than combined stories of the 256,000 Mississippi children currently living in poverty.
It’s time for Mississippi to stop thinking of child poverty as an intractable inevitability that springboards those with merit to transcendence. It’s time for us to recognize that Mississippi squanders far more of its human potential than it develops. It’s time for us to admit that the struggles our children face have been created and perpetuated through a series of decisions by adults. And most importantly, it’s time to make the elimination of child poverty Mississippi’s top economic development, education, health, criminal justice, and moral priority.
[alert type=”info”]How does your county do? Look up the results here.[/alert]
From Mississippi’s vantage point on the bottom of the KIDS COUNT rankings, we should crane our necks to see what is working in the states that finished in the top ten. Not coincidentally, the states that provide the most money and programs to support children and families are the ones with the lowest rates of child poverty. Most have chosen to make work pay enough to support a family by setting minimum wages above the national baseline and offering tax refunds to low-wage workers and parents with dependent children. Most give children access to high-quality early education, health, and development programs. Most pay sufficient salaries to attract and retain top teachers and school leaders. And nearly all have accepted federal Medicaid expansion to provide medical and economic security for low-income families.
If we are serious about stopping the transmission of poverty to the next generation, our search for good ideas shouldn’t stop at the water’s edge. Other developed countries chose long ago not to tolerate such high levels of need among children. Most have crafted policies to effectively eliminate child poverty. For example, pre-tax income inequality is slightly larger in Finland than it is in America. However, under their generous system of family support, only one out of 25 kids grows up in the lowest income quartile, compared to nearly one in four in America — and more than one in three in Mississippi.
Not only do childhood deprivations pose far-reaching economic consequences, but surely the most basic test of a society’s humanity is how it treats its youngest and most vulnerable. No matter how many rags-to-riches stories we tell ourselves, Mississippi is failing its future generations when measured against the rest of the country and developed world. |
The Kids in the Hall (from left to right: Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, Bruce McCulloch, and Scott Thompson). Photo: Maury Phillips/TBS/Getty Images
It’s been 30 years since the Kids in the Hall came together, and 20 since original episodes of the Canadian comedy troupe’s cult sketch show last aired. But rewatching the quintet’s old sketches — in advance of their first North American tour in seven years — it’s striking how ageless the material feels. The Head Crusher, who loosed terror on yuppies via the magic of visual perspective, or Buddy Cole, the king of the queens, to name just two examples, would feel adventurous even in the age of Tim and Eric. The Kids were one of the rare sketch groups who took a form typically considered a disposable means to a more lucrative end (a sitcom, a movie deal) and made it into a platform for lasting genius.
In advance of the reunion dates, I spoke with Mark McKinney and Bruce McCulloch, the first two members of the group to meet each other. In the early ‘80s, they formed a sketch group, the Audience, which became a fixture in the miniature Calgary comedy scene before they moved moved to Toronto, where they hooked up with Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald and, finally, in 1985, harangued Scott Thompson into joining.
Despite comedic results that suggest the contrary, both McKinney and McCulloch were loath to say that the Kids had anything like an auteur approach to comedy. (Chalk their dismissals up to northern politeness.) In fact, during the ’80s and ’90s, when the Kids were a full-time concern, they strenuously resisted interpreting their own work or assigning any subtextual spin to the oeuvre. “There was always a pooh-poohing of theoretical discussions,” McKinney said. And McCulloch remembered that “whenever we’d have a theoretical conversation about comedy, we’d stop, because we knew if we kept at it, we’d break up.” The five made a strange concoction together — the heat of too much scrutiny might have spoiled it.
Nonetheless, it’s clear there was something more to their work than just the jokes. The Kids had that essential kernel of artistry: an actual point of view. It was never explicit but clearest in the way they acted their broad range of characters, from Simon the hapless Satanist to Gavin, the curious boy who never knows when he’s overstayed his welcome. Often, the more outlandish the character, the more committed and lived-in the performances. Conversely, the more a character resembled a type one might actually encounter in the real world, the more arch and stylized the performance. Take McKinney’s most notorious creation, the Chicken Lady, a sex-crazed circus freak: In his hands, it was hard to tell whether she was most unsettling for her half-poultry appearance or her wild nymphomania. McKinney truly inhabited her, and gave her a deep backstory — a repeat viewer could be forgiven for imagining that somewhere, the Chicken Lady was really out there, desperately trying to get laid. Yet the scenes with the Geralds, for instance — two businessmen who supersaturated every interaction with business-negotiating jargon (“Perhaps we can accommodate the obvious interests of your client: How about this? A six-date schedule with possible sexual intercourse on date six”) — the harder it became to fathom the true existence of people who actually went out and got MBAs. Their freaks were real, and normalcy became the ultimate drag.
For his part, McKinney insisted “there was no Dogme manifesto,” and credited any larger artistic point of view contained in the sketches to the crucible of their early days performing in Toronto clubs rather than to an explicit comedic agenda. The Kids started a bare-bones act, writing and staging a completely new sketch show each week at a Toronto rock venue, the Rivoli. They had no sets and barely any costumes, but they were determined from the beginning to bring their most outré ideas to life. McKinney reflected that “committing to those more difficult characters was something we had to do to bring the audience along when all we had was a wig drenched in flop sweat.” They also had only themselves to fill each week’s performance — “every week, if somebody had a sketch that works, it was like, oh, thank God” McCulloch remembered — so there was plenty of stage time for their weirdest concepts.
Just as important as the fact that the group couldn’t expect audiences to sit through skits like “Naked for Jesus” (a filmed monologue where a nude McCulloch earnestly pronounced he wasn’t just naked, he was naked for Jesus!) if they were performed with anything less than fanatic commitment, was the notion that all five members shared a profound alienation from the pale middle classes from which they came. Dave Foley was a high-school dropout, McKinney flunked out of college, and Scott Thompson was kicked out of Toronto’s York University. Surveying the wreckage of their collective adolescence and young adulthood, McCulloch noted, “We all grew up as unhappy young men, or young men who hadn’t found their place. We were of the suburbs. We were of parents that were always getting drunk and/or having heart attacks. We grew up going, It doesn’t have to be this way.” Sketch was an outlet for the impulses that otherwise had no place — McCulloch remembered that when he stumbled upon a comedy club as a Calgary teenager, it felt as raw, immediate, and freeing as punk-rock.
These two pillars of the Kids’ sensibility — conceptual adventurousness and social alienation — were formed in Canada, far from the Los Angeles–New York comedy-industrial complex. SCTV and Dan Aykroyd notwithstanding, it was almost unheard of for Toronto comedy groups to have their stars poached by talent scouts, which meant that the Kids stayed intact for years before they made any money. This allowed them to cohere as a group, since, in McKinney’s words, “we went through this period as single guys with no lives and terrible jobs where sketch was all we did, for five years. It was the reason to get up in the morning.”
The Kids’ TV show was eventually ushered onto television by their fellow Canadian, comedy power broker Lorne Michaels. But nothing could be further from the Kids than Michaels’s Saturday Night Live, the standard-bearer of American sketch, with its fresh-from-the–Harvard Lampoon writers, reliance on pop culture and political impressions, and revolving door of cast members. “The SNL people felt like they were in a limo you wanted to get in. We ain’t that,” McCulloch said. “We’re guys hanging around at home, saying weird shit.”
All this raises a question for a fan who sees that McCulloch, McKinney, McDonald, Foley, and Thompson are touring again, nearly 20 years after the troupe’s acrimonious breakup during the filming of Brain Candy, their infamous flop of a feature film: If what made the Kids great was their enthusiastic weirdness, youthful alienation, and distance from the comedic mainstream, what sort of juice will these shows hold now that the group has firmly entered legacy territory?
The momentum of their unlikely rise during the ‘90s undid the Kids, but the course of the intervening years may have brought them together. Their careers have progressed solo, and that’s also how they’ve experienced their various periodic professional and personal ebbs and flows. As McCulloch put it, “because we’ve all been successful and had our asses kicked, we realized [The Kids in the Hall is] an important thing to have in our lives. The show is a home.” Mark found that as even as he went on to projects like the beloved CBC TV theater comedy Slings and Arrows, “there really is only one true comedy experience that’s available to me — one that’s about sharing and battling.”
It’s encouraging to hear that this tour grew out of a comedy Miller-Urey experiment, which attempted to re-create the primordial ooze out of which life first emerged on Earth rather than something more crass or cozy. After completing Death Comes to Town, a one-off miniseries for Canadian television, the Kids decided to try to replicate the creative constraints of their bygone Rivoli days: They booked five nights at a 500-seat theater in Toronto and gave themselves a week to write and stage each show. The best sketches to precipitate out of this reactive atmosphere made it into the current touring production, alongside some old favorites. “It just gathers every so often, says McCulloch wryly about the Kids’ return, “like a terrible storm on the horizon.” |
As long as you fill certain requirements, you too can be a maid in Japan.
With a tagline that reads, “Of the GAIJIN! By the GAIJIN!! For the GAIJIN!!!”, it’s easy to understand what Akihabara’s newest maid cafe is all about, once you find out that the word “gaijin” means “foreigner” in Japanese.
Called “Sugoi Kawaii“, which translates to “Super Cute“, this new maid cafe is set to open in late June in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, where it aims to stand out from a bevy of competing establishments with its unique selling point: foreign maids.
According to Minowhuski, the company behind the idea, this new cafe is designed to help spread the culture of “moe” throughout the world. A concept not easily explained in words, “moe” refers to the strong feelings of affection that fans feel for cute and endearing characters in manga, anime and video games.
Staff at maid cafes serve up refreshments and light meals with a side of moe by using cute phrases with customers and engaging them in fun, simple games. However, given that local staff at these cafes usually use Japanese to speak with customers, regardless of whether a customer can understand Japanese, Minowhuski believes it can be difficult for visitors to fully appreciate moe culture.
At the new Sugoi Kawaii cafe, foreign maids will be able to convey moe culture to foreign guests more effectively by using the same types of cute phrases and games commonly enjoyed at maid cafes, only this time it will be in a language they can understand. While the “official” language at the cafe will be English, the company aims to hire people who can speak different languages as well.
▼ Current staff hail from countries like France, Germany, Taiwan, China, Brazil, Indonesia, Italy and the U.S.
If getting paid to serve customers in a maid’s outfit sounds like your dream job, then you’ll be happy to know that the cafe is currently hiring! According to the job ad, the cafe operators are looking for “multinational gaijin maids” aged between 16 and 29, who are available to work a shift of four hours or more between the hours of 6-11 p.m. on two to four days of the week.
The hourly wage is 1,000 yen (US$8.95), and 950 yen during the training period, a rate which is on par with the large majority of part-time jobs in Japan.
Head on over to the cafe’s official English website for application details, which ask for photos, bust-waist-hip measurements, and height and weight details for each applicant.
While it’s not mentioned in the job description, if you happen to have experience at one of the maid cafes in Russia or the U.S., it’s sure to put you at an advantage.
Sources: Akiba Keizai Shimbun, Sugoi Kawaii
Top image: Sugoi Kawaii
Insert images: Sugoi Kawaii |
As liberal activists embrace Tea Party tactics to try to rescue the Affordable Care Act, Tea Party organizations are preparing to reclaim the protest mantle by planning a "day of action" to encourage Congress to repeal Obamacare.
"Tea Party tactics were excellent when there were not Republican majorities in Congress and when the president was opposed to all conservative policies," Freedom Works stated in acknowledging that a new approach is necessary now that the GOP controls the executive and legislative branches.
"Rallies by themselves are a defensive tactic used by those without significant leverage in the government," Freedom Works CEO Adam Brandon stated. "It's time to move from defense to offense."
From March 15 to April 15, "Freedom Works will begin to unleash new tactics," the conservative group stated, promising to bring 1,000 supporters to Capitol Hill for the March 15 kickoff.
Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Mike Lee, R-Utah, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Reps. Dave Bratt, R-Va., Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Mark Walker, R-N.C., are all slated to speak at the rally.
The group is not waiting two weeks to follow through on its promise to hold lawmakers' feet to the fire.
"The House and Senate sent this repeal of Obamacare to Obama's desk. Why are they afraid to send it to President Trump's desk?" the group stated Tuesday, referring to the ACA repeal bill Republicans passed in 2015.
"After nearly seven years, it's time for Republicans to follow through on their promises and repeal Obamacare by using the 2015 reconciliation bill as the baseline," Brandon stated. "It would be a stunning level of political hypocrisy if Republicans failed to follow through. Thankfully, principled conservatives are fighting for full repeal, not a watered down bill or Obamacare-lite," he said in praising Cruz, Jordan, Lee, Meadows, Paul and Walker for insisting on making the 2015 legislation the floor for any bill passed this year. |
Hidden Helmet Hopes to Halt Your Head from Hurting
It may sound crass, but the fact is there are several reasons people don’t like wearing bicycle helmets. They make you look ridiculous, first and foremost. They’re also very cumbersome, both while being worn and not. Meanwhile, at the forefront of the hipster, cycling and infinity scarf trends are the Swedes – kismet for inventing an invisible bicycle helmet.
Design students Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin are co-creators of the Hövding. It’s kind of a fitted scarf with a zipper along the throat that secures it in place. When engaged, it releases an airbag in the shape of an old B-movie spacesuit helmet. It has the same life-saving capabilities of a normal bike helmet but only makes you look stupid for a few seconds.
To create such an object was Haupt and Alstin’s daunting final project at university. As motivation, they looked at the idea of the Hovding as “a symbol of ‘the impossible.'” Owning one is now possible, although the $540 price tag may make it difficult. |
While waiting for the debate on electronic cigarettes to heat up on Capitol Hill, several state and local governments are pressing ahead with their own agendas for taxing and regulating the popular battery-powered smoking alternatives.
Right now, there is no uniform national approach to regulating the vapor-based e-cigarettes. They are mostly free from federal rules and typically are subject only to state sales taxes.
But lawmakers in more than two dozen cash-strapped states are racing to regulate them as a new source of revenue. For some, this means tacking on an excise tax -- which is a fee on a specific product, and often dubbed a "sin tax" when applied to socially shunned products like cigarettes.
Minnesota has led the charge and is currently the only state that’s got a specific tax policy for e-cigarettes on the books. The 2012 decision subjects vapor inhalers to a 95 percent tax that is stapled to the wholesale cost of the product.
According to the Minnesota Department of Revenue, e-cigarettes are considered tobacco products and are subject to the state’s tobacco tax. Distributors there are required to pay the tobacco tax or risk losing their license. Retailers must purchase e-cigarettes from distributors licensed by the state and are expected to “collect and remit sales tax on e-cigarette sales.”
In total, Minnesota estimates it will bring in $1.16 billion from all of its tobacco taxes in fiscal year 2014-2015.
Other states are taking notice.
In his 2015 budget proposal last month, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pitched a plan to hike taxes on electronic cigarettes to match the rate of regular cigarettes -- about $2.70 per pack.
Supporters say increasing taxes will keep them out of the hands of children and teens.
But critics argue treating traditional cigarettes the same as e-cigs will hurt small businesses and strip smokers of the incentive to quit.
“Small businesses like convenience stores and especially brick and mortar vape shops will be hardest hit by this $35 million tax increase,” Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist wrote in a March 11-dated letter sent to the New Jersey Legislature and shared with FoxNews.com.
Norquist also warns that raising taxes on consumers will “significantly decrease in-state sales, resulting in increased cross-border tax leakage.”
In recent years, as much as 40 percent of all cigarettes smoked in New Jersey were smuggled into the state illegally, resulting in a loss of more than $500 million in uncollected tax revenue each year, he says.
“By making New Jersey uncompetitive in e-cigarette pricing, the state would encourage smuggling, which will cost New Jersey small businesses tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue,” he said.
But to some, like New Jersey Democratic Assemblyman Dan Benson, taxing e-cigarettes is not only a fiscal responsibility but also sends an important message to would-be smokers.
“If e-cigarettes are taxed less than regular cigarettes, we’re sending a message out there that they’re somehow safer, and I think the jury is out on that,” he recently told a New Jersey radio station.
Meanwhile, a similar proposal in Washington state recently died in the Legislature. That plan would have redefined “vapor products” – the kind used in e-cigarettes – as “tobacco substitutes” and “tobacco products.” By changing their classification to a tobacco product, lawmakers were initially hoping to slap a 95 percent tax on them, projected to generate an additional $40 million for the state.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vapor from e-cigarettes has “far fewer of the toxins found in smoke compared to traditional cigarettes.”
However, the Atlanta-based agency says it’s too soon to say how much of a health benefit the alternative to traditional cigarettes offers. Both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes contain nicotine.
Tim McAfee, CDC’s director of Smoking and Health, says while it’s reasonably certain that if someone who smokes a pack a day switched completely to e-cigarettes it could represent a health benefit, there are still many “caveats and buts” around that.
Many argue that the reason state and local leaders are pushing so hard to tax e-cigarettes is because they’ve become addicted to the massive amounts of money brought in through the Master Settlement Agreement – a 25-year settlement that forces the nation’s top tobacco companies to pay out billions of dollars in profit to help pay for smoking-related health care costs in some states.
The 1998 settlement, for example, makes Philip Morris USA, the nation’s largest cigarette maker, pay $3.5 billion annually. The second-largest tobacco company, Reynolds Tobacco Co., has handed out more than $2 billion a year.
In total, the landmark settlement requires tobacco product manufacturers to make $206 billion in payments to 46 states and U.S.-territories.
If e-cigarettes are regulated the same way, that might mean millions more for states still struggling to find financial footing following the recession.
Utah, North Dakota and the District of Columbia have included e-cigarettes as part of their indoor-smoking bans, setting up the argument that the vapor sticks should be regulated like other tobacco products in the state. Wyoming, Tennessee, New York and Colorado are among nine other states that have already dumped e-cigarettes into the tobacco product category. |
An octopus might be one of the most intelligent invertebrates, but it doesn't always know what, exactly, its arms are doing. How these animals manage to avoid tangling themselves up is a major feat. But another—of no small concern—is keeping free of the strong grasp of its own suckers.
New research, published May 15 in Current Biology, reveals an elegantly simple solution.
Octopus suckers are powerful and can grasp onto just about any type of surface—smooth or bumpy, rigid or supple. In fact, note the researchers in their paper, "the hundreds of suckers along each arm have a tendency to stick to almost any object they contact." Which could make for a very sticky situation. Or, as the researchers tactfully put it: "This reflex could pose significant problems with unplanned interactions between the arms."
Like the arms, the suckers seem to be under relatively local control. So rather than bothering the central brain for instruction, as our bodies are set up to do, the octopus relies on closer-at-hand nerve bundles for information processing and control. But that raises the question: how do the suckers "know" a feisty fish from the octopus itself?
To figure out how these animals are managing this, researchers at Hebrew University of Jerusalem studied the behavior of octopus arms that could no longer talk to the main brain at all. (Warning: this is where things get a little gross.)
Octopuses often discard their own regrowable arms, whether for mating or to distract a predator. And a severed octopus arm can respond to stimuli and even activate its suckers for more than an hour. The research team noticed that amputated octopus arms suctioned onto various objects—but never onto itself or other octopus skin.
The amputated arms wouldn't even attach their suckers to Petri dishes that had been covered in octopus skin. If only half of the dish was covered with octo-skin, the arm would adhere only to the exposed plastic section. The suckers seem to be responding individually to some substance in the skin, the researchers, hypothesize, because in the latter instance, a sucker on the skin would avoid sticking while a neighboring sucker on the plastic would adhere right away.
To further support this idea, bodiless arms did adhere to an octopus arm that had been skinned—but with less force of a normal grasp. And when researchers coated Petri dishes in an extract made from octopus skin, the suckers attached, but very gently.
"We were entirely surprised by the brilliant and simple solution of the octopus to this potentially very complicated problem," Nir Nesher, a Hebrew University researcher and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement.
"The results so far show, and for the first time that the skin of the octopus prevents octopus arms from attaching to each other or to themselves," the researchers wrote in their paper, suggesting that the mechanism is likely a chemical compound.
The suckers are not completely in their own charge, however. We already know that octopuses often eat one another. But how could they, if suckers could not hold onto octopus skin at all? The researchers found that a live octopus could, indeed, grasp onto an amputated arm. This suggests that "the peripheral mechanism appears to be overridden by central control," the researchers noted in their paper. However, octopuses treated arms differently if they came from a different octopus or from their own bodies. "Surprisingly, octopuses seem to identify their own amputated arms, as they treat arms of other octopuses like food more often than their own," the researchers noted.
The new discovery might also come in handy for future robots—especially those that draw inspiration from the octopus. "We hope and believe that this mechanism will find expression in new classes of robots and their control systems," study co-author and lab leader Binyamin Hochner said in a prepared statement. We'll call it octopus sucker sense.
Read more about the amazing capabilities of octopus suckers in Octopus! The Most Mysterious Creature In the Sea.
Illustration courtesy of Ivan Phillipsen |
Last month, Apple’s latest earnings call announced its “most successful year ever.” The numbers were reported, the stories were spun and Wall Street basically anointed Apple the god of capitalism.
They’re all wrong.
The actual story, the story we should be telling, involves a different narrative. Apple is the largest company in the world, but success is fleeting. While the numbers are impressive, they don’t come close to painting an accurate picture about how much trouble Apple is really in.
Apple’s rise under Steve Jobs was historic. Its fall under Tim Cook is going to be much slower, more painful.
What the recent earnings statement tells us
Tim Cook can spend days waxing poetic about profits but even a modicum of ability to read between the lines is all it takes to realize it’s mostly bullshit.
Overall revenue looks great, but the iPhone actually missed Wall Street’s projections this quarter. On Wall Street, this is nothing new, unless we’re talking about Apple.
Apple rarely misses its numbers. In fact, it often overshoots them by such a large margin you wonder just how qualified the analysts making the predictions really are.
This year is different. Apple swung. Apple missed.
That’s not to say it wasn’t an impressive year, it’s just the first in a series of events that don’t mean much individually, but when connected tell a bigger story.
Apple lives and dies by the iPhone. iPad sales are flat, iPod’s are all but irrelevant, and while Mac sales are up, they’re nowhere close to the workhorse that can continue to carry Apple should they experience a downturn in iPhone sales. There is no Plan B.
One look at the numbers tells a pretty decisive tale.
Percentage of revenue derived from iPhone sales:
2012: 46.38%
2013: 52.07%
2014: 56.21%
2015: 62.54%
What made Apple an iconic brand is gone
Steve Jobs is almost entirely responsible for Apple’s cult-like following.
By streamlining the company in an attempt to make it profitable, the same vision started to makes its way through every product Apple created. Rather than bloated and flashy, Jobs created a movement of decidedly minimalist devices that required not much more than an occasional charge and a user that knew where the power button was.
“It just works” became a battle cry.
The products might not have been innovative in a creation sense, but the execution far exceeded anything we’d seen to that point, or perhaps since. They weren’t flashy, cheap, or the most powerful, but they “just worked” better than anything else on the market at the time. People took notice.
Between aesthetically pleasing design, rock-solid hardware, and software that responded as if it were built for the machine – not in spite of it – Apple culture became a cult of Jobs-worshipping consumers willing to buy anything with a lowercase “i” in front of it.
I was, and still am to a large degree, one of them.
Apple products feel as close to perfect in both design and operation as any piece of technology I’ve ever used.
The beginning of the end
When you reach a peak, all that is left is the inevitable fall. Apple might not quite be there yet, but its on the edge and looking over the side.
What made Apple cool is now being glossed over as Apple becomes any other company with a profit motive. We once watched as Jobs and his eye for detail created technology that was just short of perfection. Now we watch as Tim Cook eyes Wall Street and spins earnings reports.
The software that “just worked” is slow and glitchy. The hardware is buggy and underpowered. The form factor that once captivated the world has now become drab, copied ad-nauseam and ho-hum.
And these are just the problems that Apple has a legitimate chance to fix.
There are larger issues on the horizon: For example, how does Apple compete with Windows and Android?
Both have proven to be amazingly adept in recent years not only at competing with Apple in form factor, but functionality as well.
Two companies that are innovating, not searching for identity outside of a singular product.
Two companies that are on the way up, not down.
Apple must find its next big product
The iPhone 6s is widely thought to be one of the best – if not the best – smartphones on the market. Great, but we already knew that Apple could make phones. What we need is a Plan B should phone sales suddenly reach a plateau, or worse yet, decline.
The Apple Watch is great, but it’s never going to carry Apple like the iPhone until it works like one. The watch is undeniably cool, but it really fails to do anything better than your phone.
To make matters worse, you have to have an iPhone close by in order to even use most of its features. Similar Android models are self-contained and only require an occasional sync.
The autonomous car project sounds promising, but competing against Google and Tesla in addition to auto industry giants like Lexus and Mercedes is an uphill battle full of technology challenges, government red tape and changing century-old transportation conventions.
So what’s the next big thing?
I don’t know. Apple doesn’t seem to either. But until it figures it out, Apple is just the next in a long line of once great companies whose best days are behind it.
Read next: Clickbait Robot is like BuzzFeed if it was run by an insane autopilot |
The California High-Speed Rail Authority has yet to select a contractor to build the first stretch of its proposed statewide line in Fresno and Madera counties.
But on Wednesday, the agency did hire Wong/Harris, a team of two companies, to oversee whoever is chosen for design and construction of the initial 23-mile segment this year.
Five teams of contractors submitted bids to the authority last week in hopes of winning a contract that could potentially be worth up to $2 billion for the construction work. They are:
California Backbone Builders, a consortium of two Spanish construction firms: Ferrovial Agroman and Acciona.
California High-Speed Rail Partners, composed of Fluor Corp. of Texas, Swedish-based Skanska and PCL Constructors of Canada.
California High-Speed Ventures, made up of Kiewit Corp. of Nebraska, Granite Construction of Watsonville and Comsa EMTE of Spain.
Dragados/Samsung/Pulice, a joint venture of Dragados SA of Spain; Samsung C&T America, a subsidiary of South Korean multinational Samsung Group; and Pulice Construction Inc. of Arizona.
Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons, a consortium made up of Tutor Perini Corp. of Sylmar, Zachry Construction Corp. of Texas and Parsons Corp. of Pasadena.
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The construction-management contract awarded Wednesday is worth up to $34.9 million to the joint venture of PGH Wong Engineering, a San Francisco engineering and consulting company, and Harris & Associates, a Concord-based consulting and management firm. Together, the companies will be the state's eyes and ears supervising the Madera-to-Fresno work.
Wong/Harris beat three other bids for the construction management contract.
"These companies have extensive experience in transit and rail programs in California and around the country," said Jeffrey Morales, the rail authority's CEO. "They will ensure that the design-builder adheres to the conditions of the contract. They will be reviewing the work and reporting back to us."
Diana Gomez, the authority's project manager for the Central Valley region, said Wong/Harris will also help the agency evaluate bids from the five contracting teams.
The contract to complete the design and then build the Madera-Fresno portion of the high-speed rail route could be worth as much as $2 billion, depending on how competitive the five construction teams were in their bids. But the prices of the bids won't be opened until after each proposal is judged on a pass-fail basis by the rail authority to make sure that the companies meet all of the technical requirements of the job. Morales said that review could take six to eight weeks before the agency opens the envelopes for the contract prices.
The authority hopes to award the construction contract in June.
Chowchilla connection
Also during Wednesday's meeting, the authority's board learned that its staff has been working to unravel a "spaghetti bowl" of route options around Chowchilla, where a portion of the rail line will connect an east-west line to Gilroy and San Jose.
As many as 14 alternatives were being considered for the Chowchilla connection on the Merced-Fresno section of the route. Now, only six remain in contention.
Mark McLaughlin, the authority's deputy director for environmental planning, said the agency will meet with city and county officials, property owners and the public to discuss the potential effects of those options. McLaughlin said he plans to present an analysis of the alternatives to the authority's board in March.
By April, one of the connections is expected to be selected for a detailed environmental review that will eventually be incorporated into the already-approved Merced-Fresno section of the route. When the authority's board approved the route last spring, it excluded the Chowchilla connection to allow a more detailed evaluation of the options.
The six remaining alternatives focus on potential east-west routes along Avenue 24, Avenue 21 and Highway 152, and potential north-south connections along Road 11, Road 13 and Road 18.
Future construction
The rail authority also said Wednesday that it will seek information from contractors who want to build three sections between Fresno and Bakersfield: from the south end of Fresno to Lansing Avenue near Corcoran; from Corcoran to the Elmo Highway in northern Kern County; and from the Elmo Highway southward toward Bakersfield. One final construction package in the Valley will cover laying the steel tracks for the entire Madera-Bakersfield stretch.
Thomas Fellenz, the authority's chief counsel, said companies that are deemed qualified will then be invited to submit bids. He said he doesn't expect work to begin until April 2014 at the earliest. |
Adversarial training (also called GAN for Generative Adversarial Networks), and the variations that are now being proposed, is the most interesting idea in the last 10 years in ML, in my opinion.
– Yann LeCun, 2016 [1].
You heard it from the Deep Learning guru: Generative Adversarial Networks [2] are a very hot topic in Machine Learning. In this post I will explore various ways of using a GAN to create previously unseen images. I provide source code in Tensorflow and a modified version of DIGITS that you are free to use if you wish to try it out yourself.
Figure 1 gives a preview of what you will learn to do in this series of posts. Part 1 will give you an understanding of GANs and part 2 applies GAN models to generating celebrity face images.
What is a Generative Model?
In machine learning, a generative model learns to generate samples that have a high probability of being real samples like the samples from the training dataset. Let’s take an example to understand what this means: consider a world composed of all possible 64×64 8-bit RGB images. There are 23x8x64x64 possible arrangements of the pixel values in those images. This is a staggering number, much greater than the number of particles in the universe. Now consider the set of images that represent faces of people. Even though there are many, they represent a tiny fraction of all the images in the world. Learning a probability distribution of the set of face images means that the model needs to learn to assign a high probability (of being a real sample) to the images that represent a face and a low probability to other images.
Finally, consider a dataset of a few thousand face images: learning to generate new samples from this dataset means that the model needs to learn the distribution from which the images in the dataset were drawn. Ultimately the model should be able to assign the right probability to any image—even those that are not in the dataset. A generative face model should be able to generate images from the full set of face images.
How Do Generative Adversarial Networks Work?
The typical GAN setup comprises two agents:
a Generator G that produces samples, and
that produces samples, and a Discriminator D that receives samples from both G and the dataset.
G and D have competing goals (hence the term “adversarial” in Generative Adversarial Networks): D must learn to distinguish between its two sources while G must learn to make D believe that the samples it generates are from the dataset.
A commonly used analogy for GANs is that of a forger (G) that must learn to manufacture counterfeit goods and an expert (D) trying to identify them as such. But in this case—and this is a very important GAN feature— forgers have insider information into the police department: they have ways to know when and why their products are marked as fake (though they never get to see any of the real goods). Likewise, the police have access to a “higher authority” that lets them know whether their guesses are correct. During training G and D keep playing this game, getting better as they play, until they both become so good that the samples produced by G are indistinguishable from the real stuff.
A Generative Adversarial Play
Let me illustrate with an example: suppose I train a GAN on a dataset of luxury handbags. The following dialogue would be a plausible play.
The Expert stands in a room in front of the Higher Authority. The Forger is lurking in the background and can hear anything The Expert says, though he cannot see any of the action. The Higher Authority picks a luxury handbag from a drawer and presents it to The Expert. The low, resonating voice of the Higher Authority echoes through the room.
Higher Authority: Is this a luxury handbag?
Expert: Hmmm, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a luxury handbag before. This looks fine enough but I know for a fact that The Forger would be trying to deceive me so I say it’s a fake.
Higher Authority: Wrong! That is a fine luxury handbag.
The Higher Authority now requests a sample from The Forger, who produces a carrot. The carrot is presented to The Expert.
Higher Authority: Is this a luxury handbag?
Expert: Well that does look different from the previous thing but I’ve been a bit too prudent before so I say it’s a luxury handbag! [A faint snickering noise is heard from the direction of The Forger.]
Higher Authority: Wrong again! It’s a fake. [The Expert grumbles.]
The Higher Authority picks another luxury handbag from a drawer and presents it to The Expert.
Higher Authority: Is this a luxury handbag?
Expert: OK, that does share some resemblance with the bag I’ve seen before and it’s definitely unlike the other orange cone so I say it’s a luxury handbag! [The Expert holds his breath.]
Higher Authority: Correct. [The Expert sighs.]
[The Higher Authority now requests a sample from The Forger, who produces a slightly different carrot. The Higher Authority shows signs of discontent.]
Higher Authority: OK, is this a luxury handbag?
Expert: Why, you’ve got to be kidding! That’s the same fake you showed me before! You can’t put anything in it. It’s definitely a fake!
[The Higher Authority decides to give The Forger another chance. Elated, The Forger runs to his vault and comes back with a wallet.]
Higher Authority: Is this a luxury handbag?
Expert: Apparently you can shove stuff in it, like the other handbags so I say it’s a luxury handbag!
Higher Authority: Ha! Wrong again!
[The Higher Authority picks another luxury handbag from the drawer and presents it to The Expert.]
Higher Authority: Is this a luxury handbag?
Expert: I have no idea. I don’t want to commit. 50/50?
[A droplet of sweat emerges from The Expert’s forehead.]
Higher Authority: This is a 100% luxury handbag!
[The Higher Authority now requests a sample from The Forger. The Forger runs to his vault and comes back with another wallet.]
Higher Authority: Is this a luxury handbag?
Expert: This doesn’t have handles! It’s a fake!
[The Higher Authority, feeling generous, gives The Forger another chance. The Forger runs to the nearest store and hastily comes back with a plastic bag].
Higher Authority: Is this a luxury handbag?
Expert: Mmm, it’s got handles and you can put stuff in it. Is this real?
Higher Authority: Wrong!
The Expert: OK I get it. The luxury bags had leathery bits. And a shiny logo. I’ll be more careful next time! I can feel I’m getting good at this!
I will spare you further details of this fascinating story but in the end the forger learns to produce the most sophisticated designer handbags that even a cohort of experts would not be able to identify as fakes (better than random guessing).
GAN Behavior in More Detail
One important aspect to keep in mind here is the fact that since D is trained continuously, G cannot simply go about generating the same samples over and over. In particular, if D has ample capacity, it may be able to memorize all the samples that G ever produced and become expert at spotting fakes. How would G then be able to continuously handcraft novel samples? Going back to our dataset of face images, assuming your are G and already in possession of a few realistic images (or at least deemed as such by D), one reasonable way of coming up with an increasing number of realistic images would be to apply small perturbations to the images that you already have: crops, rotations, color transformations, etc. This way you could create a virtually infinite number of new images, but chances are D would start noticing patterns there and punish you.
In order to alleviate this issue, G learns to generate very different samples: given a set of random numbers, which is called the latent representation, or in short the z vector, and through a number of neural layers, G learns to generate new samples that depend on z sufficiently strongly that a different z will yield a very different sample.
It may be hard to believe at first, but through training, every factor in z, or combination thereof, specializes toward one characteristic feature of the dataset. For example, in a dataset of face images, factors might represent the gender of the person, the color of their skin, their pose, etc.
Figure 2 summarises the GAN framework. Although there exist variations of the original training schedule, training is usually a three-stage process in which:
D receives an image from the dataset and is optimized to classify it as “real”. In practice, this means that its parameters are updated through gradient descent in a direction that moves it closer to classifying the image as real (probability one). A random z is drawn from which G generates a new sample. D receives the sample and is optimized to classify it as “fake” (probability zero). G is optimized to make D classify the sample as “real” .
Why Are GANs So Popular?
GANs are popular partly because they tackle the important unsolved challenge of unsupervised learning, and partly because the amount of available unlabelled data is considerably larger than the amount of labelled data. I can’t resist another quote from our esteemed Deep Learning luminary:
If intelligence was a cake, unsupervised learning would be the cake, supervised learning would be the icing on the cake, and reinforcement learning would be the cherry on the cake. We know how to make the icing and the cherry, but we don’t know how to make the cake. – Yann LeCun, 2016.
Another reason for their popularity is that GANs are considered to generate the most realistic images among generative models [2]. This is subjective, but it is an opinion shared by most practitioners.
Besides, the learned latent representation in a GAN is often very expressive: arithmetic operations in the latent space, that is to say the space of the z vectors, translate into corresponding operations in feature space. For example, you can see in Figure 1 that if you take the representation of a blond woman in latent space, subtract the “blond hair” vector and add back the “black hair” vector, you end up with a picture of a woman with black hair in feature space. That is truly amazing.
Generating Images of Hand-Written Numbers
An introduction to any deep learning topic would be incomplete without an application to the MNIST [4] dataset, a popular dataset featuring images of handwritten digits (Figure 3).
Network Topology
Note that labels aren’t required to train a GAN, but if I do have labels (as is the case for MNIST) I can use them to train a conditional GAN. A conditional GAN is one that is conditioned to generate and discriminate samples based on a set of arbitrarily chosen attributes. On MNIST, I can condition the GAN on the class of the number I would like to generate. In practice, I concatenate a one-hot representation of the class to the activations of every layer. For fully-connected layers the one-hot representation is just a vector of length 10 (because we have 10 classes of digits) with zeros everywhere except when the index matches the class ID. This idea can be extended to convolutional layers too: in this case conditioning is materialized by a set of 10 feature maps with zeros everywhere except for the feature map whose index is the class ID, which is filled with ones. During training, the latent representation z is sampled from a 100-dimensional normal distribution; an arbitrary choice that yields acceptable results.
Network conditioning, and the topologies of my G and D networks (a slightly modified version of DCGAN [5]) are illustrated in Figure 4. Activation functions are not shown in this figure, but importantly the activation function for the last layer in D is a typical sigmoid.
I have based my Tensorflow integration of DCGAN into DIGITS on the excellent implementation from [6]. You can see the flow of data in Figure 5: images from the dataset go through D, and there is an identical copy of D ( discriminator_1) which receives images from G.
One technicality is that in order to create two identical instances of D I need to create the layers twice and let Tensorflow know that I want to reuse variables (weights and biases). This is easily done with a call to scope.reuse_variables() as in the following example code.
# call this function again with reuse=True to create a clone of the discriminator def discriminator(self, image, y=None, reuse=False): with tf.variable_scope("discriminator") as scope: if reuse: scope.reuse_variables() # define your variables and ops here
Another important aspect to keep in mind is the set of parameters passed to the optimizer. By default, Tensorflow optimizers (subclasses of tf.train.Optimizer ) compute gradients with respect to all trainable variables in the graph and update them all on every iteration of the optimization loop. That is not what you want in the GAN framework: when you train D to identify generated samples, you really only want to modify the state of D. If you let the optimizer change all variables including those of G then it would be just as easy to make G generate garbage and that would not be a fair play. So when you train D you want to freeze the state of G and vice versa. That might sound obvious but since it took me a while to figure it out, I thought I would mention it. Again, this is easily done in Tensorflow with optional parameters (in bold letters in the following) to the optimizer.
vars = tf.trainable_variables() g_vars = [var for var in vars if 'g_' in var.name] grads = optimizer.compute_gradients(g_loss, var_list=g_vars)
Objective Functions
D is trained to predict a probability distribution: the probability that a sample $latex x$ belongs to each of the known classes. There are only two classes since a sample is either real or fake. In the original formulation of GAN, D is trained to maximise the probability of guessing the correct label by minimizing the corresponding cross-entropy loss , where is a one-hot encoding of the label, is the predicted probability distribution and is the class index. If represents the probability that is a data sample, then for generated samples.
When the GAN framework is formulated as a minimax game, D tries to minimize and G tries to maximise it. That’s rather unfortunate for G because during the early phases of training when the output of G is less than convincing, D easily assigns a very low probability to . This implies that the number before the last sigmoid activation function in D is a large negative number and, as the blue curve in Figure 6 shows, the loss saturates (it is flat and the gradient is tiny) as highlighted in [2].
This makes G learn very slowly, if at all. Therefore it’s common to reformulate the optimization objective for G as a maximisation of —the red curve—instead, which yields the same solution but exhibits much stronger gradients in the negative quadrant. Another common solution is to flip the labels: make D predict 1 when optimizing for G. One further refinement that I implemented to alleviate the penalty of an overconfident D is to use one-sided label smoothing and replace the hard label of 1 when optimizing D on real samples with a softer 0.9, as suggested in [2].
The first thing that I usually check when training a neural network is whether the loss function is going down. However here there are two components of the total loss: D’s loss and G’s loss. By construction, the two losses cannot simultaneously go down. Otherwise D and G wouldn’t be called adversaries! How do you determine whether training is successful? This turns out to be rather difficult in practice, and the subject of ongoing research.
For one thing, you can check whether the game is well balanced. How does that translate into meaningful loss values? If G’s loss is very low this means D is unable to recognize fake samples, possibly because it classifies everything as real. Remember that all the knowledge in G comes from D through back-propagation. G is therefore unlikely to generate good samples if D is doing a poor job at spotting fakes. At equilibrium you would expect D to not be able to do better than random guessing, meaning that it would assign probability 50% to all samples. Going back to the definition of the cross-entropy loss, this would yield a loss value of $latex -log(0.5)=69%$. That number should be easy enough to remember.
A well balanced game means that both players are equally good… or bad! How do you figure out how well players are doing? One solution is to stare at the generated samples. That is probably what most people do and admittedly I have engaged in a fair amount of staring myself. Tensorflow makes it easy to visualize generated samples by adding a variable to the collection of Tensorboard summaries:
tf.summary.image("G",G))
This causes generated images to be added periodically to my Tensorboard log and I can then monitor them in real time as illustrated on Figure 7.
Since it is not practical to keep looking at the generated samples, I implemented the following metric: remember that G is learning to approximate the probability distribution of the world from which our dataset samples are drawn. One simple proxy that I can use here is to compare the unconditional (non-spatial) distributions of the real and generated samples respectively. For every batch, I calculate histograms of pixel values from each source and compare them using the distance operator. A low value, though not sufficient, is necessary for a good approximation of the data distribution and this metric is easy to implement:
value_range = [0.0, 1.0] nbins = 100 hist_g = tf.histogram_fixed_width(self.G, value_range, nbins=nbins, dtype=tf.float32) / nbins hist_x = tf.histogram_fixed_width(self.images, value_range, nbins=nbins, dtype=tf.float32) / nbins chi_square = tf.reduce_mean(tf.div(tf.square(hist_g - hist_x), hist_g + hist_x)) tf.summary.scalar("chi_square", chi_square))
Figure 8 shows the loss curve in DIGITS. As you can see, all losses are relatively close to 69%, an indication of a well balanced game. Also, the curve (purple) goes down steadily, another reassuring sign.
Sampling
I could pick random values of z and generate random images but it would be great if I could more deterministically choose attributes of the images I create. Remember that in my conditional GAN, the latent representation (z) and the class labels are separate. Therefore, I can pick one value of z and generate matching images for all classes. I can also do what I call a class sweep: pick one z and slowly interpolate across classes to get smooth transitions between digits. Have a look at Figure 9 for examples. Each grid uses the same value of z and a different label.
You can start to get a feeling of what is going on: style features like stroke width and curvature seem to be encoded in the latent representation. In other words, each grid seems to use a different style of handwriting. You can also see on the animations on Figure 10 that transitions between digits are very smooth, an indication that the latent space yields a continuous space of real-looking images.
Now I can also do what I call a style sweep: pick two random values of z and interpolate between the two corresponding styles, for each class. See Figure 11.
Now you might wonder how to do the interpolations in practice. Intuitively I would use a linear combination of my z vectors to perform interpolation in latent space. However intuition rarely works in a high-dimensional space. Tom White [7] points out that linear interpolation (taking the shortest path between points) leads to intermediate points that have very improbable norm and are therefore unlikely to be visited during training. That means the model may not perform well on these points. This led White to advocate the use of spherical interpolation: interpolating between two points as if walking on the surface of a high-dimensional sphere. See Figure 12 for an illustration of the difference between linear and spherical interpolation in 2D space. Spherical interpolation has become the standard way of performing interpolation in GANs. I used spherical interpolation for all examples in this post.
GAN Auto-Encoder
I can keep sampling random z vectors until I find a style that I like. But is there a more direct approach? What if I have an image of a digit in my dataset that I really like and I would like to generate all other digits using the same style?
One limitation in the standard formulation of a GAN is that there is no mapping from feature space to latent space. In other words, given a sample, there is no direct way to find the corresponding z vector. Several papers were published to address this issue, most notably [8] and [9]. Without getting into the details of the proposed solutions, they all modify the original GAN framework and provide no guarantee that the model will converge to the same solution. Feeling uneasy about this I decided to implement my own solution: I wanted to separately train an encoder, that is to say a network that outputs a z vector when given an image as input. To verify that the z vector is correct I feed it to G and then check whether the generated image is similar to the input image.
One question that arises is: how do I design a network that can extract features from my images that are useful enough to produce a good z vector? Well, I already have such a network: D! I just changed the number of output neurons in the last layer of D to 100 (the length of z), plugged the output of my modified D (let’s call it E) into G and used the L2 distance between the output of G and the input image as a loss. I have essentially reversed the order of things in my GAN and created a GAN Auto-encoder. This is utterly simple but works well enough in practice. See Figure 13 for an illustration of the encoder topology and Figure 14 for an illustration of the new set-up.
Importantly, in order to train E it is critical to initialize its weights from the weights of a trained D. In deep learning jargon, this is known as transfer learning. When I train this model in DIGITS, the learning curve is incredibly smooth, as you can see in Figure 15. I could use a more subtle similarity metric (L2 is a little bit gross here) but I found it that this simple scheme works well enough in practice.
Targeted Sampling
Armed with my encoder I can take an image from my dataset and find the corresponding z vector (Figure 16). Note how the reconstructed number resembles the input image.
I was then able to generate a grid of digits (Figure 17). Note how all digits in the grid seem to be written in the style of my input image.
Now It’s Your Turn!
After reading this post, you should have the information you need to get started with Generative Adversarial Networks. Download the source code now and experiment with these ideas on your own dataset. Please let us know how you are doing by commenting on this post!
Stay tuned for the second part of this post where I will show you how to use Generative Adversarial Networks to generate images of celebrity faces.
Join NVIDIA for a GAN Demo at ICLR
Visit the NVIDIA booth at ICLR Apr 24-26 in Toulon, France to see a demo based on my code of a DCGAN network trained on the CelebA celebrity faces dataset. As you’ll see in Part 2 of this series, this demo illustrates how DIGITS together with TensorFlow can be used to generate complex deep neural network architectures. Follow us at @NVIDIAAI on Twitter for updates on our ground breaking research published at ICLR.
Learn More at GTC 2017
The GPU Technology Conference, May 8-11 in San Jose, is the largest and most important event of the year for AI and GPU developers. Use the code CMDLIPF to receive 20% off registration, and remember to check out my talk, – Photo Editing with Generative Adversarial Networks. I’ll also be instructing a Deep Learning Institute hands on lab at GTC: L7133 – Photo Editing with Generative Adversarial Networks in TensorFlow and DIGITS.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Taehoon Kim (Github @carpedm20) for his DCGAN implementation on [6]. I would like to thank Mark Harris for his insightful comments and suggestions.
References
[1] Yann LeCun (2016). https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-recent-and-potentially-upcoming-breakthroughs-in-deep-learning
[2] Ian J. Goodfellow, Jean Pouget-Abadie, Mehdi Mirza, Bing Xu, David Warde-Farley, Sherjil Ozair, Aaron Courville, Yoshua Bengio (2014). Generative Adversarial Networks. arXiv:1406.2661
[3] Ian J. Goodfellow (2016). NIPS 2016 tutorial: Generative Adversarial Networks. arXiv:1701.00160
[4] THE MNIST DATABASE of handwritten digits. http://yann.lecun.com/exdb/mnist/
[5] Alec Radford, Luke Metz, Soumith Chintala (2015). Unsupervised Representation Learning with Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks. arXiv:1511.06434
[6] DCGAN-tensorflow. https://github.com/carpedm20/DCGAN-tensorflow
[7] Tom White (2016). Sampling Generative Networks. arXiv:1609.04468
[8] Anders Boesen Lindbo Larsen, Søren Kaae Sønderby, Hugo Larochelle, Ole Winther (2015). Autoencoding beyond pixels using a learned similarity metric. arXiv:1512.09300
[9] Vincent Dumoulin, Ishmael Belghazi, Ben Poole, Olivier Mastropietro, Alex Lamb, Martin Arjovsky, Aaron Courville (2016). Adversarially Learned Inference. arXiv:1606.00704 |
The Chris Houlihan Room is a secret room in A Link to the Past.[1] It contains 45 Blue Rupees scattered on a shining blue floor and a Telepathy Tile on the back wall. While the room exists in the Game Boy Advance version of the game, the Telepathy Tile is not there.[2] The room is not an intended part of normal gameplay, but rather a crash prevention measure. It is a failsafe room that the game sends Link to when it cannot determine which room he should be sent to.
History
During September and October of 1990, Nintendo Power held a contest in which a randomly selected winner would get their name programmed in a future NES game. The requirements were to take a photo encountering Warmech in Final Fantasy and then send it to Nintendo Power by October 15, 1990.[3] The winner of the contest was Chris Houlihan, whose name appears in his own secret room in A Link to the Past.
Access
There are five different ways to access the room.[4] One of the most well known methods involves a series of dashes using the Pegasus Boots, starting from the Sanctuary all the way to the Sewer Passageway's entrance. If executed correctly, Link will fall in the underground room. If Link exits the room, he will find himself outside of his house.
Technical Information
The bug occurs when the game detects an error in Link's Y coordinate. It is known to happen 2 different ways:
By using a Bomb to knock Link into the lowest few pixels of the screen. Link can also use the Pegasus Boots to knockback himself backwards. Next, using the Pegasus Boots facing downwards into a screen transition, finding a hole, and dropping into it. Going into certain rooms (like the Sanctuary or the cave northeast of the Lost Woods) and dashing out of it. As Link leaves the room, the camera shifts down slightly. Then, Link must find a hole and stand next to it, setting a Bomb down and allowing the blast to knock him into the hole.
Nomenclature
Names in Other Regions Language Name Meaning Japanese 秘密の部屋 ( Himitsu no Heya ) Secret Room |
In a previous life, Anthony never went to bed hungry and always had a roof over his head. Starvation, he says, shouldn’t exist in Canada. “If you want to starve, you go to my old country,” he said.
Anthony (no last name given) enjoys Christmas dinner at the Scott Mission on Spadina Ave., Dec. 25. ( Andrew Francis Wallace / Toronto Star )
Anthony, who declined to share his name, emigrated in 1960 from Calabri, a province in the south of Italy, where his family farmed land they didn’t own, eating what they could grow. Born on St. Anthony’s Day (June 13), he was named after the saint, but doesn’t feel blessed. “I’m ashamed of where I am,” said the 62-year-old man, pausing and looking away, his mischievous eyes tearing up on the corners. “Do you think anyone wants to be here? People here are so down on their friggin’ luck, it’s terrible.” After his wife died, Anthony sold his house. He says he “blew through that money” in one year, and ended up living in a park before he discovered the Scott Mission — a non-denominational, faith-based street mission in downtown Toronto, serving the city’s less fortunate.
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For the third Christmas in a row, Anthony is sitting in the Mission’s meal room at Spadina Ave. and College St., which by noon was bustling with some 100 people enjoying a warm Christmas meal on a cold, snowy day.
Staff members Chris Hanks, left, and Jude Mudalige prepare the Scott Mission's annual Christmas dinner, which fed about 250 people this year. ( Andrew Francis Wallace )
On this morning, the meal room is a cacophony of sounds: the clangs of metal pots being stirred and emptied in the kitchen; the creaks of the shelf-rack being wheeled in, carrying trays upon trays of food; the shuffle of the footsteps of some 35 staff and volunteer men and women making sure every table has a place mat, cutlery, a drink, a note with a prayer or a season’s greeting and, this year, a special cookie a donor has prepared. Through the walls, you hear the faint sounds of Christmas carols playing in the room next door, as 250 of Toronto’s homeless and less fortunate gather for the second busiest day at the Mission (the first is Thanksgiving). On this day, 80 pounds of potatoes, 50 litres of soup, a bunch of turkeys and more are prepared, beginning at 7 a.m.; each meal costs about $4.25. It’s a meal that has become one of Holly Thompson’s Christmas traditions. Every Dec. 25 for the past six years, she has stood and greeted people and watched them read the little note on their place mat, written by donors.
“It means something to them,” said Thompson, a spokesperson for the Mission. “Christmas is hard for people who live on the streets . . . It’s important for there to be somewhere they can go, a place for community.” Scott Mission, said Anthony, gave him back hope.
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“This place is the greatest place in the world,” says Anthony. “It gives you friendship, people to talk to. You’re not on the street alone, talking to yourself like a fool. You communicate, here.” Peter Duraisami, the CEO of the Mission, believes things are getting harder for the city’s poor, where affordable accommodation is hard to find. “The level in which people are suffering has increased,” he said. Duraisami has watched students come in to get the Mission’s lunch services. Rent has gone up in the city, he says, and people have fallen into an unfortunate cycle. “If I was homeless, and I had nobody, nothing, and I don’t know where my next meal is coming from, I don’t know how I would’ve been,” he says. “It’s just not the food you give,” Duraisami continued. “When I start talking to people like Anthony, it’s worth my Christmas. It’s worth more.” |
The final installment of BioWare’s sprawling space opera apparently needs a bit more time in hyperspace, as the EA-held dev studio announced that Mass Effect 3 won’t be out until the first quarter of 2012.
In a statement that went out on Facebook and BioWare message boards, executive producer Casey Hudson said:
“Today we have confirmed that Mass Effect 3 will be released in the first three months of 2012. The development team is laser focused on making sure Mass Effect 3 is the biggest, boldest and best game in the series, ensuring that it exceeds everyone’s expectations. We’ll have more details about specific dates as we get closer to release.”
The Mass Effect series puts players in control of Commander Shepard, a human space soldier out to stop the universal extinction of all organic life by a machine race called the Reapers. Mass Effect 2 was one of last year’s top games and won Best of 2010 accolades from all over (including us). Many were surprised when a “three-quel” with a 2011 release date was announced in late 2010.
The delay actually isn’t so bad for ME3. Many gamers felt Dragon Age II, another big BioWare sequel, was rushed out the door. Similar rumblings about the turnaround on Mass Effect 3 have been churning. A few more months in development should allay those fears and allow BioWare’ flagship franchise to dodge big games like Uncharted 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in an already packed 2011 holiday quarter. You’ll still get to give Shepard the send-off he (or she) deserves, you’ll just have to wait a little longer. |
The halo of victory: What Americans learned from World War I
Hugh Rockoff
World War I profoundly altered the structure of the US economy and its role in the world economy. However, this column argues that the US learnt the wrong lessons from the war, partly because a halo of victory surrounded wartime policies and personalities. The methods used for dealing with shortages during the war were simply inappropriate for dealing with the Great Depression, and American isolationism in the 1930s had devastating consequences for world peace.
World War I had important consequences for the structure of the US economy and its role in the world economy. This was especially true in the world of finance. The US transitioned from being a debtor nation to a creditor nation, and financial leadership moved from London to New York. But equally important were the lessons that Americans drew from the war. Although the war had much to teach, Americans tended, I will argue below, to learn too much from the war, drawing strong conclusions from a war in which the US was actively engaged for only 19 months. Many actions, moreover, were being undertaken, and many agencies created, simultaneously. Teasing out the effects of each policy and agency separately would be hazardous at best. But the halo of victory encircled everyone who rose to the top and every policy that survived to the end of the war. Here I will consider three people who were extremely influential in the years following World War I and what they learned from it: Bernard Baruch who headed the War Industries Board, President Roosevelt who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the war, and Senator Gerald P. Nye who headed the Senate committee that in the early 1930s investigated the origins of the war.
Bernard Baruch and the mobilisation of the economy
America declared war in April 1917, and began drafting a large army and undertaking a massive industrial mobilisation. For a time the news on the home front suggested that the industrial mobilisation was going badly. Where were the guns and bullets needed to equip the young men being trained for battle? In March 1918 President Wilson reorganised the War Industries Board, the agency charged with managing the mobilisation, and promoted Bernard M. Baruch, a South Carolina native, Wall Street speculator, and Progressive Democrat to head of the reorganised Board. Baruch was given broad powers, and he moved quickly and aggressively. To prevent spiralling prices of raw materials from undermining production he negotiated fixed prices for some important raw materials with producers. And he introduced a priority system to guide manufacturers who were flooded with orders. The idea was simple. All orders for munitions would be given a rating by the War Industries Board. Orders rated A had to be filled before orders rated B, and so on. And sure enough the flow of munitions from America’s factories increased. Indeed, by the end of the war, output in some industries had approached the astonishing levels reached in World War II. In truth, determining how much of the increase, if any, was due to Baruch and his policies and how much to the maturing of projects started earlier would be difficult if not impossible. Baruch was in charge of war production for the only the last eight months of the war. But the halo of victory surrounded Baruch and the War Industries Board, and his reputation was made.
Progressives, such as Baruch, thought that the war had shown that in peacetime the private sector would benefit from a strong guiding hand from government, and that in wartime government should have complete control of the economy. But agreement on this was far from universal. The left and the right drew very different conclusions from the war. To the left of Baruch there were people who found proof in the war that socialism worked better than capitalism. In 1927 Rexford Tugwell, who would become a prominent advisor to Roosevelt in the first phase of the New Deal, referred to “America’s war-time socialism” and wrote sadly that “we were on the verge of having an international industrial machine when peace broke” (quoted in Leuchtenburg 1964: 90). But many on the right were tired of the daily interference in their lives emanating from Washington during the war, and sobered by the cost of a war undertaken for the idealistic goal of “making the world safe for democracy”. In 1920 Republican Warren G. Harding ran for president promising a “return to normalcy” at home and the avoidance of foreign entanglements abroad. He easily defeated his Democratic opponent, fellow Ohioan James M. Cox (and his running mate Franklin D. Roosevelt). It was a landslide – Harding won 60% of the popular vote.
Baruch’s views had little impact in the 1920s. Like other Progressives he had to bide his time while Republicans occupied the White House. But during the New Deal and World War II his views were influential. I will consider his ideas about peacetime economics below. Here let me note that his signature idea of a “priorities system” for guiding a war economy was given a full trial in World War II by the War Production Board, the analogue of his War Industries Board, but it was found wanting. The problem was “priorities inflation”. Government bureaucrats tended to give the highest priority to every project. Who wanted to risk being called to account for having given a low rating to the production of something that turned out to be important for the war effort? And when lead contractors were given the right to pass their priorities on to subcontractors, they inevitably found a way to give the highest priority they had received to every subcontract they entered. The War Production Board responded by creating higher and higher priorities – hence “priorities inflation” – but the system was unsatisfactory and jettisoned in favour of control through the rationing of scarce materials, although that solution also had its problems.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal
When the Great Depression hit, the nation turned to Roosevelt, who responded by creating a host of new agencies and programmes. In a famous paper, “The New Deal and the Analogue of War”, historian William E. Leuchtenburg (1964) showed how in case after case the New Dealers turned to the example of World War I. It is hardly surprising. The war was still fresh in the public memory. “There was scarcely a New Deal act or agency”, wrote Leuchtenburg (1964: 109), “that did not owe something to the experience of World War I.” The Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which borrowed money to invest in railroads, banks, and other troubled enterprises – an agency created by Roosevelt’s predecessor Herbert Hoover – was explicitly modelled on the War Finance Corporation. The Tennessee Valley Authority, which undertook an ambitious effort at regional planning, grew out of a government-operated nitrate and electric power project created in World War I. New Deal agriculture policies were based partly on the policies of the Food Administration. And the Civilian Conservation Corps hired young men for projects in national parks and was based on the mobilisation of the army. Roosevelt told Congress that “In two brief months 300,000 men have enlisted, been trained, transferred to the front, and have started the attack. The battle is on in earnest” (quoted in Leuchtenburg 1964: 114).
“The legacy of the war”, Leuchtenburg (1964: 84) noted, “Was to prove a mixed blessing. Useful as a justification for New Deal actions, it also served to limit and divert the reformers in ways that had not been anticipated.” Policymakers might have drawn the conclusion from World War I that deficit spending combined with an expansionary monetary policy had propelled the economy toward full employment – a lesson that would have been enormously valuable in the Depression. Figure 1 shows a monthly index (1909=100) of industrial production measured against the left vertical axis, the stock of money (M2 in billions of dollars) measured against the right vertical axis, and the cumulative Federal deficit (in billions of dollars) also measured against the right vertical axis. One could choose alternative variables to represent the amount of monetary and fiscal stimulus or the response of the economy, but the general picture would be the same – the economy received a strong dose of both monetary and fiscal stimulation.
Although the stock of money appears in Figure 1 to rise at a fairly stable rate over the whole period, the declaration of war changed the sources of growth. During the period of US neutrality the stock of money rose because the Europeans were paying for their imports of raw materials and munitions in part by shipping gold. After the US declared war, the US government lent funds to our allies so that they could continue these purchases. But the stock of money continued to rise because the Federal Reserve purchased large amounts of federal debt to prevent interest rates from rising. As soon as the war in Europe began, American industry began to feel the effects of increased demand from our future allies for raw materials and munitions, and from neutrals who could no longer buy certain materials from the nations at war. The government fiscal stimulus, represented in Figure 1 by the cumulated federal deficit, however, began with America’s entry into the war.
Figure 1. Industrial production, the federal deficit, and the stock of money, 1910–1920
Although lessons about the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy could have been drawn from the war, economic theory was not ready. A few prescient economists recognised the role that had been played by monetary and fiscal policy, but the convincing work of Keynes and Friedman was still in the future.
The US experienced a financial crisis in 1914 when the war broke out; the corresponding dip in industrial production is visible in Figure 1. But the economy had returned to full employment by the time the US entered the war, as shown in Figure 2. Very low levels of unemployment were recorded in 1918 and 1919, and those rates owed something to the pressure-cooker economy that had been created. But they owed even more to the drafting of young men, often recent high-school graduates, removing a group from the labour force that normally experienced high rates of unemployment. For economists who looked at the world from a classical perspective, monetary expansion and deficit spending had simply created inflation. The rate of inflation – the percentage change in the GDP deflator from the previous year – is also shown in Figure 2. The highest rate, which exceeded 20%, was experienced in 1917. The relatively low recorded rate in 1919 was due in part to price controls.
Figure 2. Unemployment and inflation, 1910–1920
True, the wartime deficits were used to provide a justification for peacetime deficits in the 1930s. When the debt mounted, defenders of the New Deal pointed out that an even larger debt had been run up during the war, and America had done just fine in the 1920s. But that was very different from arguing that larger deficits would increase total spending and reduce unemployment. Roosevelt began the New Deal by slashing spending and trying to achieve a balanced budget – including cuts in veterans’ benefits, long considered untouchable – a policy that he had argued for vigorously during his presidential campaign. Although Roosevelt backed away from this position to a degree, he never abandoned his commitment to a balanced budget, let alone embrace Keynesian deficit spending. The Federal government kept two sets of accounts during the 1930s: the regular budget, and an extraordinary budget where relief spending was recorded. The idea was to reiterate through the accounting system itself that the deficits were a temporary measure forced on the administration.
The basic problem that war agencies dealt with – how to allocate scarce resources in a fully employed economy – was the reverse of the problem of the Depression – how to stimulate demand – but this was not part of the thinking behind the new agencies and programmes being created. The agricultural programmes are good examples. Farmers had suffered greatly during the great contraction from 1929 to 1933 because the prices they received for their crops had fallen further than the prices they paid. It is obvious to us now that the main problem was the collapse of demand. But New Deal policies aimed, especially at first, at reducing the “oversupply” of agricultural products. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration created in May 1933 was given the job of raising farm prices by limiting production. “Acreage allotments” assigned to individual farmers limited the amount of land planted with key crops. As the Depression wore on, programmes limiting supply were supplemented by efforts to increase demand, but the earlier policies were never abandoned.
The National Industrial Recovery Act was the premier attempt in the first Roosevelt administration to restore full employment. It looked to the War Industries Board and War Labor Board for inspiration. The idea was to stop, and hopefully reverse, the downward spiral of wages and prices by promulgating a code of fair practice for every industry. Employers would agree to maintain wages, increase substandard wages, and share out work, but in return they would be allowed to meet and negotiate “fair” prices. This was illegal under the antitrust laws, and so the Recovery Act exempted participating firms from the antitrust acts. The hope was that the National Recovery Administration would work with the leaders of various industries and coordinate a recovery through coercion and appeals to patriotism, much as Baruch had supposedly coordinated an increase in war production. General Hugh Johnson, a veteran of the War Industries Board and friend of Baruch, was put in charge. He was known at the time as Baruch’s man, although Baruch had in private recommended against his appointment. Johnson believed that the Depression was due to excessive competition. The natural tendency of business executives to cooperate had been thwarted by the antitrust laws. Excessive competition had gotten America into the Depression and suspending the antitrust laws and providing a government overseer to coordinate business decisions, and provide a conduit for the interests of labour and the consumer, would get us out. Although Baruch may have harboured some doubts about the excessive role being played by the government, in public he was a strong supporter of the Recovery Act.
To help enforce the codes, the Recovery Administration created the “blue eagle” (Figure 3 below). A business that was cooperating with the Recovery Act, for example a grocery that was setting prices according to the industry codes, could display the blue eagle. Shoppers (often assumed to be women) were asked to shun businesses that failed to display the blue eagle, even if they were charging lower prices. The blue eagle was based on the appeals to patriotism that had accompanied government programmes during the war: appeals to conserve food (Meatless Monday and Wheatless Wednesday) and fuel. The idea for the blue eagle was originated, or at least brought to wide public attention, by Baruch, who thought it was crucial to making the programme work. General Johnson saw shopping under the blue eagle as an act of patriotism. “They will go over the top to as great a victory as the Argonne”, said Johnson, “It is zero hour for housewives. Their battle cry is ‘Buy now under the Blue Eagle!’” (Quoted in Leuchtenburg 1964: 121). This sort of appeal, and the vigilantism that it could produce, was tolerated during the war. But understandably, it encountered more resistance in peacetime, and contributed to undermining support for the Recovery Act.
Figure 3. The “blue eagle”, which could be displayed by businesses that were complying with the National Industrial Recovery Act
The Recovery Act enjoyed a short honeymoon. When the initial post-election surge in industrial production petered out, and complaints of unfair treatment from various interest groups began to mount, confidence in the Recovery Act waned. Few tears were shed when the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional. Parts of the act dealing with labour survived in other legislation, but the attempt to coordinate industrial firms was over. Indeed, the later New Deal witnessed a revival of interest in antitrust. The methods used for dealing with shortages during the war, whatever their success in wartime, were simply inappropriate for dealing with the Depression. Although the Roosevelt administration wrestled mightily with the Depression, and produced important pieces of social legislation such as Social Security and the minimum wage, many of its programmes were aimed simply at reallocating resources from one interest group to another, rather than creating the additional demand that would have done the most to ameliorate the Depression.
Gerald P. Nye and the “Merchants of Death”
A third lesson many Americans drew from World War I was that the war was brought about not because democracy was in danger, but rather because munitions makers and bankers had pushed the US into the war for their own selfish reasons. Over 100,000 American fighters died in the war, about half from disease. It was a small number compared with the losses incurred by the European belligerents, but enough to produce second thoughts by many Americans about the wisdom of American involvement. When growing international tensions produced concern about another world war, a Senate Committee headed by Gerald P. Nye, a Progressive Republican, was appointed to investigate the role of the “Merchants of Death” (a term used frequently to disparage arms makers and the title of a widely read book published in 1934). The committee, which launched its investigations in 1934, pushed hard to make its antiwar point, and called many witnesses including industrialist Pierre S. du Pont and investment banker J. P. Morgan. Its investigations were halted when Nye accused President Wilson of having misled the country. A senate dominated by Democrats cut off funding for the committee. The Nye committee was successful in showing that many large firms had made a great deal of money from the war, but was not successful in demonstrating direct manipulation of decision-making, for example by bribing of public officials – something which Nye had helped uncover in the earlier investigation of the “Tea Pot Dome” scandal involving the leasing of Federal oil fields to private companies. The committee’s investigations, however, intensified isolationist sentiment, and helped delay rearmament despite the growing threat posed by the Nazis in Germany and the militarists in Japan. The world would pay a heavy price for American isolationism in the 1930s.
In the end, the US surmounted the challenges posed by the Great Depression and World War II despite the misleading lessons drawn from World War I. The philosopher George Santayana famously warned that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” America’s experience with World War I reminds us of the danger in the other direction. Even brilliant, well-motivated people, it tells us, can jump to misleading conclusions based on simple readings of complex historical events – especially when those events are wartime events surrounded by the halo of victory.
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of Vox columns by leading economic historians on the First World War, which will be collected in a Vox eBook at the end of the year: “The Economics of the First World War”, edited by Nicholas Crafts, Kevin O’Rourke, and Alan Taylor.
References
Engelbrecht, H C and F C Hanighen (1934), Merchants of Death: A Study of the International Armament Industry, New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.
Leuchtenburg, W E (1964), “The New Deal and the Analogue of War”, in J Braeman, R H Bremner, and E Walters (eds.), Change and Continuity in Twentieth-Century America, Columbus: Ohio State University Press: 81–144.
Rockoff, H (2012), America’s Economic Way of War: War and the U.S. Economy from the Spanish-American War to the Persian Gulf War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Data sources
Carter, S B, S S Gartner, M R Haines, A L Olmstead, R Sutch, and G Wright (eds.) (2006), Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present, Millennial edition, 5 Volumes, New York: Cambridge University Press. http://hsus.cambridge.org/HSUSWeb/HSUSEntryServlet (Unemployment, GDP deflator.)
Firestone, J M (1960), Federal Receipts and Expenditures during Business Cycles, 1879–1958, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Government spending.)
Friedman, M and A J Schwartz (1970), Monetary Statistics of the United States: Estimates, Sources, Methods, New York: NBER, Table 1, column 9. (M2.)
Miron, J and C D Romer (1989), “A New Monthly Index of Industrial Production, 1884–1940”, NBER Working Paper 3172. (Industrial Production.) |
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