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Marquette center Luke Fischer dunks the ball. Credit: Michael McLoone
By of the
Marquette fans have long awaited the arrival of Henry Ellenson, regarded as one of the top recruits in program history. On Monday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, the 6-foot-10 forward from Rice Lake, Wis., didn't disappoint in his Marquette debut, powering the Golden Eagles in a 98-57 victory over NAIA Valley City State (N.D.) in an exhibition game.
Ellenson secured a double-double in the first half and finished with 16 points, 17 rebounds, five assists and two blocks in 27 minutes — each stat either marking or tying the team high.
Not bad for the youngest of the three Ellenson brothers on the court Monday night. He was joined by his brother Wally, who made his Marquette debut after transferring from Minnesota with eight points and three rebounds. Their brother Ellwood, a junior at Valley City State, had five points and five rebounds.
"It was a lot of fun," Henry said. "First of all just having my first game at Marquette and then just even more special with all the brothers playing here tonight. It's definitely a day I'll never forget."
The Golden Eagles got off to a slow start allowing the Vikings to keep the game close for much of the first half. Marquette, featuring only three players who saw the court at the start of last season, struggled to run its offense effectively in the opening minutes and looked unsettled at the other end of the court.
"I thought we weren't exactly who we've been behind closed doors or even in Italy or in a secret scrimmage," MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski said of the first half. "I just didn't think we were clicking on the cylinders that we traditionally click on.
"Some of that has to do, I think, with the newness and having people in the stands and guys trying to figure it out. That's a little bit to be expected."
Those issues disappeared in the second half. Sophomore Sandy Cohen rattled off seven quick points as Marquette extended an 11-point halftime lead past 20 points in less than three minutes. No matter who was on the floor, the Golden Eagles picked apart the Vikings defense on the way to 22 of 28 shooting (78.6%) in the final 20 minutes.
"I think from this summer until this point I think the best thing this team has done is share the basketball, and I thought we didn't do that as much in the first half," Wojciechowski said. "In the second half we just made more passes. The more we moved the defense the better shot we got. When we get good shots we're a good shooting team."
Cohen matched Henry Ellenson as the game's leading scorer, doing most of his damage driving the lane.
"Last year I think I was kind of limited to the three-point range just because I was so skinny and kind of weak," Cohen said. "Over the summer I really worked hard in the weight room and I gained a lot of weight. I think with that I am able to get to the paint more and it evolves my game."
Sophomore Duane Wilson started at point guard, but spent much of his time playing off the ball while freshmen Traci Carter and Haanif Cheatham took their turns running the point.
Wilson, who was limited by foul trouble, had a quiet night with five points and one assist in 18 minutes. Cheatham caught fire in the second half, making 6 of 7 shots in the final frame to finish with 15 points in 25 minutes.
Carter added six points and three assists, along with three turnovers, in 19 minutes.
"I think all three of those guys are capable point guards or lead guards or however you want to categorize them," Wojciechowski said. "Their growth and development is going to go a long way to who we're going to be."
Fouls played a major role in Monday's game, but no one was more adversely effected that junior center Luke Fischer. Of the 50 combined fouls called, Fischer was whistled for three in six minutes during the first half. Less than five minutes into the second half Fischer was called for his fourth.
Despite the four fouls, Fischer came on late to finish with 13 points, including 3 of 3 shooting from the field and 7 of 11 from the free-throw line.
"I think a majority of the calls were a result of the new points of emphasis," Wojciechowski said. "We have to defend the ball better without fouling and guard the drive better. Really I think we're going to see 50 fouls is going to be the norm early in the season."
One Marquette player, though, was able to avoid fouling. That, of course, was Henry Ellenson, who says he used to get in trouble at Rice Lake High School if he fouled out.
"I think Henry can be a great player," Wojciechowski said. "He's just got a tremendously high level of talent. He wants to be really good, and the stage and bright lights don't affect him." |
If Chrome’s your default browser then you’re fine. Albeit, you’re running Chrome on a Mac which isn’t fine at all if you value speed and power efficiency above Chrome’s incredible, multi-platform extensibility.
Actual Safari window failing with t.co
The exasperating 4-month-old bug appears to have been introduced with the general release of OS X El Capitan on September 30th of last year. It seems limited to HTTPS links that have been contracted by Twitter’s link shortening service t.co. The issue’s been roundly discussed on Twitter and Apple’s own forums with several people — not Apple — posting what they claim are fixes.
Making Chrome my default browser until Apple fixes Safari’s stupid https://t.co/bEKIq9M3TK issue — Cool Brand Luke (@jephjacques) January 20, 2016
Apple is apparently aware of the issue and a fix has been identified. This, according to Timothy Hatcher, WebKit Developer Experience Manager at Apple, who noted that the issue "is lower level than Webkit," the engine that powers Safari. When that’ll see a release is unknown.
I’ve tried a few workarounds over the last few months to no avail. This morning I started testing a new "fix" du jour to bypass t.co link shortening. So far, so good, in Tweetbot at least — t.co links in TweetDeck, however, still fail in Safari.
What about you, fellow Safari users? |
Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Gamers can get very angry and frustrated while playing
Xbox One players who cheat or display anti-social behaviour during online games will be punished, Microsoft has revealed.
Such players will be issued with a red card and have certain privileges removed.
A traffic light system will categorise players, with green meaning "good", yellow meaning "needs work" and red standing for "avoid me".
Players falling into the green category will gain rewards for good behaviour.
Michael Dunn, program manager on Xbox Live, did not go into detail about what such rewards would be but did say that "the majority of gamers will fall into this level".
Reputation algorithm
In a blogpost, he explained how the system would work.
"By looking at someone's Gamercard you're able to quickly see their reputation," he said.
"The more hours you play fairly online without being reported as abusive by other players, the better your reputation will be," he added.
An algorithm will be used to identify players that are repeatedly disruptive, following negative feedback about their conduct.
"We designed the algorithm so it won't penalise you for bad reports over a few weeks of play. The system also adjusts for false reports from people that might intentionally report someone of greater skill or for other griefing purposes," said Mr Dunn.
Those that fall into the yellow category of "needs work" will be sent warnings about their behaviour.
And those that fall into the red category will have reduced matchmaking pairings and may be unable to use certain privileges such as Twitch broadcasting, which allows users to share live game-play sessions with viewers around the world.
Twitter users largely seemed to welcome the new guidelines.
One tweeted: "Maybe this will turn the tides of poor behaviour on Xbox Live", while another said: "I would pay good money to watch a CoD [Call of Duty] match between 'avoid me' players." |
NewLiberty on the LvMI Forum shares a bevy of links covering the recent climate scandal that seems likely to become even bigger than the Yamal Controversy...
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/hadley_hacked/ http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/20/climate-sceptics-hackers-leaked-emails http://www.examiner.com/x-28973-Essex-County-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m11d19-Hadley-CRU-hacked-with-release-of-hundreds-of-docs-and-emails http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091120/full/news.2009.1101.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8370282.stm http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576009,00.html "So the 1079 emails and 72 documents seem indeed evidence of a scandal involving most of the most prominent scientists pushing the man-made warming theory - a scandal that is one of the greatest in modern science. I’ve been adding some of the most astonishing in updates below - emails suggesting conspiracy, collusion in exaggerating warming data, possibly illegal destruction of embarrassing information, organised resistance to disclosure, manipulation of data, private admissions of flaws in their public claims and much more. If it is as it now seems, never again will “peer review” be used to shout down sceptics."
...as well as a torrent of the actual leaked emails and documents.
Elsewhere in the web, the heroic Bishop Hill provides us with an extensive collection of summaries of some of the more interesting "CRUgate" e-mails.
But LvMI Forum member Le Master has his own choice nugget to share. He enjoins us to particularly "check out the PDF in the documents folder. It's a five-page document titled The Rules of the Game. It seems to be like a primer for propagating the AGW message to the average subject of the UK. The document suggests that it is a precis of a longer document housed at the Web site of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs."
Hopefully some readers here will follow Le Master's example and make the leaked emails and documents their weekend reading, and post what they find here or on the relevant forum thread. Many eyes make light work!
Let's give them something to talk about in Copenhagen. |
What was just a Saturday afternoon stroll along the beach led to an eight-year-old girl making a historical discovery at the weekend near Cosy Corner in the Kidd’s Beach area.
Jaunniel Moss noticed part of a car’s engine sticking out from sand previously covered by dunes.
The vintage chassis, engine and two tyres had been unearthed by the monstrous waves and gale force winds the coastline experienced last week.
Her mother, Jaunique Moss – who has been visiting the area for many years – said the beach was famously known for a shipwreck that took place more than 60 years ago.
“My daughter spotted the top of the engine when she was out on a walk with my dad and was very excited about it when they came back.
“We decided to go out there on Sunday morning and dig up the car to see what it is and realised it must have been from the shipwreck,” she said.
On September 27, 1957 the Frontier ship was lodged onto the coastline and remains of the wreckage can still be seen strewn along the beach.
Rodrique Ross, one of Cosy Corner’s first inhabitants echoed the findings and told the Daily Dispatch yesterday that when the Frontier “docked” at their beach he was called to help out.
“I was about 26 years old at the time and we got called down to the beach.
“When we got there we found lots of empty liquor bottles that washed up from the wreckage.”
Ross did not see the unearthed car himself but recalled that the vehicle’s engine was connected to a cable which was used as pulley to transport the cargo onto land.
“The guy who had the salvage rights used to pull the busman’s chair from the ship to land but he left the car and the bulldozer there because he could not transport it across the Ncerha River,” he said.
Ross said he often charged a levy for those who used his farm as a throughway to view the ship.
“There were thousands of cars that came through here. I even put up toilets close to the beach for people to use,” he said. — [email protected] |
Fear not, there will be plenty more “Yas!” coming to Comedy Central.
More than a month before the season 3 of Broad City debuts, the network announced that it has renewed the show for a fourth and fifth season.
And also not surprisingly, Comedy Central renewed Inside Amy Schumer for a fifth season. The popular and critically lauded sketch comedy — which won the Emmy for Oustanding Variety Sketch Series in September — will return for season 4 in April. The stand-up who scored on the big screen as well with the hit comedy Trainwreck said in a statement: “We are so excited to get picked up. I’ve gotten picked up many times, but this time feels the best.”
WANT MORE EW? Subscribe now to keep up with the latest in movies, television, and music.
Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer will resume their Big Apple adventures on Feb. 17 when the season 3 premiere airs at 10 p.m.. ET. The duo recently received an endorsement from none other than a possible future President: Hillary Clinton will make an appearance in an upcoming episode.
There was more good news for Glazer: Comedy Central also announced that in April it will air a limited series amazingly titled Time Traveling Bong, which she stars in and co-wrote. The three-night event debuts on April 20 — or 4/20, naturally — following Broad City‘s season 3 finale. |
Six fighters exited UFC 139 with an extra $70,000, as Dan Henderson Urijah Faber and Michael McDonald all banked fight night bonuses on Saturday.Henderson and Rua were awarded “Fight of the Night” following their epic and bloody five-round main event, as were Silva and Le for their efforts in the three-round co-headliner. Faber (Pictured, file photo) earned “Submission of the Night” for his second-round victory over Brian Bowles , while McDonald took home “Knockout of the Night” by dispatching Alex Soto in under one minute.Two stars of the defunct Pride Fighting Championships, Henderson and Rua provided fans with an exhilarating battle at the HP Pavillion in San Jose, Calif., trading blows for the bout’s 25-minute duration. While Henderson came out strong early, dropping Rua multiple times in the first two rounds, the Brazilian would not go away, pouring punishment on a fading Henderson in the final two frames. In the end, however, Henderson had built up enough of a lead to take home a win, earning scores of 48-47 from all three judges.Silva and Le excited fans in a back-and-forth middleweight contest. Though Le set the pace in round one with his kick-based attack, Silva gradually began to close the distance. In round two, Silva again appeared passive in the early going, until “The Axe Murderer” turned in a vintage knockout, cornering Le against the fence and punishing him with knees to the body and face. As Le hit the canvas, he dug for a single-leg but was met by a sprawl from Silva. The Brazilian reigned down a stream of hammer fists until the referee waved him off, calling an end to the contest at 4:49 of the round.Earlier in the night, Faber used his trademark guillotine choke to end Bowles’ immediate hopes of winning another world title; the “California Kid” forced the former WEC bantamweight titleholder to tap out at 1:27 of round two. After controlling the standup in the first frame, Faber was more aggressive in the second stanza, snapping Bowles’ head back with a hard lead uppercut and swarming him with punches against the cage. Not long after, the onetime WEC 145-pound champion locked up his fight-ending guillotine, rolling on top of Bowles to tighten his squeeze and force the submission.McDonald wasted no time in dispatching his aggressive opponent and spoiling Soto’s Octagon debut. “Mayday” caught Soto with a hard right hand that buckled his legs early in the round, and the Californian jumped on his hurt opponent, backing Soto up against the cage and knocking him unconscious with a pair of vicious uppercuts. |
NEW YORK -- Transit officials voted today for a package of steep fare hikes that will increase the cost of a single subway or bus ride from $2 to $2.50.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's finance committee approved the measure as state lawmakers sought to reach a compromise on a bailout plan that would avoid the worst of the planned fare increases and service cuts.
Under the proposal, the price of a monthly MetroCard would rise by $22 to $103, and a weekly unlimited-ride MetroCard would jump by $6 to $31.
The full MTA board will vote on the fare increases Wednesday following today's vote by the finance committee. The fare hikes and service cuts would take effect June 1.
The MTA adopted a budget in December designed to close a $1.1 billion gap in its operating budget by raising fare and toll revenues by 23 percent. The board also approved sweeping service cuts, including eliminating 21 local bus routes.
Gov. David Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver support a bailout for the MTA in which transit riders, motorists and businesses would share the pain.
Under that plan, crafted by a state commission headed by former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch, fares would rise 8 percent on average, drivers would pay to use the free East and Harlem River bridges and businesses in the MTA's 12-county region would be charged a payroll tax.
State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith was still seeking a compromise to the Ravitch proposal today. Negotiations were continuing.
The MTA is a state agency that runs New York City's subways and public buses, the Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road, the Long Island Bus system and several bridges and tunnels. It has $27 billion in debt. |
INSIDE THE GAME
Josh Ravin won’t forget that night in 2012 when he was called into his manager’s office. It was good news – the Cincinnati Reds were going to promote him to Double-A. But his manager had one question for him: “Have you got any (health) issues?”
The truth was his groin was bothering him. He’d tweaked it the night before but pitched through the pain without telling anyone. He certainly wasn’t going to bring it up now. Not when he was about to be promoted. Not when he’d just spent the first 12 weeks of the season recovering from an oblique injury.
So he lied, and he got his promotion.
“I can pitch through this,” he thought.
He didn’t want to go back on the disabled list, didn’t want to gain a reputation of being injury prone, and certainly didn’t want to miss any more time in the field. You only get so many chances in this game and if you stay off the field long enough, they’ll forget about you. Out of sight, out of mind.
Such is the pressure of advancing through the minor leagues. You’re always looking for ways to improve, ways to get noticed, ways to move up, all while competing against your own teammates to earn a spot at the next level.
The road through the minor leagues is a difficult one to navigate. The bus rides are long and uncomfortable, the crowds are small and the facilities are low-rent. And the salaries are much, much smaller than those in the majors. It’s enough to make a guy play through pain, or even lie about an injury. Such is life in the minor leagues.
‘I want it more than anything’
It was nearly three years ago that Ravin thought he could fool his body and his coaches into thinking everything was OK.
“I went home and iced,” says Ravin, recalling that night. “I was just icing it and icing it and just hoping. I kind of knew it wouldn’t (work) in the back of my mind, but I was just trying so hard to pretend it was. But it wasn’t worth pitching through.” |
On paper, Luigi Galvan’s family looks better off than most. Together his parents earn about $120,000 per year — more than twice the current median household income in the U.S.
That kind of paycheck may be plenty to support a standard family of four, but Galvan, 17, is one of seven children, including a younger brother who is disabled and requires expensive medical treatment. When he was accepted at the University of California, Berkeley earlier this year, his parents knew they would need help affording the $32,000/year it would cost him to attend.
Photo: Luigi Galvan More
The federal government thought otherwise. Despite his family’s unique circumstances, Galvan’s family earned too much for him to be eligible for federal grants. He’s not alone. State and federal funding for higher education has plummeted since the Great Recession and the gap between tuition costs and family incomes has only widened. Middle-income families often find themselves disproportionately affected. They aren’t poor enough to qualify for federal grants and scholarships and they aren’t wealthy enough to foot their children’s education bill on their own. The government doesn’t cut off financial aid eligibility at a certain income level but in 2008, 96% of households that received the Pell Grant had an adjusted-gross income of $50,000 or less.
“These parents are making enough to make ends meet and maybe put something into their retirement fund,” says Sue Tirukonda, a certified college aid planner in Wichita, Kan. “But they look at those numbers and they say there’s no way I will be able to afford my mortgage if I were to devote that much money to paying for college.”
When they can’t afford tuition, middle-income families — including the Galvans and the Graves family, highlighted in the video above — are increasingly leaning on debt. A recent study found that college students from middle-income families were more likely to end up with student debt than those from lower- and higher-income backgrounds.
At least one state is working to solve this discrepancy. This fall, California will become the first state to dole out scholarships specifically aiming to help out middle-income families.
The California Middle Class Scholarship will offer funding to families who earn less than $150,000 a year (including investment income and other assets) if their child enrolls at a University of California or California State University (CSU) campus. Awards max out at 40% of the cost of tuition and vary based on how many families apply. To be eligible, students need to fill out a Free Federal Application for Financial Aid Jan. 2 - March 2, 2015.
Galvan was among the first students in the state to apply this year and he will find out in August how much he and his family have been awarded.
“This scholarship is something that does at least somewhat acknowledge the fact that families in the upper $100,000 area of annual income aren't always able to pay as much as colleges expect them to,” says Galvan, who lives in Antioch, Calif. “More aid helps me focus more on my education rather than worrying about what I'll have to pay off for while I'm here.”
The state’s student aid commission, which is charged with administering the scholarship rewards, estimates more than 150,000 families will qualify.
Story continues |
Shurmur, St. Louis' offensive coordinator the past two years, was hired by the Browns on Thursday, ending a search for their fifth coach since 1999 that began when team president Mike Holmgren fired Eric Mangini on Jan. 3 after his second straight 11-loss season.
Shurmur isn't a big-name hire, and his addition won't trigger a celebration by Browns fans or a rush of season-ticket requests.
But to Holmgren, the 45-year-old's last name means success.
Shurmur's late uncle, Fritz, was Holmgren's defensive coordinator in Green Bay when the Packers won the Super Bowl in 1996. And in hiring a candidate with no head coaching experience, Holmgren is following the same path he took in getting to the top of his profession.
Like Shurmur, Holmgren was a quarterbacks coach and an offensive coordinator before getting the Packers' job in 1992. When Shurmur, who was the first of three known candidates to be interviewed, sat across the desk from Holmgren, Cleveland's top football executive may have seen a younger version of himself.
"Pat is a bright, young man who grew up in football and around the coaching profession," Holmgren said. "I came away from our interview very impressed with him as a person, his extensive knowledge of the game and his track record of success as an assistant coach in this league.
"Most importantly, I feel as though he possesses the necessary qualities which make him the right man to lead our football team."
The Browns have a been a mess for far too long. In a league where quick turnarounds are common, they've been an exception to the rule. Cleveland has made the AFC playoffs just once and had nine double-digit loss seasons in 13 years. Chris Palmer, Butch Davis, Romeo Crennel and Mangini each failed in trying to build a consistent winner in Cleveland's expansion era.
Now, it's Shurmur's turn.
The Browns will introduce him as their 13th full-time coach Friday in a news conference at their Berea, Ohio, headquarters.
Shurmur's development of Bradford, last year's No. 1 overall draft pick, was one of the main reasons the Browns nabbed him. They're hoping he can have similar success with Colt McCoy, who showed poise and promise after being thrown into a starting role because of injuries.
Under Shurmur, Bradford lived up to his hype and set rookie league records for completions and attempts. He also led St. Louis to a 7-9 record -- the Rams were 1-15 a year earlier -- while throwing for 3,512 yards, second-most ever for a rookie behind Peyton Manning's 3,739 in 1998.
"This is a great opportunity for Coach Shurmur," Bradford said. "I really enjoyed working with him last season and he truly helped my transition from college to the NFL game. I think he will be a really good head coach."
The Rams scored 114 more points this season than they did in 2009, and Steven Jackson had his second straight 1,000-yard season in Shurmur's offense.
"I knew it would not be long before coach Shurmur got a head coaching job in this league," Jackson said. "He was a good coordinator for the Rams and on Sundays, he got the most out of his players and always had us in a position to win the game."
It wasn't all rosy in St. Louis, though. Shurmur's offense was criticized for being too conservative. Many of Bradford's completions were short dump-offs. Shurmur was ripped following the Rams' 16-6 season-ending loss to Seattle, which cost them a playoff spot. In that game, Jackson had just 11 carries -- four in the second half -- and Bradford couldn't get things going.
Before joining the Rams, Shurmur spent 10 seasons in Philadelphia. He coached the club's tight ends for three years and then their quarterbacks, turning a raw Donovan McNabb into one of the game's best all-around quarterbacks.
Although he promised a "wide" coaching search, Holmgren only met with Shurmur, Atlanta offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey and New York Giants defensive coordinator Perry Fewell. Interviews with potential candidates Jon Gruden and John Fox never got past an exploratory phone call, and an expected meeting with Philadelphia offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg -- another Holmgren protege -- never happened.
Shurmur emerged as the front-runner in recent days and no one caught him.
His deep connections with Cleveland's front office certainly helped Shurmur's chances. He spent eight years working with Browns general manager Tom Heckert in Philadelphia. Shurmur never worked directly with Holmgren, but he learned the West Coast offense Holmgren prefers under Eagles coach Andy Reid, one of the Cleveland president's closest friends.
"I have the utmost respect for Coach Holmgren and Tom Heckert, and I am impressed with the direction in which they have this franchise going," Shurmur said. "I have known Tom for most of my pro coaching career, and while we were in Philadelphia, he and I developed an outstanding relationship.
"I am looking forward to this challenge and can't wait to get started in helping to build the Browns back to one of the elite teams in the NFL."
Shurmur's agent, Bob LaMonte, who also represents Holmgren and Heckert, arrived Thursday to finalize a contract and the sides only needed a few hours to work out details. Terms of Shurmur's deal were not immediately available, but it was expected to be a four-year package.
Holmgren began his first coaching search promising that head coaching experience would not be a requirement for Mangini's successor. He kept his word.
Shurmur's arrival was greeted with mostly a collective yawn by Browns fans, who have grown weary of change. Now, they have to trust Holmgren's keen eye for coaching talent. Holmgren, after all, is the one who hired an up-and-coming Gruden and Reid. He's also had seven other current or former NFL coaches on his staff, including Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci and Dick Jauron.
Holmgren's taking a chance with the unproven Shurmur, but he's seen it work before. |
On CNBC this morning, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Treasury Department, Steven Mnuchin, described a very interesting tax plan. However, it bears little resemblance to any of the multiple plans that Trump proposed during the campaign.
For instance, Mnuchin said, “Any reductions we have in upper-income taxes will be offset by less deductions, so there will be no absolute tax cut for the upper class.” I don’t know what Mnuchin means by the upper class. However, the Tax Policy Center estimates that under Trump’s most recent plan, the average net tax cut for the highest income 1 percent of households (those making $700,000 or more) would be $215,000 in 2017. The top 0.1 percent, who make north of $3.7 million, would enjoy an average tax cut of more than $1 million, boosting their after-tax income by 14.2 percent.
At the same time, Mnuchin implied that the bulk of Trump’s tax cuts would go to middle-income households. Asked if “the lion’s share of the tax cuts go to the wealthy,” Mnuchin replied, “Well, that’s not the case at all. There will be big tax cuts for the middle-class.”
The Lion's Share
However, TPC estimated that while middle-income households--those making between $48,000 and $83,000—would get a tax cut under Trump’s last campaign plan, it would be relatively modest. It would average about $1,000 in 2017, or about 1.8 percent of their after-tax income.
It seems pretty clear who would get the “lion’s share” of the Trump tax cut, at least the one he campaigned on. Middle-income households would get about 6.7 percent of the total tax cut. By contrast the top 1 percent would get nearly half, and the top 0.1 percent would get nearly one-quarter of the total benefit, and their share would grow over time.
Because Trump’s plan would include big tax cuts for business—and Mnuchin insisted that would not change—it inevitably will cut taxes for the rich, who own those businesses. It is hard to imagine how high-income households would not receive an outsized benefit from Trump’s business tax cuts.
"We Don't Believe In That"
Mnuchin did seem to walk back the effects of Trump’s plan on some low- and middle-income households. TPC found that while the Trump campaign plan would cut taxes for every income class on average, some people would pay more under his plan than they do today. Among the losers: Single parents with children, families with large numbers of kids, and even some higher income childless singles.
Asked about this problem, Mnuchin replied, “Yeah, we don’t believe in that analysis.” But then he suggested the plan might change anyway: “So, you know, when we work with Congress and we go through this, it’ll be very clear this is a middle income tax cut.”
Finally, Mnuchin seemed to imply that higher revenues from individuals would finance business tax cuts. He said, “So we think by cutting corporate taxes, we’ll create huge economic growth and we’ll have huge personal income, so the revenues will be offset on the other side.”
It is hard to know if he means fully or partially offset. But TPC found that, even accounting for the macroeconomic effects of Trump’s campaign tax cut cuts, the president-elect’s plan would add $7 trillion to the federal debt over the next decade. If Mnuchin is in fact suggesting the tax plan would not add to the debt, that suggests massive changes to what Trump has so far proposed.
Trump’s remarkable malleability on tax policy makes it hard to keep up. He proposed three very different plans during the campaign—one for the primaries and two others for the general election. Now, one of his top economic advisers is implying that it all may change again, and in profound ways. I await Trump 4.0. |
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his South Korean counterpart announced early Tuesday their two countries have concluded a free-trade agreement that the government boasts will be a major boost for Canadian exporters in the fast growing Asian market, but detractors fear will damage Ontario’s key economic auto industry.
The announcement ends almost a decade of on-and-off talks and represents Canada’s first free-trade agreement with an Asian country, a region of the world the Conservative government has targeted as essential for the country’s economic well-being.
Once in force, it will eliminate virtually all tariffs between the countries, with Korea cutting 81.9 per cent of duties upon the first day of the deal coming into force, and Canada removing 76.4 per cent of levies. Some tariffs will take as long as a dozen years to be fully phased out, however.
Officials say the pact is fully fleshed and not an agreement in principle, as was the case with the European Union deal, and could come into effect within a year. The agreement is also different is that it does not involve sub-national procurement, so Ottawa will not require provincial approval. Media was briefed on the details simultaneously in Ottawa and Seoul on Monday night ET.
According to the government release, the deal is expected to increase Canadian exports to South Korea by 32 per cent and expand the economy by $1.7 billion.
“[The agreement] will create jobs and opportunities for Canadians across the country,” the prime minister is quoted as saying in the release. “Canadian businesses, investors and consumers in every province stand to benefit significantly from the increased market access that the agreement will provide.”
The biggest winners from the Canadian side will likely be in the agriculture sector, particularly beef and pork, the forest industry and seafood exporters, all of whom face stiff tariffs for shipping into the Korea market of 50 million people.
But Ottawa was already bracing for blow-back from Ontario and the domestic auto sector, which will see a 6.1-per-cent duty on Korean exports of Hyundai and Kia vehicles eliminated over two years once implemented, making the strong-selling brands even more competitive in the Canadian market.
Ontario had asked Ottawa to at least match the U.S. negotiated deal with Korea by securing a five-year phaseout of tariffs, and to include a “snap-back” provision by which tariff reductions could be rolled back if it was shown that Seoul was using non-tariff barriers to thwart Canadian exports of autos and parts into the country. But the deal fell short on both counts.
On Monday, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who was aware of the details, said she was of mixed minds on the agreement.
“In terms of the agri-food sector, we are very optimistic about the opportunities that a Canada-Korea deal might provide,” she said. “We do have reservations about the auto sector.”
Material provided by the federal government estimated that damage to the Ontario auto sector would be limited to about 0.2 per cent of production, or 45,000 vehicles annually, noting that 88 per cent of cars produced in Canada are for export.
The government also believes that Canadian automakers will be able to increase its exports, which are currently practically non-existent, noting that since the European Union and the U.S. signed their pacts, shipments have doubled in a few years. South Korea’s eight per cent duty on autos disappears on the first day of the treaty’s implementation.
Alberta’s minister of international and intergovernmental relations Cal Dallas used Twitter to draw attention to an earlier Facebook post from the past weekend in support of the agreement, which at that time had not been announced.
“With more than $615 million worth of exports to South Korea, a free trade agreement with South Korea is a natural fit for Alberta,” Dallas wrote.
Currently, South Korea enjoys a significant trade advantage with exports of $6.3 billion in 2012 to Canada, and imports from Canada totalling only $3.7 billion. But even so, Ottawa officials said the situation has been eroding since the Korea-U.S. deal went into effect almost two years ago, with Canadian exports having fallen by about 30 per cent, or $1.5 billion.
Supporters of the agreement have argued that it was critical for Canada to conclude the talks quickly given the competitive advantage enjoyed by the U.S., Europe and Australia from having implemented trade pacts with Korea.
The successful conclusion, the second significant deal within a year, also likely sends a signal to other potential free-trade partners that Ottawa is currently negotiating with, including India, Japan, and the countries of the TransPacific Partnership, that it is a serious negotiator, said Paul Evans, director of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia.
“It may signal that the Conservatives are in a position where they are going to make some of the hard trade-offs” that will be needed to close the bigger deals, he said. |
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Veteran defensive tackle Tommy Kelly wasn't at Friday's practice, marking the third straight day he hasn't been on the field with his teammates, which puts his status in doubt for Sunday's game against the Saints.
Kelly left Sunday's 13-6 loss to the Bengals with a right knee injury.
Should the New England Patriots be without Kelly, it would be a double-barreled blow because they also lost starting defensive tackle Vince Wilfork to a torn Achilles on Sept. 29. So they could be down to their third-, fourth- and fifth-string options at defensive tackle -- rookies Joe Vellano and Chris Jones and four-year veteran Andre Neblett, who was signed Wednesday.
On Neblett, Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, "He has some experience, played at Carolina and Tampa in preseason; we played against him. He has good playing strength and he's played a decent number of plays over the past three years, couple hundred plays a year, so he has some experience."
Belichick said the 6-foot-0, 310-pound Neblett has played both three-technique (outside shade on guard) and nose tackle.
Elsewhere on the injury front, veteran running back Leon Washington was the other player not spotted at Friday's practice. He's been absent all week after injuring his ankle in Sunday's loss to the Bengals and is unlikely to play against the Saints. |
Walmart is worth half as much as Amazon but has paid 46 times more income tax since 2008 — $64 billion versus Amazon's $1.4 billion, writes Scott Galloway, an NYU marketing professor.
"The most uncomfortable question in business, in my view, is how do we pay our soldiers, firefighters, and teachers if a firm can ascend to $460 billion in value (#5 in the world) without paying any meaningful corporate taxes," writes Galloway, author of the forthcoming The Four, an examination of Big Tech.
Why Amazon pays so little: Amazon is worth a lot to investors, but since its founding has plowed almost all its profit back into the business: Since 2008, Walmart has earned $229 billion before tax and paid dividends; Amazon has reported just $14 billion in profit, with no annual cash payout to shareholders. |
CTVNews.ca Staff
Now that Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence has met with Liberal MP Justin Trudeau, the federal government is urging her again to end her two-week hunger strike and meet with Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan.
News of Wednesday’s meeting broke on Trudeau's Twitter feed, where the Liberal leadership candidate tweeted a photo and this: "It was deeply moving to meet @ChiefTheresa today. She is willing to sacrifice everything for her people. She shouldn’t have to. #IdleNoMore"
Spence, who considers herself leader of a sovereign nation and has been insisting on a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General David Johnston, had earlier rejected possible meetings with Duncan and Senator Patrick Brazeau, who is Algonquin.
Duncan sent a letter late Wednesday to Spence, saying in part: "It is my understanding that you met today with a Member of Parliament. Given your willingness to accept meetings now I am hoping that you will reconsider my offer, as a Minister of the Crown, to meet or speak with you by phone to discuss the issues you have raised publicly."
Earlier Wednesday, NDP MP Charlie Angus. whose Timmins-James Bay riding includes Attawakpiskat, dismissed concerns from some government officials that Harper would be setting a precedent by meeting with Spence, which would then spark similar protests across the country.
Instead, Angus said, Harper is setting a “terrible precedent” by refusing to meet with her.
Duncan first proposed on Tuesday to arrange a meeting with a working group to discuss improving the relationship between First Nations and the federal government.
Spence launched her hunger strike on Dec. 11 in an effort to bring attention to aboriginal rights.
She has since been living in a teepee on an island in the Ottawa River, and has demanded a meeting with Harper, the governor general and First Nations leaders to discuss First Nations rights and treaties.
Her actions have helped spark the national “Idle No More” movement among First Nations in Canada, with several protests and rallies being launched across the country.
At the heart of the Idle No More movement is the recently-passed Bill C-45, the omnibus budget bill, that movement organizers say will speed-up the process for aboriginals to surrender their reserve lands.
Activists are also protesting the new law because it includes clauses they say will cut the number of federally-protected waterways, jeopardizing the lands they rely on.
First Nations groups say the legislation was passed without sufficient consultation and that the government is preparing to remove power from band councils.
A group of First Nations protestors have launched a rail blockade in Sarnia, Ont., to protest the bill.
The blockade, launched by the Aamjiwnaang First Nation and their supporters, closes rail access to several chemical plants. It continued on Boxing Day.
The group says it will not leave until Harper meets with Spence.
A court injunction has been issued to end the blockade, but Sarnia’s mayor has said that so long as the demonstration is peaceful, police won’t interfere.
Meanwhile, members of First Nations groups near Sault Ste. Marie in northern Ontario have posted a message on Facebook indicating they are planning to launch a rail blockade on Thursday. |
After hinting at an ad-supported future last month, Instagram took its first steps on Thursday to make that plan a bit more concrete.
On its company blog, Instagram confirmed that select users in the United States will begin seeing ads in their feeds over the next couple of months.
"Seeing photos and videos from brands you don't follow will be new, so we'll start slow," said the company in a blog post. "We'll focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community."
Instagram says it will work closely with a handful of brands at first, in an effort to exert some quality control over the content they're pushing into user feeds. And unlike its parent company Facebook (FB), Instagram will deliver ads to users regardless of their stated interests. Facebook, by contrast, seeks to advertise based on companies and brands users have liked and followed on the networks.
Related story: TSA confiscates guns, then Instagrams them
Starting from the moment it was purchased by Facebook in 2012, It was almost inevitable that Instagram would introduce ads in some form or another.
Mobile advertising comprises a large portion of the revenue generated by the likes of Facebook and Google (GOOG). According to research done by research firm eMarketer, spending in the mobile ad space has more than doubled to $8.8 billion in the past year alone.
But for Instagram, the introduction of ads is bound to cause some friction. Earlier this year, it changed its terms of service to allow the possibility of integrating users' photos into ad campaigns. After a considerable amount of user blowback, it quickly backed off that policy.
One planned feature -- the ability to hide ads -- may provide a middle ground for Instagram users who encounter a particularly bad piece of advertising.
And if it's anything like its parent company, Instagram will likely add and remove ad-based features while it begins to experiment with ads. |
From Cheyenne:
The only thing surprising about this ruling is that it took so long to be made. This is black letter law, folks, the logical extension of the Court's Ibanez decision.
Without a promissory note, a foreclosing plaintiff cannot show a legal injury, i.e., does not have standing to sue. Without standing, the action before the court does not qualify as a "case or controversy" under Article III of the constitution. Courts can only make rulings on "cases or controversies;" advisory opinions are a legal nullity. Consequently, a court that purports to enter a "judgment" where it has no subject matter jurisdiction has in fact entered a legal nullity on its docket; that "judgment" is void as a matter of law.
As such, any such "judgment" entered where the plaintiff had no standing is open to collateral attack in any subsequent proceeding. What is more, subject matter jurisdiction cannot be waived; were that the case, parties could falsely induce courts to make binding rulings--obviously non-sensical.
The procedural posture of this particular case is unusually serpentine, no doubt. In any event, there is nothing controversial--as a legal proposition--about this case. I'm sure the banks, who are now shitting their pants over the implications of this case, see it differently, but they're just wrong.
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Source - Amnova
On Oct. 18th, 2011 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court handed down their decision in the FRANCIS J. BEVILACQUA, THIRD vs. PABLO RODRIGUEZ – and in a moment, essentially made foreclosure sales in the commonwealth over the last five years wholly void. However, some of the more polite headlines, undoubtedly in the interest of not causing wide spread panic simply put it "SJC puts foreclosure sales in doubt" or "Buyer Can't Sue After Bad Foreclosure Sale."
In essence, the ruling upheld that those who had purchased foreclosure properties that had been illegally foreclosed upon (which is virtually all foreclosure sales in the last five years), did not in fact have title to those properties. Given the fact that more than two-thirds of all real estate transactions in the last five years have also been foreclosed properties, this creates a small problem.
The Massachusetts SJC is one of the most respected high courts in the country, other supreme courts look to these decisions for guidance, and would find it difficult to rule any other way in their own states. It is a precedent. It's an important precedent.
Here are the key components of the Bevilacqua case:
1. In holding that Bevilacqua could not make "something from nothing" (bring an action or even have standing to bring an action, when he had a title worth nothing) the lower land court applied and upheld long-standing principles of conveyance.
2. A foreclosure conducted by a non-mortgagee (which includes basically all of them over the last five years, including the landmark Ibanez case) is wholly void and passes no title to a subsequent transferee (purchasers of foreclosures will be especially pleased to learn of this)
3. Where (as in Bevilacqua) a non-mortgagee records a post-foreclosure assignment, any subsequent transferee has record notice that the foreclosure is simply void.
4. A wholly void foreclosure deed passes no title even to a supposed "bona fide purchaser"
5. The Grantee of an invalid (wholly void) foreclosure deed does not have record title, nor does any person claiming under a wholly void deed, and the decision of the lower land court properly dismissed Bevilacqua's petition.
6. The land court correctly reasoned that the remedy available to Bevilacqua was not against the wrongly foreclosed homeowner but rather against the wrongly foreclosing bank and/or perhaps the servicer (depending on who actually conducted the foreclosure)
When thinking about the implications of Bevilacqua – the importance of point six cannot be overstated.
The re-foreclosure suggestion is not valid
Re-foreclosing on these properties in not likely as has been suggested by bank layers in light of the Bevilacqua ruling. We aren't talking about Donald Trump here and we have a funny feeling he won't be affected either. Mostly it's guys like Bevilacqua who bought single or multi units, in the "hundreds of thousands" range. It seem unlikely that the majority of these folks would have the capital to eat their existing loses, re-foreclose at great expense, and on top of all of that come out as the highest bidder on the very property they formerly thought was their own. In many cases, as was the case in Bevilacqua, the original purchaser of the foreclosure may have already resold the property and moved on, thus leaving in their wake an even more serious problem; the likelihood of a property owner, who had nothing directly to do with a foreclosure, but is left with all the fallout of a post-Bevilacqua world.
Re-bidding on these properties in a re-foreclosure scenario would be done in what is soon to be a new inflationary environment (most originally bid in a deflationary environment for housing), thus making the "re-foreclosure" blank threat all the more unconvincing and unlikely.
However, it should be easy enough for investors similarly situated to Bevilacqua to simply hire fee contingent attorneys who can sue the banks and servicers for conveying fraudulent deeds – that seems like a much easier and logical proposition. When the potentially millions of lawsuits are added to the complaints filed by investors in MBS, we think the banks will finally be revealed as wholly insolvent. The only other way it could happen faster, is if the average American home owner, realizing he may never obtain clear title to his home (short of an indemnity from his bank), finally stops making his monthly payments on his invalid note (which completely lacks a valid security instrument). In this way, the existing insolvency of banks would be recognized in a matter of days rather than months or years.
The act of denial does not actually alter reality
Ostriches are said to have discovered this the hard way. On November 12th, 2010 in our article "Tattoos, Pyramid Schemes and Social Justice" we advocated that home owners, with securitized mortgages, regardless of their ability to pay, consider suspending their mortgage payments, and place those funds into a private escrow account instead. We wrote:
"Radical though it may seem, we believe the only way to stop the chaos of fraud and the breakdown of the rule of law in our courts, and most importantly to ensure that we ourselves are not participants in the fraud, is for homeowners who can afford their mortgage to stop paying it..."
The article goes on to say:
"For example, what is easier; to scorn those who are being foreclosed on because they can no longer afford their mortgage or to accept the possibility that our entire financial, and maybe justice system might be badly corrupted? Across all spectrums of crime, victims are often blamed, just ask attorneys who represent rape victims. This phenomenon is by no means unique to mortgage fraud, or those who have been raped by the institutions who carry out this trade. It has been made to appear as if those who have fallen on hard times are a matter of "incidental" inequalities in an otherwise procedurally just system. However, it is precisely the opposite which is true. Our financial institutions have created deliberate inequalities, through the use of procedurally unjust systems."
We pointed out that suspending such payment might be done for the following reasons, which in light of the recent Bevilacqua decision, and the pending Eaton Decision, are increasingly being proven correct:
"1. They are not sure where or if their payments are going to the true note holder.
2. They no longer know who the true note holder is.
3. They have a legitimate concern that they may not be able to ever obtain clear title and/or title insurance (in the event of a sale) given what we now know about improperly conveyed titles and the illegitimacy of "MERS".
4. They do not want to be an unwitting or passive participant in fraud.
5. They care about America, want our culture to be healed and recognize the dignity of every human being."
Long before the Ibanez decision was handed down we wrote the following (taken from the same article):
"If these legitimate reasons are the cause to suspend mortgage payments, then what attack on these "non-co-operators" character can be levelled? In these cases, Judge's will have to allow for proper civil procedure to take place in order for the legitimate inquiries of concerned Americans to come to light. Since banks virtually never produce adequate documentation (which appears to be by design), chances are things will escalate."
We went on to discuss the unique risks of apathy and denial in the following:
"...Americans have a duty to ask critical questions about the operations of their financial institutions, and if evidence has been presented that a deal was made, but not everyone was playing by the rules, than those deals need to be looked at again. It is not good enough any longer to say, if it doesn't affect "me" than, I'm not getting involved. We have a duty to one another as Americans, and more importantly as human beings, to care about truth and justice. What's more, apathy, so long as we are not affected, is a short lived consolation. Ultimately, this crisis will affect everyone sooner or later."
Certainly when the SJC handed down their opinion affirming Bevilacqua, perhaps hundreds of thousands, and ultimately millions of people who previously thought they were not affected, were suddenly well, affected. That is because there has been about six million foreclosures since the current economic crisis began, and those foreclosures may have resulted in many more interested parties, as was the case in Bevilacqua, who sold the subject property to four new owners, thus multiplying the number of parties involved, and ultimately the number of legal actions which could be brought. It is not hard to see where six million voided foreclosures might well result in new lawsuits in excess of that number – and if the courts advice is taken, these complaints would be directed, and properly so, at banks and servicers.
We expanded greatly on the themes of fraud, denial, and the likely economic consequences in our articles "Ibanez – Denying the Antecedent, Suppressing the Evidence and one big fat Red Herring" and "Eaton – Dividing the Mortgage Loan and Affirming the Consequent" which covered the other two recent landmark SJC cases - these may be worth reading in tandem with the present article in order to understand the full breadth of the problem.
In the Ibanez article, which was written in January of this year we wrote the following:
"If you live in Massachusetts and your mortgage has been securitized, or if you have purchased a foreclosure property, we think it would be wise to consider suspending your mortgage payments if you haven't already."
We believe these particular words have become incredibly relevant given the implications of Bevilacqua.
Finally, In our article "On the ethics of mortgage loan default" we tried to cover any outstanding inhibitions homeowners might have about the advice we were giving.
A few phone calls opens a whole new world
We decided to call a few title insurance companies to get their "take" on it all. We made the mistake of identifying ourselves as "bloggers" in the first phone call – that call may well have set a new land speed record for the fastest time from answering to hanging up. Thinking there might be a smarter approach, we decided to identify ourselves as homeowners (equally true) on the next call – the results were a little better, but only slightly.
The underwriters and title examiners we spoke to kept asking if we were attorneys, or if we represented the home owner as "council". We thought this was curious because we kept pointing out that we were ourselves just homeowners. Then it hit us, they have never actually spoken to a real, live, breathing customer on the policy origination side, they had only ever spoken to lawyer-brokers. We thought; what an interesting confluence of incentives this must create, and why is the buyer of the policy necessarily so far removed from the seller?
Continue reading (there's much more)...
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Background reading on the Ibanez Case: |
Obviously the context of polling and bias are key components within discussions of presidential elections and politics. At this point there’s virtually no-one who would dispute the inherent media bias against candidate Donald Trump.
Cue the CNN audio/visual (Screen Shot) demonstration of the day:
Donald Trump has used the “Heritage Foundation” as part of the think tank behind the possible Supreme Court nominee list he has outlined. But look at how CNN parses the wording, creates a completely false and divisive narrative, to make it look like Trump is using ethnicity as a factor. Ridiculous and beyond insufferable nonsense.
However, when you discuss the accepted media bias (example above) against the backdrop of those same media entities presenting poll data, the accuracy of polling becomes a more complex and nuanced discussion. That’s where social media engagement enters into the mix.
LOS ANGELES — Despite a majority of opinion polls showing the 2016 presidential election going to Democrat Hillary Clinton, a smartphone app developer says his data suggests challenger Donald Trump will be the victor. (link)
Here’s the interview with the App developers as they explain why Donald Trump is their prediction to win in November. It is well worth the listen (click orange arrow):
Trying to avoid looking at this latest data model under the auspices of conformational bias, what they are outlining speaks directly to what many -including us- have noted. There is a disconnect between what the media is pushing (polling), and what’s clearly visible (regional and geographic support).
Why would “media polling” be any less fraught with intentional bias than the presentations they broadcast on a daily basis? In short, they wouldn’t.
We first noticed this in the fall of 2015 during the later phase of the GOP primary race. The media narratives were not the same as the visible realities of what was taking place.
Donald Trump’s “engagements”, not just rally attendance – which is historic in scope, are magnitudes beyond the media talking points. Tracking social media, geographic non media polling, and alternate media matrices led us to believe Trump would dominate in the presidential primary.
The indications are evident and clear, however they are also indications that are relatively new to the world of politics. One example: look at the traffic for anti-Trump vs pro-Trump web sites. The #NeverTrump GOP web sites are at their lowest point of interest in the past 10+ years.
After looking at some of the more obscure statistics we concluded an epic landslide was about to take place in the Feb, March, April, May GOP primary. We were correct and Donald Trump won the nomination with the largest increase of primary votes in the history of presidential politics. Part of that success was the ‘Monster vote’.
The Zip App prediction is yet just another dot, another pixel, in a presidential and electoral map picture that is historic, uncomfortable and too challenging for those who are stuck in arcane political metrics for valuations.
This isn’t Romney or Bush’s milquetoast GOP. Nor is it recognizable to quisling’s like Bill Kristol, John McCain, Jonah Goldberg, Mark Levin or a host of other insufferable barking moonbats who are much more comfortable with their cozy UniParty, Hillary/Jeb Clinton/Bush.
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As concern grows that North Korea may be preparing for another underground nuclear weapons test, a leading nuclear scientist says Pyongyang already may have acquired a device small enough to fit atop a missile.
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, explained that the North does not need another nuclear test to acquire a militarized warhead.
“I think it is a mistake to think that they require this testing in order to design a militarized warhead. I think they may have gotten one from Pakistan or China," said Albright.
But Albright, who also worked as an inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, said that doesn't rule out another North Korea test.
"But what they can't get without testing is reliability. So the testing is invaluable to make sure everything works," he said.
The assessment came amid wide speculation about the North’s nuclear capability, triggered by the North’s warning that it could conduct a “new form” of nuclear test.
Nick Hansen, an analyst at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and 38 North, says the point of future tests will be focused on increasing Pyongyang's ability to weaponize its warheads.
“The only reason they are doing this in developing a warhead or a nuclear bomb is to put it on a missile," said Hansen.
He added that he thinks North Korea may be preparing for multiple, simultaneous tests.
"So one of the things you could think of is a new form of testing, is to test two bombs simultaneously or as close as they can get it. Pakistan did that by the way. And if you do that, you don't catch as much flack from the international community as you would if you test one off and then two months later test another one off," he said.
Despite growing concern in Seoul, a U.S. research group this week said there is "little evidence" North Korea will conduct a nuclear test during President Barack Obama's upcoming visit to Seoul.
South Korea said this week it detected increased activity at the North's Punggye-ri nuclear test site, suggesting an underground test could be imminent.
This report was produced in collaboration with the VOA Korean service.
Jee Abbey Lee Jee Abbey Lee is a veteran broadcast journalist with more than 10 years of experience in TV, radio, and the web. She serves as Voice of America's social media correspondent and is an expert of millennial lifestyle. Lee received her graduate degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Prior to joining VOA, she worked at the Seoul bureau of CNN Travel and served as the chief Bank of Korea correspondent for Arirang TV. Subscribe |
Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn is a longtime cypherpunk and current CEO of Zcash, where his team is developing a truly anonymous alternative to Bitcoin. Recently, Zooko was interviewed on Epicenter Bitcoin, where he shared some of his thoughts on the possibly-overconfident Bitcoin community. This part of the discussion was sparked by Epicenter Bitcoin Co-Host Meher Roy, who asked Zooko about one of his tweetstorms from earlier in the year. In the series of tweets, Zooko stated:
“Dear fellow Bitcoiners: No, we cannot just rest assured that Bitcoin’s unique value [proposition] outweighs all other considerations. I recognize that mistake. I’ve worked on so many things (starting with DigiCash) where we thought we were so special that we couldn’t lose. It’s never enough. We can always lose. It’s never enough. It’s never enough. It’s never enough. We have to try harder. Or you prefer Andy Groves’s version: ‘Stay paranoid.’ Or King James’s: ‘Pride goeth before a fall.’”
Learning from Past Cypherpunk Mistakes
As someone who has been involved with the cypherpunk community for roughly two decades, Zooko has seen a lot of different privacy-conscious projects come and go. The Zcash CEO discussed this core issue with cypherpunk companies and projects during his recent appearance Epicenter Bitcoin:
“I really feel that there’s a thing that my community has made a mistake over and over, from what I’ve seen for two decades now, which is a feeling of inevitable success based on some argument — like you have a special feature that nobody else has.”
While some products and services may be superior in terms of the preservation of privacy, Zooko believes there is much more to think about when attempting to help these sorts of technologies succeed. He stated:
“I’ve seen the same kind of thinking over the years in many different fields of this sort of cypherpunk, privacy-preserving, and individual-empowering technology. It’s based on a good reason: Empowering individuals really is valuable and important, and there are very often not many competitors that are also trying to empower individuals. But it’s not sufficient; that doesn’t make you win.”
Examples of Zooko’s points can be seen in the real world. Although PGP has been widely available for decades, practically no one uses it for their online communications; centralized email providers that read the content of messages for advertising purposes, such as Gmail, are currently the preferred method of online messaging. Having said that, encryption has become more popular since the Snowden revelations.
The DigiCash Example
During his recent interview, Zooko used DigiCash as a case study on overconfidence from cypherpunks. First, Zooko discussed why DigiCash came about in the first place:
“DigiCash was a product; it was a privacy-preserving Internet currency in the 90s. The narrative at DigiCash was that people would eventually need to transact on this new Internet thing that people were starting to use more and more, which at the time was a pretty much non-commercial world.”
Zooko then explained how DigiCash was viewed by some as the only real option for Internet users because of its privacy-preserving properties:
“[DigiCash also believed Internet users] would never be able to use credit cards and bank accounts and things like that for that purpose for various reasons, especially privacy because no one would be willing to risk their credit card number by typing it into a web browser. Therefore, DigiCash was the only game in town. And that turned out absolutely wrong in practice.”
While it’s true that there are a variety of privacy concerns related to the use of credit cards online, the reality is it seems most consumers don’t take these issues too seriously, which means DigiCash is, perhaps, not something the market actually desired.
Of course, a key difference between Bitcoin and DigiCash is that Bitcoin is a decentralized network that is not controlled by any company or government. Even during times when interest in Bitcoin tapers off, the network can continue to operate for the community of individuals who find value in it.
What Should the Bitcoin Community Do?
After issuing his warning about overconfidence, Zooko also provided the Bitcoin community with some advice. Initially, he advised the community on what they shouldn’t do:
“Whenever I wrote that tweet, I was perceiving the Bitcoin community — or some specific people I suppose (I don’t remember who) — as having that same overconfidence: that Bitcoin is so special and does something that nothing else does, and therefore, we can take our time or not worry too much about some aspects. I think that’s really wrong.”
Zooko also discussed the need to attract a larger userbase. He stated, “We have to connect to more and more users. We have to give them what they really want that they can’t get from anywhere else.”
This is a sentiment that has been echoed in the venture capitalist community as well. Last fall, Blockchain Capital Managing Partner Brock Pierce discussed the fact that consumers don’t care about Bitcoin; they only care about products and services that are faster, better, and cheaper.
Zooko’s final thought on this topic was that the Bitcoin community needs to realize they could fail. He concluded,“[Bitcoin is] such an inspiring vision — and it’s good to have an inspiring vision — but it’s not sufficient. We have to try hard to get there, and we might fail, but hopefully we won’t.” |
What if the Rahmulans wake up the day after the Chicago mayoral election to stare the unthinkable right in the mustache?
Or, let me put that another way:
What if Jesus "Chuy" Garcia defeats Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday?
It could happen, maybe, even with Rahm's tens of millions of dollars that help him endear himself to preachers who'll sing his praises on Easter Sunday, and to buy TV time for those amazing soft-and-cuddly-Rahm Love commercials.
That said, what if Chuy wins?
How long will it take Chicago to become Detroit, as threatened by the Rahmulans?
Not the real Detroit, but more like a cinematic post-apocalyptic Detroit. Just imagine Chicagoans dressed as the extras from "The Book of Eli," in a parched wasteland Chicago of the future as promised by the Rahmulan politicos should Rahm not win.
It will be national news. The Rahmulans will be apoplectic. Every reporter who feeds off David Axelrod's crumbs of information will writhe in agony and wonder how the Democratic Party began devouring itself, beginning in Chicago.
President Barack Obama will call out the federal disaster agencies. And first lady Michelle will ladle out thin gruel along LaSalle Street.
I'm not kidding. Really. You've been hearing the Chicago-as-Detroit argument for weeks. It's the foundation of the Rahm Emanuel re-election campaign: If Rahm isn't elected, Chuy will turn Chicago into another Detroit.
So with only a few days left before voters go to the polls, you might start thinking about it, too, because I figure this one will be closer than polls say.
Ignore your brunch for a minute, the mound of salty, delicious lox on those crunchy toasted bagels, that Bloody Mary at your elbow. Close your eyes that you may see the political apocalypse at hand.
In the Chicago-as-Detroit scenario, the middle class is grimy. For some reason — and this isn't my apocalyptic fantasy alone, but most likely yours as well — they wear dirty worn-out woolen coats.
They wander about aimlessly in alleys, hollow of cheek, wearing those fingerless gloves, huddling around 50-gallon drums filled with burning economics textbooks.
Gangs of well-fed hooligans use truncheons to club anyone who may have once read a book or dares to speak in complete sentences.
And we will sit upon the ground and use sticks to draw aimless shapes in the dirt, and we'll cry. See what happens without Rahm?
In the burned-out lots of a once thriving Chicago, the people will harness sullen donkeys to plow furrows for planting rutabaga and turnips to help get us through the long winter.
Smoke billows upward in the aftermath of Rahm's defeat. Business owners push their meager goods before them in broken shopping carts. "Aahhh!" groan the refugees, the cart wheels catching in the dirt. "Aaachh!"
And snarling children fight off dogs for bones.
Taxpayers? They emerge from their cellars tentatively, clutching crossbows and other rude weapons, hoping they haven't been overrun by zombies.
Not a pretty picture, is it?
But it's what you expect when you hear the Rahmulans talk of a Chicago without Rahm.
Sen. Mark Kirk, the Rahmulan Republican of Illinois, said as much a few weeks ago, speaking of Rahm's opponents.
"None of them could command the respect of the bond market," Kirk said of Rahm's opponents, including Garcia. "A collapse of Chicago debt, which already happened with Detroit, I think would soon follow if somebody who was really inexperienced and irresponsible replaced Rahm."
It's almost like: "Rahm, before it's too late."
You'd think the Rahm campaign, with its tens of millions of dollars, could also put out devastating posters of Chuy, modeled after the Francis Bacon painting "Figure with Meat," also known as "Head Surrounded by Sides of Beef."
It's terrifying.
Only they'd call it: "Chuy Surrounded by Sides of Beef."
Why?
Because when voters really don't like you, and think you're arrogant and rude, there's nothing like scaring them back to your side with a terrifying apocalyptic visions.
Yet before the Chuyistas or the Rahmulans get excited, let me state unequivocally that I'm not endorsing anyone here.
I'm simply a mildly interested observer who was born in Chicago, works in Chicago, spends most of my waking hours in Chicago and whose family had a business in Chicago for decades.
Now I'm living outside the city limits of what could become a national political disaster zone, and I'm trying to cut through the political baloney.
Unfortunately, though some see the specter of Chicago-as-Detroit, I see something different: gigantic tubes of processed meat standing straight up out of the pavement outside City Hall.
I see a fence of pure beefy baloney.
Why?
Because I've seen Rahm and his mouthpieces turn this election into a referendum on Chuy and I still haven't heard of Rahm's financial plan.
The mayor hasn't set forth a plan. He's set forth vague hopes, but no real plan.
So if Chicago ever becomes Detroit, it won't be as a result of a liberal Cook County commissioner named Jesus who is from Little Village and who sports a bushy mustache.
Chicago-as-Detroit belongs to the political establishment — not to the new oligarchs who actually have backbone — but to the old rich and their pet politicians.
Like those squishy Republican moderates and the Democrat machine types; the Daleys and Boss Madigan and others who, for decades kicked the can and made the unsustainable union deals, and their eager supporters, like Rahm.
They'll own all of it.
Just two days to go, Chicago.
[email protected]
Twitter @John_Kass |
— One of the biggest companies in America is marking this Memorial Day by kicking off a major campaign to hire 100,000 veterans over the next five years.
Counselors based here in Chicago will help Walmart recruit applicants. As CBS 2’s Dorothy Tucker reports, those counselors are also veterans and are ready with more than just job information.
You may have seen the commercial: Walmart’s pledge to hire veterans. Those applying will end up talking to veterans-turned-counselors at a call center in Chicago.
Matthew Detrick is a former radio technician with the Marines. His job now is to help veterans rework their resumes so their military skills translate into job skills.
While their main focus is jobs because of their experiences, these vets can also remind their comrades about other social services, such as free bus rides for vets.
Eduardo Balderas is a father of two, with another on the way, and in the market for a house. The VA home loan program means no money down.
Walmart will hire 5,000 this year. For more information about the retailer’s hiring initiative, click here. |
The Delhi High Court has directed the police to treat complaints of stalking seriously after a young woman was crippled for life on being shot by her alleged stalker for rejecting his advances. While upholding the man’s conviction and award of life sentence by a trial court for attempting to murder the woman, the high court said had the police taken her complaints of stalking seriously, what happened to her “could have been averted”. Observing that cases of stalking were on the rise, a bench of Justices G S Sistani and Chander Shekhar directed the Commissioner of Delhi Police to ensure sensitisation of all police stations to treat complaints of such incidents seriously.
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The court refused to show any sympathy to the convict, Arun Kumar Mishra, saying it would do “immense harm to the justice system and undermine the public confidence”.
“Cases of stalking are on the rise and in this case the appellant (Mishra) shot the helpless victim at close range in her back making her life and the life of her family miserable.
“Every citizen has a right to live in dignity with a feeling of sense of security. The State must ensure that all citizens, particularly old women and children, do not live in a sense of fear and insecurity,” the bench said in its 22-page verdict upholding the trial court’s decision.
According to the police, the incident occurred on the morning of December 15, 2010 when the woman was on her way to a relative’s home on her scooty.
When she had stopped at a red-light, the convict suddenly came from behind and forcibly sat on her two-wheeler and ordered her to start moving if she did not want to get shot, the police had said.
On reaching near Jaipur Golden Hospital in Northwest Delhi, Mishra asked the woman to marry him and threatened to shoot her if she disagreed.
She stopped the scooty and asked Mishra to stop chasing and harassing her, but he took out a gun and shot her in the back, the police had said, adding that the public apprehended the convict and handed him over to the cops.
The doctors who treated her had told the court that the bullet had hit her spine, paralysing her from below the waist for life.
According to the woman’s complaint, Mishra started stalking her since 2008 when she was working in a Gurgaon-based company. As a result of the harassment by him, she had left the job and started teaching aerobics near her home.
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However, Mishra had traced her and started making calls threatening to harm her and her family. Fed up by his advances and threats, one-and-a-half month before the incident, she had lodged a complaint against him at Miya Wali police station, she had told the court. |
SA Government refuses to pay seven-figure sum to host international cricket at Adelaide Oval
Posted
International cricket fixtures at Adelaide Oval are under threat because of a dispute between Cricket Australia and the South Australian Government.
Minister for Sport Leon Bignell said the state would not pay an undisclosed, seven-figure sum requested by the national governing body to secure games over three seasons, beginning in 2016/17.
Whether they want to ruin the history of the game, the culture of the game by going after more money - that's their decision. SA Sport Minister Leon Bignell
Mr Bignell also accused Cricket Australia of trying to engineer a bidding war between the states, saying he thought the move was a bluff.
Talks between the State Government and Cricket Australia are ongoing, but Mr Bignell said he was not interested in "paying for games we already have".
"I think this a trial by Cricket Australia. They'd love to get a lot more money in their coffers," he said.
"For Cricket Australia to leave Adelaide off the Test series - [it] could only happen out of spite.
"Whether they want to ruin the history of the game, the culture of the game by going after more money - that's their decision."
Cricket Australia said it wanted state governments to invest more of their sporting budgets in cricket but denied holding SA to ransom.
"We're not talking about massive amounts of money," acting Cricket Australia chief Mike McKenna said.
We're just trying to get them to spend money that they spend already on cricket rather than other sports. Cricket Australia acting chief Mike McKenna
Mr McKenna also moved to quash suggestions the Boxing Day Test could be moved away from the MCG, saying that was "absolutely not correct".
"We've got no plans whatsoever to move cricket and the Boxing Day Test," he said.
"What we are talking about, to both the Victorian Government and other state governments, is the opportunity to use the great events that we have already in their states to promote their states.
"We're just trying to get them to spend money that they spend already on cricket rather than other sports."
This year's playing rights at Adelaide Oval are not under threat, with the ground vying alongside Bellerive Oval and The Gabba for the right to host the first day-night Test match against New Zealand later this year.
"We need to make sure that New Zealand Cricket as well as Cricket Australia and all the players involved are happy with every aspect of this game and that includes the location," Mr McKenna said.
Cricket Australia is expected to release the full summer fixture next week.
"The ball is back in Cricket Australia's hands," Mr Bignell said.
"I think it's cricket that would be the loser if [Cricket Australia] took away a Test match from South Australia when we know it's one of the highest attended Test matches in any series."
Topics: states-and-territories, cricket, sa, adelaide-5000 |
The Sustainable Hunting Action Plan (SHAP) is a $5.3 million investment that supports and guides the game hunting industry's long-term growth.
Responsibilities
The actions in the SHAP are being delivered by a range of government departments and agencies including:
Game Management Authority (GMA)
Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (DJPR)
Parks Victoria
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP)
The Australian Deer Association, the Firearms Safety Foundation (Vic), the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations and the Wetlands Environmental Taskforce are also playing a key role in delivery of specific SHAP actions including:
$300,000 over four years to the Australian Deer Association to work with Parks Victoria to contribute to pest and deer control programs.
$440,000 over four years to the Firearms Safety Foundation Victoria to improve firearm carriage, transport and storage compliance.
$85,000 to the Federation of Traditional Owner to lead development of the Traditional Owner Game Management Strategy in consultation with Traditional Owners.
$40,000 to the Wetlands Environmental Taskforce to support the National Hunting Archive to develop and electronic catalogue system of historical information that can be accessed by the public.
Progress
Government is getting on with the job of implementing the SHAP through practical actions that maximise benefits for hunters, the environment, the economy, and the whole Victorian community.
Find out how we are implementing each of our four objectives: |
The firing of Officer Ernest Hall ended a 31-year career in which he repeatedly found himself in hot water, only to survive in part because of his deep connections in the department.
A veteran Seattle police officer with a checkered work history has been fired for dishonesty after he concocted a story that his misplaced gun and other items were stolen and then returned with the help of criminal figures.
The officer, Ernest Hall, was terminated Monday by Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole, ending a 31-year career in which he repeatedly found himself in hot water, only to survive, in part, because of his deep connections in the department.
Hall reported to Kirkland police Oct. 3 that a bag containing his service pistol, ammunition, handcuffs and police radio were missing from a truck he had parked overnight outside his home.
When contacted by a detective, Hall said he had recovered the items through his contacts in the “criminal element,” according to Kirkland police records.
Kirkland police alerted Seattle police, which opened an internal investigation in which Hall said he found the bag under a pile of clothes in his laundry room shortly after filing his initial report but never told Kirkland police because he felt “stupid” telling that to another cop.
In written findings, O’Toole found Hall provided false and misleading statements to Kirkland police, violating department policy, the law and his obligations as an officer.
“Your suggestion that Kirkland PD’s investigation of a reported crime … should have simply ended upon learning that the purportedly stolen items were recovered is confounding; after thirty years of police work, you cannot credibly believe that it is not material to a criminal investigation” that no crime had occurred, O’Toole wrote.
O’Toole, citing a pattern of flouting rules, also found that Hall failed to check the condition of his in-car video system for October and worked two off-duty jobs throughout 2014 without department permission.
Hall, 57, declined to comment Wednesday. His attorney, Eric John Makus, issued a statement, saying, “Ernest Hall has dedicated 30 years of police service to Seattle. Chief O’Toole terminated him on a single unproven and uncorroborated allegation of a disputed phone call he had with a Kirkland police officer.
“Terminating officer Hall, without clear and convincing evidence, is a declaration of war by the Chief of Police on the membership of the patrol officers of the Seattle Police Department,” Makus said, adding Hall refused to admit to something he didn’t do.
Ron Smith, president of the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild, said an appeal will be filed to an arbitration panel.
“ I am very disappointed that Chief O’Toole has made this disciplinary decision,” Smith said in a statement. He criticized the department’s Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), which conducted the internal investigation, for basing its findings on what he said was a preponderance of the evidence instead of clear proof.
Hall, in his initial report to Kirkland police, said the missing items were on a duty belt inside the bag, which he said he had brought home for an off-duty job in the morning and forgot in his truck.
Four days later, a Kirkland detective called Hall to get the radio serial number.
“My call seemed to catch Ernest off guard or he simply wasn’t prepared to immediately talk to anyone on the phone,” the detective wrote, “ because he responded to my introduction by saying something similar to, if not exactly, ‘uuummm I got my stuff back, so it’s all good.’ ”
The detective noted Hall gave halting answers, requiring “exhaustive” questioning.
Hall said he “put his feelers out with people in the know,” the detective wrote.
Pressed for more information, Hall seemed somewhat exasperated and sighed heavily before explaining he had worked in downtown Seattle for a long time and knew people involved in the “criminal element” whom he alerted to his missing equipment, the detective wrote.
Hall told the detective while working at The Moore Theatre on Oct. 6, a guy who usually asks him for money and “knows a lot of people” agreed to help retrieve his bag.
“Ernest’s explanation to me became even more vague as he continued by telling me that ‘a drop’ was set up,” the detective wrote, adding Hall said the bag was “left somewhere” and he retrieved it.
Hall has previously faced allegations of making false statements. Internal investigators concluded he worked off-duty at a prohibited music event in 2004 despite Hall’s claim he went to visit a friend working as a security guard.
Then-police Chief Gil Kerlikowske gave Hall the benefit of the doubt, although three Seattle firefighters said they saw Hall working at the event. Hall also benefitted from the backing of his captain and an assistant chief, now both gone from the department, who had worked closely with Hall early in their careers.
A 2005 Seattle Times investigation into Seattle police officers improperly working off-duty security jobs at nightclubs and bars quoted Hall as saying he was unsure if he had violated department rules.
“I haven’t looked at the manual for a while,” said Hall, whose personnel file at the time listed nine disciplinary actions, three related to off-duty work, including one for using unnecessary force. |
[UPDATE: Comic-Con International has announced the list of hotels and room prices for this year. You can view the list here
And if you need help finding a roommate, be sure to check out our Roommate and Room Finder forum on reddit]
If you thought getting a badge to San Diego Comic-Con was tough, you better buckle in for the bumpy ride that is the General Hotel Sale, or, as we lovingly call it, Hotelpocalypse. On Tuesday, April 8, attendees will try for a hotel, and just like with badge sales, some attendees will walk away disappointed.
So how can you help make sure that you get the downtown hotel of your dreams (and if you’re wondering why staying downtown is so great, check out our Case for Staying Downtown and In the Gaslamp Quarter)? Because Travel Planners goes by timestamp on when hotel choices are submitted, you need to be quick – and that means familiarizing yourself with the process. While there’s no guarantees that 2014’s process will look exactly like last year’s (though a Travel Planner’s representative did confirm that this year’s process would essentially be the same), it’s a safe bet that it will at least be similar (and thanks to Comic-Con Geek, we have a visual reference to exactly how last year’s process worked).
The Process
You can view the list of hotels and prices by clicking here, with prices ranging from $152/night for one person at the Comfort Inn and Suites Hotel Circle South Seaworld in Mission Valley, up to $375/night for one person at the Hard Roch Hotel suites. Most attendees will be trying for a downtown hotel in the Gaslamp, but the General Hotel Sale also includes hotels at both the airport and in Mission Valley.
Travel Planners requires that attendees select exactly six hotel choices, in order of preference. Research which hotels you’re interested in before the sale begins, so you’re not wasting valuable time. Before the sale begins, plan on having the following information handy:
Your six hotels, in order of preference (write the name exactly as it appears on the Comic-Con hotel list)
The amount of people staying in your room
The names of any roommates who are staying with you
Within 72 hours before the sale, you’ll be e-mailed a link to Travel Planner’s SDCC site, though it won’t go live until 9AM PT on April 8.
Once the site is live, you’ll be greeted with this screen:
You’ll need to select the Click Here to Start Your Request button. You’ll then be taken to the actual hotel request form, which will first give you a rundown of all the hotel options again:
Once you’ve scrolled past this screen, you’ll begin filling in your information, including your first and last name, address, phone number, and e-mail address.
You’ll then be able to enter your six hotel choices. Put them in your order of preference. So if the Hard Rock Hotel is your first choice, select that hotel first. You’ll also have the option of selecting a box to indicate that if the con rate at your hotel is unavailable, if you’d like to be upgraded (at an unspecified amount) to a “higher nightly rate” room. If you don’t want to select this option, simply don’t click anything.
Once you’ve entered all six of your hotels, you’ll have to choose the worst case scenario: If none of your six hotel choices are available, what would you like to happen? You have three options:
Book me into any available downtown hotel . If NO downtown hotels are available, discard my request.
. If NO downtown hotels are available, discard my request. Book me into any hotel that is on the shuttle route . If NO hotels on the shuttle route are available, discard my request. NOTE: If we are able to book you into a hotel on the shuttle route, you will also automatically be waitlisted for your original, specified hotel choices above.
. If NO hotels on the shuttle route are available, discard my request. NOTE: If we are able to book you into a hotel on the shuttle route, you will also automatically be waitlisted for your original, specified hotel choices above. Book me into any available hotel. NOTE: If we can book you into any available hotel, you will still automatically be waitlisted for your original, specified hotel choices. If we CANNOT book your requests, you will be automatically waitlisted.
The next step is filling out the information about the kind of accomodations you’ll be needing. You’ll select the number of total rooms you’re requesting, and then for each room, the amount of beds/people. Once you’ve selected this, you’ll be prompted to enter in the first and last name for each occupant. In years past, you’ve even be able to make changes to the names and amount of occupants in a room even after paying a deposit, but there is no guarantee it will be the same this year. You’ll also need to enter your arrival and departure date.
Finally, you’ll need to checkmark all three boxes at the bottom of the screen:
I will provide a deposit equal to two night’s room and tax within 72 hours of receiving my hotel reservations confirmation email or my reservations will be automatically canceled.
I understand type of room is not guaranteed.
I am submitting one form for all of my rooms. (Submitting multiple requets will only delay the processing of your reservations)
All reservation requests will be processed in date/time stamp order, but “all forms received within three seconds of each other are considered to have arrived at the same time and will be processed in a random order within that three-second grouping.” This means that there’s still some randomization going on — though attendees’ experience with Travel Planners over the last few years seems to indicate that they really are going as close to time of form submission as possible.
Within a few days, you’ll receive a confirmation e-mail with the hotel you received. If you choose to accept that hotel, you’ll need to pay a full two nights’ deposit within 72 hours. If you and a roommate each received a reservation, and your names are on both forms, Travel Planners will alert you that one of these reservations needs to be canceled, or they will cancel one for you.
When it comes to Hotelpocalypse, speed really is the most important factor. Have all of your information on hand prior to the sale, and maybe start praying to the Travel Planners hotel gods.
Will you be trying for a hotel? Let us know in the comments. |
This post may contain affiliate links which may compensate us based on your interaction. Please read the disclosures for more information.
I will not beat the extreme couponing horse to death, since it has been covered by just about every frugal blog on the plant. But I realized that even my last post on extreme couponing offered just my view about the subject and solicited you for yours. Few blogs have taken the time to see how the coupon industry and manufacturers feel about the extreme couponing strategies that have been employed by some shoppers featured on the show.
I had the opportunity to speak to a PR representative that works with Coupons.com. My purpose was to determine how they felt about extreme couponers and their shopping tactics. To truly understand what they were facing, I sat and watched four FULL episodes of the show plus a bunch of clips. I have to say that it’s a lot to digest, and I’m going to work with the assumption that you have not seen the show, Extreme Couponing on TLC. Below is a clip of one episode so that we are all on the same page.
For the purposes of this article extreme couponing tactics include the following:
Amassing coupons through various means (discussed more below) Using coupons combined with store sales and loyalty cards to maximize discounts Checking internet sites that might track sales for new discounts and sales Pre-shopping using store circulars and advertised sales
Those are some pretty smart tactics if you have the time to employ them. By simply using the tactics above everyone should be able to same money every single time grocery shopping is completed. However, the goal of extreme couponers is to pay as close to nothing as possible. Hey, I want some free groceries too, and I’m pretty good at racking up on some groceries.
Separating the Regulars and Extremes
What you will notice with some extreme couponers is the way in which they acquire all of the coupons that they have. This is probably the first area where you differ from the pros.
Grabbing coupons out of the driveways of other people’s homes
Bypassing online coupon printing limits by printing coupons from multiple computers
Dumpster diving for coupons that might have been tossed out by others (illegal in some areas)
Purchasing multiple Sunday newspapers for the coupons within the paper
Asking printers for left over coupons that might not have been distributed that week
Loading online coupons onto store loyalty cards before shopping
Purchase coupons online (more about this later)
Just the way in which you obtain coupons won’t necessarily make you an extreme. How you maximize their value count as well. Extremes typically stack coupons with store sales, use multiple coupons for the same item, and shop at stores that double coupons. Getting everything to align is hard work. Many of the clips that I have seen detail the amount of time that extremes devote clipping and matching up coupons with the sales. I’ve seen individuals devote anywhere from 30 to 60 hours each week towards this effort. That’s the equivalent of a full-time job. Many of the shoppers profiled on this show are stay-at-home moms or make their living by teaching extreme couponing methods via blogs or speaking engagements, so they may have the time to devote to this effort.
Houston, We Have A Problem
The problem is that some of the extreme couponers profiled on the show have been known to and are shown committing fraud. I list some of the fraudulent activities unknowingly shown on some of the aired episodes here:
Some couponers have deciphered the bar code and are using coupons meant for one item or line of items for a completely different item (i.e. using Fibre One coupons on Cheerios). You can read an in depth expose about that process in this amazing article written by Jill Cataldo with input and assistance from from many frugal bloggers.
One extreme shopper was shown using coupons on smaller sized, less expensive versions of a product than the coupon was for (i.e. a coupon for a 12 oz product was used to purchase a 2 oz product)
Some cashiers are being pushed to override coupons that were not accepted and do so because the sheer volume of coupons being presented at one time makes it almost impossible to verify the validity of each coupon
Using photocopied PDF versions of online printed coupons
Circumventing online coupon printing limits by printing coupons from multiple computers within a home
Using purchased, “gang cut” coupons for which the store will not be reimbursed
Knowingly using counterfeit (fake) coupons
All of the activities highlighted above have been noticed on the television show. Not only are the activities illegal, but it gives the rest of us using coupons a bad reputation. But it’s a victimless crime so no one suffers, right?
Lose, Lose, Lose
If you use the tactics above no one loses. The manufacturers provided the coupons, you used the coupons to save, and the store gets the money reimbursed from the manufacturers. Everyone wins! Not exactly.
The manufacturer loses since coupons are used to basically entice you to try a new product. If someone is clearing out the entire shelf of the product, the chance of a new customer having access to that product has been removed. Even worse, coupons intended for a target market never reaches them because someone might be busy stealing the coupons out of the homeowner’s driveway or having entire bundles of coupons diverted to an extreme couponer. The manufacturer loses a potential new customer.
Did you know that selling coupons are illegal? No? There are lots of “coupon clipping services” that will send you coupons if you pay for them. Technically they say that you are not paying for the coupons since that would be illegal. Instead they say that you are paying for their service of clipping the coupons, but from what I have seen, the “fee” is always based on the face value and desirability of the coupon. And additional “processing fee” is also added at the end. When multiple coupons have been stacked together and cut the same way (shown right) manufacturers refer to these coupons as being “gang cut”. Gang cut coupons are usually cut the same way by individuals that sell hundreds of coupons. The store loses when these coupons are used because they will not be reimbursed for multiple coupons that the manufacturer determines has been illegally redeemed or are gang cut. This includes coupons that you might find on eBay. The stores also lose.
If your store is not being reimbursed for coupons, they will roll back programs that benefit customers. My local store will no longer accept more than three $1 coupons that are doubled in any transaction. Three! It used to be unlimited. Some stores like Kroger has discontinued coupon doubling in some stores. I am sure that the supermarkets and stores will continue to combat fraudulent practices that hurt their bottom line by doing what comes next – raising prices or providing fewer sales. Finally, you the consumer, loses as well.
Are You There God?
I am a Coupons.com affiliate and avid user of their products. Sidebar – you should be too. It’s simple. Click the link or the sexy button way over there in my sidebar every week since they load new coupons all of the time and print coupons right in your own home. Okay, back to regular programming. I was contacted by Michael from Kaplow PR on behalf of Coupons.com to talk about real world shopping without using extreme methods. While I had Michael’s ear, I couldn’t resist asking him about Coupon.com’s perspective on Extreme Couponing. According to Michael,
“Extreme couponing isn’t consumer friendly because it creates out-of stock situations, where consumers cannot purchase products on their list. And, manufacturers or retailers don’t like empty shelves because no one makes money in that scenario. Manufacturers and retailers limit the number of coupons available and do not allow coupons to be reproduced and Coupons.com uses sophisticated technology to limit the number of coupons any users can print and embed important security features.”
When extreme couponers move from computer to computer printing out coupons online, they have reduced the number of coupons that are available to everyone else. Again, we all lose in this situation.
Industry non-profit giant Coupon Information Corporation (CIC) released a statement saying that they express
“…our great disappointment with TLC’s current series, Extreme Couponing, and…we hope they address potentially illegal acts that appear to have been portrayed on the show. Professionals in the coupon industry believe this show creates unrealistic expectations about how coupons work and promotes the misuse of coupons. For example, the show appears to…[focus] on consumers who have procured large quantities of coupon inserts from unknown sources, which may raise civil and/or criminal issues.”
Some of the show’s participants might not be aware of it, but the CIC has been aggressive along with the help of the FBI, at prosecuting individuals that have created
and distributed counterfeit coupons. They have done so with individuals posting ways to produce counterfeit coupons, and those distributing them on eBay. If I used some of the tactics above, I would quietly consult with an attorney to see how defensible my actions would be in case I faced prosecution.
Coupon manufacturers recognize that people are abusing the current coupon system through the bar code matching. If you look at new coupons, they have become more sophisticated, using up to three different bars on each coupon. New technology is being rolled out to updated registers that are better able to identify counterfeit coupons and reject attempts at coupon matching or spoofing.
Although Extreme Couponing might be unrealistic for the average person, the coupon industry does want you to save money. Coupons.com sent their savings expert, Jeanette Pavini on a real world shipping trip consisting of a seven day meal plan for a family of four. She was allowed to use store circulars, online coupons, and the app Grocery IQ. She was able to save over 45% on her shopping trip. For those of us that noticed the lack of vegetables and nutritional foods on the shopping list of the extreme couponers, Jeanette’s list actually included vegetables. I’ll include her shopping list here (PDF) as well as the total cost and savings. As I previously mentioned I saved over 60% on my shopping trip once and I consistently save at least 15% with almost no effort every single week. By combining those savings with a cash back credit card, one can easily and consistently save money on every single shopping trip.
One Rotten Egg
Are all extreme couponers bad? I don’t think so. In fact, some of the individuals featured on the show are ladies that I had previous recommended. Way back in March of 2009 I recommended a series of videos by the Double Savings Divas on how to rack up at CVS. The twins were featured on the show and highlighted perfectly legitimate ways to reduce their spending. One strategy that they employed as sharing their stockpile. I also noticed that while they did grab multiples of some items they didn’t go to the extreme of pulling 50 of one item. I believe that the most they picked up were 20 Healthy Choice soups. When they’re on sale, I usually pick up at least 5 cans. Some of the other couponers were also quite responsible and great representatives of the frugal community. You can see their entire grocery list and their comments about their shopping experience in the video below.
One final note. There was an episode where the announcer kept repeating that the extreme couponer had an MBA and used her business skills to help with her shopping. You do not need an MBA to track your spending on Excel spreadsheets. Also, this particular couple were in the process of planning a vacation and need an additional $500 to meet their budget for the trip. What did she do? She went to the grocery store where the retail price of the items came up to over $500 and through the use of coupons had her balance reduced by more than $500. Because of this $500 “saving” she reasoned that they could now go on the trip. My problem with this line of thinking is that if you didn’t have the $500 to begin with, and never budgeted to spend $500, then you didn’t save $500. Unless they planned on selling the groceries for their retail price, they would still have a $500 shortfall for the cost of the trip. At least that’s what my MBA says.
As the old adage says, you can’t believe everything that you see on TV.
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Porn. It’s everywhere. By some estimates, pornographic material makes up 99 percent of the Internet.
OK, I made that stat up. But it feels like it could be real, especially if you’re a parent to a teenage boy. Or if you’re a teenage boy.
Not surprisingly, there’s a popular belief in the tech world that if you want your new technology to succeed, you need the backing of the porn industry.
The example cited most is the VHS vs. Betamax battle for home video supremacy back of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. As the tale goes, Sony’s Betamax format had the better video and audio quality, but VHS won in the end because more pornographic distributors backed it.
We now live in an age of “peak porn saturation.”
Much like my made-up stat up above, it’s a tale that feels true, so it gets retold over and over again, every time a new format war is on the horizon. We heard it during the Blu-Ray v. HD-DVD wars. It came up during the early stages of the Android v. iOS debate. And it’s starting to pop-up in discussions about the competing virtual reality formats currently vying for the marketplace.
But is it even true?
Well, it is true that Sony had a policy against pornographic material, whereas the VHS backers didn’t. And it’s also true that VHS was the cheaper format to mass produce, an attractive option for low-cost “independent filmmakers.” And, yes, it’s completely true that much of earliest content for VHS was X-rated.
But as Patchen Barss finds in his book The Erotic Engine: How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google, Betamax had no shortage of X-rated content either, as Sony’s policy only affected material the corporation produced itself. Barss looked into the “porn killed Betamax” myth and found that it was just that, a myth. What really killed Betamax in the consumer marketplace? A single technological limitation.
Betamax videotapes could only hold an hour of content. Sure, porn producers preferred VHS because their tapes had twice the runtime, but so did everybody else.
Though Barss found porn’s role in the home video format war to be overstated (if non-existent), he did find that porn did have one major effect on home media as an overall industry. Barss writes:
In 1979, less than one per cent of American households owned a videocassette recorder. How could VCR companies survive with such dismal market penetration? It was thanks to pornography consumers, who were willing to pay top dollar for both the machines and the tapes. That premium helped offset the small size of the market, and keep it viable for everyone from VCR manufactures to local rental stores.
In other words: People willing to pay dearly for the ability to watch skin flicks from the comfort of their home helped keep the entire home video industry afloat long enough for the tech to mature and become affordable for the masses.
It makes sense, because you know who didn’t embrace “video cassette recorders” at first? The mainstream Hollywood studios. They were scared to death of the “R” in VCR. Worried about piracy, they were slow to release content in any home video format. Porn producers filled a very important hole. (Um … Let’s not focus too much on that last sentence … Moving on …)
Pornographic companies are not the secret “deciders” that many people make them out to be. They’re simply willing to go wherever the customers are, indiscriminate of medium or format.
The real power, as always, lies with the consumers. And the real lesson? Never underestimate the lengths people will go to look at naked pictures, as that has been the real secret driver of some cool new technologies. Such as…
E-commerce
Back in the mid-‘90s, people were willing to pay for porn, even on dial-up, but they wanted some assurance their credit-card info was safe. Porn websites were forced to adopt safer methods for online transactions years before Amazon or eBay came around.
Broadband Internet service
As with VCRs, Hollywood studios were also slow to embrace the web as a video-distribution tool (again, afraid of piracy… though this time they were right to be scared). Back in the late ‘90s, broadband ISPs were still able to make some major inroads, despite the lack of quality content. Studio fare like American Beauty might not have been streaming back in the year 2000, but American Booty was.
Snapchat
It’s a $20 billion company built on the back of sexting. What more do I need to say?
The power of porn-consuming consumers seems to have its limits, though.
We now live in an age of “peak porn saturation.” Porn has gone HD and 3D. People who have sex on camera get their own reality shows and media empires. Consuming porn at home is no longer just an attractive alternative to sleazy XXX theaters – it’s now the norm. And one’s access to XXX content is limited only by the power of their router’s content blocker (which most people don’t use).
Porn is now so prevalent and easy-to-access, people no longer have to go great lengths to get it. That has diminished its influence. As they say in Economics 101, the more there is of something in the marketplace, the less value it has. And the less people will spend to access it.
Porn is now so prevalent and easy-to-access, people no longer have to go great lengths to get it.
That may be why porn barely caused a blip in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD battle. In fact, many people predicted HD-DVD would win because porn producers preferred it, but Blu-ray still won in the end.
The existence of 3D porn couldn’t help raise 3D technology above the level of fad.
And VR porn? Oh, it’ll exist. But it’s become readily apparent that whichever VR platform wins in the coming years – Oculus, Sony, Steam, and Samsung all want to be the dominant player — it’ll be because of hardware considerations, affordability, and overall user experience. The technology is simply too complex to be decided by just one type of content.
Another drawback to the power of porn? Stigmatization. If a product or service gets too associated with pornography, that can hamper its attempts to go mainstream (no matter how profitable it is).
Take video on demand (VOD), for example. Originally I wanted to include VOD in the section of technologies that were boosted by porn. After all, “pay-per-view” was mostly synonymous with porn for most of the ‘90s. (Well, that and disappointing prize fights.)
But I actually think that the overreliance of cable providers on per-per-view porn actually hurt the VOD movement. VOD and porn were so closely related, that alone was reason for mainstream studios to look elsewhere for “legitimate” distribution methods. It took the arrival of iTunes and Netflix streaming to finally give VOD the push it needed to truly be accepted by the masses. What did Neflix and iTunes have? A large selection of mainstream content. What did they not have? Pornography. Even Netflix’s original series, despite their edgy, R-rated pedigrees, are relatively skin-free when compared to similar offerings from Showtime and HBO. (Maybe House of Cards needs a Ba-Da-Bing.)
Between America’s growing casual acceptance of nudity and the surplus of porn online, it could be a while until people’s desire for porn fuels more tech innovation.
Well, until they need sex robots … |
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Fitness fiend Jack LaLanne, saying he felt 'as cold as a witch's heart,' beamed as he stepped from the chilly harbor waters after matching his 70 years by pulling 70 rowboats with his hands and feet shackled.
LaLanne Tuesday towed the flotilla behind him as he swam a mile through Long Beach Harbor past the Queen Mary.
He was shackled hand and foot.
'I feel as cold as a witch's heart,' he said. 'I can't believe this has happened. It was a big dream.'
LaLanne, who turned 70 Tuesday, called the 2 -hour swim 'the dream of a lifetime.'
About 200 people gathered to watch, singing choruses of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat.'
'The older you get, the more you should exercise to avoid the aging process,' LaLanne told onlookers before he entered the 59-degree water. 'The only way you can hurt your body is if you sit on your rear end and do nothing.'
LaLanne, a pioneer in the health fitness industry, towed 13 boats with 76 people aboard to welcome the country's bicentennial. In 1979, he hauled 65 boats loaded with 6,500 pounds of wood in Japan.
He founded America's first modern health spa in Oakland, Calif., in 1936.
LaLanne set a record by doing 1,033 pushups in 23 minutes on television in the mid-1950s. |
Section 44 of the Australian Constitution lists the grounds for disqualification on who may become a candidate for election to the Parliament of Australia. It has generally arisen for consideration by the High Court sitting in its capacity as the Court of Disputed Returns. It has been reviewed several times, but has not been amended. Following several disqualifications under sub-section 44(i), a new review of the whole section was instituted on 28 November 2017.
The Constitution [ edit ]
Section 44 of the Constitution states:
44. Any person who - (i.) Is under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or is a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power: or (ii.) Is attainted of treason, or has been convicted and is under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence punishable under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State by imprisonment for one year or longer: or (iii.) Is an undischarged bankrupt or insolvent: or (iv.) Holds any office of profit under the Crown, or any pension payable during the pleasure of the Crown out of any of the revenues of the Commonwealth: or (v.) Has any direct or indirect pecuniary interest in any agreement with the Public Service of the Commonwealth otherwise than as a member and in common with the other members of an incorporated company consisting of more than twenty-five persons: shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives. But sub-section iv. does not apply to the office of any of the Queen's Ministers of State for the Commonwealth, or of any of the Queen's Ministers for a State, or to the receipt of pay, half pay, or a pension, by any person as an officer or member of the Queen's navy or army, or to the receipt of pay as an officer or member of the naval or military forces of the Commonwealth by any person whose services are not wholly employed by the Commonwealth.[1]
The Australian Electoral Commission reproduces the section in its Candidates Handbook, where it draws particular attention to s 44(i) and (iv).[2] As to the nomination form, it advises that to give "false or misleading information", or to "omit any information if omitting that information would be misleading", is a criminal offence and that the "maximum penalty for this offence is imprisonment for 12 months".[3] It does not spell out that such a conviction could result in disqualification under s 44(ii).
Almost every part of section 44 has proved difficult to interpret and apply. Its replacement or revision has been frequently considered, particularly by a Constitutional Commission in 1988 and by a parliamentary committee in 1997, but their proposals have not been pursued.[4][5] There has been regret that the framers of the Constitution did not accept the suggestions that criteria of disqualification be left entirely to the Parliament or that, at least, like s 34 "Qualifications of members" this section should begin "Until the Parliament otherwise provides".[6]
Following several disqualifications under sub-section 44(i) during 2017, on 28 November 2017 Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asked the Commonwealth Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters to conduct a new inquiry into the section, including the possibility of amendment. Public hearings will begin on 8 December and submissions will close on 9 February 2018; the Committee is to report on s 44(i) by 23 March 2018 and on the other sub-sections, particularly 44(iv) and 44(v), by 30 June.[7]
(i) Allegiance to a foreign power [ edit ]
Subsection 44(i) has generally been interpreted by the High Court of Australia as meaning that persons with dual citizenship are not permitted to stand for election and that a person must take "reasonable steps" to renounce their citizenship of the other country.[8] Its interpretation has been difficult.[9] There is the preliminary awkwardness that the Constitution itself does not require a member of the Parliament to be an Australian Citizen (or, before the introduction of Australian citizenship in 1949, a "British subject" or "subject of the Queen"),[note 1] although Constitution s 42 does require members to swear an oath or affirmation of allegiance to the monarch; however, Australian citizenship has been made a statutory condition of eligibility for election.[11]
In 1981 a committee of the Senate recommended that s 44(i) be removed, although with the insertion of a new provision requiring Australian citizenship;[12] as did the Constitutional Commission report of 1988.[13] In 1997 a committee of the House of Representatives, whose report predicted some of the difficulties that have since arisen, recommended three changes to the Constitution: "delete subsection 44(i); insert a new provision requiring candidates and members of parliament to be Australian citizens; [and] empower parliament to enact legislation determining the grounds of disqualification of members of parliament in relation to foreign allegiance".[14]
Compared to other Anglosphere nations, this is an unusual law. Neither the British Parliament nor the US Congress, both of which served as models for the Australian Parliament, forbid dual citizens from holding office.[15][16] Canada[17] and New Zealand[18] similarly have no prohibitions on MPs holding dual citizenship.
An opinion poll taken in late November to early December 2017 found overall opposition to changing s 44(i) of 49% to 47% (within the margin of error), with 5% undecided.[19]
Sarina v O'Connor (1946) and Crittenden v Anderson (1950) [ edit ]
William O'Connor Gordon Anderson
Following the 1946 federal election, an unsuccessful candidate for West Sydney, Ronald Grafton Sarina, petitioned the High Court to declare the election of William O'Connor void under s 44(i), claiming that as a Roman Catholic, O'Connor was under an allegiance to a foreign power. In December that year, Sarina's solicitor sought leave to withdraw the petition, which was granted.[20]
A similar case arose in 1950, with independent candidate Henry William Crittenden petitioning for Gordon Anderson (Kingsford Smith) to be disqualified on the basis of his Catholicism. Justice Fullagar ruled against Crittenden, saying that were his premise to be sustained, it would prevent any Catholic from holding a seat in the Australian parliament. The decisive factor was that to exclude Catholics from the parliament would be to impose a "religious test" for public office, contrary to Constitution s 116. Fullagar J also said that the petition invited analysis of the relations between church and state over centuries, the relationship between Italy and the Papal States, and the sovereignty of the Vatican City State—none of which, in his opinion, was relevant to the election of an Australian member of parliament. The case was dismissed, with Crittenden ordered to pay Anderson's costs.[21][22]
Nile v Wood and Re Wood (1987) [ edit ]
Robert Wood was elected as a Senator for NSW in 1987. The Call to Australia party's Elaine Nile challenged his election on grounds that included that "His actions against the vessels of a friendly nation indicate allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power".[23] This related to Wood being fined $120 for paddling a kayak in front of the US warship USS Joseph Strauss in Sydney Harbour.[24] The High Court, Brennan, Deane and Toohey JJ, dismissed the petition in December 1987 on technical grounds. The brief judgment made a number of observations about subsection 44(i), relevantly including that it required an identified foreign power and an acknowledgement of allegiance.[23]
It was later discovered that Wood had not been an Australian citizen at the time of his election. The High Court unanimously determined that, as he had not been an Australian citizen, he had not been eligible to be nominated for election as a senator and therefore had not been validly elected. The decision was based on the requirement in the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 that a candidate must be an Australian citizen.[11] The High Court expressly declined to rule on the question of whether being a citizen of the United Kingdom would also disqualify a candidate from election.[25]
Sykes v Cleary (1992) [ edit ]
The High Court held in Sykes v Cleary that the 1992 by-election for the Victorian seat of Wills was void because Phil Cleary, who had been declared elected, had held an "office of profit under the Crown", which violated s 44(iv). It was held that the centuries-old phrase "office of profit under the Crown" not only includes public servants as ordinarily understood but extends to “at least those persons who are permanently employed by government”, whether government of the Commonwealth or of a State. Thus it included Cleary as a permanent teacher in a Victorian public school.
It was also determined (with one dissent) that a candidate must be qualified at the time of nomination. It was not sufficient that Cleary had been on unpaid leave and that he had resigned from his position on hearing that he would be declared elected.
It was therefore unnecessary for the High Court to decide the challenge under s 44(i) to the eligibility of other candidates, but it did so since they evidently might have wished to stand in the next election. Bill Kardamitsis had been born in Greece as a Greek citizen and John Delacretaz in Switzerland as a Swiss citizen; they had migrated to Australia and become Australian citizens. By a majority of 5:2 the Court held that a dual citizen is disqualified by s 44(i) unless they have “taken reasonable steps” to renounce their foreign citizenship. Renunciation procedures were available to Kardamitsis and Delacretaz in Greece and Switzerland, but neither of them had taken any such step.
Deane and Gaudron JJ dissented, holding that Kardamatsis and Delacretaz had effectively renounced their foreign citizenships when taking an Australian oath of allegiance, which at the times when they were naturalised had included, or required previously making, a renunciation of all foreign allegiances.[note 2] Additionally, Deane J thought that s 44(i) requires a "mental element" not only as to "acknowledgment" but also as to being "a subject or a citizen" of a foreign power: "it applies only to cases where the relevant status, rights or privileges have been sought, accepted, asserted or acquiesced in by the person concerned".[26]
A "mental element" had been explicit in early Convention drafts, which had disqualified any person "Who has taken an oath or made a declaration or acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience, or adherence to a foreign power, or has done any act whereby he has become a subject or citizen, or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or a citizen, of a foreign power" (Sydney Convention 1891 and, with capitalisation and punctuation changes, Adelaide Convention 1897); the provision took its present form at the Melbourne Convention 1898.[27]
Free v Kelly (1996) [ edit ]
At the 1996 federal election, the election of Jackie Kelly for the House of Representatives seat of Lindsay was challenged because she was a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand at the time of her nomination. That part of the challenge was not pursued however as Kelly conceded that she was incapable of being chosen as a member of the House of Representatives while serving as an officer of the Royal Australian Air Force.[28]
Sue v Hill (1999) [ edit ]
At the 1998 federal election, Heather Hill, who held both British and Australian citizenship, was elected to the Australian Senate as a One Nation senator for Queensland. Henry Sue, a voter from Queensland, appealed to the High Court of Australia.[29]
Chief Justice Murray Gleeson ruled that the United Kingdom qualified as a "foreign power" under section 44(i), and as a British citizen Hill was therefore unable to take up her Senate seat.[30] As a result, Len Harris, the second One Nation candidate on the ballot, was elected in place of Hill in the Senate.
2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis [ edit ]
Re Canavan (2017) [ edit ]
Scott Ludlam Larissa Waters Matt Canavan Barnaby Joyce Fiona Nash Nick Xenophon
During 2017 there arose seven instances of a possible breach of s 44(i), when over the course of several months seven parliamentarians were revealed to have held dual citizenship. The first two of the politicians whose dual citizenship status was revealed, Australian Greens Senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters, resigned from Parliament shortly afterwards.[31][32][33] Together with four other Senators and one member of the House of Representatives—Liberal National Party Senator Matt Canavan,[34] One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts,[35][36][37] Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce MP,[38][39][40][41] Deputy leader of the Nationals and Senator Fiona Nash,[42][43] and Nick Xenophon Team leader and Senator Nick Xenophon[44]—their cases were referred to the High Court, through the Court of Disputed Returns. Hearings into the eligibility of the "Citizenship Seven" to sit in Parliament were held by the High Court in October 2017.[45][46][47]
On 27 October 2017 the High Court handed down its decision.[48][49] In a unanimous judgment, dealing with all seven cases, the Court interpreted s 44(i) according to the "ordinary and natural meaning" of its language.[48]:para 19 On that approach, it firstly affirmed the view taken in Sykes v Cleary that the question of eligibility is to be determined with reference to the point of nomination.[48]:para 3 The Court then followed the reasoning of the majority in Sykes v Cleary. It decided that the fact of citizenship was disqualifying, regardless of whether the person knew of the citizenship or engaged in any voluntary act of acquisition.[48]:paras 71–2 It emphasised that to hold otherwise would introduce an element of subjectivity that "would be inimical to the stability of representative government".[48]:para 48 It followed that each of Joyce, Ludlam, Nash, Roberts and Waters "was therefore incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives (as applicable)";[49] however, Canavan and Xenophon had been eligible due to not holding foreign citizenship. It was determined that Canavan, under Italian law, was not a citizen of Italy.[48]:para 86 It was found that Xenophon was a British Overseas citizen, but that this did not give him the right to enter or reside in the United Kingdom; therefore, in terms of s 44(i), he was neither a citizen nor entitled to the rights and privileges of a citizen of the United Kingdom.[48]:paras 134–5 The Court declared the seats of the ineligible members to be vacant; the vacancy in the House of Representatives was to be filled through a by-election, while the vacancies in the Senate was to be filled by a recount, subject to supervision by a Justice of the Court.
Before they were ruled ineligible, the Labor Opposition had proposed that the challenged ministers who have not stepped aside from their position must do so due to Section 64 of the Constitution of Australia, which requires that nobody can serve as a minister for more than three months unless they are a member of the parliament; ministerial decisions taken by somebody who was not validly occupying ministerial office would themselves be invalid.[50] While Matthew Canavan had already resigned from his positions of Minister for Resources and Northern Australia in the Cabinet prior to Labor's proposition,[34] the other two Cabinet ministers, Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash, chose to remain in their positions until the court handed down its decision. According to some legal opinion, more than 100 Turnbull government decisions are vulnerable to legal challenge as a result of Joyce and Nash's ineligibility, with lawyers concluding there is a high likelihood the work the pair has done over the last year will end up before the courts.[51]
Post-Re Canavan resignations and referrals [ edit ]
Stephen Parry John Alexander Jacqui Lambie Skye Kakoschke-Moore David Feeney Katy Gallagher Rebekha Sharkie
After the decision in Re Canavan was handed down, several other parliamentarians discovered that they held dual citizenship and resigned. Liberal Senator and President of the Senate Stephen Parry,[52] Liberal MP John Alexander,[53] Jacqui Lambie Network Senator Jacqui Lambie,[54] and NXT Senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore[55] each resigned after individually discovering that they held British citizenship by descent. The Senate referred all three Senate cases to the High Court as the Court of Disputed Returns.[56][57][58] A by-election in Alexander's seat was held on 16 December; Alexander was a candidate, having renounced his foreign citizenship, and retained the seat.
On 6 December the House of Representatives referred Labor MP David Feeney to the High Court as the Court of Disputed Returns and the Senate referred Labor Senator Katy Gallagher.[59]
Feeney stated in the citizenship register that his father was born in Northern Ireland, and that he was advised by the party to ensure he renounced British (and potentially Irish) citizenship before nominating. Feeney said he did so in late 2007, but was unable to produce documentation confirming the renunciation had been registered.[60] His legal representative submitted that Feeney's renunciation was lodged, but was not registered by British authorities "[f]or some reason".[61] On 1 February 2018, before any further court proceedings, Feeney announced his resignation from the House of Representatives, and confirmed that he had been unable to find documentation proving his renunciation of British citizenship.[62] On 23 February 2018, the Court held that Fenney had been ineligible to be elected by virtue of s.44(i) and that the vacancy is to be filled by a by-election.[63] Feeney did not re-contest the seat in the by-election.
Gallagher filed UK citizenship renunciation papers with the UK Home Office on 20 April 2016, in the lead-up to the federal election in 2016, which took place on 2 July. The UK Home Office accepted her payment as part of the application on 6 May; however, on 1 July, it requested original copies of her birth certificate and her parents' marriage certificate as part of her renunciation, which Gallagher provided on 20 July. The renunciation of her British citizenship was effective on 16 August 2016, after the federal election.[64] On 6 December 2017, at Gallagher's request the Senate referred her case to the High Court.[65] On 9 May 2018, the Court unanimously found Gallagher to have been ineligible, with her seat to be filled by a countback.[66][67]
Gallagher's disqualification triggered the resignations of Rebekha Sharkie, Josh Wilson, Susan Lamb and Justine Keay—four other MPs who had also attempted to renounce their British citizenships before the election, but were still effectively British citizens at the date of nominations. By-elections were held for their seats of Braddon, Fremantle, Longman and Mayo on 28 July 2018, with all four being re-elected.
(ii) Criminal convictions [ edit ]
Nile v Wood (1987) [ edit ]
Another part of Nile's challenge to Robert Wood's election was that Wood had served a term of imprisonment in 1972 and had been convicted of obstructing shipping.[23] These related to the $120 fine for paddling a kayak in front of the USS Joseph Strauss and being imprisoned for one month in 1972 for refusing to be conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War.[68][24] The observations of the High Court about section 44 of the Constitution included that the disqualification is not simply for the conviction of an offence: the offence must be punishable by imprisonment for one year or more.[23]
Re Culleton (No 2) (2017) [ edit ]
Rod Culleton was declared elected as a Senator for WA following the 2016 federal election on 2 July. In March 2016, before the election, Culleton had been convicted, in his absence, of larceny. He had the conviction annulled on 8 August, after the election.[69] He then pleaded guilty but no conviction was recorded.[70] In the High Court it was argued for Culleton that the annulment retrospectively voided the conviction and that, because he had been convicted in his absence, he had not been liable to any term of imprisonment.
The High Court rejected each of these arguments, holding as to the latter that in section 44(ii) the reference to a possible sentence relates to the seriousness of the offence and not to the liability of a particular convict. It said:
Senator Culleton was a person who had been convicted and was subject to be sentenced for an offence punishable by imprisonment for one year or longer at the date of the 2016 election. That was so, both as a matter of fact and as a matter of law. The subsequent annulment of the conviction had no effect on that state of affairs. It follows from s 44(ii) that Senator Culleton was "incapable of being chosen" as a Senator. In the result, there is a vacancy in the representation of Western Australia in the Senate for the place for which Senator Culleton was returned.[71]
Three ministers and contempt of court (2017) [ edit ]
Section 44(ii) nearly came into operation in June 2017, when three federal ministers were threatened with prosecution in Victoria for contempt of court. The ministers, all with law degrees, were Health Minister Greg Hunt, Human Services Minister Alan Tudge and Assistant Minister to the Treasurer Michael Sukkar. They had published in social media statements alleging that the Supreme Court of Victoria had been politically biased in handing down sentences for terrorism that the three considered to be much too light, and their statements had been reported on the front page of national newspaper The Australian. The Victorian Court of Appeal was soon to deliver judgment on prosecution appeals against the sentences. It asked the three, as well as staff of The Australian, to attend the court to comment on whether it should recommend that they all be prosecuted for contempt of that court, especially in that their statements could be read as attempting to prejudice the appeals. For each minister, a conviction could have engaged section 44(ii), resulting in their removal from the federal parliament; at that time the government did not have a majority in the Senate and had only a one-seat majority in the House of Representatives, of which all three ministers were members.
While The Australian immediately tendered a full apology, the ministers initially offered only an explanation, but, after criticism from the bench and in other media, they requested the court to accept a full retraction of their statements and an unconditional apology. (The ministers did not attend the court in person, pleading that they were required in parliament.) The court accepted the apologies, the Chief Justice stating that there had been a prima facie case for prosecution both of the ministers and of the newspaper, and that the ministers' contempt had been aggravated by the delay in providing a full retraction of the statements and in making an apology.[72][73][74] Shortly before giving its decision about contempt, the court delivered its decision on the appeals, in which two of the sentences were substantially increased.
(iii) Bankrupt or insolvent [ edit ]
Nile v Wood (1987) [ edit ]
A third part of Nile's challenge to Robert Wood's election was that Wood was insolvent,[23] with Wood being described as "probably the only Member of Parliament to have been elected while on the dole".[24] The High Court held that it was not enough to allege that Wood was insolvent; he had to have been adjudged to be an "undischarged insolvent".[23]
Culleton (2017) [ edit ]
Other proceedings concerning Culleton concerned a creditor's petition in the Federal Court, seeking to have Culleton declared bankrupt. On 23 December 2016 the Federal Court made a sequestration order which had the effect of making Culleton an undischarged bankrupt.[75] On 11 January, after receiving an official copy of the judgment, the President of the Senate wrote to the Governor of Western Australia, to notify her that Culleton's seat had become vacant due to his having become an undischarged bankrupt on 23 December 2016.[76] Culleton commenced proceedings in the High Court to challenge the power of the President to declare his seat vacant, but this challenge was rejected by Justice Gageler on 31 January 2017.[77] The sequestration order and therewith the finding of bankruptcy were confirmed by a full court of the Federal Court on 3 February 2017.[78]
However, Culleton's bankruptcy ceased to determine his eligibility when, later on the same day but in a separate case, the High Court declared that he had been ineligible for election to the Senate owing to his conviction of an offence punishable with a sentence of one year or more, under subsection 44(ii).[79]
(iv) Office of profit under the Crown [ edit ]
Subsection 44(iv) refers to an "office of profit" in the traditional sense of a position carrying an entitlement to any form of financial benefit, including salary. As with the reference to "pension", part of the intention is prevent the Executive from corrupting a member by offering such a position.[80] However, the provision has been interpreted to prevent any individual who is already in state employment from standing for parliament, even if they would have had to resign from that position if elected.
The Constitutional Commission report of 1988 recommended that s 44(iv) be replaced with more specific provisions;[81] likewise in 1997 a committee of the House of Representatives, which termed s 44(iv) "something of a minefield".[82]
Sykes v Cleary (1992) [ edit ]
In 1992, Independent candidate Phil Cleary was declared elected to the House of Representatives in a by-election for the Victorian seat of Wills. Sykes claimed that Cleary was disqualified by Constitution s 44(iv) and others by s 44(i). Cleary was a permanent secondary school teacher in the Victorian public school system. Mason CJ, Toohey and McHugh JJ held in a joint judgment (with which Brennan, Dawson and Gaudron JJ generally agreed) that the centuries-old phrase "office of profit under the Crown" includes today not only public servants as ordinarily understood, but extends to “at least those persons who are permanently employed by government” (para. 16). The Court decided by a 6:1 majority that Cleary held an “office of profit under the Crown” within the meaning of s 44(iv) and so had been “incapable of being chosen”.
The reasons behind s 44(iv), so far as it concerns public servants, were said to derive from traditions of the British House of Commons: that a public servant could not simultaneously attend adequately to both the duties of a public servant and those of a member of the Parliament, and also could be subject to the opinions of the minister to whom they were responsible; this situation would impinge on both the independence of members of the Parliament and the maintenance of a “politically neutral public service”. That neutrality also requires public servants to refrain from “active and public participation in party politics” (para. 14). These reasons apply to a public servant who is a permanent teacher, even though (it was accepted) “a teacher is not an instance of the archetypical public servant at whom the disqualification was primarily aimed” (para. 18).
It did not matter that Cleary was employed by “the Crown” in right of the State of Victoria and not in right of the Commonwealth; since the exception to s 44(iv) includes ministers of a State, s 44(iv) itself must include State officers. Nor that Cleary had been on leave without pay in order to fight the election; he continued to occupy the position. It did not matter, either, that Cleary had resigned from his position on hearing the outcome of the distribution of preferences and before the result was declared. The words “being chosen” were held to refer to a process of choice, which begins on the polling day. More fully, “incapable of being chosen” extends back to nomination. The process does not include the" declaration of the poll, which is only “the announcement of the choice made” (para. 25).
Deane J dissented, holding that it was sufficient if the candidate is qualified at the moment when the result of the poll is declared, by which point Cleary had resigned from his position. Deane was concerned that to require candidates always to be qualified at the point of nomination deters the more than ten per cent (at that time) of the workforce who are employed in the public service of the Commonwealth or a State. He thought that taking leave without pay or other emoluments, intending to resign if electoral success became apparent, is “preferable […] to the rather devious procedure of an ostensible termination of employment” under a guarantee of reinstatement if not elected, as has been established by Commonwealth and State legislation (para. 19).[note 3]
Jeannie Ferris (1996) [ edit ]
During the period between the declaration of her election in March 1996 and taking her seat on 1 July of that year, Jeannie Ferris had been employed by Liberal Party Senator Nick Minchin. It was unclear at the time whether this constituted holding an "office of profit under the Crown" as specified in subsection 44(iv). To avoid the possibility of her election being declared invalid, Ferris resigned from the Senate only to be immediately re-appointed by the Parliament of South Australia to fill the casual vacancy that her resignation had created.[83]
George Newhouse (2007) [ edit ]
At the 2007 federal election, it was claimed by the Liberal Party that George Newhouse, the high-profile Australian Labor Party candidate for the seat of Wentworth, was ineligible to stand for parliament under subection 44(iv). The basis of the claim was that Newhouse had not resigned from the New South Wales Consumer Disputes Tribunal and so was occupying an "office of profit under the Crown". Liberal frontbencher Andrew Robb claimed that a by-election in Wentworth would be necessary if Newhouse were to win the seat, due to his ineligibility.[84] The matter never came to a head, however, as Newhouse was comfortably defeated by the incumbent Liberal Party candidate and federal Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Re Nash [No 2] (2017) [ edit ]
In the course of the 2017 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, replacements were appointed on 10 November 2017 to all Senate vacancies resulting from disqualification except the seat that had been occupied by Fiona Nash.[85] The recount had indicated that Hollie Hughes should be declared elected and the Attorney-General had asked the High Court to so declare, but Hughes had then notified the Court that there was now a question over her eligibility. After the election, the Attorney-General had appointed defeated candidate Hughes to the federal Administrative Appeals Tribunal; it was not disputed that this was an office of profit under the Crown, which would disqualify Hughes under section 44(iv), and Hughes had resigned from it immediately after the Citizenship Seven decision, hoping that she would then be eligible in the recount. On 15 November the High Court heard submissions on this issue and declared Hughes to be ineligible, reserving its reasons. The reasons were given on 6 December. The Court unanimously found that the words "incapable of being chosen" in section 44 refer to the whole "process of being chosen", the "end-point" of which is a declaration that a candidate has been elected, and no declaration as to this seat had yet been made. A candidate had to be eligible throughout the process; Hughes had been ineligible during part of the process, owing to her tribunal appointment, and therefore could not be declared elected. [86] The recount resumed excluding both Nash and Hughes, electing Jim Molan, the seventh candidate on the Liberals' and Nationals' joint ticket.[87]
Andrew Bartlett (2017) [ edit ]
During the 2017 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, Andrew Bartlett replaced Senator Larissa Waters after a recount. At the time of nomination, Bartlett had been an academic employed by the Australian National University. He claimed to have legal advice that this did not disqualify him under s 44(iv) and his eligibility was not challenged at the same time as that of Hughes. However, the Commonwealth Solicitor-General has suggested that the Senate may need to refer his position to the High Court and the Greens are seeking further legal advice.[88][89]
Steve Martin (2018) [ edit ]
After Senator Jacqui Lambie was found to be ineligible under s 44(i) owing to foreign citizenship, her apparent successor was deemed to be Steve Martin. Martin was mayor of Devonport, Tasmania throughout the period of the election; the question arose whether this was an office of profit under the Crown. The parties agreed that his position was an "office", that it was "of profit" and that the Executive branch of the Government of Tasmania was an element of "the Crown"; the issue was whether the office was "under" the Crown. This was understood to turn upon whether the executive government had "effective control" over appointment to the office (which was by election) or over the tenure or conduct of the office. The High Court, sitting as the federal Court of Disputed Returns on a reference from the Senate, reviewed the Australian and prior English history of the term "office of profit" and determined unanimously that Martin was not ineligible by reason of s 44(iv), there not being a sufficient degree of ministerial control over the tenure or conduct of the office of mayor.[90]
Martin was the second-listed candidate for the Jacqui Lambie Network party in Tasmania. When found to be eligible, he could have stepped down, creating a casual vacancy to which Lambie could have been appointed. He refused to step down and was expelled from the party for disloyalty.[91] He took his seat as an independent.
(v) Pecuniary interest in an agreement with the Commonwealth [ edit ]
As with subsection 44(iv), the aim of subsection 44(v) is to prevent corruption of members by the Executive. It is also to avoid a conflict of interest that could lead a member of the Parliament to give priority to their own financial interest over impartial judgement of policy.
Re Webster (1975) [ edit ]
What constituted a "pecuniary interest" did not arise for consideration by the High Court until 1975 when the Senate referred questions concerning the eligibility of Senator James Webster who was a shareholder in and managing director of a company founded by his late grandfather. The company supplied timber and hardware, by public tender, to both the Postmaster-General's Department and the Department of Housing and Construction. Barwick CJ considered the history of the section and its predecessors, describing it as a vestigial part of the constitution. In his view, it had been inserted not to "protect the public against fraudulent conduct of members of the House", but rather to protect the independence of the parliament against influence by the Crown. On this basis Barwick CJ concluded that the interest "must be pecuniary in the sense that through the possibility of financial gain by the existence or the performance of the agreement, that person could conceivably be influenced by the Crown in relation to Parliamentary affairs".[92]
The decision has been criticised as taking a narrow approach to the construction of the section[93] that robs it of most of its efficacy, rendering it almost useless as a check upon would-be fraudulent politicians[94] and offering "little practical protection to the public interest or Parliament's reputation".[95]
If Webster had been found to have sat while ineligible, he would have been liable to a daily penalty under section 46 of the Constitution,[96] which could have accumulated to more than $57,200.[97] One consequence of the question about Webster's eligibility was the passage in 1975 of the Common Informers (Parliamentary Disqualifications) Act which limited any penalty prior to commencing the suit to $200; although, after the suit has commenced, there is a daily penalty of $200.[98]
Warren Entsch (1999) [ edit ]
The issue arose again in 1999 concerning Warren Entsch and his interest in Cape York Concrete Pty Ltd who had a $175,000 contract to supply concrete for RAAF Scherger.[99] Kim Beazley, the Leader of the Opposition moved that the Court of Disputed Returns should decide whether Entsch's seat in the House of Representatives had become vacant because he had a pecuniary interest in an agreement with the Commonwealth. The motion was lost and the House passed a resolution declaring that Entsch did not have a pecuniary interest within the meaning of section 44(v).[100] Whether the House had power to pass the resolution has been questioned.[101]
Re Day (2017) [ edit ]
On 1 November 2016, Bob Day resigned his seat as a Senator for South Australia, with immediate effect.[102] Shortly after Day's resignation, the Senate referred the question of whether Day had been disqualified from sitting or being elected as a Senator due to an indirect pecuniary interest in the proceeds of a lease of part of a building in Adelaide which Day indirectly owned, as Day's electorate office. The Attorney-General argued that the reasoning of Barwick CJ in Re Webster was incorrect and that the purpose of the subsection was to protect the parliament from the potential for influence, whether that potential arises from the conduct of the executive or a conflict between the duty of a Parliamentarian and their financial interests.[103] On 5 April 2017 the High Court held that Re Webster was wrong and should not be followed; its reasoning was based on consideration of the Convention Debates, as permitted since Cole v Whitfield in 1988. The Court held that Day had an "indirect pecuniary interest" in an agreement with the Commonwealth since at least February 2016 and therefore had not been eligible for nomination as a senator in July 2016. Consequently, his seat was declared vacant.[104][105]
Barry O'Sullivan (2017) [ edit ]
In August 2017, it was reported that Liberal National Party Senator Barry O'Sullivan could be in breach of s 44(v) as a shareholder in a family construction company subcontracted for work on a federally funded road project in Queensland. O'Sullivan denied that the company had such a connection.[106] O'Sullivan is a member of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, which is reviewing s 44.[7]
David Gillespie (2018) [ edit ]
Nationals member of the House of Representatives, David Gillespie came under scrutiny after the High Court ruling in the Bob Day case. In April 2017, the High Court found that, under section 44(v) of the Australian Constitution, Senator Day had not been eligible to hold public office because of an indirect pecuniary relationship with the Australian government. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) opposition and some community groups believed that Gillespie also had an indirect financial relationship with the federal government, in that he owned a suburban shopping complex in Port Macquarie which leased premises to an Australia Post licensee. In July 2017, the ALP launched a High Court challenge to Gillespie's eligibility as an MP. The case was formally brought by Peter Alley, the ALP candidate for Gillespie's seat of Lyne at the 2016 federal election.[107] Hearings began on 23 August 2017,[108] separately from the s 44(i) cases that commenced in the High Court on the following day.
The action against Gillespie was brought under s 3 of the Common Informers (Parliamentary Disqualifications) Act. This statute is a substitute for Constitution s 46 as authorised by that section. It provides that any person (known as a "common informer") can bring an action for a penalty against a Member of Parliament for sitting in Parliament while disqualified from doing so. During the proceeding, a question arose as to whether a common informer action could be brought against a Member of Parliament without a prior finding by the Court of Disputed Returns or the relevant House of Parliament. The High Court decided unanimously on 21 March 2018 that the Common Informers Act does not confer jurisdiction to determine the eligibility of a member: such jurisdiction is conferred exclusively by Constitution s 47 as substituted by s 376 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and can exercised only upon a referral by the Parliament to the High Court under s 376; therefore the proceeding under the Common Informers Act "should be stayed until the question whether the defendant is incapable of sitting is determined" following such a referral.[109] The Parliament has not made a referral with respect to Gillespie.
Peter Dutton (2018) [ edit ]
A Federal Court challenge to a migration decision made by Peter Dutton as Minister for Home Affairs claims that the decision is invalid because he was disqualified under Constitution s 44(v). It is claimed that he had a pecuniary interest in an agreement with the public service of the Commonwealth, consisting of an interest in a childcare business that received a Commonwealth government subsidy. He had previously resisted Labor attempts to secure a referral to the High Court on this ground; Labor and he had produced conflicting legal advice. Government lawyers contend that the Federal Court does not have jurisdiction regarding parliamentary eligibility.[110][111][112]
Exemptions [ edit ]
The office of Ministers of State are one category exempted from disqualification under subsection (iv). This exemption is necessary because Constitution s 64 requires a federal Minister (at least after three months from appointment) to be a senator or a member of the House of Representatives.[113] The position of ministers assisting, parliamentary secretaries and for ministers without portfolio is problematic.[114]
The wording of the exemption in relation to the armed forces has been described by law professor Tony Blackshield as "extremely obscure". In his view, while it is generally assumed to apply to "persons who are members of the defence forces other than in a full-time capacity", the obscurity renders that assumption doubtful; and there is some question as to members of the RAAF, which can be comfortably read as part of the "military forces" as elsewhere in the Constitution, but it is harder to include it in the expression "navy or army".[114] It was not thought that active military service during World War I acted to disqualify Senator James O'Loghlin.[115]
Free v Kelly (1996) [ edit ]
One aspect of the challenge to the election of Jackie Kelly in 1996 was that she was serving as an officer of the Royal Australian Air Force at the time of her nomination on 2 February 1996 prior to her transfer to the Air Force Reserve on 17 February. The majority in Sykes v Cleary had determined that the process of being chosen commences on nomination.[26]:at [27] Kelly subsequently conceded that she was incapable of being chosen because she was a full-time officer of the RAAF at the time of her nomination as a candidate.[28]:at [3] Blackshield suggested that Kelly's concession may have been greater than was necessary.[114] Kelly won the subsequent by-election with an increased margin.[83]
Notes [ edit ]
^ [10] In contrast, the Constitution of the United States , which was the principal model for the Australian Constitution, restricts election to Congress to persons who have been US citizens for seven years (House) or nine years (Senate). ^ They were naturalised before 1986, when the renunciation requirement was removed. ^ Each judgment is separately paragraph-numbered. |
If Canada’s efforts to secure a massive Pacific Rim trade deal indeed pan out, voters may find themselves marking a ballot on Oct. 19 without having had a chance to examine the fine print.
Teams of negotiators, including Trade Minister Ed Fast, are in Atlanta to continue talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a long-awaited 12-country pact that could generate an agreement in principle as early as this week.
Canada, however, finds itself in a unique situation: it’s the only country in the talks that’s in the throes of an election campaign.
With the election less than three weeks away, it’s not clear how much Canadians will learn about the deal, which has stirred up bitter opposition among stakeholders in the dairy, poultry and automotive industries.
“I guess the headlines (of any deal) would be made aware straight away, but it’s probably quite true that it would be a number of weeks before the detail surrounding the agreement would happen,” Noel Campbell, the president of Australian Dairy Farmers, said Wednesday from Atlanta.
“That may well be the case — that the finer detail would not be known (before Oct. 19).”
With speculation that a long-awaited deal could be reached in the coming days, the TPP talks have been prominent on the campaign trail this week.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair have both accused Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of keeping Canadians in the dark about the talks.
Canadian sources say it’s true the final text might not be publicly available for weeks, but they add they would likely release briefing materials and consider different ways of releasing information to the public and opposition parties.
On Wednesday, Fast said his delegation has asked that the text be made available “immediately” after an agreement.
“We certainly requested that and there are some discussions on the timing of the text, but I believe it is certainly possible.”
If the deal is signed before the election, the Conservatives would surely use it to woo voters, trumpeting the agreement as evidence of their prowess as builders of economic prosperity through freer global trade.
But the Harper government’s trade pacts have a tendency to take months — sometimes years — to see the full light of day.
The agreement in principle for the Canada-Europe free trade deal was signed in October 2013, but the treaty still has yet to be finalized as it undergoes “legal scrubbing” by lawyers. An overview of the deal is available online.
In another case, the Harper government’s initial announcement about its foreign investment protection agreement with China — FIPA — turned out to be different than advertised when the final text was released eight months later, said international investment law expert Gus Van Harten.
“We do have examples where the government has taken advantage of the absence of a public text, which of course it controls, in order to make misleading claims about its supposed achievements,” said Van Harten, a York University professor and author of “Sold Down the Yangtze,” a book about the FIPA deal.
In February 2012, Van Harten said Harper indicated the FIPA would protect foreign investors from discrimination to create a level playing field that would prevent a government from favouring domestic companies over foreign firms.
But when the details were made public in September 2012, he said agreement had a very broad exemption for existing discriminatory measures, meaning any law or policy that existed at the time the pact was put into force could continue indefinitely.
Van Harten said he was “pretty shocked” to see how many concessions Canada gave up in the deal when he read the final document.
Nonetheless, there are good reasons to withhold specifics, especially during the negotiation period or when lawyers comb through the text after a deal has been signed, he added.
“The problem is when I see a kind of manipulation of timing to maximize the political benefit when the text is not available,” Van Harten said, adding that he doesn’t expect the public to see a copy of the text until after the election.
If full details of the deal aren’t released before the vote, Campbell said he believes the Harper government could find itself in an uncomfortable position as the election campaign winds down.
“I think that government would come under a fair bit of scrutiny in that time frame to try and get them to open up as to what the deal was about,” said Campbell, who is also chairman of the Australian Dairy Industry Council.
“Yeah, it would be quite a difficult situation.” |
Chris Algieri is the underdog in the Barclays Center here this Friday night but if he does lose as expected to Amir Khan he will pick up an important consolation prize.
As the two welterweights came together for the ritual head-to-head stare-down in Brooklyn, Algieri revealed: 'The purse here will get me close to finishing paying off my student loan.'
Algieri graduated from college with a degree in sports science and nutrition and is planning to seek a master's degree at university once his boxing career is over.
Amir Khan and Chris Algieri pose after taking part in a press conference ahead of their fight on Friday night
Khan and Algieri stare each other down at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon
Algieri has thanked Khan for giving him an opportunity but insists he is confident ahead of Friday's fight
'I'm confident,' says Algieri. 'But whatever happens I say thank you to Amir for giving me this opportunity.'
Khan turned up in a Brooklyn Nets baseball cap in support of the basketball team which uses the Barclays Center.
He reminded everybody: 'The last time I fought in New York I defeated another local guy, Paulie Malignaggi. I'm expecting to give everyone another performance to enjoy.'
Khan trains at Private Gym in Brooklyn with trainer Virgil Hunter as he prepares for Friday's big fight
Algieri takes part in a media workout at the Barclays Center - the venue where he will take on Khan |
These lawsuits are expensive, with Justice Department lawyers doing battle, often for years, with the largest law firms in America. But the return on the agency’s investment is substantial. The Justice Department recovers hundreds of millions of dollars every year in cleanup costs to replenish the Superfund program’s coffers, which enables the E.P.A. to conduct more hazardous waste cleanups, including emergency responses to chemical releases like those that occurred after Hurricane Harvey.
For the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the Justice Department, which represents the E.P.A. and other federal agencies in court, funding from the E.P.A. is essential. In its budget proposal for 2018, the Justice Department indicated that it expected to receive approximately $25 million from the E.P.A., enough to pay for 69 lawyers as well as support staff, nearly 20 percent of the division.
If the E.P.A. stopped paying for Superfund work, significant layoffs would be likely at the Justice Department. But that would be just the beginning. More than half of the Environment Division’s work is defensive, meaning it represents the E.P.A. and other agencies in lawsuits brought by regulated industries, environmental groups and state attorneys general. That work is considered nondiscretionary — the Justice Department must represent the government when federal agencies like the E.P.A. are defendants — so the spending cuts and layoffs would have to come from elsewhere in the Environment Division.
As a result, there could be cuts exceeding 40 percent from the Environment Division offices that prosecute environmental crimes like the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal, seek civil penalties and natural resource damages in cases like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and sue polluters that are responsible for Superfund hazardous waste sites.
Mr. Pruitt’s proposal is a breathtakingly bad idea, giving polluters license to do their dirty work with less fear of punishment and a greater ability to outlast an understaffed Justice Department in court. The victims would be ordinary Americans, many of them poor and minorities, who often live closest to where environmental violations occur and where the worst Superfund sites are located. |
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Image copyright Gabriella Engels
Zimbabwean First Lady Grace Mugabe has so far failed to appear in a South African court over an assault case despite officials saying she would do.
South African police said in the late afternoon they did not know where Mrs Mugabe was.
A 20-year-old South African woman has accused Mrs Mugabe of hitting her on the head with an extension cord during a confrontation at a hotel.
She released an image of a face injury online. Mrs Mugabe has not commented.
Gabriella Engels accused Mrs Mugabe, 52, of hitting her after finding her with her two sons in a hotel room in Sandton, a plush suburb north of Johannesburg, the BBC's Pumza Fihlani reports.
The attack is said to have happened on Sunday evening.
Africa Live: Updates on this and other African stories
"The negotiations over the suspect handing herself over have not concluded and our investigations have not finalised," police spokesman Vishnu Naidoo told AFP news agency.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula earlier said Mrs Mugabe had handed herself over to police but was not under arrest, and would appear in court early on Tuesday afternoon local time.
Hours later Mr Naidoo clarified: "The minister learned later that it just didn't materalise as it was supposed to."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Grace Mugabe may face assault charges
What does Engels say?
In a phone interview for South Africa's News24 news site, she said she and a friend had been visiting the sons, Robert and Chatunga, at the Capital 20 West Hotel.
A bodyguard asked her and her friend to wait in a separate room, after which the assault occurred, she said.
"When Grace entered I had no idea who she was," she told News24.
"She walked in with an extension cord and just started beating me with it. She flipped and just kept beating me with the plug. Over and over. I had no idea what was going on. I was surprised… I needed to crawl out of the room before I could run away.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Grace Mugabe, 52, is the Zimbabwean president's second wife
"Her ten bodyguards just stood there watching, no-one did anything, no-one tried to help me."
"There was blood everywhere," she added. "Over my arms, in my hair, everywhere."
What do the police say?
In a statement, they confirmed that on Monday an unnamed 20-year-old South African woman had registered a "case of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm".
She was "allegedly assaulted by a prominent woman at a hotel in Sandton," they said, without naming Mrs Mugabe.
Who is Grace Mugabe?
Image copyright AFP
Began affair with Robert Mugabe, 41 years her senior, while working as a typist in state house
Mr Mugabe later said his first wife Sally, who was terminally ill at the time, knew and approved of the relationship
Married Mr Mugabe, her second husband, in 1996 in an extravagant ceremony. They have three children
Nicknamed "Gucci Grace" by her critics who accuse her of lavish spending
Along with her husband, is subject to EU and US sanctions, including travel bans
Praised by supporters for her charitable work and founding of an orphanage
Received a PhD in September 2014, a month after being nominated to take over the leadership of the Zanu-PF women's league
Why was she in South Africa?
She was due to be treated for an ankle injury, sustained during a road accident last month, according to Zimbabwean media.
It is not clear whether she was travelling on a diplomatic or a normal passport.
Mrs Mugabe is seen as a staunch defender of her husband, 93, and is the leader of the powerful women's league of Zimbabwe's governing Zanu-PF party.
Zimbabwean Information Minister Christopher Mushowe told the BBC he was unaware of the allegations against her. |
The US patent system is a mess. One way to fix it is to abolish software patents.
That is by far the most incendiary proposal the Electronic Frontier Foundation offers in its comprehensive report on overhauling a painfully broken patent system. The report, two years in the making, suggests everything from strengthening the quality of patents to making patent litigation less costly. And there, on page 27 of the 29-page report, is "Abolish software patents."
The argument is that software patents may not just be flawed, but utterly unnecessary. This hasn't always been EFF's stance on patents, says Adi Kamdar, one of the report's authors. But as the group compiled the report, it received 16,500 public comments from people in the business, academic, and policy communities. The idea that patents should be eliminated entirely was a common theme.
"A big chunk of the engineers we talked to, and even some of the lawyers and activists and policy folk don't like software patents at all," Kamdar says. "They said it hinders their innovation flows when they think about creating new things, and the idea of operating in a patent minefield really hurts them."
And so the EFF came around to the idea that, at the least, Congress should commission a study to determine if software patents should exist to begin with. That is not as crazy as it may seem. As the report notes, New Zealand—albeit a country with a comparatively tiny tech community—recently amended its laws to prevent patenting software. And Kamdar adds that patents haven't always been such an integral part of the software world. Microsoft, for one, acquired just five patents in its first 15 years, during which it became a $1 billion company. Today, Microsoft applies for 2,000 to 2,500 patents annually.
"It's a peer pressure, all-the-cool-kids-are-doing-it system right now," say Kamdar. "As soon as one company starts acquiring patents everyone else thinks they need to for defensive purposes. That puts pressure on the whole system."
The problem is, unlike with other types of patents, software patents often cover every solution to a certain problem, rather than a specific solution, with a specific implementation. That leads to an abundance of vague, broad patents, so that even when smaller companies do acquire patents, they're unlikely to do them any good against a patent troll. And so, Kamdar says, many of the startups EFF talked to over the course of its research are operating as if patents can't protect them anyway, and forgo them altogether.
And so, if software patents were to disappear, Kamdar believes not much would change, except that patent trolls would lose their power, and large companies like Apple wouldn't have to keep paying them hundreds of millions of dollars for infringing on decades-old, overly broad patents.
Of course, Kamdar acknowledges that convincing Congress to take up such a controversial and fundamental reform would be "a heavy lift." Which is why he says, in the mean time, there are steps that the business community should be taking to obviate the software patent system.
For starters, they could sign the License on Transfer agreement, which says that in the event that they sell their patents to a third party, every other company in the License on Transfer network would receive a license for those patents. That would keep patent trolls from attacking other companies in the network. While that wouldn't stop patent trolls from defending their existing patents, it would prevent them from getting their hands on more of them. "It’s a tiny step," Kamdar says, "but it’s a good step."
Kamdar would also like to see more members of the tech community commit to using patents only defensively. If that sounds like a lot to ask, the EFF says tech companies should remember that in many ways, they have brought this patent nightmare on themselves by selling patents to trolls and proliferating bad patents to begin with.
Still, Kamdar says these are only temporary fixes to a much bigger problem, which is why EFF believes Congress should take the time to study software patents and whether the benefits can ever outweigh the issues. "There’s probably not a lot of political support for that, but it's something that we need to do," he says. "I think it’s healthy to say, 'The system doesn't seem to be working for everyone right now. Let's take a look at whether or not it should exist at all.'" |
Even bad films (like the lacklustre Jason Statham vehicle The Mechanic and the exorcismploitation trifle The Rite) make a statement. We take time out of our obnoxiously busy schedules to explain what these movies had to say.
The Mechanic
by Ian "ProfessorClumsy" Maddison
EXPECTATIONS: I would describe myself as a fan of Jason Statham. I've heard him called the new Charles Bronson (personally, I've always considered him to be the new Steven Seagal), and that is certainly being reinforced here with this remake of the largely forgotten Bronson vehicle The Mechanic. I've never seen the original, so prior knowledge will not mar my viewing experience. That said, this remake is directed by Simon West, whose best effort to date is Con Air, a movie that stands tall on the strength of its script (copy/paste to "phrases i never expected to read.txt" - editor's note) and a great ensemble cast, but has all the aesthetic flair of a two-year-old's first finger painting.
REALITY: I believe in the magic of cinema, that mystical force that can take incredibly abstract ideas and weave them subtly into a visual narrative. On that note, I have no idea what to think of The Mechanic. It explores some interesting and amusing ideas whilst playing up to the established persona of its star, but it manages to do all of this in the process of being a slightly dull series of increasingly violent and tenuously connected scenes.
Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a mechanic, which means he is a hitman. I don't know how that particular jump in logic is made; presumably he has to turn away people who have car problems on a regular basis while the actual mechanics have to deal with creepy government types who want drug barons taken out in a clandestine manner. Anyway, one day he is assigned to kill his old friend and mentor Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland) on the grounds that he is leaking secret government information to... somebody. In spite of the amicable nature of Bishop's murdering McKenna, Harry's estranged son Steve (Ben Foster) soon comes sniffing around with vengeance in mind. Driven by guilt, Bishop takes Steve under his wing and trains him to be a mechanic.
The relationship between Bishop and Steve is at the forefront of this film. They depend on each other to some extent; Steve basically lives off Bishop like a useless teenage son, eating his food and draining his income. Bishop needs Steve around because he sees in him a chance to atone for killing his dad. However, their relationship seems to go much deeper than that, with suggestions of repressed homosexuality and a romantic interest between the two leads that they can only express through violence.
In one confusing and controversial scene, Statham actually flies into Heaven and shoots God in the face.
There is one sequence, not too far into the film, in which Bishop gives Steve his first assignment: He must seduce a rival mechanic and give him an overdose of date-rape drugs to kill him. Steve's frustration and eagerness cause him to engage the guy in a straight fight, which gets bloody and brutal. In fact, it reflects the previous scene in which Steve watches Bishop strangle a man to death and disguise it as auto-erotic asphyxiation. Just think about that for a moment; Steve essentially witnessed Bishop bringing another man to orgasm and felt the need to repeat that. Instead of giving his target the drugs as ordered, he removes the guy's belt and attempts to strangle him with it.
There are two actual sex scenes in the film, each involving one of the male leads and a nameless female. Juxtaposed with the horrific murder scenes, these are emotionless and uninvolved, whereas they get very into killing people, especially when together. This subtext draws itself out to a logical conclusion when there is nobody else to kill and they need to satisfy their urges and feelings for each other. But it all just feels a little unsatisfying.
The Mechanic is one of those films wherein the subtext is infinitely more interesting than the surface story. That can be fine in some instances, but this is an action film starring Jason Statham, and as such it really should be a more visceral experience. The audience should care about the protagonists succeeding, they should hate the bad guys, and my God, there should be a climax of some sort. Instead, we get a very loosely connected montage of brutal murders, perpetrated with the laziest of motivations. Steve goes from shooting a few targets in the woods to being a super-fast deadeye with any weapon he picks up, and it's hard to accept or enjoy any of this stuff because it's just thrown at you without any real concern for the audience's emotional reactions.
At one point, a character appears whose only purpose is to remind us of the plot from the first act and explain the plot twist so we can move into the third act. He is literally the exposition guy, and Statham even gets to kill him in a ridiculous fight aboard a bus. Having murdered the plot, he and his new partner go and viciously massacre the remaining characters who he assumed were the good guys at the beginning and are now the bad guys. It's nonsensical and boring. We have absolutely no reason to care about these characters dying, because all they've managed to do is make Statham's character look a bit stupid.
The whole experience is like eating a pie with a cardboard crust. You take one look at the crust and think "I'm not eating that, it's not a real pie." Then you realise it has a delicious filling, but you can never quite get that cardboard taste out of your mouth. Here, Simon West - a director who previously seemed uninterested in exploring the subtleties of layered storytelling - goes so far into subtlety that he forgets about the surface details. It's great that we can have an intellectual exploration of the dangers of repressed sexuality in the middle of this action film, but can we still have the action film?
Time will be the greatest test for this film. In years to come, your own sons will be sitting around on their fat arses, drinking beer and marathoning Jason Statham films. They'll bemoan the lack of a great action icon like Jason Statham for their own generation, and they'll take a shot every time he calmly walks away from a dead body (he does this so many times, I lost count). They might even get a good laugh at the gay subtext. But if I had to speculate on where they'd rank this in the Statham canon, I would imagine they'd put it quite near the bottom.
Subtext 8/10 Text 1/10 Action 2/10 Donald Sutherland Woefully underused Climax None Overall 11/50
MINORITY REPORT: The Mechanic: Two parts The Professional, one part A Perfect Murder and a dash each of Hitman, Basic Instinct and Baise-moi. Place ingredients in blender, puree until it's creamy smooth, pour into cardboard crust, bake at 450 until it's burnt to shit and forget to take it out of the oven. Voila, the perfect recipe for a late-January cinematic shit pie. - Sean "jeremy cunt" Hanson |
Lisa Ling served almost two decades in the Air National Guard, working on communications technology and drones. After an honorable discharge, she discovered her work had led to the deaths of hundreds of people. On our latest episode of Ars Technica Live, she tells Ars editors Annalee Newitz and Cyrus Farivar how that experience turned her into a whistleblower.
Civilians know almost nothing about military drone programs, and Lisa told us that it wasn't much better on the inside. She joined the National Guard to be a nurse, but her technical skills quickly got her moved into a role working with computers and comms equipment. After a few years of that, she was reassigned to work on drones. But she didn't realize, at first, what she was building.
Lisa described how she was given parts of the drones to work on without ever being told how her bits would fit into the larger project. She was deployed to Afghanistan multiple times and noticed what she called "traumatized soldiers," but at the same time she was a good military tech. She didn't question her orders, and she did her work to the best of her ability.
Though she couldn't talk to us about the exact technologies she worked on—doing so might get her arrested—Lisa did say that she was dismayed by how inaccurate drones truly are. They are touted as machines for surgical strikes, but she said her experience was that, in practice, distinguishing between an enemy and an innocent bystander was incredibly hard.
Even more disturbing, said Lisa, was the environment of sheer terror that the drones created in small Afghan communities. Lisa pointed out that, in more traditional scenarios, planes fly overhead only to drop ordinance. But armed drones can circle overhead for many hours, leaving the people below in constant fear for their lives. She compared the endless circling to walking through town while carrying large machine guns, pointing them at people randomly. It felt to her like a terrorist tactic.
She also said that she'd signed up for the military to work for her country, not for corporations. A big part of the push for drones is coming from military contractors like Raytheon, which stand to profit from the adoption of their machines. Lisa said it became obvious to her while in the military that corporate interests were guiding military decisions.
When she left the military, Lisa got two commendations for her work. One said that she'd affected the lives of more than 100,000 Afghanis with her work, and the other said she'd killed hundreds. That was the moment she decided to become a whistleblower, testifying before the European Council and speaking out in the media. She appeared in a celebrated documentary called National Bird, about drone operators.
It wasn't a decision she took lightly. Lisa emphasized that people considering becoming whistleblowers in the military should think very hard about it first, read some books, and be sure to retain a lawyer before speaking out (she found her attorney through the organization Expose Facts). Lisa still worries that she could be arrested, though she has been careful not to reveal any information that might be considered classified.
Ultimately, Lisa said that the technical and ethical issues with drones are intertwined. To fix these issues, she urged people to educate themselves about how drones work and how they are used. She believes military drones need to be disarmed immediately, and she urged us to tell our representatives to do so. The terror of drones comes from the combination of surveillance and deadly threat, she said. Certainly we should regulate surveillance, but first we need to remove the threat.
For more from Lisa, check out the full interview above in either video or audio form. And don't forget to come to the next Ars Technica Live at Eli's Mile High Club in Oakland, California, on August 20. Our guest will be Catherine Bracy, a co-founder of the new Oakland-based organization TechEquity Collaborative, aimed at helping the tech industry foster economic opportunities for everyone.
The Ars Technica Live podcast can always be accessed in these fine places:
iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ars-technicast/id522504024?mt=2
RSS:
http://arstechnica.libsyn.com/rss
Stitcher
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ars-technicast/the-ars-technicast
Libsyn:
http://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/arstechnica
Soundcloud:
https://soundcloud.com/arstechnica/sets/ars-technica-live
Listing image by Ars Technica |
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U.S. officials monitoring terrorist web sites have discovered a call for using forest fires as weapons against “crusader” nations, in what may explain some recent wildfires in places like southern California and Greece.
A terrorist website was discovered recently that carried a posting that called for “Forest Jihad.” The posting was listed on the Internet on Nov. 26 and reported in U.S. intelligence channels last week.
The statement, in Arabic, said that “summer has begun so do not forget the Forest Jihad.”
The writer called on all Muslims in the United States, Europe, Russia and Australia to “start forest fires.”
The posting quoted imprisoned Al Qaida terrorist Abu Musab Al-Suri, as saying “Jihad is an art just like poetry, music, and the fine arts. There are people that draw and there are others that are jihadists. They both act upon inspiration.”
Al-Suri is a senior Al Qaida leader captured in Pakistan in 2005 who is believed to be in U.S. custody.
“The idea of forest fires is attributed to him, may God set him free, as is in this short clip,” the writer stated.
The posting said that setting forest fires were legal under extremist Islamic law as part of a “eye for an eye” and that can produce “amazing results.”
Wildfires in California burned more than 500,000 acres beginning in October and authorities said arson was to blame for some of the fires. In August, wildfires broke out in Greece that authorities say were deliberately set.
The writer stated that it was permissible to burn trees in carrying out jihad.
“Scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands,” the writer said.
The writer stated that “targeted forests” are in the nations that “are at war with Muslims,” including the United States, Europe, Russia, and Australia.
Other nations, including Brazil are “off limits” because Brazil has not joined the “armies of the crusade.”
On damage caused by wildfires, the report said that the fires typically take months to put out which means that “this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time.”
The fires also will cause economic damage because it will limit exports of timber used to make furniture and also will cause losses to pharmaceutical companies that use trees for ingredients for drugs, the posting said.
Smoke caused by the fires will create pollution and military forces could be tied up fighting fires. The report noted that U.S. military forces in Iraq or Afghanistan “could even be recalled” as occurred following hurricane Katrina, which did not occur.
“Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organization were to claim responsibility for (starting) the forest fires,” the writer said. “You can hardly begin to imagine the level of the fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia, and in Australia.”
The report said that Abu Musab Al-Suri, urges terrorists to use sulphuric acid to start a forest fire, as well as gasoline.
The article was signed by Abu Thar Al-Kuwaiti, on behalf of a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network.
Source |
Either The Solicitor General Lied To The Supreme Court, Or Senator Feinstein Lied To The Public About Warrantless Wiretapping
from the pick-one dept
“Is there anybody who has standing?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked.
Yes, said Mr. Verrilli, giving what he called a “clear example." If the government wants to use information gathered under the surveillance program in a criminal prosecution, he said, the source of the information would have to be disclosed. The subjects of such surveillance, he continued, would have standing to challenge the program.
...if the Government intends to use or disclose information obtained or derived from a §1881a acquisition in judicial or administrative proceedings, it must provide advance notice of its intent, and the affected person may challenge the lawfulness of the acquisition.... Thus, if the Government were to prosecute one of respondent-attorney’s foreign clients using §1881a-authorized surveillance, the Government would be required to make a disclosure.... In such a situation, unlike in the present case, it would at least be clear that the Government had acquired the foreign client’s communications using §1881a-authorized surveillance.
In a prosecution in Federal District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., against two brothers accused of plotting to bomb targets in New York, the government has said it plans to use information gathered under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, or FISA, which authorized individual warrants. But prosecutors have refused to say whether the government obtained those individual warrants based on information derived from the 2008 law, which allows programmatic surveillance.
Prosecutors in Chicago have taken the same approach in a prosecution of teenager accused of plotting to blow up a bar.
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli lied to the Supreme Court about whether or not the federal government would need to reveal the source of surveillance info obtained under the FAA. Senator Dianne Feinstein lied to Congress about the FAA supposedly being instrumental in those cases. The US Attorneys are now withholding information they are, by law, required to reveal.
While there's been plenty of attention over the last month or so concerning the revelations from Ed Snowden about NSA surveillance, there have been a series of important ongoing lawsuits that tried to challenge the various aspects of the surveillance efforts. Unfortunately, most of these have ended badly, leading some to wonder if there even is any way at all to legally challenge these programs. At the end of 2011, for example, in a case testing the legality of the telcos helping the government with warrantless surveillance, Hepting v. AT&T, one of the key reasons why the court rejected the challenge was because it basically said, "well, you can always sue, but the government has the right to absolve companies of such wrongdoing." Except that, as the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year, because the government keeps the program a complete secret, no one has standing to sue. That is, unless you can prove that you were spied on via this specific program, you can't sue because there's been no harm.The Supreme Court Justices were clearly troubled by the idea that the government could implement a secret surveillance program that could never be challenged in court, and homed in on that key point in questioning the Solicitor General of the US (and former top RIAA litigator), Donald Verrilli. As the NY Times notes, Verrilli insisted that it simply was not true that no one would ever have standing, because if the government ever used information from such surveillance programs in a court case against someone, the government wouldto reveal that the info came via that program.Got that? Of course people would have standing, because the government has to tell them where the information came from. So those people could always challenge the program. When the eventual Supreme Court ruling came out, the majority decision reliedon this particular claim:Ok. Now, here's the important part. In defending the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), which is what enabled these kinds of warrantless wiretaps, politicians have been pointing to all of those "examples" where this program was supposedly instrumental in "stopping terrorists." And this includes a few cases that involved federal prosecutions. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the staunchest defender of these programs, has called out two specific prosecutions as "specific cases where FISA Amendments Act authorities were used," saying that "these cases show the program has worked."While it's arguable whether or not these cases actually showed whether or not the program worked, they do give us two cases where, according to the US Solicitor General and the Supreme Court, the feds were required to reveal to the defendants the source of the information. And take a wild guess whether or not the government actually informed the defendant how it obtained the info? You're psychic!In fact, the magistrate judge in the Florida case has told the government it needs to disclose whether or not the surveillance was based on the FAA, but the government, so far, is refusing to say anything, and is asking the court to reconsider.As far as I can tell, there are a few possibilities here, none of them good:It's possible that the reality is a combination of all three. But I can't see how you can explain the present situation without at least one of the three statements above being true.The ACLU has called this "a shell game" and it's that and more. No matter where you point for the legal authority to challenge these programs, the government insists you have to look elsewhere. Can't sue the companies, but can sue the government. Can't sue the government unless you can prove standing. Can't prove standing unless you're in a case which involves this surveillance, at which point we have to tell you. Of course, in cases where it's been revealed that this kind of surveillance is used, well, now the government insists it doesn't have to admit that. Basically, the feds are going to keep trying to avoid ever having to face an actual legal challenge on this, which suggests they know the reality: the program is illegal and unconstitutional. If they were sure that it was a legitimate, constitutional program, why not just stand up in court and say that?
Filed Under: dianne feinstein, donald verrilli, faa, fisa amendments act, standing, supreme court, warrantless wiretapping |
PUNJAB, India — Three days after her mother died, Rajinder Kaur sat quietly on the edge of a rope cot, staring at her sandaled feet as the buzz of her friends and family filled the courtyard of her village home in Sher Singh Wala in rural Punjab.
The 20-year-old nursing student, with a girlish frame and long black braid, listlessly recounted the details of her mother’s last 40 days — from a sudden diagnosis of blood cancer to the unaffordable treatment that left Kaur with few options but to watch the pillar of the family suffer in the hospital until she passed away.
Kaur’s mother, who died in May, is among the latest casualties in India’s northern state of Punjab, home to the highest rate of cancer in India. Here, in the country’s breadbasket, 18 people succumb to the disease every day, according to a recent report published by the state government. There are ninety cancer patients per 100,000 people compared to the national average of eighty. And the Malwa region, where Kaur’s family lives, has been dubbed "the cancer belt" of the state because of its particularly high incidence of the disease.
In villages like Sher Singh Wala, working class, agricultural communities are bearing the heaviest burden of this complex crisis — one that involves limited resources, lack of political will and a toxic environmental problem that could foreshadow what many other Indian communities will experience as they follow the state’s economic model.
“We need to strike at the root,” said J.S. Thakur, professor and researcher at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, who has conducted extensive studies on cancer in Punjab.
While the causes of cancer are complicated and still unknown, Thakur and his team found that contaminated water from rapid industrialization and excessive use of chemical fertilizers for high-yielding crops are contributing to the steep rates in the state. Just miles away from the Kaur family’s home are colossal industrial plants that have polluted the irrigation system in the area.
Malkit Singh, a member of the panchayat, or village council, in Sher Singh Wala, said cancer deaths affect almost every other home in his 2,000-person village. Including his: Singh lost his brother and two cousins to cancer in the past decade.
But Singh, a broad man who wears a traditional turban, said that the government’s inability to regulate toxic chemicals is not their only downfall. There is also public outcry that the state has done little to expand the limited healthcare resources available for families who can’t pay to travel to a private, specialized clinic.
“The overall responsibility goes to the government, and the people are also responsible because they have not made an issue of it,” he said.
The region’s only government cancer ward was established just six years ago in the town of Faridkot, an hour’s drive from Sher Singh Wala. On a morning in May, frail women and men slept along the hallways and on the floor of the waiting room as they anticipated the next available doctor, or further tests.
Every day the hospital — staffed with just four oncologists and nine residents in training — receives about 20 new cases and 150 regular cancer patients, said Dr. H.P. Yadav, head of department at the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital. Since the service started in 2008, there has been an influx of patients from the region, who previously traveled to nearby states like Rajasthan or New Delhi for treatment.
“There is a scheme for people from Punjab: They’ll get a financial assistance of 1.5 lakh rupees [about $2,500],” Yadav said. “We are trying to give more assistance from our side but the treatment cost is high.”
Meanwhile, a senior official at the hospital who asked that his name not be used said the state has done little to support the center. Most of the initial funding, instead, came from the national government, universities and donors.
Costly treatment is an undeniable burden for most people in this agriculturally rich but poverty stricken region. For them, the government assistance under the Chief Minister’s Cancer Relief Fund scheme is only a temporary solution. When medicines cost almost 20,000 rupees ($400) per month, families are often left to make difficult decisions.
Part of that price tag comes from lack of regulation and oversight. Some pharmacies in the region were charging more than ten times the original price for certain cancer-related drugs, according to a private investigation by the Bhai Ghaniya Cancer Roko Sewa Society, a local nongovernmental organization.
“We focus on poor patients,” said Kultar Singh, vice president of the group. “We started this NGO because people were being overcharged and we were fed up with the politics.”
Their efforts have proven fruitful. Last year the team wrote a letter to the chief justice of Punjab’s high court, prompting them to hold the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority accountable for 46 anti-cancer drugs that are supposed to be affordable. In May, the Punjab government rolled out a plan to provide subsidized medicines to cancer patients at public hospitals.
Without that support, money can prove a harsh limitation.
Heeding a relative’s suggestion, Kaur said her family first visited a private hospital in Ludhiana, where they were quoted approximately $20,000 for her mother’s blood cancer treatment — a large amount for the middle class farming family.
“My mom said she didn’t want such an expensive treatment,” Kaur said of her mother’s decision. “They told us there was a 35 percent chance she would stay alive.”
The family then consulted a homeopathic doctor, who prescribed a range of natural medicines. But Kaur said her mother’s health quickly deteriorated and they were forced to admit her to a government-subsidized local hospital without regular cancer specialists. Within a matter of days she caught an infection and passed away before she could receive further treatment — leaving Kaur and her younger brother, 15-year-old Manjinder, without one parent.
Kultar Singh said many families who are fighting cancer also lack the education and awareness they need to protect themselves. His NGO is trying to educate communities at the grassroots level.
“People fear the word cancer and it’s like a taboo,” he said. “There’s a myth in the village that with this disease you’re bound to die. At first, instead of going to doctors, they go to shamans and traditional healers.”
Meanwhile, Thakur, the lead researcher, said any real solution to the problem with require accessible clean water and a change in industrial practices, rather than simply treating the symptoms of what has become a toxic environment.
Until then, families like Kaur’s will be left to wonder if there was any way to prevent what happened to a loving wife and mother.
“She was really good. She sewed her own clothes, she was always thinking about her children,” Kaur said, remembering her mother as tears escaped from her eyes. “She never got tired.” |
On 26 September, a group of students who had gathered in Iguala, in the Mexican state of Guerrero, were shot at and carried off by police forces. By the end of the day, six had been killed, 16 were injured and, according to government figures, 57 were missing. The whereabouts of 43 students is still unknown.
Twenty-two police officers from Iguala and 14 from Cocula have been detained and almost 50 people, mostly again police officers, arrested in relation to the shooting and disappearance of the students. The mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, his wife, Angeles Pineda, and the security chief, Felipe Flores Vazquez, have fled from the authorities.
The search for the missing led within a week to the discovery of six graves, with the remains of at least 28 badly burned bodies. More mass graves have since been uncovered. Vigilante and civilian self-defence groups have joined in the search and reports indicate that up to 19 graves, with at least 80 corpses, may have been found so far. Some or all of these could be victims of the infamous drug cartels and organised crime.
Waiting
Much remains unclear: statements by the Mexican government, independent forensic agencies and human-rights groups keep changing and contradicting each other. The friends and families of the students are still waiting for answers as to the fate of their loved ones.
The episode has raised concerns about the relationship between elected officials, the police and the cartels which control the area. Some speculate that Abarca and Pineda, now in flight, had sought to prevent the students disrupting a public event. Others suggest that police officers were working for the Guerreros Unidos cartel and punished the students for refusal to pay extortion fees. Political collusion with the cartels, in which the students were considered a threat to be dealt with, is also a theory. Unfortunately, Mexico’s recent history of corruption and drug violence, allied to human-rights abuses by the police and military, makes any or all of these scenarios plausible.
The “war on drugs” has seen the Mexican military take on more police roles and the police become more heavily militarised. Violence between the cartels and the authorities has escalated and the population has been caught in the crossfire. Cartels have multiplied and radicalised, expanding their business model to add kidnaping and extortion to their already highly profitable drug trade.
Human-rights organisations, among other national and international groups, have pointed to a great number of abuses, including torture, by the military and the police. The shooting and kidnapping of the students is just the latest case in a long history.
Protests
With so little information released, most of it inconclusive—and amid years of growing frustration with the government and police institutions—protests since the disappearance of the students have become increasingly large and angry. Thousands of demonstrators marched towards the attorney general’s office in Mexico City this week, closing off part of one of the capital’s main and busiest streets to demand answers. In Chilpancingo, Guerrero, protesters clashed with anti-riot police, setting a government building on fire after they had failed to occupy it.
The magnitude of the tragedy has resonated across the country, recalling the Tlatelolco massacre of 2 October 1968 in which military and police killed up to 300 students. Protests have sprouted all over Mexico, demanding that the 43 missing be returned alive, bringing schools and universities to a halt. Faculty members have come together with students to call for answers as well as actions from the authorities.
Crime and corruption have been associated in Mexico with extreme impunity. Strategies to fight organised crime have merely resulted in more violence, in which innocent people have found themselves victims of the cartels and the authorities. If the cartels act ruthlessly because they operate outside the law, the police and military have been protected by the authorities in countless cases of abuse. And still there is little or no accountability for the injustices carried out.
The current clashes between protesters and police stem not only from the outrage sparked by a single event in which innocent civilians have been attacked by those meant to protect them but from a long history of having to fear criminals and police alike. Those responsible must be brought to justice—not only the criminals who kill and kidnap but also those corrupt police and government officials who allow such tragedies to take place. |
CryptoDefense, a ransomware competitor to CryptoLocker, has an implementation flaw that could allow for recovery of the decryption key from the victim’s computer.
CryptoLocker certainly changed the ransomware game last year when it threatened its victims with the loss of important files if a timely ransom payment was not made. Reportedly, criminal gangs utilizing this dangerous type of ransomware were earning hundreds of thousands of dollars per month.
Naturally seeing the opportunity for financial gain, competitor pieces of malware are popping up and building on what CryptoLocker started.
The latest is a sample spotted by researchers at Bromium Labs that they’ve called CryptoDefense. Unlike CryptoLocker which spread primarily via phishing and spam emails, Bromium experts say CryptoDefense is compromising computers via drive-by downloads.
Victims are being popped by a Java exploit, which then downloads and executes the malware in stages. Eventually, the victim is presented with a message that files on the hard drive have been encrypted and they must pay a ransom by a deadline in order to have them decrypted, or the price goes up. If the ransom demand is ignored, the victim is threatened with permanent destruction of his files.
Bromium’s Vadim Kotov wrote on the company’s website that while CryptoDefense is a competitor to CryptoLocker, there are similarities between the two attacks, including payment methods (Bitcoin), public-key encryption used and that some of the same file extensions are targeted by both.
CryptoDefense, like CryptoLocker, will go after Office, photos and movie files, but it also targets source code files and SSL certificates. It also forces the victim to visit the attacker’s website in order to make ransom payments; CryptoLocker provides its own GUI for this purpose.
Kotov, however, did find an implementation flaw in CryptoDefense
Kotov, however, did find an implementation flaw in CryptoDefense that could allow for the decryption key to be found on the victim’s computer. The CryptoLocker key is stored on the attacker’s server, and the same is true for CryptoDefense.
“It’s a bad coding flaw. If you are aware of it, the private key is available on the hard drive,” said Rahul Kashyap, chief security architect at Bromium, who added that the bug will certainly be fixed in newer versions of the malware since it’s been outed. “If the victims are sophisticated folks, and understand technology and encryption, they can get the keys themselves.”
Several experts, meanwhile, figured out clever ways to find and recover the encrypted files targeted by CryptoLocker by using Windows shadow copies and system restore. Kotov said that method won’t work with this attack.
“It makes sure system tools cannot recover the files – the shadow copies are removed and system restore is disabled,” he said.
Bromium has been tracking CryptoDefense since February, Kotov said.
“It appears that by the end of March there were at least 11,000 detections (the real picture might be bigger already) and $34,000 were earned by the gang behind this,” he wrote. “In contrast, CryptoLocker has made millions of dollars already. So clearly, underground gangs are warming up to the idea of crypto-ransomware and we expect similar ransomware to come up.”
CryptoLocker infections began in earnest last fall. Victims have three days to make payments via MoneyPak or Bitcoin, though some victims reported having paid the ransom and did not receive a decryption key as promised, according ot a US-CERT advisory last November. Not only are local files encrypted, but CryptoLocker also looks for documents on shared network drives mapped to the victim’s computer, as well as removable media, external hard drives and even some cloud storage services.
Costin Raiu, director of the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky Lab, said CryptoLocker uses a domain generation algorithm giving the malware up to 1,000 possible domain names from which to connect to its command and control infrastructure. Raiu added that Kaspersky sinkholed three domains and monitored more than 2,700 domains trying to contact those domains during a three-day period last October with most of the victims in the U.S. and Great Britain.
“We think this is going to become a pretty big problem, an underworld race of sorts,” said Kashyap. “CryptoLocker is supposed to have made $27 million, so copycat versions are coming. Criminal gangs see this as a way to make quick money. Now with this enormous currency in Bitcoin that’s being leveraged by the malware, we fear this is going to be a much bigger problem.”
This article was updated at 3:30 p.m. ET with additional comments from Bromium Labs. |
One of the biggest reasons to upgrade to the new MacBook Pro is for Touch ID. As was revealed during yesterday’s MacBook Pro event, Touch ID will be available to third-party Mac app developers. AgileBits, creator of 1Password for Mac and iOS, has wasted no time and is currently working on implementing Touch ID support into its highly-respected password management app.
Synology RT2600ac: The AirPort Extreme replacement.
In a blog post by AgileBits CEO, Jeff Shiner, it’s noted that the team is already hard at work on implementing not only Touch ID support, but Touch Bar support for the new MacBook Pros. Shiner notes that the team has already been working on designs for the Touch Bar, and was willing to share a few early designs.
The team was able to conceptualize these designs thanks to the latest release of Xcode, version 8.1, which includes all of the goodies and simulators needed to test these new features. Actual MacBook Pro hardware won’t begin arriving until later in November, so it might be a while before we receive an update to 1Password, or any substantial app for that matter, with Touch ID and Touch Bar support in tow.
Shiner also provided a sneak preview of 1Password for Mac in action on its YouTube channel. In a brief 7-second video, AgileBits demonstrates how the Touch ID animation will appear when fingerprint-unlocking the app on the new MacBook Pros:
Even if you don’t plan on adopting new MacBook hardware, I can strongly recommend 1Password for both iOS and Mac. It’s one of the handful of apps that I would be absolutely lost without, and I think that every Mac and iOS owner should use it as a way to shore up security. |
A bulky agenda awaits city politicians who will gather for the second last council meeting before the August break on Monday. This is the third last agenda city council will tackle before the October municipal vote. Here are five notable things elected officials are slated to debate.
Notices of motion galore
From creating an Indigenous relations office at city hall to spending $390,000 on an Olympic referendum, several city councillors will pitch their ideas to colleagues Monday via four different notices of motion. Ward 13 Coun. Diane Colley-Urquhart wants an independent review that would explore changes to the existing rules surrounding council pay and benefits following drama surrounding a citizen committee that recently studied council pay. Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra has a gender equity and diversity-based notice of motion asking council to put in a formal request with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, asking that Calgary participate in a program designed to create more inclusive governments. Ward 11 Coun. Brian Pincott wants to see the city establish an Indigenous relations office, while Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu is asking his colleagues to support a plebiscite at the October municipal election concerning an Olympic bid.
$150K to study golf
Council will consider if it’s worth spending up to $150,000 for consultants, and the equivalent of nearly two full-time city employees, to review the state of golf and the 23 active golf courses in Calgary. Earlier this month, a city committee approved the idea, with only Coun. Evan Woolley arguing the move would not be money well spent. The conversation comes as four contentious redevelopments have been approved on former golf courses across the city since 2011 — decisions that have spurred protests, petitions and outcry from neighbours. City bureaucrats believe the study would help inform future golf course redevelopment applications. If council approves giving the study the green light, funding would need to be secured as part of the 2018 budget process.
To bid or not to bid
The group studying a potential Calgary bid for the 2026 Olympics is expected to reveal on Monday its recommendation to city council regarding whether or not the city should bid for the Winter Games. But a final decision on moving forward with a bid is up to council, who won’t be asked to say ‘yes bid’ or ‘no don’t,’ on Monday. Once city bureaucrats have had time to look over the bid exploration committee’s final recommendation and risk assessment, slated to be released Monday, they’ll report back to council with their suggested next steps. A recent shift in deadlines from the International Olympic Committee means council may not vote on moving ahead or giving a bid a pass until 2018. The bid exploration group, headed by former police chief Rick Hanson, has generated more than 5,400 pages of work and concluded a repeat Calgary Olympics would cost $4.6 billion.
Making it easier to complain about council
After tallying just 11 complaints from the public in his first year on the job, Calgary’s integrity commissioner Allen Sulatycky wants to make it easier for citizens to contact him about city council. Sulatycky, a retired judge, was hired last April as a part-time watchdog tasked with probing allegations against council members. A city report is asking that council approve allowing citizens to file complaints with Sulatycky directly through e-mail, rather than via an existing Whistleblower program or snail mail. An annual report to council from the integrity and ethics office contains limited details on the 17 complaints watchdog Sulatycky received in his first year. It acknowledges the 11 complaints made by a citizen or citizens concerning the conduct of a council member were fewer than expected.
Federal cash for Airport Trail expansion
Council is being asked by city administration to apply for federal funds to complete Airport Trail under a newish Government of Canada program that funds “national trade corridors.” City bureaucrats are recommending council submit a proposal, under the federal fund, for the currently unfunded Airport Trail Phase 2 corridor project. The project would see two new interchanges, currently in preliminary design, built on Airport Trail, at Barlow Trail and at 19th Street N.E. As well, Airport Trail would be built from 36 Street to 60 Street N.E. and a ramp from southbound Stoney Trail to westbound Airport Trail would be constructed. The project is estimated to cost $95 million, with the Calgary Airport willing to pony up $37.5 million. |
The BCIF compression algorithm is an open source method for lossless image compression, derived in part from the older PCIF algorithm, developed in 2010-2011 by Stefano Brocchi. It can be used to compress and decompress an image any number of times without losing quality, as it would happen in the widespread lossy JPEG format. The algorithm has been designed to be fast, in particular in the decompression phase, in order to obtain a superior compression and to decompress in a very short time the encoded images. BCIF is described in this LNCS whitepaper.
The BCIF algorithm has been compared to the main lossless compression algorithms that have become a standard: the PNG format and the lossless modes of JPEG2000 and JPEG-LS. Test on various image sets can be found in the benchmarks section; the BCIF algorithm greatly outperforms PNG and also beats the compression ratios of the JPEG standards, especially in computer generated and high edged images. For a comparison with other newer research algorithms, the author recommends to check some third party benchmarking charts, of which Squeezechart is an excellent example.
The implementation of the BCIF algorithm is released under the GPL license, and hence it can be downloaded and used for free. As written in the license, the software comes on an 'as is' basis, and the author does not hold any responsibility for its use or misuse.
The implementation of the algorithm has been released as open source, and is available both in Java and C++. Thanks to the Java implementation, the BCIF JAR binaries run on any system with Java installed, and they give the possibility to include BCIF files in a website and to visualize them with an applet. Also available for download, a BCIF image viewer and a GUI for BCIF encoding and decoding. The C++ implementation allows to experiment the potential of BCIF regarding compression and decompression speed. A native executable has been released for Windows; for other platforms, binaries can be obtained by compiling on the spot the source code.
Questions, feature requests, feedback, bug reports ? Write to
Sorry, you need Javascript on to email me.
BCIF Graphical User Interface - 1.0 beta (Java) Slow, but cross-platform and with a nice GUI. This GUI implemented in Java allows to visualize, compress and decompress BCIF image files. Input files must be true color BMPs, but conversion from other formats is possible through imagemagick's convert tool. Requires Java.
BCIF viewer and command line encoder - 1.0 beta (Java) Use to open BCIF files, or to compress/decompress from command line. A viewer for BCIF files that can also be used as a command line utility for compression and decompression. Requires Java.
BCIF native command line encoder for Windows - 1.0 beta Compress and decompress BCIF files at the maximum speed ! An highly optimized implementation of BCIF in C++ created to allow compression and decompression of BCIF files at high speed.
BCIF user manual - 1.0 beta How to, supported formats and known issues A brief user for both the Java and native releases of BCIF. Describes the program options, the supported formats and some known issues. Also included in the program downloads. |
Statement and fundraising appear to conflict with Code of Conduct for United States Judges
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr. said his involvement with a conservative fundraiser was “not important” after being confronted by a Think Progress blogger Tuesday night.
At a fundraising event for the right-wing magazine American Spectator, Lee Fang of Think Progress asked Alito why he thought it was appropriate to attend such a highly political fundraiser.
“It’s not important that I’m here,” Alito reportedly told Fang.
“You also helped headline this same event two years ago, obviously helping to raise political money as the keynote,” Fang shot back, only to receive the same response from Alito before he walked away. “It’s not important.”
The American Spectator fundraising event featured Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, Republican Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), US Chamber of Commerce board member William Walton, and major Republican donor Paul Singer.
According to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, a justice should not “solicit funds for, pay an assessment to, or make a contribution to a political organization or candidate, or attend or purchase a ticket for a dinner or other event sponsored by a political organization or candidate.”
In 2009, Alito also headlined a fundraising dinner for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which funded the conservative journalist James O’Keefe and Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell. Alito is reported to have helped the institute raise $70,000.
Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court of the United States by President George W. Bush in October 2005 to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. He has served on the court since January of 2006.
His appointment shifted the court to the right.
“The point is not that Justice Alito has turned out to be exceptionally conservative, though he has: he is the third-most conservative justice to serve on the court since 1937, behind only Justice Thomas and Chief Justice Rehnquist,” Adam Liptak of the New York Times wrote in July. “It is that he replaced the more liberal justice who was at the ideological center of the court.”
The American Civil Liberties Union publicly opposed Alito’s nomination.
“Judge Alito has all too often taken a hostile position toward our fundamental civil liberties and civil rights,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “The Supreme Court is the final guardian of our liberties, and Judge Alito has shown that he lacks the dedication to that commitment.” |
The BLM has released more information about its proposed studies of wild horses, that they will be initiating 21 research studies for population control. They will be spending $11 million on these studies which will include spaying of mares, gelding of stallions, chemical castration of stallions, chemical sterilization of stallions, and drugs causing permanent sterilization of mares. These barbaric practices will be performed in the field. The risk of infection and trauma to the wild horses is severe, especially with the likelihood of no medical follow up after these procedures.
The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act requires managing wild horses and burros in order to maintain sustainable herds. Sterilization is counter to this requirement, and will inevitably lead to the ultimate extinction of our wild horses and burros. The current plans of the BLM require managing 78% of wild horse and burro herds in 10 western states at below genetically viable levels, which require least 150 adults in a herd.
Experimenting on our wild horses and burros is cruel, inhumane and absolutely unnecessary. There are proven methods of birth control that are safe and humane including PZP which has been studied for over 40 years. The Pryor Mountain Herd in Montana, the McCullough Peaks Herd in Wyoming, the Spring Creek Herd and Little Bookcliffs Herd in Colorado are all using PZP to successfully manage population growth, but the BLM refuses to use PZP on other herds.
Earlier this year I traveled to Washington D.C. with other groups to meet with BLM Director Niel Kornze and Deputy Assistant Director Mike Tupper to discuss solutions to wild horse and burro issues. Some of our recommendations included a significant expansion of the number of mares treated with PZP in order to make a difference in population levels as well as possible voluntary retirement of livestock grazing permits in Herd Management Areas. We also discussed returning wild horses currently housed in Long and Short Term Holding facilities to Herd Areas that had been zeroed out. We offered to work with the BLM, and to find volunteers to help.
Mike Tupper was supposed to respond to our proposals but as yet has failed to do so. Instead, the BLM is embarking upon these sterilization studies, without public comment, without oversight, without protection for our wild horses and burros.
Despite the fact that these sterilization studies have been in the works for over a year (first announced in August 2014), the BLM has not released the names of the herds that will be experimented upon, nor have they responded to queries about this.
This unwillingness to work with wild horse advocates and commitment to dangerous and inhumane treatment of our wild horses clearly demonstrates the BLM’s ultimate goal – the destruction of our wild horse and burro herds.
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2015/july/nr_07_07_2015.html
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/science_and_research/fertility_control.html
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/whbprogram/science_and_research/usgs_partnership.html |
Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research in Motion, introduces the BlackBerry 10. (Photo11: Mark Lennihan, AP)
Research in Motion -- now taking on the name BlackBerry -- has unveiled its latest line of BlackBerry smartphones.
The BlackBerry Z10 features a full touchscreen and textured back, while the Q10 features the traditional design with physical keyboard.
So far, Wall Street does not seem too impressed. The company's stock is down 6%.
Miss the event? Scroll down for a look at the action as it happened.
11:26 a.m.: Heins wrap up. The Z10 dominated the presentation, but BlackBerry has more details on the traditional Q10 smartphone on its official blog.
Beyond a physical QWERTY keyboard, the device features a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen display.
11:19 a.m.: Based on a video, it looks like the Z10 will be available in either black or white.
The video shows Keys, director Robert Rodriguez and writer Neil Gaiman handling various projects on the new BlackBerrys. Keys says she plans on taking the phone on tour and create videos from every city.
11:17 a.m.: Keys says she's particularly focused on maintaining the phone's vision for balance between personal and work tasks. "I really want to bridge the gap between the work phone and play phone," says Keys.
11:15 a.m.: Keys talks to Heins about why she split briefly from BlackBerry to choose other phones, comparing it to a long-term relationship. She cites "sexier" phones on the market, but appeared impressed with BlackBerry's new changes. "We're exclusively dating again and I'm very happy," she says.
11:13 a.m.: Heins creating a global creative director position at BlackBerry. The company's CEO announces Grammy winner Alicia Keys will fill the role.
11:10 a.m.: Heins says all four major U.S. wireless carriers -- AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile -- will carry the Z10. Price points will vary based on carrier. Device will start hitting stores worldwide next month.
(Correction: AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile will carry the Z10. Sprint has committed to carrying the Q10 when it comes out.)
11:08 a.m.: Seeing a variety of music and film options, from Alicia Keys to Pixar movies. This looks like a real serious push to battle Apple and Google.
11:07 a.m.: Checking out montage of the apps and other media in BlackBerry World. Again, most of the heavy hitters are available, such as Evernote and Dropbox.
11:04 a.m.: One area where BlackBerry will need work is apps. Currently, BlackBerry World hosts 70,000 applications, much lower than competitors. However, the selection is pretty strong, including Skype, MLB and Amazon Kindle. It appears most of the major apps are available. Lots of games featured too, including Angry Birds and Where's My Water?
11:00 a.m.: Heins says all eight major studios and all major music labels have signed on to add music and video to BlackBerry World, the equivalent to the App Store and Google Play.
10:58 a.m.: Next up is BlackBerry Story Maker, software that lets users combine photos and video to create their own films. Users can also apply filters similar to Instagram.
10:55 a.m.: Picture Editor includes free transform, other editing options available in most smartphones.
So far, investors do not seem impressed with the unveiling. Stock in the company formerly known as RIM is down 5%, and falling.
10:54 a.m.: Checking out the Z10's camera. Users tap anywhere to take a picture, or move reticle to change focus. Also includes feature to help users snap best image.
10:52 a.m.: BlackBerry Remember is the next feature, consisting of a series of folders users access to manage content such as messages, photos, browser bookmarks and other info.
10:50 a.m.: The video chat also includes Screen Share, which allows one user to share their BlackBerry screen with another.
10:48 a.m.: Heins shifting to BlackBerry Messenger, which has 60 million users. The service is now adding video calls. They're testing it out with a BBM call to reps at the London event. The user can flip between chat and video call easily.
10:46 a.m.: Now looking at BlackBerry Balance, which allows users to create custom home screens, such as Home or Work. Users can have multiple profile sets with different apps. It appears you get two.
Also, if you like games, this demo just confirmed BlackBerry is getting Angry Birds: Star Wars. Looks like BlackBerry is beefing up their gaming options.
10:42 a.m.: The keyboard is really fascinating. It features a variation on predictive text where users can flick words from the keyboard. It recognizes the sentence structure and suggests words.
10:40 a.m.: The integration of social networks looks promising. Searching appears seamless. "The device adapts to you and what you need to know," says Heins.
10:38 a.m.: When managing messages, the user can hold down on an email or text and see a menu pop to the right side. Users then slide their thumb over to flag a messages, delete or perform other tasks.
10:36 a.m.: Also interesting: BlackBerry Peek. For example, while watching a video, the user can swipe from the left to quickly check email or their social network. It appears effortless.
10:35 a.m.: BlackBerry about to showcase the BlackBerry Hub, the interface for working with the Z10 smartphone. It features a series of rectangular tiles, slightly similar to Windows Phone. It appears zippy. The user taps on the window and quickly pops up their app or browser.
10:33 a.m.: The Q10 features a physical keyboard, added by user request. "We heard you loud and clear," says Heins. "We built this for all those people that said we just have to have a physical keyboarding experience." Time for a demo.
10:31 a.m.: The Z10 features a 4.2-inch touchscreen and textured back to make it easy to hold. Heins says the phone will boast super-fast browsing and integration with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
10:30 a.m.: Heins unveils the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones: The BlackBerry Z10 and Q10. The Z10 looks like a full touchscreen phone, while the Q10 looks like a traditional model with signature keyboard.
10:28 a.m.: Heins just revealed Research in Motion is now going by name BlackBerry. "We are a company that is united in our vision of a mobile company," Heins says of the name change.
10:26 a.m.: Heins introduces RIM founder and former CEO Mike Lazaridis, who receives a huge ovation from the crowd.
10:24 a.m.: "To say we have reinvented this company is simply not enough," Heins says of RIM's evolution. He says new operating system built from the ground up, with stronger emphasis on content and apps.
10:21 a.m.: Heins says focus for BlackBerry 10 is to help users stay hyper-connected socially as well as maintaining a balance between their personal and professional lives. "BlackBerry 10 will keep them moving," Heins says, adding devices make jump to "true mobile computing."
10:18 a.m.: "We have definitely been on a journey of transformation," says Heins, who took over as CEO nearly a year ago. "I know innovation is at the heart of RIM," he says of the opportunity to lead RIM.
10:17 a.m.: The "#1 BlackBerry Fanboy" just cut some of his hair off due to his enthusiasm for the device. I think we get it, RIM. Everyone is thrilled.
Finally, Thorsten Heins, RIM President and CEO, takes the stage.
10:15 a.m.: Yet another video montage about the greatness of BlackBerry. If you're keeping score online, that's 3 video montages to zero phones unveiled.
Rapper Lil E is apparently so excited for the launch that he created a song called "No Sleep 'Til BlackBerry 10." RIM might be a wee bit excited about this launch.
10:12 a.m.: Alec Saunders, RIM's vice president of developer relations, talks about the behind-the-scenes action on BlackBerry 10. He says company has seen "huge groundswell of support" for the operating system.
10:09 a.m.: We've got another montage, CEOs, entrepreneurs and others from around the world talk about BlackBerry 10's perks. Interface definitely looks sleeker compared to earlier models. It seems more in line with contemporary smartphones.
10:07 a.m.: A RIM host conducts a quick global roll call, checking in on launch events in London, Paris and Dubai. Let's see some phones!
10:05 a.m.: The video montage begins. "One device for work and play" is the theme. Re-designed and re-invented used often.
Update at 10:03 a.m. ET: Naturally, RIM is running late. Hope to have updates soon.
Our original story
Research in Motion is getting ready to reveal arguably its most important lineup of smartphones: the BlackBerry 10 line.
As competition heats up from companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung, the maker of the former #1 smartphone seeks a rebound with its latest BlackBerry.
What will RIM reveal? Stay here for the latest updates from the event starting at 10 a.m. ET. If you can access video, RIM is also hosting a webcast of their event.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/VvFk3C |
Hot_Bid Profile Joined October 2003 Braavos 96 Posts #1
The action starts already on Wednesday 24th of September Live from the Monster Energy DreamHack Studios where Janne “Savjz” Mikkonen, Daniel “Artosis” Stemkoski & Dan “Frodan” Chou will host the live stream on DreamHack Stockholm 2014 takes place at Stockholm Globe Arenas, Sweden from September 26-27. We’re excited to announce the groups for the European Hearthstone Finals—sponsored by Razer—that will be held at the event in the magnificent Ericsson Globe. This week, these players will pit their skills against each other to earn a place and their shot at a share of the $250,000 prize pool up for grabs at BlizzCon! Come to DreamHack Stockholm and be sure to tune in to meet and see some of the biggest stars of Hearthstone.The action starts already on Wednesday 24th of September Live from the Monster Energy DreamHack Studios where Janne “Savjz” Mikkonen, Daniel “Artosis” Stemkoski & Dan “Frodan” Chou will host the live stream on www.twitch.tv/playhearthstone . On Friday 26th September and Saturday 27 September the tournament is held on location on DreamHack Stockholm at the Ericsson Globe. Be sure to follow @DreamHack and @PlayHearthstone on Twitter, and www.dreamhack.se for all news on the 2014 European Hearthstone Qualifier Tournament!
Group A
InnNumberguy vs Neirea
Kaor vs Max
Group B
ThijsNL vs Greensheep
Lowelo: vs Matthew
Group C
Frezzar vs CupCake
Reynad vs MrYagut
Group D
Lifecoach vs thefishou
TheFallen vs Kolento
Full competitors and source:
http://www.dreamhack.se/stockholm14/2014/09/22/hearthstone-the-groups/
InnNumberguy vsNeireaKaor vsMaxThijsNL vsGreensheepLowelo: vsMatthewFrezzar vsCupCakeReynad vsMrYagutLifecoach vsthefishouTheFallen vsKolentoFull competitors and source: @Hot_Bid on Twitter - ESPORTS life since 2010 - http://i.imgur.com/U2psw.png
Solmyr Profile Joined April 2008 Poland 1885 Posts #2 Thank god we don't have a group X: Kolento,Reynad,Neirea,ThijsNL .
Eggi Profile Joined December 2012 325 Posts #3 Top 2 go to blizzcon right?(or top4?)
Either way top4 picks:
1. Kolento
2. Numberguy
3. Frezzar
4. Wild Card b/w Neira/ThijsNL or Greensheep
Circumstance Profile Joined March 2014 United States 542 Posts #4 On September 23 2014 02:55 Eggi wrote:
Top 2 go to blizzcon right?(or top4?)
Either way top4 picks:
1. Kolento
2. Numberguy
3. Frezzar
4. Wild Card b/w Neira/ThijsNL or Greensheep
Top 4. Dual tournament groups followed by a "bracket". Top 4. Dual tournament groups followed by a "bracket". The world is better when every background has a chance.
ZerGGling Profile Joined November 2012 13 Posts #5 Reynad Hype Who the hell do you think I am?!; Go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb! (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)
Lenguastica Profile Joined August 2014 Canada 29 Posts #6 Wow, sucks for team Innovation. First, Theude can't attend and then the remaining members are in the same group.
Pcgamer72 Profile Joined July 2011 United States 1 Post #7 Anyone know what games are being played on Wednesday?
Circumstance Profile Joined March 2014 United States 542 Posts #8 On September 23 2014 06:47 Lenguastica wrote:
Wow, sucks for team Innovation. First, Theude can't attend and then the remaining members are in the same group.
In a way, being in the same group is almost better. If they both advance, then they won't have to play each other for a single Blizzcon spot. It does suck about Theude though. In a way, being in the same group is almost better. If they both advance, then they won't have to play each other for a single Blizzcon spot. It does suck about Theude though. The world is better when every background has a chance.
Shoxy Profile Joined June 2011 28 Posts #9 reynad go this easy
Paragleiber Profile Joined June 2009 295 Posts #10 Really sad that two people have to drop out after they made it this far. Also both were people who went 5:0 in the previous stage. Anyone knows what the reason for Theude is? I think I read Noisyboy can't get time off work during the week. http://www.twitter.com/Paragleiber
Cipher1250 Profile Joined May 2012 United Kingdom 20 Posts #11 Anyone knows what the reason for Theude is?
Thuede cant go due to a medical problem =(....So sad for Numberguy and Neirea meeting in the first round, they had been practising together all week and but now instead of working together they have to keep their decklist's secret and find other practice partners. I guess you when you play hearthstone you get used to the 14/15 RNG never going your way =( Thuede cant go due to a medical problem =(....So sad for Numberguy and Neirea meeting in the first round, they had been practising together all week and but now instead of working together they have to keep their decklist's secret and find other practice partners. I guess you when you play hearthstone you get used to the 14/15 RNG never going your way =( When behind.... DARK SHRINE
Kaldi Profile Joined July 2012 Iceland 3 Posts #12 On September 23 2014 02:55 Eggi wrote:
Top 2 go to blizzcon right?(or top4?)
Either way top4 picks:
1. Kolento
2. Numberguy
3. Frezzar
4. Wild Card b/w Neira/ThijsNL or Greensheep
This sounds about right.Mr Yagut is really good, think he´ll make it through aswell. This sounds about right.Mr Yagut is really good, think he´ll make it through aswell.
Undead1993 Profile Joined January 2012 Germany 953 Posts #13
good guy neirea neirea hype just because he is the only one that i added after the match and he accepted out of the prosgood guy neirea SEKO SEKO SEKO SEKO SEKO
Mpl160 Profile Joined June 2014 Spain 54 Posts #14 Go TheFallen and Matthew!! GL HF :D
Kanaz Profile Joined May 2010 Denmark 57 Posts #15 Is this supposed to start in two days?
I can't see it in the calendar.
Undead1993 Profile Joined January 2012 Germany 953 Posts Last Edited: 2014-09-24 00:06:55 #16 On September 24 2014 08:15 Kanaz wrote:
Is this supposed to start in two days?
I can't see it in the calendar.
well that's because it isn't in the calendar. the tournament will start today with the group stage and will continue on friday and conclude on saturday.
as far as i understood it will be streamed from the venue only on friday and saturday. today they will be broadcasting from a smaller studio in stockholm well that's because it isn't in the calendar. the tournament will start today with the group stage and will continue on friday and conclude on saturday.as far as i understood it will be streamed from the venue only on friday and saturday. today they will be broadcasting from a smaller studio in stockholm SEKO SEKO SEKO SEKO SEKO
Drake Profile Joined October 2010 Germany 24 Posts #17 no tournamnet post, no liquipedia nothn ? Nb.Drake / CoL_Drake / Original Joined TL.net Tuesday, 15th of March 2005
leather gracket Profile Joined January 2011 196 Posts Last Edited: 2014-10-01 05:56:02 #18 On September 28 2014 06:06 Drake
no tournamnet post, no liquipedia nothn ? no tournamnet post, no liquipedia nothn ?
ya seriously what happened to this tournament?
I missed it and I just found out about that, but I can't find any news or grids, not here, not liquidpedia, not on another esport site, not even on the dreamhack website wtf.. ya seriously what happened to this tournament?I missed it and I just found out about that, but I can't find any news or grids, not here, not liquidpedia, not on another esport site, not even on the dreamhack website wtf.. |
The warmth and charm of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn't impress Halifax university student Charlotte Kiddell when she questioned him for a special CBC program.
"I was also really disappointed by how much time he spent skirting around questions. He had a lot of empty answers like, 'Oh yeah, I'm looking into that,' and frankly I don't think those are good enough," said Kiddell.
Kiddell is in her final year of a dual English and psychology major at Mount Saint Vincent University. She was selected to take part in a CBC program called Face To Face with the Prime Minister.
The show gathered together 10 Canadians with diverse viewpoints from across the country. They were brought to Ottawa to sit down with Trudeau for 10 minutes and ask him questions about issues that matter to them.
Kiddell asked Trudeau a range of questions, including whether he would end unpaid internships, and what can be done to help recent graduates find jobs when the economy is bad.
Charlotte Kiddell is a Halifax university student who was one of 10 people selected to take part in a one-on-one conversation with Prime Minster Justin Trudeau. Kiddell (bottom left) is seen here with the prime minister and some of the other participants. (CBC)
She said 10 minutes isn't enough time to understand the struggles many Canadians face.
"If he truly deeply cared about these conversations about what Canadians are going through, the meeting wouldn't have been 10 minutes, it would have been much longer."
Kiddell, 24, was selected to take part in the sit-down with the prime minister because of her work with the Canadian Federation of Students.
She said CBC contacted the federation looking for students who were passionate and well spoken, and who wouldn't mind talking with Trudeau. The federation selected Kiddell, and she gladly accepted.
Despite her criticism, Kiddell said meeting Trudeau wasn't all bad.
"It was amazing, it was very exciting, I'm very pleased that Justin Trudeau was open, open to this kind of exchange, it's certainly different from what we've seen from governments in the past," she said. "That said, it was still a very limited interaction." |
History of computer vision contests won by deep CNNs on GPU
Jürgen Schmidhuber (pronounce: you_again shmidhoobuh )
The Swiss AI Lab, IDSIA (USI & SUPSI), March 2017
Modern computer vision since 2011 relies on deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) [4] efficiently implemented [18b] on massively parallel graphics processing units (GPUs). Table 1 below lists important international computer vision competitions (with official submission deadlines) won by deep GPU-CNNs, ordered by date, with a focus on those contests that brought "Deep Learning Firsts" and/or major improvements over previous best or second best:
Background: GPUs were originally developed for the video game industry. But they can also be used to speed up artificial neural networks (NNs), as shown in 2004 [1]. Nevertheless, until 2010, many researchers thought that one cannot train deep NNs by plain backpropagation, the popular technique published in 1970 [5, 5a-c, 6].
Why not? Because of the fundamental deep learning problem identified in 1991 by my very first student Sepp Hochreiter [2c]: In typical deep or recurrent networks, back-propagated error signals either grow or decay exponentially in the number of layers.
That's why many scientists thought that NNs have to be pre-trained by unsupervised learning - something that I did first for general purpose deep recurrent NNs in 1991 (my first very deep learner) [2,2a], and that others did for less general feedforward NNs in 2006 [2b] (in 2008 also on GPU [1b]).
In 2010, however, our team at IDSIA (Dan Ciresan et al [18]) showed that GPUs can be used to train deep standard supervised NNs by plain backpropagation [5], achieving a speedup of 50 over CPUs, and breaking the long-standing famous MNIST benchmark record [18] (using pattern distortions [15b]). This really was all about GPUs - no novel NN techniques were necessary, no unsupervised pre-training, only decades-old stuff. One of the reviewers called this a "wake-up call" to the machine learning community, which quickly adopted the method.
In 2011, we extended [18b-d] this approach to convolutional NNs (CNNs) [4,1a], making GPU-CNNs 60 times faster [18b] than CPU-based CNNs. This became the basis for a whole series of victories in computer vision contests (see Table 1). Today, the world's most famous IT companies are heavily using this technique.
In particular, in 2011, our team created the first pure, deep GPU-CNNs to win international pattern recognition contests [18c-e,19]. The first event won by our GPU-CNNs was the Chinese handwriting recognition contest at ICDAR 2011 [18e] - very important for all those cell phone makers who want to build smartphones that can read signs and restaurant menus in foreign languages.
This attracted a lot of industry attention - it became clear that this was the way forward in computer vision. In particular, Apple hired one of our award-winning team. (Some people think that Apple came late to the deep learning GPU-CNN party, but no, they got active as soon as this became commercially relevant.)
Less than 3 months later, in August 2011 in Silicon Valley, our ensemble of GPU-CNNs achieved the first superhuman pattern recognition result in the history of computer vision [18c-d,19]. Our system was twice better than humans, three times better than the closest artificial competitor (from NYU), and six times better than the best non-neural method.
And then it kept winning those contests with larger and larger images, as shown in Table 1 (compare Kurzweil AI interview of 2012).
Table 1 also reflects that IDSIA's team had the first neural network to win an image segmentation contest (Mar 2012) [20d,20d+], the first NN to win a contest on object detection in large images (10 Sep 2012) [20a,c], the first to win medical imaging contests in general, and the first to win cancer detection contests in particular (Mitosis Detection in Breast Cancer Histological Images, 2012 & 2013) [20a-c]. Our fast CNN image scanners were over 1000 times faster than previous methods [20e].
Today, many startups as well as established companies such as IBM & Google are using such deep GPU-CNNs for healthcare applications (note that healthcare makes up 10% of the world's GDP).
We did not participate in ImageNet competitions, focusing instead on challenging contests with larger images (ISBI 2012, ICPR 2012, MICCAI 2013, see Table 1). However, Univ. Toronto [19b] pointed out that their ImageNet 2012 winner (see Table 1) is similar to our IJCNN 2011 winner [19], and Microsoft's ImageNet 2015 winner [12] of Dec 2015 (Table 1) uses the principle of our "highway networks" [11] of May 2015, the first very deep feedforward networks with hundreds of layers, based on the LSTM principle [8].
(Table 1 does not list contests won through combinations of CNNs and other techniques such as Support Vector Machines and Bag of Features, e.g., the 2009 TRECVID competitions [21, 22]. It also does not include benchmark records broken outside of contests with concrete deadlines, e.g., [19].)
We never needed any of the popular NN regularisers, which tend to improve error rates by at most a few percent, which pales against the dramatic improvements brought by sheer GPU computing power.
We used the GPUs of NVIDIA, which rebranded itself as a deep learning company during the period covered by the competitions in Table 1. BTW, thanks to NVIDIA and its CEO Jensen H. Huang (see image above) for our 2016 NN Pioneers of AI Award, and for generously funding our research!
Most of the major IT companies such as Facebook are now using such deep GPU-CNNs for image recognition and a multitude of other applications [22]. Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel maker, worked with us to greatly improve steel defect detection [3].
However, long before our feedforward GPU-CNNs started winning competitions in 2011, our CTC-trained Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) [8,9,10,10a] became the first general purpose recurrent NN to win competitions, namely, three ICDAR 2009 Connected Handwriting Competitions (French, Farsi, Arabic). Today, LSTM is heavily used for natural language processing, image captioning, speech recognition and generation, chatbots, smart assistants, prediction, etc. Remarkably, LSTM concepts also keep invading CNN territory [11-12], also through GPU-friendly multi-dimensional LSTMs such as PyraMiD-LSTM [23].
We are proud that our deep learning methods developed since 1991 have transformed machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and are now available to billions of users through the world's four most valuable public companies: Apple (#1 as of March 31, 2017), Google (Alphabet, #2), Microsoft (#3), and Amazon (#4).
References
[1] Oh, K.-S. and Jung, K. (2004). GPU implementation of neural networks. Pattern Recognition, 37(6):1311-1314. [Speeding up traditional NNs on GPU by a factor of 20.]
[1a] K. Chellapilla, S. Puri, P. Simard. High performance convolutional neural networks for document processing. International Workshop on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition, 2006. [Speeding up shallow CNNs on GPU by a relatively small factor of 4.]
[1b] Raina, R., Madhavan, A., and Ng, A. (2009). Large-scale deep unsupervised learning using graphics processors. In Proceedings of the 26th Annual International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), pages 873-880. ACM. Based on a NIPS 2008 workshop paper.
[2] Schmidhuber, J. (1992). Learning complex, extended sequences using the principle of history compression. Neural Computation, 4(2):234-242. Based on TR FKI-148-91, TUM, 1991. More.
[2a] J. Schmidhuber. Habilitation thesis, TUM, 1993. PDF. An ancient experiment with credit assignment across 1200 time steps or virtual layers and unsupervised pre-training for a stack of recurrent NNs can be found here.
[2b] G. E. Hinton, R. R. Salakhutdinov. Reducing the dimensionality of data with neural networks. Science, Vol. 313. no. 5786, pp. 504 - 507, 2006.
[2c] S. Hochreiter. Untersuchungen zu dynamischen neuronalen Netzen. Diploma thesis, TU Munich, in J. Schmidhuber's lab, 1991.
[3] J. Masci, U. Meier, D. Ciresan, G. Fricout, J. Schmidhuber. Steel Defect Classification with Max-Pooling Convolutional Neural Networks. Proc. IJCNN 2012.
[4] Fukushima's CNN architecture [13] (1979) (with Max-Pooling [14], 1993) is trained [6] in the shift-invariant 1D case [15a] or 2D case [15, 16, 17] by Linnainmaa's automatic differentiation or backpropagation algorithm of 1970 [5] (extending earlier work in control theory [5a-c]).
[5] Linnainmaa, S. (1970). The representation of the cumulative rounding error of an algorithm as a Taylor expansion of the local rounding errors. Master's thesis, Univ. Helsinki. (See also BIT Numerical Mathematics, 16(2):146-160, 1976.)
[5a] Kelley, H. J. (1960). Gradient theory of optimal flight paths. ARS Journal, 30(10):947-954.
[5b] Bryson, A. E. (1961). A gradient method for optimizing multi-stage allocation processes. In Proc. Harvard Univ. Symposium on digital computers and their applications.
[5c] Dreyfus, S. E. (1962). The numerical solution of variational problems. Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, 5(1):30-45.
[6] Werbos, P. J. (1982). Applications of advances in nonlinear sensitivity analysis. In Proceedings of the 10th IFIP Conference, 31.8 - 4.9, NYC, pp. 762-770. (Extending thoughts in his 1974 thesis.)
[8] Hochreiter, S. and Schmidhuber, J. (1997). Long Short-Term Memory. Neural Computation, 9(8):1735-1780. Based on TR FKI-207-95, TUM (1995). More.
[9] Gers, F. A., Schmidhuber, J., and Cummins, F. (2000). Learning to forget: Continual prediction with LSTM. Neural Computation, 12(10):2451-2471.
[10] Graves, A., Fernandez, S., Gomez, F. J., and Schmidhuber, J. (2006). Connectionist temporal classification: Labelling unsegmented sequence data with recurrent neural nets. Proc. ICML'06, pp. 369-376.
[10a] A. Graves, M. Liwicki, S. Fernandez, R. Bertolami, H. Bunke, J. Schmidhuber. A Novel Connectionist System for Improved Unconstrained Handwriting Recognition. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 31, no. 5, 2009.
[11] Srivastava, R. K., Greff, K., Schmidhuber, J. Highway networks. Preprints arXiv:1505.00387 (May 2015) and arXiv:1507.06228 (Jul 2015). Also at NIPS'2015. The first working very deep feedforward nets with over 100 layers. Let g, t, h, denote non-linear differentiable functions. Each non-input layer of a highway net computes g(x)x + t(x)h(x), where x is the data from the previous layer. (Like LSTM [8] with forget gates [9] for RNNs.) Resnets [12] are a special case of this where g(x)=t(x)=const=1.
[12] He, K., Zhang, X., Ren, S., Sun, J. Deep residual learning for image recognition. Preprint arXiv:1512.03385 (Dec 2015). Residual nets [12] are a special case of highway nets [11], with g(x)=1 (a typical highway net initialisation) and t(x)=1.
[13] K. Fukushima. Neocognitron: A self-organizing neural network model for a mechanism of pattern recognition unaffected by shift in position. Biological Cybernetics, 36(4): 193-202, 1980. Scholarpedia.
[14] Weng, J., Ahuja, N., and Huang, T. S. (1993). Learning recognition and segmentation of 3-D objects from 2-D images. Proc. 4th Intl. Conf. Computer Vision, Berlin, Germany, pp. 121-128.
[15b] Baird, H. (1990). Document image defect models. In Proc. IAPR Workshop on Syntactic and Structural Pattern Recognition, Murray Hill, NJ.
[15a] A. Waibel, T. Hanazawa, G. Hinton, K. Shikano, K. J. Lang. Phoneme Recognition using Time-Delay Neural Networks. ATR Tech report, 1987. (Also in IEEE TNN, 1989.)
[15] Y. LeCun, B. Boser, J. S. Denker, D. Henderson, R. E. Howard, W. Hubbard, L. D. Jackel: Backpropagation Applied to Handwritten Zip Code Recognition, Neural Computation, 1(4):541-551, 1989.
[16] M. A. Ranzato, Y. LeCun: A Sparse and Locally Shift Invariant Feature Extractor Applied to Document Images. Proc. ICDAR, 2007
[17] D. Scherer, A. Mueller, S. Behnke. Evaluation of pooling operations in convolutional architectures for object recognition. In Proc. ICANN 2010.
[18] Ciresan, D. C., Meier, U., Gambardella, L. M., and Schmidhuber, J. (2010). Deep big simple neural nets for handwritten digit recognition. Neural Computation, 22(12):3207-3220.
[18b] D. C. Ciresan, U. Meier, J. Masci, L. M. Gambardella, J. Schmidhuber. Flexible, High Performance Convolutional Neural Networks for Image Classification. International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-2011, Barcelona), 2011. [Speeding up deep CNNs on GPU by a factor of 60. Basis of all our computer vision contest winners since 2011.]
[18c] D. C. Ciresan, U. Meier, J. Masci, J. Schmidhuber. A Committee of Neural Networks for Traffic Sign Classification. International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN-2011, San Francisco), 2011.
[18d] Results of 2011 IJCNN traffic sign recognition contest
[18e] Results of 2011 ICDAR Chinese handwriting recognition competition: WWW site, PDF.
[19] Ciresan, D. C., Meier, U., and Schmidhuber, J. (2012c). Multi-column deep neural networks for image classification. Proc. CVPR, June 2012. Long preprint arXiv:1202.2745v1 [cs.CV], February 2012.
[19b] A. Krizhevsky, I. Sutskever, G. E. Hinton. ImageNet Classification with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks. NIPS 25, MIT Press, December 2012.
[20a] Results of 2012 ICPR cancer detection contest
[20b] Results of 2013 MICCAI Grand Challenge (cancer detection)
[20c] D. C. Ciresan, A. Giusti, L. M. Gambardella, J. Schmidhuber. Mitosis Detection in Breast Cancer Histology Images using Deep Neural Networks. MICCAI 2013.
[20d] D. Ciresan, A. Giusti, L. Gambardella, J. Schmidhuber. Deep Neural Networks Segment Neuronal Membranes in Electron Microscopy Images. NIPS 2012, Lake Tahoe, 2012.
[20d+] I. Arganda-Carreras, S. C. Turaga, D. R. Berger, D. Ciresan, A. Giusti, L. M. Gambardella, J. Schmidhuber, D. Laptev, S. Dwivedi, J. M. Buhmann, T. Liu, M. Seyedhosseini, T. Tasdizen, L. Kamentsky, R. Burget, V. Uher, X. Tan, C. Sun, T. Pham, E. Bas, M. G. Uzunbas, A. Cardona, J. Schindelin, H. S. Seung. Crowdsourcing the creation of image segmentation algorithms for connectomics. Front. Neuroanatomy, November 2015.
[20e] J. Masci, A. Giusti, D. Ciresan, G. Fricout, J. Schmidhuber. A Fast Learning Algorithm for Image Segmentation with Max-Pooling Convolutional Networks. ICIP 2013. Preprint arXiv:1302.1690.
[21] Ji, S., Xu, W., Yang, M., and Yu, K. (2013). 3D convolutional neural networks for human action recognition. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 35(1):221-231.
[22] Schmidhuber, J. (2015). Deep learning in neural networks: An overview. Neural Networks, 61, 85-117. More. Short version at Scholarpedia.
[23] M. Stollenga, W. Byeon, M. Liwicki, J. Schmidhuber. Parallel Multi-Dimensional LSTM, with Application to Fast Biomedical Volumetric Image Segmentation. NIPS 2015; arxiv:1506.07452.
Fibonacci web design © Jürgen Schmidhuber |
Recently released research on human evolution has revealed that species of early human ancestors had significant differences in facial features. Now, a University of Missouri researcher and her international team of colleagues have found that these early human species also differed throughout other parts of their skeletons and had distinct body forms. The research team found 1.9 million-year-old pelvis and femur fossils of an early human ancestor in Kenya, revealing greater diversity in the human family tree than scientists previously thought.
"What these new fossils are telling us is that the early species of our genus, Homo, were more distinctive than we thought. They differed not only in their faces and jaws, but in the rest of their bodies too," said Carol Ward, a professor of pathology and anatomical sciences in the MU School of Medicine. "The old depiction of linear evolution from ape to human with single steps in between is proving to be inaccurate. We are finding that evolution seemed to be experimenting with different human physical traits in different species before ending up with Homo sapiens."
Three early species belonging to the genus Homo have been identified prior to modern humans, or Homo sapiens. Homo rudolfensis and Homo habilis were the earliest versions, followed by Homo erectus and then Homo sapiens. Because the oldest erectus fossils that have been found are only 1.8 million years old, and have different bone structure than the new fossil, Ward and her research team conclude that the fossils they have discovered are either rudolfensis or habilis. Ward says these fossils show a diversity in the physical structures of human ancestors that has not been seen before.
"This new specimen has a hip joint like all other Homo species, but it also has a thinner pelvis and thighbone compared to Homo erectus," Ward said. "This doesn't necessarily mean that these early human ancestors moved or lived differently, but it does suggest that they were a distinct species that could have been identified not just from looking at their faces and jaws, but by seeing their body shapes as well. Our new fossils, along with the other new specimens reported over the past few weeks, tell us that the evolution of our genus goes back much earlier than we thought, and that many species and types of early humans coexisted for about a million years before our ancestors became the only Homo species left."
A small piece of the fossil femur was first discovered in 1980 at the Koobi Fora site in Kenya. Project co-investigator Meave Leakey returned to the site with her team in 2009 and uncovered the rest of the same femur and matching pelvis, proving that both fossils belonged to the same individual 1.9 million years ago.
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Ward's co-investigators include recent MU graduate Ashley Hammond of Stony Brook University, current MU graduate student Elizabeth Moffett, geologist Craig Feibel from Rutgers University, Louise and Meave Leakey of the Turkana Basin Institute and Stony Brook University, Michael Plavcan of the University of Arkansas, Matthew Skinner of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and Fred Spoor of the University College London. The fossils are housed at the National Museums of Kenya.
This study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution. |
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the circumstances of another U.S. drone attack in Yemen, in 2002. The article indicated that a U.S. citizen killed in an attack targeting al-Qaeda operative Abu Ali al-Harithi was also a target. The CIA knew the second man was in Harithi’s vehicle, but he was not a target. This version has been updated.
The Justice Department wrote a secret memorandum authorizing the lethal targeting of Anwar al-Aulaqi, the American-born radical cleric who was killed by a U.S. drone strike Friday, according to administration officials.
The document was produced following a review of the legal issues raised by striking a U.S. citizen and involved senior lawyers from across the administration. There was no dissent about the legality of killing Aulaqi, the officials said.
“What constitutes due process in this case is a due process in war,” said one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss closely held deliberations within the administration.
The administration has faced a legal challenge and public criticism for targeting Aulaqi, who was born in New Mexico, because of constitutional protections afforded U.S. citizens. The memorandum may represent an attempt to resolve, at least internally, a legal debate over whether a president can order the killing of U.S. citizens overseas as a counterterrorism measure.
The operation to kill Aulaqi involved CIA and military assets under CIA control. A former senior intelligence official said that the CIA would not have killed an American without such a written opinion.
A second American killed in Friday’s attack was Samir Khan, a driving force behind Inspire, the English-language magazine produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. An administration official said the CIA did not know Khan was with Aulaqi, but they also considered Khan a belligerent whose presence near the target would not have stopped the attack.
The circumstances of Khan’s death were reminiscent of a 2002 U.S. drone strike in Yemen that targeted Abu Ali al-Harithi, a Yemeni al-Qaeda operative accused of planning the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. That strike also killed a U.S. citizen who the CIA knew was in Harithi’s vehicle but who was not a target of the attack.
The Obama administration has spoken in broad terms about its authority to use military and paramilitary force against al-Qaeda and associated forces beyond “hot,” or traditional, battlefields such as Iraq or Afghanistan. Officials said that certain belligerents aren’t shielded because of their citizenship.
“As a general matter, it would be entirely lawful for the United States to target high-level leaders of enemy forces, regardless of their nationality, who are plotting to kill Americans both under the authority provided by Congress in its use of military force in the armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces as well as established international law that recognizes our right of self-defense,” an administration official said in a statement Friday.
President Obama and various administration officials referred to Aulaqi publicly for the first time Friday as the “external operations” chief for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a label that may be intended to underscore his status as an operational leader who posed an imminent threat.
A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The administration officials refused to disclose the exact legal analysis used to authorize targeting Aulaqi, or how they considered any Fifth Amendment right to due process.
Robert Chesney, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in national security law, said the government likely reviewed Aulaqi’s constitutional rights, but concluded that he was an imminent threat and was deliberately hiding in a place where neither the United States nor Yemen could realistically capture him.
Last year, the Obama administration invoked the state secrets privilege to argue successfully for the dismissal of a lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court in Washington by Aulaqi’s father, Nasser, seeking to block the targeting of his son. Judge John Bates found that in Aulaqi’s case, targeting was a “political question” to be decided by the executive branch.
The decision to place Aulaqi on a capture or kill list was made in early 2010, after intelligence officials concluded that he played a direct role in the plot to blow up a jet over Detroit and had become an operational figure within al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.
“If you are a dual national high in the Japanese operational group responsible for Pearl Harbor, you’re not exempt, and neither was” Aulaqi, the administration official said.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights argued on behalf of Aulaqi’s father last year that there is no “battlefield” in Yemen and that the administration should be forced to articulate publicly its legal standards for killing any citizen outside the United States who is suspected of terrorism.
Otherwise, the groups argued, such a killing would amount to an extrajudicial execution and would violate U.S. and international law.
“International human rights law dictates that you can’t unilaterally target someone and kill someone without that person posing an imminent threat to security interests,” said Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. “The information that we have, from the government’s own press releases, is that he is somehow loosely connected, but there is no specific evidence of things he actualized that would meet the legal threshold for making this killing justifiable as a matter of human rights law.”
ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said that Aulaqi had been targeted for nearly two years and that the government would appear to have a very elastic definition of imminent threat.
The former senior intelligence official said the CIA did reviews every six months to ensure that those targeted for possible killing remained threats as defined by law and presidential findings.
The administration describes al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as an associated force of the original terrorist group that was led by Osama bin Laden until he was killed, making AQAP subject to congressionally authorized military force. Officials said Aulaqi was part of an enemy force and posed an ongoing, immediate danger.
Staff writer Mary Beth Sheridan and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report. |
Even so, the win is another jolt of momentum for the Vermont senator heading into the critical New York primary on April 19.
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Sanders's victory follows rising tensions between the two candidates after he questioned Clinton's qualifications to run for president, a remark that snowballed into a weeklong dispute.
He said Wednesday that her super-PAC support, Iraq War vote and support of trade agreements made her unqualified. The campaign doubled down a day later, arguing that Clinton and her allies had insinuated that Sanders himself wasn't qualified to run, but she brushed aside those accusations.
The argument appeared to die down Friday when Sanders said that "of course" Clinton is qualified.
Entering Saturday, Clinton led the race with 1,280 pledged delegates to Sanders’s 1,030, according to The Associated Press.
In addition, Clinton has 469 superdelegates to Sanders's 31. |
A student women’s conference has asked its attendees not to clap as it causes anxiety, and instead urged the participants to wave “jazz hands.” The request caused a Twitter storm, with many mocking the decision as political correctness going overboard.
The clapping “ban” was declared by the National Union of Students (NUS) Women’s Campaign on Twitter, following a request by Oxford University, also on the social network.
It was in the framework of the annual Women’s Conference, which began on Tuesday.
“@nuswomcam please can we ask people to stop clapping but do feminist jazz hands? it’s triggering some peoples’ anxiety. thank you!” the tweet read.
@nuswomcam please can we ask people to stop clapping but do feminist jazz hands? it's triggering some peoples' anxiety. thank you! — OUSUWomen'sCampaign (@womcam) March 24, 2015
Five minutes later, NUS tweeted that about some delegates “requesting that we move to jazz hands rather than clapping, as it’s triggering anxiety” and urged the attendees to “be mindful”.
Some delegates are requesting that we move to jazz hands rather than clapping, as it's triggering anxiety. Please be mindful! #nuswomen15 — NUS Women's Campaign (@nuswomcam) March 24, 2015
Earlier in the day, NUS had posted a warning about “whooping”.
Whooping is fun for some, but can be super inaccessible for others, so please try not to whoop! Jazz hands work just as well #nuswomen15 — NUS Women's Campaign (@nuswomcam) March 24, 2015
"The request was made by some delegates attending the conference. We strive to make NUS events accessible and enjoyable for all, so each request is considered," an NUS spokesperson said.
The move triggered criticism and mockery, with many arguing that it was taking political correctness too far.
@nuswomcam@Little_G2 hi, jazz hands can be triggering because of the quick movement of the hands. I vote blinking rapidly instead. Thanks — Book Geek (@BookGeek_T) March 24, 2015
.@nuswomcam Terribly insensitive to people who don't like jazz, isn't it? — Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) March 24, 2015
However, some supported the step, telling BBC’s Newsbeat that waving jazz hands, the practice of waving your hands over your head popularized by the Occupy movement, was “a nice way to show solidarity.”
“Jazz hands are used throughout NUS in place of clapping as a way to show appreciation of someone’s point without interrupting or causing disturbance, as it can create anxiety,” Nona Buckley-Irvine, general secretary at the London School of Economics Students’ Union, said, the Washington Times reported.
If people clapping... literally clapping... "triggers" your anxiety, you are in for a lifetime of hurt. — RB (@RBPundit) March 24, 2015
“I’m relatively new to this and it did feel odd at first, but once you’ve used jazz hands a couple of times it becomes a genuinely nice way to show solidarity with a point and it does add to creating a more inclusive atmosphere,” she said.
Clapping was not the only thing that caused issues for participants at the event, though.
One claimed that murmuring was "making things inaccessible," leading the NUS to issue an edict banning "chat" and "whooping." |
Someone has taken a violent dislike to Florida's iconic brown pelicans.
In the Florida Keys over the past six weeks, more than a dozen pelicans have turned up with their pouches slashed, left to die of starvation.
"It is heartbreaking to see," said Maya Trotman, director of Florida Keys Wildlife Rescue, which has dispatched volunteers to try to find any more maimed pelicans still flying around.
Meanwhile, in the Jacksonville area this past weekend, 18 pelicans washed ashore along a 40-mile stretch of beach with fractured wings, the bones sticking out. Ten are dead, and the rest will never fly again.
"It's so horrible. … It looks like somebody took a ball bat and just smashed the heck out of them," said Cindy Mosling, co-founder of the Bird Emergency Aid & Kare Sanctuary (BEAKS for short) on Big Talbot Island near Jacksonville, which is taking care of the eight survivors.
Pelicans are not on the endangered species list, but like most seabirds and shorebirds they are still protected from harm by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Neither the injuries suffered near Jacksonville nor the ones in the Keys were an accident, say wildlife officials and bird rehabilitation experts. The sheer number of injured pelicans proves that, as well as the manner in which they were attacked. For instance, Trotman said the slash wounds on the pelicans found on Cudjoe Key and from Sugarloaf Key to Big Pine Key appeared to have been inflicted by someone "with a sharp knife."
How could someone maul or mutilate a bird that's always such a delight for picture-snapping tourists? Some suspect it's because pelicans can also be a bane to anglers, snatching their bait and getting caught on their hooks.
Wildlife officials emphasize that they are still investigating. They are also hoping the public will report seeing anything suspicious.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information on each of the two pelican attacks. A dock construction company that uses a pelican in its logo has put up a $5,000 reward for information about the slashed pelicans in the Keys. And Mosling said BEAKS plans to offer a reward for information on whoever beat up their pelicans.
This is not the first time pelicans have been targets of violence in the Keys. In December 2013, several pelicans were found with their pouches slit, and no one was ever apprehended and the attacks stopped — until recently.
Incidents of wildlife cruelty in the past six months have included a teenager who shot a dolphin with a bow and arrow and someone who shot a pregnant female dolphin with a gun. That second case remains under investigation.
Information from the Miami Herald was used in this report. Craig Pittman can be reached at [email protected] Follow @craigtimes. |
(CNN) -- The announced pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears -- the 16-year-old children's television star and younger sister of beleaguered pop star Britney Spears -- is casting new light on how states deal with the thorny issue of consensual sex among teens.
Jamie Lynn Spears, shown in September, stars in the popular Nickelodeon series "Zoey 101."
Spears, the star of Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," told OK! Magazine that she's pregnant and that the father is her 18-year-old boyfriend.
There has been no public talk of criminal prosecution in the case. Consensual sex between the two may well have been legal, depending on where and when it took place.
But critics of the nation's statutory rape laws say that laws that are ignored in some cases can be used to put other teens in prison and land them on sex-offender registries. Watch CNN's Sunny Hostin on what the law says »
"You have a disturbing disparity in how these laws are enforced," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. "I have no problem at all with nailing adults who sleep with children, but I have a problem with the prosecution of teenagers in consensual relationships.
"What this case should focus the nation on is having a more evenhanded approach to these cases." Watch a psychologist talk about how Spears' pregnancy could lead to parents talking to their kids about sex »
In Louisiana, where Spears lives, it is a misdemeanor for someone age 17 to 19 to have consensual sex with someone age 15 to 17 if the difference between their ages is more than two years.
Out in the Open A look at how state laws differ regarding teen sex are brought "Out in the Open"
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In California, where she sometimes tapes her television show, it's a misdemeanor to have sex with someone younger than 18 if the offender is less than three years older. Someone more than three years older could be charged with a felony.
According to OK! Magazine, which first reported the news Tuesday, Spears said the father of her baby is longtime boyfriend Casey Aldridge.
Turley said most states have similar laws but rely on prosecutors to be selective in enforcing them. But that's a recipe for legal problems, he said.
The issue drew international attention when a Georgia teen was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.
In 2005, Genarlow Wilson was tried for the rape of a 17-year-old girl at a hotel-room party. While he was found not guilty of that charge, he was convicted of aggravated child molestation for the act with the 15-year-old -- even though he was less than two years older.
Georgia law, which has since been changed, required a mandatory 10-year sentence on the charge of aggravated child molestation and required Wilson to register as a sex offender when he was released. Under the revised Georgia law, the act now would be a misdemeanor.
Now 21, Wilson was released from prison in October -- after serving more than two years -- when the state Supreme Court ruled his sentence was "grossly disproportionate to his crime."
"The current laws leave too much to prosecutorial discretion," Turley said. "We saw in the Wilson case how prosecutorial discretion can lead to grotesque results."
He said statutory rape prosecutions of teens are more common in Southern states and small towns than they are elsewhere in the country or in big cities.
B.J. Bernstein, Wilson's attorney, argued throughout his case that Wilson was imprisoned for an act that, while perhaps morally questionable, probably is going on among teens everywhere.
"If you prosecuted, even with misdemeanors, all those cases, you'd clog up the justice system with kids having sex," she said. "It's a social issue -- and it may be something that parents don't want to happen or wish wouldn't happen at that age -- but it shouldn't be a crime."
Spears, who turned 16 on April 4 and says she is 12 weeks into her pregnancy, told the magazine she plans to raise her child in Louisiana, "so it can have a normal family life."
Nickelodeon released a statement saying the network respects Spears' decision "to take responsibility in this sensitive and personal situation." E-mail to a friend
All About Britney Spears • Pregnancy and Childbirth |
Exclusive: AUDL To Terminate Contracts With Connecticut And Rhode Island
According to letters sent late last week, the American Ultimate Disc League has informed two of its first year franchises — the Connecticut Constitution and the Rhode Island Rampage — that their contracts with the AUDL will be terminated on September 21, 2012, if they do not pay league-imposed fines by that date.
Emerson Kilgore, the owner of Rhode Island, has been fined $9,000 for arriving 45 minutes late to two games — one against Philadelphia, the other against Connecticut — and owes the league reimbursement after they paid his referees close to $1000 since he would not pay.
Bryan Ricci, the owner of Connecticut, faces $20,000 in fines for missing two games during the period in which the Constitution suspended their operations and another undisclosed sum for missing the Buffalo game after that, when the AUDL did not allow his team to rejoin the league due to nonpayment on the original fines.
All are the maximum fines allowable under the AUDL Operating Manual (see below).
Josh Moore, the President of the AUDL, speaking with Ultiworld for the first time since July, said, “The teams want these fines collected and it’s our ability to enforce them…We’re just enforcing the rules that are on the books.” All the fines are payable to the negatively affected teams, not the league.
Ricci and Kilgore contest the fines and say they will not pay them. The two owners have been in a legal battle with the league since July over contested franchises in Boston and New York, which fall within a protected 100-mile non-compete radius of the teams’ territories. They say the latest move by Moore is designed to pave the way for the new, bigger market teams to come into the league.
“The reason why [Moore is] doing this is because [AUDL Vice President of Marketing and Detroit Mechanix owner] Brent Steepe wants to get into Boston,” said Kilgore. “I am in the way of that because of what my [Territory Licensing Agreement] says – the 100 mile radius is my territory. He doesn’t want to deal with the lawsuit anymore, he just wants to get rid of us and move forward.”
Moore contests that notion, saying that while “it does open up Boston because the agreements are rescinded at that point,” the “driving reason” for the letter threatening termination is that “Rhode Island was just not running the way it needed to be…We saw nothing from them that showed they were trying to grow the sport locally.”
“Our fines are really based on teams not showing up to the games…,” added Moore. “Regardless of the legal situation, they would have to get settled one way or the other.”
When pressed about why the league was imposing fines on Rhode Island now, rather than at the time of the infractions, Moore said, “Every official needs to get paid…It’s not the timing of It, but that [Kilgore] is saying he won’t pay them.” The fines for late arrivals at games were not addressed.
While the league does have the authority to fine the teams and terminate their TLAs, effectively kicking the teams out of the AUDL, there do not appear to be major implications for the ongoing lawsuit. In the team contracts, the AUDL agreed to not establish new franchises within 100 miles of the teams’ territories for “a period of five consecutive years immediately following the termination of [the] Agreement, regardless of the cause of termination.” [emphasis added]
The teams know this. “Josh and Brent are not going to get away with this,” said Kilgore. “I’m prepared to fight until the very end. I’m basically fighting for principle…If they put a team in Boston, I have legal grounds to go after them, which I’m going to do…If I end up losing it, I can walk away feeling good that I did my best. This is all about principle right now. It has nothing to do with anything else. It’s all about principle.”
And Ricci said, “Yes we will fight in court…We have been in discussion with our attorneys in Michigan and our legal counsel in Connecticut.”
The fines themselves may be contested in court. Ricci has long disagreed with his fines, claiming that the reason he missed games was due to financial constraints caused by the league lawsuit. And Kilgore says that Ricci never requested a fine after Rhode Island arrived late to a Constitution game. Ricci told Ultiworld, “I am not seeking the fine from Rhode Island. That is a league decision.”
Thom Held, co-owner of the Indianapolis Alley Cats, said the league’s decision to threaten a termination of contracts is “just another ill thought maneuver. There are thousands of ways to rectify this to make everyone happy. They’re jeopardizing my investment and everyone else’s investment…It boggles my mind.”
How exactly did we get here? A settlement does seem preferable to both parties, which would avoid costly legal fees.
“We were kicking back and forth different settlement options,” said Moore. “Unfortunately they didn’t come to where we needed to meet in the middle…On the league side, we needed the fines to be paid. We just got to a point where it was clear we weren’t going to agree on anything.”
Barring a surprising development, this probably marks the end of the Constitution and Rampage franchises in the AUDL. But Ricci doesn’t see this as the end of his team.
“We believe that we built our own team without the help of the AUDL,” he said. “And we believe our team has value. We don’t know if there are other leagues out there, but we will continue to operate our team as if we are going to be continuing in operation in some sort of league.” The Constitution name and logo would be kept by the AUDL.
This also marks a time of change for the AUDL.”At this point, it might make more sense for both parties to part ways,” said Moore. “The teams have spent a lot of time in public badmouthing the league…But I don’t wish ill will on either of them and I appreciate their efforts in getting this thing started.”
As for the Boston and New York franchises, there is a lot of legal action still to come. The teams are digging in their heels. “We’re going to continue to fight this in court until [Moore] recognizes the error of his ways,” said Ricci.
Kilgore was even more emphatic.
“I will fight this all the way to the end,” he said. “As draining as this may be, Josh Moore’s gonna remember me. He’s gonna remember me, one way or the other.” |
Third time unlucky for former Giro d’Italia winner; must also pay over €38,000 in fines and costs
Danilo Di Luca has today joined Lance Armstrong in a very select – and dubious – group, being one of the few riders to be handed a lifetime ban from the sport.
The Italian rider was sentenced by the anti-doping court of the Italian Olympic Committee CONI today, receiving the maximum possible suspension for what was his third doping offence.
He was also fined €35,000 and must pay the costs of the doping analysis, set at 3,150 Swiss Francs plus costs of €850.
In October CONI prosecutor Tammaro Maiello had requested the lifetime sanction for the 37 year old rider, and the granting of that means that he will never again race competitively.
Di Luca is one of Italy’s most controversial competitors and a rider who has long been racing under a shadow.
He won the Giro d’Italia in 2007 but was handed a three month ban later that year due to the part he played in the ‘Oil for Drugs’ doping affair.
In July of 2009 he was in hot water again after it was confirmed that he had tested positive twice for the EPO-like substance CERA during that year’s Giro d’Italia. As a result he was handed a two year ban, although this was later reduced to nine months and seven days due to reported cooperation with investigators.
He threw away his chance to finish out his career with some dignity when he underwent an out of competition test on April 29th, three days after he signed for the Vini Fantini-Selle Italia team.
That took place on the same day that it was announced that he would ride the Giro d’Italia one final time. He rode aggressively in the Giro, finishing third into Pescara on stage seven and trying repeatedly to clock up a stage win.
However he was forced out of the race on May 24th while sitting 26th overall. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited laboratory in Köln (Cologne), Germany, which carries out more precise testing than many other labs, had detected the presence of EPO.
He was heard by CONI on September 4th and now his career has run its course. The Pescaran rider, who is nicknamed the Killer, has earned himself that lifetime ban. |
NASHPORT, Ohio -- A couple who held hands at breakfast every morning even after 70 years of marriage have died 15 hours apart.
Helen Felumlee, of Nashport, died at 92 on April 12. Her husband, 91-year-old Kenneth Felumlee, died the next morning.
The couple's eight children say the two had been inseparable since meeting as teenagers, once sharing the bottom of a bunk bed on a ferry rather than sleeping one night apart, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported.
They remained deeply in love until the very end, even eating breakfast together while holding hands, said their daughter, Linda Cody.
"We knew when one went, the other was going to go," she said.
According to Cody, about 12 hours after Helen died, Kenneth looked at his children and said, "Mom's dead."
He quickly began to fade and was surrounded by 24 of his closest family members and friends when he died the next morning.
"He was ready," Cody said. "He just didn't want to leave her here by herself."
The pair had known each other for several years when they eloped in Newport, Ky., across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, on Feb. 20, 1944. At two days shy of his 21st birthday, Kenneth was too young to marry in Ohio.
"He couldn't wait," son Jim Felumlee said.
Kenneth worked as a railroad car inspector and mechanic before becoming a mail carrier for the Nashport Post Office. He was active in his Nashport-Irville United Methodist Church as a Sunday school teacher.
Helen stayed at home, not only cooking and cleaning for her own family but also for other families in need in the area. She taught Sunday school, too, but was known more for her greeting card ministry, sending cards for birthdays, sympathy and the holidays to everyone in her community, each with a personal note inside.
"She kept Hallmark in business," daughter-in-law Debbie Felumlee joked.
When Kenneth retired in 1983 and the children began to leave the house, the Felumlees began to explore their love of travel, visiting almost all 50 states by bus.
"He didn't want to fly anywhere because you couldn't see anything as you were going," Jim Felumlee said.
Although both experienced declining health in recent years, Cody said, each tried to stay strong for the other.
"That's what kept them going," she said.
___ |
Did yours make the list?
Photo Credit: Ben Amstutz | CC BY 2.0
If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, or California's Central Valley, the answer is a hacking, hawking "yes." The greater basin, and California's major, midland valley, still have the worst air quality in the country, according to the American Lung Association's annual air pollution rankings, released today.
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You'll find the ALA's Top-10 lists for the country's most heavily-polluted cities –by short-term particle pollution, year-round particle pollution and ozone-pollution – below.
Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Short-term Particle Pollution (24-hour PM 2.5)
Metropolitan Statistical Areas:
1 Fresno-Madera, California
2 Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, California
3 Bakersfield, California
4 Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
5 Modesto-Merced, California
6 Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, Pennsylvania-Ohio-West Virginia
7 Fairbanks, Alaska
8 Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem, Utah
9 El Paso-Las Cruces, Texas-New Mexico
10 San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California
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Top 10 U.S. Cities Most Polluted by Year-Round Particle Pollution (Annual PM 2.5)
Metropolitan Statistical Areas:
1 Fresno-Madera, California
2 Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, California
3, 4 TIED: Bakersfield, California / Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
5 Modesto-Merced, California
6 Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton, Pennsylvania-Ohio-West Virginia
7 El Centro, California
8, 9, 10 TIED: El Paso-Las Cruces, Texas-New Mexico / Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona / St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, Missouri-Illinois
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Top 10 Most Ozone-Polluted Cities
Metropolitan Statistical Areas:
1 Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
2 Visalia-Porterville-Hanford, California
3 Bakersfield, California
4 Fresno-Madera, California
5 Sacramento-Roseville, California
6 Houston-The Woodlands, Texas
7 Modesto-Merced, California
8 Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas-Oklahoma
8 Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, District of Columbia-Maryland-Virginia.-West Virginia-Pennsylvania
10 Las Vegas-Henderson, Nevada-Arizona
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To its credit, L.A. has reduced ozone levels by more than one-third, and cut fine particle pollution by half, in the last 15 years. And California isn't the only state cleaning up its act. As the Atlantic Cities puts it, there's a silver lining to the country's "carboniferous cloud":
There's less particulate pollution throughout the United States and several cities reached their lowest-ever annual levels of particles on record, including Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Indianapolis. The ALA gives a special shout-out to a few burgs that it dubs America's "cleanest cities" for having no days with unhealthy levels of particles or ozone – pat yourself on the back if you live in Bangor, Maine; Bismarck, North Dakota; Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida; and Salinas, California. The association attributes the nationwide drop in particulate matter to the clean-up of coal power plants and cleaner kinds of diesel engines.
[L.A. Times | The Atlantic Cities] |
WEST VALLEY CITY — More than nine months after a woman was gunned down in a parking lot by two West Valley City police officers, the district attorney has determined the shooting was not legally justified.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill on Thursday announced his conclusions in the fatal officer-involved shooting of Danielle Willard, 21. After reviewing 3,800 pages of reports and interviews, Gill concluded the evidence and witness statements do not match the accounts of detectives Shaun Cowley and Kevin Salmon of how the incident unfolded on Nov. 2, 2012.
Cowley told investigators he fired after Willard struck him with her vehicle when she backed it up and he believed she had run over his partner, Salmon. But Gill said that was not true.
Cowley was not behind Willard's vehicle when she began to back out, but rather at the side of her car, Gill said. The detective was not hit by her car or knocked down, the report concluded. Also, even though Salmon was lightly brushed by Willard's vehicle, Cowley did not see him get hit, Gill said.
Because neither of the officers' lives were in imminent danger, Gill said the shooting was not justified.
"Ms. Willard's reversing vehicle was not traveling at detective Cowley and did not present any threat to either detective," Gill's report states. "Accordingly, detective Cowley and detective Salmon's contention that they believed Ms. Willard was going to reverse over detective Cowley was not reasonable."
But Lindsay Jarvis, Cowley's attorney, strongly disagrees with the report. She said her client was truthful with the DA's office and is upset with Gill's conclusions.
"I have the same 3,811 pages on my computer here. I don't understand this. My investigator doesn't understand this. The experts are on our side. The experts believe exactly what we say happened is what happened," Jarvis said.
"They presented us with one set of facts. We tested them with the evidence we had, and it did not support what they did," he said. "I’m not going to speculate to what their motivation was." - Sim Gill, attorney
A particular point of contention is whether Cowley was in imminent danger when he fired the shot that killed Willard and whether he was actually hit by her vehicle. Jarvis said her client did not fall down.
"He sees the vehicle coming at him, he instinctively grabs his gun, fires two rounds, and at that point is when he was struck by the vehicle," she said. "My client was not brushed by the vehicle. My client was hit by the vehicle. The question is whether he was hit by the tire or hit by the bumper. But he was clearly suffering from injuries. … To say he was just brushed is absolutely ridiculous."
Whether Cowley and Salmon were intentionally being deceitful in their stories was something Gill's office did not investigate.
"They presented us with one set of facts. We tested them with the evidence we had, and it did not support what they did," he said. "I’m not going to speculate to what their motivation was."
However, Gill's office will now begin a second investigation to determine whether the officers' actions rose to the level to justify filing criminal charges against them. That investigation may look into why their stories did not match the physical evidence.
While a DA's decision on whether an officer-involved shooting is justified cannot be appealed, Jarvis said she will fight vigorously if any criminal charges are filed against Cowley. She contended Thursday that of the 42 witnesses interviewed for the report, 41 of them will side with her client and Salmon.
Family response
Related Stories:
Attorney: Discrepancies found between warrants, images of West Valley crime scene Warrants in an officer-involved shooting in West Valley City were unsealed and released Friday — and they seem to yield more questions than answers.
Willard's mother, Melissa Kennedy, released a brief statement Thursday afternoon through the family's attorney, Mark Geragos.
"On behalf of Danielle's family, we appreciate District Attorney Sim Gill's investigative findings that Danielle's killing was not justified. The findings confirm what we have already known, that Danielle was murdered."
In June, Kennedy filed a wrongful death lawsuit against West Valley City and 14 police officers in federal court.
The saga began in November when Cowley and Salmon were conducting a drug investigation. The officers witnessed what they believed to be a drug deal between David Gines and Willard, who was driving a Subaru Forester.
Willard was in the parking lot of the Lexington Park Apartments, 2293 W. Lexington Park Drive (3710 South). The two detectives said they believed they saw Willard about to put drugs in her mouth. After the shooting, Gill said detectives discovered drugs in the passenger door, but Willard did not have any in her possession.
As they approached her vehicle, one officer went to the driver's window and the other to the passenger side window. Willard looked up at Cowley with a "blank look on her face," according to Cowley's account to the district attorney.
"It didn't look like she was scared. It didn't look like she was angry, didn't look like she was happy. It was just blank," Cowley said.
Salmon told investigators that Willard kept looking back and forth between the two officers and her gear shift. He said Cowley was yelling at her to "stop" and "spit out the drugs," according to the DA's report.
The first two shots fired by Cowley struck Willard in the head. Cowley claimed he was falling when he fired the second shot. Gill concluded that neither shot happened the way Cowley originally described it because of the trajectory of the bullets.
"It appeared to me that she was, uh, contemplating placing the vehicle into, uh, motion and fleeing," Salmon said.
"My fear was she that she was going to strike (Cowley) and run him over," he said during a second interview.
As Cowley began to walk back to his car to get a tool to break Willard's windows because she wouldn't come out of her vehicle, he claimed she threw her car in reverse — wheels screeching — and "came flying back and hit me," the report states.
But based on forensic evidence, Gill and his investigators concluded otherwise.
"There were no acceleration marks from the place she was parked that would be consistent with her tires making screeching sounds described by detective Cowley," he said.
Willard's front bumper did "brush" Salmon's knee as it reversed, but Gill said Cowley, when pressed, said he didn't see Salmon get hit or fall as he had previously claimed.
Six shots were fired. The first two fired by Cowley struck Willard in the head. Cowley claimed he was falling when he fired the second shot. Gill concluded that neither shot happened the way Cowley originally described it because of the trajectory of the bullets.
Conflicting reports
Jarvis said Gill's report is flawed because it's one-dimensional.
"What is extremely important in this particular case is the fact that the vehicle was moving. And it was moving at great speed for that particular distance and was moving toward the officer. And so those are things that have to be taken into consideration," she said.
Jarvis contends that Willard "slams the gas" and Cowley was trapped between her vehicle and his car with nowhere to go. Willard's car ended up going in a circle in reverse. But at the time she accelerated — Jarvis estimated between 10 mph and 20 mph — her client had just a second to react and believed at that moment he was going to be hit. At that point, Jarvis said Cowley's training kicked in and he reacted appropriately.
"What's important when you're looking at a use of force determination is to determine what the threat was at the time when he made the decision to fire," she said.
"Sure the shot was fired from the side of the vehicle. But at the time he made the decision to shoot, it was in front of him coming at him," Jarvis said.
The two officers remain on paid administrative leave. West Valley Deputy Police Chief Mike Powell said the department will now conclude its investigation before determining what course of action to take, if any, against the two.
Even though the district attorney's office has concluded the shooting was not justified because the officers' lives weren't in imminent danger, Powell said West Valley will still be looking into all of the circumstances surrounding the shooting, including whether the officers justifiably believed their lives were in danger.
"We are and will continue to be reviewing whether those actions for the entirety of this incident were within policy or if they were not," Powell said. "It is very different from what the district attorney's obligation is as to whether or not they were justified or unjustified."
Gill's investigation also looked into whether there was any type of cover-up involved in the shooting case, but no evidence to support that was found. There were rumors that Willard had some type of contact with the officers or the department prior to the shooting. Gill said his office found that the first time Cowley and Salmon ever saw Willard was in the parking lot that day.
The Willard shooting, however, was just the beginning of a firestorm of controversy that surrounded the department over the next several months.
After the shooting, West Valley police found evidence from a separate drug investigation in the trunk of Cowley's vehicle that was not supposed to be there. That eventually led to a much broader investigation and the disbanding of the department's Neighborhood Narcotics Unit.
It also snowballed into the dismissal of 124 state and federal cases investigated by West Valley police because of credibility issues, and an additional seven officers from the former drug unit were placed on paid administrative leave. Those officers remained on paid leave Thursday.
West Valley City officials later identified six problem areas involving the drug unit, including undisclosed amounts of missing drugs and money; officers taking "trophies, trinkets or souvenirs" from drug-related crime scenes; the use of GPS trackers without first securing a warrant; improper use of confidential informants, improper handling of evidence within the unit; as well as officers taking small amounts of cash and other items from seized vehicles.
Video Contributing: Richard Piatt and Andrew Adams
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I love simple solutions; magic bullets that make problems go away. I really do. Complex government programs make us poorer and less free. So I really want to believe in the Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) idea, which has been mentioned by a lot of commenters (and Milton Friedman.) But I just don’t see how the numbers add up. (For similar reasons, I’d like a single tax, but think that given our level of government spending we need a progressive payroll, property, carbon and VAT tax system.)
Here’s what I don’t get. Imagine a single mom living in the South Bronx with two kids. A typical poor American family. How much do we give them? If we give every single person the same amount, there will be too much incentive to produce large families. Think about the amount an individual in the Bronx would need to rise above poverty, and them multiply times 5. It seems like a much better deal than for one person, especially if you assume the marginal cost of raising an extra kid is less than the cost of a single adult.
That can be fixed by giving less for kids than adults. But how much would the family need to not be considered poor by the standard of NYC progressives? Here I have to plead ignorance, I don’t really know. But let’s say it’s $27,000 a year, perhaps $15,000 for the mom and $6000 for each kid. (I assume the government still has free public education and Medicaid, all other welfare goes away.)
Here’s another problem—is this amount the same in every part of the country? I suppose it could be adjusted to make it proportional to the cost of living in each city. Let’s assume you were somehow able to get 60 votes in the Senate for a massive welfare scheme that favored blue areas with a high cost of living. What then?
Basically every single homeless person in America would be better off moving to a place with a mild climate year around and a high cost of living. After all, they are homeless, what do they care about real estate prices? Some portion of that population may be drug users. Is that a problem? It might be viewed that way by the city with a nice climate year around and a high cost of living. Did I mention that I hope to retire in West LA?
OK, so we’ll just go with the simple plan that most people are proposing, the same payment for every adult, regardless of where they live. But here’s another problem. The amount the family of three needs in the Bronx looks much better to a family of immigrants in South Texas. For instance, add a dad and assume 4 family members, making $42,000. With that guaranteed income would you want to work in the hot sun picking vegetables and cleaning hotel bathrooms in South Texas or Georgia? I wouldn’t.
I know what you are thinking: “No problem. We’ll have illegals do all the low paid jobs, and the American poor can relax with their GAI. The illegals don’t qualify for the benefits, so the tomatoes won’t rot in the fields.”
But wait, I thought the left wanted to legalize the illegals. And even if we don’t legalize them, is the following the “Great Society” the left has been clamoring for since the 1960s:
1. An underclass of illegals doing the hard stuff, and living in shantytowns.
2. Tens of millions of poor Americans watching TV, and giving zero incentive to their kids to study hard in school, because they’ve got the GAI awaiting them too.
3. The upper class, in their gated communities.
I’m not sure that’s what development economists mean when they talk about “getting to Denmark.” Denmark doesn’t have a GAI.
Again, I really want to believe the GAI can work. It’s the type of solution I like. Please convince me I am wrong. It’s easier to administer than my wage subsidy idea. But I just don’t see how the numbers add up. At best you could do a GAI that is so small that it does not eliminate poverty. Not enough to live on. That might help at the margin, but it would not end poverty.
The problem with simple solutions is that poor people are just like everyone else–they’re complicated. And they have complicated problems.
PS. I suppose there are some hidden stereotypes in this post. That’s not my intention. I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s and knew plenty of young white people who would love to live what was then called the “hippie” lifestyle if someone else would pay for it.
PPS. I also doubt our tax system could raise enough revenue. The figures I quoted would cost about $4 trillion in gross tax revenue. Yes, the net cost would be far less due to middle class people paying taxes to themselves, but it’s still a lot of money, and would probably mean significantly higher MTRs, perhaps reducing our work effort to European levels.
PPPS. Note to young pundits—there was a reason that Bill Clinton did welfare reform.
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A sign advertises a medical marijuana dispensary on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California, July 19, 2010. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois will begin issuing licenses to grow and distribute medical marijuana 18 months after a law was signed legalizing it, Governor Bruce Rauner’s general counsel said in a statement on Monday.
Former Democratic Governor Pat Quinn, who supported medical marijuana, left office in January without issuing licenses for growth and distribution, leaving it to Rauner, a Republican, who asked for a review of the selection process.
Quinn’s administration had prepared lists of possible recipients based on scoring of applications. But Rauner’s team’s review concluded that some applicants had been disqualified without clear procedures, giving rise to legal liabilities.
As a result, Rauner issued on Monday a list of growers and dispensary operators who will receive permits and licenses in many areas of the state, with some gaps that will be filled in after review of applications that had been disqualified on Quinn’s preliminary list of recipients.
“Any applicant that was recommended for disqualification will be fully informed of the basis for that decision (and) given an opportunity to respond,” Rauner’s General Counsel Jason Barclay said in the statement.
Marla Levi, 51, a multiple sclerosis patient of Buffalo Grove, Illinois who’s been waiting for legal medical marijuana, said she hopes the right candidates get licenses. “I hope they put patients first, and not money,” she said.
Several months could still go by before medical marijuana is sold in Illinois. Winners must put up a bond, pay license fees and register agents. Also, any marijuana sold in the state must be grown in the state, which takes at least 4-1/2 months.
Illinois is one of 23 states along with the District of Columbia that permit medical marijuana. Illinois’ trial program expires in 2017. |
Patrice Bergeron, The Canadian Press
SHERBROOKE, Que. -- Would-be asylum-seekers need to understand it isn't easy to get refugee status in Canada, Quebec's premier said Saturday.
Philippe Couillard said it's important that anyone who is considering joining the surge of people who have been crossing the United States border into Canada in recent weeks know what they're facing.
"We can't take people's hope away, but people must be presented with a real picture of the situation, especially people who are still in the United States and may be tempted to do the same thing," he said outside a meeting of his party's youth wing in Sherbrooke, Que.
"Arriving in an army camp isn't exactly a comfortable experience."
In the first week of August, 1,798 people crossed the Canada-U.S. border to claim refugee status.
As of Friday, 1,200 people were waiting to be processed at the Lacolle border station, some staying in the dozens of tents that were hastily erected by the army earlier this week.
Many of the new arrivals are Haitian nationals who fear they could be deported if the U.S. lifts a program that granted them so-called "temporary protected status" following the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010.
Canada already lifted its own stay on deportations to Haiti last year.
Couillard pointed out there are strict rules governing who gets political asylum and historically only about half of the applicants from Haiti are approved.
In 2016, Quebec accepted 207 of 412 refugee applications from Haitian nationals.
There have been reports that many of those arriving in recent weeks were motivated by false rumours that getting into Canada would be easy.
Couillard said he was ready to go to the media to set the record straight. |
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3 Pakistan Air Force aircraft enter Indian airspace; forced to retreat by IAF jets 3 Pakistan Air Force aircraft enter Indian airspace in Jammu and Kashmir; forced to retreat by IAF jets.
Man who bought $540 of Girl Scout cookies arrested after drug bust Detric McGowan is accused of "intentionally and unlawfully" possessing heroin, cocaine and fentanyl with the intent to distribute
Convicted of sexual abuse, Australian Cardinal Pell faces sentence hearing By Sonali Paul MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Catholic clergyman worldwide to be convicted for child sex offences, will on Wednesday...
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QNet scam: Cyberabad Police issues notice to Shah Rukh Khan and other Bollywood actors QNet scam: Cyberabad Police issues notice to Shah Rukh Khan and other Bollywood actors …read more Source:: IndiaToday The post QNet scam:...
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Creative Firm Quits Bernie Sanders Campaign Media firm Devine Mulvey Longabaugh, which produced 275 ads for the Vermont senator’s 2016 presidential campaign, said it was leaving over creative...
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North Carolina considers dropping ‘F’ grade to 39 percent for state public schools: report The bar for failing test scores in North Carolina’s state public schools may be significantly lowered under the proposals of new legislation.
Dangerous Escalation Between Nuclear-Armed Rivals India And Pakistan – OpEd In a pre-dawn airstrike at 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday, 12 Indian Mirage 2000 fighter jets intruded into Pakistan’s airspace and dropped their payload on the top of a...
Singer Mark Hollis of 1980s band Talk Talk dies at 64 Singer-songwriter Mark Hollis, frontman of 1980s British new wave band Talk Talk, has died at the age of 64.
Saddleworth Moor fire: Crews tackle huge blaze One witness describes the scene of the fire on Saddleworth Moor as "apocalyptic".
Samsung Galaxy S10, S10 Plus and S10e to launch in India on March 6; pricing and specifications Leading smartphone maker Samsung has finally revealed the official launch date for its latest flagship smartphone lineup, the Samsung Galaxy S10 series for the...
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Trump-Kim Summit In Hanoi: Optimism Despite Impediments – Analysis By Dr Sandip Kumar Mishra* The second US-North Korea summit meet, eight months after the Singapore Summit, is scheduled to take place in Hanoi on 27-28...
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Janet Jackson to launch Las Vegas residency in May [USA], Feb 27 (ANI): Janet Jackson will launch her first Las Vegas residency in May. The âMetamorphosisâ show will begin May 17 at Park Theater, Park...
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Ariana Grande to headline LGBTQ festival Manchester Pride 2019 Singer Ariana Grande will be headlining the LGBTQ festival Manchester Pride in the UK this year.
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Cohen promises truth in congressional testimony, as GOP lawmaker teases private-life bombshells President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, said Tuesday that the American people can decide "exactly who is telling the truth" when he testifies...
Kamala Harris defends Green New Deal despite estimated costs Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris defended the Green New Deal despite its price tag, which she has endorsed wholeheartedly even as Republicans...
Andrew Shaw has 1st career hat trick as Habs embarrass Red Wings Andrew Shaw recorded his first career hat trick and Max Domi had two goals and three assists for a career-high five points as the Montreal Canadiens routed the...
Day after IAF strikes in Pakistan, Sushma Swaraj raises Pulwama terror attack with Chinese Foreign Minister 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide attack by Pakistan-based JeM in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on February 14
Don Jr. on Cohen Hearing: Dems Trying to ‘Counter-Program’ Kim Summit With ‘Nonsense’ from a Convicted Felon *Donald Trump Jr.* tonight dismissed the *Michael Cohen* public hearing tomorrow as Democrats trying to counter-program and distract from President *Donald...
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Arizona city officials demand removal of razor wire along border wall Officials in Nogales, Ariz., have condemned the installation of new razor wire along the border wall with Mexico saying their town isn't a battlefield. The...
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Without Zion Williamson, No. 2 Duke falls to No. 19 Virginia Tech on road In their second game since Zion Williamson went down with a knee injury, the Duke Blue Devils lost on the road to the Virginia Tech Hokies.
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Katy Perry Details Orlando Bloom's Clumsy 'Bachelor'-Esque Proposal Chatting with Jimmy Kimmel on his talk show, the 'Roar' hitmaker reveals how a broken champagne bottle almost ruined Bloom's sweet and romantic proposal.
Actress refuses to work with ex-Disney animation chief over harassment accusations LOS ANGELES - British actress Emma Thompson has quit an anticipated film produced by California's Skydance studios because it hired former Disney creative...
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Dozens buried by landslide at unlicensed Indonesia gold mine JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities say dozens of people are believed buried by a landslide at an unlicensed gold mine in North Sulawesi province....
'I just feel very vulnerable': Man, 71, dragged from luxury car in brutal daylight attack A 71-year-old man has been dragged from his luxury car in a terrifying daylight carjacking, police say.
Sexual Assault Of Detained Migrant Children Reported In The Thousands Since 2015 Opponents of the Trump administration's family separation policy say migrant children are not safe in government custody. Administration officials say most of...
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THE Quebec provincial government is now paying for In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatments for women providing gestational services to homosexual men. Surrogacy is not legally recognized in Quebec but it still takes place and a radio host has claimed that it’s “discriminatory” for the government not to pay for treatments for surrogate mothers acting in concert with homosexual men. He was apparently the first to win subsidies for a surrogate, who is expecting twins. The Quebec government now spends $67 million annually on IVF treatments. Taxpayers will be directly subsidizing the commercial market in children for homosexuals.
Regarding the growing fertility industry in this country, the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network writes of the consequences for children and women drawn into contractual arrangements:
In surrogacy, the rights of the child are almost never considered. Transferring the duties of parenthood from the birthing mother to a contracting couple denies the child any claim to its “gestational carrier” and to its biological parents if the egg and/or sperm is/are not that of the contracting parents. In addition, the child has no right to information about any siblings he or she may have in the latter instance.
Surrogacy is another form of the commodification of women’s bodies. Surrogate services are advertised, surrogates are recruited, and operating agencies make large profits. The commercialism of surrogacy raises fears of a black market and baby selling, of breeding farms, turning impoverished women into baby producers and the possibility of selective breeding at a price. Surrogacy degrades a pregnancy to a service and a baby to a product. |
No president can do the job without them. Let's try to be clear about which ones are valid and which aren't.
Reuters
You may be perplexed about President Obama's recent actions aimed at promoting gun safety. One of the leading scholars of separation of powers, Peter M. Shane, has set out a calm analysis of Obama's actions here. The president signed three, not 23, executive orders, he notes. Shane's most important point is this:
What executive orders cannot do is impose obligations or restrictions on the public, unless Congress, through legislation, has expressly or implicitly conferred authority on the President to do so. It is worth noting that none of President Obama's executive orders on gun violence do any such things.
The opposition has many criticisms of the specifics of Obama's actions. Fair enough; that's part of the ongoing debate about the proper regulation of firearms. But some on the right like to claim that "executive orders" in themselves are lawless.
If so, that would have come as news to George Washington -- who issued, among dozens of proclamations, eight executive orders of the kind we recognize today -- and to every president since.
What is the president's job? He is the holder of "the executive power" and has the duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." It would be childish to believe that statutes, once passed by Congress, somehow carry themselves out while the president greets Little League teams in the Rose Garden. New criminal statutes must be enforced; new conditional spending grants must be administered; new programs must be assigned to government departments for administration; new policies must be carried out by government employees on the ground. |
NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Justice Department and FBI asking for all records related to President Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey.
“White House interference with any FBI investigation is incompatible with democratic safeguards, and that’s especially the case when the investigation involves the president or his associates. Political meddling with law enforcement investigations is a recipe for abuse of power,” said ACLU Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU National Security Project. “The public has a right to know why Comey was fired so the president can be held accountable for any abuse of his position. It’s impossible to know the truth right now because the Trump administration has issued shifting explanations, each of which is increasingly troubling.”
The ACLU has called for the appointment of a special prosecutor and the creation of a select congressional committee to investigate the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
Today’s FOIA request is here:
https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/foia-request-comey-firing |
Last November, a couple of econophysicists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich took a close look at the share price of Facebook, the social networking company that is valued at anywhere between $65 billion and $100 billion.
That, they said, is crazy given the amount of money Facebook can reasonably squeeze out its 750 million users. They calculated that a more realistic valuation would be between $15 and $30 billion, based on Facebook being able to extract about $1 profit per user and under the assumption of modest growth in the next few years.
We’ll find out in the near future whether anybody has taken any notice of Peter Cauwels and Didier Sornette when Facebook’s IPO finally takes place later this year. It is widely expected to be one of the largest in history.
Today, Cauwels, Sornette and a colleague, Zalan Forro, take aim at another social networking company currently valued at eye-watering levels. This time, these guys ask whether the social gaming company Zynga is overvalued with a market capitalisation of around $8 billion.
The strange thing about the company’s value before it went public a few months ago, is that while plenty of numbers were bandied around, nobody offered any reasoning for their valuation. Some analysts said Zynga could be worth as much as $14 billion, a number that might as well have have been plucked out of the ether and may well have been.
Cauwels, Sornette and Forro have decided to inject some method into this madness by calculating a reasonable value for Zynga based on thee scenarios–a base value, high growth and super high growth.
The point out that valuing Zynga is much more complicated than valuing Facebook or other companies because its success is intimately related to the popularity of individual games and so cannot be easily modelled by a single function. Instead, they look at the company’s likely rate of innovation–the rate at which it produces popular new games.
They conclude that a base valuation of Zynga is $3.4 billion and say that even under the assumption of super high growth, it cannot reasonably be valued at more than $4.8 billion.
“On the basis of this result, we can claim with confidence that, at its IPO and ever since, Zynga has been overvalued,” say Cauwels, Sornette and Forro, adding that even their calculations are optimistic.
The bigger picture, of course, is that the entire market for social networking companies is experiencing a bubble, probably sustained by the greater fool theory of market behaviour: “I’m a fool for paying so much but I know there’s a greater fool out there who will pay more”.
We all know how that ends. The question at the back of many fools’ minds will be this: will the end come before or after the Facebook IPO?
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1204.0350: When Games Meet Reality: Is Zynga Overvalued? |
MEERUT/BAREILLY: Amid reports of terror modules hiding in Deoband and neighbouring regions, police will soon conduct a drive to verify thousands of passport holders residing in the sensitive town as well as the entire districts of Saharanpur and Muzaffarnagar The exercise comes in the wake of the recent arrest of two suspected Bangladeshi terrorists, who had managed to get Indian passports on Deoband addresses.Saharanpur DIG KS Emmanuel told TOI: “It’s not only about Deoband or any particular community. The verification of passport holders will take place in entire Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur owing to inputs we have received that a few terror modules could be hiding in the area. There have been a few instances in the past when men with questionable credentials were found here.”Emmanuel said, “In fact, the Bangadeshi terrorist arrested from Muzaffarnagar in August had got his passport made in Saharanpur. So we are just being cautious and improving the mechanism of inquiry by verifying all passport holders in the region. We cannot take chances when it comes to security.”In August, UP ATS had arrested Bangladeshi national Abdullah Al-Mamon, who was said to be a member of banned terror outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT). Abdullah had stayed in Deoband for several years before his arrest from Muzaffarnagar.Many of his associates were picked up from the region later.On October 5, UP ATS had sounded an alert for absconder Faizan Ahmad who allegedly acted as a key recruiter and was involved in the indoctrination of local youths to lead them into terror activities. During a raid at Faizan’s Saharanpur dwelling soon after the arrest of Abdullah Mamon from Muzaffarnagar, ATS had recovered Islamic State literature among other things.According to police sources, about 20 Bangladeshi men who are suspected to be in touch with terror organisation ABT have since gone missing in Western UP.Sources in UP police said reverification of papers had become necessary because of the suspicion that a few local police personnel, who verify the antecedents of passport applicants, may have helped alleged Bangladeshi terrorists secure Indian passports. The role of a subinspector and a constable is under the scanner, sources said.Meanwhile, in a related development, the state government has asked all DMs to identify and take action against Bangladeshi nationals living illegally in their respective districts. In a letter, principal secretary Arvind Kumar has asked DMs to take stern action against those officials who have been involved in getting identity cards for Bangladeshi nationals during their illegal stay here. |
CHATHAM, NJ - Add the theft of political signs to the list of vehicles and property stolen from Chatham residents this summer.
Chatham Borough homeowners Dan and Libby Hilsenrath of 37 Weston Ave. reported to the police on Sunday that their "Trump" for president sign had been stolen from their front yard. It was the fourth time a Trump sign had been taken from their yard over a three-month span.
According to the Hilsenraths, the sign was taken between 10 and 11:30 p.m. on Saturday night.
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"I get more determined to put it back up every time someone takes it," Dan Hilsenrath said. "This is the intolerance of progressivism. There was a Bernie sign on Van Doren Avenue and no one touched that."
The Hilsenraths put out a fifth Trump sign on Sunday to replace the stolen one, securing it to a tree with a bicycle lock. They've also spent $200 on a surveillance camera so they can catch the next person who tries to take the sign in the act.
A week ago, the sign was taken in broad daylight between 5:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. It is estimated that the longest that one of the signs has stayed on the lawn before being stolen is about a week.
One time, Libby Hilsenrath covered the sign in oil to make it sticky, but that didn't prevent someone from taking it.
"One day I put the garbage out on a Sunday and I heard some noise, came down and the sign was gone and my garbage was all over the street," Dan Hilsenrath said.
In another instance, Libby Hilsenrath caught some teenagers in the act of taking the sign off her lawn and yelled at them to stop.
"It's my first amendment free speech right to put a sign on my lawn and it's about property rights," Libby Hilsenrath said. "It's trespassing and vandalism, that's why I keep reporting it." |
Greg Sargent mocks pundits declaring that the attacks in Paris will finally convince Republican primary voters that they need to get serious, and deflate the Trump/Carson bubble. This time it will really happen!
Or not.
As Sargent says, these pundits have been wrong again and again — and with holidays coming up and then the start of actual voting, there isn’t much time for bubble-deflation left. But there’s more.
For one thing, who exactly are the serious candidates on national security? Jeb!, who thinks that a relative handful of terrorists can destroy the West, one rock concert at a time? Rubio, who mumbled something about a clash of civilizations?
For another, pretty much the same people claiming that it’s time to get serious are attacking Democrats for … not using the right catchphrases, out of petty concerns like trying not to insult a whole religion. Say it loud and proud: radicalIslamradicalIslamradicalIslam. See? Terrorism defeated.
Finally, remember how we got serious after 9/11?
Photo
Given what we’ve seen in the past, this might even favor Trump, who can yell “You’re fired!” at the terrorists, or Carson, who might be able to defeat them with the help of Klingon Jesus.
Update: A reminder of how knowledgable Bush and Rubio are about foreign policy — remember Chang, the mystic warrior? |
On Tuesday, President Obama said that Ebola was “spiralling” out of control in West Africa and announced that the United States would send a billion dollars and three thousand soldiers to the region, to provide medical and logistical support. Obama said that the risk of economic collapse posed a security threat not just to the region but to the rest of the world, and that, while we could still save countless lives, we would have to act fast. “We can’t dawdle on this one,’’ he said.
But we have dawdled since the beginning of the epidemic. It started in a remote part of the Republic of Guinea in March. Within days, it had spread to Liberia. The fear grew in April, as the epidemic gained momentum, and by May it had crossed into Sierra Leone. In June, as the virus was spreading in urban areas such as Liberia’s capital, Monrovia*, Doctors Without Borders said that it was “out of control.” By the end of July, the disease had moved into Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation. Today, the dread is spreading even faster and farther than the virus.
“There are two kinds of contagion,” Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank Group, said earlier this week. “One is related to the virus itself and the other is related to the spread of fear about the virus.” Health-care costs and illness from the effects of the disease contribute relatively little to its economic impact, a World Bank report released on Wednesday found. Rather, eighty to ninety per cent of the economic effects are due to the “fear factor,” which shuts down transportation systems, including ports and airports, and keeps people away from their jobs.
We should send every dollar we can to help these countries fight Ebola; there is no moral excuse for anything less than a total commitment. But the investment is not simply about saving the desperate countries of West Africa. Let’s face it: our concerns are a little more self-interested than that. I can’t make it through a day without somebody, including members of my own family, asking me if Ebola is likely to kill us all.
The answer to that question is no. Despite what one might read in the tabloids or see on cable news, the virus is no more likely to “go airborne” today than it ever has been. It is no more likely to become easily passed by a cough or a sneeze than bird flu, or an errant vial of smallpox, or any number of viruses, known or unknown.
Many commentators have noted, with great alarm, that the virus is mutating rapidly. Viruses do that, and in general we should be grateful that they do. Because, while there are exceptions—and, again, Ebola might even turn out to be one of them—a mutating virus almost always becomes weaker as it changes, not stronger. (There is a simple, Darwinian explanation for this phenomenon: a virus cannot survive on its own. It needs to occupy a host, and, like everything else on earth, viruses are programmed to survive. Any virus that kills every cell it inhabits is going to quickly become extinct.)
The reason the epidemic in West Africa threatens to spiral out of control is that it has emerged in areas with almost no health-care systems and bad communications, and that often lack the most rudimentary necessities of life—passable roads and clean water.
This is not a new problem; it was true a year ago and a century ago. Annual per-capita health-care spending in Liberia last year, according to the World Bank, was sixty-five dollars, up from fifty-nine dollars the year before. In Guinea, the figure is thirty-two dollars. Even Nigerians, who are prosperous by comparison, spend less than a hundred dollars per person each year on health care. (The U.S spends about nine thousand dollars per person. Italy, which has health statistics at least as good as ours, spends about thirty-five hundred dollars.)
Ebola is not a mystery disease, and it is not always untreatable. To stop it will require an intense effort to trace all those who have come into contact with infected people. To stop the spread of infectious disease, you have to find all the people who have had close contact with infected individuals and track them—for three weeks, in the case of Ebola. If they get sick, they will needed to be quarantined.
Tracing contacts, though, requires names, phone numbers, addresses, and a trained cadre of public-health officials. Without additional resources, that is too much to ask of the countries now affected by Ebola. There is an even greater obstacle—the genuine and understandable fear of stigma and oppression.
This is not a problem faced only by the world’s poorest nations. In 1988, I sat in an auditorium in Stockholm as Stephen Joseph, who was then the New York City Health Commissioner, addressed the Fifth International Conference on AIDS. It was an explosive period in the history of the epidemic, and Joseph argued, essentially, that there was no more time to dawdle. He said that public-health officials needed to intervene early, and that meant they ought to develop a system for tracing the contacts of those who had become infected with H.I.V. Medically, the suggestion made sense. In a society in which homophobia was rarely concealed, and where discrimination and fear fed each other constantly, the suggestion caused an uproar, and, at least for a while, it was shelved.
There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that we act in the interest of other humans while at the same time protecting the interests of the United States. Perhaps it doesn’t matter why we care, as long as we do. But it is also worth remembering that every expert agrees that Ebola poses little danger to America. If we had sent that money at any other time, and put it to work improving the health-care systems in West Africa, it would no doubt have prevented the worst effects of this epidemic and saved many lives. It would have blunted the impact of other plagues, too—including fear, the most infectious of all.
* An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the capital of Liberia as Freetown. |
HYDERABAD: After weeks of wrangling over seats and other issues, the BJP-TDP electoral alliance hit the campaign trail on Tuesday with TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu exhorting voters to ensure Narendra Modi becomes the next PM Modi couldn't return the compliment asking people to vote for Naidu as chief minister as the meetings were held in Telangana and TDP's main electoral battle is in Seemandhra. Modi, however, did tell the electorate to bring the BJP-TDP alliance to power in Andhra Pradesh and the NDA at the Centre.In his speech at the LB Stadium here on Tuesday, Modi invoked Telugu pride and spoke of how the Nehru-Gandhi family had consistently treated its sons T Anjaiah, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy and PV Narasimha Rao with contempt.He revived the debate on Sardar Vallabhai Patel. "If not for Patel, I would have needed a visa to enter Hyderabad," he said, referring to the Iron Man's police action which ensured the Nizam did not merge Hyderabad state with Pakistan.At times, it appeared Modi wasn't certain whether he was addressing the Telangana people or the people of both regions. "Congress is responsible for 1,100 people getting martyred for Telangana. It has wrecked the country and the region for the past 10 years. If you vote for them again, your future will be destroyed for good," he said.Modi repeatedly targeted the "Maa-Beta Sarkar" at the Centre. "What kind of government do you want? Do you want one by the mother-son combination that has looted and destroyed the country? No, because they stand for bad governance which has destroyed everything" he said.He added: "All the political pundits will be proven wrong. It's not arithmetic, but the chemistry of the people which will decide who will win. Arithmetic says we (Modi, Naidu, Pawan) are three, but chemistry will show that we are actually 111."Modi concluded by invoking voters in the age group 18-28. "While in a student's life, the Class XII exam is what shapes his academic future, the age group 18-28 shapes a person's life. I urge you to pause before casting the vote. The decision will shape your future," he said. |
This chapter discusses some of the useful programs available for your Ubuntu system, how to find more, and how to install them.
Using Ubuntu Software Center
Learning Terminology and Foundations
Using Synaptic
Useful Software Packages to Explore
Playing to Learn with Educational Programs
Summary
In addition to those installed by default, Ubuntu offers a wealth of other applications to help you make the most of your computer. Different people use their computers in different ways, and it is for that reason that we wanted to help you discover how to enable your Ubuntu computer to do even more.
Chapter 3 includes a brief introduction to the Ubuntu Software Center as one way to install or remove software. Here we cover this and other methods as well. Work done using one tool to add or remove software is recognized by the related tools, so it is okay to mix and match which ones you use.
Additionally, we show you just a few of the thousands of additional applications that you can install on your Ubuntu system. Each section showcases one application, starting with the name of the package you need to install and what Windows/OS X equivalents might exist.
Using Ubuntu Software Center
Like other tools discussed later in this chapter, Ubuntu Software Center installs software from the online Ubuntu software repositories.
To launch Ubuntu Software Center, click the Dash Home icon in the launcher at the left of the desktop. In the search box at the top of the menu that appears, type Ubuntu and the search will begin automatically. Click the Ubuntu Software Center icon that appears in the box. When it is run for the first time, and occasionally afterward, it will take a few moments to initialize itself and the list of available and installed applications. Once this is complete, you will see the main screen shown in Figure 5-1.
Figure 5-1. Ubuntu Software Center main screen
We introduced the basics of the Ubuntu Software Center earlier in Chapter 3. Let’s look at some of the other aspects now.
Ubuntu Software Center Account
Some features require an Ubuntu Software Center account, mainly those that require money or allow tracking (which will automatically reinstall previous purchases). When required, it is noted in the section. This account is the same as the Ubuntu Single Sign-On account that is required for using Ubuntu One and other Ubuntu services that are available online like the Launchpad bug tracker described in Chapter 9. If a feature requires an account, a window will pop up to make signing up simple, as in Figure 5-2.
Figure 5-2. Create an Ubuntu Software Center account or sign in.
Recommendations
Click Turn On Recommendations at the bottom of the Ubuntu Software Center window (Figure 5-1) to allow the program to send nonidentifying information about the software you have already installed. This information is used to generate suggestions for you based on statistical trends. The software you have installed is compared to the software other people have installed on their machines as recorded in an anonymous database, and suggestions are given to you. This works kind of like Amazon’s “people who like the book you are looking at now also like . . .” feature and is quite convenient. Although the database used for this feature is anonymous, people who care deeply about their privacy and don’t want to take chances are not forced to use it; this is why you must choose to turn it on rather than it being enabled by default.
You need to create an Ubuntu Software Center account to use this feature.
Sorting
Click a category name at the left of the Ubuntu Software Center window to sort the listed software by category. Some categories are further broken down into smaller subcategories, such as the Games listing shown in Figure 5-3. Note that books and magazines are now available instantly in their digital format via the center.
Figure 5-3. Many sorts of games are available.
You can also sort packages from the top of the window using the buttons, as in Figure 5-4. Click the arrow next to All Software or Installed to limit
Figure 5-4. More about software sources coming up
what is displayed by whether it is provided by the Ubuntu community, by Canonical partners, or available only for purchase. Click the All Software or Installed buttons to alternately show all available packages or only those currently on your machine. Click History to list all changes, installations, updates, and removals of software that have occurred on your machine.
Searching
Type search terms in the search box at the upper right to find related software. The search is a live search, meaning that the results are updated as you type; you do not have to hit Enter first, and you can change the terms and get new results instantly, as in Figure 5-5.
Figure 5-5. It was not necessary to finish typing “word processing” to get results.
Learning More about a Package and Installing It
Click on a title to learn more about it (Figure 5-6). Notice the line that says Free at the left (more on that in the next section) and has an Install button on the right. Click Install to install the software.
Figure 5-6. Most package listings include screenshots and valuable information.
At the bottom of the information section is a link titled Developer Web Site, which opens the software developer’s Web site, giving you easy access to more information to assist your decision. Further information about a package—the specific version of the package, its size and license, and more—is included below this and just above the Reviews section.
Scroll down to read reviews and ratings, if any have been posted for the package (Figure 5-7). You can sort the reviews using the drop down boxes just above the first review.
Figure 5-7. Users tend to be honest in their software reviews.
No-Cost Software
Most of the software available from the Ubuntu Software Center is free, as in it will not cost you anything to download and install it (and is also free in the licensing sense as well). These are marked Free, like Stellarium is in Figure 5-6. You pay nothing for this software and it is completely legal for you to copy it, use it, share it, and so on.
Software for Purchase
Sort using the For Purchase category (Figure 5-4) to display only the packages that require payment. Most of these are digital versions of books and magazines, although some professional software packages are also available, such as games and utilities offered by Canonical partners (Figure 5-8). These are marked differently, with a price in the spot where others are marked Free and a Buy button where others are marked Install. Also, many of these come with proprietary software licenses, so do not assume you can legally share packages you pay for.
You need to create an Ubuntu Software Center account to use this feature. |
(CNN) -- Police in the northern city of El Kef opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Tunisia on Saturday after demonstrators reportedly became violent, the country's official news agency reported.
About a thousand people were outside the police station when authorities fired shots, killing two people and injuring 17, Tunis Afrique Presse, or TAP, said. It was not immediately clear why the protesters were there.
The news agency reported that demonstrators threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the building and burned two cars. Police fired tear gas and then shots in the air. When protesters did not respond, they fired into the crowd, TAP said.
Tunisia remains on edge ever since longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on January 14, following weeks of protests against poor living conditions, high unemployment, government corruption and repression that left 100 dead. |
The man who was the voice of AOL’s "You’ve Got Mail" greeting during the 90s and early 2000s is now an Uber driver in Ohio.
Read: Elementary School Janitor Vacuums Designs Into Classroom Rugs: 'It's My Contribution to Education'
Elwood Edwards may not be a household name, but his voice is cemented in pop culture thanks to his famous greeting. The 67-year-old is now driving for Uber and says he does not get residuals from the words.
The guy behind that famous greeting from the early days of the internet told Inside Edition: "Everywhere I go people ask me, ‘do you get residuals? Did you make a lot of money from it?’
"And the question is always answered with no."
Edwards was paid just $200 for that famous recording. His wife was working for AOL at the time and he did it as a favor.
Read: Toon'd In to Politics: 'The Simpsons' Predicted a Trump Presidency Back in 2000
“I recorded, ‘welcome, you've got mail, file's done, goodbye.’ I did that on a cassette deck in my living room,” he said.
Edwards now makes extra income driving for Uber in Cleveland and his passengers are blown away when they learn about their driver's history.
Watch: Ruff Riders: Uber Driver Surprises Passengers With Puppies From Nearby Shelter |
on •
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — Confronting a mortified woman in a crowded Fayetteville, Arkansas restaurant, Alderman John La Tour loudly accused her of being gender ambiguous and told the woman he’d pull out his penis to prove that he is a man.
The woman, who is in fact, a cis woman, happened to be a barista at the restaurant. After being kicked out of the restaurant by the manager, La Tour went to social media to disparage the restaurant owner and urged people not to patronize any of his restaurants. The posting has since been deleted.
Following media coverage, La Tour said he was just asking the woman to dance and his words were misconstrued. La Tour, a Tea Party conservative who has taken political donations from Christian reality show stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, has a history of opposing transgender rights.
La Tour told The Arkansas Times that the whole thing was just a joke and that he may be a victim of liberals who disagree with him. He also says he has apologized to the woman.
La Tour: “They know I’m conservative; they’re terribly disappointed I’m on the City Council. All that this is about is to discredit John La Tour and make him look like a buffoon.”
However, both The Arkansas Times and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette noted that La Tour has history of disparaging remarks against trans people, including a recent incident during city council meeting which drew rebukes from other city officials. He had asked about the gender identity of a contractor and said “It’s hard to tell these days.”
—–
It was a posting of this incident on social media attracted the media’s attention. Gavin Smith on Facebook:
“Yesterday Fayetteville alderman John la tour ward 4 assaulted a dear friend in public demanding they choose a gender in a packed restaurant. He demanded she pick a gender declaiming loudly that he couldn’t tell if she was a man or a woman. She is not transgendered and does not in any way present any ambiguity about gender in any way. She’s a woman. He then explained that he was a man and could prove it by dropping his pants and showing his penis. That is bullying behavior and unacceptable on so many levels. Please call any news outlets you know and alert them to his “protests.” I doubt offering to expose yourself would be considered protected speech even by the right wing activist Dugger family who funded his campaign. He should be kicked out of office.”
—-
UPDATE March 22, 2016: The woman who was confront by La Tour speaks out. Greta Allendorf’s Facebook post:
“John La Tour,
Hi. You may remember me from Friday. I’m the “waitress” you had the unfortunate encounter with. I am not actually a “waitress”. I am a barista, and more importantly, a human being. I acknowledge that you are also a human being and not the complete monster you are currently being portrayed as on social media. I am also not the victim I see described in these posts.
On the morning of our incident, I didn’t know who you were and just thought you were a jerk being a jerk to someone in the service industry. It happens everyday. When you apologized, you said it wasn’t your intention to offend me, but what was your intention? It seems now that whether you realized it or not, your intention was to bully someone who obviously didn’t share your political notions. Whether that’s true or not, you should know that your insensitivity to the plight of others can be very hurtful. Your behavior was unacceptable regardless.
You said to me that it’s not hard to declare gender, that there are only two choices, male or female. I, like you, am not well versed in gender politics. We just can’t possibly understand what it means to be transgender. But in my lack of understanding, there’s a well of compassion. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to just exist in a world of those who don’t understand and hate you merely for existing. In your lack of understanding, there is fear. I get that. That’s very human of you. But how does that fear serve you? How does it serve your children?
It certainly didn’t do much for you this weekend. It was no fun for me either. Our little encounter has blown up in a way neither us of would have expected. I don’t revel in this kind of attention and chose to lay low, but that felt more victimizing, and irresponsible. The things you said to me on Friday were wildly inappropriate and even though I personally didn’t feel assaulted or sexually harassed, I have to speak up for those your bullying was intended for.
I hope this weekend has shown you that you are governing a community that doesn’t share your oppressive belief system and doesn’t tolerate this kind of treatment of it’s citizens, regardless of the gender they identify with. We no longer see you fit for duty. I hope you choose to resign your post, but if not, maybe you can choose to move forward, regardless of your beliefs, with an attitude of respect, compassion, and humanness towards your constituents. We’re all in this together.
And for the record, I declare myself woman. And I love to dance. If you can put aside the fear and hate, I’d love to take you up on that dance, regardless of how you identify.
Love & Guts,
Greta”
t/h Jill Corcoran
—
I believe John La Tour is a self-appointed buffoon. He didn’t need any help from liberals or the media.
There is a campaign to get La Tour to resign: https://www.change.org/p/alderman-john-la-tour-resign-from-fayetteville-city-council
I wrote earlier of another ciswoman accused of being trans: https://lexiecannes.com/2015/06/15/cis-woman-accused-of-being-a-boy-was-manhandled-and-kicked-out-of-a-womens-bathroom-sues/
——-
UPDATE: http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2016/03/22/woman-insulted-by-fayetteville-alderman-responds-eloquently-on-facebook
Facebook posting: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/duggar-loving-lawmaker-accused-of-threatening-to-wave-his-penis-at-woman-he-thought-was-a-man/
The Arkansas Times and The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2016/03/21/resignation-urged-over-fayettville-alderman-john-la-tours-gender-challenge
Read Lexie Cannes in The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/courtney-odonnell/
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Categories: Transgender, Transsexual, Trans, Transphobia, exploitation, dehumanizing, violence, hate |
Well. That escalated quickly.
Tony Abbott came to power promising to ‘stop the boats’. And yet this evening, a small fleet of Russian warships is steaming towards Australia.
Not, it should be noted, to start a war. That would be quite silly. Their mission, we assume, is to simply send a clear message to our Prime Minister.
That message is something along the lines of, ‘That’s not a navy. Thiiiissss is a navy’.
That or, ‘So, how about that shirt fronting Tony? Still up for it?’
All of this, of course, is predicated on the notion that any of this is true. It has been reported in the Australian mainstream media, so, you know… it might not be.
But assuming it is, Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly has, in the past, sent naval vessels to accompany him on overseas trips. It makes sense – he’s one of the world’s most powerful leaders, and having a bit of military might in the background is not always a bad idea.
But this is something else altogether. And while it may seem alarming – and let’s face it, it is alarming – the arrival of Russian warships in international waters just outside Australia is more embarrassing than anything else.
Because we’re not going to attack them, and they’re not going to attack us. And that’s simply because if we do, they’ll kick our arse.
Apparently, we’ve sent an Anzac Class Frigate to keep tabs on them. Awesome. That should go well. Shame about the billions we’ve spent on those Joint Strike Fighters which still aren’t ready.
And if all that doesn’t work, maybe Abbott could convince his mates at the Manly Surf Lifesaving Club to kit up and start heading north. Numbers count, even if they’re half naked.
The wash up is that tonight, Abbott looks like a meek fool. For all his strutting, his budgie smuggler wearing chest puffing, he’s been called out for what he is – a small-time bully with a big-time mouth. A minnow.
Thus, Abbott has several options before him.
The first is to do what he’s done to all the other boats that came since he took office – bully them into submission, and then ‘send them back where they came from’… or at the very least, jail the occupants of the boats without charge. For the rest of their lives.
Admittedly, beyond getting an awful lot of people killed, that might cause a bit of an international incident. It’s one thing to demonise people who can’t defend themselves. It’s another thing altogether to take on one of the world’s most powerful armies.
So option one is pretty much off the table.
Option two is to do nothing. We could just pretend they’re not there. Warships? What warships? That’s probably our safest option. Although Abbott has to spend several days with Putin in Brisbane this weekend. It’s going to be painfully awkward, but at least it might de-escalate things.
Option three is to apologise for his ‘shirt front comment’, and then shut his f**king mouth. There remains no evidence that Putin or Russia had anything to do with the downing of MH17. If you’re going to accuse people – in this case a world leader – of mass murder, best to have a bit more than American intelligence, given their shady past.
Option four is to let Tony Abbott speak, and just see what happens. That would be in-line with the great Australian passion for two-up and gambling. Of course, it’s what got us here in the first place, but if we’re in for a penny, we may as well be in for a pound.
Option five is for Abbott to try and use this to scare people. It's worked on lots of other stuff, although generally Abbott has only tried to ramp up fear and loathing against things that are unlilkely to actually hurt us, like Ebola, Muslims and asylum seekers. So not the best option.
Option six is to retreat to an area you know well, in this case three word slogans: 'Stop the Russians'. Or, if we choose to placate them, 'Vodka is awesome'.
The seventh and final option, of course, is for Abbott to resign before the weekend, so that he doesn’t have to wet himself in front of 19 other world leaders while trying to stare down a smug, smiling Putin.
That’s obviously not going to happen – there’s nothing Abbott, in his own words, wouldn’t do for the Prime Minister’s job, and now that he has it, putting an entire nation at risk, again, is unlikely to shame him.
Which doesn’t get us very far. So we’ll all just have to watch and wait and see how Tony gets himself out of his latest mess. Which on the upside, should be very entertaining. And on the downside, is no long-term solution at all.
For just as Tony Abbott was a wrecker in Opposition, he’s proved to be perhaps the greatest wrecker The Lodge has ever seen. And he’s only been in a year.
Imagine where we’ll all be in another two.
* New Matilda relies almost entirely on reader subscriptions for its survival. You can help fund independent Australian journalism by subscribing here. Or just support us by sharing this story on social media 🙂 |
There is a lot of talk about the need to build a “knowledge-based economy” if we are to retain and create good jobs in a world where production is shifting in a major way to lower wage developing countries.
To compete, Canada must indeed produce high value-added goods and services commanding a price premium in world markets because they are sophisticated and unique. But, there are few signs of a sustained transition to a more innovative economy in Canada. Indeed, we are moving in the wrong direction.
One key indicator is the decline from about 2000 in the level and share of advanced manufactured products (machinery and equipment, aerospace, autos, final consumer goods) in Canada's GDP and exports as resource extraction has grown. Another is our dismal level of investment in research and development.
OECD data show that, in 2011, Canada spent just 1.7% of GDP on R&D, well below the level of 2.8% in leading industrial countries like the United States and Germany, and almost one third less than the advanced economies average of 2.4%. Our relative position has been declining. Since 2004, our spending has slipped from 2.1% of GDP to 1.7%, while the OECD average has increased from 2.2% to 2.4%.
This slippage is largely a result of the relative decline of Canadian manufacturing, which still accounts for about one half of all business spending on R&D. Canada's information and communications technology sector has also shrunk significantly, as exemplified by the declining fortunes of Nortel and BlackBerry. Our other big R&D spenders include the pharmaceutical and bio science industries, and aerospace.
Meanwhile, Canada's mining and oil and gas sector accounts for just one in every twenty dollars of business spending on R&D. Our relative performance is even worse when one considers only business investment in R&D, which makes up about one half of the total, with governments and the higher education sector contributing the other one half. Statistics Canada data show that business funded R&D fell from a peak of $15.3 billion in 2006 to $13.5 billion in 2012.
In its recent report to the federal government on federal support for R&D , an advisory panel headed by high-tech executive Thomas Jenkins underlined the critical importance of improving Canada's innovation performance, and the need to rethink policies which have failed to make a difference: “Studies have repeatedly documented that business innovation in Canada lags behind other highly developed countries. This gap is of vital concern because innovation is the ultimate source of the long-term competitiveness of businesses and the quality of life of Canadians. The ability to conjure up new products and services, to find novel uses for existing products and to develop new markets – these fruits of innovation are the tools that will ensure Canada's success in the twenty-first century.”
The panel identified key weaknesses in Canada's innovation system, including a shortage of patient equity capital for new ventures, and a long-standing tilt in government policy towards supporting business R&D through the SR&ED tax credit, rather than though more direct measures: “Canada's program mix is heavily weighted toward the SR&ED program and, during our consultations, we heard many calls for increased direct expenditure support. As well, many leading countries in innovation rely much less than Canada on indirect tax incentives as opposed to direct measures.”
It is, to say the least, rare for a business-dominated advisory panel to the Harper government to suggest that targeted spending programs are more efficient than tax cuts.
Jenkins effectively endorsed the increasingly influential view of University of Sussex economist Mariana Mazzucato that strategic government leadership and public investments are central to building innovative economies.
The existing tax credit was criticized by the panel for being of limited benefit to large companies and for covering too wide a range of costs. Accordingly, it said the government should “simplify the Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED) program by basing the tax credit for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on labour-related costs (and should) redeploy funds from the tax credit to a more complete set of direct support initiatives.”
In the 2014 budget, the federal government announced new support of $1.6 billion over five years in additional direct support for innovation, which is indeed welcome. However, seemingly under pressure from existing beneficiaries of the $3.5 billion per year SR&ED tax credit and the large consulting industry it supports, the federal government has still done little to date to reform the ineffective tax credit system.
Andrew Jackson is a senior policy advisor to the Broadbent Institute.
Photo: jubilo. Used under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence. |
This article is about the Gungan. You may be looking for the moon. This article is about. You may be looking for
Toba was a male Gungan who flew the hyperlanes near the Naboo system as a smuggler during the Great Peace of the Republic. An adventurous spirit from an early age, Toba was born to influential parents in the city of Otoh Gunga—his mother the former Rep Neesada Bari, and his father, the powerful bongo manufacturer Bullba. The Gungan enjoyed his youth, embarking on dangerous excursions of his own design and living as a playboy until the Invasion of Naboo, during which he entered service in the Gungan Grand Army and fought in the Battle of the Great Grass Plains. Inspired by the combat prowess and offworld exploits of his Bombad General, Jar Jar Binks, Toba aspired to a life away from Otoh Gunga and Naboo.
After the Invasion of Naboo, Toba was among the first colonists on the moon Ohma-D'un, and soon found work as a shuttle pilot, ferrying goods and individuals between the moon and Naboo. The Gungan ultimately progressed into two years of service with the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps, as a part of the anti-pirate patrol Iron Cesta Flight. Toba found it difficult to adapt to the regimentation of military life however, and withdrew from service, pooling his resources to purchase the B'zabuu-class transport Sea Killer, and begin life as a smuggler. In spite of his new exploits along the hyperlanes, Toba maintained Ohma-D'un as his base of operations.
Contents show]
Biography Edit
Idols and playthings Edit
Toba was a male Gungan born into a wealthy family in the city of Otoh Gunga on Naboo during the Great Peace of the Republic. His father, Bullba, was the owner of BullbaBong, a successful bongo manufacturer and reseller—and his mother was Neesada Bari, who had served on the Gungan High Council as a Rep three times. Toba had siblings, but of Bullba and Neesada's children he was the most adventurous and inquisitive of the lot, frequently exploring caves and taunting gooberfish. While still a child, Toba rode on the back of a deadly opee sea killer, and survived. Nevertheless, the Gungan was content to enjoy his family's wealth, and lived as a playboy for several years.[1]
In 32 BBY, Naboo was invaded by forces of the Trade Federation, a corporate entity protesting the taxation of trade routes.[2] Although Otoh Gunga faced reprisals from Federation forces commanded by the Sith Lord Darth Maul and Commander OOM-9,[3] Toba survived to join the Gungan Grand Army, against the wishes of his mother. The Gungan was one of the youngest to serve in the Grand Army as it assembled in preparation for the Battle of the Great Grass Plains,[1][2] in which a force led by Bombad Generals Tobler Ceel and Jar Jar Binks would engage OOM-9's army. Meanwhile, the newly-allied forces of the Royal House of Naboo and Galactic Republic would reclaim the planet's capital city, Theed, and the Royal Space Fighter Corps would attempt to destroy the Federation's Lucrehulk-class Droid Control Ship Vuutun Palaa, which in turn would deactivated OOM-9's forces.[4]
Toba was assigned to Binks's command, as as the Battle of Grassy Plains took place, the young Gungan discovered that he had a passion for the art of combat. He particularly marveled at his Bombad General's battle prowess,[1] as Binks managed to dispatch a number of B1 battle droids, a Droideka, and even an Armored Assault Tank largely by his own hand.[2] It was common knowledge among the Gungans that Binks had recently traveled extensively off-world,[1] and as the battle was won by the Gungan/Naboo/Republic coalition,[2] Toba decided that he would follow in the footsteps of his new idol, and leave Naboo for the stars. The gungan took it upon himself to self-instruct about the ways of piloting, and gave himself a hazardous crash course in the skill utilizing one of Bullba's bongos.[1]
To Ohma-D'un and beyond Edit
In the wake of the liberation of Naboo, the Gungan people elected to colonize one of the planet's moons—Ohma-D'un. Toba was among the first hired to help build the colony, and carved a niche for himself piloting an armed BullbaBong BB-2 Shuttle, leased at a discounted rate from his father's spaceworks division. In his new role, Toba set about ferrying both cargo and workers, in addition to the sporadic tourist or diplomat. It soon became his goal to earn enough money from his shuttle run to purchase a hyperdrive for the ship and ultimately work outside the Naboo system. After months of working his shuttle run and modifying the leased vehicle, Toba was accepted into the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps, who were accepting Gungans as part of their new peace accords in the wake of the liberation of Naboo. The youthful Gungan was among the first to be trained by the Royal Space Fighter Corps pilots, and in time Toba became a volunteer in the service of Queen Amidala.[1]
Toba found it difficult to adapt to the regimented nature of serving in the military after his time working freelance—nevertheless he persisted with his new career, determined to establish himself as a pilot of note. Along with several other Gungan pilots in the same program, Toba formed Iron Cesta Flight, a unit made up of G-1 starfighters, which were a joint venture between BullbaBong and Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps and were designed for longer periods of independent flight and combat in-system than their N-1 starfighter predecessors. Iron Cesta Flight's duty was to patrol the Naboo system for any pirates looking to harass those commuting between Naboo and Ohma-D'un. After two years of service Toba was offered the opportunity to command Iron Cesta Flight, but the Gungan had still not fully adapted to the military life. With a windfall from a wealthy aunt, and his savings, he left the RSF Corps, and decided to pursue his dream of life beyond the Naboo system.[1]
The Gungan used his pooled resources to purchase a small SoroSuub starship, the B'zabuu-class transport Sea Killer, and a used astromech droid, R5-R5.[1] Within a month, the Gungan had made several cosmetic and armament modifications to the craft.[5] Toba was also able to purchase several contracts from a smuggler friend who had incurred several debts with the Hutt Cartel. The Gungan still called Ohma-D'un home, where he kept his base of operations. In his new career as a smuggler, Toba frequented the hyperlanes identifying as an "independent trader." The Gungan tried to ensure that for the most part, his smuggling practices were never to the detriment of BullbaBong—in turn, Bullba turned a blind eye to his son's illegal activities.[1]
Personality and traits Edit
Toba was one to risk his life adventuring even in his youth, partaking in various activities that were considered hazardous to one's health. He was a brave explorer, and also had a thirst for the heat of combat. Drawing inspiration from his commanding officer in the Gungan Grand Army, Bombad General Binks, Toba developed a yearning to leave Otoh Gunga and Naboo at an early age to pursue a career offworld. Toba could also be an obstinate individual, directly disobeying his mother when he joined the Gungan Grand Army. He was also not one for tutelage, instead choosing to learn skills by his own hand. Toba's lifestyle clashed with the structured regime of military life, which adversely impacted his time in Naboo's RSF Corps. Ultimately, Toba found himself in the smuggling trade, and would attempt to make sure that his more untoward activities did not impact his father's business.[1]
Appearance, attire, and skills Edit
Toba had brown skin, and wore shoulder pads on his upper body. He also wore flight goggles. Toba could speak Basic, Huttese and Gungan Basic.[1]
Equipment and vehicles Edit
Toba owned a blaster pistol and later a heavier model of such a weapon, a comlink, and a tool kid, among other items. His first ship was a BullbaBong shuttle, which he did not own outright and was in fact leased from his father's manufacturing company. In his later service with the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps, Toba possessed a pair of pilot's goggles, and flew a G-1 starfighter, which was also a co-development from his family's holdings. Toba was eventually able to purchase his own ship, the used B'zabuu-Class Transport Sea Killer.[1] After a month of ownership, the Gungan had the visage of an opee sea killer painted on the nose of the Sea Killer, causing the freighter to resemble a 25-meter-long flying fish to others. Just in case the ship's engines were not adequate to escape trouble, Toba also modified the craft with a "Getaway" missile launcher scavenged from a Corellian Engineering Corporation YG-4400 light freighter.[5]
Sources Edit
Notes and references Edit |
5 Rules for Getting Out of Bed to Work Out
Zarin Ficklin Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 12, 2016
Working out in the morning as been the most productive new habit I’ve gained in the last few years. I used to go at night, but it was too hard to be consistent. When I go in the morning I have more energy throughout the rest of the day. It makes me more disciplined in other aspects and makes me feel better. I probably don’t need to convince you that exercising in the morning is a good thing.
For people like me (probably most), the hardest thing about working out is getting out of bed. I used to hate mornings. If I can get to the gym, I’m good. But convincing myself to leave a warm bed instead of sleeping in has always been the biggest barrier.
My routine is to ride that snooze button as far as it will take me, take a quick shower, get dressed in the dark and bolt out the door. —Willie Geist
(This is me for most of my life ☝️).
After much trial and error, here are my fool-proof steps for getting to the gym in the morning.
1. Keep your alarm away from bed ⏰
Instead of using your phone as an alarm I recommend a lamp alarm. At the very least, whatever you use, make sure it forces you to get out of your bed to turn it off. If you can manage it, try to physically jump out of bad instead of slithering (this was a process for me).
2. Have a firm NO SNOOZING policy 😴
Instead of five alarms, have one. Snoozing is a slippery slope that will only make you groggier and almost always leads to failure to work out. You cannot break the snoozing rule. Ever. |
Share. I find your lack of faith disturbing. I find your lack of faith disturbing.
Seminal '90s PC games Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: TIE Fighter are finally getting re-released digitally.
Good Old Games made the announcement on its forums that both games will be coming to the service October 28. Which is totally tomorrow. To make the deal even sweeter, the games will be available in their special edition forms, and for just ten bucks USD.
Almost everyone with a gaming PC in the '90s is familiar with both games in the series, considered by many to be the finest Star Wars games ever made. For those who've wanted to scratch either itch, the only option for most has been booting up a DOS emulator and bringing out the CD-ROMs. IGN's Steve Butts lists it as one of his all-time favorite games.
The modern re-releases are designed to run on modern computers, but they'll still have that late 90s PC aesthetic that people who remember games of that era are so fond of. The GoG forum posts announcing the games was a bit early, as the links to the purchase pages don't work (yet), but beginning tomorrow fans old and new will be able to play these legendary games.
Seth Macy is a freelance writer who just wants to be your friend. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy, and MyIGN at sethgmacy. |
Scheana Marie’s divorce from Mike Shay might be getting ugly.
Following the announcement of the Vanderpump Rules couple’s split earlier this month, Scheana Marie and Mike Shay appeared to be staying civil with one another, but according to a new tweet, their civility may have just been thrown to the wayside.
On December 29, Scheana Marie’s co-star, Stassi Schroeder, shared an article about her Christmas festivities and Mike Shay’s recent visit to his hometown in Michigan. Then, in the caption, she appeared to take aim at the musician’s financial state by revealing that Scheana Marie not only paid for his visit back home but has also been supporting him for years.
“Buying your ex husband a trip home for the holidays after supporting him for years. @scheanamarie, you’re my hero,” Schroeder wrote in the caption of her post.
Stassi Schroeder attends the Rebecca Vallance Spring 2016 fashion show on September 10, 2015 [Image by Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images]
Following Schroeder’s post, Scheana Marie reacted to her comment by telling her, “I’m a giver. What can I say!?”
After seeing the women’s exchange, several commenters weighed in on their posts, and a couple of people found the revelation to be a direct dig at Shay.
“Amazing that neither of you see this as disrespectful to @MikeShayMusic,” one person wrote.
Another said, “WOW! WTF? So much for not slamming him.”
When Scheana Marie and Mike Shay confirmed their decision to end their marriage earlier this month, they said they were committed to remaining friends, despite the end of their romantic relationship.
“While we have made the difficult decision to move forward separately, our story will continue on through the love and mutual respect that we have cultivated throughout our 15-year friendship,” the couple said in their statement to Us Weekly. “Much of the recent speculation and reporting on our relationship has been misguided, and we have come to an amicable decision on all matters. We might have failed at our marriage, but we are committed to succeeding as friends and will continue to support each other’s personal happiness and professional success.”
Scheana Marie and Stassi Schroeder may have taken her divorce to Twitter, but when it comes to Shay, he has remained silent for the most part. While he has not taken any digs at Scheana Marie or thrown any shade her way, he did deny that he was missing several weeks ago.
After rumors claimed Shay had potentially fallen off the wagon and gone missing, Shay defended himself with a post to fans on Instagram.
The post read, “I am not missing. I am sober. I am Happy!!! Don’t believe everything you read. I love my wife and will always love my wife. Whatever is going on between us will stay between us! I love my family and my family loves me and a lot of things have been said out is protection and anger by many people. I just ready for the next chapter in my life!”
Scheana Marie attends "The Night Before" premiere on November 18, 2015 [Image by Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images
Scheana Marie and Mike Shay have been one of the most stable couples on Vanderpump Rules in recent years. Although they did go through a rough patch during filming on Season 4 last year due to Shay’s admitted struggles with substance abuse, the majority of their moments on-screen have been happy ones.
During Season 2, fans watched as Shay constructed a romantic proposal at the home of Lisa Vanderpump with the help of Scheana Marie’s co-stars, including Kristen Doute and Stassi Schroeder. Then, during Season 3, fans watched as the couple tied the knot at the Hummingbird Nest Ranch in Southern California.
To see more of Scheana Marie and Mike Shay, as well as the end of their marriage, tune into new episodes of Vanderpump Rules Season 5 airing on Mondays at 9 p.m. on Bravo TV.
[Featured Image by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images] |
Of all the liberties guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, the most underrated by far is the one that gives us the right to complain to our elected officials. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly: all of these are far more widely known, legislated, and litigated than the right to—as the founders rather tactfully put it—“petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” There are a great many ways to petition the government, including with actual petitions, but, short of showing up in person, the one reputed to be the most effective is picking up the phone and calling your congressional representatives. In the weeks following the Inauguration of Donald J. Trump, so many people started doing so that, in short order, voice mail filled up and landlines began blurting out busy signals. Pretty soon, even e-mails were bouncing back, with the information that the target in-box was full and the suggestion that senders “contact the recipient directly.” That being impractical, motivated constituents turned to other means. The thwarted and outraged took to Facebook or Twitter or the streets. The thwarted and determined dug up direct contact information for specific congressional staffers. The thwarted and clever remembered that it was still possible, several technological generations later, to send faxes; one Republican senator received, from a single Web-based faxing service, seven thousand two hundred and seventy-six of them in twenty-four hours. The thwarted and creative phoned up a local pizza joint, ordered a pie, and had it delivered, with a side of political opinion, to the Senate. Americans vote, if we vote at all, roughly once every two years. But even in a slow season, when no one is resorting to faxes or protests or pizza-grams, we participate in the political life of our nation vastly more often by reaching out to our members of Congress. When we do so, however, we almost never get to speak to them directly. Instead, we wind up dealing with one of the thousands of people, many of them too young to rent a car, who collectively constitute the customer-service workforce of democracy. For them, as for so many of us, life in the past several weeks has taken a turn for the strange and exhausting. Politically minded citizens who went to work for Congress now find themselves in the situation of airline agents during a Category 4 hurricane: a relatively small cohort with limited resources encounters a huge number of people up in arms. If you tried to call a federal legislator anytime in the past several weeks (and, full disclosure, I did: for almost my entire adult life, I have been the kind of person who likes to talk to her elected officials, from school-board members on up to senators), you were as likely as not to reach an automated recording informing you that your call could not be answered, “due to an unusually high call volume.” Bureaucratically speaking, those are some of the most irritating words on the planet. But, politically speaking, they are the start of a tantalizing sentence: Due to an unusually high call volume, what? At present, an enormous number of people are calling their political representatives, not always to obvious effect. So what difference does it really make in the minds of lawmakers—and, more to the point, on the floors of the House and the Senate—when large numbers of everyday people start contacting Congress?
In 1876, the centenary of American independence, Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent for the telephone, and that device has been mixed up with our national politics ever since. The following year, Rutherford B. Hayes had one installed in the White House. (Its phone number was “1.”) Three years later, the technology came to Capitol Hill, in the form of a single phone placed in the lobby of the House of Representatives, where it was answered, increasingly often and increasingly to his inconvenience, by the House doorkeeper. More phones appeared soon afterward, but demand kept outstripping supply, until, eventually, Congress purchased a hundred-line switchboard, placed it in the Capitol Building, and, in 1898, hired a young woman named Harriott Daley to operate it. “A brisk, pleasant little woman with probably the most important unofficial position in the United States Congress”: that is how a newspaper correspondent once described Daley, who was twenty-five, widowed, and raising a young daughter when she took the job. In the beginning, she worked alone, from eight in the morning until as late as midnight, answering some two hundred calls a day across all of Congress. By the middle of the twentieth century, that number had increased to sixty thousand, or almost twenty-two million calls a year, and the telephone staff had grown in tandem. By the time Daley retired, in 1945, she oversaw fifty other operators, colloquially known as Hello Girls. Also by then, she could reputedly recognize some ninety-six senators, three hundred and ninety-four representatives, and three hundred journalists by the sound of their voices. Almost as soon as Daley began answering the phones, everyday citizens began using them to give legislators a piece of their mind. In 1928, an oil and gas company urged citizens to call their senators to oppose a gas tax; sometime later, a Utah gentleman published a poem urging people to call their senators to request better wintertime road-clearing. Other early telephone activists called Congress about other concerns: the Selective Service, school funding, Social Security legislation, power-company regulation, the agricultural potential of sugar beets. By mid-century, a Marjorie Lansing, of Massachusetts, was travelling around the country encouraging constituents to adopt “the pester technique”: “Call your senator in his office, call him at home late at night, call him in the morning before he’s had his breakfast eggs.” Even members of Congress sometimes urged people to call members of Congress: in 1941, Representative Jeannette Rankin, of Montana, told those opposed to American involvement in the Second World War to “call your congressman by telephone every day and tell him how you feel.” Today, thanks to the Internet-as-all-purpose-phone-book, it is easier than ever to call your Congress members, by bypassing the switchboard and phoning their offices directly. If you do so, your call will be answered not by a Capitol operator (today, they number only in the couple of dozen) but, most likely, by a staff assistant or an intern. Staff assistants are typically recent college graduates, twenty-three or twenty-four years old, learning the ropes of American politics before they go off to get a business degree or a master’s in political science. Interns tend to be even younger—nineteen- and twenty-year-olds taking a summer job or some time off from school—although they do basically the same work, usually minus the salary. Together, these staffers can be found working for the five hundred and thirty-five voting members of Congress, the forty-nine congressional committees, commissions, and caucuses, and the district office of every lawmaker in every state. An exact head count is hard to come by, but the congressional employees whose time is mostly spent fielding constituent messages number in the thousands. How seriously those messages are taken by Congress varies widely, chiefly because, when it comes to interacting with the public, there’s really no such thing as Congress per se. There are five hundred and thirty-five small businesses that together form the legislative arm of government, and their way of dealing with constituents can differ as much as their politics. As a logistical matter, however, most congressional offices function in roughly the same way. No matter how a message comes in—by phone, e-mail, post, fax, carrier pigeon—it is entered into a software program known as a constituent-management system. Owing to stringent security requirements, only a few of these systems are authorized by Congress, and many members use one called Intranet Quorum, made by Leidos, a Virginia-based defense contractor and technology company. Like many things the federal government purchases from such companies, it is expensive, as are the other human and technological resources that go into fielding the concerns of average Americans. According to Bradford Fitch, the President of the Congressional Management Foundation (C.M.F.), a nonpartisan nonprofit group that works to improve the efficacy of interactions between citizens and lawmakers, constituent communications account for twenty to thirty per cent of the budget for every congressional office on Capitol Hill. Exactly how many calls and e-mails and the like are collectively entered into constituent-management systems is impossible to say, because members of Congress are under no obligation to release that data. The same goes for district offices, which, in some cases, don’t even keep those figures for themselves. (They do typically share with their D.C. headquarters the gist of incoming communications, if not a precise tally.) The Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper tracks both average and peak call volumes to the switchboard, but declines to make that information public, for reasons it likewise keeps to itself: possibly to prevent denial-of-service attacks, possibly to deter competitively minded constituents from trying to set new records.
Unlike call volume, the data on mail sent to Congress is public, and it suggests that, at least among the politically active, the U.S. Postal Service remains popular; the Senate alone received more than 6.4 million letters last year. Contrary to popular opinion, those written communications are an effective way of communicating with Congress, as are their electronic kin. “Everything is read, every call and voice mail is listened to,” Isaiah Akin, the deputy legislative director for Oregon’s Senator Ron Wyden, told me. “We don’t discriminate when it comes to phone versus e-mail versus letter.” As it turns out, some less egalitarian offices do discriminate, but not in the direction you might expect. According to a 2015 C.M.F. survey of almost two hundred senior congressional staffers, when it comes to influencing a lawmaker’s opinion, personalized e-mails, personalized letters, and editorials in local newspapers all beat out the telephone. In normal times, then—which is to say, in the times we don’t currently live in—calling your members of Congress is not an intrinsically superior way to get them to listen. But what makes a particular type of message effective depends largely on what you are trying to achieve. For mass protests, such as those that have been happening recently, phone calls are a better way of contacting lawmakers, not because they get taken more seriously but because they take up more time—thereby occupying staff, obstructing business as usual, and attracting media attention. E-mails get the message through but are comparatively swift and easy for staffers to process, while conventional mail is at a disadvantage when speed matters, since, in addition to the time spent in transit, anything sent to Congress is temporarily held for testing and decontamination, to protect employees from mail bombs and toxins. Afterward, most constituent mail is scanned and forwarded to congressional offices as an electronic image. In other words, your letter will not arrive overnight, and it will not arrive with those grains of Iowa wheat or eau de constituent you put in it. But, once it shows up, it will be taken at least as seriously as a call. “Escher! Get your ass up here!” Some forms of correspondence, however, do not carry quite as much weight, starting with anything that comes from outside a legislator’s district or state. Carter Moore, a former staff assistant for the late congresswoman Julia Carson, of Indiana, recounted an anecdote about a constituent who decided to write a letter on immigration to every member of Congress. One morning, Moore came in to work and found, piled up in his office, hundreds of identical envelopes, forwarded unopened. Other messages that staffers tend to disregard include tweets and Facebook posts (less out of dismissiveness than because of the difficulty of determining if they come from constituents), online petitions (because they require so little effort that they aren’t seen as meaningful), comments submitted through apps like Countable, and mass e-mails that originate from the Web sites of advocacy groups. (These last have a particularly bad reputation. According to the C.M.F., almost half of staffers believe, incorrectly, that they are sent without the constituent’s knowledge.) Likewise, phone calls that hew to scripts from advocacy organizations usually get downgraded, especially if the caller seems ill-informed about the issue. Such calls also tend to annoy staffers. “You could tell when you walked in the office by how the staff was responding that they were getting the same call over and over,” Josiah Bonner, a former Republican congressman from Alabama, said. (Jo Bonner, as he is known, was the victim of one of the few recurring errors made by the congressional operators, a result of having served in the House at the same time as John Boehner. “Not infrequently, I’d pick up the phone,” he told me, “and someone would say, ‘I’d like to tell the Speaker to go straight to hell.’ And I’d say, ‘Well, I’ll be sure to get him the message.’ ”) Regardless of how they choose to do so, most people who contact Congress have legitimate concerns—but, as any staffer can tell you, there is a small but enduring subgroup of wiseacres and crackpots. Moore, the former congressional staffer, once took a call from a man who claimed, in all seriousness, to be the true and rightful owner of the moon. (“Pause, obviously,” Moore said. “And then I was, like, ‘I’m sorry, I missed that, can you say it again?’ ”) For a while in the early two-thousands, a gentleman from parts unknown phoned up after hours several times a week and left dirty limericks—a new one each time—on the voice mails of dozens of senators. Conspiracy theorists love to call Congress, and do so in droves: to claim that 9/11 was an inside job; to demand investigation into a train-maintenance yard ostensibly meant to serve as a FEMA-run concentration camp when the government declares martial law; to warn about the impending conquest of the United States by the Queen of England. Such oddities aside, most communications to Congress fall into one of two categories. In the first, known as constituent services, callers have a specific problem with a federal agency and want their senator or representative to help solve it: by securing an honor guard for a veteran’s funeral, resolving a filing issue with the Social Security Administration, nominating an aspiring cadet to West Point, obtaining political asylum for an imperilled relative, or helping out with an overseas adoption. The second category, conversely, might be called constituent demands: someone calls and expresses a political preference to anyone who answers the phone and hopes that his or her legislator will act on it. It is a curious thing about Americans that we simultaneously believe nothing gets done in Congress and have faith that this strategy works.
Actually, this strategy does work in a surprising number of cases, though probably not the ones that you’re thinking of. If you ask your senator to co-sponsor a bill on mud-flap dimensions or to propose a change to the bottling requirements for apple cider or to vote in favor of increased funding for a rare childhood disease, you stand a decent chance of succeeding. This is not a trivial point, since such requests make up the majority of those raised by constituents. (They also represent the underappreciated but crucial role that average citizens play in the legislative process. “I’ve written bills that became law because people called to complain about a particular issue I was unaware of,” Akin, of Senator Wyden’s office, said. It was constituents, for instance, who educated Congress about America’s opioid crisis and got members to dedicate funds and draft health legislation to begin dealing with it.) If, however, you want a member of Congress to vote your way on a matter of intense partisan fervor—immigration, education, entitlement programs, health insurance, climate change, gun control, abortion—your odds of success are, to understate matters, considerably slimmer. To borrow an example from the C.M.F.’s Brad Fitch, four well-informed doctors might persuade a senator to support the use of a certain surgical procedure in V.A. hospitals, but four hundred thousand phone calls to Senator John McCain are unlikely to change his position on the appropriate use of American military power overseas. That kind of policy change isn’t impossible, and it isn’t unprecedented, but it is extremely rare. When I asked past and present Congress members and high-level staffers if constituent input mattered, all of them emphasized that it absolutely does. But when I asked them to name a time that a legislator had changed his or her vote on the basis of such input, I got, in every instance, a laugh, and then a very long pause. It’s easy to chalk that reaction up to embarrassment, as if Congress members had been caught paying lip service to constituents while voting in accordance with other influences: party leadership, polling, lobbyists, interest groups, donors, the dictates of conscience. And it is true that those influences are potent, while our own has been compromised in recent times by gerrymandering; politicians in the safe districts which that practice creates are still vulnerable to challenges from their base, as the Tea Party demonstrated in 2010, but oppositional voices, like oppositional votes, are less effective than they once were. But those very long pauses also reflected a legitimate and enduring conundrum of political theory: to what extent the job of a representative is to represent. “We want people to know their voices are being heard,” Phil Novack, the press secretary for Ted Cruz, told me, before going on to say, essentially, that they wouldn’t be heeded: “The senator was elected based on certain values and ideals, and he’s going to keep fighting for those, even though some of his constituents might disagree.” That may be frustrating, but it isn’t dodging or doublespeak, and it certainly isn’t an attitude found only on one side of the aisle; it’s a particular belief about the role a lawmaker should play in a representative democracy. Edmund Burke said roughly the same thing more than two centuries ago, while describing the relationship between a legislator and his constituents: “Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention.” You can almost hear the “but” coming, and then it does. “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.” By this theory of governance, it should be difficult for average citizens to influence a lawmaker’s vote. For one thing, those lawmakers have access to information and expertise unavailable to the rest of us. Jo Bonner described voting for TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, over both his own distaste and the vociferous objections of his constituents, after listening to everyone from the head of the Federal Reserve to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers explain why the American economy would tank if he didn’t. For another, everyone loves the idea of Congress members heeding their constituents, right up until we disagree with what those constituents think. Fitch told me that he once stopped by a senator’s office shortly before a vote on legislation, drafted after the massacre at Sandy Hook, to close loopholes in gun regulations. The senator hailed from a deep-red state, and the phones were ringing off the hook. Fitch asked the harried assistant if the calls were running ninety-nine to one against the proposed legislation. The assistant said, “Yes, except for the one.” Every single caller opposed the bill. The senator voted for it anyway. For all that, constituents are not voiceless in a democracy, and every once in a while they do score major legislative wins. In 1989, Congress tried to give itself a fifty-per-cent pay raise, and the American public rebelled. In late 2005, the House passed a heavily lobbied-for immigration-reform bill that increased fines and prison sentences on the undocumented and made it a crime to offer them certain kinds of aid; its chances in the Senate were then swiftly tanked by a citizen uprising, including one of the first successful mass mobilizations of the Latino community against a piece of legislation. In 2012, what should have been a pair of obscure little intellectual-property bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (sopa) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), provoked such a massive outcry that nearly a fifth of senators withdrew their support in a single day, and the acts were effectively killed. Why constituents succeeded in making themselves heard in these cases while failing in others is difficult to say; political causality is famously, enormously complicated. (Consider the quantity of ink that was spilled just trying to account for Trump’s victory.) Kristina Miler, a political scientist at the University of Maryland and the author of the book “Constituency Representation in Congress,” has argued that activism works in part simply by making previously hidden segments of the population more visible to legislators. Tasked with representing anywhere from seven hundred and fifty thousand people to tens of millions of them, most lawmakers are familiar with only a tiny fraction of their district or state. But, in a series of surveys and experiments, Miler found that hearing from citizens changed lawmakers’ mental maps and, in doing so, altered how they legislate. (SOPA is a good example of this. Before it failed, Congress members considering an intellectual-property bill were most likely to think about its potential impact on major copyright holders like the Walt Disney Corporation. Today, no one can contemplate such legislation without remembering other constituents, from librarians to the tech community, and adjusting plans and votes accordingly.) For constituent activity to have more immediate effects on the actions of lawmakers, however, other conditions—most of them necessary, none of them necessarily sufficient—must apply. Broadly speaking, these include a huge quantity of people acting in concert, an unusually high pitch of passion, a specific countervailing vision, and consistent press coverage unfavorable to sitting politicians. Together, these can create the most potent condition of all: the possibility (or, at any rate, the fear) that the collective restiveness could jeopardize reëlection. Such conditions do not emerge very often in American politics, but, when they do, pundits routinely describe them with recourse to the metaphor of a flood. Calls pour in; dams threaten to burst; legislators are deluged, inundated, swamped. “It’s kind of like water flowing down into a dam,” Fitch said. “If a hundred cubic feet of water flows down over a period of three weeks, it’s not going to put pressure on the dam. But if a hundred cubic feet of water flows down in three minutes, something’s going to give.” That language is vivid but hardly precise, so I asked Carter Moore how he might quantify a flood. “If you start seeing tweets or Facebook posts saying, ‘Tried to call but got a busy signal,’ that’s one sign,” he said. “If everybody in your office has been pulled off their regular duties to answer calls but the line is still clogged, that’s usually a sign, too.” In terms of actual call volume, he noted that flood levels depend, as they do in real life, on terrain; at baseline, representatives of populous districts with major media centers get more calls than those from Idaho or Wyoming. “Still, if the calls are coming in at forty an hour,” Moore said, “something interesting is happening. If a member of Congress is presented at the end of the day with around six hundred to a thousand unique calls, I’d call that a flood.” “Alright, now see what happens when you turn the faucet off.” |
BEIJING (Reuters) - Police in western China’s restive Xinjiang on Monday “gunned down” several rioters who attacked a police station and killed at least four people, though an exile group said the incident started when police fired on peaceful protesters.
The violence was the worst Xinjiang has experienced in about a year. Last August, seven Chinese military police were killed when a member of the Uighur minority rammed them with an explosives-laden vehicle in the Xinjiang border region.
State television said the latest incident took place in the desert city of Hotan when a mob attacked a police station, taking hostages and setting it on fire.
Two hostages, a paramilitary policeman and a guard died in the violence, as well as several of the attackers, it reported. Six hostages were freed.
“Police gunned down several rioters who attacked a police station and killed four people in Hotan city,” the official Xinhua news agency said.
“Rioters broke into the police station shortly after 12 p.m. (0400 GMT). They assaulted the police, took hostages and set fire to the station,” it added, citing the Ministry of Public Security.
“The police quickly converged on the scene and shot a number of rioters while freeing six hostages.”
The situation has now been bought “under control”, the state television said, and a team from the state anti-terrorism office was on its way to the scene.
The Xinjiang government was not immediately available for comment.
Dilxat Raxit of the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress said residents in Hotan had told his group that police opened fire on a peaceful protest, leading to fighting between the two sides.
“The people cannot stand the government’s repression any longer,” he said by telephone. Reuters was not able to independently verify his account.
“VIOLENT SEPARATIST GROUPS”
Beijing often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets, saying they work with al Qaeda or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.
Many Uighurs — a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to the region — chafe under rule from Beijing and restrictions on their language, culture and religion.
They now make up less than half of Xinjiang’s population after decades of immigration by the majority Han from other parts of China.
In July 2009, Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi was rocked by violence between majority Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people.
Since then, China has executed nine people it blamed for instigating the riots, detained and prosecuted hundreds of others and ramped up spending on security, according to state media and overseas rights groups.
Last month, Kazakhstan extradited a Uighur schoolteacher who had been granted U.N. refugee status to face charges of terrorism in China, brushing off concerns he could be tortured and that the charges against him were trumped up.
Xinjiang is strategically vital to China and Beijing has shown no sign of loosening its grip.
A vast swathe of territory, accounting for one-sixth of China’s land mass, Xinjiang holds oil, gas and coal deposits and borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central Asia. |
Port city inferno razes 2,000 homes BelfastTelegraph.co.uk A raging fire leapt from hilltop to hilltop in Chile's picturesque port city of Valparaiso and stubbornly burned out of control in places more than 24 hours later, killing 12 people and destroying at least 2,000 homes. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/port-city-inferno-razes-2000-homes-30183098.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article30183097.ece/6f88b/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-817629b4-f74f-4f58-95b7-d536fa2c9dd4_I1.jpg
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A raging fire leapt from hilltop to hilltop in Chile's picturesque port city of Valparaiso and stubbornly burned out of control in places more than 24 hours later, killing 12 people and destroying at least 2,000 homes.
More than 10,000 people were evacuated, including more than 200 women inmates at a prison.
With hot dry winds stoking the embers, some of the fires broke out again and were burning out of control as a second night fell.
The blaze began on Saturday afternoon local time in a forested ravine next to ramshackle housing on one of the city's 42 hilltops, and spread quickly as hot ash rained down over wooden houses and narrow streets that lack municipal water systems.
Electricity failed as the fire grew, with towering, sparking flames turning the night sky orange over a darkening, destroyed horizon.
Eventually, neighbourhoods on six hilltops were reduced to ashes, including one hill just several blocks from Chile's parliament building. And flames broke out again on at least two of those hills, burning out of control and threatening to consume other neighbourhoods.
"It's a tremendous tragedy. This could be the worst fire in the city's history," President Michelle Bachelet said as firefighters contained most of the blazes, mobilising 20 helicopters and planes to drop water on hotspots.
The fire destroyed at least 2,000 houses and authorities warned that the death and damage toll could rise once the fires cooled enough for them to search for bodies.
More than 500 people were treated at hospitals, mostly for smoke inhalation.
Patricio Bustos, who directs the national forensics service, said DNA tests would be needed to identify some of the remains.
It was already the worst fire to hit the picturesque seaside city of 250,000 people since 1953, when 50 people were killed and every structure was destroyed on several of the city's hills.
While the fires were contained to the hills, Ms Bachelet declared the entire city a catastrophe zone, putting Chile's military in charge of maintaining order. While 1,250 firefighters, police and forest rangers battled the blaze, 2,000 sailors in combat gear patrolled streets to maintain order and prevent looting.
"The people of Valparaiso have courage, have strength and they aren't alone," Ms Bachelet said.
Valparaiso has a vibrant port and is home to Chile's national legislature, but it owes its status as a Unesco World Heritage Site to its colourful architecture, with neighbourhoods hugging hills so steep that people use staircases and cable cars to reach their homes.
Unfortunately, many homes in densely-populated poorer areas above the city center have been built without proper water or natural gas supplies, and many streets are too narrow for fire trucks to enter.
"We are too vulnerable as a city. We have been the builders and architects of our own danger," Valparaiso Mayor Jorge Castro said.
Chile's emergency response system generated automatic phone calls to each house in danger as the mandatory evacuations expanded. Many people stuffed their cars with possessions after getting these calls, and streets quickly became impassible.
Water trucks and firefighters were stuck downhill as people abandoned their vehicles and ran. Some carried television sets and others took canisters of natural gas, fearing an explosion if flames reached their homes.
With so many hills on fire, water was in short supply even in established neighbourhoods downhill. A water emergency was declared, cutting off non-essential supplies.
Shelters were overflowing. Ms Bachelet toured some and said she would meet each of her ministers to hear what they were doing in response. "The situation is dramatic, but help is already arriving," she said.
Maria Elizabeth Diaz, eight months' pregnant and trying to rest with her two sons in a shelter set up in Valparaiso's Greek School, said she had been hesitant to flee her home in Cerro Las Canas when she first learned that the hilltop above her was on fire.
"I didn't want to move because I was afraid they'd rob me, but I had to flee when I saw the fire was coming down the hill," she said. "I lost everything. Now I've been ordered to rest because I was having contractions. My little one knows that he can't arrive quite yet."
Another evacuee, Erica Gonzalez, 74, said her daughter and some neighbours had to carry her to safety because the fire burned her wheelchair.
"I was left in the street. My house was completely burned, and that of my daughter a block away," she said, visibly upset as she hugged a grandchild.
Some people returned home to discover total destruction. "It's frightening, everything is burned," said Francisca Granados, who had spent the night with friends in the neighbouring city of Vina del Mar.
Thick clouds of smoke surrounded the city prison, where nine pregnant inmates were transferred to a detention centre in the nearby city of Quillota. Another 204 women inmates were being evacuated to a sports arena. More than 2,700 men will remain at the prison for now. |
A side by side comparison of President Donald Trump’s response to the Manchester Arena terrorist attack and President Barack Obama’s response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando reveal a lot about how the two perceive terror differently.
Trump addressed the tragedy in the United Kingdom that claimed 22 live and left at 59 injured in no uncertain terms, saying the victims were “murdered by evil losers in life” and targeted in a terrorist attack by extremists. He also added that: “This wicked ideology must be obliterated, and I mean completely obliterated. Life must be protected.”
WATCH:
“So many young, beautiful innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by evil losers in life,” Trump said in response to the attack. “I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. They would think that’s a great name. I will call them from now on losers, because that’s what they are. They’re losers. And we’ll have more of them. But they’re losers. Just remember that.”
In the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting carried out by an Islamic extremist, Obama took a more measured tone. While pointing out the event was an “act of terror,” Obama went on to say they reached “no definitive judgment on the precise motivations of the killer.” Obama also added that he directed authorities to “spare no effort to determine what — if any — inspiration or association this killer may have had with terrorist groups.”
WATCH:
Obama also used the incident to bring up gun laws in the United States, saying “reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well.”
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RCMP from the Warman/Martensville detachment have found the second escaped inmate who walked off the job while on assignment for a reduced custody urban camp.
Cory Lee Rushkewich, 25, was working on the 500 block of Main Street in Martensville, when he allegedly walked away along with fellow inmate Daniel Forest at approximately 9:00 a.m. CST.
Forest was found and detained without incident in a rural area in Corman Park shortly before noon on Thursday.
Rushkewich was at large until later in the day when he was found in the same area.
Cory Lee Rushkewich is one of two escaped inmates captured Thursday in a rural area of Corman Park. (RCMP) RCMP had advised the public to not approach him.
Rushkewich and Forest are both inmates at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre.
Both will appear in court tomorrow.
Earlier in the day, police were asking the public to stay away from the area near Wanuskewin Road just north of Saskatoon in the Corman Park Industrial area.
RCMP were seen scouring the area, and an armoured vehicle drove back and forth.
Armed officers searched the fields with a police dog. The RCMP had called it a high risk situation. |
A rainbow flag, which has flown outside the front of a Uniting Church in the Redfern-Waterloo area, has been cut down twice in the past three weeks. They had bought the letterbox from Sydney artist Mickey Quick, who gave the couple a replacement for free after the attack. But in a separate incident within the week it had been knocked off its fixing. "[The vandals] had also written "no" over the "yes" but they did a bad job so it wasn't very visible," Mr Stumm said. On the night of the second attack, the couple claimed they returned home to find a bag of what they said was dog poo on their doorstep.
The same-sex letterbox, covered in black paint after the first instance of vandalism. Credit:Facebook Mr Stumm said the vandalism had prompted others in the area to come forward and share what had happened to their displays of support for same-sex marriage. "Another neighbour in our street put a rainbow marriage flag at the local church with the approval of the priest, but it has been torn down several times. "The priest knocked on our door on Sunday morning to chat about that." South Sydney Uniting Church minister the Reverend Andrew Collins said vandals had twice climbed up onto the church to cut down the flag, which was held up by cable ties.
"We will keep replacing it if it comes down again," Mr Collins said. "We are not sure if this is a more deliberate statement against the campaign or just someone playing games but, given it's happened twice, I seem to think it isn't just someone playing around." Mr Stumm said another neighbour had become too afraid to show her support for same-sex marriage. "She put a handwritten note in our letterbox, saying thank you for making the statement we have. "It said: 'I bought a rainbow flag. I would have loved to put up but I am too afraid. I am a single mother with a young child and I don't want to.'
"That little spray painting of the letterbox has intimidated someone from expressing what they intended to. "It's having an effect. It's pretty clear that the unnecessary plebiscite will result in a 'yes' vote so we are going through this for nothing." Mr Stumm said there had been a positive interaction after the vandalism. "An older Italian-Australian lady who I am friendly with from the neighbourhood, she saw the letterbox and said, 'It's great. I haven't got my form yet, I really want to vote yes.' "This is below the surface everywhere. Queer friends of ours are abused. Men yell abuse out the window of cars and harass lesbian women who show affection in public.
"This is really upsetting to think that there's people there who feel entitled to have a say about the legal status of other people's relationships but that, if anyone expresses an opposing opinion, they feel they have the right to encroach on a person's house or property." The couple have now left a note next to the letterbox that reads: "If you don't like our letterbox - make your own. Please don't deface ours ... we invite you to knock on our door and chat about why we say yes and you say no." Mr Quick has made about 100 of the rainbow letterboxes and is selling them for $75 each. Proceeds go to Camp Out, a camp for LGBTIQ teenagers. |
Making a Side Project, Part 1: Ideas
Mubashar Iqbal Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 5, 2017
Coming up with project ideas
Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash
Idea’s are everywhere you look, or even listen. Not all of them are good ideas, but you should keep an open mind and consider them all to find the good ones. A small change in perspective or approach, can turn a bad idea in to a great one.
My favorite source of idea is my inbox. Every email I receive with a spreadsheet attached, I start thinking about how the information in the spreadsheet was collected, organized and then made it’s way to me. Could that process be improved, with an app of some kind. This applies to business and my personal life, yes I have friends that send me emails with spreadsheets!
Another source of ideas is reducing repetition. If I find I’m doing the same thing on a regular basis, that can be boring and a waste of time. If I can build a tool to automate the process, that can save me lots of time in the long run. If that tool that can be used by other people that saves even more time. Saving time, saves money and increases productivity.
Idea’s really are everywhere. People like to complain, they complain on television, on the radio on social media. People complain about things they don’t like to do, build something that allows them to not have to do it, or make it easy and quick to do. Or build something that lets them complain more :) |
Another person has come forward claiming she was the victim of police brutality from an Atlantic City officer. NBC10's Harry Hairston has the details. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013)
Another person has come forward claiming she was the victim of police brutality from an Atlantic City officer.
In only five years on the force, Officer Sterling Wheaten has already been named in half a dozen lawsuits. The latest comes from Janine Costantino, who claims Wheaten assaulted her at Caesar’s Casino last year.
“I couldn’t imagine this was actually happening,” she said.
Costantino says Wheaten arrested her brother after he got into an altercation with another patron.
“Wheaten had my brother in a headlock and his arms were limp and his legs were weak,” Costantino said. “I screamed out that it was police brutality and that I was videotaping it all.”
That’s when she claims Wheaten turned on her.
“He was running at me and he says, ‘Give me the phone you b**h,’” she said. “He grabbed my bun and he was slamming my forehead into the floor.”
Wheaten then arrested Costantino but court records show the charges against her were later dropped. Costantino says she’ll never forget what one officer told her the night of the incident.
“He’s like, ‘Oh, that’s your first mistake,’” she said. “You shouldn’t be videotaping police officers.”
Wheaten already made headlines earlier this year after video surfaced allegedly showing him releasing his K-9 on a man who was already face down on the ground. Lorenzo Langford, who was the Atlantic City mayor at that time, called the video “horrifying.”
NBC10 obtained an internal police report which shows that Atlantic City Police internal affairs investigated Wheaten 15 times between 2008 and 2010 for allegations of misconduct, some of those allegations being excessive force. Each time however, the department concluded Wheaten did nothing wrong or that there was not enough evidence to clearly prove he did something wrong. Wheaten’s attorney told us she was confident internal affairs performed complete and thorough investigations. She did not respond to the latest lawsuit however.
“I get calls every day from people who have been brutalized and terrorized by the Atlantic City Police Department,” said Jennifer Bonjean, an attorney who is representing Costantino and others who are suing Wheaten. “It’s overwhelming the pattern that I’ve been able to establish just with these limited cases I’ve been involved in. I think the prosecutor’s office is turning a blind eye to many of these allegations. They have to be seeing the same police officers that we’re seeing.”
The Atlantic City Police Department is also at the center of another lawsuit from one of their own. Sergeant Mark Benjamin sued the department after claiming he received death threats for reporting police misconduct to his superiors.
The various allegations against the Department have caught national attention. The Reverend Al Sharpton visited Atlantic City on Wednesday to attend a rally speaking out on the department’s alleged police brutality. |
One of the least watched court cases doing the rounds of late involves Gary Friedrich and his quest for the rights to his creation, Ghost Rider. Friedrich initiated the case in March 2007, and it continues to run to this day. It’s been a fairly long haul, with changes of courts, depositions, discovery and the like taking its toll on the wait for a verdict, but now things are really starting to heat up. As I look at the documents I can’t help but wonder about the physical, emotional and mental toll this must surely be taking on Friedrich himself – the sheer amount of time wasted by Marvel’s lawyers on trivial things is incredible, but they have to do their thing I guess. I also can’t help but wonder, a lot of these cases could surely be settled with a simple deal. I know Marvel don’t want to hand over the rights to their established characters, but surely they could cut a deal whereby they pay a creator off and let it go at that? With the millions they must be spending on court cases, each and every year, it’d have to be cheaper in the long run and better for their overall P.R. purposes. Still, I’m not in charge and there’s possibly a good reason for that.
Unlike the recent high profile Jack Kirby case, all of the main cast in the Ghost Rider saga are still alive to give evidence; Friedrich, artist Mike Ploog, editor Roy Thomas, Stan Lee and Friedrich’s friend and former editor of Men’s Only Magazine, David George, all of whom have now done their bit. Again, also unlike Kirby, Friedrich has been able to establish that he brought the concept to Marvel and fleshed it out after it’d been vetted and approved by Thomas and Lee, which leaves him in a far stronger position than Kirby – in a lot of ways this case leans more towards that of Jerry Sigel and Joe Shuster than Jack Kirby, although non-artist Friedrich falls down by not having any pre-existing character designs, nor a pre-Marvel synopsis that he can produce to bolster his claims, although he does have the oral testimony of others. The question now is if the work was done as work-for-hire and if Friedrich assigned his rights over to Marvel upon publication, but that’ll be for the judge to decide, each side will have its own view on that. One of the trump cards that Friedrich holds is a prior creation, Hell-Rider. Hell-Rider was created by Friedrich, with assistance from Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, and appeared in its own book at Skywald. While the concept wasn’t Ghost Rider, there are striking similarities between the two characters. Hell-Rider was a human, a Vietnam veteran who had been subject to experiments and as such developed super-powers that worked mostly at nights. He then donned a disguise of leathers and a helmet and rode a motorcycle that had been modified with weapons and shot flames out of the front headlight region. On the other side of the coin, Ghost Rider was a super-powered demon who rode a motorcycle made of flames, wore a costume of leathers and shot fire from his hands. Clearly there’s enough there in the basic premise of Hell-Rider to bolster Friedrich’s claims.
In the first issue of Hell-Rider Friedrich contributed an essay that detailed the creation of that character.
Our featured character would be a superhero, but not in the typical comic book sense of the word. True, he would somehow be endowed with superhuman abilities—but he also had to be a normal human being in all other aspects, a product of today's world filled with the same doubts and fears and possessed by the same burning zest for a swinging "with-it" life as you and I.
In other words, he had to be a person readers could easily identify with rather than a God-like character who could exist only in fantasy. With this in mind, we soon decided he would ride a motorcycle, be a Vietnam veteran although not necessarily a supporter of the conflict and come from an upper-middle class Eastern background to which he has become totally alienated. His power would be physical strength to go along with his superior cycling skills, but he wouldn't be so strong that there wouldn't always be someone stronger, sort of a fastest gun in the West bit, if you can dig what I mean. And we also determined that he must have a basic weakness—that from time to time his strength fails him, a problem he is unable to do anything about [i]
Friedrich was remarkably frank in his deposition and his memory of conversations and meetings appears to hold up with other people’s recollections, although it does fall down slightly when it comes to just how, where, when and if Friedrich spoke to Ploog about the Ghost Rider concept. What is sad is that Friedrich, a talented writer, is now undertaking menial duties and appears to be finished in the comic book world, another example of the industry discarding its own veterans in favour of the Next Hot Thing. Say what you will about Friedrich, but he was a solid storyteller who could spin a decent yarn, even if he was slightly erratic at times. Trust me, there’s far worse than him out there, still.
This following comments have all been taken from depositions given this year as part of the Friedrich vs Marvel case. Gary Friedrich was deposed on the 1st of April, Roy Thomas on the 12th of April, Stan Lee on the 4th of May, Mike Ploog on the 29th of April and David George was deposed on the 14th of April. Some additional comments have also been taken from Gary Friedrich’s original declaration of facts.
THE ORIGIN OF GHOST RIDER
GARY FRIEDRICH: After graduating high school, I worked for a local record store for approximately three years, and then became managing editor of the Jackson Pioneer Newspaper where I was influenced to write from my mentor, Tom Stites. After the record store I got some freelance work from Charlton Comics. My friend, Roy Thomas, with whom I was a roommate in New York, knew the editor at Charlton, Dick Giordano, and he arranged an interview for me with Dick Giordano and I went to Derby, Connecticut, to the Charlton offices and talked to Dick and he gave me a chance to write a script for him. The first thing I did for Dick was an eight-page romance story. Charlton published a lot of romance books and they needed scripts. Dick said if he liked that, he would give me more work. So I did the first script and he liked it and he gave me more scripts. I also did some superhero work for Charlton. I Did the Blue Beetle with Steve Ditko and maybe a couple other things I don't remember the titles on. I also managed to obtain a part time job working with Topps Chewing Gum, where I wrote a series of Superman bubble gum cards and handled proofreading/editorial type tasks.
At Charlton you wrote a complete script and turned it into the editor and then the artist would take your script and draw from your script. The process at Charlton is what's known as a complete script in which the writer tells the artist what to draw. At Marvel the writer would do a plot synopsis, just a brief outline of the story, and then the synopsis would be given to the artist. The artist would then draw the story off of the plot synopsis. The writer would then take the artwork and put in the dialogue and sound effects and that sort of thing. I did freelance work for Charlton until probably August or September of 1966 and then I got a job at Marvel.
ROY THOMAS: It would have been sometime in the latter half of 1966, I believe, after he'd been there several months. I don't recall except that he was - on staff, he was sort of like an editorial assistant. Mostly it would be back-up proofreading of the comics or the letters pages we that we had, maybe writing a bit of copy for house ads or something that -- whatever was – was deemed to be, you know, that -- where they could use writing or proofreading on, that was – that was his job, as it was sort of mine too. I don't know what writing he did first.
GARY FRIEDRICH: At Marvel I was either assistant or associate editor. I never can remember which. Primarily I did proofreading, some preliminary editing work on some of the scripts. I would meet and greet fans that came out to the -- that came to visit Marvel and waited for us out in the reception area, I would go down and talk to them for a little while. From time to time I was also asked by Stan Lee or Roy Thomas who was either an assistant or associate editor, if I would write an issue of a comic book for an existing Marvel title on a separate free lance, independent contractor basis, which I did on a comic by comic basis. My first writing for them was almost certainly Millie the Model. I wrote Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandos. What else did I write? I wrote the X-Men. I wrote a character called the Black Widow. I wrote a western called the Ghost Rider. I wrote some other western titles, Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid, Kid Colt, probably end of '68, that was about it. It got to the point as time went on they trusted me more and more and my instincts to write stories and we didn't always have those meetings. Sometimes I would just go to Roy and give him a brief idea of what I was going to do and Roy would okay it. Stan was involved -- again, early on he was teaching Roy and I how to write in the Stan Lee style as it were. But as he began to trust us more, then Roy would do more of the actual editing.
STAN LEE: He (Gary) did some writing for us so I had met him but, I mean, there was nothing special about my meetings with him that I would remember. We had so many freelance writers. I don't remember when I first met him. He was one of the freelance writers, I know that.
ROY THOMAS : Any freelance writing that he (Gary) did was paid for by a page rate, the same sort of weekly or biweekly, whatever it was, voucher system that the other writers and artists were paid under. I would have definitely known if it was anything else, I would have been aware if anybody was paid in a different manner, I would have known; and, secondly, because, off and on, Gary and I were roommates or apartment mates off and on for at least a couple of years. So we had a lot of conversations about everything, various things.
GARY FRIEDRICH: During the late 1960s, Evel Knievel, a real life motorcycle daredevil who would use his motorcycle to jump cars, canyons and other obstacles, began to rise to popularity. The influence of Evel Knievel and other cycle stunt riders made me begin to evolve my contemplated character from a mere motorcyclist into a motorcycle stuntman, similar to Knievel. Over these years, although far from an everyday project, I would continue to periodically think about my evolving character, including his physical attributes.
In the early summer of 1968 I left to go to California for the summer with a friend of mine, Paul Schade. We didn't really have a plan. I had always wanted to go to California and Paul called me up and said, "I think I'm going to go to California and spend the summer. Would you like to come along?" And I said, "Yes." And we decided we would go out there and just see what was in California. We went to San Francisco, and we stayed for the summer in Los Angeles. We had another friend and his wife from Missouri who came out later, CL Slinkard. Mr. Slinkard was about 5'10". He was very thin and wiry. He had a very -- guess you call it a bony face. Cheeks were somewhat sucked in and high. Had a long part of the nose and he had long red hair. We had seen Mr. Slinkard coming up the street on his motorcycle with his red hair flying back behind his head and bony face and looked for all the world like a skeleton with his skull on fire, it instantly clicked to me that my character would have a skull for a head with flames around and coming out of it and I said, "That's what I want this character to look like." The addition of the flaming skull idea lead me to imagine my hero being a motor cycle stuntman by day in normal human form, but as being somehow connected to the devil at night when he would transform into the flaming skulled version of himself.
PAUL SCHADE : We went out to California the summer of 1968 roughly. We got to Los Angeles maybe last week in June, left maybe the first or second week in August, something like that. On his arrival Gary Friedrich and I were walking down the street in the evening and we had already been there and Slinkard showed up on his motorcycle and it was a very unusual sight to see. He had his pregnant girlfriend on the back, he drove her out from Missouri, and he had a Triumph Bonneville 650 motorcycle with huge ape hangers on them. I guess he had been on the road three or four days. And he had this flaming red hair, long, sticking out like this, and I'm pretty sure it was in the evening, and he had wrap around sunglasses on and he pulled up – you had to see it. You just had to see it. I mean, it was something else.
After Gary and I got ourselves under control from laughing seeing this scene, he said, "I'm going to do something with that." I said, "Hell, you can write a book if you want, but," I said, "nobody will believe it." He said, "I don't know. You know, something's got to be done, I'm going to do something with that." I remember being with Slinkard when a policeman pulled him over and he didn't have a motorcycle helmet, so therefore he wasn't wearing one that night or I wouldn't have seen his hair. He got a ticket for that I think.
Not only did I see it and remember it, but it was reinforced almost daily when you looked at him. And Gary just pretty much said, "I got to do something with that." I didn't discuss a lot of detailed comic book stuff with him and things like that. It just wasn't anything that we talked about.
ROY THOMAS : CL Slinkard was actually shorter than me, and I'm pretty short. So he was five two, something like that. When he would be driving a car, you'd be behind him, you could barely tell there was a driver, and people were always saying things like that. He was very light, maybe not thin as a rail but thin, with kind of a tousledy, I guess it was, maybe it was stringy, it was red hair, just full head of red hair and some freckles. And, as far as looks, he always looked like kind of a scarecrow kind of character to me. Nothing terribly remarkable, had a kind of a high, reedy voice. And that's what I basically remember.
DAVID GEORGE: I probably met Gary around ’66, ’67, somewhere around there. I do remember in the late ‘60s drinking with Gary, whom I eventually did hire to work as my associate editor. There is a three-month lead time between the time you work on the magazine and the time it's actually reached publication. I know he didn't work with the December issue which was three months prior to that, that we worked on it. So sometime in the early '70s, in the early 1970s.
GARY FRIEDRICH: At the end of the summer of 1968, I returned to New York and approached Magazine Management, which was then owned by someone else, to get my staff position with the comic book people back but it had been filled. I did not rejoin the staff, but 1 did continue to write freelance comics from time to time on the same free lance, comic-by-comic basis. (While in California) I did freelance work for Marvel, I would either call the artist and then discuss a plot idea with him over the phone or I would send him a written synopsis. He would draw the work and mail it to me in California, and then I would write the script and mail it back to New York. I recall in California in '69 I worked for a temporary agency for a while. I worked for a company that did publicity for a TV series that was coming out starring Glen Campbell and I don't remember who else it was. It wasn't a series. It was a big special and they were doing a big promotion and I worked in the office with some other people doing mailers and stuff like that. I also worked for a bank for a while.
In the fall of 1970, I had a disagreement with an individual in upper management at Magazine Management, and as a result of writing certain memos to Magazine Managements then-—publisher, I was let go from my position with the Men’s Magazines. I was also told I could not continue freelancing for the comics division. While I was out of work, Sol Brodsky, an old friend with whom I had discussed my evolving motorcycle hero character, asked me if I would write some comics on a free lance basis for Skywald Publications, which Brodsky co-owned. I did some freelance work for Skywald Publishing. Skywald was forming a line of adult comic books and Brodsky told me he remembered I had a motorcycle character. I held back the complete concept of the superhero character, but in light of Brodsky’s enthusiasm for a motorcycle character, did discuss a different type of motor cycle character with him, along the lines of a human vigilante character on a motorcycle. I held back my evolving character because I was concerned about the publishing set up at Skywald and the quality of the artwork done in the Skywald publications, and so I did not want to risk my superhero and story on the Skywald venture. I joined with Brodsky, Herschel Waldman, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito in jointly creating a purely human motorcycle vigilante comic book character called "Hell-Rider” and retained my idea for the supernatural, stunt jumping, demon character for use at another time.
I wrote some books for Tower Books. I did a book for Midwood Books. I did some writing for Atlas Comics. That's all I remember off the top of my head. There may have been others. I then moved back to Missouri in 1971 and stayed in Missouri for a long time.
In early 1971, I learned that the comic book people at Magazine Management Co Inc. needed a mail clerk, and after apologizing to the company’s publisher for my prior actions, I was hired for that position. I worked for Marvel handling their mail. That entailed going through all the fan mail and I would open the mail, read the letters, sort them out -- Iron Man went in this stack, Sergeant Fury went in this stack, and so forth. Then I would go back to the mail again and pick out which letters might have been suitable for printing in the letter pages in the comics. I would send out little thank-you cards to all the people that didn't make the comics mail pages. And if I found out that the editor was going to use the mail or the letter in the letters page, then I would send out a card to the writer notifying them that their letter would appear in such and such an issue, such and such a book.
What I would do, I would come back and forth from Missouri to New York. I had a house in Missouri. But freelance work would dry up whenever I left New York, so I would have to fly back to New York and talk to Stan, Roy, whoever was in charge at the time, about getting some more work, so I would go to New York and stay with John Verpooten for a while, you know, two weeks, four weeks, whatever, get some work lined up, then I would go back to Missouri and live. That lasted until 1978. In 1978 my alcoholism got completely out of control, my wife left me and took my child with her, left me with no furniture or anything, just left me an empty house, so I moved out of the empty house and stayed with a friend in Missouri for a while and then I wound up running around the country with another friend of mine who was a truck driver, CL Slinkard who we mentioned before, and I spent most of 1978 riding around the country in a truck with him. I got sober January 1st, 1979, and I briefly held a job at a check -- running a check sorter for a bank in Sikeston, Missouri, just a few weeks, then I got a job managing a theater for Kerasotes Theaters in Illinois. Went to Paris, Illinois, and worked there for about a year for Kerasotes.
A friend of mine, David George, was the editor of For Men Only magazine and I got a job there. I met Mr. George in the office initially, Marvel and Magazine Management, men's magazine's offices were in the same building - Marvel later moved -- but I know him from being around work and talking, it was in 1970. David was kind of my sounding board. We would meet for drinks after work or at lunch and talk about this, that, and the other. One of the things we talked about was I used him as my sounding board was the character I was working on. I don't remember that I remember the time specifically. It was just something that came up in conversation once that I was working on a new character. I don't know what triggered me to start talking about that but I was excited about it and David was my friend and I thought I could trust him. I wasn't talking to anybody else about it, so I thought I would talk to him.
DAVID GEORGE: We used to drink together sometimes at lunch, sometimes, most of the time after work, around the corner to a place called the Coral Bar. And you could eat lunch there and drink. It was a favorite watering hole of people like Peter O'Toole and Darren McGavin and a few others. It was quite notorious at the time. And it was a dump. But it was convenient and it was around the corner, 58th Street off Madison, between Madison and Park. I'm sure it’s not there anymore. Gary would tell me about his troubles or what he was working on or what he wanted to do. I know he was fascinated with the idea of a motorcycle riding hero. And at that time in that period, motorcycles, gang stories were very, very hot. I had an interest in them, too, because that was what we were doing at the time. Every month we would have a motorcycle, and we used to call them Hell’s Angel stories until one day we got a Hell’s Angel spokesman came up and told us to cease and desist because they had the name.
I remember him talking about this idea he had for putting a character called Ghost Rider on a motorcycle, and half of what he would tell me would go in one ear and out the other. When you are sitting there drinking, you don‘t hear everything. But it did jump out at me about this character that would sell his soul to the devil but for a good reason, a noble reason, and that's about it. I remember the flaming skull that he talked about. But he talked about it on more than one occasion. And his biggest thing was trying to get his ideas to be accepted. He would talk about comics a lot and about what he was working on and what he wanted to do. Ideas, or how he got shot down on an idea, or whatever. Most of it didn‘t really, I mean, at the time, I tried to listen to him. I do remember a number of other things. I remember he came to me with an idea for an article For Men Only, an apocalyptic story. I kind of liked it but the consultant shot it down.
GARY FRIEDRICH: I learned that the Comics Code Authority (CCA) was beginning to lighten up its standards for certain areas of comics, which I recognized would now allow me to go forward with my character and story when I decided it was ready. With the CCA changes, the code began to allow more adult oriented content to be included in comic books including demons and supernatural elements that had been previously been restricted. As a result of the change in the comic’s code, I determined that it was time to try to launch my character and its origin story. I began to focus on the characters and story for the first time with a serious thought that I could publish and sell an actual comic book telling the story
My initial inspiration for the story was the motion picture The Wild One with Marlon Brando which came out in the early '50s. Other inspirations were American International Motorcycle films that came out, I believe, in the late '50s, early '60s; series of films with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson, people like that. I told Roy Thomas I had the idea, which I had briefly mentioned to him in the past, about a motorcycle riding superhero, we were friends and reading comic books when I had the idea, so probably back when we were in high school I mentioned to him I had an idea for a superhero on a motorcycle. I had added things to it, made it supernatural type of hero, and I had a synopsis if he would like to see it and he said he would like to see it, and he gave it to Mr. Lee and then we had the meeting. In the meeting I described my motorcycle riding Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider human/supernatural character and the characters of Roxanne Simpson, Crash Simpson, and Barton Blaze and the origin story and plot, and my background on what the characters would look like, including Ghost Rider’s flaming skull and black leather suit.
ROY THOMAS: We may have discussed more, I do not know. I have no memory of a second discussion with Gary before we went in to see Stan. I believe it was the same day. I could be wrong, maybe it was like the next day, but I believe it was the next day. It was as soon as we possibly could. We couldn't just walk in to Stan; he might have been doing something else. My feeling is that he wanted to see him right away, and I believe it was the same day. I don't think it was too long. It might have been 10 minutes, 15 minutes, something like that. You know, we weren't going to take up a lot of time with this, but we got into a discussion so it could have taken a little time, but certainly under a half hour. We were aware he had to get a formal thing from the publisher, but he had a lot of power to do that. If he liked something, by that stage, it generally could be made into a book. And he liked the idea right away.
At this time, because this would have been in the late spring of '72. Stan was called editorial and art director. Basically he was the editor, but I think officially he was the art director as well. But even given that, by that time, Stan, as the editor had a little more power, it was very informal, but just a little more power. It was still subject to Martin Goodman, but, at the same time, since Goodman didn't own the company, there were other factors involved, which I wasn't involved with. So we just never discussed at what point Martin Goodman would have to approve. Stan just assumed that, if he liked it, Martin Goodman would or the parent company would approve it. I believe it never really came up in conversation at that stage.
GARY FRIEDRICH: When I first talked to Stan Lee about Marvel publishing the character I made the agreement to the effect that I would grant them the right to use the character -- the characters I created in comic books. My major concern was getting the character published. Roy and I talked about, after the deal with Marvel was cooked that, you know, what might happen with the character down the road if it were successful, there might be -- at that time we thought it might be made into a TV series. (The synopsis) would have gone to Mike Ploog after the deal was sealed so that he could draw the story. It said that Johnny Blaze would be a guy about 6' tall -- I don't remember if I told them that I had James Dean in mind whenever I thought about the character but that's who I had in mind, a well-built, blond-haired guy, typical superhero build. He would wear a black leather costume. And when he turned into the Ghost Rider, his head would become a flaming skull. Roxanne Simpson would be a buxom blonde about 18, 19 years old. Crash Simpson would have long hair and a handlebar moustache. Those are the major characters, the ones I recall.
ROY THOMAS: I know Gary wrote several issues and he was at least briefly considered the regular writer of Daredevil, but that may not have been for a very long period of time. He was intended to take it over when I left it. My recollection is that Ghost Rider was going to be a potential villain in Daredevil. He wasn't really plotting it yet, he was just thinking about plotting it. He couldn't really plot it until he had -- until he knew the -- the name of the – or until he knew the villain. So, without that approval, he couldn't really start plotting it yet. I remember what I said, that it had to do with Daredevil, Ghost Rider, and then the idea of taking it to Stan to see if he liked the idea of making it its own series. That would, to some extent, depend upon the both the particular issue, the writer, the series, and so many things.
It was assumed that the writer would tell the editor, whether it be Stan or myself, or me telling Stan, what the story was. In practical fact, if the writer was basically trusted after a certain stage and if he wasn't doing something new and radical, perhaps introducing a new villain that we'd have to see, would this be a cover-worthy title character or making some radical change in the story line or something like that, we often trusted the writers enough that they basically were able to almost -- to go ahead under their own recognizance in some cases, or, at the very least, they would mention in passing, you know, I want to use this villain or do this or that.
So it would depend upon some of the circumstances. Most of the time it would be a very minimal conversation and usually didn't involve paper at all, after a while. We may have discussed more, I do not know. I have no memory of a second discussion with Gary before we went in to see Stan. I have no memory of seeing any written materials at that time on Ghost Rider.
At that stage, late '71 and for much of '72, Stan Lee was the editor. As associate editor I had some duties, but it was basically Stan's decision on all these things. Marvel Spotlight was what I thought of, at least, as a showcase kind of book after a title that DC had once had in which every month or every two or three months a new hero or concept would be tried out to see if it caught the attention of the readers, and then we would decide if we would spin it off into its own title or let it drop. It was a bimonthly comic; it came out every two months. Any new concept that someone came up with would have to be approved by Stan before it could go to the stage of being written and drawn, and, of course, formally approved by the publisher.
There was a deadline because it was a bi-monthly book and it already had a deadline set that had nothing to do with Ghost Rider, just as a book called Marvel Spotlight Number 5. To the best of my knowledge, the inker for Marvel Spotlight Number 5 was Mike Ploog. So, when he was engaged as penciller, it was basically understood that he was going to be inking it as well, because up to that point, I believe he had inked all of his work or virtually all of his work that he had penciled for Marvel.
STAN LEE: The company had a contract with the printer; the books had to be delivered to the printer at a certain date on a certain schedule. Let's say they were monthly books. So some title would have to be delivered to the printer on the fifth of every month. If the book wasn't ready at that time, the publisher would still have to pay the printer because he had been holding the presses open so the publisher would be losing all that money he is paying the printer who is not printing the book. So my biggest responsibility next to making the books good was making sure those books were delivered to the printer on time every month.
ROY THOMAS: If it was an ongoing assignment that the artist was drawing from month to month, he would basically be assured that he was going to continue it unless they informed him otherwise, so he'd have a reasonable expectation of that. Otherwise, an artist would be notified that he was being asked to take the assignment of doing a particular issue at the earliest stage that we knew we wanted him to do it so at least by the time the writer was done getting the story together so there wouldn't be a delay.
The plotting evolved, to some extent, over a period of time and would depend upon the relationship between the individual writer and artist. It generally was a page, more likely two or three pages, of typed copy that told the basic story. It didn't break it down into panels or pages, didn't include much, if any, of the actual dialogue, but it told the basic story, which the artist was then supposed to translate into pictures. Of course, as I said, this was often done, increasingly and in various situations, it was also done verbally without something being written down. It depended on the relationship between the artist and the writer. If the artist really wanted a written plot, he would get one; some would just as soon not have one.
It could have even been that the plot was mailed from the office if the person was in there and turned it in. But, especially by the time the artist had drawn the pencil drawings, they had to either mail them or physically bring them by the office, which meant that the production manager and a couple of people working under him would take care of it so that it went to the next person, which was generally the letterer unless Stan or I or someone said that they needed to see the script or the artwork before it went to the letterer. Again, that depended on the trust in the artist and various other factors as to how closely and at what stage something was looked at.
Sometimes was just verbal directions and that the artist might be told, to save time, and some of them just hand-delivered it because they were neighbors or whatever, to give the art directly to -- the art and the script directly to the letterer. First we had to have the art come back to the office for the writer to do the dialogue, and that went to the letterer. In each step it was trafficked by the office either physically or by phone.
The art was then either directly mailed by the letterer or maybe delivered to him or picked up by him or trafficked through the office. Then it either went to the artist or it went to the offices and then went to the inking artist. The letterer would send in the artwork. I don't believe that there was generally a policy in place that the letterer was supposed to return the writer's script necessarily to the office. There may have been a case when we wanted to, but generally the writers had carbon copies, so there was no reason to waste the time and trouble to get the copies of the script back into the office as a general rule. Usually it got tossed. The person who would handle the editing depended upon the book and the time during that several-year period. Stan Lee would proofread the books that he had written, and he would generally, even through the end of the period, he would proofread a lot of the main super hero work. Over time, he gradually relinquished some of that so that it became my responsibility to be the ultimate proof-reader. I think I was proofreading virtually everything up until '72, either the primary proofreading or at least backdrop proofreading.
Ideally, after it had come to the office, after it had been proofread and any changes made to it; but, often, to save time, and since there weren't usually as many changes made in art, sometimes as soon as it came into the office, copies of it would be sent to the colorist or given to the colorist.
The cover would often be done when the pencils were in. Stan or, in some cases books that he didn't care to check himself, myself, would decide on what the cover scene would be, Stan would always approve those, and then they would be assigned to an artist. Occasionally it might be earlier or later. We might be in a hurry, so we might have the artist send in a cover while he's still working on the pages, just because he'd sort of know what the theme would be. Occasionally, it would be later, and, of course, often the artist who did the cover was not the artist who was penciling the comic anyway, but it could be done at almost any time.
STAN LEE : By the Marvel method we mean that the writer usually didn't write a complete script. He would tell the artist what he had in mind for the story and he might give the artist a very detailed outline but it wasn't written, Panel 1 you draw this, Panel 2 you draw this, he would just say the story begins with this happening and then the character gets attacked by the villain, blah, blah, blah and it was up to the artist to take the story that the writer suggested and draw it in his own way in his own, lay out the page his own way, and then the writer would go over it and put in the dialogue balloons. The previous method, not the Marvel method, the writer with write a full script with all the dialogue and the artist would just draw it according to the way it was written, so the Marvel method gave the artist more scope and more chance to do it his own way.
When I was editing they would come to me first as the editor if it wasn't my story and I would just check and make sure I liked the way the story was drawn and then it would go to the artist, to the writer, to put in the dialogue. If I were the writer, of course then it would come right back to me and I would put in the dialogue. Sometimes the artist didn't put any lettering at all, he would just put in the drawings and the writer would fill in the lettering in the balloons, that's usually the way it was done. After either the writer or editor or both decided what lettering should go into the balloons and they would usually do it in pencil to let the letterer know what it should be, then the letterer would very carefully letter it in India ink so it would reproduce well and it would look good, it would look right.
The original artist inevitably drew the drawings in pencil and then after it was approved and after the lettering was put in, then it would go to somebody called an inker who would, you might say, trace the drawings with black India ink so they were nice and sharp and clear and the engraver could photograph them well on the way to the printer. It is different now with computers, but in those days the pages when they were finished were sent to somebody, I don't know who, and they came back. They were called silver prints. And they looked like regular sheets of paper but they were made out of a different material and the artist would use aniline dye, dip a paintbrush in different colors of aniline dye and paint the colors on these silver print pages and that was a guide for the printer when the book went to the printer to let the printer know what colors to use. So we also had a colorist who after the book was all drawn would color the silver prints for the printer as color guides.
MIKE PLOOG : It altered through time, quote the Marvel Method and it depended on who was actually running the production in the Art Department at the time and the editor, whether it was John Verpoorten or whoever. And the Marvel method was more or less established to just get books done. If you could do three books a month they would give them to you. It meant that they just needed to get books on the shelf, so that method meant there were a lot of short cuts being taken.
Sometimes it would be just like on Planet of the Apes, it would just be a telephone conversation. Because it was like, you know, villain of the month type thing, and how do we start it and what is the middle and how do we get to the end of it. It was often left up to the artist to just sit down and fill in all the blanks. First you would pencil them and I would write in the borders sometimes. If there was something pertinent that I needed to have in that panel to carry me into the next because they might not visually work together, I would put notes on the side and sometimes they read the notes, sometimes they didn't. So you just got what you got. Then they put the balloons in and you got it back and you inked it and then that was the finished art and you sent that in.
The writer would sit down and he would type it up on his typewriter and with Panel 1, Caption One, Balloon 1, Balloon 2 and then that would go off to the letterer and the letterer, he would do the balloons from the typewritten word and then once the balloons were on there, then it was all sent back to me to finish inking, or on to whoever, or whatever inker I had arranged to do work on it. Once in a while depending on if it was a character that Marvel had established and they were a bit batty about what it looked like, they would have somebody in there that would change the head, or on several occasions I would have them totally change my cover, and I did all the cover art, like they would cut out a figure and paste in another figure over the top of it trying to make it look like the same artist did it, but because they didn't like the size of the figure, but very seldom did that happen. But I do recall things like that happening.
STAN LEE : When they handed in the work we had things called vouchers. They would fill out a voucher saying what they did and what the price per page was and what the total was and they would hand in the voucher and then whenever, a week later, two weeks, whatever the company's rule was, they would get the check. Sometimes the assignment was based on how fast the artist or writer was because we knew that the book had to be delivered quickly.
The legend on the back of a Dick Ayers cheque, 1974
MIKE PLOOG : In substance it said, "If you cash this check you relinquish all your rights". Obviously you were going to cash the check. You know, your kids were starving and the rent was due. It irritated most writers and artists because it was an assumption on their part that they had got you and they are binding you.
GARY FRIEDRICH: The basic story line of Marvel Spotlight Number 5 started out with an action sequence of Johnny Blaze running through the rain-soaked streets of New York, sees some guys committing a crime. He realizes that he doesn't feel he can afford for the public to see him looking like he did as Ghost Rider, and he has a chase and action sequence fight with these bad guys, then he gets away and he goes back his dressing room was at Madison Square Garden and he begins to think about how he got in the shape. He really goes over his life story how his father, Barton Blaze, a stunt rider, was killed in an accident, and he was taken in by Crash Simpson and his wife to raise, how he was raised with them and grew up to love their daughter Roxanne, and how his adopted father, Crash Simpson, found out he has cancer and a month to live. The name of Johnny Blaze was inspired by his alter ego's flaming skull and Roxanne was named after a lead guitarist in a band I had played in the 60's.
So Johnny Blaze had been interested in Satanism over the years, had some books, got out some books, and found an incantation he could do that would put him in touch with the devil. Did the incantation, the devil comes and makes a deal with Johnny Blaze that he will not allow Crash Simpson to die of cancer if Johnny Blaze would later do something for the devil and Blaze agrees to do that without knowing what the devil wants.
Crash Simpson then thinks he's dying, decides to go for a record jump over 22 cars, he attempts to jump and misses and is killed. Johnny realizes the devil double-crossed him, and no matter what you do when the devil double-crosses you, it's the devil. The devil tells Johnny Blaze that he is going to put a curse on him. I don't think they went into it specifically, but eventually the curse became that he would become this flaming skulled wraith if you will, for lack of a better word, not every day, but walk the earth as the devil's emissary. Johnny Blaze, again, realizes he's being double-crossed but nothing he can do about it. At that point Roxanne Simpson walks in and tells the devil that he can't do anything to Johnny because her purity of heart protects Johnny. She has been studying Johnny's books on the devil and discovered that the love of one pure in heart will protect someone from the devil.
So the devil says, "All right, but the curse stays on you, you continue to turn into this character every night at dark, and I will be back to get you," and let it go at that. That's the essence of the initial issue.
Mike Ploog was suggested in the original meeting between Stan and Roy I believe as the artist for Ghost Rider. Roy probably would have called him about it. I just recall a brief rundown from Roy. Roy was mainly mad at me because I didn't show up that day, and I got dressed down for that. He said, "Mike and I talked about what the character is going to look like, and Mike is going do some sketches." He was doing another book for us, and he was probably there at least once a week.
ROY THOMAS: Well, it (the decision to hire Mike Ploog) was made after the first meeting. We wanted to really get moving on it, so we wouldn't have waited too long, but I don't remember exactly how soon. Again, I said we might have had more than one in a very short period of time, and I don't know exactly at what stage except that it was very early, may have been at the very first time or certainly within a few days that Mike was decided on as the artist. I don't know who first brought up his name; it may have been Stan, it may have been me. He worked together with Gary on the Frankenstein book for several issues, but I'm not sure of the date of that. I'm thinking it came later, but I don’t have a clear picture of that in my mind. There's a title called Frankenstein, on the cover it said The Monster of Frankenstein, but I don't recall if that was after or before. I was thinking it was after. When he was engaged as penciller, it was basically understood that he was going to be inking it as well, because up to that point, I believe he had inked all of his work or virtually all of his work that he had penciled for Marvel.
I believe it (the meeting with Mike) was basically at my desk with Mike having a chair sort of pulled up so he could draw. We just took over a little space and faced each other and talked. Gary didn't come in work that day. He said he was sick or indisposed or something, but he called in and didn't come in. I was annoyed because after all this was the character that he had conceived and that we were working on, and I wanted him to be there for the design.
It wasn't a really long meeting, maybe 15 to 20 minutes and then, of course, there were periods of little small talk besides the thing. The basic gist of it was pretty brief. Mike had come in under the impression that he was going to be working on the Western character (the original Ghost Rider). For some reason he had thought he was going to re-design the Western character since we already had a design on it, and I informed him, no, this was a new character, a modern-day character, super-natural with a motorcycle. I mentioned the way I saw it in my mind, however it got there, which is that he has a skull for a head and he's wearing a black leather jumpsuit, which I specifically mentioned. I had reason to believe Mike understood what I meant, was based on the one that Elvis Presley had worn in the 1968 come-back special, which, at that time, was just a couple of years ago in the past and had been repeated a couple times on TV and so forth.
And that was basically it. Mike began to draw across the desk from me, and, of course, it looked good. And I suddenly noticed that he was drawing flames around the Ghost Rider's head. It amused me because I knew Marvel had had a character back in the '40s very briefly called Blazing Skull, but I hadn't mentioned it to Mike, no reason why, most people hadn't seen that old character. So I asked him, what's that? He said, well, I just thought it looked better this way or it looked better if his head was on fire, words to that effect. And I agreed to the statement and so forth. I said, yeah, so leave that in, and that was pretty much it.
MIKE PLOOG: I would love to take credit for it, but I can't recall. But just by the fact of the development of the character there had to be dialogue between Gary and I.
ROY THOMAS: I only recall discussing the design with Mike Ploog. We didn't worry about the motorcycle; Mike would design some appropriate motorcycle for the character. It was the character, the design of the character, not the design of the motorcycle that was important to us. Then, within a relatively short period of time, he left, leaving that drawing or copy of it, I don't remember if we had a Xerox there at the office. I don't remember how he made a copy of it or if he drew another picture, I just don't have any memory of that.
We had had the comic book a few years earlier called Ghost Rider, so I don't know to what extent they owned the name Ghost Rider or still had a trademark on it, or whatever several years after that book had been cancelled.
MIKE PLOOG: I visited the Marvel offices as little as possible because I found it as inhibiting as hell. I would go in periodically and see people and if I wanted more money I would go in and talk to Stan Lee, and he always had a story or two to tell you about how poor he was and then point out his Rolls Royce’s. Actually we got to know one another very well. Actually I ended up marrying his secretary or assistant, so I spent a lot of time in his office. It's far more interesting than this; I tell you that for a fact. You know, it was 40 years ago. To be honest I don't recall any long discussions at all. It would all have been over the telephone anyway so I don't remember any long discussions about design work with Roy. I had to have gotten a brief on it but I can't recall having this discussion in New York. It just seems to me it was more or less over the phone. If I had been in New York on a different occasion to bring in art work or something like that because I definitely would not have made a trip into New York just to talk about, you know. I am sure they, because of the nature of Marvel, a lot of dialogue was going on up there but it never got as far as me. So the answer is it's possible. There might have been a telephone call from Roy saying, you know; Geez, we had this great brainstorm up here and we would like you to do this, do that. Again, this was all dialogue, and when you sat down at the drawing board there was an interpretation that went on. They would say she's such and such an age and he is such and such. His personality is such and such, but it was more or less up to you to come up with who is going to fit. Just make sure it fits. I know Roy had some contributions to it because of the fact that I was always under the assumption that because Gary and Roy were old friends, they went to school together or something I think, in fact Roy was always looking how he was going to be able to help Gary out, but other than that I don't know what was going on verbally between them prior to them contacting me to illustrate.
GARY FRIEDRICH: I told Mike that I had this new character, the Ghost Rider, that we wanted him to draw. And he said, "Tell me about it." So I sat down, may have been in the office, could have been in the Coral Bar; I don't remember for sure, and told him about the character, what the character would look like, what the basic story line was, basically an oral plot outline. I told him precisely what I had in mind for what the character would look like, that the character would have a flaming skull for a head, he would wear a black motorcycle suit and ride a motorcycle. I told him what Johnny Blaze would look like, as we discussed before, young, James Dean -type, muscular, maybe 6' or so tall, blonde hair. I probably told him Roxanne would be a good-looking blonde. I don't recall precisely what I told him (about the cover). We discussed it, decided basically what it would look like, he did a sketch and I approved a sketch. I was familiar with Mike's style, and I assumed that he would do this book in the same style, have the same look as his other stuff.
MIKE PLOOG: I would have had to have spoken to Roy or Gary or both before I sat down and drew the design because you want his input. You want as much information about his performance and what he is expected to do before you sit down and draw him, so that he is working within the perimeter of what he needs to be. They would say she's such and such an age and he is such and such. His personality is such and such, but it was more or less up to you to come up with who is going to fit. Just make sure it fits. I need a fairly detailed picture of what that first issue is going to be about. It had to have come from somebody else because the character was always drawn under instruction. It probably didn't elaborate in the instructions, but it was enough to where I could stop whatever conversation and say; okay, I think I know what you want. Let me sit down at the drawing board.
On this very first Ghost Rider story I am almost convinced by looking at it that I had a full detailed script. I didn't necessarily have the dialogue, but I mean it would have been a detailed script. I can only look at it now and say would I have done it like this if there wasn't a detailed script, and in a lot of areas I question whether I would have approached it like that. Once I received the script Roy's pretty well out of the picture. I would have just received a script and got on with it because it is not like a big production. Once you know what you are doing you just get on with it. To me it was a job; it was a job I enjoyed doing and other people enjoyed my work, but to me it was just a job. If I was working on a bridge I wouldn't assume that part of that bridge was going to be mine. I would get the job done and move on to the next job.
Actually I think it was after I quit Ghost Rider that I started hanging out with Gary and the boys at the Coral Bar in the evening, later on when we were doing Frankenstein, because prior to that I don't think I ever met Gary.
GARY FRIEDRICH: I had the artwork beside me and I'm writing the story and it comes to the place I have to put credits in, so I would take the artwork, rough in in pencil the box, and then I would rough in "edited by Stan Lee, conceived and written by Gary Friedrich," so on and so forth. By that time Roy did most of the actual editing and Stan took the credit for it. I would show the letterer where and how to draw the box. I added the "credit box" to the splash page in which I noted that Spotlight 5 had been "conceived and written by" me. Roy saw that credit for me and never took issue with it. He merely added a credit for himself, indicating he had aided and abetted me. My own personal feeling was it first ticked me off because I thought he was claiming editorial credit, which I didn't think he deserved. I initially contemplated removing the credit that he had added but then I got to thinking about it and I decided that he had taken the idea to Stan and helped me sell the idea to Stan, and so I assume that was the aid and abetment he was talking about and I let it go at that. I believe that Stan Lee also saw the credit given to me, and he also never took issue with it.
ROY THOMAS : I heard a report that he had said some things about it, but I don't recall our ever discussing it. I don't recall ever hearing one way or the other that he decided it was appropriate or inappropriate or whatever because we never discussed it that I can recall.
Of course the word is "conceived" rather than "created." That was sort of a weaker word that sometimes was put in so that it wouldn't have to be "created," but it sort of had similar connotations. I'm unaware of who wrote that credit, I assume Gary did but I do not remember. There seems to be some sort of lettering mistake on there. I don't remember whether I proofread it or not. Gary, it would be certain, did, but that doesn't mean that I didn't; wouldn't mean I did. I do not recall.
MIKE PLOOG: That was just put on there to kind of embellish, you know, it is all for fans. They would do that to almost every issue, there would be some kind of a goofy way of, you know, putting somebody's name in there like "the wonderful" or "the marvellous Marvel" or "Sneaky Sam" or some damned thing. Aid and abetted doesn’t mean anything. I mean, the elevator operator could have contributed something to it, you know what I mean? Roy is in there and it is his job, so I can only say obviously he had something to do with it. I know he had some contributions to it but other than that I don't know what was going on verbally between them prior to them contacting me to illustrate. You know, that is just like edited by Stan Lee. Stan Lee wasn't editing books when they got around to putting "Stan Lee presents" across the top, but he was always saying that he edited the books. He probably did look at them but I don't think he had it in him.
GARY FRIEDRICH: At the time that I created the characters and Spotlight 5, it was not within the scope of any employment with any company including Magazine Management, and nothing in my employment with Magazine Management required me to provide it with an opportunity to publish comic books featuring original characters or stories created by me on my own time and without any request from Magazine Management. I did not have comic book writing responsibilities as part of my staff position as a mail clerk at the time of Spotlight 5 or as part of any staff position with Magazine Management or any Marvel company at any time.
While working with Magazine Management or any other Marvel company, I was not required to accept any assignment to write any comic books and I was never by Magazine Management or any other Marvel Company to create a new central character for a comic book to revolve around. The Spotlight 5 project and the conversion of the Ghost Rider Characters and story into a comic book was not undertaken as part of any request from Magazine Management, was not specially ordered or commissioned by Magazine Management, and rather was solely commissioned and initiated by me.
MIKE PLOOG: Work for hire sounds like something that somebody made up in an office somewhere, because if you are hired to do something you work and you get paid to do it. It doesn't make any sense to call it work for hire. It was almost an insult to anyone's creativity for it to be called work for hire, in my humble opinion.
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The onus is now on Marvel to reply to Friedrich’s claims. As with the Jack Kirby situation, it can’t really be disputed that Friedrich, along with Ploog and Thomas, created the character Ghost Rider. Marvel has, and will continue to, counter-claim that Friedrich was engaged under a ‘work-for-hire’ agreement, as is their standard defence when anyone makes a claim for ownership. Part of the Marvel response to the depositions is that;
None of the creative contributors to the Work were entitled to payment based on the financial success of the Work or any characters created in the Work and neither Friedrich, Ploog nor any of the other creative contributors to the Work ever received compensation resulting from Marvel's exploitation of the Work in merchandise, video games, or movies. [ii]
Friedrich's 1978 Marvel contract
Ghost Rider was created as work for hire under the copyright laws and that Marvel is the owner of all right, title and interest in the copyright and trademark. [iii] [iv] any and all work, writing, art work material or services (the ‘Work’) which have been or in the future created,” covers any time period. One area where the work-for-hire claim falls down is that nobody asked Friedrich to come up with Ghost Rider; the concept was created independent of any request from Marvel. Indeed according to his recollections, and that of Roy Thomas, Friedrich was never asked to create any characters, let alone a central character that a book would revolve around. This is the opposite from the Jack Kirby case where the judge found that Lee and Kirby were asked by Martin Goodman, either directly or indirectly, to create characters for publication. If we believe Friedrich then the idea that became Ghost Rider first took seed in 1953 when he saw The Wild One and had the idea, or he created the character in 1968 when he first began to talk about the concept to others. It comes as no surprise that Marvel are sticking to the line that, “” Where the claim can come undone is the absence of the cheques used as payment for Friedrich with the contentious disclaimers. Indeed Friedrich himself recognised the fact that, in the absence of a cheque signed by him from the relevant time period, Marvel is facing a battle. Friedrich’s claims are strengthened by the fact that he didn’t sign a work-for-hire agreement until 1978, at the same time as other Marvel staff members and freelancers did, but as Ghost Rider debuted in 1972 the 1978 agreement is fairly irrelevant, although Marvel continue to argue that a certain phrase on the contract, that, “…,” covers any time period. One area where the work-for-hire claim falls down is that nobody asked Friedrich to come up with Ghost Rider; the concept was created independent of any request from Marvel. Indeed according to his recollections, and that of Roy Thomas, Friedrich was never asked to create any characters, let alone a central character that a book would revolve around. This is the opposite from the Jack Kirby case where the judge found that Lee and Kirby were asked by Martin Goodman, either directly or indirectly, to create characters for publication. If we believe Friedrich then the idea that became Ghost Rider first took seed in 1953 when he saw The Wild One and had the idea, or he created the character in 1968 when he first began to talk about the concept to others.
The definition of work-for-hire is as such: 1] A work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment or 2] A work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a contribution to a collective work as part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work for hire. Friedrich’s creation of Ghost Rider does not appear to fall under either category, and indeed, although an employee at Marvel at the time, such was the nature of his employment that he could have easily taken Ghost Rider to DC, Charlton or any other comic book company that existed at the time, before he pitched it to Marvel. It’s also worth remembering that the work-for-hire rule also entails the company proving that the work was created at both the company’s instance and expense, and that both elements have to be established. Thus if Marvel cannot prove that Friedrich did the work at their instance, and at their expense, then the work-for-hire rule should fail. Where it might get messy though is that Marvel can, and have, argued that Friedrich did not create Ghost Rider alone, that it was a co-creation with Mike Ploog, and that Ploog was acting under Marvel’s instance and expense, thus Ploog was working for hire. At worst this would mean that the copyright to the character would be split between Friedrich and Marvel
Marvel are also firmly arguing that the only reason Friedrich is making his claim is because of the Ghost Rider movie, with its resulting sequel, and the money that such a claim now carries. That has yet to be proven, but it is not disputed that the claim was lodged after the movie was completed. Marvel appear to be red hot on this aspect of the claim, asserting that Friedrich has waited far too long to lodge his claims and as such should not be allowed to proceed.
Another area where Marvel might fall down comes in the form of copyright renewal. According to a 2002 report prepared by Sony Pictures, Marvel failed to either register or renew the copyright for Marvel Spotlight #5, instead relying on a clause enacted in 1992 which proves that works published between January 1st, 1974 and December 31st, 1977, are automatically covered by a 75 year copyright term and that renewal can happen at any point during that time, regardless of if a copyright was lodged at the time. This would cover the origin story, as it has been reprinted several times (1974, 1992, 2001, 2005), but Marvel Spotlight #5 appears to have fallen between the cracks, leading the way for Friedrich to apply for the copyright. Resulting issues of Marvel Spotlight that featured Ghost Rider, issues #6 to #11, were subject to copyright registrations. Faced with this information Sony duly advised Marvel to file the relevant paperwork and register the work published in Marvel Spotlight #5. This didn’t stop Friedrich from filing his own claim to Marvel Spotlight #5 in 2007 though.
Marvel are also arguing along the lines of character evolution, that is that the character that appeared in the Nicholas Cage Ghost Rider film is not the character that Friedrich created. Again, according to Marvel’s response;
From in or about 1990 through 1998, Marvel published another series of comic books, Ghost Rider, Vol. 2, Nos. 1-93, featuring an incarnation of the Ghost Rider character with an alter ego (Danny Ketch) and ancillary characters different than the version appearing in the Work. In 2001 Marvel began publishing Ghost Rider, Vol. 3, which featured the incarnation of Ghost Rider (and his Johnny Blaze alter ego) embodied in the Work. Ghost Rider, Vol. 3 comprised six issues, Nos. 1-6, with cover dates from August 2001 through January 2002 [v] .
Friedrich's 2007 copyright filing
This comes across as somewhat of a weak argument when you study it. There are those who have stated that, for example, as Jack Kirby was the artist who re-introduced the Sub-Mariner and Human Torch into Marvel comics in the 1960s, then he can now, rightly, be considered to have created the characters as he altered them from their original concepts. Nothing could be further from the truth. The original creator is the creator, pure and simple. As DC Comics are finding with Superman, no matter what they (DC) do to the character, reboot it, revamp it, have other creators put their stamp on it, give the character new powers and a new costume, the core character, Superman, belongs to Siegel and Shuster. Thus the concept of Ghost Rider will always be with Friedrich, Ploog and Thomas if the court decides as much, no matter what Marvel do. That the character has altered since Marvel Spotlight #5 is irrelevant, the name is still the same, and the concept is basically the same; Johnny Blaze, a stunt cyclist, sells his soul to the devil, is cursed with being the Ghost Rider, transforms into a demon with a flaming skull for a head and rides a motorcycle. It is the same with the recent movie.
The 1990 incarnation of the character, with an alter-ego named Danny Ketch, was the most radical departure, with an all new origin and character, but once the transformation was complete the Ghost Rider was there –flaming skull, leathers, motorcycle, super-natural powers. The concept had changed, but the basic premise was left intact. The creative team on volume 2 of Ghost Rider, writer Howard Mackie and artists Javier Saltares and Mark Texeira, would have as much claim to the core character and name, Ghost Rider, as John Byrne would for the Fantastic Four or Superman, both of which he retooled considerably. The trio could make a claim for the creation of the new alter-ego, Danny Ketch, but the credit for end result, that being Ghost Rider, would still lay with Friedrich, Ploog and Thomas.
In the early 1980s Roger Stern and Bob Budiansky, and later J.M. DeMatties revamped the title and introduced new elements, including giving the demon a name, Zarathos, and an origin of its own which was separate to that of Johnny Blaze. As a result the character became even more layered and complex, and certainly the Ghost Rider that featured towards the end of the original run bore little in common with the Ghost Rider that debuted in 1972 other than the look, name and alter-ego. The powers had changed considerably, and with the explanation of the demon itself, the overall feel of the book had also altered. Where Blaze had total control over the demon in the beginning, towards the end he had begun to fight, mentally for control over the host body. Although the character had been re-invented by Stern, Budiansky and DeMatties, the core character, overall look and concept still lay with Friedrich, Ploog and Thomas.
What this does add up to is one of the stronger cases against Marvel in recent times. There is evidence that Friedrich had the concept for Ghost Rider before presenting it to Marvel, although he was on staff at the time his employment was not that of a writer and Marvel failed to register the copyright to Marvel Spotlight #5. Notwithstanding that won’t deter Marvel from throwing a lot of time, resources and money at this case as there is quite a bit at stake. However if Gary Friedrich can stand his ground he might well upset the apple-cart and gain a victory. As it now stands the case is well into the discovery phase with at least two trials set for the future, the first will be to decide if Friedrich created Ghost Rider separate from Marvel, the second will be to decide any accounting, if required. Watch this space for future developments. |
A federal judge in Brooklyn ruled Monday that the federal government must establish probable cause and secure a warrant before obtaining records about a cell phone user’s location, saying it violated the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable searches, according to the New York Law Journal.
“While the government’s monitoring of our thoughts may be the archetypical Orwellian intrusion, the government’s surveillance of our movements of a considerable time period through new technologies, such as the collection of cell-site-location records, without the protections of the Fourth Amendment, puts our country far closer to Oceania than our Constitution permits,” Eastern District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis wrote (PDF).
The decision came after the U.S. Attorney’s office sought to obtain 113 days of cell phone location data from Verizon Wireless under the Stored Communications Act. The measure allows law enforcement to obtain records from electronic communication services without a warrant if the records are “relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.”
The Eastern District U.S. Attorney’s Office was seeking the cell phone location data of Kamal Abdallah, who was under indictment in a criminal case.
Cell phones continuously transmit data to cell-sites scattered across the nation. The cell-sites are operated by cell phone service providers, who keep records of the cell phone’s geolocational data.
The government contended that cell phone users have no expectation of privacy concerning the locational data stored by cell phone companies because the data is voluntarily transmitted to a third party and does not include the content of cell phone calls. But Garaufis rejected that line of reasoning.
“Cellular service providers have records of the geographic location of almost every American at almost every time of day and night,” he explained. “And under current statutes and law enforcement practices, these records can be obtained without a search warrant and its requisite showing of probable cause.”
“What does this mean for ordinary Americans? That at all times, our physical movements are being monitored and recorded, and once the Government can make a showing of less-than probable cause, it may obtain these records of our movements, study the map our lives, and learn the many things we reveal about ourselves through our physical presence.”
Garaufis ruled that the government trying to obtain the location records of cell phone users constituted a Fourth Amendment search, noting the decision in United States v. Maynard. The case held the government monitoring of a suspect’s car by the use of a GPS tracking device was a Fourth Amendment search and required a warrant.
“In light of drastic developments in technology, the Fourth Amendment doctrine must evolve to preserve cell-phone user’s reasonable expectation of privacy in cumulative cell-site-location records,” he said. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal investigators learned several hours before a provocative cartoon contest in Texas that a man under investigation for extremist activities might show up and alerted local authorities, but had no indication that he planned to attack the event, FBI Director James Comey said Thursday.
The information about Elton Simpson was developed about three hours before the contest, which the FBI had already identified as a potential target for violence because it involved cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Simpson and his roommate, both from Phoenix, opened fire outside the Garland, Texas, event center but were shot dead before they were able to kill anyone.
Simpson, previously convicted in a terrorism-related investigation, had come under new federal scrutiny in recent months related to online posts expressing interest in jihad. When the FBI learned that he could be heading toward the event, the agency sent an intelligence bulletin to police in Garland, including a picture and other information, “even though we didn’t have reason to believe that he was going to attack the event. In fact, we didn’t have reason to believe that he had left Phoenix,” Comey said.
The FBI had been monitoring the event, even establishing a command post at its Dallas field office, based on concerns about the potential for violence. Drawings such as the ones featured at the event are deemed insulting to many followers of Islam and have sparked violence around the world. Mainstream Islamic tradition holds that any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, even a respectful one, is blasphemous.
Comey, making his first public comments on the Sunday shooting, did not disclose steps he said the FBI could have taken to prevent the attack and said those questions were still being evaluated.
But, “what I’ve seen so far looks like we did it the way we were supposed to do it,” Comey said.
The FBI director said the attempted attack highlights the difficulties the FBI faces, at a time when social media has helped facilitate communication between potential homegrown extremists, in differentiating between those who merely make inflammatory comments online and those prepared to act on them. The Islamic State has many thousand English-language followers around the world on Twitter, including many in the United States, he said.
Simpson himself was apparently an active Twitter user. An account linked to him included a tweet posted shortly before the shooting that said, “May Allah accept us as mujahideen,” or holy warriors.
“I know there are other Elton Simpsons out there,” he said.
The shooting is part of what authorities have long considered an alarming trend involving would-be recruits for whom technology makes it easier to be exposed to Islamic State propaganda. Beyond the communications that occur in the open, the Islamic State group increasingly makes contact with followers and steers them into forums that allow for encrypted communications that can be harder for law enforcement officials to access.
The terror group has been encouraging its followers to travel to Syria to join the self-created caliphate there, but if they can’t do that, to “kill where you are,” Comey said.
“The siren song sits in the pockets, on the mobile phones, of the people who are followers on Twitter,” Comey said. “It’s almost as if there’s a devil sitting on the shoulder, saying ‘Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!’ all day long.”
Simpson came under FBI investigation in 2006 and was convicted five years later following a terrorism-related investigation stemming from what prosecutors said were his plans to travel to Somalia to fight alongside militants there. He was sentenced to three years of probation for making false statements to a federal agent.
The FBI continued to track him for several years after that, but closed the investigation last year. In March authorities opened a new investigation into his activities after suspecting a “renewed interest in jihad” in connection with the Islamic State group, Comey said.
He said that investigation was “open, but far from complete” at the time of the shooting.
Ahead of the Texas cartoon contest, the FBI was flagging for local authorities individuals who it thought were interested in the event and might potentially go, including Simpson. The FBI routinely supplies local law enforcement with bulletins when there is important security information it wants to convey.
Garland police department spokesman Joe Harn would not confirm that the department received an intelligence bulletin about Simpson. Messages left with the Texas Department of Public Safety were not immediately returned.
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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP |
With Republican attacks on Obamacare’s awful rollout intensifying, two new polls out this morning illustrate just how much pressure Democrats will feel in coming days to seriously distance themselves from the law. But the polls also illustrate, paradoxically, why they shouldn’t, and almost certainly won’t.
The crux of the polls’ findings: Disapproval of the law and the president is soaring — but key elements of the Democratic coalition still think it can be made to work, and overwhelmingly oppose repeal.
The new Washington Post/ABC News poll is brutal to Obama and his signature domestic achievement. Sixty-three percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of it. Only 40 percent support the law, versus 57 percent who oppose it. Only 34 percent support the individual mandate, and 71 percent support delaying it. The administration’s rollout of the law was an epic, unforgiveable failure, so it’s not surprising public disapproval is skyrocketing. That’s as it should be.
However — and this is key — the public remains divided, at 49-49, on whether the government can ultimately get the law working or whether it is unworkable.
Crucially, majorities of the core Dem constituencies think it can still be made to work: 69 percent of non-whites; 56 percent of young voters; 59 percent of moderates; 51 percent of women; and 52 percent of college graduates (college educated whites, especially women, are an increasingly important part of the new Dem coalition) all think the law can recover.
This pattern is mirrored in a new National Journal poll. It finds a slim majority of 52 percent thinks the law will do more to hurt the health system than to help it. But it also finds that only a small minority, 38 percent, support repealing the law. Majorities of all the core Democratic groups — minorities, young voters, and college educated whites — still support the law, and tilt overwhelmingly against repeal. Only two groups support repeal: Republicans, and non-college whites.
As Ron Brownstein notes: “Congressional Democrats inclined to distance themselves from the law in the hope of placating skeptical independent or Republican-leaning voters face the risk of alienating some of their core supporters.”
At a moment of unrelentingly awful press for the law, a basic dynamic that has been in place for years, one that many commentators simply refuse to acknowledge, is still holding: Majorities disapprove of Obamacare, but disapproval does not translate into majority support for scrapping or eliminating it entirely — particularly among core Dem constituencies.
There is no minimizing the challenge the White House faces. High disapproval may make Congressional Dems more skittish, and there is intense pressure on the White House to show public impressions can be changed, by making the law work over time. Whether the administration can or will do this remains unknown. As Brian Beutler spells out, things may get still worse, making it excruciatingly difficult for Dems to weather the political downturn. But if Dems hang in there, the end result could be massively expanded coverage by the time Obama leaves office. The alternative — abandoning the law — is tantamount to telling voters to give up on the Democratic Party. Core Dem constituencies are not giving up on the law, and neither should Congressional Dems.
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* OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT ON TRACK IN SOME STATES: Related to the above, some important reporting from the Los Angeles Times:
Despite the disastrous rollout of the federal government’s healthcare website, enrollment is surging in many states as tens of thousands of consumers sign up for insurance plans made available by President Obama‘s health law. A number of states that use their own systems, including California, are on track to hit enrollment targets for 2014 because of a sharp increase in November, according to state officials.
Conclusion: “serious problems with the law’s rollout may not be fatal, despite critics’ renewed calls for repeal.”
Also, Brownstein asks a good question: “if blue states are signing up significant numbers on exchanges, politically can that coverage be revoked?”
A related question: Will higher enrollment in states make core Dem groups even more supportive of the law, and will that make it harder for any Dems to embrace repeal?
* OBAMA SLIPPING ON PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES: One other key finding in the Post/ABC poll: The President has slipped below majorities on whether he’s a strong leader; whether he understands people’s problems; and whether he’s honest and trustworthy.
Obviously Obama is not running for reelection, but such slippage risks making Dems up in 2014 even more eager to distance themselves from the President. When it comes to Obamacare, let’s remember that this isn’t about the president; it’s about the policy.
* DEMS GIVE WHITE HOUSE DEADLINE ON HEALTH LAW: The Hill reports that Democratic aides are warning that if the White House doesn’t get the website fixed by November 30th, Congressional Dems will take matters into their own hands:
If the president’s team fails to deliver, Democrats will embrace legislation extending the law’s enrollment period or forcing insurance companies to continue offering plans that do not meet ObamaCare’s standards, according to Democratic aides.
Hmmm, maybe. Still, the one to really watch for will be any legislative delay in the individual mandate. As Jonathan Bernstein outlined yesterday, the incentives run against Dems supporting anything that meaningfully undermines the law.
* GOP PLACES ALL ITS CHIPS ON OBAMACARE: National Journal has an interesting look at how Republicans no longer feel as much pressure to reach a budget deal — which could lead to another fight over short term funding of the government — because the focus is now on Obamacare’s rollout problems. Indeed, a spokesperson for Paul Ryan was asked whether Republicans feel any pressure to get something done because of the damage the GOP sustained in the shutdown fight, and replied bluntly: “Nah.”
As noted here yesterday, the Obamacare rollout fiasco seems to be making Republicans less inclined to deal with not just the budget, but immigration reform, too.
* GOP HAS NO POLICY AGENDA: Related to the above: The New York Times has a good editorial explaining that GOP glee over the awful health law rollout, which did display terrible administration “incompetence,” is leading Republicans to postpone the need to engage in actual governing:
What is the Republican alternative to this government program, flawed as it is right now? There is none. Party members simply want to repeal the health law and let insurers go back to canceling policies at the first sign of a shadow on an X-ray. They have no immigration policy of their own. They have no plan that will stimulate job growth. They are in favor only of shutdowns and sequesters and repeals, giving the public no reason to believe they have a governing vision or even a legislative agenda. Over time, that will prove to be a far more serious failure than momentary incompetence. Democrats may be stumbling right now, but at least they are trying.
This is the basic reason why Dems believe a “keep and fix” message may still carry the day over the long term, on the theory that voters will understand which party is trying to solve problems and which isn’t.
* POLL FINDS LITTLE MOVEMENT ON OBAMACARE: Meanwhile, a Reuters/Ipsos poll finds: that disapproval of the law is running high, but has not changed much since before the rollout. Also:
Republicans have vowed to try to repeal the law, but the poll showed they could face some obstacles because some elements of the law, such as requiring insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions, remain popular…Forty-one percent of those polled said they found the problems “unacceptable” and that they were an example of why the healthcare law never should have been passed.
In this poll, as in so many others, the GOP position appears to be a minority one.
* DEMS TO PRESS FOR CURBS ON NSA SYPING: It’s good to see, as the New York Times reports, that Congressional Democrats are renewing the push for limits on NSA spying and more disclosure and transparency around the programs. Notably, Democratic leaders — allied with GOP leaders — are moving to block legislative changes, in keeping with what the White House wants.
It will be interesting to see whether NSA spying will become another issue in the ongoing intra-Dem argument over what the Democratic Party should become, heading into 2014 and 2016.
* AND DEMS MUST FORCE “NUCLEAR” CONFRONTATION: So concludes Steve Benen, after taking stock of the latest GOP filibuster of Obama’s third nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals:
Let’s make this plain: if Senate Democrats don’t force a confrontation over this, they will, for the first time in the institution’s history, have allowed a minority of the Senate to hijack the judicial nominating process without cause.
What else? |
Subsets and Splits