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Many Star Wars fans feel that Boba Fett couldn't possibly have met his end in the Sarlaac Pit..and I share that sentiment. So, here's my take on how he might have survived- namely by igniting his wrist flamethrower while inside the beast and crawling through the burning ruins. I was trying to capture a sort of shadowy desert sunset feel with the lighting.
Screen purists will note a few liberties I've taken here- For example Jabba's Sail barge was blown to smithereens during the fight that would theoretically take place before this moment..but, I really wanted to include the Barge in the background for scale and so there it is. Also technically the Sarlaac pit is deeper in the ground as depicted in the film, but I wanted to have Fett standing as the Pit and the horizon smoldered behind him.
This painting is meant to be a companion piece to my "Vader on Hoth" painting I did a while back. With a similar composition and a similar "it might have happened!" theme. I'm thinking of doing a whole series like this.. |
After two busy days of panels and promo spots at San Diego Comic-Con, an exhausted Terry Brooks sat down by a pool bar with Paste to discuss MTV’s adaptation of his epic, high fantasy series The Shannara Chronicles. Brooks’ series began in 1977 with The Sword of Shannara, but the TV series opens with the second installment, The Elfstones of Shannara, which follows a young hero and an Elven princess on a demon-riddled quest. The first extended trailer was revealed at Comic-Con on Friday.
Brooks chatted with Paste about bringing a fantasy series to MTV that was written and celebrated before many soon-to-be viewers were born.
Paste: Tell us about your experience at Comic-Con so far.
Terry Brooks: Because of The Shannara Chronicles, it’s been a pretty big deal. I have the inside track to the show, because I’ve been on site to watch the film and I’ve been vetting the episodes right along. And I’ve seen most of them—the ones that are rough cut or finished forms—so I’m able to form an intelligent opinion (somewhat biased obviously, but maybe not) that it’s really good. It’s very good. I don’t know how people are going to receive it, but yesterday we did the panel, showing the trailer and having people present, and it was dynamite. The response was extremely strong, which was very good, because there was some concern that it wouldn’t be that strong, but it was.
Paste: How does working with TV impact your writing?
Brooks: Writing books is an entirely different process than scriptwriting. I did not sign on under contractual terms to do any scripts. I don’t want to write screenplays or episodes for The Shannara Chronicles. My job was to vet the ones that were being written by Al Gough and Miles Millar, and to see if there was anything there that was a problem with the series or with the books or with the fans’ perceptions. That was very easy to do. They’re extremely good writers. We had a frank talk upfront about what I was going to allow and not allow. I know it’s a different experience. I said, “Make it an adaptation. Feel free to experiment. You want to write some new characters? Write some new characters. You want to change the structure around?”
I kind of learned this first from my sister, who’s a playwright. There is a lot of group involvement in playwriting as well when they mount a production. I learned it from George Lucas years ago when I did [the novelization of] The Phantom Menace. I walked in and said, “How much latitude you going to give me?” He said, “I’m going to let you do anything you want, just don’t wreck my story.” He gave me tremendous latitude, and I understood that you let the artist do the best job they can, and then if you have a problem, you can say something later. You don’t start off by saying, “You can’t do this, and you can’t do that.” It’s a collaborative effort.
I thought Al and Miles were great guys. I knew their work off of previous things. I didn’t think I needed to be in there with my red pen, poised. Only a couple of times did we have a serious talk about what needed to happen.
Paste: Did the trailer screening affirm that they weren’t wrecking your stuff?
Brooks: No, I’ve been privy to the episodes all along. I think I was concerned about what it would feel like to an audience seeing it for the first time. Would they think it was strong enough? Wonderful and awesome enough? And they did.
Over the years, there had been a lot of talk about filming in one form or another, mostly movies—back in the day when that was the way to go. The fans have always had tremendous expectations and they have said to me, “Do not screw this up. If you’re going to do it, do it right.” And so I carry that set of orders into battle, and I’m well aware of the fact that they are judging this thing based on their own feelings in connections with the book that’s more than 30 years old.
Paste: Right, the series started in ‘77.
Brooks: Sword of Shannara was the first book, Elfstones was the second book. If you want to know why we chose Elfstones, rather than the first book, it’s because I got some flack in the first one because there were no female characters. The demographic that the video world is looking for is a mix of male and female characters. And the second story has strong female characters, and it has a good, unorthodox love story involved. And those are all elements that they want. I always went in saying I want to pitch Elfstones.
Paste: How do you feel about fantasy spreading across networks and shows?
Brooks: As a fantasy writer, I’m really happy about this. When I started out, fantasy was a low man on the totem pole. Nobody was doing it because nobody would publish it. It was felt that it wouldn’t sell. If you weren’t Tolkien, nothing was going to happen. Now, I keep saying that Harry Potter made the world safe for fantasy and The Lord of Rings movies brought it even further. So now we have the 800-pound gorilla in the entertainment room reading fantasy. There is a lot of room in there [for publishers]. And they’re picking up a lot of young adult works and turning them into movies, and they’re finding that audiences identify with that kind of storytelling.
Paste: MTV seems to appeal to you in terms of the way they’ve handled your story.
Brooks: I like working with Miles and Al, because one of the first things they said to me was, “We love this story. This story tells itself. It has a beginning, middle and end; we don’t have to make stuff up in order to fill in the gaps.” I liked that. We explored it more, and we talked about adaptations—you know, the fact that we can’t use interior monologue and all that. We made it a point that this was going to be story-based. Yes, there would be special effects, yes, there would be “wow” moments, but basically, there would be characters and the relationships between them.
Paste: Did you have to revisit Elfstones?
Brooks: I know this story very well. It’s because the book that I wrote after Sword was turned down by my editor. I went back and wrote this one, and he made me write it three times. I know this story much better than the other books. I had worked on a sample screenplay at some point; it’s been at the forefront of my consciousness for a very long time.
Paste: Can you say what happened to that original screenplay?
Brooks: It was basically what you’re going to see. It was an adaptation of the story, as it was. It wasn’t very good, frankly and sadly. But it was something to get me back into it. [The studio] took a look at it and said they thought they could do more.
I don’t have any regrets about where we are with it. I don’t think that there were any missteps in the way that it was put together. When I was watching what [Gough and Millar] were doing, I kept saying to myself, “I could have done that this way, or I could have gone that way if I started over again writing it.” It wasn’t an encroachment that was going to bother anybody.
I hope everybody will love it, but if they don’t, there’s the book. Go read the book again; you’ll be fine.
Paste: You’re prolific, so it’s got to be interesting to come back to Elfstones.
Brooks: I’ve always been prolific, and I’ve always done at least one book a year. Part of that is because I love what I do. If you’re a writer, you want to write. You’re happiest when you’re writing.
Paste: So did you find time to write while you were in production for The Shannara Chronicles?
Brooks: Well, it was very hard to write. Luckily, I had written two books before September 2014, and because I had those books written I was set for 16 and 17. I had that gap of time to deal with the show and to do a good job on vetting it and working with the writers. It was much more work than I thought it was going to be. I failed to take into account the fact that you don’t just [vet] once with each episode, you do it multiple times. And you don’t watch rough cuts and make your comments once, you do it four, five or six times. I’m hopeful next year that I can cut back on some of that, and the writers can do a little more with their experimentation of things. |
Lesbian romance “Carol,” transgender drama “The Danish Girl,” music series “Empire” and comedy “Master of None” are among the films and shows that have nabbed nominations for the 2016 GLAAD Media Awards.
The nods, announced on Wednesday morning, also include the wide release pics “Dope,” “Freeheld” and “Grandma.” Outstanding film nominations also went out to five movies in limited release, including “Tangerine,” which follows two transgender prostitutes.
The GLAAD Media Awards honor television, film and journalism that accurately, fairly and inclusively represents the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. The LGBT advocacy group announced 101 nominees in 20 English-language categories and 46 nominees in 11 Spanish-language categories.
Variety is up for outstanding magazine overall coverage alongside The Advocate, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen and Time. Variety devoted a special issue on marriage equality in June after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage. Other covers have focused on transgender Hollywood, as well as films covering LGBT issues, such as “Carol” and “The Danish Girl.”
On the TV side, the drama series nominees are The CW’s “Arrow,” Starz’s “Black Sails,” Fox’s “Empire,” ABC Family’s “The Fosters,” BBC America’s “Orphan Black,” Netflix’s “Sens8,” Showtime’s “Shameless,” and ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” “How to Get Away With Murder” and “Nashville.”
In comedy, GLAAD nominated Fox’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” MTV’s “Faking It,” HBO’s “Looking,” ABC’s “Modern Family,” Amazon’s “Transparent,” PBS’ “Vicious,” Pivot’s “Please Like Me,” and Netflix’s “Grace and Frankie,” “Master of None” and “Orange Is the New Black.”
“How to Get Away With Murder” and “Transparent” won the TV prizes last year.
Reality programs up for an award are E!’s “I Am Cait,” TLC’s “I Am Jazz,” Discovery Life’s “New Girls on the Block,” Oxygen’s “The Prancing Elites Project” and Fuse’s “Transcendent.”
The five nominees for outstanding music artist include Miley Cyrus and Adam Lambert, as well as Ricky Martin in a Spanish-language category. TV, newspaper, magazine and digital journalism honorees were also announced.
“For nearly three decades, the GLAAD Media Awards have propelled inclusion in media and driven LGBT acceptance forward,” said GLAAD CEO and President Sarah Kate Ellis. “This year’s nominees have raised the bar for creating thoughtful and diverse LGBT images and storylines, deepening audiences’ understanding of LGBT people and accelerating acceptance across the world.”
The 27th annual GLAAD Media Awards will air on Logo in April. The ceremonies will be held in Los Angeles on April 2 at the Beverly Hilton, and in New York City on May 14 at the Waldorf Astoria New York.
Here’s the full list of nominees for the 2016 GLAAD Media Awards:
OUTSTANDING FILM – WIDE RELEASE
Carol (The Weinstein Company)
The Danish Girl (Focus Features)
Dope (Open Road Films)
Freeheld (Lionsgate)
Grandma (Sony Pictures Classics)
OUTSTANDING FILM – LIMITED RELEASE
52 Tuesdays (Kino Lorber)
Appropriate Behavior (Gravitas Ventures)
Boy Meets Girl (Wolfe Video)
Drunktown’s Finest (Nehst Studios)
Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)
OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES
Arrow (The CW)
Black Sails (Starz)
Empire (FOX)
The Fosters (ABC Family)
Grey’s Anatomy (ABC)
How to Get Away with Murder (ABC)
Nashville (ABC)
Orphan Black (BBC America)
Sense8 (Netflix)
Shameless (Showtime)
OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
Faking It (MTV)
Grace and Frankie (Netflix)
Looking (HBO)
Master of None (Netflix)
Modern Family (ABC)
Orange Is the New Black (Netflix)
Please Like Me (Pivot)
Transparent (Amazon Instant Video)
Vicious (PBS)
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL EPISODE (in a series without a regular LGBT character)
“Gender” The Carmichael Show (NBC)
“Please Don’t Ask, Please Don’t Tell” Black-ish (ABC)
“The Prince of Nucleotides” Royal Pains (USA Network)
“Rock-a-Bye-Baby” NCIS New Orleans (CBS)
“We Build, We Fight” NCIS (CBS)
OUTSTANDING TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES
Banana (Logo)
Bessie (HBO)
Cucumber (Logo)
OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY
Kumu Hina (PBS)
Limited Partnership (PBS)
Mala Mala (Strand Releasing)
Tab Hunter Confidential (The Film Collaborative)
Tig (Netflix)
OUTSTANDING REALITY PROGRAM
I Am Cait (E!)
I Am Jazz (TLC)
New Girls on the Block (Discovery Life)
The Prancing Elites Project (Oxygen)
Transcendent (Fuse)
OUTSTANDING DAILY DRAMA
The Bold and The Beautiful (CBS)
OUTSTANDING MUSIC ARTIST
Brandi Carlile, The Firewatcher’s Daughter (ATO Records)
Miley Cyrus, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz (Smiley Miley, Inc.)
Adam Lambert, The Original High (Warner Bros. Records)
Le1f, Riot Boi (XL Recordings/Terrible Records)
Troye Sivan, Blue Neighbourhood (Capitol Records)
OUTSTANDING COMIC BOOK
Angela: Queen of Hel, written by Marguerite Bennett (Marvel Comics)
Harley Quinn, written by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti (DC Comics)
Lumberjanes, written by Noelle Stevenson,
Shanonn Watters, Kat Leyh (BOOM! Studios)
Midnighter, written by Steve Orlando (DC Comics)
The Wicked + Divine, written by Kieron Gillen (Image Comics)
OUTSTANDING TALK SHOW EPISODE
“Alison Bechdel” Late Night with Seth Meyers (NBC)
“Aydian Dowling” The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated)
“Janet Mock” Super Soul Sunday (OWN)
“Jazz Jennings” The Meredith Vieira Show (syndicated)
“Transgender Rights” Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
OUTSTANDING TV JOURNALISM – NEWSMAGAZINE
“Bruce Jenner: The Interview” 20/20 (ABC)
“The Courage Game” SportsCenter (ESPN)
“Dividing The United Methodist Church” To The Contrary” (PBS)
“Showdown in Indiana: The Battle Over Religious Rights”
CNN Special Report (CNN)
True Life: I’m Genderqueer (MTV)
OUTSTANDING TV JOURNALISM SEGMENT
“Interview with Jim Obergefell” Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
“Mary Bonauto on Her SCOTUS Victory” The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC)
“Nicholas Coppola: Gay & Catholic” America Tonight (Al Jazeera America)
“Pushing for Equality for Transgender People” Melissa Harris-Perry (MSNBC)
“Toddler Plays Role in Marriage Equality Case” MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts (MSNBC)
OUTSTANDING NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
“Cold Case: The Murders of Cosby and Jackson” by Dianna Wray (Houston Press)
“Gay and Transgender Catholics Urge Pope Francis to Take a Stand” by Laurie Goodstein (The New York Times)
“Meet Dr. Levine, The State’s Top Doc” by Michael A. Fuoco (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
“Navy’s First Openly Gay SEAL Builds His Life Anew” by David Zucchino (Los Angeles Times)
“Transgender Today” [series] (The New York Times)
OUTSTANDING MAGAZINE ARTICLE
“Behind Brazil’s Gay Pride Parades, a Struggle with Homophobic Violence” by Oscar Lopez (Newsweek)
“The First Black Trans Model Had Her Face on a Box of Clairol” by Jada Yuan and Aaron Wong (New York)
“Gus Kenworthy’s Next Bold Move” by Alyssa Roenigk (ESPN The Magazine)
“Just Your Average (Transgender) Teen” by Andrea Stanley (Seventeen)
“Pride & Prejudice” by Linda Villarosa (Essence Magazine)
OUTSTANDING MAGAZINE OVERALL COVERAGE
The Advocate
Cosmopolitan
Seventeen
Time
Variety
OUTSTANDING DIGITAL JOURNALISM ARTICLE
“The Faces of Transgender Teen America” by David Yi (Mashable.com)
“How the Killing of a Trans Filipina Woman Ignited an International Incident” by Meredith Talusan (Vice.com)
“The Ky Peterson Saga” [series] by Mitch Kellaway and Sunnivie Brydum (Advocate.com)
“This Is What It’s Like To Be An LGBT Syrian Fleeing For Your Life” by J. Lester Feder (Buzzfeed.com)
“This Tiny Clinic is Fighting for Trans Patients Illegally Denied Medical Care” by Jennifer Swann (TakePart.com)
OUTSTANDING DIGITAL JOURNALISM – MULTIMEDIA
“Freed Trans Woman Ashley Diamond On Life Behind Bars In Men’s Prison” HuffPost Live (HuffingtonPost.com)
“Holler if You Hear Me: Black and Gay in the Church” by Clay Cane (BET.com)
“Queerness On The Front Lines Of #BlackLivesMatter” MSNBC Originals (MSNBC.com)
“Stopping HIV? The Truvada Revolution” Vice Reports (Vice.com)
“Transgender, at War and in Love” by Fiona Dawson (NewYorkTimes.com)
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
Beautiful As I Want To Be (Logotv.com)
This is Me (Amazon Instant Video)
SPANISH-LANGUAGE NOMINEES
OUTSTANDING NOVELA
Antes muerta que Lichita (Univision)
Celia (Telemundo)
Los miserables (Telemundo)
Rastros de mentiras (MundoMax)
OUTSTANDING MUSIC ARTIST
Ricky Martin, A quien quiera escuchar
(Sony Music Latin)
OUTSTANDING DAYTIME PROGRAM EPISODE
“La armonía de su casa se rompió” Casos de Familia (Univision)
“¿El marido de mi padre o yo?” Caso Cerrado (Telemundo)
OUTSTANDING TELEVISION INTERVIEW
“La confesión de Bruce Jenner” Showbiz (CNN en Español)
“Entrevista con Claudia Valenzuela y Karolina” Enfoque (Telemundo)
“Lucha por su identidad” Al Punto (Univision)
“Matrimonio igualitario” Cala (CNN en Español)
“Orientación sexual y acoso escolar” Realidades en Contexto (CNN en Español)
OUTSTANDING LOCAL TELEVISION INTERVIEW
“Entrevista con Kael Escobar” Vida Mujer (WGBO-Univision 66 [Chicago])
“Entrevista con Tony Lima, SAVE Dade” Ahora en Nuestra Comunidad (WLTV-Univision 23 [Miami])
“La nueva transgeneración” Enfoque Los Ángeles (KVEA-Telemundo 52 [Los Ángeles])
“Reacciones al caso Jenner” A Primera Hora (KMEX-Univision 34 [Los Ángeles])
OUTSTANDING TV JOURNALISM – NEWSMAGAZINE
“Abre su corazón: entrevista con Patricia Velásquez” Al Rojo Vivo (Telemundo)
“Amor que rompe barreras” Un Nuevo Día (Telemundo)
“En cuerpo ajeno” Aquí y Ahora (Univision)
“Reveladora historia: entrevista con Patricia Velásquez” Un Nuevo Día (Telemundo)
“Viviendo con dos mamás” Primer Impacto (Univision)
OUTSTANDING TV JOURNALISM SEGMENT
“Decisión histórica en Estados Unidos” Noticiero NTN 24 (NTN)
“Entrevista con Tamara Adrián” Encuentro (CNN en Español)
“Parejas del mismo sexo celebran la legalización del matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo en todo el país” Café CNN (CNN en Español)
“Permiten matrimonios” Noticiero Telemundo (Telemundo)
“Víctimas de abusos” Noticiero Univision (Univision)
OUTSTANDING LOCAL TV JOURNALISM
“Aprendió a vivir en plenitud con el virus del VIH” Noticias Arizona (KTVW-Univision 33 [Phoenix])
“Cada 29 horas” Noticias 19 (KUVS-Univision 19 [Sacramento])
“Decidí ser feliz” Noticias 34 (KMEX-Univision 34 [Los Ángeles])
“Descubriéndose” Noticiero Telemundo (KVEA-Telemundo 52 [Los Ángeles])
“Reporte especial” Noticias 14 (KDTV-Univision 14 [San Francisco])
OUTSTANDING NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
“La constitucionalidad del matrimonio gay en EE.UU. queda en suspenso” by Selene Rivera (Hoy Los Ángeles)
“Iguales bajo la lluvia” by Marcos B Guzmán Rivera (El Nuevo Día)
“Indocumentados y gays: Un romance con desafíos” by Laura Wides-Muñoz (Prensa Asociada)
“Mujeres transgénero piden respeto a sus derechos” by Jorge Morales Almada (La Opinión)
“Padres transgénero – El único requisito para ser papá es el amor por los hijos” by Virginia Gaglianone (La Opinión)
OUTSTANDING DIGITAL JOURNALISM ARTICLE
“Bruce Jenner o el nuevo rostro de las personas transgénero en los medios” by José Ángel Gonzalo (Univision.com)
“Inquietud en la comunidad transgénero ante el incremento de asesinatos” by Juan Carlos Gomi (Efe.com)
“Mujeres transgénero latinas exigen fin de violencia física contra colectivo” by Aitana Vargas (Efe.com)
“Perú: violaciones correctivas: El terrible método para ‘curar’ a las lesbianas” by Leire Ventas (BBCMundo.com)
OUTSTANDING DIGITAL JOURNALISM – MULTIMEDIA |
Everyone knows that ESPN and most other national media are juuust a bit biased toward the Cubs, who seek to snap their 108-year World Series drought. Still, if you turned on SportsCenter in the hours leading up to Game 7 of the World Series between Chicago and Cleveland on Wednesday night, you probably didn’t expect to see someone actively praying on behalf of the Cubs.
Yet there was Cubs team chaplain Father Burke Masters, seated next to an ESPN reporter in The Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville, literally asking God for the Cubs’ players to play well.
Do you think God is more likely to listen to prayers when they’re aired on live television? What about prayers issued in a crowded bar?
It’s worth noting that Father Masters did not pray for a Cubs win—apparently that’s too much to ask, even of the Lord Almighty—but rather for the players to perform to the best of their abilities. Credit to the father for not getting greedy.
If the Cubs do win Wednesday night, we should all really be praying for the city of Chicago and the neighborhood of Wrigleyville because those fans might just burn the place to the ground. |
Although I’ve read this phrase time and time again in reference to various TV programs, this is the first time I’ll actually use it: Rick and Morty is – without a doubt – the best show you’re not watching.
Alright, in all fairness, a lot of you probably are watching Rick and Morty. In fact, in the three Mondays thus far that new episodes of R&M and Archer have both aired (the former on Adult Swim at 10:30pm & the latter on FX at 10:00pm) the season premiere of Archer is the only one that has done better in the ratings. And the last two episodes of Rick and Morty didn’t pull off a photo finish, but instead won by a margin of about half-a-million viewers each.
Still, I have yet to meet someone outside of my BubbleBlabber Buddies that have even heard of the show. Maybe it’s because many of the people I associate with are lame, humorless drones that instead watch reality TV, Game of Thrones, or some combination of Law & Order/CSI/Informative Murder Porn crappola, but others – honest, hard-drinking, borderline acceptable human beings – are just living their lives normally, blissfully unaware of the show’s existence.
Well, folks, this has to change. I will not tolerate bringing up Rick and Morty only to be greeted with faces reminiscent of cows gazing blanking at oncoming trains. Instead, it’s time to hop on that train and cruise to a place where people truly appreciate quality animated programming, and where locomotive metaphors are accepted with the respect they deserve.
If you’re one of the aforementioned unfortunate souls, allow me to provide a bit of background. Rick and Morty is a series about a boy and his brilliant but moderately insane scientist grandfather. (If you like comparisons, the duo are kind of like Doc Brown and Marty McFly of Back to the Future – except Morty is much younger, and Rick is a raging alcoholic and kind of a dick…and the two are obviously related.) Morty is constantly being pulled into Rick’s various adventures, which always involve some sort of grand experiment, time travel, or other exploit that is either in the name of true scientific progress, or something completely self-serving and unnecessary, which Rick nevertheless manages to justify.
Be it gathering giant seeds, penetrating dreams Inception-style, or saving a tiny theme park housed inside of a homeless man, there’s no end to the shenanigans concocted by series creators Justin Roiland (who also voices the titular characters), Community mastermind Dan Harmon, and their staff of writers.
If you’re not already on board with the show at this point, here are a few reasons it works:
First, the characters are outstanding. Rick is a mad scientist, and the successful track record of deranged doctors is well documented. Be it the aforementioned Emmitt Brown of Back to the Future, Professor Frink (The Simpsons), Professor Farnsworth (Futurama), or Doctor Krieger (Archer) people gravitate toward these types of characters. Why is this? Well, they’re intelligent, which gives the person a bit of credibility from the start. They’re scientists, which makes them trustworthy, because scientific experimentation is generally conducted for the benefit of everyone (except in the cases of super-evil geniuses.) Oh, and they’re generally old, and old people are usually too decrepit to be sketchy.
But on the other hand, they’re also mad, adding an element of surprise to their personality. Rick, on top of this, is always drinking. Constantly. This adds an extra dose of unpredictability into the mix. Oh, and he can occasionally be a self-serving asshole too.
Rick is also not the most responsible family man either. I mean, he wouldn’t actually let Morty get killed on his watch, but he’ll still constantly put him in situations where injury or death is a likely option. Basically, when push comes to shove the love is there, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a moderate to heavy amount of neglect present. In Rick’s case, it usually involves using Morty as a guinea pig in some way, or running from danger well ahead of Morty, acting quite unconcerned with his well-being. But a bit of parental – or grandparental – negligence has worked in the past for other cartoon characters (see: Simpson, Homer; Griffin, Peter; Smith, Stan) so who are we to judge? However, this is a special case, because Rick (for the above reasons) established an initial trust that is perfectly balanced out with a series of dangerous question marks. He’s not a guy you’d voluntarily trust your life to, but when your life is actually on the line, you’ll do what he says.
The other half of the duo, Morty, is an interesting specimen. He’s generally a reluctant companion to Rick (especially in the first few episodes) but luckily for the story’s sake, he’s a bit of a pushover, and always agrees to tag along. Morty is also quick to call out Rick on his bullshit, and helps bring things back to Earth when Rick’s ideas get too out there. Like most 14-year-old boys, Morty is starting to be interested in girls, with varying degrees of success. I guess you could say Rick helps his grandson out here, but only if the situation is not counterproductive to his mission. In one humorous instance, Rick re-shrunk a girl with whom Morty had previous been making out, so Rick could use her in a future experiment. When Morty protested, Rick reassured him that he just dodged a bullet, whispering, “Puffy vagina.” Yeah, it’s that kind of relationship.
The rest of the cast are amusing as well. Jerry, the father, is voiced by Chris Parnell, and is an insecure weenie of a man who generally disapproves of Rick’s influence on Morty. Sarah Chalke lends her voice as the mother (and daughter of Rick), and Spencer Grammar plays the stereotypical high school-aged daughter.
Only six episodes deep, Rick and Morty has already amassed a stellar collection of guest voices, including comedians David Cross, Dana Carvey, and John Oliver, as well as voice acting veterans Tom Kenny, Jess Harnell, and Rob Paulsen. Legends like this wouldn’t just lend their talent to any ol’ show…at least, I hope they wouldn’t.
However, the success or failure of a series all starts with the writing, and the Rick and Morty team is simply nailing it. The humor is witty with the right amount of silliness, borderline offensive at times without being gratuitous, and features situations and characters that can be annoying but manage to make you laugh at the annoyance rather than become bothered by it. (Case in point: the Meeseeks.)
Uniquely, the show (by way of the characters) isn’t afraid to stop and address the absurdity of situations and locations, when other series wouldn’t. In Futurama, for instance, Fry initially pointed out and reacted to every odd thing he saw and experienced in the year 3000, while it was par for the course for the rest of the characters. However, this didn’t last very long, because Fry soon acclimated to his surroundings like everyone else. In Rick and Morty, both main characters are constantly making references to the hilarious insanity around them, making the visual jokes more than just background fodder. For instance, take this exchange, which took place inside an slightly inaccurate alien simulation of the real world, and featured quirks like someone putting a bun between two hot dogs, another person walking a cat, and a Pop Tart emerging from a toaster house and getting in a toaster car:
Morty: “Why would a Pop Tart want to live inside a toaster, Rick? I mean, that would be like the scariest place for them to live, you know what I mean?”
Rick: “You’re missing the point, Morty. Why would he drive a smaller toaster with wheels? I mean, does your car look like a smaller version of your house? No.”
The visual was funny in itself, but the writers managed to create dialogue around it that made the joke even funnier.
Yes, the future is bright for Rick and Morty, and the story possibilities are endless because Rick is a genius scientist that can make almost any invention and travel to worlds most people couldn’t even imagine. In fact, the ideas are so unique and interesting that the show actually made a joke about a minor detail of one episode being turned into a whole series:
Morty: “Wow, a whole world populated by intelligent dogs. I wonder what it’ll be like, Rick.”
Rick: “I think it’ll be great, Morty. It could be developed into a very satisfying project for people of all ages. I mean, I’d watch it, Morty. For at least 11 minutes a pop. Maybe they’ll do it board-driven.”
Well, shit. That’s a lot of words for a 22-minute cartoon show that has had only six episodes thus far, isn’t it? But hopefully it sheds some light on this wacky, unquestionably original, and incredibly imaginative cartoon. It’s not too often that a show comes along and makes such a big splash from the get-go, and we should all be thankful to realize this while it’s still on the ground floor. If you haven’t jumped on the Rick and Morty bandwagon yet, it’s slowly picking up speed, so be sure to check out the full episodes on AdultSwim.com or Hulu, and get excited for the return of new episodes on Monday, March 10th. Oh yeah, and I heard something about the show getting picked up for a second season, so if you were worried about another brilliant show getting prematurely canned: Don’t even trip, dog. |
Mark Takai, a Democrat from Hawaii serving his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives, has passed away.
His office confirmed the congressman’s death Wednesday in Honolulu. He was 49.
Takai’s office released a statement saying: “The Takai family thanks the people of Hawaii for their support during this difficult time. Information regarding a service will be available at a later time. The Takai family politely asks for the continued respect of their family’s privacy.”
Takai had already announced he would not seek re-election. Former Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa is among the candidates running to fill his seat.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
Takai is fondly remembered by many, including top elected officials.
“Mark was always a fighter,” said President Barack Obama. “It’s the spirit he brought to more than two decades of public service on behalf of the people of Hawaii. He stood up for America’s most vulnerable. He championed our troops and veterans, and proudly wore our nation’s uniform. And his relentless push for cancer research inspired countless Americans fighting the same battle as him. Simply put, our country is better off because of Mark’s contributions. “
“Mark humbly and effectively served the people of his state House and Congressional districts,” said Hawaii Gov. David Ige. “In the often tumultuous world of politics, he has been a shining example of what it means to be a public servant.”
Said House Speaker Joe Souki: “Mark was a thoughtful and caring public servant and a good friend to all of us in the state House. To say that he will be missed is not just a cliché but a heavy and sad reality.”
Hanabusa said she was “deeply saddened” to hear of Takai’s death: “We have lost a great public servant who dedicated his life to making Hawaii and our nation a better place. We will miss him dearly.”
Longtime Legislator
Takai, who served 20 years in the state House of Representatives before his election to urban Oahu’s 1st Congressional District in 2014, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last October.
Related Cory Lum/Civil Beat Scenes From Mark Takai’s All-Too-Short Congressional Career July 20, 2016
Cory Lum/Civil Beat Cory Lum/Civil Beat How Two Different People Could Win The Same US House Seat July 20, 2016
He launched a re-election campaign earlier this year but announced in May that his cancer had spread and so dropped out of the race.
As a state legislator, Takai’s focus was on public education. He also was responsible for legislation that created the Hawaii Medal of Honor to recognize fallen island troops and their families.
In Washington, D.C., education continued to be a priority, but so too did national security — he was especially concerned about defense against North Korea — veterans’ issue and small business.
Takai served as a member of the House Committee on Armed Services.
He was a lieutenant colonel in the Hawaii Army National Guard and took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom, serving in Kuwait in 2009.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
Takai’s death is particularly hard felt by other members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation.
Said U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a former state representative, “This is the deepest of losses and one that I feel very personally because of my friendship with Mark.”
“In the often tumultuous world of politics, he has been a shining example of what it means to be a public servant.” —Gov. David Ige
Schatz’s Democratic colleague in the Senate, Mazie Hirono, said, “I affectionately called Mark my younger brother. We shared so many of the same values and supported each other during challenging times.”
Meantime, Hawaii’s other Democrat in the House who also served with Takai in the state Legislature and in the armed forces — Rep. Tulsi Gabbard — stated, “Mark’s smiling face and ready laugh will truly be missed, but the impact that he made through his life of service to the people of Hawaii will always be remembered.”
Former colleagues here at home also offered praise for the late lawmaker.
Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said, “I was lucky to have worked with Mark in the state House and the commitment and dedication he had for his country, his state and Hawaii’s many diverse communities was obvious to all.”
As news of Takai’s passing spread quickly, condolences from his congressional colleagues soon poured out on Twitter, The Washington Post reported.
This came from House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican: “He was an exemplary soldier, public servant and beloved member of the House of Representatives. His love for Hawaii and the people he represented was evident every day.”
Proud UH Grad
An Episcopalian, Takai lived in Aiea on Oahu. He is survived by his wife, Sami, and two children, Matthew and Kaila.
Takai was born July 1, 1967 in Honolulu and graduated from Pearl City High School in 1985.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1990 and a master’s degree in 1993, both from the University of Hawaii Manoa.
Takai swam for the school throughout his undergrad years and was a strong supporter of UH athletics — support that continued after he was elected to office.
He also served as student body president and was editor of the student newspaper, Ka Leo O Hawaii.
It was while at UH that Takai’s passion for politics gelled. But he also cared for his fellow service members and their needs, especially those who later fell on hard times such as homelessness.
Hawaii Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald noted that Takai was “a strong supporter” of the Hawaii State Judiciary’s Veterans Treatment Court and its outreach efforts.
“He went out of his way to consistently recognize and encourage the participants, team members, and mentors involved in this program,” Recktenwald said.
Tweets of condolences for U.S. Rep. Mark Takai: RIP Mark Takai – Curated tweets by tmsimmons |
I have recently purchased a long term obsession - Tudor Black Bay. I love the watch but have noticed that the applied markers are not as exactly applied as on my Omega SMPc. I've looked on google images and I don't think I'm the only one. Am I going bonkers or can anyone else see this?See attached pics and compare batons at 15 and 45 in relation to the chapter markings. Also dots at 25 and 35 in relation to chapter markings. 15 and 25 are nearer gold markings and 35 and 45 have bigger gaps from the gold markings.It's only obvious if I stare at it but I do quite a lot of that... Don't think I'm bothered enough to raise it as an issue with AD but I am surprised as the rest of the watch is flawless. Have I been spoilt with the omega?Overexposed for contrast:Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
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One of Lee Rigby’s murderers is suing for £25,000 after claiming his treatment in prison was a ‘gross affront to his personal dignity’, court papers reveal.
Michael Adebolajo, 32, is demanding compensation after he lost two teeth during a scuffle with guards in 2013.
He says he was assaulted by warders at Belmarsh Prison in South East London and suffered ‘distress, loss and damage’, even though the officers were cleared.
Documents obtained by The Mirror say his ‘psychiatric injury’ was made worse as officials ‘continue to fail to apologise’.
Islamist extremists Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, 28, ran Fusilier Lee over in their car near his barracks in Woolwich, South East London, in 2013.
The killer then tried to cut off 25-year-old Lee’s head with a knife.
Lee’s father, Phil McClure, 57, said: “He never apologised for what he did to my son and now he wants an apology from the Prison Service?”
Families of murder victims can claim up to £11,000 compensation. Mr McClure added: “He’s asking for more than twice that. It’s scandalous.”
(Image: PA)
The Ministry of Justice denies excessive force was used.
Court papers say Adebolajo posed an “extreme risk” to prison officers and would become fixated on female staff.
The case is expected to go to trial, costing £100,000.
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Hi my name is John. Im a nerd and a fan of all things comic book, video game, anime, tv shows, and movies. I also just started to attend the different comic conventions in california. I came up with this ideal while attending conventions. I noticed how all the people at conventions were nice and how everyone would talk about there favorite characters, show recommendations or just current nerd topics in general. I got the ideal to make a social media website geared towards my fellow nerds to talk about whatever interest they may have and to also get to know some people. I want it be more interactive then most social media we have now which is mostly consist of a like of a photo. I will use the funds to get a web designer to help make this dream a reality. I dont have a timeline but i would one day hope this site comes to be and it connects people all around the world. Thank everyone who reads this and thank you for your time. |
During the past 2 decades, nearly half of U.S. states implemented policies that sanction marijuana use for medical purposes. Researchers have been hard put, however, to draw firm conclusions about the policies’ public health ramifications. Now, NIDA-supported researchers have found that providing legal and practical access to marijuana may have both positive and negative impacts.
Legalized medical marijuana dispensaries are associated with both positive and negative impacts on public health.
Economists Dr. David Powell and Dr. Rosalie Pacula at the RAND Corporation, in Santa Monica, California, and Dr. Mireille Jacobson at the University of California, Irvine (UC-I) studied three medical marijuana policies (see Recommended, Not Prescribed). They found that the policies, despite their common motivation, have had varied, and sometimes offsetting, indirect effects on substance use and related problems. The most striking finding was that legally protected marijuana dispensaries (LMDs) were associated with lower rates of dependence on prescription opioids, and deaths due to opioid overdose, than would have been expected based on prior trends. On the other side of the ledger, however, LMDs also were associated with higher rates of recreational marijuana use and increased potency of illegal marijuana.
The Opioid Connection
Between 2004 and 2014, seventeen states provided legal protection to dispensaries. In these states, patients who meet eligibility requirements for medical marijuana had ready and safe access to the drug. In contrast, patients in states that allowed doctors to recommend marijuana but did not have LMDs may have turned to illicit or quasi-illicit sources, and feared legal jeopardy, to obtain the drug.
Dr. Powell and his co-investigators compared rates of opioid-related treatment admissions and mortality rates in states with and without LMDs using data from the annually compiled Treatment Episodes Data Set (TEDS) and the National Vital Statistics System, respectively. Their analysis revealed that states with LMDs had lower opioid-overdose mortality rates and fewer admissions to treatment for opioid addiction than they would have had without the dispensaries. The estimated sizes of the reductions were 16 to 31 percent in mortality due to prescription opioid overdoses, and 28 to 35 percent in admissions for treatment of opioid addiction. This latter reduction was steeper, up to 53 percent, among patients who entered treatment independently of the criminal justice system. The researchers also noted a trend whereby the longer LMDs were in place, the more the incidence of opioid-related problems declined.
To account for these findings, the RAND/UC-I team speculates that some patients with chronic pain may find that marijuana affords valuable analgesia with more acceptable side effects than opioids. LMDs will make it easier for such patients to obtain and use marijuana, and so reduce their reliance on opioids to manage their pain. Another possible explanation, the researchers suggest, is that where LMDs exist, recreational drug users may find marijuana simpler and less risky to divert than prescription opioids. Both scenarios could reduce a population’s exposure to opioid medications and the associated problems of overdose and addiction.
A Downside of Availability
Using data from the TEDS and the Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the researchers found that LMDs were also associated with higher:
Recreational marijuana use by adults
Treatment admissions for marijuana use and dependence among adults and youth
Potency of illegal marijuana
Dr. Pacula explains the last finding: “The marijuana available in dispensaries can have THC [tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana] content well above 20 percent—even higher in the concentrates—as opposed to the 3 percent to 5 percent that is typical of the wild plant.” To compete, illegal marijuana dealers have apparently begun to increase the THC content of their products. This development is troubling, Dr. Pacula says, because “Higher potency may result in increased impairment, with potential implications for drugged driving and drug-induced psychoses.”
The Bigger Picture
Dr. Pacula characterizes her team’s findings as intriguing and says that any indication that a policy might mitigate the ongoing surge in opioid dependence and mortality deserves attention. However, she cautions that it is premature to conclude that LMDs will have a beneficial effect going forward.
First, LMDs’ effects on substance use will depend on the overall regulatory context in which they function. That context is changing, as some states have recently passed medical marijuana laws that impose tighter safeguards against misuse than pertained during the period studied by the RAND/UC-I team. For example, some states require that physicians who recommend marijuana and patients who obtain the drug register and certify that they have a bona fide physician-patient relationship. Other states allow only a limited number of dispensaries or require dispensaries to report marijuana sales in the state prescription drug-monitoring programs. Such requirements may reduce some physicians’ readiness to recommend the drug and make it harder for people to divert marijuana from LMDs for self-treatment of pain or for recreational use.
Second, LMDs’ association with increased use of recreational marijuana is likely to offset, at least partially, any opioid-related benefits. Dr. Pacula notes that many people are looking for affordable substances that they can use to get high. “When marijuana becomes readily available, this population will misuse it, and problems can ensue.” The problems could be exacerbated if the relationship between LMDs and higher potency marijuana continues to hold—potentially setting the stage for more injuries and deaths in motor vehicle and other accidents.
Dr. Pacula points out, as well, that marijuana policies may indirectly influence use of substances besides opioids. While the scientific evidence regarding the relationship between marijuana and alcohol use remains mixed, the evidence regarding the link between marijuana and tobacco use is quite clear: Users of marijuana generally also use tobacco. So, Dr. Pacula says, “Any assessment of the overall net benefit of LMDs needs to consider impacts not just on marijuana and opioids, but also on tobacco and other substances that generate disease and mortality.”
More Research Is Needed
Dr. Pacula says, “It would be valuable to repeat this study in 4 or 5 years, when states’ recent, often more restrictive, medical marijuana laws can be evaluated. We need to give the data on marijuana and opioid use time to catch up with the policies that have been enacted.” She expects that such an analysis would produce different results and shed additional light on how LMDs and other medical marijuana policies, singly and together, shape population behaviors, substance abuse, and other public health outcomes.
Dr. Bethany Deeds, health science administrator in NIDA’s Epidemiology Research Branch, says, “This work analyzes several years of data and thus looks through a large window at the effects of marijuana dispensaries. The researchers used advanced statistical methods, like difference-in-differences models and synthetic control models, and measured the social environments and mechanisms behind the laws in sophisticated ways to yield robust findings.”
Dr. Deeds continues, “The RAND report is one piece of evidence on the social, behavioral, and public health impacts of new marijuana policies. Although medical marijuana dispensaries may correlate with a reduction in opioid misuse, there are other consequences to consider.”
Dr. Pacula concurs. “Before we finalize any decisions, we need to consider how all the policies in place and under consideration will work together, and know how they will affect public health overall, and not simply with respect to a single drug of abuse.”
Recommended, Not Prescribed Federal regulations prohibit most physicians from prescribing marijuana, but nearly half of the states permit doctors to recommend the drug for certain medical conditions. Beyond that commonality, however, these states’ policies vary widely. The lists of qualifying conditions differ from state to state. So, too, do the legal protections offered to marijuana vendors and customers, requirements for the registration of distributors and patients, and the regulation of marijuana home cultivation. Few policies enable physicians to control the quantity, potency, or frequency of marijuana purchases or how patients take it, which further increases variability in how medical marijuana is used and affects patients. Dr. Pacula and colleagues compared rates of marijuana and prescription opioid-related use and problems, from 1999 and 2014, in states that allowed and didn’t allow physicians to recommend marijuana, and in states with and without policies that: Established LMDs.
Required physicians and/or patients to register to prescribe and use marijuana.
Allowed home cultivation of marijuana plants. The results linked LMDs to decreased opioid-related treatment admissions and overdose deaths, and to increased recreational marijuana use and treatment admissions. Neither of the other two policies was consistently associated with these outcomes.
This work was supported by NIH grant DA032693.
Sources:
National Bureau of Economic Research. Do Medical Marijuana Laws Reduce Addictions and Deaths Related to Pain Killers? Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research; 2015. Working Paper No. 21345.
Pacula, R.L.; Powell, D.; Heaton, P. et al. Assessing the effects of medical marijuana laws on marijuana use: The devil is in the details. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 34(1):7-31, 2015. Full Text
Sevigny, E.; Pacula, R.L.; and Heaton, P. “The effects of medical marijuana laws on potency” International Journal of Drug Policy. 25(2): 308-319, 2014. Full Text |
President Obama criticized a controversial new immigration bill in Arizona on Friday, calling it "misguided."
"Our failure to act responsible at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. That includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe," the president said at a naturalization ceremony for members of the military.
"In fact, I've instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation. But if we continue to fail to act at the federal level, we will continue to see misguided efforts opening up around the country."
He added, "As a nation, as a people, we can choose a different future - a future that keeps faith with our history, with our heritage, and with the hope that America has always inspired in the hearts of people all over the world."
Read full CNN.com story |
Published: Monday, March 18, 2013 @ 11:04 PM
Updated: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 @ 12:16 PM
— A woman walking on Dearborn Avenue Monday night because she had run out of gas ended up being shot in the leg, police said.
According to a Dayton police report obtained Tuesday, she was walking with a male companion known only as “G Money.” He was no where to be found immediately after the shooting in the 700 block of Dearborn Avenue, which was reported at about 9:40 p.m.
He ran off, police said.
The 44-year-old woman told police she and the male saw another man on the street, and an argument began. The gunshot was fired as she was walking away, according to the woman.
Her acquaintance helped her to a residence on Dearborn. Police noted in their report the woman was in extreme pain when they reached her. The police report states she was shot in her right leg where it appeared she had been shot in the calf or shin. There were entry and exit wounds.
The woman was taken to Miami Valley Hospital. Her injuries were not believed to be life threatening, police said.
Police do not have any suspects at this time. |
A Mexican soccer official met with the Argentine manager about the vacant head coaching job, sources tell Goal Mexico.
Mexico's national team manager search continues, and the search has taken directors to Argentina.
That's where Guillermo Cantu, who took over for Hector Gonzalez Inarritu as the director of national teams earlier this month, traveled to meet with Jorge Sampaoli, sources tell Goal Mexico.
The Argentine manager, fresh off leading Chile to the 2015 Copa America title, could be open to taking Miguel Herrera's place after the Mexican manager was fired for a confrontation with a commentator just hours after the team won the Gold Cup final.
Sources also report that Marcelo Bielsa, who was still Marseille manager at the time Herrera was removed from his post but abruptly quit his job after the team's season opener, was the Mexican federation's primary target but is unlikely to come to an agreement to direct the team.
Sampaoli, 55, still has a contract with Chile, but Mexico would be willing to pay his buy-out clause. That figure is reportedly in the neighborhood of $2 million and would include the salary of the manager and his coaching staff for the year. That likely would mean Sampaoli would assemble a different staff were he to lead El Tri.
Mexico faces the United States on Oct. 10 in a playoff to represent CONCACAF at the 2017 Confederations Cup. |
“Dr. Who” star Matt Smith is ready to cross the Atlantic to make his U.S. acting debut, taking the male lead in the Ryan Gosling-directed pic “How to Catch a Monster.”
Pic currently stars Christina Hendricks and Eva Mendes, and will mark Gosling’s directing debut.
Marc Platt and Adam Siegel will produce on behalf of Marc Platt Prods., along with Gosling via his Phantasma Films banner, and Michel Litvak and David Lancaster via the Bold Films banner.
Story is set against the surreal dreamscape of a vanishing city and centered on a single mother of two being swept into a macabre and dark fantasy underworld while her teenage son discovers a secret road leading to an underwater town. Production is set to start this spring.
The UTA and Troika-epped Smith has starred in a handful of BBC and British productions but never a stateside movie.
His third season of playing the Doctor recently wrapped and he also recently directed the short film “Cargese” for Sky Arts series Playhouse Presents. |
Okay, let’s set the record straight once and for all. “Treat” isn’t a four letter word. Nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing to hide. So, honestly, we really don’t have to be afraid of saying it out loud in front of grandma anymore. I, Sarah Owings, a professional trainer, with professionally trained dogs of my own, yes, even I still carry a pouch of treats with me on walks! Yes, even I still lavish my dogs generously with well timed yummies when they choose to pay attention to me rather than lunge at a barking dog, keep the leash loose when walking through a crowd, or respond to their names when a cat runs by. Even I still run to the fridge for an impromptu jackpot when they come in from the backyard right away when I call. Yes, even I, a professional trainer, still feed my dogs for not jumping on houseguests. I even toss tasty morsels to them during dinner occasionally too–as long as they are laying on their mats or in their crates instead of pestering us at the table.
Zoë is eight. Maya is somewhere closer to twelve. Zoë in particular has had intensive, highly focused reinforcement-based training for most of her life. When I cue any of her known behaviors at this point, I’m so confident in her response I’d be willing to bet just about anyone $100 she will do it correctly. A few years ago on the outdoor patio of a dog friendly restaurant, I remember cuing her to lay down and she dropped to the ground so quickly the guy at the next table whistled in amazement. “That was scary fast,” he said. “How did you get your dog to do that?” …Well, although I do seem to be pretty good at my job and am deeply committed to this method of teaching and learning, it really isn’t rocket science. My dogs, particularly Zoë, do as I ask, behave politely in public most of the time, and are a joy to live with because they have a GINORMOUS reinforcement history for doing so. It’s that simple. They are reliable because I am reliable. I never ever take their “obedience” for granted. I never assume they are going to do what I ask just because I said so. Even for behaviors that they know well and have done correctly many times, I still do my darndest to pay up for great responses. I don’t mess around with intermittent schedules of reinforcement either unless there is some specific reason for it, which there never really is. On the very rare occasion that I don’t have food on me, food easily at hand, or some other type of reinforcer I know for sure will cut the mustard with my dogs in that particular moment, I either won’t say a cue at all or, in a pinch, I will at least try to provide something in exchange: usually a butt scratch and happy talk followed by a release to go do whatever it was they wanted to do in the first place; and if it happens that at my request Zoë or Maya have to actually give up something, and it ends up being a bummer for them, i.e. a withdrawal rather than a deposit in our trust account, I go way out of my way to be sure they get a pretty big paycheck the next time.
Granted, “treats” is a lousy word for so powerful an influence on behavior. When we humans think “treats,” we picture unhealthy, rare indulgences that are not usually so good for us like candy bars or ice cream. This mentality ends up making it all too easy to be stingy with our dogs during training. That is why, unwieldy as it may be, the proper term I should be using here really is “reinforcement,” not “treat,” and not “reward.” If a behavior is maintained or gets stronger, it is being reinforced by something. That is the law of learning. Period. Lots of things reinforce behavior besides food such as opportunities to do fun things, a chance to play with dogs, attention from a favorite person, freedom to move, a great feeling, an exciting event, a sensation of relief, etc. However, food is a primary reinforcer for all living things; so when you feed your dog a memorable treat, in his mind he’s probably not thinking: “Oh boy! I’m such a good dog I got a treat!” He is thinking: “Oh boy! I got food! I’m not going to starve today!” Dogs don’t mess around with survival. As the descendants of hunters and scavengers, they are hardwired to work for a living, and I for one tend to take things dogs are passionate about pretty seriously.
However, for many pet owners, the effort of portioning food as reinforcement instead of dumping it in a bowl twice a day, and thinking in terms of reinforcement all the time instead of just during training class, is understandably daunting. “When can I stop using treats?” is the number one question I have to field during consults; and even after I’ve thought I’ve made it pretty darn clear that although certainly one can branch out to a wider variety of reinforcers besides food eventually, the answer really is NEVER, I still inevitably find myself cringing silently inside a few weeks or months later when these same, quite well-intentioned people say something like: “Fido does (insert difficult behavior here) now and I don’t even have to use treats anymore!” This usually makes me so sad to hear because what the dog is being asked to do is often pretty hard such getting into the bathtub after years of being terrified of water, or choosing to ignore food left out on a low table, or passing another dog on a walk without barking or lunging. Why don’t people ever declare with equal pride how they remembered to jackpot with fresh salmon or beef that time their dog came away from a squirrel so darn fast? Where does all this shame, denial, and reluctance come from? …Well, people, I’m here to tell you, time to be free of this misconception once and for all. If keeping treats at the ready helps you live more harmoniously with your pet on a daily basis, you are in great company! Many of the world’s best trainers, including almost all zookeepers, marine mammal trainers, and a growing majority of top level competition trainers, professional pet dog trainers like myself, and liberated pet owners everywhere, have accepted food reinforcers–not just as a temporary training tool– but as a way of life. Using primary reinforcers on an ongoing basis does not mean you are a bad trainer, or that you don’t have control of your dog, it means you understand how behavior change really works.
Of course some jobs we ask our dogs to do grow resilient and remain so even without primary reinforcers, and many dogs will work equally hard for toys or play as they do for food. Some tasks we require of them are also conveniently reinforced by opportunities to go do other fun things that the dog wanted to do anyway such as sitting before being let out the door to play in the yard, or walking on a loose leash past distractions and then being allowed to go investigate afterwards. Dogs lock into these types of consistent reinforcement patterns very quickly. Other behaviors, such as sitting on cue in a quiet room with nothing else going on are simply so easy to do in that context that weaker reinforcers like praise or petting are sometimes enough to keep things going. However, eight times out of ten what we demand of our dogs in order for them to conform to our lives in ways that are more convenient for us is often much more expensive for them than most people realize. When we have expectations such as coming when called instead of chasing a rabbit or deer, or to please not jump on aunt Tilly, or to walk at our sides instead of sniffing the bushes or pulling over to go say hi to that dog over there, what we are asking is for our dogs to basically give up being dogs. Want Fido to come away from play with a buddy at the park right away the first time you call? Ha! Fat chance unless you have diligently worked to build up a pretty powerful reinforcement history for that particular behavior in advance, a reinforcement history massive enough to trump all that the frenzied fun Fido may be having in that moment.
Way back when Zydeco first came to stay with us, almost two months ago now, in my first z-dogs post I wrote about how I was excited to start fresh with a puppy because Zoë is now so easy to live with I’ve kind of forgotten how she actually got that way. Well, now I remember. Reinforcement made it happen. Years and years of consistent, dogged, unflinching reinforcement. Zydy was and still is a great guy at heart but he came to us with very few human-acceptable skills. To be honest, he was pretty much a wild man most of the time, jumping, mouthing, careening around, yanking at the leash, whining, barking, and scrabbling crazily in the car, stealing things, nipping hands, feet clothing, highly distractible, much more interested in the excitement of dogs barking, squirrels running, barking at visitors and other dogs, etc., than in listening to me. So, I got out my treat pouch and went to work. From the first moment he arrived, until the last day he left, I reinforced that boy non stop for ANYTHING he did that I liked. I watched him religiously for moments of calm, flickers of focus, fleeting instances of self-control, and all correct responses to cues. Sometimes in the middle of his bigger barking fits, I would have to wait until he took a breath–click! Yep. Half a second of quiet. Caught it! YAY! Was he or I perfect during this process? No. Is he perfectly behaved at all times now? No. But by golly Zydy did gain some better skills, and fast. How did I do it? How on earth did I convince him to do things like let go of that towel I was trying to put in the dryer, to back off and wait instead of chomping my arms or feet, or to sit calmly at the side gate until released, and then to walk calmly on leash all the way to the street instead of bolting and yanking my arm off? For an impulsive, high drive young dog like him, I knew that self-control is an extremely expensive behavior, so I PAID REALLY REALLY WELL FOR IT! I was never stingy. He got the best food, the highest value toys, and every opportunity I could give to release him to go “be a dog” and do whatever he wanted (within reason) after he did anything I wanted. My goal was for him to learn that it is worth it to listen to me every single time, and that listening to me is almost never going to be a bummer or disappointment for him. When working on key life skills such as recalls or Relax on a Mat, I did not mess around with low value foods either, but instead chose his favorite canned wet dog food to build the behavior up as strong as I could. Here’s what his first training session looked like. This is now one of his favorite behaviors to do. Can you tell why?
The world of dog training is filled with politics, polarized opinion, ethical dilemmas, philosophical debates, and controversy–and a surprising lot of it has to do with whether or not dogs should be trained with treats in the first place, or whether one should “fade” out the food later on once the behaviors are complete. But it really all boils down to this: when it comes to expensive behaviors, either you choose to use reinforcement to build and then maintain that behavior for the lifetime of your dog, or you have to use some form of pressure, punishment, or the threat of pressure or punishment to either suppress behaviors you don’t like, or build avoidance behaviors that look like compliance. Thanks to Zydeco’s great reminder these past two months, however, I can safely say without a doubt that reinforcement gets the job done–as long as the humans involved are willing to commit to the project.
Clear patterns of reinforcement build trust. Choose the path of trust wholeheartedly, without any doubt or stinginess, and you and your dog will eventually find yourselves standing together on more solid ground. Once you reach that plateau, stop and consider your progress. How did you get here? Look down. Beneath your feet there is now a shining brick road that you paved beneath your own feet treat by treat by treat. Take those first brave steps with your dog today, and before you know it, you both will be cavorting in the land where pets listen joyously to their owners each and every time they call, and owners fully respect and understand their pets–not because either of them have to, but because few other pathways in life are more reinforcing to follow than this one.
(If you’d like to learn how to teach your dog this way too and don’t have a clicker trainer near you, I, along with Helix Fairweather and Lynn Martin, have an online pet manners class. www.cyberdogonline.com). |
By DONNA BALANCIA
Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters put on a once in a lifetime show at the Festival of Disruption at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel last night. St. Vincent opened for the classic rocker and former Led Zeppelin front man.
While many of his rock n roll brethren, like The Who, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones were in Indio, Plant drew a zealous audience.
Lisa and Tina from Ventura brought him a bouquet of roses, Leslie raced to the stage to see the master at his craft and Amy wept as Plant and his band played Led Zeppelin favorites as well as new tunes.
Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters
The Sensational Space Shifters is comprised of some of the finest musicians around with Plant, Justin Adams, Juldeh Camara, Billy Fuller, Liam “Skin” Tyson and Dave Smith.
For those who never had the opportunity to see Led Zeppelin, this band brings the well-known hits to life but adds a global twist complete with exotic beats and Plant taking on hand drums. Favorites included “Over The Hills,” “Black Dog,” “Rock N Roll,” “Whole Lotta Love” and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.”
While he celebrated his 68th birthday in August, Plant has all the verve and energy of someone half his age. He’s looking good and he commands the stage with a powerful confidence exuded only by someone who has been doing this longer than most audience members have been alive.
Plant’s Audience
Plant has an affable way of connecting with his audience and in an “intimate” setting he’s personable, telling jokes and putting on a show that’s appropriate for the artsy new festival in downtown LA.
The Festival of Disruption features exhibits and discussions by a range of artists, photographers and performers.
Lynch, the mastermind behind works ranging from “Blue Velvet” to “Twin Peaks” is the curator.
Additional musicians taking the stage Sunday night were electronic artist Jon Hopkins, who presented his sounds against a backdrop of creative visions; and St. Vincent, who adapted her show to include compelling performance art with dancers and physical performers.
The Festival of Disruption continued Sunday with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, Jason Bentley and a discussion on the music of “Twin Peaks.”
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Welcome to the L-Pack project website!
Here you can access our FREE training courses for learning basic English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Greek and Lithuanian. Click on the appropriate flag in the upper right corner to select which language you would like to learn.
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To download the written materials (dialogues, exercises, grammar, and cultural information), the guides, or to find a link to the L-Pack audios and videos go to the ‘L-Pack course’ section of this website. You can also access the videos and written materials directly by clicking on the buttons above.
L-Pack can also be used to practise pronunciation through our specially designed learning platform, which allows you to record your voice and create a personal learning plan. Just go to the ‘Personal space’ area of the website or click on the Learning platform button above.
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Image caption The priory was run by the Abbey of Mont St Michel in Normandy and is an example of an "alien priory", one run by a house from another country
Jersey archaeologists had the first chance to explore a rare medieval priory after uncovering a stone wall.
Robert Waterhouse, Societe Jersiaise Archaeologist, said the St Clement's priory had been an accidental find.
He said the society knew it must have existed as there was documentary evidence, but that it had not been able to find it until now.
Mr Waterhouse said: "In the summer we carried out a student excavation in the cemetery looking for [an] Iron Age and Roman settlement that was known to exist here.
Image caption Mr Molyneux said three or four monks would have lived in the priory
"At the end of the investigation one of our trenches came up with a substantial stone wall while the one behind came up with a great mass of building rubble and medieval pottery.
"We put in a larger trench and came up trumps. We got a substantial medieval wall in the south west corner of the building."
It is thought the wall belonged to the chapel of a priory founded by the Abbey of Mont St Michel in Normandy around AD1150.
Neil Molyneux, Vice President of the Societe Jersiaise, said the priory would have been dissolved on the orders of King Henry V in 1413.
He said: "The site of the priory has been lost for several centuries, so this is a very exciting find and a considerable coup for the Archaeology Section."
Personally you can keep your coin hoards, give me a nice medieval building any day Robert Waterhouse, Societe Jersiaise Archaeologist
Mr Waterhouse said previously no small medieval priories had been studied in Jersey and only one in the Channel Islands.
He said it had been known four or five existed but that people did not know anything about them.
"Previously no small medieval priories have been studied in Jersey. The only one that has been examined in the Channel Islands is at Lihou in Guernsey.
"We know of four or five of them and the best one is the one that was on Elizabeth Castle Island before Elizabeth Castle was built. We have no illustrations of this one so this is really exciting."
Mr Waterhouse said there were rumours of where the priory would be.
He said most thought it would be on the site of the former Priory Inn, now a housing development.
But he said archaeological work on that site in early 2000 showed no trace whatsoever of medieval buildings.
The team believes the priory would have been a collection of small buildings, with the chapel as the most important, as they have uncovered evidence it had a slate roof.
Mr Molyneux said: "We knew we were looking at the remains of a building of some importance. It is within a distinct date range that appears to be 12th or 13th century, which is the date the priory was fully functioning here.
Image caption The priory was next to the parish church of St Clement
"There was an important building of the priory where we dug and we are confident it was the chapel.
"All the houses in Jersey and even the court house in town was known to have been thatched in the medieval period. Slate was only imported for the most important buildings."
There would have been three or four monks living within the priory as well as a number of servants who would cook and look after the farm.
Mr Waterhouse said: "We know what the monks had on their tables, we know what their servants were cooking with so we can start to build a picture of what their life would have been like."
Image caption The only other priory of its type to be excavated was Lihou priory in Guernsey
"There were two or three monks and a number of non-monk servants who would look after the farm and carry out the work they couldn't, given they would spend a considerable amount of time on their knees praying to God."
Early in 2012 Mr Waterhouse was part of the team that recovered a hoard of nearly 70,000 Celtic coins from a Jersey field. He said this was a more important discovery for him.
He said: "It is very enjoyable finding something this good, personally you can keep your coin hoards, give me a nice medieval building any day." |
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Author: Dana Henry Dana Henry is a Content Strategist for Traffic Safety Store. After years working as a reporter and editor for print and online publications, Dana has developed her focus on emerging technology and innovation. She resides in Philadelphia and is an avid cyclist. View all posts by Dana Henry
If you’re considering greening your property, take a cue from Michael Bigness from Boy Scout Troop 11 of Chittenango, New York. His recent Eagle Scout project helped transform the parking area at his local library into a Green Parking Lot — the kind of infrastructure that’s encouraged by the Environmental Protection Agency and Leadership in Environmental Design . As part of the greening process, Michael and Troop 11 worked with Traffic Safety Store to replace deteriorating concrete parking stops with 25 ecologically-friendly, recycled rubber blocks The graduating scout worked with fellow troop members and his assistant scoutmaster, Frank Capella, to create a green “welcome mat” for the Chittenango local library complete with stones, flowers and shrubbery. Traffic Safety Store helped them obtain a bulk order of recycled parking blocks, in neutral grey, at a price that fit their budget. Because rubber parking blocks are only 16 lbs a piece and designed for DIY-installation, Michael and his troop were able to install 25 blocks with just a few common tools. They chose lag bolts with anchors, included with their purchase, because lag bolts can be unscrewed and released from the pavement anchors. This will allow the library to uninstall and remove the blocks for snow plowing.The revived parking area invites library guests and improves the environment. It increases impervious surface, in the form of mulch, rocks, and plants, which decreases stormwater runoff. The new vegetation, moreover, can thrive without additional watering. By installing 100% recycled blocks, Michael and Troop 11 helped rescue 400 lbs of discarded tires from landfills. Because the new blocks have improved elasticity, compared to concrete, and have been dyed rather than painted, the library can expect to keep them for years to come. |
Orlando City SC looks for its first win in the month of May as the Lions host D.C. United to start a four-game home stretch.
Tonight’s attendance at Orlando City Stadium is 24,112. Amazing support from the City fam on a rainy night in O-Town. pic.twitter.com/GHr4VqPcwW — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
You can’t score if you don’t shoot, kids. 😈 pic.twitter.com/fdWy4eD37f — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
88′: GOAL. @GilesBarnesReal takes it from about the same spot he took it last time. This time it goes out of Hamid’s mitts.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
86′: Corner from the right for DC coming.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
85′: Barnes with pace down the middle of the field. He takes a shot from just outside the box that goes into the stands.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
82′: SUBSTITUTION. Nocerino comes on for Rivas. Hell of a game by Rivas.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
77′: Corner from the left. Johnson will take it.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
🎶I got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside my DNA🎶 😈 Insane stuff from @Jtbendik… pic.twitter.com/fZZRLZMpZP — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
75′: @JSpector23 defends the empty net enough for @Jtbendik to fly back into the goal for a tipped save. That was incredible.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
73′: SUBSTITUTION. Rocha comes on for MPG. Rocha has played just 3 minutes for City’s MLS side so far this season.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
71′: HOW IS IT NOT 2-0?? Barnes to Rivas into the box. He gets taken down, but MPG whiffs on the rebound. SO CLOSE.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
68′: Almost a 2nd goal. Rivas from the left into the box, past Barnes. Larin, MPG get mixed up, collide. Larin down, gets up.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
The finish that has us on top and Cyle back finding the net. 👌 pic.twitter.com/0UHlgffOTs — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
67′: GOAL. Larin gets back to his scoring ways. Will Johnson on the assist. Barnes drew the foul to set it up.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
66′: SWEET move by @GilesBarnesReal. Draws a foul just outside the left part of DC’s box.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
65′: Shot on Bendik’s goal goes high over the net. Bendik is not happy. Comes out to the ref to voice his concerns.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
63′ | A raging run from Giles ends up producing a dangerous cross and Donny turns on one… but high. 0-0 | #ORLvDC pic.twitter.com/cNtHTuWLPH — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
63′: @GilesBarnesReal flies down the right side and crosses it from right to left. Toia gets a shot off, but it sails high.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
59′: SUBSTITUTION. Giles Barnes comes on for Luis Gil.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
56′: City is fortunate. An open shot goes over the top of the net.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
50′ | Lively start from City. Best chance so far coming via a low cross off the foot of Donny. Can’t find anybody. 0-0 | #ORLvDC pic.twitter.com/S8tDSEzJzl — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
50′: MPG sends it to Toia on the left, who grounds it into the box. Hamid gathers it. Larin was waiting on the back post.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
46′: SUBSTITUTION. Le Toux on for Luciano Acosta for DC.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
45’+: Rivas sends Sutter into the box. Sutter goes down and wants the PK, but he’s given nothing.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
45’+: Spector finds Larin down the left side for a good look. His shot goes into Hamid’s mitts, though.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
45′: Ball into the box is deflected. Larin tracks it down and takes a shot with his left. Corner coming from the left.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
44′: MPG draws another foul. Set piece coming for City about 20 yards from midfield.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
43′: Corner from left coming. SAVE by Bendik’s outstretched right arm. Fantastic save.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
41′: Higuita is down and the referee immediately calls for trainers to come. Nocerino is warming up.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
40′: MPG from the top of the box gets a shot on target, but it gently rolls to him.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
39′ | Gil finds a glimmer of space but the shot doesn’t quite connect for him. Plenty of shots coming for City. 0-0 | #ORLvDC pic.twitter.com/0bgQAkKQSr — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
39′: Gil takes a shot from near the top of the box, but it goes wide right. Nothing Hamid needed to bother with.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
38′: Nice passing on that last build-up. But the cross by Gil from the right finds no one.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
37′: Rivas finds space near midfield and immediately tries to play Larin over the top. Larin is tripped up. DC w/ possession.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
35′: YELLOW. No more than a minute later does Toia get his booking.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
34′: YELLOW. MPG draws another foul, and Kemp gets the 1st booking of the game.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
32′: Rivas spins to his right and sends a through ball into Larin, but it goes JUST too far.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
31′: Sutter fended off the attack down the left flank. Bendik has a goal kick coming.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
27′: Big save by Bendik. Keeps the score level at 0-0.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
26′: Sutter crosses it in from the right, and it nearly finds Rivas’ foot. Corner from right coming.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
25′: Jeffrey unloads from the top of the box. Bendik falls to right for the save.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
23′: Corner from the right is cleared back to the same corner. Gil inserts it back in. Larin hustles for it.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
21′: Right after that Rivas found it at the top of the box again and tries to curl it in. Goes wide left.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
21′ | A ball into the box from MPG finds Rivas and he almost picks out Cyle but just behind. 0-0 | #ORLvDC pic.twitter.com/BaoRl3dWMJ — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
21′: From inside the box, Rivas lays it off to Larin, who whiffs. Wet ball?#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
DC is playing a lot of physical defense, not afraid to foul. City has had a lot of possession and good chances.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
18′: Higuita gets tripped up near his sideline. Another foul by DC.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
18′: Aja gets bodied on the pass in front of his own bench. Foul drawn.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
16′: MPG draws a foul near midfield. Holds his lower back as he gets up. Seems fine.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
15′: @CyleLarin just made some great defensive plays in the box. Heads 1 away.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
14′: Higuita tumbles over a DC player. He’s still down. No foul called.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
13′ | Joe gets his first taste of action on the day on a low cross in an awkward spot. Safe clearance. 0-0 | #ORLvDC pic.twitter.com/ckDiQWEqu2 — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
13′: Bendik deflects the cross into the box.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
9′: Ball into the box. Spector and Aja both get heads on it. Throw-in coming for DC.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
8′: Set piece for DC early. Just about 15 yards from midfield.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
7′ | MPG finds acres of room and has a crack. Crosses the face of goal and out. 0-0 | #ORLvDC pic.twitter.com/roXw4lp23f — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
7′: MPG gets a shot off, but it goes wide right.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
7′: Toia sends it to Larin down the left flank. Corner coming from left.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
5′ | Carlos makes a turn in the box after a little flick from Gil and gets a shot on target. Active start. 0-0 | #ORLvDC pic.twitter.com/IWy3L2weIX — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) June 1, 2017
5′: Johnson plays it to Rivas, who gets a shot on goal. Hamid falls to his right for the save.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
1′: Corner from the right coming for DC…already.#ORLvDC #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) June 1, 2017
Tonight’s starting lineup. Rafael Ramos is on the bench. Tony Rocha is on the bench, too. He’s played three minutes for City so far this season.
How the boys are rolling out tonight versus the visitors from D.C. #ORLvDC pic.twitter.com/bOQ3SDq6DI — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) May 31, 2017
Kickoff for #ORLvDC has been delayed until 8:08. Gates are open if you wish to seek shelter. — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) May 31, 2017
Forecast for tonight’s game.
(Going to get ready to leave for the stadium now. See everyone at the game!)
In terms of goal-scoring, City’s leader in that category, Cyle Larin, has only scored one goal in the past seven games. Kreis was quick to make sure fans and media alike don’t fret over this.
When you score seven goals in seven games, we don’t bring him to the side and put him up on a pedestal and tell him how great he is. So when he goes one goal in seven games, we don’t put him down and tell him what a nasty, little boy he is. We say, “Continue to work the way you have, and the goals will come.” He’s getting chances. We’re getting lots of goal-scoring chances. We’re doing a lot of things right. At the moment, we’re a little unfortunate to not make the plays at the most critical moments.
Here’s our full story with quotes from Ramos himself (and a cool graphic one of our guys made).
As for the good news, right-back Rafael Ramos is healthy. He posted a tweet last night which hinted at him being with the first team for tonight’s match.
With regard to injury news, there’s good news and bad news. Let’s start with the bad: Team captain Ricardo Kaká is out with an injury for tonight’s match, per Kreis. Here’s Orlando Sentinel beat writer Alicia DelGallo with the details.
Kaká injury – right calf due to hard hit in NYC game. Nothing visible on scans, but continues to be a bother. He is training solo w/Silas — Alicia Rose DelGallo (@OSAliciaD) May 30, 2017
Let’s get started with our latest edition of Notes & Quotes. Media had access to head coach Jason Kreis and midfielders Will Johnson and Servando Carrasco.
Here’s what Carrasco had to say about turning around City’s misfortune as of late.
I think we’re very hungry. I think we’re ready to kinda change this script. And look, these two games at home are gonna be huge.
I’m going to start the live blog a little early today. We’re about three hours from kickoff. Check out some of the storylines entering this midweek matchup against D.C. United. |
A Brief History
Apparently there is something about the first day of December that makes it significant to the history of civil rights concerning persons of African ancestry.
Digging Deeper
Digging deeper we find, first, that in 1768 the former slave ship Fredensborg sank from unknown causes (maybe cosmic karma?) of the coast of Tromoy, Norway. Although not carrying slaves at that time, it had previously been involved in the “triangular trade” of slaves and goods in the Caribbean.
Second, in 1834 in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, slavery was abolished in the Cape Colony (now South Africa).
Third, in 1862, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered a State of the Union speech in which he reaffirmed the need to abolish slavery as stated in his Emancipation Proclamation 10 weeks prior.
Fourth, in 1865 just after the end of the American Civil War, which ultimately resulted in the end of state-sanctioned slavery in the United States of America, Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina was established by Reverend H.M. Turner of the American Baptist Home Mission Society as the first primarily “colored” (term used then for African-Americans) university in the southern U.S.
Fifth, finally, and most famously, in 1955, Rosa Parks, the celebrated civil rights pioneer, triggered the “Montgomery Bus Boycott” in Alabama by refusing to sit in the back of the bus as decreed by segregation laws of that time. She held her nerve even when threatened with arrest. She later recalled, “People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.” For her courageous actions, she has been hailed as “the first lady of civil rights” and “the mother of the freedom movement”, while being labeled the fourth most influential woman in history.
So there you have it: five groundbreaking events in civil rights history all of which happened on December 1st! Now, what will be the next milestone in civil rights to occur on that day? Perhaps some of our readers may be brave and noble enough to help bring about such changes!
Historical Evidence
Most of the above events have been the subject of numerous scholarly works. For some good starting places, please consider our suggestions below to be preferably read in the order listed below: |
by David Schloss
For more than a decade I flew all over the world for work, usually with a folding travel bike along with me. I’ve ridden in the majority of the states in our country including Alaska and Hawaii as well as in Canada, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Beijing.
During that same period I was also the President of the Rockland Bicycling Club, and have led countless rides in Rockland and in other parts of New York State.
With very few exceptions, the riding in New York State is some of the worst, least cycling friendly and difficult anywhere.
There are a few reasons for this but they boil down to two points: infrastructure and policy.
Generally speaking, New York has very few bicycle friendly roads. Rural roads often have high speed limits and unfriendly drivers. Cycle lanes are scarce and where they exist they are usually short and poorly maintained with a few notable exceptions for rail-to-trail mutli-use parkways like the North County Trailway in Westchester.
New York City’s vast and rapid bikeway expansion has made a huge difference in that city, but many other metropolitan areas developed bikeways as an integrated part of the transit and road system. Take Portland, where bike lanes tend to connect to each other and extend out to the suburbs, allowing cyclists to ride from home to work without incident. By comparison Manhattan’s bike lanes often feel bolted-on, rather than being part of a cohesive solution.
The second issue is policy—New York State does not do a good job of promoting safe cycling through the development of roadway transit systems for cyclists. Again, many of the infrastructure projects are recreational rail trails, and tend to be short in distance and limited in usefulness. New road projects are supposed to have bike lanes by law, but often a major roadway renovation will be labeled a “resurfacing,” which can skirt the multimodal cycling use laws.
But the state also doesn’t teach motorists about bicyclist rights, nor does it teach its public safety officials. The police often don’t know the laws pertaining to cyclists—I’ve known several cyclists who were ticketed for not riding on the far edge right edge of the road, something that’s the law specifically says is NOT required—and won’t pass laws specifying safe passing distances for motorists.
When leading club rides in the Rockland Bicycling Club we’d often start our rides by heading into Bergen, where roads are wider and better maintained than in Rockland, something that indicates the level of attractiveness of riding in New York State.
See also: New York State of Mind Not Bike Friendly, 6/6/2013
David Schloss is a biking enthusiast, a co-founder of the Rockland Bicycling Club and a co-owner of Gypsy Donut and Espresso Bar in Nyack, NY |
Chris Taylor joined Millwall on loan from Blackburn Rovers this week for a second spell with the Lions after spending the 2012-13 season at The Den
Millwall continued their League One promotion push as Chris Taylor's early goal wrapped up three points against Sheffield United.
The hosts went ahead in just the second minute when Steve Morison crossed to Taylor, who finished from close range.
Billy Sharp could have levelled when he linked on to Matt Done's cross but keeper Jordan Archer caught his header.
Paul Coutts forced Archer into a low near-post save after the break but Millwall held on to win.
That win keeps the Lions fifth in League One, six points off second-placed Wigan while Sheffield United slip a place to 12th.
Media playback is not supported on this device Harris on Millwall v Sheffield United
Millwall manager Neil Harris told BBC Radio London: "We weren't brilliant at times. We played well and should have been out of sight by half-time.
"At this stage of the season it's about getting points on the board. We defended our box really well. I thought the centre-halves were outstanding." |
About the Author
Werner Schott Werner Schott, born in Vienna, but living in Switzerland for many years now, has had a lifetime passion for aviation. A former Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Defense Corps, Werner now serves as a head of a technical college in Switzerland. Werner is an avid flight simulator enthusiast, and compiled these checklists with the help of his flight instructor friend and other pilots in order to "give something back" to the community. Dauntless Software would like to thank Mr. Schott for his contributions to the community. A reminder to all: if you have something that you think would be of use to the aviation community, please don't hesitate to contact support AT dauntless-soft.com and we will be happy to consider hosting your submission for the betterment of all. |
Choose the best 18650, 20700, 21700 (and more) vape batteries for your mod.
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Choose from a large selection of the best vape compatible batteries from Sony, Samsung, and LG. We also carry batteries marketed for vapes from brands like Basen, Efest, and more.
What battery should I pick up for my vape?
Firstly, you have to determine the size you need - 18650, 20700, or 21700. Some vapes use less common sizes like 18350 or 26650.
After that, you should choose your vape batteries depending on how you want to vape. If you're vaping 50W or more, you'll want a high amp battery with low mAh rating. For example, the Sony VTC4 18650 is rated for 30A continuous maximum discharge current with 2100mAh nominal capacity. This would be great for high power mods.
If you're vaping at lower wattages, you can choose from a large selection of high mAh rated batteries. This will give you more battery life for vaping all day. For example, the LG HG2 18650 is rated for 20A constant current with 3000mAh battery capacity. This would give you great battery life when vaping at low-mid wattage.
When should I buy a new set of batteries?
Vape batteries wear out at about 3 months of use. You will start to experience your mod losing battery life quicker. Your batteries will also charge faster. This means it is wearing out, and it's time to buy a new set.
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Additional Notes
There is always an inherent risk when using any rechargeable batteries at anytime and under any circumstances. 101Vape.com and any of 101Vape.com’s parent and subsidiary companies are not held responsible for any damage for any modification of the batteries, chargers, devices and other products that we carry in any form or shape, this is including pack making.
101Vape.com and any or all of 101Vape.com’s parent and subsidiary companies will not be held responsible or liable for any injury, damage, or defect, permanent or temporary that may be caused by the improper use of a Li-ion (Lithium-ion), LiPo (Lithium-ion Polymer) and any rechargeable battery/batteries as well as chargers. Please have a greater understanding of the batteries/chargers you are using and how to care for them properly.
When working with Li-ion (Lithium-ion), LiPo (Lithium-ion Polymer) and any rechargeable cells, please be cautious and carefully use as they are very sensitive to charging characteristics and may explode or burn if mishandled. Please make sure that you have great knowledge on all rechargeable batteries before you use them. Always charge batteries at the clean and fire-proof surface. Never leave charging batteries unattended. If you see that there are visible damages on the batteries, please do not use. Always keep, store and transport the rechargeable cells in a safe, non-conductive container in controlled environment.
Do not use any rechargeable battery as well as any battery charger if any visible damage is present, as well as if the cell or charger has been stressed through mishandling, accidental or otherwise, even if damage may not be visible. Always store and transport rechargeable cells in a safe, non-conductive container in a controlled environment. Please dispose battery cells, chargers or any other electronic devices in accordance of local laws and mandates. |
During the Grand Prix weekend in Baku the FIA had made it clear to the teams that it does not allow them to preheat their hydraulic components of their chassis. Five teams are directly involved with such preheating activities, even when the cars are parked in the Parc Fermé. The Germans of Auto, motor und sport are reporting the next saga in the hydraulic suspension series.
According to AMUS Ferrari suspects Mercedes to have solved their tire troubles on an illegal way. Of course the engineers of the German team react differently. So how much of it is true? Well, there is the fact that the hydraulic suspension, as we knew it in 2016, has been forbidden earlier this year. But are there legal ways around these prohibited regulations?
The answer to that question seems to come from Mercedes. If you make a new system you just have to make it so complicated that the FIA stewards can not asses it in its totality. But Mercedes is only one of five teams who are under suspect. The other four are Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso, Force India and McLaren. So how did they do it?
All of these five teams have one thing in common. All of them said goodbye to the classic shock absorbers and rear stabilizers. Instead they all went for a hydraulic actuators approach, with which they can control the ride height, the rolling behavior and any up or down movement the car makes. And, in order to hide them from the outside world, these actuators are placed inside the gearbox housing.
Samples have shown that all five of them used preheated oil in those actuators. They preheated them even when the cars where under strict Parc Fermé rules. By heating up the oil the teams are changing the characteristics of said oil, and with it the characteristics of the car. For instance, the teams were able to give their cars the ideal ground clearance before the start of the race.
Force India is one team that had preheated their hydraulic elements with hot air, in the garage. All this in order to get the oil at the temperatures it would eventually get while driving. Technician Andy Green doesn’t deny this: “Our goal was to keep the temperature of the hydraulic oil and therefore the ground clearance constant. With cold oil, the vehicle is lower than when it is hot. Because the oil warms up during driving, you have to calculate precisely how you can adjust the ground clearance while stationary, so that the desired ground clearance is achieved later, during the race.”
Under the Parc Fermé rules, between qualifying and the race, the car can not be technically altered, unless it involves repairs for safety reasons. And this can only be done after getting clearance by the FIA. The FIA has explained in Baku to all concerned teams that external preheating of chassis components is prohibited. By “external” they mean heating systems, which are connected to chassis components. As this would violate the Parce fermé rules. It is seen as a deliberate intervention in the chassis setup, like installing other dampers or stabilizers. After the Grand Prix the technicians were, once again, warned that preheating is no longer tolerated. Green groaned: “Without preheating, the drivers have to drive extremely fast during the laps to the starting grid so that the hydraulic oil heats up quickly. Only then can they feel if the balance of the car is where they want it.”
So has this put an end to all the trickery? Not quite…
There are loopholes at the moment that can not be forbidden. Mercedes has been suspected to have placed the hydraulic actuators so cleverly in their gearbox housing that they heat up almost “randomly”. It is assumed that oil ducts, containing oil from the gearbox, pass close besides or through the actuators. And thus would the heat radiation influence the viscosity of the hydraulic oil. Preheating would be easy that way because each team can make the gearbox shift as often and as long as they want, while the car sits in the garage. Hereby would the transmission oil and the surrounding environment be heated.
A FIA steward confirmed to AMUS that such a practice would not be punishable: “We can not prescribe anyone where he builds his suspension components and what is in their environment. Theoretically, one could also alienate an exhaust manifold for heating. We can only intervene when the warm-up happens in an unnatural way.”
Mercedes’ rivals became suspicious when the German team got their tire problems under control, and after Monte Carlo spoke of “new tools”, which should help with the handling of the tire rims. Since then the fluctuations between training and race and the individual tire types are far less than they were the races before. Anyone who can change the characteristics of the hydraulic dampers and stabilizers between training and racing in a clever way would always get the tires to work perfectly.
In the end there is only one way to close these loopholes: to outlaw hydraulic suspensions. But to get that kind of rule change, for 2018, there has to be a total unanimity. And we know how F1 teams are…
Bruznic
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A Jerusalem yeshiva student, 25, was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in northern Jerusalem.
A second Israeli, apparently a light rail security guard, was very lightly hurt after wrestling with the attacker in an attempt to prevent him from fleeing the scene.
Police said the attacker, a 19-year-old Palestinian from East Jerusalem, was “neutralized” within minutes. He was unharmed and was being questioned by police. Initial reports, corrected by police, had said he was 15.
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The terror attack took place just after noon at the light rail stop near the Israel Police’s national headquarters close to Ammunition Hill.
The victim, an Israeli citizen, was evacuated to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem with the knife still lodged in his neck. Doctors rushed him into emergency surgery. Later the hospital said he was in stable condition.
The road, Haim Bar Lev Boulevard, was closed to traffic in both directions. Light rail service was suspended in the area, but service resumed after 1 p.m.
Nachman Ravivo, a Magen David Adom volunteer, was the first medic to reach the victim. “He was stabbed in the neck. He was evacuated in serious condition to the trauma unit at Shaare Zedek. He was fully conscious and communicated” with the rescue team, Ravivo told Channel 2 in the minutes after the attack.
MDA CEO Eli Bin said the victim’s condition was “serious but stable.”
Police canine units searched the sides of the road after eyewitnesses said the attacker may have thrown something into roadside shrubs.
Mayor Nir Barkat was at the scene with Jerusalem Police chief Moshe Edri.
After the stabbing, the attacker reportedly attempted but failed to steal the gun from a light rail security guard. After an altercation with the guard, the attacker fled the scene, but was pursued and caught by police motorcyclists.
The previous day saw at least six major terror attacks nationwide with wounded or dead victims amid an escalating wave of violence. |
shadow
Disagi a Roma e Milano per chi viaggia sui mezzi pubblici per via di uno sciopero proclamato dai sindacati di base e in aereo mentre ieri, giovedì 29 maggio, ci sono state difficoltà nel settore ferroviario: l’Usb, unione sindacale di base ha proclamato uno sciopero generale nazionale di 24 ore, iniziato a mezzanotte di giovedì, che proseguirà fino alla fine del servizio di venerdì. Chi deve prendere l’aereo dovrà controllare che il volo non subisca ritardi e cancellazioni mentre nel trasporto pubblico locale saranno naturalmente rispettate le fasce di garanzia, diverse città per città. L’Usb sottolinea che i due giorni di scioperi sono stati decisi contro le privatizzazioni del comparto e per il rilancio del settore.
La situazione a Milano A Milano le quattro linee della metropolitana hanno effettuato servizio regolare; solo qualche rallentamento per i mezzi di superficie. Il ticket Area C è stato sospeso: accesso libero al centro. Lo sciopero riguarda anche i lavoratori del comparto aero: a Milano Linate e a Malpensa (Varese) sono stati cancellati in via preventiva dalle compagnie aeree (in aeroporto non vi sono stati disagi) 34 voli a Linate e 58 a Malpensa.
La situazione a Roma A Roma, informa l’Agenzia per la mobilità, la situazione è la seguente: la metro A e la metro B sono attive ma con riduzione di corse; chiusa la Ferrovia Roma-Lido, riduzioni di corse sulla ferrovia Termini-Giardinetti e sulla Roma-Viterbo. Possibili riduzioni di corse o sospensione di linee per bus e tram. Nelle stazioni metropolitane e ferroviarie che restano aperte è possibile la sospensione di ascensori, scale mobili o montascale e delle attività delle biglietterie.L’adesione allo sciopero del personale Atac è attualmente al 30%.
La situazione a Torino e Bologna È stata del 30% secondo i sindacati di base (Usb) l’adesione allo sciopero del trasporto pubblico locale a Torino. La percentuale è confermata dell’azienda Gtt. La metropolitana ha sempre funzionato regolarmente. Lo sciopero ha interessato i mezzi urbani dalle 9 alle 12, mentre bus e tram hanno viaggiato regolarmente fino alle 9. L’altra fascia di garanzia è dalle 12 alle 15.A Bologna lo sciopero dei trasporti indetto dal sindacato di base Usb ha riguardato il 60% del personale Tper: lo comunica l’azienda.
Le fasce di garanzia Nel rispetto delle fasce di garanzia lo sciopero di 24 ore dei mezzi pubblici si tiene nelle principali città italiane secondo diverse modalità: a Milano dalle 8.45 alle 15 e dalle 18 a fine servizio; a Roma dalle 8.30 alle 17.30 e dalle 20 a fine servizio; a Torino dalle 9 alle 12 e dalle 15 a fine servizio; a Venezia dalle 9 alle 16.30 e dalle 19.30 a fine servizio; a Bologna dalle 8.30 alle 16.30 e dalle 19.30 a fine servizio; a Firenze dalle 9.15 alle 11.45 e dalle 15.15 al termine del servizio; a Napoli dalle 8.30 alle 17 e dalle 20 a fine servizio; a Bari dalle 8.30 alle 12.30 e dalle 15.30 a fine servizio; a Palermo dalle 8.30 alle 17.30.
Agitazione a Meridiana Confermato lo sciopero nazionale di 24 ore di tutto il personale di terra e di volo del gruppo Meridiana. A proclamarlo Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl e Ugl Trasporto Aereo «in quanto permangono intatte le problematiche sulle iniziative aziendali e sull’occupazione alla base delle proteste degli scorsi 11 novembre e 6 dicembre 2013 e 11 aprile scorso».Voli garantiti nelle fasce orarie di servizio, 7-10 e 18-21, con alcuni voli cancellati (la compagnia aerea Meridiana darà i numeri dello sciopero solo a fine serata) e passeggeri «protetti» su altri voli.All’aeroporto di Olbia la Geasar, che gestisce lo scalo, fa sapere che in mattinata non si sono registrate criticità, con la cancellazione di un volo Easyjet per Malpensa, e i voli Meridiana per Parigi, Linate, Bologna e Verona.
A Malpensa, Linate e Fiumicino Difficile giornata anche per chi viaggia in aereo. Sea aveva comunicato in anticipo che a causa di una serie di scioperi concomitanti i voli programmati negli aeroporti di Milano Malpensa e Milano Linate avrebbero potuto subire ritardi e/o cancellazioni. Le agitazioni sono: sciopero nazionale lavoratori del comparto aereo (CUB e USB), personale SEA e SEA Handling (USB, CUB e ADL), assistenti di volo EasyJet (OO.SS Filt-Cgil e Fit-Cisl), personale gruppo Meridiana (OO.SS. Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl, Uiltrasporti), personale Aviapartner Handling aeroporti di Milano Linate e Malpensa (OO.SS. Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl, Uiltrasporti, Ugl Ta e O.S. Cub Trasporti) e assistenti di volo del Gruppo Alitalia Cai (Rsa Usb lavoro privato). In tutto sono stati cancellati 34 voli a Linate e 58 a Malpensa. A Fiumicino poi, in concomitanza con le altre mobilitazioni, la Cub Trasporti ha promosso uno sciopero e una manifestazione anche per denunciare, ancora una volta, la grave situazione della Groundcare, una delle aziende di handling che allo scalo capitolino si occupa della consegna bagagli. |
Another company steps up.
Nike has been diligent in trying to provide a better experience for customers shopping on NDC and they might have gotten some unexpected help. Nike has even tried implementing the CAPTCHA system to slow down bots which has been somewhat successful, but since have employed other methods that haven't worked out so well.
Last November, Google issued a warning about an upcoming policy which automatically disables unauthorized Google Chrome extensions and gives developers up until May 2014 to make sure they meet the Web Store guidelines. If their Chrome extensions didn't meet the Web Store guidelines then they are not allowed to reauthorize that app for further use.
Extensions that were previously installed, but not hosted on the Chrome Web Store will be hard-disabled (i.e the user cannot enable these extensions again) - TNW
How does this Google Chrome policy change effect bots you might ask? Well if the bot someone is trying to sell you isn't present on Google Chrome Web Store then chances are it has been disabled and won't work on your computer. Now the least of Google's worries are sneakerheads trying to gain an advantage while shopping for heat, but they are concerned about privacy and malicious software included in third party extensions running in their browsers. As of the release of Chrome 35, if you were previously using a bot (in other words a third party extension) on a Windows computer, it has been blocked unless the developer got it approved on the Google Chrome Web Store.
Windows users are the first guys screwed out of their bots. Bot users on operating systems other than Windows haven't seen this policy change yet, but expect Google to roll one out across all platforms soon.
This doesn't mean an immediate end to bots, but it is a major set back for cheaters. Google is very aggressive toward policy changes if developers with ill intent start to effect the experience of their users, so if you're tired of complaining to Nike, try giving Google some feedback.
Read full Google Chrome policy update here.
Shout out to @franchise_davis for bringing up the conversation. |
Image caption Residents were "terrified", said shopkeeper Sadarat Khan
An explosion which left nails and debris strewn outside a mosque was "an act of terrorism", police have said.
The blast happened on a disused railway line near Binfield Street in Tipton in the West Midlands at about 13:00 BST.
A nearby shopkeeper said: "I did tell the police there to evacuate the area, please for god's sake - there were nails all over the place."
Counter terrorism officers were called in and the surrounding area was closed off for several hours.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Assistant Chief Constable Gary Cann explains why he thinks the explosion was an act of terrorism
'Terrified and shaken'
Shopkeeper Sadarat Khan said he was coming out of a local chemist when he heard a "bomb blast".
"They [the police] didn't seem to be bothered too much... It took them about 40 minutes to evacuate the place," he said.
Analysis Witnesses said they heard a loud bang shortly after 13:00 BST and there were some reports of it being heard up to half a mile away. Many of the roads in the area have been shut by the police and lots of people are confused about what's happened. This is a predominantly British Pakistani neighbourhood in an area of mainly Victorian back-to-backs. People are understandably nervous this evening after what happened. I've seen uniformed police officers door knocking, asking people what they've seen. It's a sunny evening - people are out on the streets and discussing what they've witnessed.
"People were terrified and very scared and shaken."
Resident Raja Khan was about 50m away when he heard the blast and said a device was found on a wall on the disused railway line at the back of the mosque.
He said: "A few kids came out shouting, 'bomb, bomb'. There were branches that came off trees all over the place."
He said he went to the mosque fearing there would be casualties.
"If it had been when prayers were going on there would've been 300 to 400 people there. There were about 22 to 25 people I think at the time.
"People are terrified for their kids, myself included."
Asst Ch Con Gareth Cann said whoever was responsible "wanted to cause serious harm".
"I can't say for sure it was directed at the mosque, but from what we've seen this seems to be the most likely option," he said.
Minor damage was caused to a window of a nearby house, he said.
A counter terrorism investigation has been started, the force confirmed.
It is understood the explosion centred on an embankment near a disused rail line running behind the mosque.
In a joint statement, the board of trustees and management committee of the Kanzul Iman Central Jamia Mosque said: "We express our deep shock and utter dismay regarding the incident that has occurred this afternoon.
"On behalf of the local community, we condemn this senseless and mindless act. It's a blessing from God that thankfully no-one was injured in the blast.
'Day of funeral'
"We call for calm and strongly urge the community not to let this incident divide us and cause disharmony.
"We stand united, stand together in the aftermath of this mindless act."
Police lifted most of their cordons at about 21:00 BST but said Binfield Street was likely to remain closed overnight on Friday.
Officers gave bottles of water to residents with young children who gathered along Dudley Port in Tipton during the afternoon.
Local councillor Ian Jones said he was "very shocked" by what had happened.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Witness Sadarat Khan: "I heard a big blast. There were nails all over the place"
He told BBC WM it could not "go unnoticed" that the incident happened on the same day of the funeral of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was killed in Woolwich in May.
Councillor Syeda Amina Khatun said she was not aware of any previous attacks on the mosque.
"The whole estate has been blocked off. People are surprised that something like this has happened," she said.
The mosque is the central place of worship for Tipton's long-established Muslim population.
The explosion pushes the community back into the headlines after three men from the town were captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and taken to Guantanamo Bay.
Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, both 22 at the time, and 26-year-old Shafiq Rasul were dubbed the "Tipton Three" and held at the US camp in Cuba for two years.
They were eventually returned to the UK in March 2004 where they were released without charge.
West Midlands Police are still investigating an explosion which occurred near a mosque in Caldmore in Walsall last month.
About 150 people were evacuated from homes near the Aisha Mosque and Islamic Centre after a device was found in a nearby alley.
Mr Cann told the media there was nothing to suggest a link between this incident and what occurred in Tipton. |
Why? Well it started in Guatemala last week. I was eating in the weightlifting chow hall with Donny Shankle and thinking about the food. The meal that day included a sort of salad. Tasted like it had some kale in it, had some green beans, some corn, lettuce, and bits of bacon. There were diced up potatoes, cooked with onions. Diced up carrots that most people seemed to be mixing up with the potatoes and onions. And chicken. Not fried chicken, just chicken. It was representative of most of the meals, mostly vegetables and meat, some potatoes or rice. Nothing fancy. I remarked to Donny that it would be hard to overeat and get fat on such food. Not that it wasn’t good, it was tasty enough, but it was nothing you would want to go on eating once your hunger had been satisfied. And it wasn’t calorie dense, mostly meat and vegetables. All in all it was pretty damn healthy food.
Then on the plane ride home I was watching TV, and noticing the commercials. At one point, all in a row, there were commercials for Mountain Dew, Kit Kat bars, pop tarts, Pepsi, and frozen pizza. Thats right, 5 commercials, all for shitty sugar filled foods all in a row.
Why do we Americans do this to ourselves? Obesity, diabetes, and just about every other health problem you can imagine that is linked to diet are all sky high and rising. Yet we continue stuffing ourselves with shitty food. Commercials show smiling kids eating toaster strudels for breakfast in front of proud mothers, pizza pockets for afternoon snacks, and grabbing whatever sugar laden drink is popular out of the fridge to cool down from playing in the yard.
And I’m pissed about it. I am pissed that my ex-wife got done with 4 years of education at a state school to become a registered dietician, and wouldn’t eat a pack of mixed nuts for a snack because of the fat, but would instead pick a pack of “Sprees” the hard candy things that are 100% sugar. I am pissed about seeing people buy “light” yogurt, which has the fat taken out of it then 30 grams of sugar added, and think they are being healthy.
I am pissed that there is not a public outrage about the smiling proud mothers on the TV commercials giving their kids pop tarts for breakfast and pizza pockets for a snack.
I am pissed that when I go to Costco on the weekend to buy groceries and eat the free sample, and the lady giving out the little “breakfast bars” that have 1 gram of protein and 30 grams of sugar per serving is telling me how healthy they are cause they are low fat.
I am just in general pissed off that our modern society is so determined to dig our own graves with our spoons and forks. i am pissed that shitty unhealthy food is so cheap and convenient and available everywhere. I am pissed that every child grows up on a steady diet of TV commercials pitching them shitty food that will probably eventually kill them.
So yeah, I’m just pissed. |
The final chapter has come for the Barnes & Noble locations in Queens.
One day after the chain announced it would close its Forest Hills store at end of the year, it announced Thursday it will also shut the remaining borough Barnes & Noble at Bay Terrace Shopping Center in Bayside. David Deason, Barnes & Noble's vice president of Development, said it tried to negotiate new leases with the landlords of both properties but those fell through due to rent issues.
"With Forest Hills we communicated that we were willing to increase the rent and had an initial agreement with the property owners, who in turn did not live up to that agreement. With Bayside, when our lease came back up for renewal the property owner notified us that they chose a tenant who was willing to pay rents far in excess of what we were willing to pay," he explained in a statement.
The Bay Terrace representatives didn't return messages for comment Thursday evening about the Bayside bookstore, located at 23-80 Bell Blvd. A representative for Muss Development, which owns the Forest Hills property at 7000 Austin Street,said Target signed a 15-year lease at the location and its mini location will open in mid 2016.
"Austin Street is a natural fit for this new retail concept," Muss Development Principal Jason Muss said in a statement released Wednesday.
"There is no indication when the Bay Terrace location will shut its doors, however, Crain's New York, which first reported its closing Thursday, said the space will be home to a Home Goods store.
Regular customers to the Forest Hills store expressed shock and sadness on social media. Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, who used to be the city councilwoman for the neighborhood, called the store "an integral part of the community's daily story."
"For many families their departure is an unfortunate one and closes a cherished chapter of the neighborhood," she said in a statement.
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Michael Perlman, the chairman of Rego-Forest Preservation Council, launched a "Change.org" petition in May to save the location. As of Thursday night the campaign had 5,809 signatures out of its 7,500 goal.
"We need you to ask ALL of your friends to sign our petition & post a comment. Power to the residents & readers who value their communities most!" he posted on the campaign page.
Deason reassured Queens customers that Barnes & Noble is "is extremely important to us and as a result we are aggressively looking at new locations and expect to have a new store there in the future." |
“We can’t deny the paleolithic ketogenic diet and we can’t deny scientific fact.” – Dr Csaba Tóth.
Hungarian physician Dr Csaba Tóth has been ostracised by the medical community. His research into the paleolithic ketogenic diet as a diabetes treatment is controversial in some circles. But his team’s success is staggering.
Tóth’s theory is that a paleo keto diet can stop the autoimmune process in new-onset type 1 diabetes, which means the cessation of insulin production could be prevented.
Some are sceptical, and understandably so – can a diet really be as or even more effective than medicine? Well, Tóth’s evidence suggests it could be, and the findings might have life-changing implications for people with diabetes.
Word of Tóth’s research spread late last year when his team showed how a nine-year-old boy with new-onset type 1 diabetes came off insulin injections for 19 months upon adopting a paleo keto diet. This then extended to 24 months. Tóth insisted it wasn’t a honeymoon period. Instead, he argued, the paleo keto diet stopped the boy’s insulin cells from decaying.
Why did this happen? Tóth (pictured with Zsofia Clemens, University of Pécs) told Diabetes.co.uk that the paleo keto diet prevents the destruction of pancreatic beta cells. Moreover, it could even improve insulin production once adhered to properly (although people already taking insulin should not discontinue their treatment).
“For people with new-onset type 1 diabetes, there is only one chance to restore insulin production. Thus it is important to intervene with the paleo keto diet as early as possible. There will be no second chance once the autoimmune process has destroyed the beta cells,” said Tóth.
But Tóth’s research has been discredited by the clinical community – he describes his peers as “sceptical” and “very distant”.
“The main reason for this [distance] is that stating that a diabetic can have a long life without insulin and that this disease could be reversed goes against today’s medicine,” he said.
“But mostly they don’t even know about this opportunity. If a patient with type 1 diabetes wants to use the paleolithic ketogenic diet and seeks help from a diabetologist he will be refused because the diabetologist doesn’t know how and whether the diet works.
“The other important factor for this scepticism is the philosophy behind it: if we can’t cure something with expensive clinical treatments how could we cure it with a simple diet?”
Understanding the paleo keto diet
So what exactly is a paleo keto diet? Why has it been such a success in diabetes research? And could it ever be clinically recommended to treat diabetes?
The paleo keto diet is a modified version of the ketogenic diet, consisting only of animal meat, fat, offal and eggs with a fat:protein ratio of nearly 2:1.
Tóth, who is the medical leader at Paleomedicina Hungary, began studying chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, Crohn’s disease and cancer six years ago. His team first researching the paleo diet, but their findings weren’t as positive as he’d hoped.
“We don’t know of any cases where a patient didn’t have positive results with this diet,” Tóth said.
“The concept of the paleo diet is that humans were eating healthy in the Paleolithic Age,” he said. “We started using the paleo diet, but the results weren’t perfect. It’s good for treating high blood sugar levels and high blood pressure, but it’s not effective for autoimmune diseases.
“We started using the paleolithic ketogenic diet, which combines the advantages of the paleo and the classic ketogenic diet while overcoming the shortfalls of both diets, resulting in a very effective diet.
“The classical ketogenic diet has several components that are ‘forbidden’ in the paleo diet: vegetable/plant oil, seed flour, sweetener and dairy products. It is because of the exclusion of such foods is that the paleolithic ketogenic diet is much more effective than the classical ketogenic diet.”
So far, their research with new-onset type 1 diabetes patients has shown the paleo keto diet to be groundbreaking in its efficacy. The diet can even be used to prevent the onset of diabetes complications in patients with type 1 diabetes who already have exhausted beta cells.
“We don’t know of any cases where a patient didn’t have positive results with this diet,” Tóth said. “Ketosis develops within a few days so the first results are seen very early. The first advantage is the amount of energy – we can get up to three times more energy from the paleo keto diet. Furthermore the symptoms of illnesses, like high blood pressure and high blood glucose can simply vanish after a few days.”
The diet could benefit everyone
Tóth is adamant that everyone would benefit from the paleo keto diet, including people with type 2 diabetes. Because the diet restores normal functioning of the body, it doesn’t matter how long a patient has had type 2 diabetes or what their blood sugar levels are – the diet can normalise blood glucose levels and insulin resistance.
Moreover, there is no reason that the diet cannot be continued long term. Inuits and Eskimos have been eating a paleo keto diet for a long time due to their lifestyle, culture and lack of access to processed foods at supermarkets, with research showing no health complications from eating this diet, only benefits. Tóth argues that thei Inuits’ lower life expectancy is due to having no healthcare access and high infant mortality.
The diet can lead to some initial side effects, but Tóth explains that these appear to be short-term.
“In my experience, ketosis appears after a few days of the diet. This can lead to side effects such as headache and diarrhoea because of the sudden high protein intake,” said Tóth. “These disappear after a few days then the body gets entirely accustomed to this type of diet. There are no [long-term] side effects. We check our patients regularly, but we’ve yet to see any side effects.”
While the diet could benefit everyone, it is essential to ensure you consult your doctor before embarking on a paleo keto diet to make sure it is carried out safely.
Tóth acknowledges that motivation is needed to stick to the paleo keto diet – as with all diets – but he doesn’t believe that it is a restrictive diet, just a very healthy one.
“In a carbohydrate-based diet blood sugar levels are the main influence of our hunger, but in the paleolithic ketogenic diet energy levels are the influence.”
However, given the reduced frequency in which food is consumed, it can require perseverance to stick to in the early stages as the body adapts to having a decreased food requirement.
“It’s recommended to eat twice a day as the general need for food decreases,” said Tóth. “Our bodies produce energy from the fat, and during this process water is produced. The same goes for water intake – you need less water with the paleo keto diet than with a high-carb diet. Eating offal, such as bone marrow, liver and kidney, is essential to maintain healthy vitamin levels.”
Tóth maintains that once the diet is fully adhered to, the benefits are extensive.
“If a child is suffering with advanced Crohn’s disease, for example, they won’t feel that the diet is restrictive but that they are getting better.
“We have to keep in mind that our biological and psychological needs have diverged from each other. It’s important to consider how much protein we eat. It’s not necessary for the human body to consume a lot of meat and protein; what’s important is the fat. We get our energy from fat. Without fat intake, this process can’t work to the fullest.
“In a carbohydrate-based diet blood sugar levels are the main influence of our hunger, but in the paleolithic ketogenic diet energy levels are the influence.”
‘We can’t deny scientific fact’
So what message does Tóth have for other healthcare professionals? Does he believe there is a future for the paleo keto diet within the clinical community?
He’s optimistic. He predicts that clinical consensus regarding the diet will change, especially as supplementary results emerge and diabetes patients continue to show health improvements.
“We can’t deny the paleolithic ketogenic diet and we can’t deny scientific fact. I’d tell other healthcare professionals to get experience with patients regarding this diet, and if the results are good then we have to support this diet. I think this will become more widespread in the near future.” |
After failing to even reach the NIT in 2011, not much was expected from coach John Groce in his first year as Illinois head coach. The word “rebuild” is often mentioned in any conversation regarding the Illini squad. Under the tutelage of Groce, seniors Brandon Paul and D.J. Richardson soared to new heights and led the team past a rebuild season and back into the NCAA tournament. Illinois reached the 3rd round of the NCAA tournament and came within five points of clinching their first Sweet 16 since 2005.
This season Illinois will be without the dynamic scoring duo of Paul and Richardson, who are 8th and 13th scoring all-time for the Illini, respectively. In addition to the losses of Paul and Richardson, big men Tyler Griffey and Sam McLaurin graduated, leaving the Illini with only four returning players. With a revamped roster of nine newcomers, rebuild is once again synonymous with Illinois basketball.
The lone senior on the roster, shooting guard Joseph Bertrand doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t think it’s a rebuilding year,” Bertrand said. “We lost a couple of guys but we got some new guys who are also talented. We’ve always been working hard to get the team going this year so I don’t think of it as a rebuilding year at all.”
Some of the skepticism surrounding the team revolves around their ability to sustain Groce’s three point heavy offense without Paul, Richardson and Griffey. Tracy Abrams made the most three pointers among the returning players with 31 three pointers made last season. The offense also leaned heavily on Paul’s creativity when no one else could score or at the end of close games. Despite concerns, what the team lacks in star power it makes up in depth.
Groce added top 100 recruit shooting guards Kendrick Nunn from Simeon Career Academy (ranked 61st on ESPN) and Malcolm Hill from Belleville East High School (ranked 66th). The Illini add three more recruits to the roster. Possibly the most important newcomers for Illinois came from the transfer market. After joining the team last season, Drake transfer junior Rayvonte Rice will be eligible to suit up for the Illini. Illinois also added power forward Jon Ekey, a graduate student transfer from Illinois State. With less core players, a bigger rotation may be in store.
“I always like to play 9 or 10,” Groce said. “Players play players, I don’t play them. They grade out, if they can earn minutes, they’re good enough to play and help us stay competitive and I can count on them to do what they’re supposed to do—I’d like to play that many guys.”
A bigger rotation allows Groce the flexibility to play faster and more aggressive. No matter how big Groce’s rotation becomes, Rice will be a huge part of it.
Groce called Rice “the poster child for strength and conditioning,” as he’s lost 36 pounds and cut his body fat percentage by 7% since joining the team. Rice impressed the coaching staff so much that he was named the team’s Most Improved Player last season without stepping on the court.
“I’ve been doing it now 19 going on 20 years as an assistant coach and head coach, and I don’t know if I’ve seen a guy who’s sitting out on a transfer make the number of strides that [Rayvonte Rice] did in the year that he was out,” Groce said.
Rice is only 6’4”, but Groce plans to play him anywhere from point guard to power forward. He’s a huge athlete that draws foul and finishes strong. He thinks his outside game isn’t too shabby either.
“Coach made us make 11,000 shots. So yeah, I think it’s improved a little bit,” Rice said.
After averaging 16.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in his sophomore season at Drake, Rice leading the team in points and rebounds isn’t out of question.
Rice along with other newcomers will join returning starters senior guard Joseph Bertrand, junior point guard Tracy Abrams, and junior center Nnanna Egwu.
Abrams, Rice and Bertrand should carry the brunt of the offense, implementing more of a dribble drive game than the outside game of last year’s team.
Abrams found success running the Illini offense in his sophomore season, showing improvements in both the passing and shooting department. His offensive game was still erratic and he had far too many turnovers, but his defense and intensity never wavered.
Bertrand is a smooth player with a unique skillset, incorporating a sweet in between game with a slick floater. Bertrand will need to improve his ball handling and be more aggressive this season, but he’s proved to be a violent finisher when he gets to the rim.
The projected starting lineup for Illinois is Abrams at point guard, Rice at shooting guard, Bertrand at small forward, Ekey at power forward, and Egwu at center. Groce said Illinois will utilize more small ball lineups to get a speed and athletic advantage on the opponents.
Despite the major changes, Egwu believes the team has already developed its chemistry.
“On the court it took a while trying to get used to our playing styles,” Egwu said. “I think we progressed over the summer we progressed in the fall, right now we’re really getting to the point where everyone knows what we’re gonna do. The ball moves around, chemistry is really growing so I think the basketball part of it took time but right now it’s really picking up.”
There is hardly anything left of the Illinois team that went 17-15 two seasons ago, but that doesn’t mean Illinois is safe from the possibility of another rebuild season.
Last season the Illini took a step in the right direction, but with a totally revamped team, Groce wants to push his team even further this year.
“Last year certainly I thought our team—as much as any team I’ve ever coached—reached or even went a bit higher than their potential,” Groce said. “But, we got high expectations and high aspirations here of what it means to be Illini basketball. We got a long way to go.” |
Hundreds of Occupy the Rose Parade protesters marched down Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena on Monday after the real event was over, lining up behind police squad cars, tow trucks and the last official float to carry their message of economic inequality.
The reaction from the crowd, which was dispersing, was mixed, with some boos, but most people watched quietly or with amusement.
A member of a small group called the Bible Believers, which marches every year at the end of the parade, yelled to the Occupiers: "You people are no more than communist revolutionaries who destroy our country."
PHOTOS: 2012 Rose Parade
When one Occupier started to respond, a member of the movement's "peacekeeping" team stopped him and said he would be better off marching than arguing. The team was formed by the protesters to prevent confrontations. |
You’ve probably heard that Dick Cheney agrees with Bill Clinton about letting people who are losing private insurance keep their old plans, as President Obama repeatedly seemed to promise they could. That’s not surprising: Cheney is a troll who maligns the president whenever he can, and piling on with Clinton is a special kind of fun. Yes, it’s outrageous that a man who has enjoyed many millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded medical care doesn’t give a damn about the uninsured in our society, but that’s Dick Cheney.
Still, I was a little startled to hear the former vice president express total indifference to questions about his heart donor in a revealing interview on Politicking with Larry King (it airs Thursday night; here's a clip). It’s a window into his utter entitlement and self-absorption, and he comes off as an even bigger monster than I’d thought. Most people would at least feign interest in the donor; Cheney can’t manage it.
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When King asks if he knows the identity of the person whose heart keeps him alive, Cheney, who is promoting a book about his transplant experience, says no, and adds, “it hadn’t been a priority for me.” Then he goes on:
When I came out from under the anesthetic after the transplant, I was euphoric. I'd had--I'd been given the gift of additional lives, additional years of life. For the family of the donor, they'd just been [through] some terrible tragedy, they'd lost a family member. Can't tell why, obviously, when you don't know the details, but the way I think of it from a psychological standpoint is that it’s my new heart, not someone else’s old heart. And I always thank the donor, generically thank donors for the gift that I’ve been given, but I don’t spend time wondering who had it, what they’d done, what kind of person.
“It’s my new heart, not someone else’s old heart.”
Consider the complete self-centeredness of that statement, and the utter lack of empathy. I shouldn’t be surprised at that -- war criminals and torture-promoters aren’t known for their empathy -- but I was. Cheney’s so absorbed in his great good luck that he can’t help sharing: “My cardiologist told me at one point, 'You know, Dick, the transplant is a spiritual experience, not just for the patient, but also for the team.'" What a generous guy, sharing that "spiritual experience" with his cardiology team! So: Cheney is happy to have a new heart, but doesn’t bother to “spend time wondering who had it, what they’d done, what kind of person.”
And his statement that it wasn’t a “priority” to learn about his heart donor revealingly echoes his explanation for getting five deferments from the Vietnam War: The notorious war hawk famously told the Washington Post: "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service." Now he has other priorities than learning about his heart donor.
It’s certainly not compulsory to find out about the person who died so that you could live – who gave what Cheney called “the gift of life itself.” There may be valid psychological reasons not to. I don’t judge that decision. But I can’t get over the coldness required to express complete indifference to knowing about that person, and their family’s suffering.
Or could it be compassion? For a lot of people, the tragedy of a family member dying would be compounded, not lessened, by learning that their heart went to Cheney. Nah, there’s neither compassion nor self-awareness in the way Cheney talks about receiving “the gift of life,” from American taxpayers or from his mystery heart donor. |
Adam Boulton, Editor at Large
This week's global excitement over the launch of the latest iPhone models confirms that the most famous product designer in the world is British.
Apple's chief of design was born in England, educated in London, Stafford and Newcastle and got his start at Tangerine, a design agency based in Hoxton in the capital's trendy East End.
Jony Ive, or Sir Jonathan Ive as he now is, has been a key player building Apple into what is now one of the biggest companies in the world. The Mac and 'i' consumer goods he has designed have changed the world we live in now and how it looks.
Yet, like so many home grown designs and designers, Ive found fame and fortune abroad - in America's Silicon Valley.
Belatedly, UK policy makers are waking up to this costly brain drain, and government, non-governmental agencies are launching initiatives to nurture British design.
One such scheme is the annual Spark Showcase which unveiled its 2017 winners last Tuesday at a gallery in Hoxton (where else?).
The show was an impressive display of young British talent but also a timely reminder of the hurdles they face making a living.
Spark has been running for the past three years.
The show was an impressive display of young British talent but also a timely reminder of the hurdles they face making a living.
The Design Council funds most of it courtesy of the tax payer. Design industry professionals volunteer help and Arthritis Research UK is a partner sponsor.
It is no bad thing for a disabled charity to be involved. If a design works for the physically impaired, the able bodied are likely to find it simple to use as demonstrated by many of the ten designs chosen for Spark 2017.
Wheelchair bound Fiona Jarvis has designed Drink, a universal glass and bottle holder, which got her up the ramp to collect her prize without spilling a drop.
Nubbit by Clair Boubli is a friendly and colourful palm-sized gizmo which holds to or stands up tablets and phones as work screens. No need now for smears on the screen or chunky cases.
Image: Nubbit. Pic: Spark
Workey is a pocket sized device providing leverage to help turn keys in locks. Useful for those with reduced dexterity or coming home after a long night out.
Supporters of Ocean Rescue, Sky's campaign against single use plastics, will want to grab a CamCup - a re-useable hot beverage cup made from recycled coffee grounds and eco-friendly glue.
For my friends in the cycling community, AirBreathe offers an innovative mask and Nick Rawcliffe of Detail has designed a folding helmet, which packs away to half its size with no compromise in protection provided.
This year's other designs are Fuzl's reusable flat-pack furniture, Cue Sense's smart glasses for the visually impaired, Phydroponics' deep water culture growth system and KikkaDigga which makes gardening easier.
Image: Workey. Pic: Spark
Spark puts its designers through an intensive 16-week course on how to develop and market their products, backed up with £15,000 each of funding.
Martin Darbyshire of the Design Council and Tangerine, the agency where Ive got his start, says the new designers now face two big challenges: turning their ideas into a viable business and protecting their IP - intellectual property rights - from being ripped off and developed by someone else.
There is big money to be made and it is certainly not all from high tech.
Darbyshire treasures a hairdresser's comb which Jony Ive streamlined for the market. Several million of them have since been sold, and the hairdresser who thought them up originally gets £7 a time.
If all this sounds like rather small beer - it is.
Helping 10 designers a year to get started is a worthy but modest effort by the UK.
Even the lucky bright Sparks still have a long way to go to make it like Ive. They need sponsors, partners and investors.
We'll all benefit if they manage to find them here at home.
Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Sky News editors and correspondents, published every morning.
Previously on Sky Views: Michelle Clifford - Time to end EU's travelling circus |
As a young American woman, I am in full support of Bernie Sanders – but I disagree with Jill Abramson’s reasoning as to why (Hillary Clinton’s trouble with young women, 25 January). This is the first election in which I will be able to vote. I live in Minneapolis, a city full of young people who are politically active and aware – recently visible in response to the shooting of unarmed Jamar Clark by police. I am a feminist. However, Clinton’s campaign does not give much support for intersectional feminism (equal rights for women of colour, LGBT women, disabled women, etc). Sanders did not start his campaign on the platform of feminism and racial equality, but he has responded to the countless voices calling out for it. Clinton’s campaign managers, and Guardian journalists, may believe that fun and excitement is what her campaign lacks, but this is discrediting the intelligence of 36% of primary voters. Bernie Sanders is not a particularly exciting orator, it is his words that are causing the frenzy of support. If Clinton would stop wasting time trying to joke her way into the hearts of the millennial generation, maybe she would have time to actually address the issues important to us.
Jo Irvin
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
• Join the debate – email [email protected] |
Super Mario Bros. is one of video game history's greatest treasures. Its massive world full of colorful characters and hidden secrets informed the design of just about every action-adventure game that came after it. It spawned numerous sequels, television shows, comic books, merchandising, and even a feature film.
And at over 40 million copies sold worldwide (not counting the various ports and reimaginings over the last couple decades), this is arguably the game that brought business back to an American home video game industry that had plummeted to next to nothing in the early '80s, the victim of an oversaturated market that left stores full of excess inventory that was practically given away.
And yet, we don't know exactly when the game came out. In fact, talk to enough people and you'll come to find out that we can't even agree on the year the game came out, at least in the United States (in Japan, we know exactly when it shipped: September 13, 1985).
This isn't Amelia Earhart or the Bermuda Triangle we're talking about here: this is one of the highest grossing consumer entertainment products in history, introduced less than 30 years ago, and we can't seem to get the date right.
I decided recently to try to set this right. I wanted to prove, once and for all, exactly when Super Mario Bros. invaded North America. I wanted to put this whole embarrassing mess behind us so that the history books of the future could be properly informed, and so that places like Wikipedia would have a definitive source to cite.
Did I find the answer? Well, sort of. Read on to see just how difficult this search turned out to be.
First, A History Lesson
Back in 1985, Nintendo of America was a pretty small venture, dealing primarily in arcade game distribution (if anyone in the U.S. knew the name, they associated it with Donkey Kong), the licensing of its properties to other companies, and its handheld Game & Watch LCD games. So when it showed off a prototype of what would become the Nintendo Entertainment System at the Winter Consumer Electronics Show that January, buyers scoffed.
The system was huge in its native Japan, where it was known as the Family Computer -- it pushed 2.5 million units in 1984 alone, along with 15 million game cartridges. But American retail buyers, still burned by the video game industry crash of 1983, didn't care. Video games were dead and buried; they were toy store poison. People were fired over bum video game deals that resulted in shelves being crammed with five dollar clearance titles, and no matter how great these new Nintendo games may have looked, no one was about to take that risk again.
Nintendo of America's strength was in recognizing that there was still a market to be claimed. It wasn't as if the crash caused kids to stop buying games -- in fact, 1983 was a record year for cartridge sales, and quarters were still piling up in arcade machines around the country, too. The problem was that the home games paled in comparison to those in the arcade.
The NES, meanwhile, actually offered something resembling the arcade experience at home, or at least a reasonable facsimile. In the case of many of Nintendo's own games, the hardware was literally the same as what was powering their arcade counterparts, meaning they were truly arcade-perfect. A common theme in talking to Nintendo employees of the time is that if players just got their hands on the system, they'd be sold.
"We had a pretty strong belief that if we could get the consumer to try the product or experience the product, they would believe it was a new form of entertainment that they wanted to participate in," Gail Tilden, who was in charge of the company's PR and marketing at the time, once told me.
So instead of waiting for buyers to warm up to the idea, Nintendo risked everything by offering stores an unbelievably sweet deal: rather than being stuck with unsold inventory, Nintendo would buy back any unsold merchandise. They would even come in and set up the displays and demonstrate the games. All a store would have to sacrifice would be shelf space.
This all culminated in a test market launch limited to the areas surrounding New York City lasting from October of 1985 through Christmas Eve. A sort of "SWAT team" of Nintendo employees worked out of a rundown rented warehouse in Hackensack, New Jersey, delivering inventory and decorations by hand, setting up and tearing down displays, and showing off the games to any shoppers who would listen. Even company president Minoru Arakawa himself could occasionally be seen running a TV set up a flight of stairs.
"He was just one of the guys," Howard Phillips, who worked for Nintendo at the time, told me. "He'd go out there and do a lot of this stuff with us. He wouldn't necessarily run all the TVs up, but he might run one up, just to see what it was like. He was that kind of guy."
The test market wasn't a complete sellout, but it was encouraging enough to eventually go national. At first the system was bundled with two titles, Duck Hunt and Gyromite, meant to show off its Zapper light gun and R.O.B. the Robot accessories (marketing the system as something more like a toy than a game console like Atari's products was probably an easier sell for shops).
By the end of 1986, with the system available nationwide, Nintendo started offering an optional system bundle that included Super Mario Bros. in the box. As the story goes, the move sparked a surge in sales that revived the home video game industry and put an NES in nearly one in five American homes. But was the game available before this? |
With Jurassic World premiering in just three weeks, talk of dinosaurs has been all of the Internet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read speculation articles or watched new trailers moments after their release.
An added bonus is that it comes out on my birthday—a nice little present for me from the kind folks at Universal.
But in all of this excitement for genetically modified dinosaurs, I think their real-life fossilized counterparts are feeling a little left out. Why can’t actual dinosaurs get some love too?
Sometimes, there are problems with using fossils
I think some of the issue lies in the fact that a lot of the current dinosaur skeletons aren’t complete. The complete information is extrapolated from just a few real bones (35 in the case of the Hadrosaurus), so displays aren’t always impressive. The missing bones are often filled in with plaster approximations, but this can get pretty expensive for the museums.
There can be irreversible damage
Another problem is that mounting real fossils causes irreversible damage to the bones. The mounting hardware must be anchored directly into the bones, which is obviously problematic for preservation. Mounting the bones causes another problem, too, because it puts the bones in a difficult to reach place if scientists want to research them some more. And if scientists realize that the skeleton is put together incorrectly, repositioning the bones can cause even more damage.
Waiting on fossils takes a long time
If museums have to wait for scientists to finish studying the bones, then the public has to wait too. That means the information available to us regular people is old—and at least not the most up to date. Fossils, like this T rex, can be tied up for years before making it out to the eyes of the curious—and what better way to inspire adoration for dinosaurs than with “fresh” bones in new exhibits?
Fossils just can’t show how impressive these dinosaurs were
One final hindrance is that skeletons aren’t whole dinosaurs. Even if all fossils contained all the bones required for a whole dinosaur, we still wouldn’t have muscles or skin to really understand the massiveness of most dinos. Sure, sometimes you can see model dinosaurs in museums, maybe even animatronic ones, but those are expensive too.
Thankfully, 3D printing can help
Fortunately, 3D printing can help with all of these problems. This technology is rapidly improving while growing cheaper, and it has vast possibilities for improving museum displays and sparking scientific curiosity in the lucky kids who get to visit science museums.
Instead of using plaster models to complete dinosaur skeletons, scientists can create 3D printed plastic bones. They can scan similar bones and create realistic models without spending a lot of time or money. These plastic bones can be made hollow, which plaster bones can’t be, which makes them lighter and easier to mount.
So even though the skeletons still aren’t complete, 3D printing makes it easier and cheaper to complete them in a more accurate way.
Plastic bones are lighter and more durable
Because these plastic bones are lighter and easier to mount, museum can basically do whatever they want with them. They’re not as fragile as plaster bones and definitely not as fragile as the real fossils, so they’re much safer to handle. And if a scientist realizes something with the bones is wrong, it’s much easier to replace, remove, or reposition the plastic replicas.
Plastic bones can be displayed much more quickly
When fossils are first discovered, they can’t be put on display in a museum right away—they have to be studied first. But scanning newly discovered fossils takes a very short amount of time and can be done immediately even in the field, as was the case at Cerro Ballena in Chile. When construction workers uncovered fossilized whale bones, the Smithsonian Institution went and scanned all of the bones before they were relocated to Chilean museums.
Now, the Smithsonian has 3D models of the bones that they can print and display in their museum, but they also have the ability to continue studying the bones even without access to the originals. Chile gets to keep and display its fossils, research at the Smithsonian can continue, and visitors still get to see and learn about the new discovery.
Scientists can print entire dinosaurs!
Another amazing thing you can do with 3D printing is print life-size dinosaur statues. Deep in the Heart Art Foundry in Texas is working with the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum to create 3D printed dinosaurs to scale. Although they’re not making huge T-rexes yet, the twelve finished statues will be between three and eighteen feet long. After the 3D printing is complete and the statues are assembled, they’ll be cast in bronze and displayed in the museum.
Museums could also do a similar thing to sell little models of fossils in their gift shops. A visitor wants one particular fossil? It can be ordered right there and be ready when the visitor leaves!
3D scanning and printing technology is growing fast
But what technologies are necessary for 3D printing dinosaurs to make sense? Obviously 3D printers that can handle the level of detail necessary for the dinosaurs and dinosaur fossils to look realistic.
As far as I can tell, the most popular method for 3D printing dinosaurs is FDM (fused deposition modeling), which is the way that most popular at-home printers work. These printers are a little cheaper and can make strong but light dinosaur statues and bones.
These scientists also need high quality scanners to transform fossils into 3D files that can be printed. Desktop scanners, like the one by Next Engine used to scan the skeleton of a 130,000 pound Dreadnoughtus, enable scientists to digitally render their fossils for printing or sharing.
I think this last aspect, the sharing, is the best thing that can come from 3D printing dinosaur bones. With the ability to email dinosaurs across countries and oceans, more museums can create their own fossils and expand their collections, which means more kids can be inspired by them.
So now what?
Where do you think this technology is going? Do you think we’ll see the rise of 3D printed animatronic dinosaurs? Or maybe Jurassic World will come true with some bioprinting of dinosaur eggs or even little baby dinosaurs |
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As a Certified ScrumMaster(CSM), you’ll help the Scrum Team perform at their highest level. CSMs also protect the team from both internal and external distractions. Through the certification process, you will learn the Scrum framework and gain an understanding of team roles, events, and artifacts In addition to fulfilling the role of Scrum Master, your CSM certification gives you an initial two-year membership with Scrum Alliance. Join local user groups and online social networks, gain access to deep discounts on Gatherings, and more. |
The Dallas City Council and local Police Chief are pondering the cultivation of a much-needed pilot program – similar to the cite and release program scheduled to roll out in the Houston area on January 1, 2016 – Dallas police would instead issue citations to individuals busted with a small amount of cannabis.
Currently in the soaked and saturated state of Texas, getting caught in possession of 2 ounces or less of marijuana is punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a fine of $2000. Despite these overtly severe penalties, Police Chief David Brown claims to be conflicted over the idea of giving his police force the green light to write tickets in lieu of throwing people in jail, simply for getting caught with their personal stash.
Conflicted but not dumb, Chief Brown said Tuesday, the new program is “just so damn practical.”
Firing up the topic for debate at the Tuesday night meeting of the Dallas City Council’s Public Safety Committee, police officials and council members deliberated the virtues of a “cite and release” pilot program.
Fortunately for those recreational pot smokers residing in the Dallas area, the city council’s committee voted in favor of referring the cite and release program to the full council – minus any type of recommendation.
Texas passed a law in 2007 that allows the various police departments located around the state to issue marijuana citations, rather than incarcerating someone for the simple possession of minor amounts of marijuana. Keeping its citizens productive and free, this new policy would provide more jail space for real offenders and would allow the police to spend more time patrolling the streets.
Unfortunately for all, according to online reports this new policy would “not change the crime’s penalty.”
Spurred on by its depleted staff, the cite and release topic was sparked by a police presentation regarding struggles with 911 call response times; Chief Brown noted his police force is under-staffed and its officers overworked.
Hoping to refocus the police on higher priority crimes, Council member Philip Kingston said utilizing a cite and release program is a “no brainer.” One that could help improve 911 response times.
Comparing marijuana possession to jaywalking, Kingston noted he’d legalize marijuana in a heartbeat…if it were up to him.
Per the proposed pilot program, those individuals caught with marijuana would be given a summons to appear in court on a specific date. Provided they fail to appear before the judge on the designated date, a court ordered arrest warrant would then be issued.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRTNqcWJnF0] |
Shirin Ebadi Prepares for the End
To listen to Shirin Ebadi’s story is to grasp how dramatically Iran has changed in recent months. The Nobel laureate has not been back to Iran since the country’s disputed June election. In November, authorities confiscated her Nobel Peace Prize medal from a bank safe-deposit box. After Christmas they arrested her sister in Tehran. Her husband, who is still there, had his passport taken away. Authorities then returned it, only for him to discover that the returned passport was a forgery. I recently had the chance to speak with Ebadi in depth about developments in her country. Now, Iran’s most famous dissident tells me she has no doubt that she would be arrested if she returned home.
Last summer the thousands of protesters who poured into Teheran’s streets were chanting, "Give us our vote back." But it’s no longer just about a fraudulent election. Today crowds in various locations across the country shout "Death to the supreme leader," and reform clerics who had previously insisted that the system remain untouchable now call for free elections, free media, and freedom of speech and assembly.
Ebadi seems to be traveling a similar route. The 62-year-old human rights lawyer had denounced the Bush administration’s democracy-promotion efforts. She sought reform of the system, not its demise, she would say. She deplored the "axis of evil" rhetoric and consistently attacked the Bush State Department’s initiative to funnel $75 million to oppositionists and civil society groups. She hasn’t changed her mind on this point. Ebadi told me she continues to believe that outside aid for the democracy movement is a mistake. But it’s hard not to notice, as the situation in Iran has changed, that Ebadi’s views are evolving.
In our conversation, she emphasized repeatedly, "You cannot do business with the regime." She is convinced that Iran’s leadership is not negotiating in good faith on the nuclear issue and would not abide by any agreement reached with the United States and the European Union.
Ebadi once outspokenly supported U.S.-Iranian talks without preconditions. She still supports dialogue. But she wants that dialogue to involve human rights and a strategy to support civil society and the rule of law. She thinks that only an Iranian government that respects human rights and rules by consent can be a proper, credible partner for the West to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.
How to get there? If the United States pursues sanctions, Ebadi says, Radio Farda (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Persian station), along with the Voice of America and the BBC, must help convince ordinary Iranians that sanctions are aimed at the regime, not the people. Like many Iranians, Ebadi is concerned about the passions nationalism can arouse. She’s worried that past mistakes of U.S. foreign policy — she has her axes to grind — and a local penchant for conspiracy theories can make for a potent, toxic brew. She insists at the same time, though, that Iranians will endure considerable hardship if they think the endgame is greater respect for human rights.
Ebadi is hopeful about U.S. policy, primarily because she’s a great admirer of President Barack Obama. She has defended his Nobel Peace Prize in interviews and told me she thinks he deserves the award for his sincerity and commitment to humane, liberal values. She applauds the president’s efforts at health-care reform in the United States. Her effusive praise for Obama, however, sits side by side with her awkward acknowledgment that democracy and human rights are not yet an administration priority.
I asked Ebadi whether she would consider a future in politics. She insisted she has always excluded the possibility. I reminded her that Czech playwright and dissident Vaclav Havel had done the same thing — until he became president of a free Czechoslovakia in 1989. Ebadi still steadfastly rejects such notions for herself, but knows that the question of leadership is a sore spot for the Iranian opposition. No single figure has yet emerged who can galvanize the entire country and unite the disparate groupings that make up the opposition. In truth, a female secularist is unlikely to provide such leadership. That the regime fears Ebadi’s influence, however, is abundantly clear.
Her sister, Noushin Ebadi, was taken from her apartment the evening of Dec. 28 by four security officers. Since then she has been allowed just a one-minute phone call to her husband. Noushin, a medical lecturer at Azad University in Tehran, has never been involved in political or human rights work. In that brief call to her husband, Noushin made clear that the authorities want Ebadi to cease her activity. "My sister is not a political prisoner," Ebadi tells me. "She’s a hostage."
In six months, the opposition has become wider and deeper. Ebadi says it’s nonsense to think this was ever merely about a small group of educated elites in northern Tehran. The democracy movement in other cities is active and growing, she says. By all accounts, fissures are beginning to emerge in the ruling class. There are signs that the secular and religious opposition have begun to cooperate. If this continues, it would be a dramatic development.
It’s still possible that the government will reach a compromise with the protest movement and succeed in co-opting key members of the opposition. But with each week bringing new violence and fresh reports of arrests, beatings, and rapes, this scenario seems increasingly unlikely. In one sign of the regime’s growing desperation, Iranian state television recently aired a documentary about the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young Iranian woman shot to death during protests in Tehran last summer. YouTube images of her death shocked millions around the world. The documentary suggested that Agha-Soltan cooperated with foreign agents and might have staged her own death. This is certain to cause fresh outrage.
Show trials, documentaries vilifying young Agha-Soltan: One ominous sign after another leads Ebadi to concede that the country is headed for a deep freeze and might come to resemble a military dictatorship like Burma. But that’s short-term. "This regime is finished," she says passionately — unless it changes course soon, and dramatically.
If the men who rule Iran are indeed at the end of their bloody reign, the United States and its allies have a lot to think about. Listening to Shirin Ebadi would mark a good start. |
When the Denver Nuggets traded longtime center/power forward Nene Hilario for Washington Wizards tantalizing yet frustratingly disappointing center JaVale McGee in February of 2012 ... the bar for "expectations" was set. The assumption that the Nuggets good developmental core, along with veteran coach George Karl could mold the athletically talented McGee into something of a force in the NBA.
This hope was teased by McGee's one and a half game performance (half of game 3 and most game 5) against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2012 Playoffs first round. The Nuggets played valiantly that series but ultimately lost in 7 games. This lead to the Nuggets giving McGee a 4 year $44 million contract in the offseason of 2012-13.
We are still waiting. While there are some built-in excuses (Karl choosing to bring McGee off the bench in 2012-13, fractured tibia that caused him to miss all but 4 games last season) but in the sample size we have seen we are left routinely frustrated at the lack of true development from McGee. Most of all, however, we all want to see one thing and one thing only from the athletic big man.
Seriousness.
When players take the next step, it is always accompanied by a fierceness and dedication to improving their game, becoming more aware and having the game slow down and come to them. These are all parts of Basketball IQ that are essential to anyone who wants to make it big in the Association. More than that though, the fortunes of those who take their game seriously are intrinsically linked to fortunes of the team. If a player is growing his game, the team grows with him.
We just don't know if JaVale McGee is going to take that step. It's frustrating to watch because you KNOW the athletic talent is there. Everyone does. The lack of putting two and two together is what halts McGee in a state of arrested development. Forget the athleticism, the blocks, the dunks ... the seriousness and avid dedication to your craft needs to be there.
In a strange way, from the Nuggets perspective, the pressure on the team for McGee to become the player they want him to be isn't as acute as it was say after he signed his new contract. With the emergence of Timofey Mozgov, and the drafting of Jusuf Nurkic the Nuggets don't have their eggs all in one basket ... so to speak. The pressure is on McGee to become the player he should be.
No one faults McGee for being enigmatic and quirky. It's wonderful that he has a side to his personality that is eccentric. Yet so far, entering in to his 8th season in the NBA, we have yet to see the promise that he has shown glimpses of so tantalizingly over the years. For every grand performance against Tim Duncan (twice in the 2012-13 regular season) there's been many more ineffectual games punctuated by moments of head shaking hilarity (not in a good way).
The games against Duncan were the best and most within himself I've ever seen McGee play. He let the game come to him and just concentrated on his positioning, verticality and most importantly didn't try to force things on the offensive end. These are the things the Nuggets will most likely ask him to do this upcoming season. The key is for McGee to be open to this and not feel the need to force things that aren't there.
That, however, will take seriousness that he has yet to consistently display. If JaVale McGee can bridge the gap between his obvious physical talent, and the mental part of the game ... the Nuggets will reap the benefits this season. We need more seriousness...
... we DON'T need more of this. Forget about the developmental duties of Brian Shaw, and just know that whatever steps McGee will take will be because he takes those steps upon himself. No one else. |
Ask me to show you a sustainable house made of fabric, and I'll show you a tent -- or a yurt. Here where I live in Southern California, "green" homes come in three flavors: concrete, reclaimed wood and corrugated steel. (Or a combination of all three, with a generous amount of glass to maximize natural light and bring the outdoors in.)
The design phase is now complete, and the team will soon begin constructing an 800-square-foot solar-powered home with an enclosure made entirely of textiles.
Aptly dubbed TechStyle Haus, the amorphously elegant structure will also perform to the Passive House standard, using 90 percent less energy for heating and cooling than a traditional home -- no more than the amount used to run a hair dryer.
Image credit: Michael Clouse
The international Solar Decathlon competition, which, like the stateside version, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, challenges students to build energy-efficient and innovative solar-powered homes. Not all teams attempt the Passive House designation, however. One made of fabric? That will be a Solar Decathlon first.
"Many teams have made passive houses in the past ... [but] they're usually dense blocks with super thick walls and small windows," says Brown student Gareth Rose, one of 50 core team members who will be taking TechStyle Haus from design to reality over the next several months. "We're aiming for a more natural aesthetic that still meets this demanding energy standard."
Flexible and lightweight enough to be shipped efficiently from Providence, R.I. to France, where the competition will be held at the Palace of Versailles from June 27 to July 14 (book your tickets!), TechStyle Haus will also have to be strong enough to weather a stiff wind, as well as airtight enough to protect its inhabitants from an in-house rain shower -- two concerns that came to mind when I first heard about the project.
As I soon learned, the team won't be working with mere canvas. The home's exterior, supported by five structural steel ribs, will be built with a Teflon-coated woven fiberglass called Sheerfill that is commonly used in commercial structures like stadiums and airports. (Saint-Gobain, the building materials manufacturer donating the high-tech textiles for the enclosure as well as the home's ultra-energy-efficient windows, originally supplied the glass for Versailles' legendary Hall of Mirrors almost 350 years ago.) "It's extremely durable," says RISD graduate student and TechStyle Haus project manager Sina Almassi. "We tried ripping it, but unless it's perforated with a knife, it's impossible."
All Solar Decathlon homes are completely solar powered, but TechStyle Haus' photovoltaic array will be flexible, embedded in the fiberglass -- another first for a residential structure. The fabric interior (a decorative knit that will lend color to the house) will be reconfigurable, in order to accommodate different functions in the home, such as a cocktail party or extra house guests.
No sudden storms are anticipated to disrupt house parties anytime soon: twelve inches of fiberglass insulation and construction membranes underneath the exterior fabric -- pulled together in a web-like configuration the team invented using off-the-shelf ratchet straps -- will create an "envelope" to reduce air leakage and seal out moisture.
As for confronting stiff winds, tests have shown that tensile structures built with Sheerfill can last more than 25 years, withholding their shape even after seasons of high gusts and heavy snow. (See Cincinnati's Paul Brown Stadium, which certainly sees its share of both.) There was initially some concern that TechStyle Haus might blow away like a kite, but the anchoring system has since been resolved.
With the innovative TechStyle team expecting to raise over $700,000 in cash, building materials and consulting expertise by June (including $100,000 already secured from Saint-Gobain), the team will likely be able to confront any additional design challenges. But according to RISD graduate student Jason Askew, the true test may not be monetary. "The real difficulty is getting people to believe in textiles as a viable option. Since what we are doing really hasn't been done before, half of the battle is convincing people it works!" |
Teams: Wizards at Nets
Time: 4:00 p.m. ET
Venue: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York
Television: CSN
Radio: WNEW-FM 99.1
Spread: Wizards fav’d by 2.5 points
Washington spent Christmas in much better spirits than Thanksgiving. Leading into the December 25th holiday, the Wizards scrapped out a 100-91 win over Memphis for their third straight victory. Last month, on Turkey Day Eve, in Charlotte, Washington collapsed in historic fashion.
But this team now has legitimate reasons to be in a good mood. When they beat the Kings in D.C. on December 21st, it was the first time in over a month that they had won two contests in a row. Horrific perimeter defense, particularly at the 3-point line, has finally showed signs of improvement. During the current three-game winning streak, Washington has limited opponents to 27 percent shooting from the arc (20-for-72). John Wall has averaged 15 assists per game over this stretch, and Garrett Temple has provided an unexpected offensive spark, tallying up at least 20 points in each triumph. Marcin Gortat has been a double-double machine, rookie Kelly Oubre continues to show that he belongs, and Jared Dudley is currently leading the entire NBA in 3-point shoot at 48.7 percent. In the Eastern Conference, the Wizards are only two games in the loss column behind the second place Atlanta Hawks.
Brooklyn has recently displayed a few positive signs in a road win at Chicago and a close overtime loss to Dallas, but the 8-21 Nets have mostly been stuck in a rut all season. They have lost six of their last seven games. So for all the troubling issues surrounding the Wizards, it is nothing compared to the despair of the Brooklyn franchise. After a recent home loss to Minnesota, their situation was summarized quite well by the blog, The Brooklyn Game:
It’s easy to see what the Timberwolves are made of. They have young cornerstones in Towns, Wiggins, and Rubio; athletic counterparts in Dieng and Zach LaVine, veterans like Kevin Garnett, Miller, and Martin. There is a culture and continuity that’s been built, where even losses are learning experiences. There’s a vision and an end goal.
For the Nets, there’s little continuity and clarity. They have Lopez and Young, a few young castoffs, two injured rookies, some expiring players, and 20 losses in 27 games.
It only gets worse in the offseason, when Brooklyn’s draft pick — almost assuredly a high lottery pick — goes to the Boston Celtics. They don’t control a first-round draft pick until 2019, and a second-round pick until 2021. Their best hope is to get lucky in free agency, luring a big-name player with cap room that 25 other teams will have.
For now, they’re not building a fortune. They’re running out the clock, hoping to strike gold after sending away most of their shovels and metal detectors.
Two weeks ago, when Golden State outlasted Boston in double overtime, I tweeted this thought:
Warriors are 24-0 while I just want #Wizards to be .500 — Adam McGinnis (@adammcginnis) December 12, 2015
The same still applies, as Golden State is now 28-1 and Washington is 13-14. The Wizards’ 2013-14 season was defined by a constant struggle to inch over the .500 mark. On Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn, they have a good chance to even up their record and keep the momentum alive into the new year.
Merry Xmas Vines. |
Kevin Hassett, chairman of President Donald Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, visited The Heritage Foundation moments after House Republicans released their tax reform plan Thursday. The Daily Signal’s Rob Bluey spoke to Hassett about his role in the White House and initial reaction to the GOP proposal. This is an edited transcript of the interview.
Bluey: Can you tell us what the Council of Economic Advisers is and the advice that you provide to President Trump?
Hassett: If you look at the Council of Economic Advisers’ founding in 1946 and the Employment Act, it was basically established because Congress decided that the Great Depression was perhaps prolonged by the lack of sound economic analysis in the White House. In order to entrench the role of free-market minded economists in the White House, they constructed the Council of Economic Advisers.
Our job is to be in the White House and to advise the president with objective analysis based on the latest scientific evidence. We are a staff of about 35 economists and assistants. We answer questions like, “What happens when we do this or when we do that?” We base those answers on the latest learning and latest science.
Bluey: Let’s talk about the House Republican tax plan. Some of the highlights coming out this morning. You previously have done some work on the tax reform framework. What are your initial thoughts?
Hassett: There is a heck of a lot to like in the House plan that President Trump made clear that he has three main non-negotiable objectives for this tax bill. There needs to be a big tax cut for the middle class. There needs to be a corporate tax rate that goes down to 20 percent and makes our country competitive again. And it needs to be a lot simpler, so that we don’t have a situation where almost every American doesn’t have to hire someone to do their taxes for them. We want simplification.
There needs to be a big tax cut for the middle class.
The House bill very well accomplishes some of those objectives. The president is also very respectful of American history and of the political process that our Founding Fathers designed. This bill is going through regular order, which means you don’t have to vote for it before you see it or anything like that. The committees are putting together bills that they have negotiated amongst themselves. They have to put it through the floor. Everybody has time to see it before they vote on it on the floor. The Senate is going to do the same and then they will work out their differences.
The president thinks that restoring regular order, the kind that is supposed to exist in our democracy, is a crucial part of getting this thing done. Because then everyone on the Hill will have a chance to influence this thing or that thing and all get on board and comfortable with that decision.
Bluey: That’s right and while we’re seeing some of the details today, you’ve been engaged in conversations with the Big Six, as they’re known, and other members of Congress. One of the things that the Council of Economic Advisers has done is produce reports that have highlighted the significant benefits to the American worker. You’ve looked at the corporate tax rate cut, for instance. Can you tell us what that would actually mean for the American worker?
Hassett: We’ve put out two studies using four different methods to estimate the impact on the typical American household using the proposal of the 20 percent corporate rate cut. We have not yet analysed the individual side, the big middle-class tax cut, which will also be a big positive in the end I’m sure when we look at it.
On the corporate side, we estimate that the typical family will see a $4,000 pay raise because of the tax bill. The pay raise is not weird mystical magic at all. It’s just hard science.
[W]e estimate that the typical family will see a $4,000 pay raise.
Right now, we have the highest corporate tax of the developed world. Businesses tend to want to locate their plants in other countries because if you make money in Ireland, you pay 12 percent tax. If you make money in the U.S., you pay almost 40 percent when you count state and local taxes. By going down to 20 percent and changing some of the rules, this plan will make it so that businesses will want to locate their activity here. When they do that, that will increase the demand for workers here and drive up wages here.
There is this big literature that looks at how other countries have fared when they’ve done a similar thing. That literature has a wide range of estimates, but really on the conservative end, I think that literature suggested that families will see the $4,000 pay raise when this bill becomes law.
Bluey: At the same time you’re putting out those reports, though, Senate Democrats have been pounding away saying this is going to be a tax hike on the middle class. I want to hold up a story today from The Washington Post fact-checker that is headlined “Senate Democrats falsely claim GOP tax plan will raise taxes for most working-class families.” This fact-checker, Glenn Kessler, gave four Pinocchios, which is, I believe, the highest number of Pinocchios The Washington Post will hand out.
Hassett: Yeah, there are a lot of [Pinocchios] there.
Bluey: You gave a speech in October to the Tax Policy Center, the organization from which the Democrats were deriving some of their numbers. You were critical of the analysis the Tax Policy Center had done. Can you explain why they were premature in putting out their analysis?
Hassett: The fact is that the Tax Policy Center is a bunch of skilled economists who are very good at taking a set of assumptions and telling you what that set of assumptions means for how much people pay in taxes and so on—so long as you ignore the growth effects on the economy. Ignoring growth effects, they’re very good at taking assumptions and mapping them to taxes.
President [Emmanuel] Macron of France ran on the idea that they should cut the French corporate rate to 25 percent.
The problem is that we specifically set out a process where a lot of the assumptions were going to be determined by regular order. The whole point was that different people have different ideas about the trade-off between equity and efficiency. Maybe you want the 12 percent bracket to end at $40,000 and maybe I want it to end way above that, and then we argue about that in committee and then we write a bill, and then we all vote on it. That’s the process we all agreed to.
What the Tax Policy Center did is fast forward to the end, made assumptions of what the output of the process would be, and those assumptions weren’t really friendly to the supporters of the bill. When I called them on that, it really was just about jumping ahead. I don’t think I would expect them to give a wrong answer if they had the right assumptions, but it seems kind of inappropriate to make up assumptions that were harmful to the advocates of the bill at that early stage of the process. That’s what I criticized them for.
If The Washington Post, which usually isn’t friendly to Republicans who are adversarial toward Democrats, is giving four Pinocchios to people to cite that study, then that’s probably confirmation that I was on the right track.
Bluey: What’s the biggest misconception you want to correct about tax reform?
Hassett: The idea that there are these capitalists and these workers and that they’re at war with one another, and if you cut the tax on capitalists, then you’re giving money away, money to big business and the swamp and it won’t benefit workers and so on. That’s a very outdated view of the world.
I don’t think that workers view themselves as at war with capitalists the way that popular discourse suggests that they do.
Most workers like it when their employer does well. If you work for a company and they have a positive earning announcement, then that makes you feel good. You’re more likely to get a raise. Your job is more secure. I don’t think that workers view themselves as at war with capitalists the way that popular discourse suggests that they do. That’s because they understand the basic economics that every other country understands. If we are a friendly place for business and job creation then that’s good for people who want jobs. This is not that controversial of an idea.
In my speech at the Tax Policy Center, I reminded the people there that President [Emmanuel] Macron of France ran on the idea that they should cut the French corporate rate to 25 percent, 10 percentage points below ours. The French already started with a rate below ours. Syriza, which is the party that runs Greece, their party’s name translates roughly to the coalition of the far left or the radical left. The coalition of the radical left wants to have a lower corporate rate than we do.
It’s not because they’re tools of big business or that they’ve been bought off by the swamp, but rather because they understand the basic economics that I think too many people in America have been in denial about.
Bluey: Tax reform is an issue that we’ve seen President Trump highly engaged on. He gave a speech a couple of weeks ago to The Heritage Foundation. He tweets about it frequently. What has it been like working with him? Can you give us an inside scoop about why is this so important to him personally?
Hassett: President Trump has been a very successful businessman. He knows how to add up the bottom line and see if things make sense or not. He has great intuition on tax reform and how it will impact people’s lives.
The thing I’ve seen in the Oval Office with President Trump is a strikingly effective intuition about how this all works and how it all fits together.
When he has successful projects, he sees how those successful projects employ thousands and thousands of people. His profits have gone up, and then his workers wages have gone up. He understands these connections—that we need to be a friendly place of business in order to improve the lives of Americans.
The thing I’ve seen in the Oval Office with President Trump is a strikingly effective intuition about how this all works and how it all fits together. The thing also that I see, that’s certainly not something that I possess, is an ear for negotiation. The idea that he thought, well, let’s start with the most important things, the middle-class tax cut, the corporate rate to 20 percent, and simplification. And then make those non-negotiable from the very beginning. I’ve seen that those anchors that he has set have a big effect on the evolution of the bill. They are things that everyone concedes have to be part of the final bill.
Below is the full event video of Hassett’s conversation with Heritage tax policy expert Adam Michel. |
The US army has built a fake city designed to be used during combat training exercises.
The 300 acre 'town' includes a five story embassy, a bank, a school, an underground subway and train station, a mosque, a football stadium, and a helicopter landing zone.
Located in Virginia, the realistic subway station comes complete with subway carriages and the train station has real train carriages.
The subway carriages even carry the same logo as the carriages in Washington DC
There are also bridges and several other structures which can be transformed into different scenarios.
The $96 million is designed to meticulously "replicate complex operational environments and develop solutions".
The U.S. army's Army Asymmetric Warfare Group opened the training centre last month.
The unit was created in 2004 to help combat terrorism and reduce the vulnerabilities of the army to emerging threats.
Colonel John P. Petkosek, the commander of the group said of the new training city :
"This is the place where we can be creative, where we can come up with solutions for problems that we don't even know we have yet,"
"This is where we'll look at solutions for the future--material solutions and non-material solutions…anything from how you're going to operate in a subterranean environment to how you dismount a Humvee to avoid an IED strike.
"The things that we do here at this facility will have a direct and lasting impact on our entire army."
It has taken six years for the site to be developed, including two years of construction. |
The Rays have claimed right-hander Jumbo Diaz off waivers from the Reds, per MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon (on Twitter). Diaz had been designated for assignment late last week when the Reds claimed Christian Walker from the Braves. The Rays placed right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who will miss the 2017 season following Tommy John/flexor surgery, on the 60-day disabled list to create a spot on the roster.
The 33-year-old Diaz posted a seemingly palatable 3.14 earned run average in 43 innings out of the Cincinnati bullpen last season, but the hard-throwing righty also displayed some troubling trends. Diaz posted career-worst marks in K/9 (7.7), BB/9 (4.0), swinging-strike rate (10.4 percent) and average fastball velocity (95.9 mph). A .239 BABIP and a strand rate just north of 80 percent also contributed to that impressive 3.14 mark but prompted ERA alternatives like like xFIP (4.60) and SIERA (4.24) to forecast a more pessimistic outlook.
Diaz logged significantly better strikeout and walk rates in his only other two seasons in the Majors, however (2014-15). All told, he carries a 3.65 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, a 43.7 percent ground-ball rate and a heater that has averaged 96.9 miles per hour. Diaz is out of minor league options, so he’ll have to break camp with the Rays at the end of the month or once again be exposed to waivers before he can be sent to the minors. However, the Rays’ opportunity to see Diaz up close will be somewhat limited, as he’s currently pitching for the Dominican Republic in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. |
President Trump has entertained some high-profile visitors at his oceanside resort Mar-a-Lago.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dined and golfed there in February, when the two leaders hashed out strategy for how to respond to a missile launch by North Korea. And in April, Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to Mar-a-Lago for a two-day summit.
But little is known about who else the president has hosted at the lavish estate in Palm Beach, Fla., which he has called his winter White House, or at his other residences. The administration has turned down requests from government watchdog groups and others for the release of visitor records under the Freedom of Information Act.
That may soon change.
On Monday, a nonprofit watchdog called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, announced that the Department of Homeland Security agreed to turn over logs for Mar-a-Lago in a response to a lawsuit the group filed with the National Security Archive and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University . CREW plans to release the information publicly by Sept. 8.
“It’s important for the American people to know who has access to the president and his advisors and who is potentially influencing policy,” said Noah Bookbinder, the group’s executive director.
The three watchdog groups also sued for access to visitor records for the White House and for Trump Tower in New York, but it is unclear whether they will get them.
Homeland Security says it does not have such records for Trump Tower. And the White House announced in April that it would keep its logs secret, citing “grave national security risks” as well as “privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.”
Advocates for open government accuse Trump of reneging on his campaign promise to “drain the swamp” in Washington. But his administration is not alone in seeking to keep its meetings private.
The Obama White House turned down multiple requests to view its visitor logs before agreeing in 2009 to post most of the names online after it too was sued by CREW.
Why do watchdog groups want to see these logs?
Transparency advocates say the logs are an important tool for monitoring which individuals and organizations may be trying to influence White House policy.
“Most people can’t get a meeting with the president,” Bookbinder said. “Who the White House staff and the president are meeting with says a lot about what their priorities are. It may well influence their ultimate decisions, and that information is really helpful for understanding how policy is being made.”
The president’s use of a private club to carry out government business also raises potential ethical questions. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington would like to know whether Mar-a-Lago members, who it says are in effect paying customers of the president, may be getting access to him in ways that other people do not.
Are there legitimate reasons not to release them?
Government officials may want to keep some meetings private for national security or law enforcement reasons. They may also worry that some people won’t meet with them — or may provide less than candid advice — if they think their presence in the White House might become public knowledge.
But public policy experts argue that such concerns must be weighed against the public’s right to know how decisions are made. Who is the president taking advice from? Is he getting a balance of viewpoints on crucial policy issues? Are any groups exerting undue influence?
“Those are all very serious questions,” said Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University .
“Presidents and their advisors may feel they get better quality advice if they can protect the identities of people who would rather not be publicly disclosed, but I think as a matter of principle, it’s the right thing to do,” Rozell said. “We’re a democratic system based on the principal of accountability. And how can you hold leading officials accountable if we don’t know even who they are talking to and how they are developing policy ideas?”
How can you hold leading officials accountable if we don’t know even who they are talking to and how they are developing policy ideas? — Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University
President Trump, left, hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, for a two-day summit at his Mar-a-Lago resort in April. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)
How does Trump compare with his Republican and Democratic predecessors?
“There is an institutional pattern across both political parties,” Rozell said. “When they get to the White House, they might talk about openness and transparency, but increasingly they all begin to shut down access as much as possible and to protect sources of information.”
Trump’s relationship with the media may be more fraught than most. Under his watch, cameras have been banned from news conferences and prominent journalists barred from covering his events. But other administrations have also resisted disclosing information about their internal workings.
President Clinton, whose relationship with Monica Lewinsky lead to impeachment charges, didn’t want to provide records showing how many times she visited the White House in the months after her internship ended.
President George W. Bush resisted releasing records about the industry executives who advised an energy task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney .
President Obama, who campaigned on a promise to lead the most open administration in history, initially fought attempts by Congress and watchdog groups to obtain White House visitor records. But he relented to settle four lawsuits filed by CREW.
In December 2009, officials began posting records every three to four months with the names of those who had been at the White House, the dates and times of their visits, and the names of the people they had met. However, the administration did not provide information about who the visitors were or the reasons for their visits, which limited the utility of the lists.
“If somebody named Michael Jordan visited the White House, is it the basketball player or is it the lobbyist?” Rozell said. “It’s a fairly common name. There was no way to tell.”
The administration also left some names off the list, including personal guests of the Obama family and those who had come for “particularly sensitive meetings,” such as candidates for a Supreme Court nomination.
Still, millions of records were ultimately released. Groups such as CREW hoped that might serve as a precedent for future administrations.
So far, however, Homeland Security has agreed to disclose Secret Service records for visitors to Mar-a-Lago only through March 8, the period covered by CREW’s initial Freedom of Information Act request.
Records of White House visits remain under litigation.
Is this a political witch hunt?
Since Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington was founded in 2003, it has repeatedly been accused of being a left-wing “attack dog” masquerading as a nonpartisan watchdog.
The group was formed in part as a counterbalance to more conservative legal advocacy organizations such as Judicial Watch.
At the time, Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress, and CREW’s founders saw a need for more aggressive efforts to expose the influence of money on politics and hold public officials accountable, Bookbinder said. But he maintains that the group has been just as vigilant when Democrats were in charge
“We sued the Bush administration. We sued the Obama administration. We sued the Trump administration,” he said. “We really treated everyone the same on this one.” |
[Rev. Franklin] Graham [(yes, that one)] equated the Obama years with a national rejection of God. "In the last four years, we have begun to turn our backs on God," he said. "We have taken God out of our education system. We have taken him out of government. You have lawyers that sue you every time you mention the name of Jesus Christ in any kind of a public forum."
Someday someone will perhaps be able to adequately explain to me why it is that religious conservatives (esp. southern religious conservatives, cough) see Barack Obama as such an existential threat to them and their particular version of Christianity. As far as I know, President Barack Obama has done exactly jack-all in any of these areas. Graham and the other mega-evangelicals are quite certain that there is a war taking place on all these fronts; they are equally certain that it started four years ago, when President Scary Black Man took the reins from President Unmentionable. The only serious religious war I can recall taking place in those years was, of course, the new premise that if employers can't pick-and-choose employees' medical care it would be an abomination unto the pope, but that one was tenuous from day one, and isn't what the popeless Graham is talking about here. He's talking about "taking God out" of education, and government, and people getting sued for saying Jesus in public, and it almost makes you wonder if the junior Graham's visions of what's been going on the last four years is perhaps more linked with all these pro-marijuana laws that keep passing.
That aside, haven't we done very well at doing all the good and proper Christian things, in the last decade? We've gone to extra effort to make sure poor people get as little as damn possible, even in times of severe hardship, which is pretty much what Jesus said if I understand these things right. We've continually won the battle to make sure rich people are just plain recognized as our betters, and are treated as such. And the false witnessing alone—hoo boy, don't get me started.
Yes, I suppose we may be on the path to giving some people marginally better health insurance, and that probably counts as the work of the devil for some reason (God prefers his people to die young and easily preventable deaths, so as to keep heaven stocked with fresh faces), but that seems a thin reed on which to base such an apocalyptic vision of America's future. And it is pretty apocalyptic, as Graham explained:
"Maybe God will have to bring our nation down to our knees—to where you just have a complete economic collapse. And maybe at that point, maybe people will again begin to call upon the name of almighty God."
There's no way around it—religious conservatives are a sadistic lot. Everything's all smiting and hellfire. If a hurricane happens, it's because God was ticked off that you were treating gay people as if they were normal humans. If you lose your pension to a group of thieving banksters, it's because you didn't sing loud enough in church last week, you jerk. And if God has to wreck the whole country—just take his Holy Economic Pruning Shears and lop the whole thing off at about ankle-height—in order to get a little positive press from you people, then by Him that's what he's going to do.
The meanness of these people never ceases to surprise. The bitterness, the persecution, and the absolute insistence that if America doesn't run exactly according to their way, and to hell with every other sect and sub-sect and sub-sub-sect of Christianity because the only true way to do it is according to the guy on channel three hundred something, then 'Merika As We Noh Iht is well and truly boned. I don't know who it is religious conservatives think they're praying to, but if it's all about chanting and damning people and about constant magical vengeance being brought down on anyone who doesn't chant enough or damn people enough, that sounds positively morbid. A good grift, though. |
SOIL singer Ryan McCombs has defended the band's decision to launch an interactive pre-sale campaign on Kickstarter to enable fans to participate in the release of the band's forthcoming album. Fans will receive exclusive shirts, a chance to have dinner with the band, autographed merchandise, attend studio sessions, an exclusive new MP3 download of the first studio song with McCombs since 2004's "Redefine" album and more. They also will be the first to receive the new album when it's released.
After a SOIL fan posted a message on the band's Facebook page calling the musicians "cheap motherfuckers" and telling them to "use [their] own money to record [their] music and not ask the fans like him, who have " always paid top price" for their CDs, McCombs responded in the following way: "I hope that, before assuming we were asking for handouts, you went to the Kickstarter site where you can see that we are actually offering opportunities to people to do things and recieve things they normally wouldn't. And, in fact, the most basic package is only asking you to pay for the CD beforehand, allowing the money to go to making an pushing the hell out of this CD the right way instead of lining a disk jockeys' pockets.
"Please understand if we had the money that our music has made others over the years instead of being on the bottom of the food chain within the business we've been in, we would gladly fund it. Without question. The industry is a mess.
"Here is one of many simple facts that would leave you scratching your head: I personally have NEVER recieved a dime for the sales of any CD I have been a part of. The contracts you sign are set up to make that so. But you sign it 'cause if you don't, there are a million bands that will.
"I am sure that the music I have been a part of has bought plenty of cars and made plenty of house payments for many managers and the types over the years.
"Because your CD is on the same shelf as METALLICA's doesn't mean you're making METALLICA money.
"The industry is fucked. For every METALLICA, there are hundreds of bands such as ourselves counting on the shows we play to pay the monthly bills at home.
"I didn't like this option, but it is a possible answer that allows a band to control their fate, and again, offers special things to the fans that allow us to do what we do. I'm sorry this pisses you off so much, as I realize you don't know the financial facts of most bands in the industry. What we are doing here is risking taking the unpaved road in hopes of finding a way for bands like ourselves to survive. The paved road has led to the utter destruction of so many bands that deserved so much more. If taking the unpaved road leads to success, then perhaps it opens the door for others to follow and survive as well."
"For a band that is signed to a label, they HAVE to sell CDs. Do they get royally screwed? HELL YES!!! But if they do not sell enough CDs to be viewed as worthwhile by the label, they will get dropped.
"I had a conversation with a teenage fan once that just couldn't see what was wrong with illegally downloading a CD. Until, that is, I asked him what his Dad did for a living. He happened to be an auto worker. I then asked him, 'What if tomorrow EVERYONE in the world could come to your Dad's auto plant and drive off with any car they wanted, free of charge? How long will your Dad have a job if the product he creates doesn't make the owner of the company money?' It took a quick second but the light came on and he got it.
"If a band you like is employed by a label, buying the CD is absolutely supporting them... It's buying that product that they create.
"If I meet a band on the road and I like the people in the band, I go out and buy the CD. If friends within the industry release a new CD, I go buy the CD. It keeps them being able to do what they do, employment-wise. They aren't making shit off of it, but their boss is and that will keep them employed.
"What is happening more and more frequently is that even if a band can stay employed, eventually they, or members of the band, will reach a point that their cut isn't taking care of the bills at home and they have to choose between family/obligation and a dream that has ended up being very different then the one they had as an aspiring musician.
"We have survived as long as we have because of the support that people like yourself have given us for 12 years. I could never thank people enough for that. But because of the state of things in the industry through those years, we are where we are but we're not ready to fold our cards yet. There needs to be change.
"Like I stated before, this path is unpaved and a bit scary, but we have made a lot of connections over the years and we know a lot about the steps needed to hopefully be successful in this venture. If we are, perhaps we will give an alternative method to those kick-ass bands that fall though the cracks year after year after year.
"Hopefully you went and looked at the Kickstarter site and saw that we aren't asking for handouts. I couldn't be a part of that. We are simply offering the CD and packages to anyone interested. People like you that have always went out and bought that CD to help that band. We're just actually using that help to make the CD and not buy an executive's new car. We are trying to raise the funding for the recording and mixing of the CD. Anything else from the Kickstarter above and beyond will go towards helping out with the marketing, radio, publicity, etc. It's going to be tough, but for once in our careers, we'll be calling the shots, making the calls. I, too, have paid for many, many demos in my day.. but there is a large budget difference between a demo or shopping quality CD and the type you have to have for a chance at radio, movies, TV, etc. I know those are outlets that by us being allowed to be us musically may not have wide open doors to us, but I also think people are a little tired of the cookie cutter.
"We ran through a door in Chicago that DISTURBED kicked open years ago.. No ego here,.. it's the truth. If another door isn't kicked open soon, the rock/metal genre is going to be the way of the dinosaur."
SOIL will hit the road with FOZZY on a nine-date U.K. tour launching November 27 in Stoke, England and wrapping up December 6 in Brighton, England. The trek marks both bands' first return to the United Kingdom since highly successful appearances at this year's Download festival. The tour will also feature the U.K.'s own BREED 77.
SOIL released its first-ever DVD, entitled "Re-LIVE-Ing The Scars", on May 8 via Bieler Bros. Records. The two-disc set, which was recorded live on October 14, 2011 at Electric Ballroom in London, England, contains an audio CD version of the same concert. Also included is over one hour of backstage and behind-the-scenes bonus footage and photos.
SOIL's recording lineup for "Re-LIVE-Ing The Scars" consisted of founding members Ryan McCombs (vocals; ex-DROWNING POOL), Tim King (bass) and Adam Zadel (guitar) alongside former STAIND drummer Jon Wysocki. |
More fire news from FireCritic.com
The scene today (Friday) on North Van Buren Street in Wilmington, Delaware when Squad 1 went searching for a water supply. The pictures are by John Jankowski. Also thanks to Jack Wilson.
UPDATE
A day after the fire, Wilmington Fire Department Chief Anthony Goode not only defends the hydrant hook up through the car but explains that he was the one who broke out the windows of the vehicle. Chief Goode explains on his website WilmFireChief.com:
Based on the reports I responded to the scene and arrived at the same time as the first arriving Battalion Chief and the first arriving Engine Company.
On 6/6/14 the WFD was dispatched to a row home fire at 808 N. Vanburen Street. Fire Dispatchers indicated that they were receiving several calls and Fire Officers working in other nearby structures provided information that they could see a column of smoke coming from that area.
Bystanders immediately began telling firefighters that the occupants were unaccounted for and that there was a family pet dog in the home. The Battalion Chief quickly sized up the scene and it was clear by the conditions that we had a working fire!
The first Engine on scene (Squad 1) positioned their apparatus and the hydrant person finds that the hydrant is blocked by a vehicle which already had a parking ticket on it! Two off duty WFD Firefighters who were working as EMT’s at their part-time job attempt to assist the hydrant person make the connection to the hydrant but the vehicle is causing serious problems and establishing a water supply is absolutely essential. Seeing the water source problem escalate a decision is made to breach the vehicle and hook up to the hydrant.
Now while there are some who may believe that this decision was inappropriate or maybe the firefighters should have taken more time going house to house searching for the vehicle owner, just take a moment to think if it had been your home on fire, your family unaccounted for, your family member who is the firefighter who is going into this burning structure! The WFD doesn’t condone acts of vandalism or unnecessary property damage during any emergency scene. At least no more than we condone illegally parking in front of the fire hydrants that we need in order to do our job of saving life and property!
So while this may be unfortunate, it was absolutely necessary!
Yes the picture or act itself is not new to many but go ask around, honest firefighters will tell you that while plenty cars block hydrants on a daily basis it’s not often that this occurs! As a matter of fact, most firefighters have never seen or been involved with something like this other then watching “Axe” in “Backdraft”. The opportunity and necessary circumstances just don’t present themselves often. I had never seen it done!
As to whether I as the Chief of Fire for the Wilmington Fire Department condone the actions of the firefighter who made the decision to take this action and establish the much needed water supply. The answer is yes! I have too because it was the Chief of the WFD who put a axe through the driver and passenger windows and passed the 5 inch supply line through the vehicle!
Just to follow up, the car was a rental and the driver claimed that there was no where else to park when they got home the night before. The driver was sleep inside her home directly across the street from the car and did not hear any of the activity until about an hour into the fire. The drivers question at the time was if the WFD was going to need to keep the hose in the car much longer because she had to get to work. I don’t think she made it in!
Don’t park in front of Fire Hydrants! |
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a massive, secret trade deal that’s being negotiated among 12 countries on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. Participating in the talks now are representatives from the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Chile, Brunei, Singapore and Vietnam. Countries like the Philippines and South Korea also have indicated they want to join.
Negotiations have been going on behind closed doors for more than three years and are nearing their end. The round in Salt Lake City in November was the most secretive yet, with only chief negotiators and “experts” allowed to be part of the discussion. The latest round took place this month in Singapore.
About 600 U.S. corporate lobbyists are acting as official advisors and working with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. They are making huge decisions about jobs and workers’ rights, environmental standards, food safety, patents and intellectual property rights and so much more, and all in secret.
The agreement then must be approved by all participating countries. For the U.S., that means both the House and Senate must approve the trade deal. The Obama administration and TPP supporters want a process called “fast track authority or Trade Promotion Authority,” which would allow only an up-or-down vote with no amendments to the TPP. CWA and our coalition allies are fighting hard to stop fast track. It’s a fight we can win.
Why all the secrecy? Why aren't we hearing about what TPP would do? Because U.S. corporations desperately want this deal, and they know that it’s a corporate and Wall Street giveaway.
The TPP is much more than a “free-trade” agreement. It’s designed to make the world safe for corporate investment and profits by reducing labor costs and undercutting workers’ rights; dismantling labor, environmental, health and financial laws and regulations that could affect profits; and setting up a process to resolve any disputes by going through special international tribunals rather than our own court system.
U.S. workers are on to the fact that trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, trade deals with Peru, Colombia, Panama, and now TPP benefit the 1 percent at the expense of the rest of us. Workers’ jobs go overseas as corporations chase subsistence wages, like Vietnam’s 25 cents an hour, and seek out places with little or no regulation.
Most members of Congress don’t even know what’s in the proposed agreement. That’s why Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) has called TPP, “the largest corporate power grab you never heard of.”
What we do know, through leaks of the various chapters, is that TPP is a bad deal for workers in every country.
That’s why CWA has joined together with our coalition partners – Sierra Club, Citizens Trade Campaign, Public Citizen and others – to stop this attack on working conditions. None of us can win this fight alone. But together we can stand up and fight back. |
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Mark Tenally/Associated Press
Looking back on 10 years in the NFL is a good way to make yourself feel very old, very fast. Remember that time when Jim Mora was the Seahawks' head coach for like 10 minutes? And that other time when Pat White being a top-45 draft pick was a real thing?
Those are just two sources of misery around the league over the past decade.
Every team has its blunders and awful decisions. Most of them come from the draft, as that's when a roster foundation is either built, or it crumbles. But plenty more bad decisions lead to wasted money in free agency and misguided coaching moves.
This exercise looking back on the worst decisions over the last 10 years didn't just generate lots of painful nostalgia (though yes, there was plenty of that). It also showed which teams were able to bounce back quickly from their mistakes, and which were derailed for far too long.
So let's walk down the worst sort of memory lane then. Here is every team's worst decision over the past 10 years. |
Slavoj Zizek has built up a reputation as a respected “Marxist” academic and is seen as somewhat of a “rock star” on the left. However, his recent attempts to translate his theories into concrete policies for a possible future SYRIZA government in Greece reveal that there is nothing revolutionary in his thinking. He is in fact providing academic credibility to a modern reformist current and has become an apologist for the shift to the right on the part of the leadership of SYRIZA.
At the 6th Subversive Festival held in Zagreb in May Slavoj Zizek held a public debate on the role of the European left together with Alexis Tsipras, the leader of SYRIZA. Zizek gave the reasons why he supports SYRIZA and the expectations he has of the party. He also put forward specific proposals on the political direction that SYRIZA should take. Following an attack on Zizek by New Democracy in Greece, the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia interviewed him where he repeated his views regarding SYRIZA.
The aim of this article is not to deal with the overall philosophical ideas of Zizek. In this article we will limit ourselves to dealing with some of the specific proposals that Zizek suggests SYRIZA should take up. We believe that there is nothing new in what Zizek raised in the debate with Tsipras. In fact, although he tries to cover his positions with a left rhetoric, his basic position on Greece comes straight from the Stalinist tradition of Popular Frontism, even including the old idea of forming an alliance with a so-called “progressive”, or as he puts it “patriotic”, bourgeoisie, as will become clear from the quotes we provide later in this article.
Zizek believes that SYRIZA is a new and unique phenomenon. He claims it is different from the radical movements of the past such as the movement led by Mandela in South Africa or the movement around Lula in Brazil. He says that these all came to power promising radical changes, but once in government only succeeded in carrying out limited reforms and essentially served the interests of global capitalism. He also claims SYRIZA is different from what he defines as the “radical left” that supports clear revolutionary principles but doesn’t attempt and doesn’t want to take the responsibility of power, thus condemning itself to certain failure.
Zizek claims that SYRIZA differs in the fact that while it is a truly radical left party with principles, it also has the additional quality of speaking the voice of reason in a European political environment that is gradually going mad. Zizek believes that the austerity measures being adopted all over Europe are dogmatic and based on fairy tales. This is what he said in the debate with Tsipras:
“Something very dangerous is going on now in Europe… I think that the European political elite is progressively losing its ability to rule. In other countries, even in the United States, with all the compromises, and so on... Obama, is somehow doing it... Europe, on the other hand, is losing its compass... The leaders don’t know what to do. The task ahead of SYRIZA is not some kind of crazy radical measures, but simply, in a very pragmatic way, which will have very radical consequences, to bring rationality, to give people hope, to stabilise the situation…” [Our emphasis]
And he goes on to say,
“…what I’m saying is that we should become more attentive to the irrationality that is deeply embedded in our daily reactions, the ideological irrationality of today’s global system... Krugman once gave an ingenious answer when he explained that even if we had known 10 years ago that the 2008 financial crisis would happen, we would still have done nothing to stop it. This is the tragedy of today’s capitalism. Even if you are fully aware you will still follow your illusions…”
Here we see how Zizek merely repeats an idea that is present throughout the reformist left in Europe: that the cuts in welfare spending are not necessary even from the point of view of capitalism, but an irrational ideological fixation of the European bourgeois politicians. Instead of explaining that, given the fundamental inner contradictions of a system based on profit, the bourgeois have no other policies to offer; instead of explaining that within the confines of capitalism there is no way out, he presents the situation as one where the European bourgeois have all gone mad and are behaving “irrationally”. From this it flows that a solution within the confines of capitalism is possible.
We have to ask the question: what is it that makes the European bourgeois – and reformist – political leaders act so “irrationally”? The European political leaders are currently acting within the context of the deepest crisis in the history of capitalism. It is this crisis that determines their policies and behaviour. Zizek, who has many times referred to this crisis in other speeches and also in some of his writings, this time does not seem to pay any particular attention to the concrete material conditions, nor does he provide an analysis of the class struggle that flows from them. All we need is some “rationality”, and he sees SYRIZA and its leader Tsipras as the bearer of this logical thought.
For Marxists this is an idealistic way of seeing things. Capitalism is certainly an irrational system, from the point of view of the real needs of humanity. But so long as it exists, what pushes it forward is the quest for profit on the part of all the capitalists. That which produces profit is logical and rational for the capitalists, that which does not is illogical and irrational!
Basing ourselves on the concrete analysis of the contradictions of the system, we pointed out a long time ago [see A Socialist Alternative to the European Union, By Alan Woods, 1997] that European unification that the bourgeoisie of Europe was attempting to achieve – albeit being the only road for them as they could not compete with the other economic blocs across the globe – could not be achieved. This, we explained, was because competition between the states that make up the European Union – states that are on very different levels of development – inevitably becomes ferocious when the share of the market of each of these declines rapidly in times of crisis.
Germany is at the heart of the European Union and has a double role as partner and competitor of the other EU member states. In the past economic growth was maintained in Europe by expanding credit to unheard of levels. So long as the economy was expanding, and the banks and big corporations were making big profits, debt was allowed to expand. But now debt has reached such levels that even the powerful German economy cannot shoulder all the European debt. It would be quite “irrational” for it to do so. The German ruling class is also not willing to consent to an uncontrollable printing of money as this would lead to massive inflation at a later stage of the crisis and such inflation would certainly be unmanageable. At the same time the ruling classes of Europe are presenting the bill to the poorer layers of society, thus putting at risk the social peace that was achieved in the post-war period. By attempting to achieve economic equilibrium they are destabilising the relations between the classes.
Thus we can see that what the ruling classes in Europe are actually facing is a real dilemma: they must cut spending in an attempt to reduce debt, but by doing so they are merely cutting further the market. Their policies flow from this situation and not from some ingrained “neoliberal” ideology. The serious strategists of the ruling class can clearly see this. The reformist leaders of the labour movement, however, can only see a system that has gone “crazy”. There are even some bourgeois thinkers who see things in these terms. For these technocrats the views expressed by the president of SYRIZA in international meetings seem quite logical: austerity should stop, the vicious cycle that prevents economic growth should stop also. Undoubtedly, everyone would like to see growth, rising wages, more jobs, etc. But is all this possible within the narrow confines of the capitalist system?
Zizek says, “the policies of austerity are not logical policies”. The question we have to ask ourselves is: what are the alternatives to austerity? The bourgeois in countries like Britain and the United States have applied what they define as “quantitative easing”, i.e. the printing of money, with little effect bar the piling up of inflationary pressures for the future. Basically what Zizek is objecting to is monetarism, i.e. so-called “neo-liberalism”. The alternative to monetarism, under capitalism, is Keynesianism, which would require massive amounts of public spending. With such high levels of public debt everywhere, where does Zizek propose the money will come from? As he excludes overthrowing the bourgeoisie [see below], but merely suggests some abstract “redistribution” of wealth, he is obliged to seek a solution within the logic of capitalism, and thus ends up as yet another modern-day reformist who clings to Keynesianism as a way out of the crisis. [For a detailed analysis of the ideas of the monetarists and Keynesians see: Marx, Keynes, Hayek and the Crisis of Capitalism – Part One, Part two and Part Three]
Austerity is nothing more than a form of class war; and it is an unavoidable choice for the ruling class and not merely a political choice. The outcome of this war will be determined by the policies adopted by the leadership of the labour movement. The working class has shown in several countries that it is moving in a very radical direction and that it is ready to struggle. In Greece this is abundantly clear. The general strikes, mass rallies and protests of the past few years clearly confirm this. The capitalists, in fact, are very much aware that sooner or later class struggle will erupt everywhere – not just in Greece – and they are getting ready for this.
But what are the leaders of the labour movement doing? What is the strategy, what is the programme of the leaders of the working class? More importantly, what should this strategy be?
In his interview with Eleftherotypia, Zizek says:
“…I am fed up with the left that states that it wishes to remain loyal to its principles and dreams of radical solutions and thus always ends up being marginalized, since it isn’t actually interested in winning; maybe because if it does enter into government, its ineffectiveness will be revealed. Contrary to this SYRIZA is ready to assume government in very difficult times for your country and without promising a quick solution. They are not some crazy lefties that will attempt to realize utopia and then when they fail they blame western imperialism.” [Translated from the Greek original].
We can understand why Zizek denounces those sects of the so-called “radical left” who in the name of purity of revolutionary ideas adopt methods and tactics which render them incapable of connecting with the real needs of the masses. However, the main characteristic of the sectarians is not their devotion to principles, as Zizek claims, but their rigidness when it comes to tactics and their vague propaganda of a programme that is revolutionary only in theory.
Sectarianism indeed leads to isolation from the masses and therefore failure. For what does “revolutionary purity” have to offer if the policies emanating from it lead to certain failure? However, the way to answer this sectarianism is not to denounce the revolutionary programme, is not to move the “strategic goal of socialism” to some undefined future, as Zizek does. Zizek, in a classical reformist manner, throws out the baby with the bathwater. He equates a principled defence of a revolutionary programme with sectarianism. In this he carries out a dishonest trick. In reality, it is possible to maintain a principled revolutionary stance and apply this in a flexible, non-sectarian manner to the labour movement as a whole. It is possible to connect the programme of revolutionary Marxism with the mass movement, as did Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky in the past. Nowhere in the texts of these great Marxist thinkers will one find anything that would justify abandoning the revolutionary programme of socialism as a means of gaining power. On the contrary!
What is required is to defend the revolutionary programme together with flexibility in tactics. This is what would allow a mass revolutionary party to sink roots within the working class. The success of revolutionary policies depends on successfully connecting them with the needs of the working class, of using them as a lever to make conscious the task at hand: the overthrow of capitalism.
For Zizek, however, the overthrow of capitalism is something for the long distant future. For him it is still early days for any such attempts. According to Zizek at this stage the left should adopt a more moderate approach. Radical reforms are not necessary; all that is required, as we have quoted him above, is to work “simply, in a very pragmatic way, which will have very radical consequences, to bring rationality, to give people hope, to stabilise the situation…” Thus all that is needed is to break with the madness and irrationality of today’s bourgeois leaders and introduce reason.
The problem is that this return of reason, that Zizek wants to see, is accompanied by policies that are confined to this very capitalist system. Capitalism has its own rules that govern it and within these it is impossible to plan production and distribution. The idea of a redistribution of wealth without expropriating and overthrowing the bourgeoisie is utterly utopian. It amounts to kindly requesting that the small minority of wealthy capitalists voluntarily give up some of their wealth for the good of society in general. If Zizek can indicate where such bourgeois are to be found, we would be very interested to know!
Given the anarchic nature of capitalism, real social needs cannot be recorded and calculated, and therefore effective planning to produce goods to meet the social needs of the bulk of the population cannot be calculated either. Any policy that respects the rules of capitalism – a Keynesian policy that will raise demand for example, as the leadership of SYRIZA frequently puts forward – is not at all rational or reasonable for it ignores the way capitalism actually works. These kinds of policies cannot tackle the actual cause of the crisis but merely try to cure its symptoms using superficial remedies.
Hidden within Zizek’s views there is a reactionary illusion: that the left, when in government, will manage to convince at least a section of the capitalists to support policies that will be beneficial both for them and the workers. This is as senseless as trying to convince a tiger to become a vegetarian. To maximise profits the capitalists are demanding a cut in the cost of labour and they are competing with each other to see who can cut the most. To think that capitalists can behave in any other way is to ignore the real world we live in.
In order to stabilize the situation under capitalism and to give hope to the people, it is necessary that there be economic growth that produces a large enough surplus while at the same time the social relations nationally and internationally would have to be such as to allow the working class to receive a sufficient share of this. This is a scenario that has been realized – and even then only partially – under very special circumstances, such as during a prolonged period of capitalist growth like the one we experienced during the post-war period in Europe, but it is completely utopian during a period of deep capitalist crisis, such as the one we are experiencing today.
So while Zizek states that he is “fed up” with the sectarianism of the “revolutionary left”, he is not so fed up with reformism, a political tradition and practice that, despite its name, is in reality incapable of achieving even the mildest of reforms in today’s conditions. Despite his fierce attacks on capitalism, mainly of a moralistic nature, in reality his views reveal illusions in the potential for growth of the system. He sees it as a question of bad, mafia-type capitalists versus genuine, honest, productive capitalists who want the good of the nation.
The “realistic” alliances of Zizek
Having put forward such goals for SYRIZA, Zizek also suggests what he considers to be “novel” political alliances. He states in the interview with Eleftherotypia the following:
“What we need are true and reasonable alliances, not communist revolutions, but bourgeois parliaments that will bring results. The left should abandon its sectarian attitude and approach what one would define as the patriotic bourgeoisie.”
Earlier this year at the above quoted 6th Subversive Festival held in Zagreb in a debate with Alexis Tsipras Zizek dealt with this same question raising the need for an alliance with a so-called “patriotic” or “progressive” bourgeoisie. Here we quote some of what he said. [The full debate is available online]:
[Minute 50 to 54] “It’s a question of intelligent alliances... we will still live for some decades within capitalism... I will use an old term... a patriotic bourgeoisie... that has some genuine interest in producing for the people... It is not just about generally striking at the rich, but a very carefully planned strategy... There are things that work with capitalism if applied properly... competition, especially at small scale production of consumerist goods and so on... A dream for me of what SYRIZA should be, within this global redistribution, is to make life easier even for truly productive capitalists... This would be a true triumph for SYRIZA... They would say that not only did we make it easier for the workers, but if you are a good honest capitalist you should vote for us... And I am ready to come to you and be some kind of voice of ‘capitalists for SYRIZA’. That would be my dream.”
Here we are presented with undistilled reformism. Here we are presented with the view that there are good “productive” capitalists who want to produce and bad capitalists of the gangster mafia type. Since when have there been capitalists who have a “genuine interest in producing for the people”? Has Zizek suddenly forgotten all his readings of Marx? Capitalists invest if they can make a profit. That is the only thing that motivates them. If in Greece there were scope for profitable investment to be made in manufacturing industry you can be sure the capitalists would be rushing in with their money. Instead, they keep it stashed away in foreign banks or at most use it in speculative investment.
Zizek also introduces another very old idea: that small scale production can work on a competitive basis. Has he, again, forgotten, what Marx explained long ago, that from small scale production the road inevitably leads to large scale monopolisation, precisely through the mechanism of competition? Or are we to believe that a SYRIZA government will prove capable of turning the clock of history backwards to a time when production was still in its early stages of small scale family run enterprises?
Dear comrade Zizek, the only form of capitalism that is possible today is the one you have before you, one dominated by huge multinational corporations. The advice you are giving to the SYRIZA leaders is very dangerous indeed, as it sows illusions in the possibility of finding some kind of “progressive” bourgeoisie with which it would be possible to govern together in the interests of both workers and capitalists. Any such attempt would doom SYRIZA to failure, and the workers and youth of Greece would pay a very heavy price for such failure.
Zizek on the Greek state
How far Zizek is removed from a genuine understanding of Marxism can be seen by what he says about the Greek state:
“SYRIZA shouldn’t do some crazy leftist revolution. SYRIZA should even modernise the Greek state, make it finally an efficient, even a much better bourgeois state if you want... You will have to do the decent job that the Greek capitalist class wasn’t able to do for themselves. [Minute 58]
No doubt comrade Zizek has read Lenin’s State and Revolution. We wonder, from reading the above quote, whether he actually agrees with Lenin or if he remembers what he has read. In this quote we see the utterly reformist illusions of Zizek in relation to the Greek state. He clearly thinks the present bourgeois Greek state is no good, but in its place he envisages SYRIZA creating a “better bourgeois state”. By this we presume he means a state which is efficient, that does away with bureaucracy, nepotism, corruption, etc. This is in line with his views that somewhere in Greece there is an honest, productive, progressive bourgeoisie.
Thus, according to the logic of Zizek, since “communist revolutions” are ruled out – and consequently SYRIZA should not aim to overthrow capitalism – it would seem logical to “approach” this so-called “patriotic” bourgeoisie as a necessary ally in reforming the state and developing the economy! The only obstacle to achieving this realistic alliance seems to be a sectarian section of the left. And in order for the left to overcome this sectarianism what may prove necessary is the whip of someone like... Thatcher, as he states in the same interview with Eleftherotypia! We presume that by this he means a strong leader of the left who can impose unity on the left and bring it to its senses and adopt the realistic viewpoint that Zizek suggests.
We see how Zizek has no problem in suggesting that SYRIZA adopt a policy of class collaboration. He says that what is needed is imagination and the removal of taboos. We Marxists on the other hand, have no obligation to accept a seriously mistaken and dangerous position, no matter whose imagination has formulated it. On the contrary, it is our duty to expose the damaging role that these ideas can have for both SYRIZA and the labour movement as a whole.
Firstly, one has to ask oneself who is this “patriotic bourgeoisie” and whether it even exists at all and at the end of the day what common interests could it have with the working class. It is quite a different matter to enter into a discussion regarding an alliance with a section of the bourgeoisie than to discuss the tactics that a government of the left should employ to win over the small business men and women who have gone bankrupt because of the current crisis. The small shopkeepers, the artisans, the small businesses are not the same thing as big business and the ruling class. They are the petit bourgeoisie who, in normal times, the big bourgeois lean on for political support. But in times of severe crisis these layers face bankruptcy and destitution. This layer can and must be won over by the left. But that cannot be done by inventing some phantomatic “progressive bourgeoisie”. The only way to win over this layer is by boldly putting forward a revolutionary programme that includes the nationalisation of the banks and big corporations. For example, by nationalising the banks and uniting them into one centralised state bank, it would be possible to offer cheap credit to the small businesspeople.
When Zizek speaks of the “patriotic” bourgeoisie, he is referring to an abstractly constructed social class, some kind of “progressive bourgeoisie”. Such a class is supposedly a progressive capital owning layer of society that is willing to inject its wealth into the economy by investing in production –and not keep its capital stashed away in foreign banks or offshore – which would transform Greek society by sweeping away the old remnants of history, such as for example the legal connection of the State with the Church. It is quite clear that such a class has never existed in the whole history of Greek capitalism and it certainly does not exist today either. Today such a class does not even exist in the advanced capitalist countries where the bourgeoisie played a progressive role in the past.
A concrete indicator of the absence of such a class in Greece today is its lack of any political representation. The small businesspeople that do react against the Troika, in reality are disappointed with the fact that the government is no longer able to protect them from the attacks of foreign capital. Desperate as they are, they turn either to right-wing demagogues and far-right parties, such as the Independent Greeks or Golden Dawn, or in some cases to SYRIZA.
It is important to point out here that the collaboration that the leadership of SYRIZA has suggested with the Independent Greeks does not flow from any political strategy of turning to this so-called “patriotic” bourgeoisie, but is a reactionary and opportunistic alliance that disappoints and confuses the rank and file. Unfortunately, Zizek’s superficial statements, instead of providing clarity on these questions – as they should – merely provide a “radical” cover for reactionary methods that have their origins, not in supposedly original ideas, but in the treacherous tactics of the Stalinist Popular Frontism of the 1930’s which are dangerous for the movement.
What should be SYRIZA’s position towards the petit bourgeois?
Instead of talking about approaching the “patriotic” bourgeoisie, the discussion should be focused on how could a government of the left secure the support, or at least the acceptance, of the petit bourgeois layers of society.
There is no doubt that the left will need to form alliances when it comes to power. However, its basic first duty should be to succeed in organizing and giving a voice to the working class. No discussion regarding alliances has any meaning without this basic precondition. The winning over of the petit bourgeois layers cannot happen by capitulating to the policies of those bourgeois parties who in reality do not have the consistent support of any part of society. The only way for a left government is to implement consistently the programme of the working class, which can be only the programme of socialist revolution. The nationalisation of the banking system and of the commanding heights of the economy is not a programme that is hostile towards the middle classes. On the contrary, this is the only way to control the flow of credit and to enable the planning of the reconstruction of production in the country. This would offer a breath of fresh air to the middle classes who are currently being crushed by the monopolies.
Advocating the “communist revolution” does not constitute sectarianism, as Zizek seems to think. On the contrary, the outbreak of events of a revolutionary character in various countries shows that we are not dealing with isolated, local events but manifestations of a deep crisis of capitalism as a whole. The revolutionary movements that we have seen in the recent period in countries like Turkey and Brazil, and even more so in Egypt and Tunisia, all express a deep desire of the masses for change. In all cases the masses raise demands that are de facto incompatible with the continuation of capitalism. They want jobs, good healthcare, good education, decent wages and so on. This means that they are objectively on a collision course with the system. Initially the masses may think that these demands can be achieved without challenging the very basis of the system, but through experience and struggle they will come to the conclusion that the whole system must be swept away. The question that we need to address is whether the left in Europe and around the world can analyze these phenomena, adopt the right course and lead the working class, not only in Greece, but in an organized and coordinated way, in every country. A new and mass revolutionary international organisation that will base itself on the solid foundations of Marxism is more relevant than ever.
Slavoj Zizek is a popular speaker with bold facial expressions and constant gesturing, who uses provocative jokes and verbal excesses, but he does not seem to be able to grasp the essence of the situation in Greece. Along with his support for SYRIZA, he also adopts uncritically the whole agenda of the party’s leadership, thus becoming its ideological apologist. He provides a theoretical backing for all the mistaken policies of the SYRIZA leadership with the glamour of a “radical philosopher”. His radicalism, however, despite his own intentions, is inconsistent and conceals the most insidious conservatism, the conservatism of class collaboration, which is the cornerstone of every social democratic policy. This is not what the rank and file of SYRIZA and the workers and youth in general in Greece require.
The Communist Tendency of SYRIZA understands that the masses have turned to the party investing it with their hopes and will continue to support it expecting significant changes in their lives. However, if their expectations are not met, Zizek’s statement that SYRIZA “is not promising a quick solution” will not be of much comfort to them. On the contrary, it is possible that he too will have to face their wrath.
For the Communist Tendency the only realistic option for SYRIZA is not to bend to the pressures of the bourgeoisie, but to struggle for a government of the left – offering a united front to the KKE – which would be a revolutionary government that would carry out a socialist programme establishing a democratically planned, nationalised economy. Such a government would explain that in order to guarantee jobs, decent wages, good healthcare, good schools and a general improvement in living conditions for the working people, the wealth of the big bourgeoisie, of the banks and the big corporations must be taken under public control. There is no other road, whatever Zizek may think.
Who can doubt that if the leaders of SYRIZA were to explain all this, considering their authority and also considering the burning desire for change on the part of the masses, that a successful socialist transformation of Greece is not possible? And Zizek, instead of using his reputation to support the backsliding of the SYRIZA leadership, would do better to use his reputation to explain the genuine ideas of Marxism. He has expressed the desire to see SYRIZA not only win the elections but also to keep winning and to stay in power. The way to achieve that is to carry out a genuine socialist transformation of Greece taking power out of the hands of the bourgeoisie. Such a successful transformation would indicate the way forward for the socialist revolution in Europe and around the world. |
How and why the US encouraged looting in Iraq
By Patrick Martin
15 April 2003
The widespread looting in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk and other Iraqi cities, following the collapse of the Ba’athist regime of President Saddam Hussein, was not merely an incidental byproduct of the US military conquest of Iraq. It was deliberately encouraged and fostered by the Bush administration and the Pentagon for definite political and economic reasons.
Thousands took part in the looting in Baghdad which began April 9, the day the Hussein government ceased to function in the capital city. Not only were government ministries targeted, and the homes of the Ba’athist elite, but public institutions vital to Iraqi society, including hospitals, schools and food distribution centers. Equipment and parts were stripped from power plants, thus delaying the restoration of electricity to the city of 5 million people.
Perhaps the most devastating loss for the Iraqi people is the ransacking of the National Museum, the greatest trove of archeological and historical artifacts in the Middle East. The 28 galleries of the huge museum were picked clean by looters who made off with more than 50,000 irreplaceable artifacts, relics of past civilizations dating back 5,000 years. The museum’s entire card catalog was destroyed, making it impossible even to identify what has been lost.
The US military stood by and permitted the ransacking of the museum, an incalculable blow to Iraqi and world culture, just as they allowed and even encouraged the looting of hospitals, universities, libraries and government social service buildings. The occupation forces protected only the Ministry of Oil, with its detailed inventory of Iraqi oil reserves, as well as the Ministry of Interior, the headquarters of the ousted regime’s secret police.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a statement in Geneva declaring that the relief agency was “profoundly alarmed by the chaos currently prevailing in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq.” The medical system in Baghdad “has virtually collapsed,” the ICRC warned, and it reminded the US and Britain that they were obliged under international law to guarantee the basic security of the Iraqi population.
General Tommy Franks, the overall commander of all US and British forces in Iraq, issued an order to unit commanders that specifically prohibited the use of force to prevent looting. This instruction was only modified after several days because of mounting protests by Iraqi citizens over the destruction of their social infrastructure.
The New York Times reported one such protest by an Iraqi man who was standing guard at Al Kindi hospital in Baghdad. Haider Daoud “said he was angry at his encounters with American soldiers in the neighborhood, mentioning one marine who he said he had begged to guard the hospital two days ago. ‘He told me the same words: He can’t protect the hospital,’ Mr. Daoud said. ‘A big army like the USA army can’t protect the hospital?’”
The role of the US military went beyond simply standing by, and extended to actually encouraging and facilitating looting. According to a report in the Washington Post, after the US military reopened two bridges across the Tigris River to civilian traffic, “the immediate result was that looters raced across and extended their plundering to the Planning Ministry and other buildings that had been spared.”
Sweden’s largest newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, published an interview April 11 with a Swedish researcher of Middle Eastern ancestry who had gone to Iraq to serve as a human shield. Khaled Bayoumi told the newspaper, “I happened to be right there just as the American troops encouraged people to begin the plundering.”
He described how US soldiers shot security guards at a local government building on Haifa Avenue on the west bank of the Tigris, and then “blasted apart the doors to the building.” Next, according to Bayoumi, “from the tanks came eager calls in Arabic encouraging people to come close to them.”
At first, he said, residents were hesitant to come out of their homes because anyone who had tried to cross the street in the morning had been shot. “Arab interpreters in the tanks told the people to go and take what they wanted in the building,” Bayoumi continued. “The word spread quickly and the building was ransacked. I was standing only 300 yards from there when the guards were murdered. Afterwards the tank crushed the entrance to the Justice Department, which was in a neighboring building, and the plundering continued there.
“I stood in a large crowd and watched this together with them. They did not partake in the plundering but dared not to interfere. Many had tears of shame in their eyes. The next morning the plundering spread to the Modern Museum, which lies a quarter mile farther north. There were also two crowds there, one that plundered and one that watched with disgust.”
Similar scenes were reported in Kirkuk and Mosul, the two large northern cities with ethnically mixed populations. There the looting of public buildings has direct political overtones, since the destruction of property deeds and other government records will make it easier to conduct ethnic cleansing of Arab or Turkmen populations by the Kurdish forces that now dominate the region, in alliance with US Special Forces.
In Kirkuk, the site of Iraq’s richest oilfield, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has already installed its officials in the homes of former Ba’ath Party leaders. US soldiers of the 173rd Airborne Brigade seized control of an Iraqi air base but permitted looters to leave the base with their stolen goods, even opening the gates to allow them to pass.
There was no effort to halt arson at the city’s cotton plant, or at office buildings, but US troops quickly occupied facilities of the North Oil Company, the state-owned firm that manages the huge northern oilfields. Colonel William Mayville, commander of the brigade, dispatched troops to three key oil facilities, while US Special Forces stood watch over four gas-oil separation plants. Mayville told the American media that he wanted to send the message, “Hey, don’t screw with the oil.”
In Mosul, northern Iraq’s largest city, hospitals, universities, laboratories, hotels, clinics and factories were all sacked and stripped of their goods. The 700 US troops sent to Mosul remained outside the city for more than a day while the theft and vandalism continued, leading to widespread complaints from city residents—reported even in the American press—that the US was permitting the pillaging.
Robert Fisk, writing in the British newspaper the Independent April 14, noted a pattern in the response of American forces to looting in Baghdad, which, he said, “shows clearly what the US intends to protect.” He continued: “After days of arson and pillage, here’s a short but revealing scorecard. US troops have sat back and allowed mobs to wreck and then burn the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Irrigation, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information. They did nothing to prevent looters from destroying priceless treasures of Iraq’s history in the Baghdad Archaeological Museum and in the museum in the northern city of Mosul, or from looting three hospitals.
“The Americans have, though, put hundreds of troops inside two Iraqi ministries that remain untouched—and untouchable—because tanks and armoured personnel carriers and Humvees have been placed inside and outside both institutions. And which ministries proved to be so important for the Americans? Why, the Ministry of Interior, of course—with its vast wealth of intelligence information on Iraq—and the Ministry of Oil. The archives and files of Iraq’s most valuable asset—its oilfields and, even more important, its massive reserves—are safe and sound, sealed off from the mobs and looters, and safe to be shared, as Washington almost certainly intends, with American oil companies.”
Such concerns were already apparent in the actions of the US military at the very beginning of the war. The same General Franks who instructed US troops to take no action against looting in Baghdad or other cities gave the order March 20 for the First Marine Expeditional Force to invade Iraq a day early, because of reports, later proven largely false, that Iraqi troops were setting fire to the country’s southern oilfields at Rumaila.
The Centcom chief discarded previous operational plans and potentially put many soldiers’ lives at risk by acting before the air bombardment had begun in order to safeguard the real objective of the US war, Iraq’s huge oil reserves.
The most striking aspect of the outbreak of looting was the nonchalant attitude of US government officials in Washington. At a Pentagon press conference Friday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld denounced the media for exaggerating the extent of chaos, and argued that the looting was a natural and perhaps even healthy expression of pent-up hostility to the old regime. “It’s untidy,” Rumsfeld said. “And freedom’s untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes.”
There is no doubt the Bush administration would take a less charitable view of the “freedom” to loot if mobs were breaking into corporate offices in downtown Houston, Washington or New York City.
As in every action of the Bush administration, personal greed and profit-gouging are an important aspect. The ransacking of Iraqi government facilities, added to the devastation caused by American bombing, is part of the process of demolishing the large state-run sector of Iraq’s economy, to the benefit of American companies. Already contracts have been awarded to private American firms to provide new school books, replace looted medical equipment, even train a new Iraqi police force.
In the Orwellian language of New York Times columnist William Safire, the US aim is to “introduce free enterprise and the rule of law”—by means of a criminal invasion, followed by widespread looting. This will set the stage for a much bigger theft: the privatization of Iraq’s vast oil resources and their exploitation, directly or indirectly, by US and British oil companies.
There is more at stake, however, than rank hypocrisy or an appetite for Iraq’s oil wealth. The looting in Iraq directly serves the political interests of American imperialism in cementing its domination of the conquered country.
The Bush administration is seeking to encourage the emergence of a new ruling elite in Iraq, formed from the most rapacious, reactionary and selfish elements, which will serve as a semi-criminal comprador force entirely subservient to the United States. The acquisition of property through the theft of Iraqi state assets serves to bind these elements to the US occupation forces by their own economic self-interest. As one Army officer told the Times, as he watched the looting approvingly, “This is the new income redistribution program.”
There is recent precedent for such an operation. The first Bush administration proceeded in the same fashion when it encouraged the formation of a new capitalist elite in Russia out of layers of the Soviet-era mafia and former Stalinist bureaucrats who acquired state assets by wholesale theft. What US imperialism promoted in the 1990s in eastern Europe and the former USSR under the label “shock therapy”, it is now applying in the aftermath of its “shock and awe” devastation of Iraq. |
Homemade seitan (“wheat meat”) is wrapped around a savory stuffing in this elegant vegan main dish.
This is A Tale of Two Seitans.
For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to make something a little fancier than the baked tofu my husband, daughter, and I usually enjoy while our omnivorous extended family is eating turkey. The day before the big feast, I took one of my old favorite stuffings, wrapped wheat gluten around it, sealed it in foil, and baked it like “Veggeroni.”
Right out of the oven, the savory flavor of the stuffed seitan was divine. Though the texture was verging on dry, I had to chase away family members circling like ravenous wolves so that I could wrap it up for the trip to my parents’ house.
The next day, I reheated the foil-wrapped seitan in the oven alongside my green bean casserole and my mother’s cornbread dressing. And that’s where I made my mistake. I should have steamed it or microwaved it because it came out of the oven much drier than before. Doused with mushroom gravy, it was still good, but it could have been better.
I posted a photo of the first seitan roulade on my Facebook page and planned to share the recipe when I got back from my Thanksgiving trip. But because I wasn’t completely satisfied with how the stuffed seitan “performed” for the big meal, I decided to see if I could come up with a moister, more tender seitan that would hold up to reheating.
That’s how this second seitan roulade came to be.
In this version, I “oven-steamed” the seitan first in a little broth before uncovering and baking it. Success! The stuffed seitan was so tender that we didn’t need any gravy.
The only downside is that because it wasn’t confined by foil, the roast expanded as it cooked and lost its “rolled” design. It’s also less sturdy than the foil-baked version, so if we were planning to travel with it, we’d need to pack it much more carefully.
Overall, I prefer the final version, but if you want the roulade look, follow the variation in the recipe below. Whichever way you make it, just be careful how you reheat it. Or better yet, eat it while it’s still piping hot out of the oven.
“Savory.” That’s the best word to describe this meat-free roast, redolent with the flavors of thyme and sage and enlivened with the sweet-sour tang of dried cranberries. You won’t have any leftovers!
Print Pin 5 from 11 votes Add to Recipe BoxGo to Recipe Box Seitan Stuffed with Walnuts, Dried Cranberries, and Mushrooms The stuffing ingredients are very flexible. I was all out of regular mushrooms, so I used beech mushrooms , but any kind will do. Mushroom haters, feel free to substitute another vegetable or just leave them out. Walnut haters can use another type of nut (or no nuts at all) and cranberry phobics can use dried cherries, raisins, or no fruit at all. Prep Time 1 hour Cook Time 1 hour 35 minutes Total Time 2 hours 35 minutes Servings 6 Author Susan Voisin Ingredients Stuffing 1/2 large onion , chopped
1 rib celery , chopped
4 ounces mushrooms , sliced or chopped
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
generous grinding of pepper
3 ounces whole wheat bread (about 2 slices), cut into small cubes
1/3 cup dried cranberries or cherries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon whole chia seeds or ground flax seed
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup water (more as needed) Seitan 2 cups vital wheat gluten (10 ounces)
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon marjoram
1/3 cup quinoa flakes or quick oatmeal
1 teaspoon chia seed or ground flaxseeds
1 1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 cup great northern beans , cooked
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 clove garlic , peeled
1 tablespoon tahini (preferred) or other nut butter Baking Broth 1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil (optional) Assembly 4 sprigs fresh rosemary Instructions Make the stuffing: Sauté the onion and celery in a non-stick skillet until onion is becoming translucent. Add the mushrooms, thyme, sage, and a generous grating of black pepper and cover. Cook until mushrooms exude their juices, about 3 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients along with enough water to moisten the stuffing but not make it soaking wet. Remove from heat and keep covered. Make the seitan: In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (vital wheat gluten through chia seeds). Place the 1 1/2 cups of broth, white beans, soy sauce, and garlic in blender and process until liquefied. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the bean mixture, and stir until gluten is completely moistened. Drizzle the tahini over the top and knead it into the dough. Keep kneading until dough holds together in a ball. Set aside while you make the broth. Make the broth: Heat all ingredients until hot but not boiling. A microwave works well for this. Assemble: Preheat oven to 400. Lightly oil an oval or rectangular baking dish, 11-13 inches long and 6-8 inches wide. (Your seitan will expand to fit it, so try not to use a very wide dish.)
Line your work surface with plastic wrap, parchment paper, or waxed paper. Place the dough in the center, cover it with plastic wrap, and roll out the seitan, making sure that it is the same thickness in all places, until it's about 9x13 (an inch or so either way doesn't matter, but make sure it's not longer than your pan). Spread the stuffing evenly, leaving a 1-inch margin on all sides.
Lift up the plastic wrap on one of the long edges and roll the seitan up like a jelly roll. (Alternatively, arrange the stuffing in a horizontal line across the middle of the seitan and bring one long edge up and over it to the other side.) Pinch the ends sealed first and then pinch well to seal the long seam. Take care to make sure that the edges are completely sealed and no gaps or stuffing shows.
Lift the seitan roll carefully and place seam-side down in the prepared casserole dish. Pour the baking broth over it, add rosemary, and cover tightly. If the dish doesn't have a cover, use aluminum foil to cover tightly. (Did I mention "tightly?" Tightly! I enclosed even the bottom of the dish in foil.)
Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, baste with broth, recover tightly, and bake for another 25 minutes. Baste again and return to oven uncovered for about 30 minutes. Baste 2 or 3 times as it's cooking. Seitan is done when top seems firm and brown and the broth has evaporated. You can test it by cutting a small slit in the middle; if it is doughy rather than firm, return to the oven.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10 minutes. Transfer carefully to a cutting board or serving platter and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Notes Variation: For a r For a r oulade that holds its shape and is a little simpler to cook, though not as moist and tender, make the following adjustments: Follow the directions for assembling the roast, brush it with 1 teaspoon soy sauce mixed with 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil, and then roll it up tightly in aluminum foil (it may take two sheets), twisting the ends to seal well. (The baking broth won't be needed.) Place on a baking sheet, bake for 25 minutes, turn, and bake for 25 more. Check to make sure it is done, and give it more time if it's not firm and brown. Slice and serve with gravy Nutrition Facts Seitan Stuffed with Walnuts, Dried Cranberries, and Mushrooms Amount Per Serving (1 serving) Calories 444 Calories from Fat 68 % Daily Value* Total Fat 7.5g 12% Sodium 642mg 27% Total Carbohydrates 57g 19% Dietary Fiber 7.5g 30% Sugars 2.4g Protein 39g 78% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. Tried this recipe? Post a photo and mention @susanffvk or tag #fatfreevegan
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But the new facility had a unique purpose. Back then, it and the Doublerink on Wilson Street in Ancaster — originally built by the same owner — were the only two arenas in town offering summer ice. As a result, demand was so high they'd be turning people away.
Del Fabbro was there in those days. Today, he's widely regarded as one of the best skate sharpeners in this city, but in 1978 he was a 17-year-old floor sweeper who eventually graduated to Zamboni driver at the place. Then manager and pro shop operator. In 38 years, he's seen it all.
So, sure, it was called the Double Dumps lately. But once upon a time it must have been much, much better.
"Worse," he laughs. "No word of a lie."
There was wire cage behind the nets and no glass on the boards. He says the downstairs was not pretty. Smoking was allowed inside which made for some sketchy air quality when combined with the fumes from the Zamboni, which ran on gasoline instead of propane like today's units.
But folks still came. People took their shots at the place but everyone played there. Everyone. Kids teams, adult leagues, even NHLers who'd rent the place every summer. If you played hockey in this city, chances are you skated there at one time or another.
Eventually, though, things started to change. Del Fabbro kept it as clean as possible but it was never going to be a palace. He says city taxes were $90,000 a year. With old, inefficient equipment that he couldn't afford to replace, hydro costs were soaring. To break even he needed to charge $220-$240 an hour for ice, which was an uphill battle against public rinks that get city subsidies.
"You can't compete with $145 an hour," he says.
There was just no cash for upgrades. Mix in nine new surfaces in the city in recent years, most of which offer summer ice, and the declining enrolment in kids' hockey — especially in the lower city — and it became incredibly difficult to stay relevant.
Two years ago things really started slowing down. Last April with the place for sale and no certainty about its future, Del Fabbro stopped taking ice rentals. He didn't want to have to call people who'd booked in good faith to tell them they were out of luck. Wouldn't be fair.
He kept sharpening skates and people kept driving from all over the city to have him work his magic. But the clock was ticking.
In January, he flicked off the lights for the last time. All he carried out as a souvenir was the grill of an old Zamboni he hopes to one day use as a centrepiece of a man cave at home. And a million memories of playing there, watching his two sons play there and basically serving as the unofficial mayor of Hamilton hockey who greeted everyone who came in.
Which really was everyone.
"We got absolutely no respect, and that's a disappointing part of it," Del Fabbro says. "But the fact that absolutely everybody played here is a good thing."
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Spectator columnist Scott Radley hosts The Scott Radley Show weeknights from 7-9 on 900CHML |
This was a real hoot.
Two women opened the door to a home and found a small owl sitting nonchalantly at the front door last week.
"It was hysterical," Jan Spence, who shot video of the encounter, told the Daily News. "It was so cute and it was just a foot from the door."
The Ponte Vedra Beach resident said her next door neighbor called her and was worried an unidentified animal was on her welcome mat.
Spence came over and when they opened the door they saw the animal just standing silently.
"It was amazing. It wouldn't move. It just sat there and looked at us," she said.
It was amazing. It wouldn't move. It just sat there and looked at us.
Spence called animal control who advised her to shut the door and it would leave but the next day the bird moved to her other neighbor's porch.
That's when the concerned woman decided to scoop it into a crate and call B.E.A.K.S., a bird rescue sanctuary in Jacksonville, A member came came and rescued the animal.
Cindy Mosling, the agency's director and co-founder, told The News the great horned owl is a few months old and is healthy. The agency will care for the critter until it is old enough to be released back to the wild.
The agency has taken in several of these owls recently as the young birds are falling out of nests and their parents cannot find them. Owls are normally nocturnal but sometimes are around during the daylight, she said.
The foot-long baby was unable to fly and was vulnerable to predators on the ground like raccoons, Mosling said, so Spence probably saved it by contacting B.E.A.K.S.
A Florida woman opened her front door and found this owl sitting quietly at her doorstep. (andrew emerson via YouTube)
The bird in the video may seem clam, but Mosling said it was probably very frightened.
Toward the end of the video the animal appears to rear up.
When the owls are scared they tend to spread out their wings and look as big as possible in an effort to intimidate a potential predator, Mosling said.
"It's their way of saying 'If you mess with me I will get you and I am mean and tough,'" she said.
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Every author I know gets asked the same question: How do you write a book?
It’s a simple question, but it causes unexpected problems. On the one hand, it’s nice to have people interested in something I do. If I told people I fixed toasters for a living, I doubt I’d get many inquires. People are curious about writing and that’s cool and flattering. Rock on.
But on the other hand, the hand involving people who ask because they have an inkling to do it themselves, is that writing books is a topic so old and so well trod by so many famous people that anyone who asks hoping to discover secret advice is hard to take seriously.
Here’s the short honest truth: 20% of the people who ask me are hoping to hear this – Anyone can write a book. They want permission. The truth is you don’t need any. There is no license required. No test to take. Writing, as opposed to publishing, requires almost no financial or physical resources. A pen, paper and effort are all that has been required for hundreds of years. If Voltaire and Marquis de Sade could write in prison, then you can do it in suburbia, at lunch, at work, or after your kids go to sleep. You will always find excuses if you want them and you probably do.
If you want to write, kill the magic: a book is just a bunch of writing. Anyone can write a book. It might suck or be incomprehensible, but so what: it’s still a book. Nothing is stopping you right now from collecting all of your elementary school book reports, or drunken napkin scribbles, binding them together at Kinkos for $20, slapping a title on the cover, and qualifying as an author. Want to write a good book? Ok, but get in line since most pro authors are still trying to figure that out too.
Writing a good book, compared to a bad one, involves one thing. Work. No one wants to hear this, but if you take two books off any shelf, I’ll bet my pants the author of the better book worked harder than the author of the other one. Call it effort, study, practice, whatever. Sure there are tricks here and there, but really writing is a kind of work.
Getting published. 30% of the time the real thing people are asking is how do you find a publisher. As if there wasn’t a phone book or, say, an Internet-thingy where you can look this stuff up. Writers-market is literally begging to help writers find publishers. Many publishers, being positive on the whole idea of communication, put information on how to submit material on their website. And so do agents. The grand comedy of this is how few writers follow the instructions. That’s what pisses off all the editors: few writers do their homework.
The sticking point for most wanna-be published authors is, again, the work. They want to hear some secret that skips over the hard parts. Publishers are rightfully picky and they get pitched a zillion books a day. It takes effort to learn the ropes, send out smart queries, and do the research required to both craft the idea for a book, and then to propose it effectively. So while writing is a rejection prone occupation, even for the rock-stars, finding a publisher is not a mystery. In fact the whole game is self-selective: people who aren’t willing to do the work of getting published are unlikely to be capable of the work required to finish a decent manuscript.
But that said – it’s easier today to self-publish than ever. Really. But again, our tragically unpopular companion, work, is required so many prefer to keep asking writers how they got published instead of just doing it themselves. I self published my last book, and you can read what I learned from it here.
Being famous and wealthy: Now this is the kicker. About 50% of the time the real thing people want to know is how to become a famous millionaire rock-star author person. As if a) I qualified, b) I could explain how it happened, or c) I’d be willing to tell.
First, this assumes writing is a good way to get rich. I’m not sure how this lie started but writing, like most creative pursuits, has always been a less than lucrative lifestyle. Even if a book sells well, the $$$ to hour ratio will be well below your average corporate job, without the health benefits, sick days, nor the months where you can coast by without your boss noticing. These days people write books after they’re famous, not before. And if the only books you read are bestsellers, well, you have a myopic view of the publishing world. Over 100k books are published in the US annually, and few sell more than a few thousand copies. What causes books to sell may have little to do with how good a book is, as we’ve all been mystified by the abysmal bestsellers and surprised by amazing books few seem to know about. Either way, to justify the effort you’ll need reasons other than cash.
Discouraged yet? Good. Here is the upside: I love writing books. I love reading books. I love the entire notion that people can make things up in their mind and then make them real on a page, for the pleasure or utility of someone else. That’s awesome. If you like writing, if you enjoy the bittersweetness of chasing words into sentences, then you might love writing books too, despite, or even because of, everything I said above. If so, get to work – now :)
Here are some practical next steps: |
John Sewel in 1997. (Suzanne Hubbard/PA via AP)
A leading ethics crusader in Britain’s Parliament has resigned as deputy speaker of the House of Lords after a videotape surfaced of him allegedly snorting cocaine off of a prostitute’s breasts, among other things.
Baron John Sewel, a former dean at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, is a member of Parliament’s upper house, where members are appointed. Sewel became a lord in 1996. While he has offered no comment to reports in the British tabloid the Sun on Sunday, the Lords Speaker Baroness D’Souza called his alleged behavior “shocking and unacceptable,” and said she has called on the police to investigate.
“The QUEEN has been pleased by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the Realm, dated 10th January 1996, to confer the dignity of a Barony of the United Kingdom for life upon John Buttifant Sewel, Esquire, C.B.E., by the name, style and title of BARON SEWEL, of Gilcomstoun in the District of the City of Aberdeen,” the London Gazette, an official organ of the British government, reported that year.
Once in Parliament, Lord Sewel seemed to embody the “dignity of a Barony,” serving as Tony Blair’s Scotland minister and becoming a vocal proponent of ethics reform. Less than two weeks ago in the Huffington Post, he wrote of the importance of rule changes that allow the House of Lords to expel members.
“The number of Members who break the House’s rules is small,” Sewel wrote. “Most work hard and provide a valuable service in inviting the Government to ‘think again’ about big issues, scrutinising legislation and informing public policy debates. But the actions of a few damage our reputation.”
Yet, in a startling reversal, the Sun on Sunday published video and photographs of the very married Sewel, 69, allegedly doing drugs and consorting with prostitutes. The unsparing British press saw no reason to spare the baron. Headline: “Lord Coke: Top peer’s drug binges with £200 prostitutes … And he’s the one in charge of standards.” ( £200 is the equivalent of about $310.00.) Swell is paid £84,500 ($131,254.00) for his role in Parliament.
Among Sewel’s remarks that may have damaged the reputation of the House of Lords, according to the Sun: “I just want to be led astray”; “It’s Coca-Cola — forget the Cola”; “What shows up in blood tests? … I can’t do substances because it can kill me”; “[Asian prostitutes] sort of look innocent but you know they’re whores.” He also appeared to snort cocaine off of a prostitute’s breasts with a £5 note.
Peer could face police probe after drugs video emerges http://t.co/4IiAGc7tqK pic.twitter.com/UQHcdLbKF7 — HuffPostUK Politics (@HuffPostUKPol) July 26, 2015
The Telegraph pointed out that Sewel could become the first member of the House of Lords expelled for bad behavior. His membership on a NATO committee will also prompt a security review.
“There have always been concerns that anyone involved in drugs or paying for sex could be vulnerable to blackmail so of course these allegations will raise concerns,” the Telegraph wrote, citing an unnamed individual “with knowledge of the NATO committee.”
The ethics legislation Sewel championed in the House of Lords was particularly demanding.
“All Members now sign a declaration to obey the code and the seven principles of public life,” he wrote in the Huffington Post. “They undertake always to put the public interest first.”
The seven principles, from the House of Lords Code of Conduct:
Selflessness: Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest. Integrity: Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships. Objectivity: Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias. Accountability: Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this. Openness: Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing. Honesty: Holders of public office should be truthful. Leadership: Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and be willing to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.
Refraining from patronizing sex workers was not mentioned, but is perhaps implied.
Passages of Sewel’s Huffington Post piece almost eerily presaged the scandal in which he now finds himself.
“The requirement that Members must always act on their personal honour has been reinforced,” he wrote. “An indication of willingness to breach the code is now itself a breach of the code, even if nothing more has been done. For this reason Members caught in sting operations by journalists have been found guilty of breaking the code even though nothing happened.”
And: “Scandals make good headlines. Preventive measures seldom do.” |
U.S. women's hockey team willing to risk everything for respect
The Canadian Press via AP Despite having seven world titles, the U.S. women's hockey team is willing to sit out until it feels it has achieved fair change.
To outsiders without a sense of the backstory that led to the U.S. women's national team announcing it will not report to the March 31 to April 7 world championships, the decision might look like a drastic measure. The team informed USA Hockey of its bombshell decision Wednesday after acceptable progress was not made in their 14 months of contract negotiations.
But to the members of the team, making a decision this antithetical to being world-class athletes is the ultimate measure of how serious and fed up they are.
They are willing to risk everything -- starting with sacrificing the chance to compete, something no elite athlete wants to surrender -- to earn the respect and support they feel has been nearly two decades too slow in coming to the girls and women's program.
When you hear the players' arguments, which were partially laid out in this press release Wednesday, it's hard to disagree.
The U.S. women's hockey team is a success story in spite of the laggard support they've received from their federation over the years -- not because of it.
Now, after winning seven world titles and capturing medals at every Olympic Games since women's hockey was introduced in 1998, when the U.S. team won gold, these players are finally drawing a line in the sand. To them, it doesn't matter anymore if the federation is guilty of merely benign neglect or the sort of systematic sexism other women athletes have had to fight. These women just want it to change.
"All of us consider it a privilege to put on a Team USA jersey," team captain Meghan Duggan said in a phone interview from Boston, where she lives and trains with seven other players. "None of us wanted this day to come. But we feel we owe it to women players who came first in our sport; we owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to women in future generations."
Mike Stobe/Getty Images for the USOC In many respects, the U.S. women's hockey team doesn't even get the perks given to the boys' under-18 teams.
The U.S. national team is ranked No. 1 in the world and was scheduled to report to Plymouth, Michigan, on March 21 for the world championships. Now all of that is in jeopardy.
Duggan and fellow team captains Kacey Bellamy and Monique Lamoureux-Morando called team general manager Reagan Carey early Wednesday morning to inform her of the squad's decision at about the same time USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean was notified by the players' legal counsel, John Langel and Dee Spagnuolo of Ballard Spahr. (The firm, which is handling this case pro bono, is the same one that conducted successful negotiations in the past for the U.S. women's soccer team against its federation.)
"We have so much respect for Reagan Carey we felt she deserved to hear it from the players first, before she heard it from a press release or social media of whatever outlet it might come from," Lamoureux-Morando said. "I think it's fair to say USA Hockey was probably shocked this morning and didn't expect us to go to this length to heard."
None of the national team members know if the federation, which is the governing body for all the U.S. men's and women's, girls and boys teams that represent in world and Olympic hockey competitions, will respond even more harshly than it did in 2000. Back then, the players' decision to merely hire attorneys to represent them in contract talks with the federation prompted then-coach Ben Smith to lock the team out of its training facility in Lake Placid.
That team blinked and quickly went back to work without a changed deal. Many players later felt Smith still held a grudge and cut star Cammi Granato years later for leading the uprising, a charge Smith disputed.
But the takeaway was not lost on this veteran-laden team. They say little has improved in the four Olympic cycles since.
USA Hockey issued a statement later in the day in which Ogrean said, "We acknowledge the players' concerns and have proactively increased our level of direct support to the Women's National Team as we prepare for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. We have communicated that increased level of support to the players' representatives and look forward to continuing our discussions."
But Langel challenged the federation's contention in the release that the players will receive $85,000 in compensation in the coming year as proof USA Hockey has significantly increase its commitment.
"That is so incredibly misleading. And you can quote me on that," Langel said. "That couples the USOC money with their [federation] money and assumes the women win gold at the 2018 Olympics. That amount would only apply to the Olympic year. And more than $60,000 of it would come from the USOC."
The statement did not specifically address the players' concerns about the other 3½ years and also suggested USA Hockey might send a team of replacement players to the worlds in the already-named national team's place.
"The players know that's always a risk. But they are confident that won't happen," Langel said.
Said Lamoureux-Morando: "I would say good luck trying to field a competitive team. It's a sad day when USAH says that it would be open to fielding a team other than its own national team rather than listening to its players who have devoted their careers to their program."
In the 16 years since that 2000 team's initial reach for more equitable treatment compared to their men and boys counterparts, today's women's senior national team says it still gets shockingly low financial support from USA Hockey.
The women's senior squad has been the jewel of the U.S. Olympic program, and yet significant parts of their treatment don't exceed even the perks given to the boys' under-18 teams, let alone the men's Olympic teams laden with NHL players.
The financial stipend the women's senior team receives covers only the last six months they train together in the four-year cycle leading up to each Winter Olympic Games, and amounts to a total of only $6,000 per player.
That's it.
The other 3 1/2 years? The women are on their own.
The players say the federation's past history of intransigence is one reason they started these talks so early last year.
But USA Hockey -- which reported gross receipts of $42 million in 2014-15 and paid its executive staff compensation ranging from $440,209 in salary and bonuses for director Dave Ogrean to $250,000 to $300,000 for other senior officials -- hasn't acted on the women's reasonable requests for things like merely having the federation schedule them more than nine games a year in non-Olympic years. Why hasn't that ever been done?
The teenage boys' national developmental teams plays a 60-game-plus schedule and often trains in residence in Plymouth.
The Olympic committee supplements the scant training money the female national team players get from USA Hockey. The USOC does so on a graduated scale from the U.S. Olympic Committee, same as athletes in other sports do. But even accessing that support requires meeting an exacting standard. The actual amount each woman hockey player gets from the USOC depends on accomplishments such as how often she's made the roster for past world championships and Olympic teams. It's capped at a maximum of $24,000 a year for even the most accomplished players. Others earn as little as $700 a month from the USOC.
Many of the U.S. national team players hold two or three jobs or lean on family and friends to continue to play.
The USOC sometimes pays bonuses for world championships or Olympic medals, too. But when Lamoureux-Morando, a member of five world title teams and two Olympic silver-medal-winning squads along with her twin sister, Jocelyne, is asked whether USA Hockey has ever supplemented the USOC performance bonuses, she says: "No. Never. Not since I've been here."
Even the rings the woman have been given for winning world championships have sometimes taken years to receive, unlike the under-18 boys teams.
If that were the only indignities the girls and women endure, it would be enough.
But over the years, the federation has rebuffed serious attempts from outside parties to organize post-Olympic victory tours for women's hockey similar to the profile-raising ones the U.S. gymnastics, women's soccer and figure skating teams have conducted.
"I think it's fair to say we've all failed these women as we've gotten to this point," laments sports agent Brant Feldman, who has represented players on the women's squad dating back to Granato.
Today's women's players have stories of having to endure more arduous travel arrangements to competitions that they contend their male counterparts would never be asked to tolerate.
The women's players tell stories of their goalies having to compete at world championships still using their college equipment -- then later noticing the under-18 boys program getting kitted out with all new equipment for their events.
They say they've tolerated room accommodations that, in one galling case, resulted in several players waking up with spider bites during a team camp stay in Blaine, Minnesota. (One player says some teammates who lived in the area brought their own blankets and pillows rather than use the ones provided.)
When you know all that, it's easy to see how this day has arrived.
One of the new things the national team players are now asking for is a contract that will provide them with a "living wage" and cover the entire four-year period between Olympics, not just their six-month, $6,000 residency they get now before they head off to each Winter Games.
Duggan says this team still hopes USA Hockey will respond to their requests in time for worlds. But if not, she says, this team is united. It will not break ranks.
"This is the most determined and passionate and stubborn group of women I know," Duggan says.
Added Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson: "Maybe now we'll be heard." |
Secretary of State John Kerry faced swift criticism Wednesday for suggesting the terror attack at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport was evidence the Islamic State is getting “desperate” – an assessment one top Republican official said “defies reality.”
Kerry made the remarks late Tuesday at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado, referring to ISIS by the name Daesh.
Crediting coalition efforts, Kerry said it’s been over a year since the group launched a “full-scale military offensive.”
"Now, yes, you can bomb an airport, you can blow yourself up. That's the tragedy. Daesh and others like it know that we have to get it right 24/7/365. They have to get it right for ten minutes or one hour. So it's a very different scale,” Kerry said. "And if you're desperate and if you know you’re losing, and you know you want to give up your life, then obviously you can do some harm.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, slammed the secretary’s assessment.
“They’ve said they’re on the run for many years, and they’re not,” McCaul told Fox News Wednesday morning. “I think the airstrikes have ramped up external operations … This is an unprecedented pace of terror in modern times. And so to say they’re on the run … absolutely defies reality.”
Underscoring Kerry’s questionable characterization was news Wednesday that Islamic State militants were pushing back U.S.-trained Syrian rebels in a battle for control of a town on the Iraqi border.
Also on Wednesday, President Obama spoke by phone with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express his condolences on behalf of the American people and to reaffirm the solidarity of the United States with Turkey following the terrorist attack, the White House said.
While no terror group has claimed responsibility for the Istanbul attack, Turkish officials told The Associated Press and Reuters that ISIS was the prime suspect. The attack killed at least 43 and injured hundreds, with the body county expected to keep rising. The attack at one of the world's busiest airports was committed by three suicide bombers who opened fire with AK-47s before blowing themselves up.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Fox News these attacks – along with those in Paris, Brussels and, most recently, Orlando, Fla. – are “following their plan.”
“This isn’t accidental,” he said, adding “something’s wrong” with the secretary of state’s analysis.
Officials inside the Obama administration have given a conflicting picture of ISIS’ strength.
What’s clear is that the group is under pressure from coalition forces in its central territory of Iraq and Syria, even as it pushes back. The Iraqi government declared victory over the weekend in driving ISIS out of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, and the Pentagon confirmed that Iraqi security forces are in “100 percent control” of the city -- while also saying ISIS has not had a “strategic victory” in over a year.
The disconnect comes when administration officials discuss ISIS operations and strength outside Iraq and Syria.
Earlier this month, CIA Director John Brennan testified on Capitol Hill that despite progress against ISIS on the battlefield, “our efforts have not reduced the group's terrorism capability and global reach.”
He described the group as “resilient” and said they will wage their terror campaign globally in response.
“The group's foreign branches and global networks can help preserve its capacity for terrorism regardless of events in Iraq and Syria,” Brennan said. “In fact, as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda.”
The chilling warning came after Obama said the anti-ISIS campaign “is firing on all cylinders” and the group “is under more pressure than ever before.” |
Electropedia is produced by the IEC , the world’s leading organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as “ electrotechnology ”. Electropedia (also known as the "IEV Online") contains all the terms and definitions in the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary or IEV which is published also as a set of publications in the IEC 60050 series that can be ordered separately from the IEC webstore . Electropedia is the world's most comprehensive online terminology database on “electrotechnology”, containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English and French organized by subject area, with equivalent terms in various other languages: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) , Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish (coverage varies by subject area). The world’s experts in electrotechnical terminology work to produce Electropedia under the responsibility of IEC Technical Committee 1 (Terminology), one of the 204 IEC Technical Committees and Subcommittees . |
Christie noted Houston’s cultural impact and called her a daughter of New Jersey.’ Christie defends Houston flag honor
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday strongly defended his decision to have the state’s flags flown at half-staff for singer Whitney Houston.
Christie had been criticized for ordering flags at state government buildings to be lowered on Saturday, the day that Houston’s funeral services would be held in Newark.
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His order was criticized both by those who thought that the honor should be reserved for recently deceased soldiers, first-responders and elected officials, and by those who thought it was wrong to honor an alleged drug addict.
Christie said he didn’t believe that Houston’s history of substance abuse “forfeited the good things she did.”
“I am disturbed by people who believe that because her ultimate demise — and we don’t know what is the cause of her death yet — but because of her history of substance abuse that somehow she’s forfeited the good things that she did in her life,” he said, according to the AP. “I just reject that on a human level.”
“What I would say to everybody is, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’” he added.
The cause of Houston’s death is not clear, and the results on the toxicology tests taken after she died are pending.
Christie, calling Houston “a daughter of New Jersey,” also noted the cultural impact that the singer has had.
The Republican governor pointed out that he had ordered flags flown at half-staff for New Jersey’s 31 service members killed in action and every police officer slain in the line of duty during his time in office, according to the wire service.
Last year, Christie ordered flags lowered to half-staff for Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. |
by: Matthew J.R. Kohler
In 2000, Battle Royale was one of the biggest books in the last decade (even competing with Harry Potter ). As with essentially all hugely successful books, it was made into a movie. If you don’t know what Battle Royale is, this is the plot: several students are trapped on an island and are forced to kill each other. Last week, I watched this movie for the first time and I was blown away. Not by the concept or by characters, but by how tame the execution (no pun intended) was.
When watching a movie about fifteen-year-olds murdering each other, you know it’s going to be messed up. What shocked me was not only the believability of the violence, but also the restraint from showing buckets of blood and gore. Remember the original Robocop? You know, the movie that satires violence so much that they showed how a man can be blown apart by shotguns? Well, that’s how I pictured Battle Royale. Thankfully, when someone would get shot in the movie, they would show little to no blood. That way, when someone did die in a bloody way, it would be more shocking.
Look at the main villain of the film (not the teacher, but one of the students, who dresses like Johnny Cash). Most of his kills are by a machine gun. The scenes are usually darkened to where it is hard to see when he kills someone. But three kills stuck out from him. The first two revolve around the truce scene. Two girls stand on top of a cliff, telling everyone to cease fire and figure a different way out. Suddenly, the villain kills both and puts a microphone to their mouths so everyone hears them scream. Not a lot of blood, but less is more. The same goes for the next main kill. When a man is trying to escape from Johnny Cash via bicycle, he is shot in the stomach. Fortunately, the weapon he received was a bullet proof vest. The next time we see the bicycle man is when we see his severed head, thrown into the medical shop in which our heroes are hiding. The filmmakers could have overkilled this by showing blood gushing everywhere. But, they knew that when you show something as shocking/ disgusting as a severed head with a petrified expression, PLUS a grenade in the mouth, you do not need to over stay your welcome. Look at many recent horror films such as Scream 4, the Saw movies, and My Bloody Valentine. They have so much blood it becomes preposterous to watch. Every death in Battle Royale has a point and moves the story.
Not many movies can say every death moves the story, unless it’s a tournament movie. Even Mortal Kombat the movie struggles with this, because there is no tournament structure. People fight one another just because. It seems like every five minutes Battle Royale tells us how many people are left, the name of who died, and you are shown who died. Sure, some do not have prominent roles, such as the heavy set kid or the gang who is slaughtered by Johnny Cash. But showing 42 prominent characters would be exhausting. But, about thirty of them had their own story. Even small ones, such as the man shouting equations as he tries to kill the main hero. He explains to him that if he lives then he can go to a real school. Sure, not an important character in terms of background, but even throwaways had some story that helped define the character. After all, stories are supposed to be about characters. That is why I am amazed that a movie like The Avengers has six main characters, yet gives none of them a story.
Battle Royale shines most when we see certain kids manifest into who they truly are. Unlike our heroes, who remain pure, certain students snap and figure they must kill or be killed. Most of the students try to stay pure, like the five girls at the lighthouse. They rescue the main protagonist and try to protect each other. But when one suddenly dies, the rest believe they are all trying to kill each other. Once again, the idea of, “how quickly will you turn on your friends?” resurfaces. This is why I love the two main characters; they remain true to themselves throughout the movie. It gives us hope that there are good people in this universe.
If someone asked me what is different about this movie, compared to Hunger Games, I would say emotion. The movie has a variety of emotional characters and, unlike Hunger Games, when it ended I was hopeful that the main characters are going to live together for a while, because I actually cared about them. Sure, the movie had some confusing scenes, such as the teacher giving the female protagonist an umbrella. Nonetheless, the movie not only felt authentic but also had a point when it all ended. The movie was not depressing just because; the writer had a story he wanted to tell. Because of tamed yet effective action, strong characters, and a sad but hopeful ending, I give Battle Royale an 8.5/10.
Listen to me and Richie Watkins’ full podcast on Battle Royale here.
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Ronda Rousey on Fallon Fox: Chop Her Pecker Off, But It’s Still the Same Bone Structure as a Man
Ronda Rousey on Fallon Fox: Chop Her Pecker Off, But It’s Still the Same Bone Structure as a Man by Josh Sanchez
Feb 23, 2013; Anaheim, CA, USA; UFC president Dana White speaks during the post fight press conference following UFC 157 at the Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
In the wake of UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione’s suspension for comments about transgender fighter Fallon Fox, the UFC has made their Fighter Code of Conduct public. Mitrione was suspended after calling Fox “a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak” and attacking the fighter’s character in other ways and we now know what terms of his contract were violated.
Here is an excerpt from the code of conduct:
Derogatory or offensive conduct, including without limitation insulting language, symbols, or actions about a person’s ethnic background, heritage, color, race, national origin, age, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.
Inappropriate physical, verbal and online behavior (such as inappropriate statements made via email, text messaging or social networks)
Conduct that undermines or puts at risk the organization or promotion of a UFC event, including without limitation, failure to deliver, engage in or otherwise execute any and all promotional responsibilities, or failure to return in a timely manner the accurate and complete documents, or information for immigration, licensing, medical, tax or athletic commission purposes.
Conduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity and reputation of the UFC.
Mitrione crossed the line when he made it less about Fox fighting women and more about assassinating her character. As soon as he went off and personally attacked her, his suspension had to happen according to the code of conduct.
Hopefully fighters will use this as a learning lesson and won’t speak before thinking in the past.
You can read the entire UFC code of conduct below:
Ufc Fighter Code of Conduct
[H/T: The UG] |
LONDON — There’s a helpful sign on the backs of seats in the family section at White Hart Lane, home of Tottenham Hotspur.
“Mind your language,” it begins.
“The north stand is our family stand,” it continues, with the second part of the sentence boldfaced. “Therefore, our club would like to remind supporters to show consideration for the large number of children and families that occupy this area.”
Then, more boldface.
“Please refrain from using foul and abusive language or behavior of a threatening nature.”
When my younger son, Eli, pointed out this stern, bright yellow notice to me, he had a huge grin on his face. He had just turned 10, was earning an allowance for the first time and was ready to expand his vocabulary. This was our second Spurs game since moving to London, and we knew what was coming. As far as he was concerned, White Hart Lane was a safe space where he could learn to cuss. |
David and Yolanda Foster‘s marriage broke down in part over her pursuit of fame on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, according to a source close to the family.
In the days since the couple announced the end of their four-year-marriage, there has been much speculation over exactly what lead to their split.
And a source tells PEOPLE how David, 66, struggled with his wife’s bid to star on the Bravo show – and indeed, only appeared on the show to make her happy.
“Yolanda’s obsession with fame for her and her children is the cause of the split,” a source tells PEOPLE. “David didn’t want to be part of the show, but he knew how important it was to her. He wanted to make her happy. ”
A source close to Yolanda counters: “David enjoyed being on the show. He gained a whole new set of fans through Housewives.”
Yolanda and and David Foster Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
David and Yolanda announced their split last week after nine years together and four years of marriage.
“What’s so hurtful now is that there are these stories perpetuating that he’s a horrible guy, who’s left her out to dry,” says a source.
“David would have probably worked on the marriage,” adds the source. ” He’s 66 and he doesn’t want to be alone and on his fourth divorce.”
Yolanda has three children from a previous marriage to Mohamed Hadid: Bella, 19, and son Anwar, 16, and supermodel daughter Gigi, 20.
RELATED VIDEO: Yolanda Foster’s Heartbreaking Confessions
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Calling into Watch What Happens Live Tuesday, Yolanda indicated that her battle with Lyme disease put a strain on the marriage.
“We had a beautiful love story that I will treasure forever. Unfortunately it was not strong enough to withstand the circumstances that came our way,” Yolanda said. “The truth is that we both worked through the difficult time through the best of our ability, so rather than judging what went wrong, I pick to honor the great times that we shed the last nine years. There were a wealth of good times.” |
Despite 19 of the EU’s 28 members voting against, American chemicals giants Du Pont and Dow look set to get the seal of approval on growing a strain of genetically modified corn in Europe.
Four member states abstained, while only five approved the crop, but because of the EU’s weighted voting system the European Commission is now obliged to pass it.
“If there is no negative qualified majority against the proposal then the Commission not may, but shall, adopt the proposal,” said the Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner Tonio Borg.
Germany’s Greens were furious at their country’s abstention, as a “no” vote there would have made all the difference.
“Today the Federal government missed an historic opportunity to be a clear voice against genetic engineering in Europe. The approval of genetically modified maize on European soil puts genetically modified food on consumer’s plates. Almost all Germans oppose that,” said the Green’s Simone Peter.
Several GMO crops are already grown in Europe, while others have been refused or withdrawn by their companies, citing consumer resistance to buying the product. |
Furious Tactics Tim is going to be throwing his gilet around his kitchen when he has a look at the papers. For not only is George Osborne planning to do unspeakable things to the pound coin, Daniel Levy is also planning to shake things up at Tottenham Hotspur again this summer. Levy, see, is pathologically addicted to changing managers and, remembering how well it went the last time Tottenham nicked a manager off Southampton, would like Mauricio Pochettino at White Hart Lane, even though he don't bloody speak no English.
And if he can't make Pochettino the new Glenn Hoddle, then Levy would like outgoing Barcelona manager Tata Martino instead. He's going for an Argentinian vibe this summer. Argentinians are so in at White Hart Lane now – just ask Erik Lamela. Tim, for his part, will just roll up his non-existent sleeves and go about his job in his trademark calm and collected manner.
If Liverpool win the league, it would be a victory for coaching, careful planning, brilliant attacking, never walking alone and expert banner-making. But it would not be a victory for defending. Liverpool's defending has been so comical at times this season that there is a strong case to be made for Kolo Touré, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger and Mahmadou Sakho not receiving medals should Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge fire them to the title. As such, Brendan Rodgers is mulling over another defensive reshuffle, with Sporting Lisbon and Argentina defender Marcos Rojo currently top of his wishlist.
Nicklas Bendtner, who will be released by Arsenal in the summer, is going to demand £104,000 a week from his next club. Queens Park Rangers will be on the phone shortly.
Standard Liege's striker Michy Batshuayi has announced grand plans for his future on Belgian television, revealing that he would like to join a Premier League club and that Arsenal are his preferred team, if he does say so himself. Everton, Arsenal, Anderlecht and Benfica are all interested in the 20 year old, who has 18 goals this season.
Meanwhile Arsenal are also looking at another Belgian forward, PSV Eindhoven's Zakaria Bakkali, but so are Liverpool and only one of them can have him. Or neither of them. These things don't always come off. We might never hear of Bakkali again.
José Mourinho has no strikers, except for the three strikers he has, and soon he's going to have no strikers, except for the two strikers he'll have once Internazionale nab Fernando Torres from Chelsea.
Everton are going to give Seamus Coleman a new contract in order to ward off interest from Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, while Hannover's Mame Biram Diouf is a target for Cardiff and Stoke, which feels like an appropriate place to end. The day isn't going to get more exciting than that. |
Sheriff: Man held gun to girlfriend’s head during argument
A far west suburban man is facing charges for holding a gun to his girlfriend’s head during a January argument in Bristol.
Adam Howard, 30, was charged with one felony count of possession of firearm ammunition by a felon, and misdemeanor charges of domestic battery and aggravated assault, according to the Kendall County sheriff’s office.
On Jan. 13, Howard’s girlfriend reported that he held a gun to her head during an argument in the 9000 block of Corneils Road in Bristol, according to the sheriff’s office.
Detectives began an investigation and Howard was charged Tuesday, according to the sheriff’s office.
He was taken into custody Wednesday by deputies while attending a hearing on an unrelated case at the Kendall County Courthouse, according to the sheriff’s office. He was taken to the Kendall County Jail to await his next court appearance. |
Cosmopolitan Magazine has been around since 1886 so it has seen quite a great deal of change over that time. The evolution of The Cosmopolitan Magazine into what is known today as Cosmo shows just how dramatic that change has been. In its early days, The Cosmopolitan was billed as a woman’s fashion magazine that included articles on the home, family, and cooking, but also included articles like “Some Examples of Recent Art” and “The Progress of Science.”
Later it became more focused as a showcase for new fiction and published works by authors like Upton Sinclair, Sinclair Lewis, Kurt Vonnegut, Willa Cather, and H. G. Wells. Typically, each issue would have five to eight short-stories, a full novelette, a full short novel, and some article on fashion and health. During this time, the cover art was almost exclusively illustrated — even when the covers featured celebrities.
With the introduction of television, there was a drastic decline in the demand for fiction-based magazines. In response to the waning sales there was a radical shift in the direction of Cosmopolitan. In the mid sixties, Helen Gurley Brown stepped in as editor in chief. She brought with her the message of sexual freedom for single women, and started replacing the cover illustrations with photos of young models in minimal clothing. Sales increased as a result.
Since then the magazine has become more sexually centered. It still features many articles on having pleasurable sex and maintain fulfilling relationships. There is a much greater emphasis on how women can make themselves more desirable to men. One look at the website reveals the tone of the magazine. These are the first three articles listed:
“4 Traits Men Find Irresistible”
“What Men Secretly Think of your Hair and Makeup”
“What You Should Do if He Cheats”
The late Kurt Vonnegut (who had multiple short stories featured in Cosmopolitan in the fifties) had this to say about the magazine: “One monthly that bought several of my stories, Cosmopolitan, now survives as a harrowingly explicit sex manual.” Indeed, browsing through the cover art of the past few years gives one the impression that there are an infinite number of sex positions. It is hard to feel sexually liberated while reading a magazine that talks about the vagina (or Hoo-Ha) like it’s something you can buy at a pet store. They have also been criticized for perpetuating a nearly impossible standard of beauty and for retouching models to make them appear thinner. Today Cosmopolitan retains almost no reminants of its origins. It is fascinating to see how it has shifted with the culture and how our culture has changed because of it.
Sources: here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
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Lauren McGuire is a SocImages intern and an assistant to a disability activist. She recently launched her own blog, The Fatal Foxtrot, that is focused on the awkward passage into adulthood.
If you would like to write a post for Sociological Images, please see our Guidelines for Guest Bloggers. |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As many as 80 million Americans have been infected with H1N1 swine flu, up to 16,000 have been killed and more than 360,000 hospitalized, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
Men enter the Arlington Convention Center to receive their H1N1 flu vaccinations in Arlington, Texas November 24, 2009. REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi
But 90 percent of the most vulnerable people remain unvaccinated, with only about 61 million Americans having received shots, the CDC said.
Swine flu vaccine is still widely available, with more than 130 million doses produced and 160 million people at high priority for getting the vaccine.
The pandemic, which began in March, is on the wane but health officials stress that influenza is unpredictable and could come back or mutate.
And this new virus, while it has not caused more deaths than seasonal influenza, has killed younger people than seasonal flu does.
About 90 percent of deaths in an average year are among people over 65, while 90 percent of those seriously ill or killed by the new virus are much younger and include as many as 1,730 children.
VACCINE STRUGGLE
Health experts say vaccination is by far the best way to ensure the virus does not come back or mutate into a new and more dangerous form, but the vaccine rolled out slowly and the public is now skeptical of the need to be vaccinated.
The U.S. government struggled for months to work with vaccine makers to get immunizations out. Now it is struggling to get rid of tens of millions of doses it purchased.
“As of January 2, an estimated 20.3 percent of the U.S. population (61 million persons) had been vaccinated, including 27.9 percent of persons in the initial target groups and 37.5 percent of those in the limited vaccine subset,” the CDC said in its report.
“An estimated 29.4 percent of U.S. children aged 6 months to 18 years had been vaccinated.” The CDC said this rate is similar to what is seen for seasonal influenza, which kills an estimated 36,000 Americans and up to 500,000 people globally each year.
More pregnant women than usual have been vaccinated — 38 percent as compared to between 15 percent and 25 percent in an average year. Pregnant women are always at high risk from any flu and they accounted for an unusually high percentage of those sickened and killed by H1N1.
“The results in this report show that nearly 90 percent of adults aged under 65 years with medical conditions that increase their risk for influenza-related complications remain unvaccinated,’ the CDC added. These include otherwise healthy people with asthma or diabetes.
And just 22 percent of healthcare workers say they have been vaccinated, although they are more likely to be infected and can infect their vulnerable patients.
Five companies are supplying swine flu vaccine to the U.S. market — Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, AstraZeneca unit MedImmune, CSL and GlaxoSmithKline. |
They live in a house that needs no fans, even when it is a blistering 40 degrees outside. They let their land bloom and bear like a forest, without any interference. They created a life for themselves that is close to nature. And the best benefit? They haven’t had to take any medicines in the last 17 years!
When Hari and Asha married, they made their wedding a gathering for fellow environmentalists. Every guest was served a fruit and a bowl of Kerala’s traditional payasam. They wouldn’t celebrate it any other way!
Hari is an employee of the local water authority in Kannur and Asha is part of a community that helps farmers practise natural farming. They both love nature and this is reflected in every aspect of their lives.
When they decided to build a house, Hari and Asha wanted it to be energy efficient, deeply connected to nature and sustainable. An architect friend joined them in making such a house a reality. The 960 square feet house sits amidst 34 cents of land in a little town in Kannur District, Kerala. What makes it unique in our times is that its walls are made of mud, an inspiration drawn from how the tribals of Kerala built their mud houses.
These mud walls are alive and they breathe – in and out.
The walls let the warmth of the sun into the house slowly during the day. By the time the air within the house is warm, it’s evening. The house stays warm until around 11 at night. Then it’s time for the cool air to permeate. This movement of air makes a fan completely redundant for the house, whatever the temperature outside. The roof of the house is made from a combination of concrete and corrugated tiles. The concrete was advised because of the heavy rains the region gets, otherwise the couple would not have included it in the structure.
The usage of electricity is minimal and there are very few light points in the house. The architect for the home specialises in space management – he structured the house in such a way that it gets ample natural light.
Lights are placed in such a way that a single lamp can light up a large area.
Hari and Asha decided they do not need a fridge, primarily because most of the food they consume comes directly from their land. Still, in order to create some kind of cool storage area, they dug up a square space in the kitchen, lined it with bricks and placed a mud pot inside. By filling sand around the pot and keeping it damp, the mud pot stays cool and keeps things fresh for a at least a week.
They also use solar panels and their kitchen runs on biogas. All waste generated from the house, including latrine waste, is converted to biogas. Their power consumption from the grid is as low as 4 units per month, while an average household uses a minimum of 50 units a month! “This doesn’t mean we live a primitive life,” says Hari. They have a TV, mixer grinder, computer, and other appliances like many normal urban households – they’ve just figured out smarter ways to generate and use energy.
Hari and Asha’s home sits in the middle of a mini forest that they have created. It is now home to birds, butterflies and animals.
The land produces fruits and vegetables, which they believe should grow naturally; they do not till the land. The only time they use a tool like a shovel is while planting. Natural manure is used and that too very judiciously, without overfeeding the land with nutrients.
“Have you noticed that a fruit from the forest tastes different from a fruit from cultivated land?” asks Asha. “The land knows it all,” she smiles.
Natural living has also benefited their health, the couple believes. They haven’t taken any medicines for the past 17 years. Good food and a policy of not interfering with the body, have kept diseases at bay, apart from the occasional cold and fever. “With some rest, liquids and fasting the body bounces back to full vigour,” Hari beams.
While we can’t all create a forest like Hari and Asha, there is perhaps still a lesson or two in this story for us – of adopting simpler lifestyles that are gentle on the environment and unclutter our own existence too.
You can write to Hari and Asha at: [email protected].
Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: [email protected], or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter (@thebetterindia). |
Post-NFL Draft Article Written by: Michael Hauff
The Carolina Panthers have had quite the tale of two seasons. In 2015, the Panthers skyrocketed to the top of the NFC before ultimately falling short in the Super Bowl. Last season, the Super Bowl hangover was legitimized as they would never win more than 2 consecutive games for the entire season. There were a couple of takeaways from the Panthers rise and fall. One of those takeaways was that the offense was in desperate need of a spark. Another takeaway was that their star quarterback Cam Newton was in need of some relief. The 2015 MVP has accounted for 45% of the Panthers rushing touchdowns since his rookie season but has been taking a beating in the process. It was with those takeaways in mind that the Carolina Panthers would use the 8th overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft on Christian McCaffrey.
For the Panthers, this truly is a significant change to their backfield. McCaffrey represents the first running back selected in the first round by the Panthers since 2008. He could also become the first player not named Newton, Stewart, or Williams to be the team’s best rusher in a season since DeShaun Foster in 2007. While all of this signifies a changing of the guard it is an interesting debate as to what sort of instant impact he may have on your fantasy football roster.
For starters, the former Stanford star could be one of the go-to players in the backfield passing attack. Last season the Panthers backfield accounted for 44 receptions while McCaffrey averaged 41 during his final two years in college. Another glaring statistic out of the Panthers backfield is that two players combined just 5 touchdowns through the air over the last two seasons. The Panthers current disregard of the passing game to the running backs could just be for a lack of personnel but McCaffrey’s 8 receiving touchdowns in the last two seasons at Stanford represent a potential new layer to their offense.
What is worth noting in regards to defenses against running backs in the passing game, in 2016, two out of the top three teams in most passing yards allowed to running backs are on the Panthers schedule in 2017. One of those two teams is in the NFC South. If his yards per route stay on par with his college output than his involvement in the Panthers backfield passing attack could produce solid returns for fantasy owners. Considering his impact in the passing game at Stanford, it goes without saying that his value in point per reception leagues is considerably higher than it would be in standard.
The running game itself is what may have some fantasy football enthusiasts feeling a bit apprehensive. The Panthers tend to always be in the top half of the league in rushing attempts but it is how they get there that could be alarming for fantasy players. Last season, Ezekiel Elliot led the league in attempts with 322. The Panthers in 2016 had 346 rushing attempts between five different players. Despite being a run heavy team, 2016 marked the first year since 2011 that the Panthers failed to reach 2,000 yards rushing as a team. This downward trend was also noticeable in their offensive line as Pro Football Focus saw the Panthers offensive line rank go from 6th in the preseason to 17th towards the end of the season. It isn’t all bad though as the offensive line received a bit of a boost during the offseason when they signed former Viking Matt Kalil.
Stats provided by: sports-reference.com
Christian McCaffrey Fantasy
Some fantasy football owners may have stars in their eyes in regards to McCaffrey, and that is understandable. With that said though it is important for potential owners to remember that the Panthers way of running the ball was never a genuine attraction. While it is unsure if McCarffrey could physically handle a full NFL workload it is worth noting that since 2003 the Panthers have had just two rushers with 250 or more attempts. His partner in crime in the backfield will be Jonathan Stewart who despite hitting the dreaded 30 years of age mark, finished with the third most carries of his career last season.
McCaffrey will not be a forgotten man on the depth chart by any means but his full ownership of the Panthers backfield may not be immediate and by that, I mean in 2017. Folks should be aware of this if they consider reaching for him in re-draft leagues. In keeper or dynasty leagues, the hype is almost undeniable with McCaffrey. His impact may not be pro bowl caliber immediately but not too far down the line he’ll be a solid investment for dynasty players. If you’re in one of those types of leagues, it would behoove you to keep a close eye on him early on.
McCaffrey will be the hot name on draft boards during the summer months and it is with good reason. His playmaking ability is enticing, to say the least. If it is a re-draft league, it is important that you don’t pass up a more impactful player in 2017 just to say that you’re the guy who owns McCaffrey. His impact will only go up for dynasty owners so feel free to fire when ready! It is important for some of the more optimistic people to know that rookies like Ezekiel Elliot do not grow on trees. If you’re looking for a running back with 250 or more carries then this rookie is not your guy. In 2017, McCaffrey will hover around somewhere in that RB2 range but he may have some games where he is giving you fits rather than the opposing coaching staff.
Christian McCaffrey Draft Profile
Pre-Draft Article Written By Phil Clark
Christian McCaffrey has joined Leonard Fournette and Dalvin Cook in a three-player amalgamation of running backs that has ascended into greatest prominence leading up to the rapidly approaching NFL Draft. While Joe Mixon also possesses enormous talent, a well-chronicled off-field incident in 2014 will impede his chances of a first round selection. It is also conceivable that Alvin Kamara could sneak into the initial round, but that should only occur if Fournette, Cook, and McCaffrey are no longer available. Which is why that threesome of has garnered the most conjecture among this year’s class of runners. Primarily regarding which team will procure their services, and what they could accomplish at the NFL level. Fournette’s standing as a big, fast, physical runner, who will be selected within the initial half of Round 1 has been essentially unchallenged. As has the belief that Cook is tantalizingly explosive, which will compel a franchise to make a first round investment in the former Seminole despite concerns about ball security, injuries, and off-field issues. But there is more uncertainty surrounding the versatile McCaffrey, as the topic of where he will ultimately be drafted has prompted an abundance of opinions. Some observers are convinced that he will be chosen among the top 10 in Round 1, while others are skeptical that he will migrate from the draft board that quickly.
Prior to establishing that he could be a highly effective playmaker at the collegiate level, Christian McCaffrey was a two-time Colorado high school player of the year, developed into a four-star back, and was widely considered to be the top recruit from his state in 2014. Primarily because he had already demonstrated the ability to flourish as an all-purpose performer. Not only by lining up in multiple positions offensively, but also through his contributions while playing special teams. The 5’11”, 200-pound son of former NFL receiver Ed McCaffrey eventually chose Stanford, and it is difficult to quarrel with the statistical achievements that led to his significant and well-deserved recognition. McCaffrey rushed for an even 300 yards and a 7.1 YPC average as a freshman in 2014 while generating 251 yards and two touchdowns as a receiver. His production skyrocketed the following season when he exploded for 3,864 all-purpose yards, which established a new NCAA record. 2,019 of those were generated on the ground, which represented the second highest total among all backs (trailing only). McCaffrey also manufactured 144 YPG and collected eight touchdowns as a rusher, while supplementing that output with 45 receptions for 645 yards and five additional scores a receiver. Plus, McCaffrey also managed to finish third overall in kickoff return yardage (1,070) as part of that exceptional year. McCaffrey’s 2016 season was impacted by injury, prohibiting him from replicating the output that he attained in 2015. Yet, he still amassed 1,913 total yards, bolted for 1,603 on the ground, and invaded the end zone 16 times. During his three seasons with the Cardinal, he ran for 3,922 yards, averaged 6.2 YPC, and produced 21 touchdowns. He also caught 99 passes for 1,206 yards and 10 scores and returned a combination of 90 punts and kickoffs for 1,859 yards, and two touchdowns. In the process, he was allotted nearly 46% of Stanford’s offensive workload during the final two seasons of his tenure.
Detailed analysis of high-profile draft prospects nearly always includes mention of their appealing combination of size, speed, and overall athleticism. That mixture of attributes does not automatically apply in McCaffrey’s case. However, he does possess an atypical skill set that elevates him beyond a vast majority of this year’s rookie class and could propel him into sustained success as a professional. He reads the field effectively and executes his cuts adeptly, which contributes to his ability to change directions fluidly. Although it is his unquestioned versatility that remains foremost among his appealing qualities. He has functioned in one-back and two-back formations, along with his experience working from the slot. The agile McCaffrey’s ability to excel while performing in this multitude of roles should create mammoth issues for many defenders. Particularly if his new team possesses the acumen to deploy him shrewdly. His capabilities were fully displayed at the NFL Combine, especially during his impressive performance in the 3 Cone Drill. As he produced the second best time by a running back since 2003 (6.57 seconds). He also finished first among all backs in the 60-yard Shuttle (11:03 seconds), third at his position in the vertical jump (37.5 inches), and fourth in the 20-yard Shuttle (4.22 seconds). He also completed the 40-yard dash in 4.48 seconds, which tied him for fourth among all backs, and was slightly faster than both Fournette and Cook. Plus, McCaffrey presented further evidence of his proficiency as a receiver, by executing routes with effectiveness, and displaying trustworthy hands.
Despite the many positive elements to his game, there is concern from some NFL coaches and scouts regarding his viability as an every down back. As the concept of McCaffrey flourishing while taking on a full-time workload seems less realistic than the likelihood that he would perform capably while being placed in multiple, but part-time roles. There is also a degree of consternation about the wear and tear that he has already absorbed. McCaffrey accumulated 731 touches in plays from scrimmage and carried the ball 632 times. Including a whopping 337 rushing attempts in 2015 alone. Also, he managed just 10 reps during the bench press portion of the combine. Which placed him behind 29th among the 30 backs who participated in that drill. However, any trepidation about McCaffrey’s ability to succeed at the NFL level should be alleviated by the fact that he has consistently exhibiting the flexibility and elusiveness to generate plays of significance as a rusher, receiver, and returner.
Pinpointing which franchise would be the most likely destination for McCaffrey has become an arduous task in comparison to other members of the 2017 rookie class. The five prognosticators (including me) who participated in the latest Gridiron Experts Mock Draft have predicted four different landing spots for McCaffrey – all of which remain plausible. Among the feasible locations are Carolina, even though it currently would require the eighth overall pick of the draft to secure his services. The Panther attack would certainly become more challenging for opponents if he was deployed as a multi-faceted weapon for Cam Newton. That could only help a unit that plunged to 19th in total offense last season, after ranking 11th in 2015. It is also reasonable to envision him excelling within an already potent New Orleans attack, as the innovative Sean Payton would implement McCaffrey’s skills while increasing the degree of difficulty for anyone attempting to contain the Saints. Indianapolis ranked 23rd in rushing last season and absolutely must garner another backfield weapon, beyond the seemingly ageless. While the 12-year veteran surpassed 1,000 rushing yards for the ninth time in his career last season, he will turn 34 in May, and a continual reliance on him to function effectively in a featured role is unwise. McCaffrey’s presence would immediately supply the Colts with another weapon that can supply big-play capabilities. Meanwhile, Philadelphia has providedwith two more options that deliver big play potential (), and adding McCaffrey would fortify and diversify the Eagles’ weaponry even further. Plus, it would instantly provide an emerging offense with a younger back, who is capable of exploding for massive gains.
Any apprehension concerning Christian McCaffrey should easily be offset by his numerous strengths. Particularly his aforementioned versatility, which could enable him to thrive as a multi-purpose performer. This provides his new team with the option of exploiting game specific mismatches with opposing defenses, by utilizing him at running back, and lining him up as an X, Y, or Z. Plus, he could ascend into one of the league’s more dangerous returners. This ability to operate effectively as a hybrid will also increase the likelihood that he will be employed extensively by the team that ultimately secures him. Making him a feasible fantasy option for owners. Of course, the specific identity of that team will remain unsettled until the draft commences. Once his destination is known, it becomes easier to forecast the extent of his role this season, along with the corresponding expectations that will result. The belief from here is that McCaffrey won’t be chosen within the top 10 picks. But he won’t fall beyond selection number 25 either. A scenario in which one team moves up to select him during that portion of Round 1 is also very plausible. Once the regular season begins, his vast capabilities should result in a respectable workload, which will enable him to produce dividends for owners that invest in him during the fantasy draft process. If his new head coach or offensive coordinator possesses the expertise to be among the league’s more creative strategists, then McCaffrey’s usage and output will elevate into the high end of his achievable point range. |
Image copyright EPA Image caption President Maduro appeared on television to declare: "good news!"
Venezuela is set to raise its minimum wage by 40%, in a move expected to worsen already high levels of inflation.
The country is suffering from an economic crisis in which shortages of food and medicine are common.
Venezuela's economy has been hit by falling oil revenue and the plummeting value of the Bolivar.
President Nicolas Maduro announced the wage increase in his end-of-year address.
He said the move would "protect workers" from what he called an economic war on the socialist nation by the United States and others.
Earlier this year, the US imposed sanctions on President Maduro, labelling him "a dictator who disregards the will of the Venezuelan people".
The year has been marred by widespread protests and violence in Venezuela, culminating in the creation of a constituent assembly of Mr Maduro's supporters.
It was set up to rewrite the nation's constitution, but quickly assumed many powers of the opposition-led parliament.
Speaking on television next to a Venezuelan flag, Mr Maduro described the pay increase as "good news".
But there are fears the move will simply push inflation rates up faster. The opposition-led congress said that in the past year, prices had already risen by almost 1400%.
President Maduro, however, spent most of his speech blaming outside influences for Venezuela's problems, saying nations like the United States were attacking its currency and sabotaging its oil industry. |
By now, I believe most of you guys are familiar with this girl, known online as “black lipstick buxom boy”, famous for appearing in a video titled “Die Cis Scum”.
In case you’re wondering what his or her gender is, she was born female, but decided that she was actually both male and female(gender neutral). She decided to change her name to “Raphael” and her preferred pronoun to “ze”
In the original video, Raphael argued that people who dislike the phrase “die cis scum” were “just a bunch of people having hissy fits that their status quos were being challenged”
She defined “cisgender” as “a long time ago, a doctor took 5 seconds to look at your baby genitals and say ‘you are going to be this person’, and by some astronomical coincidence, you grew up and said, “meh.”
She went further to explain that “die cis scum” was a “perfectly reasonable responds to years upon years of trans-phobia and bigotry…
“If you think that a person is not entitled to being angry at the prejudices against them, then you’re probably a privileged douche-bag”
The full video can be seen below:
After the video went viral, Raphael gained Internet fame/infamy, and was proud of it, too. For a long time, she ran a very active Tumblr blog where she “fought” against the oppressive patriarchy and complained about men. Posts from her blog have been shared several times on my Facebook page, Reddit, 4chan and other websites known for ridiculing SJWs.
And then it happened.
She “came out” as “cisgender” and said that being transgender was just a phase for her, which she has finally grown out of.
Here’s what she looks like now:
I don’t know if she feared backlash from her fellow Tumblr peeps or if it was out of embarrassment, but she decided that she’d had enough of the Internet.
She deleted her Tumblr Account and shut down her website. Her Instagram and pretty much every other social network she was present on disappeared too. Her YouTube Channel is still live, but she deleted all her uploads including the original “Die Cis Scum” video. The video included in this article was re-uploaded by someone who managed to download it before she took it down.
She has essentially gone off the grid, but I managed to retrieve some old pictures of her (don’t ask me how).
Compare them to what she looks like now and tell me it’s not an improvement. |
We love Matt Buchanan and couldn't be happier that he's marching off to make something that's new and brilliant and unique in tech writing. You might've heard that today's his last day, so what better way to send him off to puppier pastures than a list of all the stuff he did wrong. Here's Matt being bad, before he was so very good:
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Matt's a hell of a camera writer, but in 2007 he was dropped in the middle of the biggest Nikon event in years with balls for camera knowledge. This is what he pooped out. More »
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Matt's been a little down on BlackBerries lately, but there was a time when they excited him, and others. Love all over it. More »
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Our "Don't call gadgets sexy" position stems largely from Buchanan's longstanding policy that you can only call a gadget sexy if you actually want to fuck it. We're lubing up the iMacs. More »
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Please Stop Calling Gadgets Sexy Dear technology journalists of the world: You know how you called that gadget you just reviewed… Read more Read
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In 2008, we desperately needed an iPhone competitor. The Samsung Instinct wuddin't it, even though The Instinct rocks EV-DO Rev A and GPS. Rock. More »
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Says Mat Honan: "matt ended the recession in 2009." More »
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We really like Toy Fair, but this roundup wasn't very FTW. More »
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Matt's on the record as a French Press hater, but senior reporter Mat Honan did some digging and found out he really loves them. More »
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"The dryer situation in Japan is weird." Buchanan thought you should know. More »
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Man, why did Matt ever post this really mean—oh wait, that's not Matt. It's a very angry person yelling about him. More » |
Winx has shrugged off the wet to claim her 10th Group One
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Winx has shrugged off the wet to claim her 10th Group One victory and extend her winning streak to 15 in the Chipping Norton Stakes (1600m) at Randwick.
On a soggy Saturday when trainer Chris Waller came close to scratching the champion mare, jockey Hugh Bowman urged her to the front and Winx cruised to a two-length win over Lasqueti Spirit, with Who Shot Thebarman third.
The expected duel between Winx and Harnett on the heavy track was not to be, with the gelding finishing eighth.
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Beyond our biggest cities, seeking out the best Chinese restaurants in America can be like looking for needles (or better yet, noodles) in a haystack, only to find yourself grasping at straws. No doubt the entire history of the Chinese immigrant experience in America can be glimpsed in the fact that the best restaurants for Chinese food are likely to be mom-and-pop affairs that don’t cater to Westerners—they’re a little like our best Mexican restaurants in that way. Whether this dim sum parlor makes unreal char siu bao or that hole-in-the-wall serves dandan noodles to make you cry, their discovery by English speakers typically happens through word of mouth, actual or virtual. That said, these 17 restaurants—some new sensations, others decades-old icons—stand out for helping to define (or redefine, as the case may be) Chinese cuisine in their communities. From dim sum restaurants in New York to high-end restaurants in downtown L.A. to a local legend in Falls Church, these are the best Chinese restaurants in America—start planning your pilgrimages now.
1. Chengdu Taste, Los Angeles, CA
After running a successful restaurant in China and working at the Panda Restaurant Group in Los Angeles, Tony Xu opened Chengdu Taste in 2013. The San Gabriel Valley—and the rest of L.A.—quickly took notice, and the lines haven’t let up since (a second location opened up in Rosemead). Fiery Szechuan dishes fill tables with intoxicating smells and an overarching red hue that indicates an intimidating level of spice. Start slowly, perhaps with cold mung bean noodles slathered in chili paste, then move to more grandiose items: boiled fish in green pepper sauce, stir-fried pig’s intestines, lamb on toothpicks with cumin. A green peppercorn here and there will have your mouth feeling numb at times, but the flavors at Chengdu Taste are all intense, wonderful and worth the wait.
2. Xi’an Famous Foods, New York City, NY
Chinese-food fanatics rejoiced when this Flushing chainlet began its move into Manhattan. As at its Queens counterparts, the Manhattan shops offer the cuisine of Xi’an, an ancient city in North Central China that was once a vital part of the Silk Road trade routes. The cumin-spiked “lamb burgers,” tangy liang pi cold noodles and warm tofu submerged in crimson chili oil are all must-haves.
3. Fat Rice, Chicago, IL
Owners Abraham Conlon and Adrienne Lo (formerly the duo behind Chicago supper club X-Marx) are cooking the food of Macau, a former Portuguese colony along the South China Sea. As such, their menu is heavy with influences both Portuguese (bacalhau, salt cod) and Chinese (pot stickers, Szechuan peppercorns), not to mention any other forays toward which Conlon, the chef, is guided. If this convergence sounds like “fusion,” what’s remarkable is it certainly doesn’t taste like it: The food—especially the paella-like wonder that is the signature “fat rice” and the comforting crock of tofu, pork belly—is vibrant, personal and natural.
4. Yank Sing, San Francisco, CA
The aromas coming from the steamed and fried dumplings at Yank Sing are so tantalizing, you’ll likely gobble them down before finding out what’s in them. Exceptionally fresh and flavorful dim sum is undoubtedly what keeps this longtime restaurant thriving in an unlikely corner of a massive office complex. Ordering is half the fun at this trolly-service dim sum institution: Just point at what looks good as the waiters roll their carts past your table. Favorites include shanghai dumplings with pork, scallion, ginger and a shot of hot broth, stuffed crab claws, and goldfish dumplings filled with crunchy shrimp and bamboo shoot tips.
5. Din Tai Fung, Los Angeles, CA and Seattle, WA
There is a go-to restaurant for every kind of Chinese dish in Los Angeles—Beijing’s xiangbing (meat pies), Peking duck, cold noodles—and Seattle is no slump either, but for xiao long bao (soup dumplings) in both cities, we go to Din Tai Fung. Now with three locations in L.A., two in Seattle and one in Orange County, the Taiwanese dumpling house is a favorite among both tourists and locals for slurping down pork dumplings (pork and shrimp is another popular option) for lunch or dinner. At the Glendale location in L.A., a slice of truffle can be added on top of your dumplings—not entirely traditional, sure, but we’re not complaining.
6. Grand Sichuan, New York City, NY
Xiaotu “John” Zhang may not rank among New York’s superstar restaurateurs, but his expanding Chinese chain has a cult following nonetheless. Zhang brought real-deal Szechuan food to Chelsea when he opened a branch there in 1998. His menu passionately describes the history and cooking process behind each dish, providing diners a comprehensive primer on the feast to come. Start with a sinus-clearing bowl of dandan noodles, loaded with dried peppercorns, or opt for the addictive gui zhou chicken, which combines dry-fried hot chilies and tongue-tingling Szechuan peppercorns, without a drop of gloopy sauce. If you’re looking for something milder, order a basket of eight succulent pork soup dumplings. Just don’t be afraid to experiment: Gems abound on the menu, and you have nothing to lose but your fear of fire.
7. Facing East, Bellevue, WA
A David to the Goliath of chains like Din Tai Fung and Boiling Point that keep sprouting up around Seattle, Facing East derives its staying power from owner Yu-ling Wong’s deeply personal approach to the food of her homeland, street eats in particular. Noting that, per Taiwan’s complicated political history, its cooks have incorporated “a lot of different cuisines” (Fujian above all, with “a little bit of Japanese influence”), Wong brings her own modern sensibilities to bear on the classics, whether exchanging caul with tofu sheets or using beet juice for coloring. As a result, staple comforts shine lighter and brighter, from the cracklingly crispy Tainan shrimp rolls and soulful pork-belly stew over rice to specials like bamboo shoots with salty egg yolk and garlic or shaved ice with fresh mango in season—not to mention the legendary pork “burger,” an overstuffed bao sprinkled with peanuts and herbs.
8. Dim Sum Garden, Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia’s home to a number of superb contenders, but it’s hard to top one with a backstory like this Chinatown magnet has: the owners can trace their ancestry back to one of the chefs who invented the universal objects of foodie worship that are xiao long bao—and they’ve got the recipe to prove it. What’s more, says Sally Da, her mother-partner Shizhou has been cooking “the entire line of Shanghai-style dim sum” for more than 30 years. So it’s not just those intricate, elastic little dough pouches, bursting with soup at the touch of a tooth, that earned Dim Sum Garden such loyalty it moved to a bigger (but no less thronged) space in 2013; dumplings and cakes of all kinds—flat, fat, steamed, fried, savory, sweet—play substantial roles along with myriad variations on the snappy house noodles.
9. Lao Sze Chuan, Chicago, IL
Tony Hu uses plenty of Szechuan pepper, dried chilies, garlic and ginger to create flavors that are incredibly addictive. Our favorites are Chengdu dumplings, crispy Chinese eggplant with ground pork, twice-cooked pork, mapo tofu, Szechuan prawns and “chef’s special” dry chili chicken. There are venues throughout the city and suburbs and trust us, whichever you pick, you won’t be disappointed.
10. Peking Gourmet Inn, Falls Church, VA
If Peking Gourmet Inn looks like your grandfather’s Chinese restaurant—painted lanterns, red vinyl booths, jacketed waiters and all—that’s because it could have been: after all, it’s been around since the late 1970s, when Deborah Lee and Bobby Tsui’s own Shandong-born grandfather opened it with only eight tables. It’s expanded greatly over the decades, but Peking duck remains at the center of it all, ceremoniously dismantled tableside for a feast of dark, rich meat and crackling, glistening golden skin accompanied by unusually delicate pancakes, housemade hoisin sauce, and green onions grown on the family farm—which also supplies the beloved garlic sprouts. Beyond that, look to the lamb dishes and the lightly batter-fried but heavily garlicky jeo-yen shrimp.
11. Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Café, Boston and Woburn, MA
Gene Wu calls the food of Shaanxi province “very simple, not fancy at all. It’s all based on freshness.” Of course, nothing requires consummate skill and an unwavering work ethic quite like simple dishes dependent on fresh ingredients. And Wu’s actions speak louder than his words as he shuttles between the pair of modest shops he, his wife, and his cousin run in Boston’s Downtown Crossing and the northern suburbs to make the buns for textbook, sloppy joe-like rou jia mo; the dough for the wide, springy, clingy noodles they’ll pull to order the way the third-generation restaurateur’s family did back home; and, well, not much else. Unlike the vast majority of its peers, Gene’s Chinese Flatbread Café serves just a few dishes. Perhaps the best-loved are the noodles with lamb (in soup or not), redolent of garlic, cumin and herbs, but the spicy chilled versions with wheat gluten or tea eggs enjoy near-equal acclaim. (Granted, there will always be a place in our hearts for Cantonese seafood institution Peach Farm, just a few blocks away.)
12. House of Eggroll, Chandler, AZ
Perfectly reflecting Arizona’s Asian-population boom, a former mediocre takeout joint in the Phoenix suburbs has morphed into the ultimate hidden gem without so much as a name change. Count Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Helen Yung, owner of one of the country’s best ice-cream shops, among House of Eggroll’s avid fans. “It reminds me of Xi’an Famous Foods before it expanded all over [New York City],” she explains, citing the menu’s “diversity, authenticity, and quality of execution” well beyond biang biang and liang pi noodles. Take pao mo, a staple soup filled with “fall-apart-tender pieces of marbled lamb” and cubes of flatbread that soak up the broth to “burst with flavor”; the “addictive” hot-and-sour soup with pork dumplings; and unusually spicy Shaanxi-style barbecue.
13. Cooking Girl, Houston, TX
For Houston’s hotheads, spicy Sichuan cuisine all comes down to two restaurants: Mala Sichuan Bistro and this sizzling upstart. Yunan Yang and her sister Lily Luo derive their equally thoughtful and heartfelt brand of cooking from their mother—who “came from a very big family” in Chongqing, where she learned “a lot of secret recipes from the family cook”—as well as from Yang’s own background in cancer research, which reveals itself in her emphasis on wholesome ingredients, from organic meats and veggies to digestive aids like the dried plum powder she sprinkles on fried sweet potatoes and, of course, imported numbing peppercorns. The effects run from pure exhilaration, as with the fried beef cubes and hot-sauce boiled fish brimming with chilies, to soothing relief in the form of meltingly tender, sweet-salty “soft bacon” or scrambled, fried tomatoes and eggs, accompanied by a fresh green-bean smoothie.
14. Gu’s Dumplings, Atlanta, GA
Yiquan Gu has always kept his eye on the prize. Whether wordlessly washing dishes for six months to convince a master chef in his native Chengdu that he was serious about his culinary education or closing his wildly popular namesake bistro in favor of a counter stall in Inman Park’s Krog Street Market, where he could focus on a streamlined repertoire rather than overhead distractions, his dedication to the art of Sichuan cuisine has been singular. And the proof is in the pudding—or rather the pork-stuffed, boiled jewels that give Gu’s Dumplings its name, tossed with tangy sauce from an ancient, and secret, recipe. It’s also in the mouth-tingling dry-fried eggplant and the savory-sweet, sesame-tinged cold noodles. Heck, it’s even in the po’ boy he makes with the chicken nuggets he stir-fries with broccoli and cilantro just for kicks.
15. Sichuanese Cuisine Restaurant, Plano, TX and Seattle, WA
What launched in Seattle as a pioneering mom-and-pop hot-pot hut over 20 years ago is now a four-branch fleet across two states, managed by Hsiao Sung Kao and Yuen Ping Cheng’s cadre of relatives. Though they vary slightly, the menus are huge, so it’s up to you to focus on the regional specialties that give Sichuanese Cuisine Restaurant its blunt name: aside from the ma la huo guo, you’re here for water-boiled beef or fish, Chongqing-style chicken, dry-fried string beans and stir-fried pork kidney (or, to use the transliterated name, “fire-exploded kidney flowers”), all of which may leave you a bit beaten and bruised—but blissfully so.
16. Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet Restaurant, St. Louis, MO
As dining destinations ago, Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet Restaurant (2336 Woodson Dr) is likely to confound the mainstream eater—which is to say it’s the epitome of a chowhound magnet. For one thing, it’s located in a former Taco Bell; for another, the Hong Kong-born namesake’s specialties are nowhere to be found on the English-language menu. But if you’re willing to put yourself in his friendly hands, you’ll be treated to a feast defying all expectations. First and foremost is the exemplary Hainanese chicken—boiled, bone-in, skin-on, accompanied by broth-cooked rice and a contrastingly pungent sauce—along with seafood dishes like the uncommon golden-yolk pumpkin shrimp.
17. Little Village Noodle House, Honolulu, HI
The history of the world’s cuisines, like the history of the world itself, is one of cross-cultural transformation—which is to say that, made with integrity, Chinese-American cuisine is a legitimate tradition in its own right. That might be especially true in Hawaii, where Chinese immigrants began integrating into the Polynesian culture a couple of centuries before the heyday of Trader Vic’s. Case in point: Little Village Noodle House, the culmination of Kenneth and Jennifer Chan’s decades-long impact on the Oahu dining scene after arriving from Guangdong province in the mid-1970s. The enormous menu spans regions, but if there’s a (slightly kitschy) place to indulge your cravings for the stuff you grew up with—honey-walnut shrimp, orange chicken, fried rice and all—this is it. Plus: flaming pork chops. |
The employment minister, Eric Abetz, has rejected claims that his advisers urged his department to “massage” jobs figures to ensure Tony Abbott’s key election promise of creating one million jobs over five years was on track.
The government is due to release jobs figures this week, but a report published on Monday suggested the minister’s office had urged the department to revise the figures upwards by 160,000.
Original projections of 838,100 new jobs over the next five years did not satisfy the minister’s office and his adviser, Josh Manuatu, according to the report.
Abetz claimed the report in the Australian was incorrect and criticised the journalist. Abetz tabled a statement from his department to support his claims.
The minister said rather than his office pressuring the department, the department “offered up” the figures to the minister’s office.
“The department is not publishing employment projections ‘scaled up’ to reflect the government’s commitment to create one million jobs. The figures to be published this Friday are based on the employment growth projections from the 2013-14 MYEFO [mid-year economic and fiscal outlook].
“The department also offered the minister’s office figures showing the potential make-up of sectoral growth taking into account the government’s policies. However, these figures are not being published, nor did the minister’s office ever ask the department to publish them.”
Since Abbott’s election promise to create one million jobs over five years, news has followed that Holden and Toyota will leave Australia, Qantas has announced plans to cut 5,000 jobs and Alcoa will cut 980 jobs at its Point Henry smelter.
In Senate question time, Labor’s Kim Carr demanded that Abetz release the correspondence between his office and the department on the jobs figures, but the minister told the Senate that given Labor had made a freedom of information request for the correspondence, he would abide by that “timetable”.
Carr will move a motion on Tuesday to order Abetz to produce the documents between his office and the department relating to the job figures. Though the motion is likely to succeed with the Greens’ support, the government is unlikely to comply.
“When the Coalition’s policies are implemented, many thousands of Australians will be relieved from the social and economic consequences from being on the unemployment scrap heap,” Abetz said.
Labor’s employment spokesman, Brendan O‘Connor, demanded Abetz release all documents and emails relating to the interference by his office.
“After six months as prime minister, Mr Abbott should have created 100,000 jobs to be on target, instead only 33,700 have been created.
“The only fight over jobs the Abbott government is willing to have is a fight with the Department to manipulate jobs figures.” |
It's officially the most expensive; Mr. Bean's $1.4m (£910k) car repair tops an unwanted chart after Rowan Atkinson's insurance company shelled out big bucks to fix his McLaren F1.
Atkinson crashed McLaren F1 - which can reach speeds of 240mph - in 2011 for the second time, culminating in a hefty, hefty repair bill, which is astronomically high because it's made mostly of carbon fibre. Luckily, for Mr. Bean anyway, it was the insurance company that were creasing at signing that mega-cheque. Atkinson actually picked up the supercar back in 1997 - around 16 years ago - but due to inflation and the rarity of the model, its value has skyrocketed. In fact, Atkinson's is one of only 64 F1s McLaren built. We hate to think what the monthly payments on that car are now. Reports say that it took over a year before expert technicians from McLaren were able to restore Mr. Bean's automobile. "I'm not a collector," he says, "I don't like the toy cupboard syndrome that causes so many good cars to evaporate. It depresses me that they are hidden away like investment art, or gold ingots in a Swiss vault. The McLaren is just so usable, it is a crime not to use it. No gritted teeth, you just get in and drive." (via The Sun).
This probably won't be too much of a problem for Mr Atkinson, though, his infamous turn as Mr. Bean, followed by a string of hilarious movie roles and some impressive writing credits have lead him to a reported net worth of $112 million. |
Expand Uzbekistan’s president-elect Shavkat Mirziyoyev casting a ballot at a polling station during the presidential election on December 4, 2016. © 2016 Reuters
(Tashkent) – The Uzbek government should take advantage of the country’s new political era to act on its international human rights obligations, Human Rights Watch said today. A Human Rights Watch delegation is visiting Uzbekistan the week of September 4, 2017, the organization’s first full delegation to visit Uzbekistan since 2010, when its representatives were banned from working inside the country.
Human Rights Watch urged the Uzbek government to release all prisoners held on politically motivated charges, cease torture and ill-treatment in detention, and end forced labor in the cotton fields.
“This is a real moment of hope for the human rights of the Uzbek people,” said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The key is for the Uzbek government to transform the modest steps it has taken thus far into institutional change and sustainable improvements.”
Since assuming power in 2016 following the death of the country’s long-time authoritarian leader Islam Karimov, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has taken some actions to improve human rights in the country. These include the release of several political prisoners and increased public accountability of government institutions.
Over the past year, the government has established a complaints mechanism that is widely used by ordinary citizens, and there have been small steps to loosen restrictions on free expression. The government has also announced an intention to eliminate the Soviet-era practice of requiring citizens to obtain state permission for travel outside the country.
During its visit, the Human Rights Watch delegation is meeting with senior officials from a wide array of government agencies, including the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice, and Labor; the parliament; Supreme Court; and National Human Rights Center; as well as with human rights defenders, journalists, and recently released political prisoners.
In its meetings, Human Rights Watch has called on the government to uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly, allow civil society activists to operate without fear of harassment or detention, and to cooperate fully with United Nations human rights bodies.
“We’re pleased Human Rights Watch has been able to reenter Uzbekistan. We’re keen to work with all our partners here to help improve human rights,” Swerdlow said. |
The videos and photos were handed around like trophies amongst the pilots, reported Focus Online on Friday.
The news outlet released the report on Friday, referencing information from company circles and a letter from Condor’s management.
In its report, Focus quoted from an official company letter released by Condor on June 12th which warned of the "criminal relevance" of "secret video footage and its distribution".
"There are obviously some Condor pilots who are secretly taking photos and video footage of female colleagues showing them in sexual acts," Focus quoted from the company letter.
The pilots would then distribute this material to colleagues without the knowledge or the consent of the colleagues concerned, Focus claims.
The letter warns the perpetrators of "serious consequences” regarding employment and criminal law. Employees were also threatened with imprisonment for up to two years.
In response to the report, Condor said it was "following all initial suspicions" rigorously. They also said that, so far, they had no evidence or statements "with regard to the above-mentioned rumours" which would be a starting point for prosecution.
Condor employees were "clearly informed about the disapproval and legal consequences by the company" by means of an official letter which was circulated amongst everyone, the airline said.
The pilots knew very well about the explosive nature of their actions, reported Focus. They also knew that the flight attendants involved were afraid of going to the police and to human resource colleagues because they didn't want the public exposure. |
[UPDATE] That's a wrap! The show has now ended, with Overwatch taking the Game of the Year honors this year. Scroll down to see a rundown of all the winners, which are in bold.
GAME OF THE YEAR
For a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields.
Doom (id Software/Bethesda)
Inside (Playdead)
Overwatch (Blizzard)
Titanfall 2 (Respawn/Electronic Arts)
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
BEST GAME DIRECTION
Recognizing a game studio for outstanding creative vision, game direction and design.
Blizzard (for Overwatch)
Dice (for Battlefield 1)
id Software (for Doom)
Naughty Dog (for Uncharted 4: A Thief's End)
Respawn (for Titanfall 2)
BEST NARRATIVE
For outstanding storytelling and narrative development in a game.
Firewatch (Campo Santo)
Inside (Playdead)
Mafia III (Hangar 13/2K)
Oxenfree (Night School Studio)
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog/SIE)
BEST ART DIRECTION
For outstanding creative and technical achievement in artistic design and animation.
Abzu (Giant Squid/505)
Firewatch (Campo Santo)
Inside (Playdead)
Overwatch (Blizzard)
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog/SIE)
BEST MUSIC/SOUND DESIGN
For outstanding audio, inclusive of score, original song, licensed soundtrack and sound design.
Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
Doom (id/Bethesda)
Inside (Playdead)
Rez Infinite (Enhance Games)
Thumper (Drool)
BEST PERFORMANCE
Awarded to an individual for voice-over acting, motion and/or performance capture.
Alex Hernandez as Lincoln Clay, Mafia III
Cissy Jones as Delilah, Firewatch
Emily Rose as Elena, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Nolan North as Nathan Drake, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Rich Summer as Henry, Firewatch
Troy Baker as Sam Drake, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
GAMES FOR IMPACT
Honoring exemplary games that take on real-world issues and advocate for social change.
1979 Revolution (iNK Stories)
Block’hood (Plethora Project/Devolver Digital)
Orwell (Osmotic Studios/Surprise Attack)
Sea Hero Quest (Glitchers)
That Dragon, Cancer (Numinous Games)
BEST INDEPENDENT GAME
For outstanding achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system.
Firewatch (Campo Santo)
Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
Inside (Playdead)
Stardew Valley (ConcernedApe/Chucklefish Games)
The Witness (Thelka, Inc.)
BEST MOBILE/HANDHELD
For the best game playable on mobile phones and dedicated gaming handhelds.
Clash Royale (Supercell)
Fire Emblem Fates (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
Monster Hunter Generations (Capcom)
Pokemon Go (Niantic)
Severed (DrinkBox Studios)
BEST VR GAME
For the best game experience playable in virtual reality.
Batman: Arkham VR (Rocksteady Studios/WBIE)
EVE: Valkyrie (CCP Games)
Job Simulator (Owlchemy Labs)
Rez Infinite (Enhance Games)
Thumper (Drool)
BEST ACTION GAME
For the best game experience focused around first or third person combat.
Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
Doom (id Software/Bethesda Softworks)
Gears of War 4 (The Coalition/Microsoft Studios)
Overwatch (Blizzard)
Titanfall 2 (Respawn/EA)
BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE GAME
For the best game experience that combines combat with traversal and puzzle solving.
Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
Hitman (IO Interactive/Square-Enix)
Hyper Light Drifter (Heart Machine)
Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
BEST RPG
The best game designed for rich player character customization and progression, both offline and online, including massively multiplayer.
Dark Souls 3 (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (Eidos Montreal/Square-Enix)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt -- Blood and Wine (CD Projekt RED)
World of Warcraft: Legion (Blizzard)
Xenoblade Chronicles X (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)
BEST FIGHTING GAME
For a game designed primarily around head-to-head combat.
Killer Instinct Season 3 (Iron Galaxy Studios/Microsoft Studios)
King of Fighters XIV (SNK/Atlus USA)
Pokken Tournament (Bandai Namco Studios/The Pokemon Co.)
Street Fighter V (Capcom)
BEST STRATEGY GAME
Best game focused on real time or turn-based strategy.
Civilization VI (Firaxis Games/2K)
Fire Emblem Fates (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
The Banner Saga 2 (Stoic Studio/Versus Evil)
Total War: Warhammer (Creative Assembly/Sega)
XCOM 2 (Firaxis Games/2K)
BEST FAMILY GAME
Best game for family play, including toys-to-life, rhythm/music/dance, and other genres.
Dragon Quest Builders (Square Enix)
Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (TT Fusion/WBIE)
Pokemon Go (Niantic)
Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Skylanders: Imaginators (Toy for Bob/Activision)
BEST SPORTS/RACING
For traditional and non-traditional sports and racing games.
FIFA 17 (EA Canada/EA Sports)
Forza Horizon 3 (Playground Games/Microsoft Studios)
MLB The Show 16 (SCE San Diego Studio/SIE)
NBA 2K17 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (PES Productions/Konami)
BEST MULTIPLAYER
For outstanding online multiplayer gameplay and design, including co-op and massively multiplayer experiences.
Battlefield 1 (DICE/EA)
Gears of War 4 (The Coalition/Microsoft Studios)
Overcooked (Ghost Town Games/Team 17)
Overwatch (Blizzard)
Titanfall 2 (Respawn/EA)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME
An upcoming game that has shown significant ambition and promise in moving the gaming medium forward.
God of War (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Mass Effect: Andromeda (Bioware/EA)
Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)
TRENDING GAMER, PRESENTED BY INTEL
For a notable influencer, online streamer or media personality in 2016.
AngryJoeShow
Boogie2988
Danny O'Dwyer
JackSepticEye
Lirik
BEST FAN CREATION
For fan-created content, such as MODs, fan films, and other player content.
Project A2MR
Pokemon Uranium
Brutal Doom 64
Enderal: The Shards of Order
BEST ESPORTS PLAYER, PRESENTED BY OMEN BY HP
The eSports player judged to be the most outstanding performer in 2016, irrespective of game.
Faker – Lee Sang-hyeok (SK Telecom T1, League of Legends)
Coldzera – Marcelo David (SK Gaming, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
ByuN –Hyun Woo (Starcraft 2)
Infiltrator – Lee Seeon-woo (Team Razer, Street Fighter V)
Hungrybox – Juan Debiedma (Team Liquid, Super Smash Bros.)
BEST ESPORTS TEAM
The eSports team or organization judged to be the most outstanding for performance in 2016, irrespective of game.
SK Telecom T1 (League of Legends)
Wings Gaming (DOTA2)
SK Gaming
ROX Tigers (League of Legends)
Cloud 9
BEST ESPORTS GAME
The Esports game that has shown creative and technical excellence in 2016 with the best gameplay, community support and content updates.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
DOTA2 (Valve)
League of Legends (Riot)
Overwatch (Blizzard)
Street Fighter V (Capcom)
Click Here for All the Trailers and News From The Game Awards 2016
The original story is below.
The Game Awards 2016 kicks off later tonight at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. In addition to new trailers and game reveals, we'll learn which game wins overall Game of the Year and those that take home awards for all the other categories.
The show kicks off at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET, and winners will be announced throughout the evening. We will update the list of nominees below throughout the evening by bolding the winners.
Titles nominated for the overall Game of the Year award include Doom, Inside, Overwatch. Titanfall 2, and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. The award will be given to the game that "delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields."
Uncharted 4 picked up the most nominations overall, with eight, including Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Art Direction, Best Narrative, and three nominations in Best Performance for voice actors Nolan North, Troy Baker, and Emily Rose.
Firewatch, Inside, and Overwatch followed with five nominations each. Sony was the most-recognized publisher, with 13 nominations, followed by Electronic Arts (10), Blizzard (7), and Bethesda (6). Playdead and Campo Santo followed with five nominations each. |
In the early hours of Monday morning, fireworks rang out across the globe to mark the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year. In China, the festival week begins with a bountiful New Year’s Eve dinner with extended family. To ensure a prosperous year ahead, celebrants typically feast upon auspicious fare such as dumplings, rice cakes, fish and “longevity noodles.” Snacking on tangerines is also thought to bring good luck.
In the United States, the Chinese diaspora celebrates too with parades, firecrackers and, of course, delicious food. Among the largest Spring Festival celebrations in the country is the one held every year in San Francisco, the city with the biggest and oldest Chinatown in the United States. It was here that Americans were first introduced to what is now one of their favorite cuisines—but the delicious food that might be eaten during this week’s festival had a long and often difficult time getting there.
In 1849, the rumors of gold nuggets that drew thousands of East Coast get-rich-quick hopefuls out to California during the Gold Rush also resonated across the Pacific with the merchants of Canton in South China. For centuries, the rich Chinese port city had been a center of international trade and commerce, and its entrepreneurial classes immediately saw the opportunity that glittered in the San Francisco Bay. The first Chinese immigrants to this region of the United States went into the lucrative business of providing services for the miners as traders, grocers, merchants and restaurant owners. This initial group of migrants encouraged later waves of Chinese emigrants eager to mine the hills themselves or become pioneer agricultural laborers. All of these workers were undoubtedly also hungry for good Chinese cooking that reminded them of land they had left behind.
By the mid-19th century, the United States had what could be called a fledgling restaurant culture at best, while much of China had had many centuries worth of experience in hospitality. Needless to say, those who frequented the earliest Chinese restaurants in San Francisco were impressed by the establishments’ cleanliness and professionalism. “The best restaurants,” as one patron recalled, “were kept by Chinese and the poorest and dearest by Americans.” Distinguished by what one 1850 article described as “long three-cornered flags of yellow silk” that were typically hung outside, Chinese-owned eating houses were known to serve some of the best food in the city. Their cheap prices also made their appeal to young and hungry 49-ers of all backgrounds undeniable.
But even while hordes of eaters chowed down at so-called “chow chow houses,” the early American relationship with Chinese immigrants themselves was much less palatable. The group was already conspicuous for their foreign dress and contrasting language, and as gold resources declined, anti-Chinese sentiment grew. In spite of how admirable many Californians found the work ethic of Chinese laborers, this immigrant group was increasingly scapegoated for declining wages and fewer job opportunities. Eventually, that sentiment became law. Harsh legislation against Chinese immigrants to the United States began with California’s mining tax against foreigners and the effort in 1852 to restrict the “introduction of Chinese and other Asiatics,” and it culminated in 1882 with the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned all Chinese laborers from entering the United States. The act would not be repealed until 1943.
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And, despite the success of early Chinese restaurants in California, that food became a focal point of many an anti-Chinese argument. Prejudiced American groups were quick to label the growing numbers of Chinatowns in cities throughout the country as “nuisances,” largely because of what was termed the unpleasant “stench” of Chinese kitchens, and many 19th century editorialists earnestly asked “Do the Chinese Eat Rats?” Even the United States’ Congress served up such rhetoric; in an 1879 speech Senator James G. Blaine of Maine declared, “You cannot work a man who must have beef and bread, and would prefer beef, alongside a man who can live on rice.” Such would necessarily “bring down the beef-and-bread man to the rice standard.” Blaine, unsurprisingly, was among the earliest supporters of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
In spite of the racist backlash, good food was still good food. The turn of the 20th century saw the emergence of Chop Suey joints as hip and affordable places for young urbanites to spend a night out. Like most popular Chinese dishes in the United States, this particular mélange of meat, egg and vegetable wasn’t actually Chinese. In the 1920s American eaters were shocked when they learned that “the average native of any city in China knows nothing of chop suey.” Writer Jennifer 8. Lee calls this dish the biggest culinary prank one culture has ever pulled on another; translated from the original Chinese, Chop Suey means “Odds & Ends,” more colloquially known as “leftovers.”
Regardless of its dubious authenticity, such adaptation of Chinese cooking to American palates was a key element in the proliferation and popularization of Chinese cuisine in the United States. Throughout the early 20th century, “Chinese” dishes became sweeter, boneless, and more heavily deep-fried. Broccoli, a vegetable unheard of in China, started appearing on menus and fortune cookies, a sweet originally thought to be from Japan, finished off a “typical” Chinese meal.
It wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that the United States got its first taste of “authentic” Chinese cuisine. Up until that time, the dishes that most Americans were calling “Chinese food” were still largely derived from Cantonese cuisine, which is just one of eight of the broader regional cuisines of the Middle Kingdom. The liberalization of American immigration policy in 1965 brought new arrivals from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Mainland, who in turn brought with them the foods they had enjoyed in areas like Hunan, Sichuan, Taipei and Shanghai.
During these tasty decades, the United States experienced a renaissance in good Chinese eats, particularly in cities with large Chinese populations like New York and San Francisco. In 1967, the fine-dining Sichuan restaurant Shun Lee Palace became the first Chinese eatery to receive a four-star review from the New York Times. In the years that followed, many more skilled Chinese chefs began immigrating to the ever-more receptive and lucrative United States.
The growing obsession with all things Chinese was fueled in large part by President Richard Nixon’s famous 1972 visit to Beijing, the first time an American President had visited China since its 1949 Revolution. Demand for Chinese food, of whatever form, exploded overnight, with amazed eaters seeking out the Peking duck and multi-course Chinese feasts they had just witnessed the President eating on TV. Chinese restaurants proliferated in towns big and small.
Today, according to the Chinese American Restaurant Association, there are over 45,000 Chinese restaurants currently in operation across the United States. This number is greater than all the McDonald’s, KFCs, Pizza Huts, Taco Bells and Wendy’s combined. When asked to rank their favorite types of restaurants, Chinese places almost always come out on top. On every day of the Lunar calendar, it seems there’s nothing quite as all-American some good Chinese food.
Emelyn Rude is a food historian and the author of Tastes Like Chicken, available in August of 2016.
Contact us at [email protected]. |
The Kraków Ghetto was one of 5 major, metropolitan Jewish Ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was established for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and persecution of local Polish Jews, as well as the staging area for separating the "able workers" from those who would later be deemed unworthy of life.[1] The Ghetto was liquidated between June 1942 and March 1943, with most of its inhabitants sent to their deaths at Bełżec extermination camp as well as Płaszów slave-labor camp,[2] and Auschwitz concentration camp, 60 kilometres (37 mi) rail distance.[3]
Background [ edit ]
Before the German-Soviet invasion of 1939, Kraków (Cracow) was an influential centre for the 60,000–80,000 Polish Jews who had lived there since the 13th century.[4] Persecution of the Jewish population of Kraków began immediately after the German troops entered the city on 6 September 1939 in the course of the invasion. Jews were ordered to report for forced labour beginning in September 1939. In November, all Jews twelve years or older were required to wear identifying armbands. Throughout Kraków, synagogues were closed and all their relics and valuables confiscated by the Nazi authorities.[3][4]
By May 1940, the German occupation authority under Gauleiter Hans Frank announced that Kraków should become the “racially cleanest" city in the General Government (an occupied, but unannexed part of Poland). Massive deportations of Jews from the city were ordered. Of the more than 68,000 Jews in Kraków when the Germans invaded, only 15,000 workers and their families were permitted to remain. All other Jews were ordered out of the city, to be resettled into surrounding rural areas of the Generalgouvernement.[4]
Formation of the Kraków Ghetto [ edit ]
In April 1940, Hans Frank proposed the removal of 50,000 Jews from the city of Kraków.[5][6] Frank's reasoning for removing Jews from the Jewish quarter was that the area "...will be cleansed and it will be possible to establish pure German neighborhoods..." within Kraków.[5] From May 1940 to 15 August 1940, a voluntary expulsion program was enacted.[7] Jews that chose to leave Kraków were allowed to take all of their belongings and relocate throughout the General-Government (Generalgouvernement).[7][5] By 15 August 1940, 23,000 Jews had left Kraków.[7] After this date, mandatory expulsions were enforced.[7] On 25 November 1940, the Order for the Deportation of Jews from the Municipal District of Kraków was announced.[8] This order declared that no more Jews were allowed into the city of Kraków, Jews residing in Kraków required a special permit, and locations outside of Kraków that Jews were forced to move to were chosen by authorities.[8] Jews forced to leave were also only allowed to bring along 25 kg (62½ lbs.) of their belongings when they left.[8] By 4 December 1940, 43,000 Jews were removed from Kraków, both voluntarily and involuntarily.[7] Jews that were still residing in Kraków at this time were deemed "...economically useful..." and they had to obtain a residence permit that "...had to be renewed each month."[8]
The following year, on 3 March 1941, the establishment of the Kraków Ghetto was ordered by Otto Wächter.[9][10] The ghetto was to be set up in the Podgórze District of Kraków.[6][11] Podgórze was chosen as the site of the ghetto instead of the traditional Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, because Hans Frank believed Kazimierz was more significant to the history of Kraków.[12] Podgórze was a suburb of Kraków at the time.[9][8] Wächter claimed that formation of the ghetto was necessary for public health and order.[13] The Kraków ghetto was officially established on 20 March 1941.[5] When relocating to the ghetto, Jews were only allowed to bring 25 kg of their belongings.[8] The rest of their possessions were taken by the German Trust Office (Treuhandstelle).[8] All non-Jewish residents of the area were required to relocate in other districts by 20 March 1941.[8]
The ghetto was guarded by the German police (Schutzpolizei), the Polish police (Blue Police), and the Jewish police (Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst – OD), but the only police force inside the ghetto was the Jewish police.[13] With the formation of the ghetto, the OD had an office established at Józefińska Street 37 in Podgórze.[14] In April 1941, the ghetto was enclosed by a wall made of barbed wire and stone; the stones used were designed to look like tombstones, but also included "...Jewish monuments and tombstones from the cemetery."[9][10][13][8] The ghetto wall was constructed using Jewish forced labor.[10] The ghetto was accessible by three entrances: one near the Podgórze Market, Limanowskiego Street, and the Plac Zgody.[9] The Kraków Ghetto was a closed ghetto meaning that it was physically closed off from the surrounding area and access was restricted.[15] Within other German-occupied areas, open ghettos and destruction ghettos existed.[15] Movement in and out of the ghetto was restricted and Jews working outside of the ghetto had to have the proper documentation.[9] Jews had to "...obtain the appropriate stamps for the Kennkarten [identification cards]..." from the Labor Office (Arbeitsamt).[9]
The ghetto was populated by approximately 16,000 Jews when it was first formed.[13] Before the ghetto was cordoned off, it was home to around 3,500 residents.[7] The ghetto consisted of 320 buildings.[13] To accommodate the density, apartments within the ghetto were divided on a 2m² per person basis or by a standard of three people to one window.[13] The Jewish Council (Judenrat) was responsible for determining the new housing assignments.[8] Within the Kraków ghetto, Yiddish was the official language, not Polish.[13] On 1 December 1939, an order was announced mandating that all Jews within the General Government wear an armband identifying them as Jewish.[11] The white armbands with the blue Star of David were still required once Jews were moved into the ghetto.[11]
On 15 October 1941, the Third Decree of the General Governor's was enacted.[8][16] This decree stated that Jews found outside "...their designated residential area will be punished with death."[16][8] The punishment also applied to anyone found aiding Jews.[8][16] The decree applied to all residents within the General Government.[16]
On 28 November 1941, the area that encompassed the ghetto was reduced.[8] The population of the Kraków Ghetto increased because Nazis required the Jewish residents of 29 nearby villages to move to the ghetto.[8] The size of the ghetto was reduced again in June 1942.[8][14] The reductions in the size of the ghetto were associated with the deportation of Jews, including deportations to the Bełżec extermination camp.[13] When apartments that were no longer included in the ghetto were vacated, possessions were stolen and the units were reassigned.[13] The Municipal Housing Office was responsible for these apartments.[13]
In December 1942. the Kraków ghetto was divided into two parts: Ghetto "A" and Ghetto "B."[13] Ghetto "A" was intended for people that were working and Ghetto "B" was for everyone else.[13] This division was planned with future liquidations of the ghetto in mind.[13]
Ghetto history [ edit ]
Kraków area, late 1939. Captive Jews, assembled for slave labor, sit on an open field surrounded by new barbed wire fence The construction of Ghetto walls, May 1941 Deportation of Jews from the Ghetto, March 1943 Bundles abandoned by Jewish deportees from the Kraków Ghetto, March 1943
The Kraków Ghetto was formally established on 3 March 1941 in the Podgórze district and not, as often believed, in the historic Jewish district of Kazimierz. Displaced Polish families from Podgórze took up residences in the former Jewish dwellings outside the newly established Ghetto. Meanwhile, 15,000 Jews were crammed into an area previously inhabited by 3,000 people who used to live in a district consisting of 30 streets, 320 residential buildings, and 3,167 rooms. As a result, one apartment was allocated to every four Jewish families, and many less fortunate lived on the street.[4]
The Ghetto was surrounded by the newly built walls that kept it separated from the rest of the city. In a grim foreshadowing of the near future, these walls contained brick panels in the shape of tombstones. All windows and doors that opened onto the "Aryan" side were ordered to be bricked up. Only four guarded entrances allowed traffic to pass in or out. Small sections of the wall still remain today, one part is fitted with a memorial plaque, which reads ""Here they lived, suffered and perished at the hands of Hitler's executioners. From here they began their final journey to the death camps.".[3][17]
Young people of the Akiva youth movement, who had undertaken the publication of an underground newsletter, HeHaluc HaLohem ("The Fighting Pioneer"), joined forces with other Zionists to form a local branch of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB, Polish: Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa), and organize resistance in the ghetto, supported by the Polish underground Armia Krajowa. The group carried out a variety of resistance activities including the bombing of the Cyganeria cafe – a gathering place of Nazi officers. Unlike in Warsaw, their efforts did not lead to a general uprising before the ghetto was liquidated.[18]
From 30 May 1942 onward, the Nazis began systematic deportations from the Ghetto to surrounding concentration camps. Thousands of Jews were transported in the succeeding months as part of the Aktion Krakau headed by SS-Oberführer Julian Scherner. Jews were assembled on Zgody Square first and then escorted to the railway station in Prokocim. The first transport consisted of 7,000 people, the second, of additional 4,000 Jews deported to Bełżec death camp on 5 June 1942. On 13–14 March 1943, the final 'liquidation' of the ghetto was carried out under the command of SS-Untersturmführer Amon Göth. Eight thousand Jews deemed able to work were transported to the Płaszów labor camp. Those deemed unfit for work – some 2,000 Jews – were killed in the streets of the ghetto on those days with the use of "Trawniki men" police auxiliaries.[19] Any remaining were sent to Auschwitz.[17]
The Righteous Gentiles [ edit ]
The only pharmacy enclosed within the Kraków Ghetto boundary belonged to the Polish Roman Catholic pharmacist Tadeusz Pankiewicz, permitted by the German authorities to operate his "Under the Eagle Pharmacy" there upon his request. The scarce medications and tranquillizers supplied to the ghetto's residents often free of charge – apart from health-care considerations – contributed to their survival. Pankiewicz passed around hair dyes to Jews compelled to cross the ghetto walls illegally. In recognition of his heroic deeds in helping countless Jews in the Ghetto during the Holocaust, he was bestowed the title of the Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem on February 10, 1983. Pankiewicz is the author of a book describing, among other events, the ghetto liquidation.[17][20]
The list of several dozen Polish Righteous from Kraków,[21] includes Maria and Bronisław Florek who lived at Czyżówka Street and saved Goldberger and Nichtberger families. Notably, Maria Florek smuggled forged identity papers procured at the Emalia Factory of Oskar Schindler (without his awareness), for the Jews hiding on the 'Aryan side' of Kraków.[22] Władysław Budyński, who provided help without remuneration even to complete strangers, ended up marrying a Jewish girl, Chana Landau in 1943, but they were caught by Gestapo in 1944 and deported to different concentration camps. Both survived, reunited in Kraków, and in 1969 emigrated to Sweden.[23] Polish gynaecologist Dr Helena Szlapak turned her home at Garbarska Street into a safe house for trafficked Jews and distribution of falsified documents as well as secret messages and storage of photographs from Auschwitz. She collaborated with Żegota, attended to sick Jews in hiding and placed them in hospitals under false identities.[24]
Jewish Council (Judenrat) of the Kraków Ghetto [ edit ]
A 24-person Jewish board was formed in the city of Kraków and later in the Krakow Ghetto, when the ghetto was formed on March 3, 1941.[25] This Jewish Council was in charge of the inhabitants of the ghetto but of course received many orders from local Nazi officials, even though it retained some degree of autonomy. Some of its functions included overseeing labor and welfare, conducting a census and taxing the population.[26][27][28][29]
Cultural Life [ edit ]
Cultural life in the Kraków Ghetto was bleak and dangerous for the Jewish population. Each day dragged on, consistently becoming harder and harder to tolerate and survive. There was not much incentive for the Jewish individuals to live for. The mood was somber, spirits were low and majority of the Jews remained lifeless and hopeless.
Jewish individuals in the Kraków ghetto were required to wear a Star of David on their arm, identifying them as being Jewish, which led to the revoking of most rights.[25] A curfew was implemented that stripped Jews of many opportunities to participate in the cultural life.[30] As time went on, Jews needed to obtain permits in order to enter and exit the ghetto, robbing them of any freedom they felt they had left at this point.[30] Even though the Jewish individuals were unable to participate in certain areas of cultural life in the Kraków ghetto, “various cultural and religious activities continued within the ghetto."[31] Although the practice of religion was banned, that did not stop the individuals in the Kraków ghetto from praying and staying true to Judaism.[32] At least three synagogues or other religious facilities were still in use that served as a place for the Jews to go to and pray.[31] There was also a café where artists played live music within the ghetto, which proved to be instrumental in keeping Jewish individuals' spirits up. Finally, there was a ghetto pharmacy, which was a place where people could go to discuss problems, read underground and official newspapers and learn the realities of what was happening and what atrocities they were living through.[31] Numerous songs were created by individuals living the ghetto, serving three major purposes: “documentation of ghetto life, a diversion from reality, and the upholding of tradition.”[33] These songs portrayed their immense suffering coupled with their dedication and determination to survive. Some of the most popular lyrics are “Me hot zey in dr’erd, me vet zey iberlebn, me vet noch derlebn” (“To hell with them, we will survive them, we will yet survive”),[33] conveying and sharing the feelings of the Jewish people through music. Laughter, which was a rarity in the Kraków ghetto, was another way numerous victims attempted to cope with their strong hatred for the enemy.[33] Sometimes individuals performed ghetto songs, while other times small groups performed them with various instruments.[33] Street songs are a sub-genre of ghetto music with four dominant themes: hunger, corrupt administration, hope for freedom and a call for revolt.[33] Music has always been a traditional and important aspect of both Jewish holidays and Jewish home life more generally. The individuals in the Kraków Ghetto did their best to keep this tradition alive, especially during Passover and Yom Kippur.[33] Although music brought some comfort to many individuals, suicide rates were significantly higher among the musicians than other camp workers. Many of the musicians were forced to watch the murder of their families and friends due to the Nazi's insistence that the prisoner-musicians play music while the other prisoners were marched to the gas chambers.[33]
Aleksander Kulisiewicz was an aspiring musician who did his best to “collect, compose, and perform songs” while living in the ghetto even though it was illegal to do so.[33] Individuals in the Kraków ghetto worked 12-hour days that left them more exhausted than imaginable.[34] In order to pass the time, songs were sung throughout the work day.[34]
Mordechai Gebirtig, who is “known for his beautiful and prescient songs and poems”[35] in Yiddish emerged from the Kraków ghetto.[35] His song “Our Town Is Burning” which was written in 1938 became “one of the most popular songs in the ghettos and concentration camps."[33] Unfortunately, Gebirtig was killed by a bullet in the Kraków ghetto, ending his career far too soon.
Another individual who was in the Kraków ghetto was Roman Polanski, who became a famous film director upon his survival of the Holocaust.[35] Polanski eventually directed a film that told the story of the musician Władysław Szpilman who survived the Holocaust.[35]
In order to pass time while trapped in these horrendous conditions, a lot of Jewish children in the Kraków ghetto played the violin and any other instruments they had access to.[35]
Music proved to be an instrumental aspect of cultural life in the Kraków ghetto that aided in keeping the spirits of Jewish individuals up as much as possible during such low and awful times.
Resistance [ edit ]
The Kraków Underground Resistance existed from 1942 to late 1943, and stemmed from youth groups such as Akiva.[36] The two groups that formed were Iskra and Hahalutz Halochem, or the Fighting Organization of the Jewish youth.[37] Eventually establishing a magazine, the groups initially focused on working with the Polish Underground and the Communist Partia Robotnicza (PPR). They ultimately planned for action against the Nazis.[36] The Resistance conducted demonstrations against several Nazi-frequented institutions, including café Cyganeria, café Esplanada, and a theater.[38] Additionally, the Polish Underground group also aided the Jews with a program called Żegota, which had relevance in Kraków during the war.[39][40]
Specific Resistance Groups [ edit ]
Initially, rather than aligning with either communist or Zionist groups, the Iskra Resistance group aimed solely at combating and destroying the Nazis. From the outset, Iskra's inaugural members were Heszek Bauminger, Shlomo Sh., and eventually Gola Mire. Heszek Bauminger fought for the Polish army at the beginning of the war, and despite participating in the Social Zionist Hashomer Hatzair group, he moved his allegiances to communism. Gola Mire – another Hatzair former member – became involved in the Polish Communist Party. Accordingly, Iskra worked in conjunction with the communist Polish Worker's Party division – Gwardia Ludowa – in an armed initiative.[41] Specifically, German armed forces were the target of Iskra. Further, Resistance in the Kraków ghetto decided to attack the “Aryan” portion of the city rather than fight a futile war from within.[42] To strengthen itself, Iskra merged with Hahalutz Halochem – thus mixing communist leanings with a Zionist group.[43]
Historians will argue that the youth movements involved had significant, but realistic aims. It is suggested that Nazi intentions were evident to the youth and they consequently decided to fight the Nazis vision, even though they knew success would be limited.[44] Significantly, composed of members of the Akiva Zionist youth movement, Hahalutz Halochem worked with Iskra to stage the Cyganeria bombing. Aligning with Hahalutz Halochem motivated Akiva to transition to armed resistance.[45]
Furthermore, the underground movements published a paper called “Hechalutz Halochem” which was edited by Simon Dranger. This paper served to combat the German work of “Zydowska Gazeta”; this was an underground work which attempted to conceal the Nazis' genocidal aims and thus stem any opposition.[46]
Cyganeria Bombing and Other Attacks [ edit ]
The Cyganeria Bombing is one of the more discussed attacks conducted by the Kraków Resistance movements. It was one of a series of attacks in a retaliatory response to the implementation of mass deportations. Prior to Cyganeria, attacks occurred at the Optima factory and the Cosmo Club – the Cosmo Club attack killed several Nazi elites. Furthermore, three attacks were planned for Dec. 24, 1942: Cyganeria Café, Esplanada Café, Sztuka theater, and an officers’ club.[47] Ultimately, the Hahalutz Halochem and Iskra resistance groups bombed Cyganeria on December 22 and killed from 7 to 70 Germans and injured many others.[48] The attack at the theater was relatively unsuccessful due to poor planning and a refusal to harm innocent Poles in attendance; however, Esplanada Café and the Officers’ club attacks were successful.[49]
The relative success of the Resistance groups was hindered by Julek Appel and Natek Waisman who betrayed the resistance. Hahalutz Halochem was quickly subdued by the Nazis – due to Appel and Waisman – but better security protocols protected Iskra for a limited time.[50] Additionally, two key resistors – Adolf Liebeskind and Tennenbaum – died in the attack. Finally, following the Cyganeria Café attack, weapons, various currencies, and enemy uniforms were found by the Gestapo. The gestapo sent a message to Nazi elites via SS-Obergruppenfüher Wolff and Reichsfüher Himmler. Lucien Steinberg, the author of Jews Against Hitler, argues that this communicates the attack's significance to Hitler.[51]
Publicly the identity of the attacks perpetrators were not revealed and it was rumored to be the Polish Underground or the Soviets.[52] Regarding the Jews who carried out the attack, they were disguised as Poles. This reflected a concern, within Hahalutz Halochem, of Nazi retaliation against the ghetto if the Jews were implicated.[53]
Polish Aid - Resistance Through Zegota in Kraków [ edit ]
Zegota also had prominence in Kraków. The goal of Zegota was to aid the Jews on a day-to-day basis – rather than aiming for an overall solution.[54] Zegota provided opportunity with false documents, doctors for healthcare, money, and several other pivotal resources and aid for the Jews.[55]
In Zegota, historians assert that Polish – Jewish relations were strong before the war, and Zegota became involved to strengthen the organically arising aid. Moreover, led by Stanislaw Dobrowolski, food, medicine, funds, and means for escape were provided. Several Zegota members – Jozefa Rysinska, Mieczyslaw Kurz, Tadeusz Bilewicz, Zygmunt Kuzma, and Ada Prochnicka – facilitated transport of supplies and overall aid in the camps.[56]
Religious Resistance [ edit ]
Additionally, Jews in the Kraków Ghetto participated in a form of religious resistance by continuing to practice Judaism in secret. This succeeded through the safeguard of the Jewish police.[57]
Notable people [ edit ]
One of two preserved segments of Ghetto wall, with a memorial plaque and typical ghetto home in the background Memorial to Jews from the Kraków Ghetto on their deportation site. Each steel chair represents 1,000 victims
Movie director Roman Polanski, a survivor of the Ghetto, in his 1984 memoir Roman evoked his childhood experiences there before the mass deportations of Operation Reinhard in Kraków. "My own feeling – Polański wrote – was that if only one could explain to them that we had done nothing wrong, the Germans would realize that it all was a gigantic misunderstanding."[58]
Many years later, Roma Ligocka, Polish artist and author, and a first cousin to Roman Polański who, as a small girl, was rescued and survived the Ghetto, wrote a novel based on her experiences, The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir.[59] She is mistakenly thought to be portrayed in the film Schindler's List. The scene, however, was constructed on the memories of Zelig Burkhut, survivor of Plaszow (and other work camps). When being interviewed by Spielberg before the making for the film, Burkhut told of a young girl wearing a pink coat, no older than four, who was shot by a Nazi officer right before his eyes.[citation needed] Oskar Schindler was portrayed in the Thomas Keneally novel Schindler's Ark (the basis for Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List). In an especially dramatic event, 300 of Schindler's workers were deported to the Auschwitz death camp despite his efforts, and he personally intervened to return them to him.[citation needed]
Other notable people include Mordechai Gebirtig, who was one of the most influential and popular writers of Yiddish songs and poems. He was shot there in 1942.[60] Miriam Akavia, an Israeli writer, survived the Kraków ghetto and concentration camps.[61][62] Renowned dermatologist and co-discoverer of Reyes Syndrome, Dr Jim Jacob Baral was also a Kraków Ghetto survivor; his mother pushed him and his brother Martin under the barbed wire to hide at the home of a Polish rescuer who took them to Bochnia where their mother and sister joined them later.[63] Bernard Offen, born in 1929 in Kraków survived the Ghetto and several Nazi concentration camps.[64]
Second lieutenant Jerzy Zakulski, an attorney, and member of the National Armed Forces (Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, NSZ) in German-occupied Kraków was sentenced to death by Stalinist officials and executed in Soviet-controlled postwar Poland on trumped-up charges of being an enemy spy.[65] A Jewish Holocaust survivor from Kraków, Maria Błeszyńska née Bernstein, attempted to save Zakulski's life in gratitude for his rescue of her and her daughter during the Holocaust; however, she was unsuccessful. The certified letter she sent to the Regional Military Court in Warsaw was thrown out, along with the plea for presidential mercy.[65]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Graf, Malvina (1989). The Kraków Ghetto and the Plaszów Camp Remembered . Tallahassee: The Florida State University Press. ISBN 0-8130-0905-7
. Tallahassee: The Florida State University Press. Polanski, Roman. (1984). Roman . New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-02621-4
. New York: William Morrow and Company. ISBN 0-688-02621-4 Katz, Alfred. (1970). Poland's Ghettos at War . New York: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8290-0195-6
. New York: Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0-8290-0195-6 Schindler's List – reproduction of the original list of Jewish people employed by Oskar Schindler
Schindler's Krakow – modern-day photographs
Coordinates: |
Humans share their homes with hundreds of species of flies, spiders, beetles, lice and other arthropods, a new study reports.
Researchers visited 50 houses within 30 miles of Raleigh, N.C., and collected all of the arthropods they could find. They found 579 different morphospecies — meaning they were all physically different — from 304 different families.
The study, which appears in the journal PeerJ, found there were more than 100 species per house.
One arthropod found in all homes was the gall midge, a fly just four-one hundredths of an inch long. Although gall midges live only outdoors, they are probably blown often into homes, said Michelle Trautwein, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences and one of the study’s authors.
She and her colleagues also found many booklice, harmless cousins of head lice. “Basically, we are all are living with lice,” Dr. Trautwein said. |
Prabowo Subianto, and Anies Baswedan speak at a press conference on Wednesday (19/04), after declaring electoral victory for Anies and his running mate Sandiaga Uno in Jakarta's gubernatorial race. (Antara Photo/Dedi Wijaya)
Jakarta. Retired general Prabowo Subianto expressed gratitude to firebrand Muslim cleric Rizieq Shihab for "saving Indonesia's democracy," after Anies Baswedan and his running mate Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno won Jakarta's gubernatorial election on Wednesday (19/04).
Several quick counts from pollsters showed a large-margin win for Anies – backed by the Prabowo-led Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) – over incumbent Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama in an election marred by religious and ethnic tensions.
In the evening after Wednesday's vote, the Anies-Sandiaga campaign team performed prayers alongside members of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and its leader, Rizieq, at the Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta.
"Rizieq and the Muslim community, just like us, have defended the interests of the Indonesian public, upheld justice and saved our democracy and our future," said Prabowo, a failed candidate in the 2014 presidential election.
Anies, a former education minister sacked by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo less than two years after taking office, called on the country's Muslim community to maintain tolerance and respect for the nation's diverse religious and ethnic groups.
"We have to show that the Muslim community is the one who upholds peace and unity," Anies said.
The FPI, notorious for vigilante acts across the archipelago, led several mass demonstrations calling for the removal of Ahok as governor in the run-up to Wednesday's election.
Its members and other hardline Muslim groups in the country claim that Ahok, currently standing trial on blasphemy charges, insulted Islam when he made a comment last year against the use of the Koran for political advantage. |
The 2013 recruiting season is in the books and to no surprise is that Boise State earned the top class for the Mountain West. The Broncos did not run away with that crown, but they did win by a reasonable margin. The real fight was for second place between San Diego State, Fresno State and Hawaii.
The big surprise out of all of this is that Hawaii was able to earn the fourth best class after coming off of a 3-9 record this past year. It does help that Hawaii signed a pair of ESPN 300 recruits in quarterback Aaron Zwahlen and defensive tackle Kennedy Tulimasealii.
The bottom of the classes belonged to Wyoming, San Jose State and Utah State. Wyoming may not really belong at the bottom since they went heavy on the JUCO route by signing seven, and the ratings are typically for high school players.
Seeing Utah State and San Jose State at the bottom is somewhat surprising, and yet not all at the same time. Both schools had their best seasons, possibly ever, but they each lost their head coach which caused each school to lose recruits late in the process.
Here are 247Sports composite rankings with national rankings in parenthesis next to Mountain West ranking. |
The German public has been outraged by the latest edition of talk show ‘Anne Will’. Discussing why more and more young people radicalize, one of the guests – a niqab-clad Muslim woman – justified young Muslims going to Syria to fight alongside jihadists.
Read more
The show, broadcast at prime time on German ARD channel on Sunday, started off calmly, with a number of experts invited to discuss the alarming trend of youth radicalization. Among them were a father who lost his daughter to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), an expert on Islam, a Berlin-based imam and a CDU politician who lobbies for a ban on Muslim full-face veils.
Another guest was Nora Illi, Muslim women’s commissioner for the Islamic Central Council Switzerland (IZRS). She came to the show niqab-clad and this became the first thing that aroused public discontent, as the niqab is a Muslim piece of clothing that obscures both body and face, and is largely viewed as “a symbol of radical Islam.”
Illi described how at the age of 18 she, a common girl from Zurich, converted to Islam and found “diversity and respect” in the religion. She spoke of it being a right of every Muslim to practice their religion, for instance by wearing traditional attire and being allowed to pray at the appropriate time, whether at work or in a public place.
The Swiss national complained that in Germany and generally in non-Muslim states, Muslims are largely excluded from society by attempts to prevent them from practicing their religion in public. Illi claimed that this is the turning point for the youth to radicalize: when young people are not allowed by society to practice their beliefs freely, disoriented, they turn to more radical manifestations of their religion.
However, what caused the public to explode was the news anchor’s decision to read out an excerpt from an essay by Illi published on the Council’s website back in 2014. In it, Illi justified the choice of Muslims who travel to Syria to fight against the regime of President Assad, as this choice is made because Muslims are, she claims, repressed in most non-Muslim countries and join jihad in an effort to break free from this repression.
The reaction to these words from Illi’s fellow-guests was immediate shock. The CDU’s Wolfgang Bosbach and Islam expert Ahmad Mansour both called the speech “terrorism propaganda on TV,” slamming the news anchor for allowing such statements to be broadcast on-air and heard by millions of Germans.
Niqab-Trägerin bei #annewill hat theologisch Verständnis für Teenager, die in heiligen Krieg ziehen. Langsam wird es skandalös — Ralf Schuler (@drumheadberlin) 6 ноября 2016 г.
The German public has vented its outrage at the program online. Some people decried ARD for providing “a platform for Islamist propaganda,” others simply called Illi’s statements scandalous.
Warum gibt man islamistischen Hetzparolen Woche für Woche in deutschen Talkshows eine Plattform?
😳
Heute wieder bei #annewill
Warum @ARDde? — Patrick Kunkel (@Patrick_Kunkel) 6 ноября 2016 г.
Some, however, took it all in a humorous vein.
“Fully veiled women representatives. What irony.”
“Next week at #annewill: Erdogan, Duterte and a member of the Ku Klux Clan will be discussing human rights.”
Nächste Woche bei #annewill : Erdogan, Duterte und ein Mitglied des Ku Klux Klans diskutieren über Menschenrechte. — Gregorius (@BalazsGabi) 7 ноября 2016 г.
Nora Illi replied on Monday to the wave of “aggressive to hate-filled discussions on social media,” as she put it. In a Facebook post, she wrote that she never meant to advertise jihad, but merely attempted to “provide an explanation for the phenomenon” of youngsters joining radicals, concluding “that Islamophobia is an important push factor” for this trend.
Illi also denied any association with Islamic State, while her husband, IZRS spokesman Qaasim Illi, denied any such links between the terror group and his organization.
READ MORE: ‘Burqa ban’ comes into force: Swiss region imposes first fines
It is not the first time Illi has been in media spotlight. This summer her name was in the headlines when she became the first woman in Switzerland fined for sporting a traditional Muslim burqa after it was outlawed.
And less than two weeks ago, she took part in a debate on the burqa ban with an Austrian private broadcaster Ösi-TV, also sparking quite a debate with her fully-veiled appearance and claims that Islamophobia is the cause of radical Islamism. |
Jan 7, 2014; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (15) smiles as a call is reviewed during the first quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers at Sleep Train Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
Let me start off by saying this – DeMarcus Cousins is not perfect.
At times you can’t help but shake your head at some of his pointless antics. And that’s exactly what they are – pointless. Former Sacramento Kings beat writer and current USA Today columnist Sam Amick touched on the subject in a recent piece and while I understand what Sam was attempting to say, I can’t help but wonder how good Cousins has to become to where his antics becomes immune.
For all of Cousins ‘troubles’ we’ve praised players who’ve committed far worse sins. We don’t even have to look outside of the organization to find examples. What about Tyreke Evans when he was caught speeding, doing 130mph on a busy holiday weekend. Nobody was harmed, so it was all fun and games – but have we not learned anything from Bobby Phills? What if Evans had lost control? Hurt somebody or even worse? But nothing happened and we continued on. Evans was still Evans and we were more concerned about his swollen ankles than the fact he could have killed a family of four. And what about franchise icon Chris Webber? Marijuana charges and lying to a grand jury? But he was still our Chris Webber. Keon Clark? He’s now in prison on weapons charges, this after admitting he never played a game sober (and subsequently cane and left the arena impaired). Bonzi Wells? The list goes on.
Leave the Kings for a moment. Even the legends of the sport have had their issues. I won’t go through all of the broken laws players have committed simply because the server can’t handle that much text, but what about Michael Jordan? Did anybody care when he punched Steve Kerr? Will Purdue? Reggie Miller? And what about when Charles Barkley attacked his teammates? Did they get passes due to the lack of social media coverage? Or was it because they were icons in the game we all love? I mean – Michael Jordan couldn’t have done that, right? He was Michael Jordan. Were Chicago Bulls fans concerned over Jordan’s locker room antics or were they worried about their playoff victories?
Make no mistake – this isn’t a cry that DeMarcus Cousins is treated unfairly or that he doesn’t bring on his own problems. Fact of the matter is, he needs to be able to control his emotions. But this is also a player who outside of a few locker room altercations hasn’t had any off the court issues. There have been no arrests – no drinking – no drugs – no battery – no resisting. Yet no player in the league gets more grief over their current and past antics.
By no stretch is DeMarcus Cousins some perfect angel who does no wrong. That’s not what I’m saying. But at some invisible point, it seems as if a player hits a plateau where he becomes immune. A point where his poor off court decisions are overlooked. A point where his antics are considered the norm. Sometimes that’s the success of the player. Sometimes that’s the success of the overall team. But things just seemingly get swept under the rug.
We all want Cousins to be the model player we feel he can be. And maybe one day he’ll become that stranger. Maybe not. Maybe this is just who DeMarcus Cousins really is. But honestly, is it that bad?
I don’t want DeMarcus Cousins yelling obscenities to people in the crowd as much as the next guy. It’s stupid. It’s pointless. But if that is his biggest fault, I can live with it.
Call me when he’s in handcuffs. |
Generally speaking, these methods just modify your hosts file to block the Paywall provider, SyncAccess.
Windows
To edit your hosts file, you will need to run Notepad as an Administrator.
So, just browse to C:\Windows, right-click on Notepad, then run as Administrator.
Now, navigate to the hosts file, it is a plain text file just called “hosts” in:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc
Open the hosts file in Notepad, then add the following line:
127.0.0.1 syncaccess.net www.syncacess.net
Don’t change anything else that might be here. Just add the line.
Now, click Save. That’s it. You’re done. Now you can browse for free with no annoying Paywall!
iPhone
In iPhone, we’re actually using a bit of a different trick, we’re actually going to fool iPhone (metaphorically) into think the Paywall site, syncaccess.net is an adult site.
1. Launch the Settings app from the Home screen.
from the Home screen. 2. Tap General .
. 3. Tap Restrictions.
4. Tap Enable Restrictions . If already enabled, skip to step 6.
. If already enabled, skip to step 6. 5. Type a 4-digit password that your children won’t be able to guess.
that your children won’t be able to guess. 6. Type your password again to confirm it.
again to confirm it. 7. Tap on Websites under Allowed Content .
under . 8. Tap on Limit Adult Content .
. 9. Tap Add a Website under NEVER ALLOW .
under . 10. Type the syncaccess.net website in the Website field.
website in the Website field. 11. Tap Done .
. 12. Now, also add www.syncaccess.net
Mac (untested, but should work)
Open a Finder window.
window. Select Applications from the sidebar.
from the sidebar. Double-click on Utilities .
. Double-click Terminal.
In the Terminal window, you will need to enter a command to open the Nano text editor. You will need your administrator password, as well.
type sudo nano /etc/hosts and then hit return. Enter your administrator password and then hit return.
Now, just like with Windows, add the following to your hosts file:
127.0.0.1 www.syncaccess.net syncaccess.net
Save the file, and you’re done.
Android (untested, but should work)
Download ES File Explorer from Google App Store and install it on your Android phone. After that, come back to Home Screen and open ES File Explorer, then click on the “/”
You are now in the root directory, tap ect file on your phone, and scroll down to find hosts file. Click on the hosts file, then it will show you a small frame on the right of the screen, navigate to Open as –> Text –> ES Note Editor –> Edit.
The last step is editing the websites that you would like to block on your Android device. Just like above, block the SyncAccess sites, you must write down 127.0.0.1 www.syncacess.net and syncaccess.net BTW, you have to reboot your Android phone for activating the changed settings. |
Gamepressure has updated its “The Witcher 3” FAQ with some new information from CD Projekt RED about this highly anticipated RPG. According to the developers, PC gamers won’t be able to adjust the game’s draw distance. CD Projekt RED claimed that most distances (e.g. for meshes) are set in assets, meaning that while there will – probably – be presets to choose from, there won’t be a slider for draw distance itself.
Our guess is that a draw distance slider won’t be available due to the Umbra 3 technology CD Projekt RED uses.
As NeoGAF’s member ‘ScepticMatt‘ hinted:
“Visibility checks are”baked” into “tomb” files, and occlusion/LOD data is streamed in instead of generated at run time. So changing the LOD distance would require generating new tomb files.”
In short, The Witcher 3 won’t have any draw distance slider.
Moreover, CD Projekt RED claimed that it currently has no plans for DX12 support. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will be an open-world title and as you may have guessed, DX12 would be ideal for such a game. Unfortunately, CDPR is currently focused on finishing the last optimizations for its title and is not planning on releasing a patch that will add DX12 support.
Last but not least, CD Projekt RED aims to release mod tools for The Witcher 3 after its release (though it won’t take as long as it did for The Witcher 2).
Enjoy this latest 4K screenshot from the PC version of The Witcher 3 (not Ultra settings if you were about to ask about it). |
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Updated 2.55 pm
THE UN HAS found that Ireland is obliged to provide compensation to a woman because she was forced to travel abroad to have an abortion.
A committee of experts from the UN’s Human Rights Commission has found that Ireland’s laws on abortion has had a “chilling effect” on healthcare and contributed to “negative experiences” Amanda Mellet went through.
They say she was subjected to “discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment as a result of Ireland’s legal prohibition of abortion”.
The decision comes following the 2011 case when Mellet was 21 weeks pregnant and was was told her foetus had congenital defects meaning it would die in the womb or shortly after birth. The committee said that this meant she had two choices:
between continuing her non-viable pregnancy or travelling to another country while carrying a dying foetus, at personal expense and separated from the support of her family, and to return while not fully recovered.
In this specific case, Mellet chose to travel to the UK to have a termination, staying there for only 12 hours because that was all she could afford. In that time she was not given any option regarding the foetus’s remains.
The committee outlines that they were “unexpectedly delivered to her three weeks later by courier”. She has spoke previously about the “heartbreaking” loss she felt losing the child she named Aoife.
The committee outlined how Ireland’s laws impacted on her treatment, more so because of her financial means:
In Ireland, she was denied the bereavement counselling and medical care available to women who miscarry. Such differential treatment, the Committee noted, failed to take into account her medical needs and socio-economic circumstances and constituted discrimination.
Many of the negative experiences she went through could have been avoided if (she) had not been prohibited from terminating her pregnancy in the familiar environment of her own country and under the care of health professionals whom she knew and trusted.
The committee notes that Ireland is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and is therefore obliged to
provide [Amanda Mellett] with an effective remedy, including adequate compensation and psychological treatment she may need, the Committee said. Ireland is also obliged to prevent similar violations from occurring.
“To this end, the State party should amend its law on voluntary termination of pregnancy, including if necessary its Constitution, to ensure compliance with the Covenant, including effective, timely and accessible procedures for pregnancy termination in Ireland,” the committee said.
Ailbhe Smith, convener of Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment in the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin today. Source: Leah Farrell
In a statement issued this afternoon, Amanda Mellet said she was “profoundly grateful” to the UN for clearly recognising that her human rights were violated.
“The decision not only vindicates my rights, it also serves to uphold the rights of many other women in Ireland who have faced and continue to face human rights violations under the current legal regime.”
She noted that to redress the violations, the Irish government has to ensure other women do not live through the same experiences but added that “this cannot happen until Article 40.3.3 is repealed”.
Speaking about her own personal trauma, she said she hopes with the decision in hand that she can now “finally leave behind these painful memories”.
“I hope the day will soon come when women in Ireland will be able to access the health services they need in our own country, where we can be with our loved ones, with our own medical team, and where we have our own familiar bed to go home and cry in.
“Subjecting women to so much additional pain and trauma simply must not continue.”
The Centre for Reproductive Rights held a press conference today following the UN ruling. Source: Leah Farrell
Response
The State now has 180 days to respond to the committee detailing what steps it intends to take to make sure it is compliant under international law.
Speaking this afternoon following the ruling, Amnesty International Ireland executive director Colm O’Gorman said that Ireland’s failure to adhere to UN’s Human Rights Commission would mean that it is undermining a system of international law it was part of creating.
The question for Ireland now is if it is going to continue to assert its traditional respect for international human rights law or is it going to be one of those rogues states that disregards the rule of international law and simply doesn’t not accept the ruling of this committee.
In its response to the committee as part of the case, Ireland had argued that the issue was part of a “profound moral question” that it required a “nuanced and proportionate approach”.
The government has promised a public convention on a number of issues including abortion to examine whether it will propose any legislative changes in the area.
Ailbhe Smyth of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment says that what is needed is a referendum.
“Of course there are a variety of opinions and points of view on this issue and the Taoiseach himself has said that it is ultimately the people who make the decisions, so he now needs to follow his own views and put it to the people,” she said. |
Aaqil Ahmed, the broadcaster's head of religion and ethics, has compiled a dossier which accuses the BBC of ignoring faiths outside Christianity
The BBC has accused itself of being too Christian in its output - and is considering scrapping some of its long-running programmes in favour of shows for Muslim, Hindu and Sikh audiences.
Aaqil Ahmed, the broadcaster's head of religion and ethics, compiled a report following consultation with non-Christians who expressed their belief that the BBC is disproportionate in its religious content.
The feeling is that while there are plenty of shows that celebrate Christianity, there are too few for other faiths.
BBC director general Lord Hall has been handed the dossier and is believed to be giving thorough consideration to its suggestions.
It comes after last week's white paper on the BBC ordered the broadcaster to offer more for ethnic minorities.
In a statement provided to The Sunday Times, Ahmed said: 'Christianity remains the cornerstone of our output and there are more hours dedicated to it than there are to other faiths.
'Our output in this area is not static, though. It has evolved over the years and we regularly assess it.'
As it stands, religious programming across the BBC includes the likes of Songs of Praise, Sunday Morning Live and The Life of Muhammad on television. Moral Maze, Beyond Belief and Thought for the Day feature on radio.
When quizzed on whether the aim of increasing non-Christian output would come at the detriment of Christian shows, a spokesperson said: 'Christianity remains the cornerstone of our output and the BBC is committed to delivering a range of content that both reflects, celebrates and challenges religion and ethics across BBC TV, radio and online.'
As it stands, religious programming across the BBC includes the likes of Songs of Praise (pictured), Sunday Morning Live and The Life of Muhammad on television. Moral Maze, Beyond Belief and Thought for the Day feature on radio
'We are intending to do more programming around Christianity and more on other faiths as well, so there is absolutely no question of an "either or" on our output.'
Muslim critics have suggested that the BBC could televise Friday prayers, cover Eid or show children attending madrasahs to boost their Islamic serving.
Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, admitted he was wary about any such changes.
He commented: 'There is a real feeling by Christians of being let down by the Establishment. |
Russia is determined to file a lawsuit against Ukraine if Kiev does not repay its state debt to Moscow by December 20, the Russian Ministry of Finance has said, adding that the US has officially refused to give financial guarantees for Ukraine’s debt.
“This week, we have received an official rejection from the US government to provide guarantees for Ukraine’s obligations. In this regard, we have no other option but to take legal action against Ukraine in case the borrower fails to fulfill its credit obligations in full before December 20,” Russia’s financial ministry said in its statement, adding that such a situation would amount to national bankruptcy for Ukraine, TASS reports.
Putin offers Ukraine 3-year extension to pay off debt https://t.co/7zwhkT3exvpic.twitter.com/mfHS4Xjh5v — RT (@RT_com) November 17, 2015
Ukraine’s sovereign debt to Russia currently stands at $3 billion. It dates back to a deal between President Vladimir Putin and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich that was struck in 2013 and envisaged Moscow buying $15 billion worth of Ukrainian bonds. Russia bought $3 billion worth in December 20, 2013, and the debt is supposed to be repaid by December 20, 2015.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has repeatedly said that Ukraine will not repay its debt to Moscow without restructuring.
At the G20 summit in Turkey’s Antalya, Vladimir Putin announced a proposal to restructure Ukraine’s debt, allowing it to repay $1 billion per year over the course of three years – from 2016 to 2018, if the US, EU or a “first-class international institution” would provide guarantees for Ukraine.
Kiev doesn’t rule out default on Russian debt https://t.co/rgoEE8MTGLpic.twitter.com/p3idicRfhr — RT (@RT_com) November 13, 2015
Russia has repeatedly stressed that the terms proposed were even better than those stipulated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that a decision concerning the proposal should be taken as soon as possible.
However, Russia has received no official answer to its proposal from Kiev, Deputy Financial Minister Sergey Storchak said on December 1, adding that Russia still hopes to receive an answer by December 8.
“We proceed from the intention to reach an agreement before December 8, as on December 8 the IMF will vote on changes in its policy,” Storchak said, as quoted by TASS. If adopted, those changes would allow countries with past-due sovereign debt to still borrow from the IMF. At present, if a country has defaulted on sovereign debt, they are not able to receive further funds.
Meanwhile, Ukraine runs the risk of missing out on its next tranche of loan money from the IMF, as it has still not met the requirements the Fund has said are necessary to fulfill in order to receive it.
“Now, there are risks that Ukraine will not get the next tranche from the IMF, as it has still not adopted a budget for 2016 that would be compliant with the Fund’s requirements, because of the absence of a consistent tax reform project, as well as a lack of some other structural reforms,” the Russian Ministry of Finance said in its statement. |
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