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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Charles (Chuck) Timothy HagelHillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators Overnight Defense: White House eyes budget maneuver to boost defense spending | Trump heads to Hanoi for second summit with Kim | Former national security officials rebuke Trump on emergency declaration 58 ex-national security officials rebuke Trump over emergency declaration MORE is downplaying claims that 6,000 fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have been killed in U.S.-led airstrikes.
Hagel said he had not seen "any verification" for that figure at a Pentagon briefing Thursday.
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"We do know that thousands of ISIL fighters have been killed, and we do know that some of ISIL's leadership have been killed," he added, using an alternate name for the group.
Hagel said that, regardless, a body count was not a reliable measure of the success of the international campaign against the terror group.
"Is that the measurement or a significant measurement of progress? It is a measurement. But I don't think it is 'the' measurement," he said.
"I mean, I — I was in a war where there was a lot of body counts every day. And we lost that war," Hagel continued, referring to the Vietnam War, when commanders touted the number of enemy killed as a measurement of success.
His comments came after U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones said Thursday that coalition airstrikes against ISIS had killed more than 6,000 of the group's fighters.
Jones also told Al Arabiya news network that airstrikes have "taken more than half" of the group's leadership.
The U.S. has been striking ISIS targets in Iraq since August and in Syria since September. Jones's comments were the first time a U.S. official publicly give an estimate on ISIS fighters killed.
Hagel said more important metrics are whether ISIS is on the defensive, having difficulty recruiting or accessing supplies, and able to communicate on the battlefield.
The Pentagon chief also said he did not agree with comments by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi on Wednesday that the U.S. was taking too long in providing weapons and training to Iraqi soldiers.
Last year, Hagel said, the Pentagon accelerated the shipment of more than 1,500 Hellfire missiles, more than 250 armored vehicles, and tens of thousands of small arms and ammunition.
In addition, he said three of four training sites for Iraqi troops have been set up, and the fourth one would be ready soon.
"We have a coalition of over 60 countries that have come together to help Iraq. And I think the prime minister might want to be a little more mindful of that," he said. "We are doing everything we can possibly do to help the Iraqis."
Hagel also hit back, saying the Abadi government is not moving as fast as the U.S. would like on political reforms to include Iraq's different ethnic and religious groups.
"Is he moving as fast as we would like? Probably not. But in governing, especially in democracies, and when there are elections, you have certain parameters," he said.
"But we've made it very clear, and I said this to him in my meeting, that is the one defining metric of success, ultimate success for his country because this is about the Iraqis. This isn't about the United States," Hagel added. |
RUSH: More evidence that the media is going all Palin, all the time now on Donald Trump. Just moments ago on CNN’s Legal View, their economics reporter Christine Romans was speaking with their money correspondent about Trump’s economic advisory panel. Remember, the big story is not that we’ve paid $400 million in ransom to the Iranian government that they can then use to fund their nuclear program; they can use to fund terrorism. “No, Rush, that money is for roads and bridges! No, no, no.”
The money is fungible. Once they get it, they can use it for anything, folks. Don’t… That standard argument is the way that a lot of perps try to get out of trouble, by saying, “I intended the money for social causes and welfare benefits.” That doesn’t matter. You broke the freaking law. It doesn’t matter what you “intended” the money to go for! The Iranians are not going to use the money to rebuild roads and bridges. They’re going to build their nuclear program or expand their terrorism program! We’ve just given $400 million!
Anyway, that’s not the story.
No, it’s not the story.
The story is Trump claimed to see a video of this happening, even though the video was released by the Iranians. Here’s more evidence of the media all-in on taking Trump out.
ROMANS: Who are these guys? And they are all guys?
ALESCI: They are all guys, and they’re all white guys. This is an odd group because many of them have no policy experience, and that was by design, according to a person that I spoke to that was close to the campaign, saying, “Trump really wanted to bring outsiders in that have these free market principles, and he wants to apply those to the government.” Not clear how that translates in terms of how free market economics works when you’re dealing with (dramatic pause) the GOVERNMENT. But —
ROMANS: So, these are tycoons! These are hedge fund managers. These are tycoons.
RUSH: You understand you’re hearing two neophyte genuine ignoramuses here, two CNN info babes, claim that Donald Trump’s panel of economic advisors are a bunch of dimwits, because they’re from the private sector. They’ve actually worked in the economy, and that won’t work when you start talking about economic policy in the government. You need professors. You need politicians. You need thinkers from think tanks. You need people from the faculty lounge. You can’t bring… Especially if they’re all white! You can’t bring in analysts!
Do you hear this? This is Cristina Alesci that said this. (impression) “Yeah, a person that I spoke to close to the campaign said Trump really wanted to bring outsiders in that have the free market principles. Ooh! Yuck! Free market? No! Then he wants to apply those to the government. My God, what an idiot this Trump guy is! It’s not clear how being free market, uh, uh, works when you’re dealing with the government.”
She’s admitting, “How in the hell do a bunch of free market guys work with socialism?” She probably doesn’t know what she’s saying, other than Trump’s identity as an outsider. Yep, that’s his strength, and he’s going to bring in… We just got another bogus economic report, and the upshot of it is our economic growth has not once hit… This is the first time any administration has not had at least a quarter of 3% economic growth during its term.
We don’t have… We still have 94 million Americans not working. Most of the new jobs they are touting are part-time jobs. And people with actual economic experience in investing, making money, showing profit, hiring people, increasing wages? (impression) “No, no. No! Especially if they’re all white. We can’t have that! We need professors. We need theorists. We need people from the faculty lounge. This Trump… This guy, he’s just dangerous!” |
UCLA researchers have discovered that diamonds on a much, much smaller scale than those used in jewelry could be used to promote bone growth and the durability of dental implants.
Nanodiamonds, which are created as byproducts of conventional mining and refining operations, are approximately four to five nanometers in diameter and are shaped like tiny soccer balls.
Scientists from the UCLA School of Dentistry , the UCLA Department of Bioengineering and Northwestern University, along with collaborators at the NanoCarbon Research Institute in Japan, may have found a way to use them to improve bone growth and combat osteonecrosis, a potentially debilitating disease in which bones break down due to reduced blood flow.
When osteonecrosis affects the jaw, it can prevent people from eating and speaking; when it occurs near joints, it can restrict or preclude movement. Bone loss also occurs next to implants such as prosthetic joints or teeth, which leads to the implants becoming loose — or failing.
Implant failures necessitate additional procedures, which can be painful and expensive, and can jeopardize the function the patient had gained with an implant. These challenges are exacerbated when the disease occurs in the mouth, where there is a limited supply of local bone that can be used to secure the prosthetic tooth, a key consideration for both functional and aesthetic reasons.
The study, led by Dr. Dean Ho, professor of oral biology and medicine and co-director of the Jane and Jerry Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology at the UCLA School of Dentistry, appears online in the peer-reviewed Journal of Dental Research.
During bone repair operations, which are typically costly and time-consuming, doctors insert a sponge through invasive surgery to locally administer proteins that promote bone growth, such as bone morphogenic protein.
Ho's team discovered that using nanodiamonds to deliver these proteins has the potential to be more effective than the conventional approaches. The study found that nanodiamonds, which are invisible to the human eye, bind rapidly to both bone morphogenetic protein and fibroblast growth factor, demonstrating that the proteins can be simultaneously delivered using one vehicle. The unique surface of the diamonds allows the proteins to be delivered more slowly, which may allow the affected area to be treated for a longer period of time. Furthermore, the nanodiamonds can be administered non-invasively, such as by an injection or an oral rinse.
"We've conducted several comprehensive studies, in both cells and animal models, looking at the safety of the nanodiamond particles," said Laura Moore, the first author of the study and an M.D.-Ph.D. student at Northwestern University under the mentorship of Dr. Ho. "Initial studies indicate that they are well tolerated, which further increases their potential in dental and bone repair applications."
"Nanodiamonds are versatile platforms," said Ho, who is also professor of bioengineering and a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the California NanoSystems Institute. "Because they are useful for delivering such a broad range of therapies, nanodiamonds have the potential to impact several other facets of oral, maxillofacial and orthopedic surgery, as well as regenerative medicine."
Ho's team previously showed that nanodiamonds in preclinical models were effective at treating multiple forms of cancer . Because osteonecrosis can be a side effect of chemotherapy, the group decided to examine whether nanodiamonds might help treat the bone loss as well. Results from the new study could open the door for this versatile material to be used to address multiple challenges in drug delivery, regenerative medicine and other fields.
"This discovery serves as a foundation for the future of nanotechnology in dentistry, orthopedics and other domains in medicine," said Dr. No-Hee Park, dean of the School of Dentistry. "Dr. Ho and his team have demonstrated the enormous potential of the nanodiamonds toward improving patient care. He is a pioneer in his field."
Other authors of the study were Professor Eiji Osawa of the NanoCarbon Research Institute in Japan; and Ho-Joong Kim, a postdoctoral research scholar who was previously in Dr. Ho's laboratory and is currently an assistant professor of chemistry at Chosun University in South Korea.
The study was supported by the National Cancer Institute, the National Science Foundation, the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, The V Foundation for Cancer Research, the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening, Beckman Coulter and the European Commission.
The UCLA School of Dentistry is dedicated to improving the oral and systemic health of the people of California, the nation and the world through its teaching, research, patient care and public service initiatives. The School of Dentistry provides education and training programs that develop leaders in dental education, research, the profession and the community. The School of Dentistry also conducts research programs that generate new knowledge, promote oral health and investigate the cause, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of oral disease in an individualized disease-prevention and management model; and delivers patient-centered oral health care to the community and the state. |
The new group in Russia’s Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, would monitor foreign organizations and pass new legislation in a bid to halt “external interference,” the Kommersant newspaper reported Tuesday.
Russia could dedicate a new parliamentary commission to stopping Western nations from influencing the country’s 2018 presidential elections.
Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Federation Council’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, said that the United States and its “NATO allies” had all carried out "systematic attempts" to influence Russian politics.
"There is no doubt that during the run-up to the presidential elections in March next year, we're going to face some active and consistent attempts to influence the course of the vote," he told the Interfax news agency. "We'd like to see a permanent body that would monitor those attempts and improve current legislation."
The Federation Council will consider the proposal on Wednesday.
The first round of Russia's presidential elections are due to take place on March 18 , 2018. President Vladimir Putin has not yet announced whether he will run in the vote. |
Here we go again. The movie Predestination, released in the UK this February, is the very latest in the long history of time travel films. There's been more than 100 since the Terminator and Back to the Future franchises began 30 years ago — all of which are science fiction that have little to do with science facts.
Like many of them, Predestination has its own engaging twist: Ethan Hawke plays a time agent who nips back through history to snuff out crimes before they can be committed. Like all of them it's chronologically illogical: the split second a movie has someone monkeying with time you are doomed — predestined, you might say — to abandon the science and enter a plea of temporal insanity.
Things very quickly get very brain boggling. Consider this — if someone builds a time machine, what's to prevent them going back one minute and smashing it up before they first use it? Which means it never gets used — so how did it get smashed up? What prevents the whole parade of paradoxes thrown up by time travel to the past — becoming your own grandfather, killing Hitler before he starts World War II and so on — is that they trash big laws of physics. And the Universe, as far as we understand it, likes to play by the rules.
If someone builds a time machine what's to prevent them going back one minute and smashing it up before they first use it?
One of the fundamentals that underpins not just physics but every aspect of existence is the law of cause and effect, always in that order. Changing the past would violate that: your actions would affect what caused you to go back in the first place — so if you did manage to kill Hitler he wouldn't have done what led you to go back and kill him.
That doesn't stop filmmakers from exploring the consequences if you could somehow drop in on history. For Hollywood, applause and special effects are more important than cause and effect, and time travel offers unlimited opportunities to push both imagination and CGI to their limits. Hence screen time machines have included a police box (Dr Who), a phone booth (Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure), a DeLorean sports car (Back to the Future) and a big nudes-only energy ball (Terminator).
Wormhole loophole
Unlike other favorite science fiction themes such as smarter-than-human robots or interstellar travel or encounters with aliens — all of which are somewhere on a scale of theoretically possible to eventually probable — time travel to the past is now and forever a complete scientific no-no.
Well, almost complete. There is a loophole. A tiny loophole called a wormhole. Stephen Hawking is one of many respected scientists who now believe that our entire Universe is permeated by wormholes, effectively shortcuts through time and space. While entirely compatible with Einstein's theory of relativity and most other current big ideas about the nature of reality, they open up the possibility not only of journeys in time — popping in one end of a wormhole and popping out days, years or centuries earlier — but also of instantly linking distant parts of the cosmos, effectively enabling faster-than-light travel. No wonder the idea of wormholes is so often borrowed by a whole slew of so-called sci-fi (including Star Trek, Stargate, The Avengers and Interstellar).
There is a loophole. A tiny loophole called a wormhole
Just one word of warning before anyone attempts to build a spaceship and steer for the nearest wormhole: they may be real, they may be common and they may bridge time and space, but having a wormhole is one thing, having one you can use is quite another. Even Professor Hawking, who admits to being "obsessed by time" and to wanting to believe time travel is possible, points out that wormholes are only thought to exist in the "quantum foam" right down below even the scale of atoms. That's way too small to squeeze a spaceship through. Or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or even Michael J. Fox.
There are those who argue that given enough technology, theoretical physicists, and, er, time, we might eventually develop a way to snare some of these infinitesimally tiny wormholes and then make them billions of times bigger so we could go where and when we wanted. It's all colossally speculative at the moment, but just supposing such a traversable wormhole were someday constructed, and you carefully avoided all deliberate interference with the past, you would still run smack into another prohibitive paradox.
Beware the Butterfly Effect
It's one nicely illustrated by Ray Bradbury's classic early '50s short story A Sound of Thunder, where time travelers to Earth's prehistoric past are kept on a levitating walkway to minimize their chance of any contact with the past. Someone falls off and accidentally crushes a single butterfly. When they return to their present, all sorts of things, from spellings of words to the outcome of elections, are different, and they have created an alternative reality.
Bradbury's story is the first incarnation of the "Butterfly Effect" often evoked in chaos theory: the idea that one tiny change now can result in all manner of large and often unforeseeable changes later. And that's a real obstacle for going back in time. If anyone could overcome the enormous challenge of how to do it, they would still face the equally great challenge of how to do it without risk of affecting the past in the slightest. Alter one thing, and you could alter everything and end up rewriting reality.
Again, there are some who are bending their minds to ways round these restrictions: there are all sorts of theories involving configurations of multiple wormholes and ‘closed timelike curves' and other elaborate alternatives. But sadly for those who like their film fantasies grounded in reality there could be one simple reason why all these problems and paradoxes appear insurmountable: they just are. Much as we love the idea of changing the past and erasing our mistakes — I've some deep regrets about a coat I bought in 2007 — it seems nothing, including wormholes, can take us back there.
A fraction younger
Traveling into the future, however, is not necessarily impossible. In fact, there are those who have already done it. The greatest of them is Sergei Krikalev, a cosmonaut now also a chrononaut by virtue of having spent so long in space that it's been calculated he's traveled into his own future by about one-two hundredths of a second.
Traveling into the future, however, is not necessarily impossible. In fact, there are those who have already done it
Okay, it's not much. But it's still enough to be tricky to get your head round. It's all down to time dilation, something predicted by Einstein's Theory of Relativity but which we can measure, whereby the faster someone goes (and Sergei spent over two years in orbit on Mir and the International Space Station traveling at over 17,000mph) the slower their clock goes relative to those back down on Earth. It's more complicated than this because gravity is also involved, but Sergei has aged fractionally less than he would have if he'd not gone into space.
Start cranking up the velocity and the effects become much more pronounced: if chrononaut Krikalev had spent his two years in space traveling at a smidge below the speed of light (almost 40,000 times faster than he was orbiting at) he would have returned to find two centuries or more had passed on Earth.
That's proper time travel. Of course it might be unfeasible to ever get up to such speeds and the trips are strictly one way, but unlike plunging into history we at least know it is possible. So while films about going back in time are pure fantasy, ones where people end up in the future have a smidge of science amongst the fiction. Which makes it a pity there are so few of them.
The two versions of HG Wells' The Time Machine, the Back to the Future trilogy, and Planet of the Apes are among the few that at least involve some travel into the future. The only film I'm aware of to attempt to portray the realities of time travel is last year's Interstellar. It draws on time dilation and the "Rip Van Winkle" experience for returning astronauts of finding themselves decades out of phase with the people they left behind.
Perhaps it's the start of a move toward factual accuracy in time travel films. But I doubt it. Is it too much to wish for more movies that don't take it so seriously, and have fun with the ludicrousness of leaping around in history? Films like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure with its paradox-popping ending. Now there's a film I can watch time and time again.
This article was first published on BBC Future.
Correction: the original version of this article stated that Predestination was released "this week," it was released in February. |
Torres, who bats leadoff when he is in the lineup, has blistering, game-changing speed that distinguishes him from practically every other Met. Despite missing considerable time this season after straining his calf muscle on opening day, Torres leads the Mets in steals with nine, and his presence on first base can stir up an unnerving feeling of menace for opposing teams. All season, Manager Terry Collins has repeated one statement like a mantra: “When Andres Torres gets on base, he scores.”
But Torres, as he showed this weekend, has also been prone to mental lapses on the basepaths. He has been caught stealing four times. His rate of success just ahead of the season’s halfway point, then, has been adequate but hardly elite. As a familiar comparison, Jose Reyes stole 39 bases in 46 attempts while batting leadoff last season for the Mets. This year for the Marlins, Reyes has stolen 19 bases and been thrown out 4 times.
“If you’re fast, if you’re a speed guy, like Torres, the mistakes, getting picked off, that can happen,” said Tom Goodwin, the Mets’ first-base coach. “But there are some facets, some issues, we need to clean up.”
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Torres agreed. “I want to be aggressive,” he said, “but I think I need to show more patience.”
Torres, who has formed something of a platoon with Kirk Nieuwenhuis, has also had trouble getting on base. He is batting .205, and his slugging percentage is .292. Dave Hudgens, the Mets’ hitting coach, said Torres’s swing was probably still a bit too long. He said that he had noticed that Torres allows the barrel of his bat to drop too frequently, resulting in fly balls rather than grounders that he might at times convert into infield hits.
Torres has maintained a respectable on-base percentage of .332 because he has walked in 14.9 percent of his plate appearances, the highest rate among the players currently on the Mets. He sees 4.04 pitches per plate appearance, also one of the highest averages among Mets regulars.
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“He’s trying,” Hudgens said. “He needs to work on staying on top of the ball, keeping the ball out of the air, taking some more pitches.”
Hudgens added, “He’s getting some walks, and now he needs to get some hits.”
Torres’s limitations at the plate are not particularly surprising, given his history. He was traded to the Mets this winter from San Francisco, where he batted .252 over three up-and-down seasons. Still, he is performing below that level.
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And although Torres was seen as an improvement defensively in center field over Angel Pagan, who switched placed with Torres in the trade, he has shown some of the same exasperating tendencies. The soft fly ball that he let fall Friday was the most recent example, but it has been easy enough to observe the circuitous routes he sometimes takes on fly balls and the awkward, late reads he can appear to get on line drives from time to time.
Torres, who has a bubbly personality, appears to have adapted well to the Mets’ clubhouse, where unity has been a theme this season.
Along with his struggles, he has had an eventful season, with the birth of his second child in May and the premiere of a documentary about his life and his battle with attention hyperactivity disorder.
“I’ve been having a great time because we’re winning, and we’re playing some good baseball,” Torres said.
But after a pause, Torres said he knew one thing that would make it more enjoyable.
“I wish I was hitting more,” he said. |
Game of Thrones season 7 kick-off was directed by famous TV director Jeremy Podeswa and now that the episode has finally released, he shared some information from the episode and also his notions on directing the episode. In a conversation with the Hollywood Reporter, Podeswa went to talk about the super-hyped Ed Sheeran Cameo. “The only thing he asked is if he could change the key of the song he was singing, and he asked it very tentatively. (Laughs.) He wanted to do a good job and was very concerned about that. He hung out with everybody on set all day, with all of the other guys sitting around the campfire. He was a team player,” said Podeswa.
So far, Sheeran’s sequence had no significant impact on the storyline and a mixed bag of reactions was witnessed concerning the same. He went on to discuss the heart winning opening sequence, where cold blooded Arya poisons the entire House Frey (save the girls) to death. Her well cheered line “Winter came for House Frey” was an extra win.
“When you’re directing it, you hope that moment happens in an interesting way that gives the audience pleasure. Maisie’s performance at the end and says what she says to Walder’s wife … I had chills when we shot it and I hoped I would have chills when we cut it, and I did. I knew it was a great scene from the moment we shot it, really.”
Speaking of Sam’s disgusting montage, he shared that initially the scene had a run time of 7-8 minutes which would have been more terrible to watch but thanks to showrunners, the sequence was shortened.
“I love doing [the Sam montage], generally. It’s something where you go into the cutting room with an idea of what it might be, and then it’s really finessed and made manifest for real in the cutting room. It was very complex both tonally and practically because there were so many different sets and component pieces. Many of these sets only appear really for this montage: the mess hall, the infirmary, the privy, the washing room … so many different elements that had to be built.”
About the White Walker army sequence, Jeremy admits that the idea was given by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. However, Podeswa mentions that the idea to end the sequence on a giant’s eyes was pre-scripted.
Director says “We knew it would be one shot. Nothing fancy in terms of camerawork. But it’s a shot that very slowly reveals itself over time, and we take that time.”
Podeswa also spoke with Insider and revealed that there was a conversation sequence shot between Tormund and Brienne which unfortunately could not make it to the final cut.
“There is one thing that they scripted and they riffed on that, which is Tormund says something about his relationship with Sheila the Bear. And nobody knows what that means or what that’s all about, so that’s meant to make Brienne look at him askance. He’s either trying to shock her or he’s just oblivious that he’s saying something that’s crazy.”
Sheila is the bear, with whom Tormund had his rumoured relationship. Maybe, this was what Brienne and Tormund could have been talking about.
Jeremy also talked about the fabled ending to the episode. The one, where Daenerys finally arrived at Dragonstone. While Stannis had his command over the castle, only a few sections of it were put on show. But the last sequence of the episode left the viewers in a pool of amusement.
“It was a very big sequence and very exciting to shoot — every single aspect of it, cinematographically, was amazing. There was so much to work with on location and in those fabulous sets. Creating this new geography was a very big challenge, but a good one.” |
MUMBAI: One leg of an IITian is in India, the other in Air India, went a popular wisecrack in the late 1980s and early '90s.Every year hundreds of freshly minted engineers from these highly rated institutes would fly westward. This time, the template followed by several graduating classes was disrupted as many turned down international job offers.Not even 200 of the approximate 10,000 students from the Indian Institutes of Technology took up positions outside India last year. Fifty students, who make up the largest contingent, will be leaving from IIT-Bombay , followed by 40 from Delhi, 25 from Kharagpur, 19 from Kanpur, 13 from Madras, 17 from Roorkee and five from Guwahati. In 2012, 84 IIT-B candidates had accepted international job offers."Compared to 20 years ago, a very small percentage of students go abroad today . This is contrary to the general perception," says IIT-Delhi director V Ramgopal Rao. "Twenty years ago, 80% of the BTech class used to go abroad. Now these numbers are insignificant.“ The count was larger last year, though not drama tically different. While the first phase of placements has concluded, the ensuing edition is unlikely to have international companies flying down to campuses."When we asked companies why they were coming to campus with fewer offers, they said that their requirement was lower and profiles too had changed," said professor Kaustubha Mohanty, convenor of the All-IIT Placement Committee But that may not be the entire story. Deepak Phatak, chair professor at IIT-Bombay, said that the real question is how many IITians applied for international jobs."A large number of our students are not seeking jobs outside India," he said. In fact, Phatak was concerned about the quality of graduates when international offers started dwindling a few years ago."So I conducted exit interviews and found that students perceive that the land of opportunity is here," he said. Moreover, with global companies setting up offices in India, students can join Google in Bennigana Halli in Bengaluru instead of Mountain View, California.In the early '90s, the outflow of computer science graduates to the US was so high that the World Bank , in a report, had suggested that an exit tax be imposed on IIT-ians and other professionals leaving the country-this, it said, could earn the government over $1 billion (about Rs 4,400 crore then) per annum.This year, the US, which used to attract most candidates, has been pipped by Japan. For instance, 35 students from IIT-B are headed to the Far East as compared to 10 who are going to the USA.The concern that state-subsidised educated talent was flying off to the West to build a foreign economy and driving innovation and entrepreneurship there, gave birth to the aching term--brain drain. The turn of events has led to a new expression, the euphonious "brain circulation"."A small percentage (less than 15% of a graduating batch) of students go abroad for higher studies. Others stay back," said IIT-Guwahati director Gautam Biswas. "Many graduates keep moving between countries abroad and India. Indeed, brain drain is a myth now, one may call the paradigm brain circulation." |
Google has announced a series of changes to Chrome that it hopes will put an end to nasty redirects and deceptive links when using the popular web browser on both Chrome for Android and desktop. The new features have been designed to help avoid “abusive experiences” and improve web browsing on the whole, and will be rolling out in future Chrome updates.
The main target of the three new features are sites and/or links that send the end user to an entirely different, typically unwanted location. According to Google, one out of every five feedback reports are from users that have been redirected towards unexpected, potentially malicious content in this way.
To fight back against websites and dodgy third-party elements that do this (the latter often without the site owner’s knowledge), Chrome update version 64 will introduce a blocking mechanism that recognises and stops unexpected redirects. Much like the browser’s pre-existing pop-up blocker, Chrome will also notify you when this happens with an infobar on mobile and desktop.
Editor's Pick Chrome for Android now lets you view saved passwords The latest version of Chrome for Android has been released and allows you to view your saved passwords, which is a feature previously only available on the desktop variant of the browser. When you make an …
Google is aware that this won’t fully solve the problem, however, as some of the more iffy links have clever ways of deceiving the user. This can be seen with links that appear to be above board by accessing the intended destination in a new tab or window.
This isn’t an uncommon experience on many websites, but there are some which use this as an opportunity to redirect the original page to another, less legitimate website. Google noted in a Chromium Blog post published today that this method currently bypasses Chrome’s pop-up blocker. Thankfully this will no longer be the case as of Chrome 65, Google says.
The final update will no doubt be familiar to any seasoned netizen: fake video or music player icons. Google calls these kind of links “abusive experiences”, and this also includes invisible website overlays which immediately send the user to another tab or window just be clicking anywhere on the page.
This should all change in January, Google says, as it is rolling out improvements to the pop-up blocker that will catch offending links in their tracks. The search giant is also helping out website owners by showing them any reports of “abusive experiences” so they can remove the offending links.
What do you think of the changes? Are you looking forward to browsing the web without having to suffer through unwanted redirects? Let us know in the comments. |
"In Marcus' first year in North America, he quickly showed that he is a skilled player with the ability to contribute to the team's success," said Sharks Assistant General Manager and San Jose Barracuda General Manager Joe Will. "The time he spent with the Sharks this season, and the positive impact he had, proved that he can be an effective player at the highest level. We're excited to see him compete for a spot with the Sharks at training camp in the fall."
In his first season in North America, Sorensen, 25, recorded 34 points (17 goals, 17 assists) in 43 games with the San Jose Barracuda, the American Hockey League affiliate of the San Jose Sharks. His 17 goals was tied for 4th on the team, despite playing less than two-thirds of the season's games. He also finished the season T-2nd on the Barracuda with a plus-17 rating, 5th in shooting percentage (15.7), and 6th in points per game (0.79). In 10 playoff games with the AHL club, he collected one assist, 20 shots, and 10 penalty minutes.
In 19 regular season games with the Sharks, Sorensen collected four points (one goal, three assists). He recorded his first career NHL goal, the game winner, on March 2, 2017 against the Vancouver Canucks at SAP Center at San Jose. He played in all six of the Sharks playoffs games this season, scoring one goal and one assist with plus-1 rating and five shots on goal.
Prior to playing in North America, Sorensen recorded 66 points (32 goals, 34 assists) and 64 penalty minutes in 97 career SHL games with Djurgårdens IF. He represented Sweden in the 2015 Euro Hockey Tour, posting three goals and a plus-4 rating in a first-place finish.
The five-foot-ten, 175-pound forward is a native of Södertälje, Sweden. He was originally drafted in the 4th round of the 2010 NHL Draft by the Ottawa Senators, and was signed by San Jose as a free agent on May 13, 2016. |
A report by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) found that there were more than 400 serious breaches of legal and ethical conduct by those in the Justice Department from fiscal year 2002 through 2013. Some of the violations included misleading courts, failure to provide exculpatory information to defendants and violations of constitutional or civil rights.
In addition, it was discovered that those found to be in violation were punished lightly or not at all when their transgressions were discovered.
The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) in the Justice Department compiled the data, some of which was available publicly. Most of the information was requested by POGO through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Among the more prominent violations during the period studied: The production of the “torture memos” by George W. Bush Administration-era Justice Department officials Jay Bybee and John Yoo. According to an OPR report, “Yoo committed intentional professional misconduct when he violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice,” and Bybee “committed professional misconduct when he acted in reckless disregard of his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice.” Bybee is now a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Yoo is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
Another violation occurred in the prosecution of then-Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Stevens was charged with failing to report large amounts of gifts. Stevens was found guilty, and subsequently narrowly lost a bid for re-election. He died in 2010. The conviction was set aside when it was found that prosecutors failed to provide evidence that could have assisted Stevens in his defense. One prosecutor eventually served one day of suspension in connection with the violations.
In many cases, it has taken years for OPR to investigate violations by Justice Department attorneys. And when it does reach a finding, it often leads to reduced prison sentences for those prosecuted in those cases.
POGO’s report urged changes in the way OPR handles violations. First, it should notify the appropriate state bars of an attorney’s misconduct. It also suggested that OPR increase transparency of its investigations, making it easier for the public to discover government misconduct. Third, the report urged that the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General be given authority to investigate misconduct. Currently, that office does not have that power.
-Steve Straehley
To Learn More:
Hundreds of Justice Department Attorneys Violated Professional Rules, Laws, or Ethical Standards (by Nick Schwellenbach, Project On Government Oversight) |
One early morning in August 2015, a security guard found 43-year-old Brad Chapman lying on Walnut Street in Toronto.
The longtime opioid user had drug paraphernalia on his body and a needle in his ankle, but police initially thought he was sleeping, said Chapman's sister, Leigh Chapman.
It took a week for the family to be notified that her homeless brother was in hospital, she told CBC Toronto.
Brad Chapman died of a suspected fentanyl overdose in August 2015, two weeks before his 44th birthday. (Leigh Chapman)
By then, the father of three was brain dead.
"The hospital said they had suspected it was fentanyl, because he sort of went quickly into respiratory and cardiac arrest," Leigh Chapman said. "We never suspected it was intentional ... so it would have been helpful to know if it was a contaminated supply or whether he took too much."
As the number of fatal fentanyl overdoses climbs across the country, Toronto's civic leaders are trying to develop a strategy to prevent an opioid epidemic.
Preparing in case of a crisis
Toronto Public Health is hosting a meeting today with more than a dozen organizations including police, paramedics, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and community service providers to share information and come up with ideas to keep opioid users safe.
Fentanyl is being mixed with other narcotics. Experts say it is very difficult to detect because it has no smell or taste. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)
"The better information we have about what's in the illicit drug market, the better we are able to develop responses to it," said Susan Shepherd, manager of the Toronto Drug Strategy Secretariat. "That's difficult information to get because it's an unregulated market."
Anecdotally, Toronto Public Health's front-line workers are already seeing more users overdose on opioids.
"With our clients, we're getting self-reports that people use heroin, but they think that it has fentanyl in it," said Shaun Hopkins, manager of The Works, a Toronto harm-reduction program.
Killer drug
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid commonly prescribed as pain medication, which is now being increasingly found in street drugs across Canada. According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, fentanyl is between 50 and 80 times more powerful than morphine.
Illicit drug users can take fentanyl unknowingly when other drugs like cocaine or heroin are laced with it. It has no taste or smell, and police say it can take on the composition of the drug with which it's mixed.
The union representing B.C.'s ambulance paramedics says emergency responders have dealt with as many as 170 calls a day related to the fentanyl crisis. (Facebook/Ambulance Paramedics Of B.C.)
The chief coroner for Ontario reports that fentanyl was involved in 165 deaths in 2015, a slight rise from the previous year, but almost double the 86 deaths documented in 2010.
This province's rate of fatal overdoses, however, pales in comparison to the situation in British Columbia, which reported 755 opioid-related deaths between January and November 2016. That's an increase of 70.4 per cent compared to the same period last year, something B.C.'s chief coroner attributes primarily to the presence of fentanyl.
Toronto police say they're keeping a close eye on the situation here; they respond to all overdose calls.
Acting Insp. Steve Watts said that in 2015, the drug squad primarily confiscated pharmaceutical-grade fentanyl patches that had been taken apart and then smoked or injected.
"What we're seeing more in 2016 is pill and powder form," Watts said. "You will not have the ability to determine how much fentanyl is in that powder. That's the danger from a user perspective, from a public health perspective."
An antidote
All paramedics in the city now carry naloxone, the antidote used to treat a narcotic overdose. Prior to 2016, only 30 per cent of paramedics had the antidote in their kits.
Hopkins said The Works has also ramped up its distribution of naloxone and they teach the friends and family of users how to administer it.
And more people are asking for the antidote.
"Since 2011, we've given out over 7,000 doses of naloxone to people and we've heard it's been used in 570 overdose situations."
More community members are asking for naloxone kits - which is effective for counteracting the effects of a number of opioid drugs, including fentanyl, said Toronto Public Health. (Grand River Hospital)
The city is waiting on federal approval for three supervised injection sites. And then once the province provides funding, the clinics could be operating in six months, Hopkins said.
"Supervised injection services will really help in terms of ... helping us to be able to intervene and save someone's life — and reduce the impact of the overdose from a medical point of view, because the intervention is happening fairly quickly."
She hopes today's meeting will provide a forum to share information that can be passed on to drug users so they can better protect themselves.
"The concern is, what drugs are coming?" she said. "Is carfentanil coming? Are we going to see more fentanyl in the drug supply ... in other drugs like cocaine? And how can we ramp up our services to ensure that even people who typically don't use opiates have a naloxone kit just in case?"
Toronto is waiting for federal approval to open three supervised injection sites in the city. ((Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press))
Leigh Chapman, however, wants to see all first responders carry naloxone and be trained to recognize the signs of an overdose.
"In Brad's case in particular, the police stood with him for 13 minutes," she said of her brother. "It takes much less time than that for brain death to occur.
"If police had been able to recognize the signs of overdose and been able to act accordingly, in terms of positioning him in a recovery position, I think a lot of lives would be saved." |
You could say that drama follows French tennis player Alize Cornet, but you’d technically be wrong because that implies Alize Cornet and drama are two separate entities when they’re actually one and the same. They walk together, hand-in-hand, throughout the WTA and into Thursday’s second-round match against German Tatjana Maria.
Cornet and Maria split the first two sets, leading to a third set that featured a number of twists, turns and breaks. Early on, Cornet, which is French for "dramatic tears," began cramping. Because this is something she’s done before, many were skeptical but it looked like these were legit. She was tightening up like LeBron under pressure. But Cornet can’t take a medical timeout for cramping — it’s against the rules. Thus, she tried every trick in the book to get the trainer to stay out with her during most of the third-set changeovers, even officially asking for training on one leg while instructing the trainer to work on the other.
At this point, Maria was upset and nearly in tears, asking the chair to give Cornet a time warning, which, to be honest, she deserved. It’s one thing to get some salt packets from the trainer. It’s another to get a physical in between games. It’s also fine to limp around after you’ve cramped so they don’t come back. But walking around like you just stormed Normandy is a bit much. Then, as the set progressed, it seemed that Cornet was doing what everyone had initially expected — milking the cramps. Usually when a player comes down with an attack, they can’t move before, during or after points. Cornet’s cramps were specialized to hit immediately after a point and not a moment sooner. At 5-4, Cornet won the match on Maria’s serve. And then this happened.
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Alizé Cornet au bout du suspense bat Maria 6-3 6-7(5) 6-4 #RG16 https://t.co/b67OAmCIUk — Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 26, 2016
That point from Maria is the universal sign for "oh no you didn’t."
I gotta say, I’m Team Maria here, all the way. Cornet just won a second-round match and fell to the clay like she’d just won the whole tournament. It’s great that you survived leg cramps but get up, shake the hand of the opponent you’re clearly showing up, then go back to celebrating. There’s a time limit to celebrations that gets progressively longer as a tournament progresses and let’s just say Cornet would have deserved two time violations if that were actually true.
In the post-match, on-court interview, Cornet was asked what Maria said to her. (All quotes via @BenRothenberg.)
Ahh, the ol’ "I’m rubber, you’re glue" defense.
Maria wasn’t having it, telling the press.
(Dennis Grombkowski/Getty Images)
No, Maria; it’s Alize Cornet. |
Theresa May's ban on khat was not based on any evidence of medical or social harm and must be stopped before it becomes law, an influential committee of MPs found today.
In a humiliating move for the home secretary, the home affairs committee recommended that the government halt plans to ban the drug, which is popular among some African communities.
"It is extremely worrying that such an important decision has not been taken on the basis of evidence or consultation," chairman Keith Vaz said.
"The expert Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs conducted a thorough review of the evidence and concluded that no social or medical harm resulted from the use of Khat."
He added: "It is baffling that potential friction, between already disadvantaged communities and the police, has not been fully considered.
"We cannot afford for those who are already marginalised to be pushed towards criminality or extremism."
The government halted a Commons debate on adding khat to the drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act to wait for the home affairs committee report – suggesting it is nervy about the move and liable to take the committee's findings on board.
Such a move would be profoundly embarrassing for the home secretary, who can usually expect to see all recommendations about drug prohibition quickly enforced, regardless of whether they are substantiated by scientific evidence.
But experts are particularly concerned that a ban would rob many importers and exporters of their livelihood and drive them into the arms of Al-Shabab, an Al-Qaida-linked group operating in the country.
"It is wrong to place legal importers in the impossible position of choosing between a life of potential hardship or one of crime," Vaz said.
"It is vital that prohibition in the UK does not result in an increase in recruitment of Al-Shabab abroad."
The report demonstrates a new found confidence from the home affairs committee, which enjoys relative high levels of success in turning its recommendations into policy.
MPs on the committee currently average a 60% success rate for government acceptance of their recommendations.
That did not apply earlier this year, when a committee recommendation for a royal commission to look into Britain's drug laws was instantly rejected by the government.
But the relatively warm reception to the recommendation in the usually hostile tabloid press has seen a more confident approach from the committee when it comes to discussions around drug regulation.
The report said there had been no convincing evidence that the consumption of khat is linked to any medical or social harm, and found that to control it as a Class C drug would be "disproportionate".
It criticised the Home Office for not undertaking any consultation at all with members of the Somali, Yemeni and Kenyan communities who use Khat in the UK - or those who produce it abroad.
MPs concluded that the potential negative effects, both on the diaspora communities who consume khat in the UK, and on the growers who cultivate it in Africa, outweighed any possible benefits of the ban.
The ban on Khat could also damage UK-Kenya relations, the committee found.
Earlier this week, Kenyan MP Florence Kajuju urged the UK not proceed with the ban on khat, which has a significant role in cultural and social pastimes for many Africans.
For instance, Kenyan families traditionally offer a bag of the mild stimulant when proposing marriage and the woman's acceptance of the bag means she agrees. |
Donald Trump implied to a crowd of veterans that those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder after combat were weak, perpetuating a misconception of PTSD that blames the victim for his or her suffering.
“When you talk about the mental-health problems, when people come back from war and combat, and they see things that maybe a lot of the folks in this room have seen many times over and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it, and they see horror stories, they see events that you couldn’t see in a movie... we need mental health help and medical,” Trump said during a Q&A session with retired vets in Herndon, Virginia.
Trump never served in the military, receiving multiple student deferments and a medical deferment in the 1960s, and said once that the danger he faced from getting sexually transmitted diseases was his own “personal Vietnam.”
PTSD is a complex condition, but experts in the field have long said that it is not the result of personal or character weakness—and that this notion can make it more difficult for injured service members to reach out for help.
Veterans website Task and Purpose identifies this as the No. 1 “myth” about PTSD, and the Veterans Health Administration tells service members that “getting help is problem solving, not a sign of weakness.”
Between 11 and 20 out of every 100 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD, the VA estimates.
The Trump campaign fired back that the press was operating “as the propaganda arm of Hillary Clinton” and that the candidate’s words were taken “out of context to deceive voters and veterans.”
“Mr. Trump was highlighting the challenges veterans face when returning home after serving their country. He has always respected the service and sacrifice of our military men and women—proposing reforms to Veteran Affairs to adequately address the various issues veterans face when they return home,” said retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a Trump surrogate.
Trump never answered the question he was originally asked, which is whether he supports funding faith-based programs to stem suicide rates in the military. However, he did flub again when he said 22 veterans commit suicide a day—a new VA study in July concluded that the figure was 20.
The Republican nominee's PTSD statement overshadows the announcement Trump was hoping to make this morning. During prepared remarks earlier in the event, Trump called for a “thorough review” of the nation’s cybersecurity, while pivoting to attack Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server.
“To truly make America safe we must make cybersecurity a major priority, which I don’t believe we’re doing right now,” Trump said. “Hillary Clinton’s only experience in cybersecurity involves her criminal scheme to violate federal law, engineering a massive coverup and putting the entire nation in harm’s way.”
The announcement follows Trump’s puzzling answer on cybersecurity at the presidential debate last week, when he rambled on about his 10-year-old son’s expertise with computers.
“So we have to get very, very tough on cyber and cyberwarfare. It is—it is a huge problem. I have a son. He’s 10 years old. He has computers. He is so good with these computers, it’s unbelievable. The security aspect of cyber is very, very tough. And maybe it’s hardly doable,” Trump said. “But I will say, we are not doing the job we should be doing.” |
Rookie Jonathon Beech has been promoted to Adelaide’s senior list.
Beech, 25, has been one of the Club’s most consistent performers at SANFL level this season.
The 187cm, 85kg, half-forward/wingman impressed in his first AFL pre-season, but an untimely hamstring injury prevented him from playing in the NAB Challenge.
Beech collected a season-high 27 disposals in his last two games against Norwood and Port Magpies.
He’s kicked 16 goals this year and is equal-third in the SANFL for score assists (20) despite missing two matches with a quad injury. The hard-working Beech leads the SANFL Crows in marks and is also third for contested marks.
From Barmera in the Riverland, the West Adelaide premiership player secured a spot on Adelaide’s 2016 rookie list after narrowly missing out the year prior.
Beech has been elevated to the Club’s primary squad in place of defender Sam Shaw, who has been placed on the long-term injury list as he continues to recover from concussion-related symptoms.
Beech is the second rookie to be promote this season following ruckman Reilly O’Brien, who has played the past two games at AFL level. A rookie must be added to the senior list before being considered for AFL selection, including as an emergency. |
WASHINGTON — Call it a Sunday Senate showdown: a rare weekend Capitol Hill battle over the Patriot Act, which will expire at midnight Sunday unless Congress acts. The high-stakes face-off between national security and privacy rights could end up in a stalemate unless someone can convince members of the upper chamber to compromise.
Could this be a job for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren — the congressional rabble-rouser from the Bay State?
On one far end of the three-way conflict is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who wants a wholesale renewal of the law. On the other side of the spectrum is Sen. Rand Paul, the GOP presidential candidate from Kentucky, who wants to kill the law altogether.
In the middle are Democrats, including President Obama, pressuring McConnell to back a bipartisan bill that would rein in the National Security Agency’s phone data collection program, which a federal judge recently struck down. That measure, the USA Freedom Act, passed with broad bipartisan support in the House last week and would allow the government to still obtain cellphone data collection, but only with warrants.
Unlike other down-to-the wire Senate battles, which usually result in some eleventh hour solution, both Paul and McConnell have dug in their heels.
So who better than Warren, who has shown a penchant for vocally drumming up support for and against high-profile legislation, not only to get her desired legislative outcome but also to impact the presidential campaign debate, to lead the charge?
But it doesn’t seem that Warren is ready to rally.
Warren said she’d be there Sunday, explaining yesterday that “a court has now ruled that the Patriot Act is not lawful.”
Actually, a federal court ruled the NSA phone program was not authorized by the language of the act; it didn’t rule on the legality of the law itself.
Warren continued, “We were in the wrong place with the Patriot Act.” So she’s backing the House-passed measure. But not wholeheartedly: “USA Freedom is a step in the right direction in terms of providing protections for data security and to make sure that the government does not overreach in its wholesale collection of data. But I think it’s only a first step. And that there’s more work to be done.”
While national security has never been one of Warren’s championed causes, the issue of protecting citizens’ privacy and 4th Amendment rights gels nicely with her progressive platform. But it seems that on Sunday, the debate will happen without a Warren wing revolt.
Matt Stout contributed to this report. |
WASHINGTON—Stating that the new system is pursuant with the regulations laid out by the Affordable Care Act, the White House announced Friday that the government’s health insurance exchanges would now only be accessible from a single kiosk in a remote Iowa cornfield. “All Americans wishing to sign up for health insurance through the marketplace will now be able to do so by accessing a terminal conveniently located in the middle of a 60-acre cornfield just two hours North of Des Moines,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, adding that the lone kiosk, which stands among the tall corn stalks about 2,000 yards off an unmarked road, would be open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the shortened enrollment period for anyone seeking to procure health coverage for 2018. “One kiosk centrally located in the United States will streamline the process of accessing the marketplace while also cutting costs. In just 135 paces northeast from the old tree stump in the middle of the field, you’ll be able to peruse the insurance options available for you and your family, except between noon and 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays when the system undergoes scheduled maintenance. We recommend signing up early for those who live out of state as flights to Des Moines are limited.” At press time, sources confirmed that the new health exchange kiosk was currently out of order after being run over by a combine harvester.
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De Bruyne 'only wants Dortmund move'
Borussia Dortmund general manager Michael Zorc has claimed Chelsea’s Belgium international Kevin de Bruyne “only wants to join us”.
Bayer Leverkusen chief executive chief executive Wolfgang Holzhauser said a deal was in place to bring De Bruyne, 21, to the club on loan as part of Andre Schurrle’s proposed move to Stamford Bridge.
But Zorc said Dortmund had agreed a five-year deal with the midfielder, who spent last season on loan and Werder Bremen, and added: “De Bruyne only wants to join us.”
Leverkusen and Chelsea have an agreement in principle for the €20 million transfer of Schurrle and a one-year loan of De Bruyne - but Chelsea have not so far moved to confirm that.
“We have heard nothing new,” the Rheinische Post quoted Leverkusen media director Meinolf Sprink as saying.
Late last week, Holzhauser told the same paper he hoped Chelsea “stand by what has been agreed on” and hit out at Dortmund.
“Maybe we have come too close to Borussia Dortmund,” he said. “Maybe Dortmund wants to keep us down as a competitor.”
Dortmund and Leverkusen have recently battled over the signature of Bremen defender Sokratis, who eventually opted to join the Champions League runners-up. |
You are invited to be our guest and step into the beloved “Beauty and the Beast” story in new ways! For a limited time, Fantasyland at Disneyland park will bring this tale to life with special experiences that celebrate the classic Disney animated feature.
Red Rose Taverne – This dining location at the northwest edge of Fantasyland will magically transform from Village Haus Restaurant into a lively French taverne, with delicious quick-service meals perfect for all ages! Adorned with beautiful murals depicting favorite scenes from Disney’s animated feature, “Beauty and the Beast,” and draped with inviting curtains, each room of Red Rose Taverne tells a different chapter of the tale as old as time. The menu will transform as well, featuring some of your favorite tastes with a French taverne-inspired twist, as well as new signature beverages. We’ll have details to share on these delicious additions soon – and yes, you will be able to try our own version of the Grey Stuff. (I hear it’s delicious!)
Royal Reception – This special merchandise location adjacent to Red Rose Taverne offers keepsakes, apparel and collectibles inspired by both the animated Disney feature as well as the new, live-action film, “Beauty and the Beast,” in theaters March 17.
That Gaston – We all know Gaston loves a taverne, so don’t be surprised if you find him preening around Fantasyland. Stop him and ask him to flex his biceps – he loves that.
Maurice’s Treats – The celebration continues in nearby Fantasy Faire, where each twist on the menu at Maurice’s Treats will be presented with … well … a twist! And those of you who have been clamoring for a dipping sauce to go along with your tasty twist will be pleased to know that marinara, strawberry and even Grey Stuff dipping sauces will soon be available.
The Royal Theatre Presents “Beauty and the Beast” – Be sure to drop by the Royal Theatre in Fantasy Faire as Mr. Smythe and Mr. Jones present their take on “Beauty and the Beast” in this daily favorite.
We’ll have more to share soon, including opening dates for these enchanting, limited-time experiences, so keep an eye on the Disney Parks Blog! |
Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer for Politico.
Lots of people want President Donald Trump to stop tweeting. Mitch McConnell wants him to stop tweeting. Carly Fiorina wants him to stop tweeting. Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins and other Republican members of Congress and some Democrats in Congress and Jeb Bush and many of Trump’s advisers and attorneys and even some of his supporters (although not all of his supporters) want him to stop tweeting. His wife wants him to stop. A majority of business leaders want him to stop, and a majority of millennials, and a majority of voters, period. His tweeting, they all believe, is unseemly and incendiary, legally risky and chaotic, undiplomatic, demoralizing, destructive, and distracting, too—for everybody, but especially for Trump.
The people, though, who want Trump to keep tweeting are the people who rely on his words to do their jobs—reporters, biographers, political scientists and strategists, and presidential historians. They often are appalled by the content of the tweets, just plain weary like everybody else of the volume and pace of the eruptions and deeply worried about their consequences as well—but still, they say, the more Trump tweets, the better.
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Trump’s Twitter timeline is the realest real-time expression of what he thinks, and how he thinks. From his brain to his phone to the world, the “unfiltered” stream of 140-character blurts makes up the written record with which Trump is most identified. “I think Twitter,” one White House official told POLITICO, “is his diary.”
It is, presidential historian Robert Dallek told me, “a kind of presidential diary.”
“A kind of live diary,” Princeton University political scientist Julian Zelizer said.
“His version of a diary,” said Douglas Brinkley, editor of The Reagan Diaries.
Many modern presidents have kept a diary of some sort—that no member of the public sees until long after the author has left the Oval Office. The White House didn’t respond to four requests for comment on whether Trump is following suit, but people who know him well say it’s all but impossible to imagine him sitting down with a pen and paper in a quiet moment. “Absolutely zero chance,” one of them said. In the presumed absence, then, of a more traditional version of the form, Trump’s collected tweets comprise the closest thing to a diary this presidency will produce. And that is what makes the messages from @realDonaldTrump, almost 800 and counting since January 20, 2017, such a prize to those who care the most about lasting insight into the president and this administration. If @realDonaldTrump was to go dark, and Trump stopped tweeting to his more than 32 million followers, humans and bots alike, the loss from a historical standpoint would be acute. What else would there be to memorialize the breathtaking bluntness of the 45th president of the United States? But can the nation weather the daily injury of Trump’s epistolary eye-pokes?
Diaries, presidential or otherwise, typically are private and contemplative, and Trump’s Twitter feed is on both counts aggressively the opposite. As a document, though, it’s invaluable—chronological, recurrent, instantly archived and intensely revealing. “Donald Trump doesn’t use Twitter to be reflective,” biographer Tim O’Brien said in an interview. “He uses it like a fire hose … like a battering ram. And that’s profoundly who he is.”
Ever since he set up his account with the social media service back in 2009, Trump has used Twitter to divert and to deflect, to frame and to float, according to George Lakoff, the linguist and cognitive scientist, and as a megaphone and as a weapon—a potent tool to promote himself and attack others, this reflexive, lifelong, one-two punch that makes Trump Trump. In this regard, his election and inauguration changed nothing. On vivid, visceral, nearly daily display are his most elemental, most animating character traits, in this most public, most concentrated way. He’s impulsive and undisciplined and obsessed with taking shots and settling scores and with the sustenance of an image of success even when it’s at utter odds with objective reality. He can never back down. He can never let go.
As president, he has used Twitter to pillory the press (“Fake … not Real,” “the enemy of the American People!”), baselessly accuse former President Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the campaign and rail away about leaks and “LEAKING” and “low-life leakers.” He has used it to denigrate the Affordable Care Act as “horrible,” “imploding” and “dead,” describe Democrats as “pathetic” “OBSTRUCTIONISTS” in spite of the fact that Republicans control Congress, and assail Chicago, Germany, Nordstrom, the federal judiciary and perceived opponents ranging from “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” to NBC’s “Sleepy Eyes Chuck Todd” to the mayor of London in the immediate aftermath of the recent terrorist attack in the British capital. And he has done so much of this in frenetic, mostly early-morning torrents replete with exclamation points, jammed-down caps-lock, an apparent indifference to the rules of spelling and grammar and in a by-now-familiar construction, a telling pattern of thought, a certain Trump-tameter—a usually one-sentence declaration, routinely factually shaky, followed by a usually one-word assertion of emotion. “Weak!” “Strong!” “WIN!” “Terrible!” “Sad!” “BAD!”
The Twitter feed is a rolling, thin-skinned, squint-eyed stew of shouted announcements, grudges and grievances, ravaging insecurities and overcompensating bluster. “The Twitter feed,” said Michael D’Antonio, author of Never Enough, in which he wrote of Trump’s “Twitter wars,” “is true Trump.”
He is how he tweets.
“We’re dealing with a psychologically damaged element here—feeling the need to express your anger and bitterness into the public arena without any consideration of the consequences,” Brinkley told me. And yet, even as he rebuked the tweeter, he extolled the merit of the tweets. Trump’s timeline, he said, “is probably the best window into Trump’s presidency.”
Maybe any presidency, argued Russell Riley, co-chair of the oral history program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center for presidential scholarship. “You’re given a much more up-close look at his innate thought processes than I think you’ve gotten from any other president,” he said.
“I’m in favor of the material, and I’m in favor of the mechanism,” Princeton’s Zelizer added. “This is the era in which we live. Our diaries are public now.”
And that sheer publicness—the lack of discretion and restraint—is what makes this record so attractive to historians but simultaneously so perilous for Trump and the country he leads.
Where his staunchest supporters see evidence of say-anything, establishment-rattling, politically incorrect authenticity, others see reams of ammunition to wield against him. Trump has littered his feed with careless, self-defeating fodder—hyper-public utterances that have been used by judges to block his travel ban and digital pop-offs that constitute “a gold mine” for investigators into his or his campaign’s potential collusion with Russia and his rationale for firing “cowardly” James Comey from his position as the head of the FBI. Trump has suggested he might not have won in November if not for Twitter. “Without the tweets, I wouldn’t be here,” he told the Financial Times in April. But pulsing throughout the diary of @realDonaldTrump are the makings of “the quintessential Greek tragedy,” said Riley of the Miller Center. “Your strongest suit is also your greatest vulnerability.”
***
In the 228-year history of the American presidency, there’s never been anything remotely like Donald Trump’s Twitter timeline. But it’s nonetheless the latest adaptation of a longstanding portion of the records of the activities of the executive branch. President James K. Polk kept a detailed diary in the middle of the 19th century. In the middle of the 20th, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower kept diaries, “sporadically,” said Brinkley. Richard Nixon kept a comprehensive kind of audio diary, recording his conversations in the White House, which came back to bite him, of course. Jimmy Carter kept a diary, “by dictating my thoughts and observations several times each day,” he would write later. Ronald Reagan was a particularly committed keeper of a diary, writing entries in maroon, leather-bound, hardback books every day he was president except when he was in the hospital after getting shot in 1981. Bill Clinton enlisted the clandestine help of the historian Taylor Branch, calling him to the White House regularly to download his thoughts. Both George Bushes kept diaries. So did Obama. “The process of converting a jumble of thoughts into coherent sentences makes you ask tougher questions,” Obama told Time in 2012.
“It’s not unusual for presidents to record their thoughts in real time,” said Rhodes College political scientist Michael Nelson, who teaches a course on the presidency. “Most recent presidents, I think, they were going to write memoirs, knowing that’s a standard part of an ex-president’s playbook, so they realized that it’s a useful thing.”
Beyond that, said Mark Updegrove, an author and historian and the former director of the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, many presidents find keeping a diary “cathartic” as they “wrestle with the enormous burdens that are endemic to the job.”
And Trump? Is he keeping …
“… a diary?” said Trump biographer Gwenda Blair. She snickered. “Get out.”
“I would be surprised, if not shocked,” Davidson College political scientist Susan Roberts said in an interview, “if you were to say to me, ‘Trump is keeping a diary.’”
What Trump is doing, however, and without a doubt, is creating a reliable, contemporaneous record of his telling and volatile thoughts. He is speaking at the same instant to history and to his base.
“It all begins today!” he tweeted at 7:31 the morning of the inauguration. “THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES …”
“We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth,” he added that afternoon. “… we will bring back our dreams!”
He then boasted about television ratings for the inauguration, vowed “a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD” in an election he had won and wrongly stated that the New York Times and the Washington Post were “failing” and “DISHONEST” and that the Times had apologized to readers for its Trump coverage. He called Chelsea Manning an “Ungrateful TRAITOR.” He called Graham and John McCain “sadly weak on immigration.” He called “what is happening all over Europe and, indeed, the world” “a horrible mess!” He told his followers there were a “lot of bad ‘dudes’ out there!” He encouraged them to watch TV interviews with him on ABC News and the Christian Broadcasting Network. “Enjoy!” “The American dream is back,” he declared. And that was 11 days in January.
In February, Trump tweeted that his proposed initial travel ban of people from seven Muslim-majority countries was about “keeping bad people (with bad intentions) out of the country,” bashed the “so-called judge” who had ruled against it by saying his decision put America in “peril,” called the developing Russia story “made up” “non-sense” and said the “real scandal” was “classified information” being leaked “like candy.” He chastised the “blind hatred” of the “FAKE NEWS media” that he labeled “a great danger to our country.” And he made a pronouncement that really was an admission—that the distinction in his mind between news that’s real and news that’s “fake” hinges on whether or not it makes him look good. On whether it helps him or hurts him. “Any negative polls are fake news,” he proclaimed. “I call my own shots,” he said, ridding everybody of any iota of lingering doubt.
In March, he raged about Obamacare (“complete and total disaster”) and the Russia story (“witch hunt!”), alleged the Obama wiretapping (“McCarthyism!”), cajoled uncooperative lawmakers by calling them out by name, floated the notion of changing libel laws and retweeted a sycophant who had said, “Trump always ends up being right. It’s almost a little freaky.”
And in April, May and so far in June, with the coming and going of his first 100 days in office with few legislative accomplishments, the intensification of the Russia investigation, his stunning firing of Comey, the appointment of a special counsel, continued legal setbacks to his travel ban and record disapproval ratings, Trump’s tweeting has grown even more fevered.
“He’s the Samuel Pepys of incontinent Twitter spewing,” said GOP strategist Rick Wilson, referring to the noted 17th-century English diarist.
“The Twitter feed,” Blair said, “is an absolutely accurate picture of who he is.”
“People have accused him of being a bully,” said Roberts of Davidson, “and you can just look at his Twitter.”
The deluge of tweets from Trump, Princeton’s Zelizer said, “create this window directly to the president.” In his estimation, the timeline shows someone “consumed with his opponents,” “someone who can see victory all the time, even if it contradicts reality,” someone who “doesn’t take loss or challenge very well,” someone who’s “not thinking through necessarily the consequences of what he’s doing,” and “someone who’s not cautious.”
“The image you get,” he continued, “is of a person sitting there just frenetically responding to things.”
Brinkley agrees overall with this assessment of a reckless, agitated Trump on Twitter—“to have a proofreader, in his mind, would be to castrate him,” he told me—but the historian and professor at Rice University also has detected an odd “echo” connecting Reagan’s handwritten entries from the ‘80s and Trump’s finger-punched missives of today. The image-conscious former entertainer focused more on how he was seen than on what he had done (like Trump), and journalists clearly weren’t his favorite people (instead of “FAKE NEWS,” Reagan called them “irresponsible,” “demagogic” and a “lynch mob”); while Reagan smarted from criticism, he didn’t dwell on it, not so Trump-like at all. “Reagan was a much sunnier diarist,” Brinkley explained, whereas “Trump is a dark tweeter”—but Reagan, too, was consistent, made ample use of abbreviations and didn’t always have perfect spelling (“familys,” for instance, instead of families), and he was a proponent of brevity, quick fragments, a few sentences, sometimes no more than a paragraph per day. “If I called a book The Collected Tweets of Donald Trump, it would look very much like The Reagan Diaries,” Brinkley said. “Trump’s tweets are sort of the R-rated version.”
***
In the wake of Watergate, and especially in the aftermath of the Iran-Contra affair, when a judge granted a request to subpoena portions of Reagan’s private diaries, presidents became more careful about making audio recordings, dictated recollections or written diaries—or at least have refrained from copping to it publicly while they’re still in office. Presidents’ diaries, after all, are private—until they’re not. “It’s a question that you can fight and litigate,” the Miller Center’s Riley told me. “There’s not an absolute privilege to keep stuff out of the public domain. So by the time you get to the post-Reagan presidents, people are afraid to write anything down.” Said Brinkley of the diaries of modern presidents: “If a president is keeping one, it doesn’t make any sense to be billboarding it.” About their diaries, keeping them, definitely talking about them, presidents have gotten “skittish,” Brinkley said.
It’s perhaps the last word one would use to describe Trump’s use of Twitter.
“I love Twitter and tweeting,” he told Fox News in August 2015.
“Don’t worry,” he said in a speech in Rhode Island in April 2016. “I’ll give it up after I’m president. We won’t tweet anymore. I don’t know. Not presidential.”
But after he secured the nomination of the Republican Party, he seemed to be reconsidering. “You know who says don’t use Twitter? Your enemies,” he said in a speech in Ohio last August. “Why wouldn’t I use it? Why wouldn’t I?"
And once he won in November, evidently electorally immune from a campaign-long litany of words and actions that defied political convention and general decorum, peaking with audio of him bragging that he could get away with sexual assault on account of his celebrity, Trump clearly decided against the necessity of such discretion.
“I’ll keep it,” he said to a reporter from the Sunday Times of London the week before his inauguration. “It’s working.”
Or was. Over the past month-plus, though, Trump has created for himself with his tweeting a minefield of problems. His May 12 tweet about Comey and “tapes”—“James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”—sparked the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russia’s meddling in the election. And his fuming over the to-this-point courts-stopped travel ban—“Travel Ban,” “TRAVEL BAN,” “TRAVEL BAN!”—has been cited by courts in decisions that have gone against him and his administration. After the horrifying congressional baseball practice shooting prompted a sane, staid, sympathetic tweet about gravely injured Rep. Steve Scalise, Trump slept some, woke up and reverted to mean: “phony collusion,” “phony story,” “single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history—led by some very bad and conflicted people!” “Sad!” Most politicians, and certainly most presidents, know when to shut up—even when they want to lash out. Not Trump.
“To think he’s as undisciplined as the president of the United States as he was as president of the Trump Organization,” a close former employee told me, “is mind-boggling.”
“He’s creating legal vulnerabilities for himself,” Riley said.
“It’s kind of a double-edged sword for Donald Trump,” Brinkley said. “What made him president might also be his undoing.”
“If he believes Twitter was his springboard to the White House,” biographer O’Brien added, “he’s going to have to come to terms with the fact that it could also be a trapdoor.”
Can a person tweet the way Trump tweets as president and be successful as president? Can a person tweet the way Trump tweets as president and stay president?
“Yes,” said Nelson, the political scientist from Rhodes, admittedly chastened in his predictions by the knowledge that he was, along with many, many others, “wrong about Trump at every stage,” from June 16, 2015 to November 8, 2016. “I think,” Nelson said, “Donald Trump can keep tweeting the way he’s tweeting and stay president …” He paused and considered what to say next. “But he’s playing with fire.” Nelson likened Trump as a politician—Trump as the president—to, “like, the first guy, the first human, to use fire.” So helpful—so dangerous. Did his cave fill with smoke? Did he get burned? How badly?
Josh Dawsey contributed to this report. |
NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas (KXAN) -- Troopers have identified the passengers aboard the First Baptist Church of New Braunfels bus who were killed in Wednesday's deadly crash as the group drove back following a retreat.
According to DPS, the deceased on the bus are:
Murray William Barrett, 67, of New Braunfels
Howard Bryan Allen, 81, of New Braunfels
Rhonda Barlow Allen, 61, of New Braunfels
Harold Boyd Barber, 87 of New Braunfels
Margaret Robinson Barber, 82, of New Braunfels
Cristie Claire Moore, 68, of Cibolo, Texas
Donna Elizabeth Hawkins, 69, of Schertz, Texas
Avis Scholl Banks, 83, of Austin
Mildred Godlettt Rosamond, 87 of New Braunfels
Addie Maurine Schmeltekopf, 84, of New Braunfels
Sue Wynn Tysdal, 76, of New Braunfels
Martha Holcomb Walker, 84, of New Braunfels
Dorothy Fern Vulliet, 84 of New Braunfels
Rose Mary Harris, 64, of New Braunfels is in fair condition following the crash.
The driver of the pickup truck which troopers say struck the bus was identified as 20-year-old Jack Dillon Young. He was flown to University Hospital in San Antonio where he is listed in serious condition.
The church group was returning from a church retreat when troopers say Young's truck crossed the center line and collided with the bus. The NTSB is on scene investigating today.
The senior pastor of the church, Brad McLean, said the adult choir group spent a few days at the retreat singing and enjoying time together, as well has having Bible study. McLean said a total of 65 parishioners attended the retreat but only 14 rode the bus. "I know these individuals. They'd confessed Christ as Lord and savior of their life. We can rejoice in that, but the difficult part is family and friends who are left behind."
During a news conference on Thursday, McLean said he is also praying for the truck driver's family. "As believers in Christ, we need to show them grace and pray for them as well because of what they are suffering." |
When I decided to write this piece, I reflected on the best way to assess if it would be wise to set a self-protective boundary and say "no" or "not now." What came to mind was what the Buddha said about speech. In essence, he cautioned us to speak only when what we have to say is true, kind, and helpful because then our speech will help alleviate suffering as opposed to intensifying it.
In setting wise boundaries—that is, in deciding if it's time to say "no" or "not now"—I suggest applying a variation of this three-part test by thinking about whether your speech is true, kind, and helpful to yourself.
Is it true to yourself?
Before speaking, think about whether what you're about to say is true to your values. Are you going to say something because of social pressure or perhaps just because it will impress others? I spent a good part of my younger years speaking in just this way, even if it didn't reflect my deepest values, and I suffered for it. I once smiled in implied assent (a type of speech) to a racist comment because the speaker had contributed money to my husband's political campaign; although it happened 25 years ago, I can still feel the self-incrimination arise as I write this.
By not engaging in speech that violates our values, we are, in effect, saying "no" to ourselves—"no" to speech that will intensifying our own suffering. We're setting a wise, self-caring boundary.
Is what you're about to say kind and helpful to yourself?
These two factors often involve looking at the timing. Maybe what we're considering (e.g., continuing to even though it's exacerbating the symptoms of our chronic illness) meets the test of true, kind, and helpful to others, but given the limitations imposed by our , it's time to set a self-caring boundary and, in effect, say "no" as in "no more socializing"!
The best practice to help us make these assessments with is which, in this context, means paying careful to how we feel at the moment, both in body and in mind.
Let me share a story from my own life that illustrates how I came to apply these tests in a way that allowed me to set skillful and compassionate boundaries for myself.
In the early 1990s, I left the comfort of the classroom to become the dean of students at the law on the campus of the University of California—Davis. Little did I know the stresses and conflicts that awaited me. Student after student came in and poured out his or her life troubles to me, partly because I already had the reputation of being approachable as a faculty member.
I felt I owed every student 100% of my time and effort, even if it meant skipping lunch or working into the night. I never said "no." Students asked for help with difficulties I had no training for. Some of them should have been at the counseling center (which is where I eventually sent them). This work was in addition to the many administrative tasks I'd taken on—supervising the financial aid, placement, and registrar's offices—to name just three.
After a few weeks in my new , I was utterly exhausted. I went home at night and sobbed to my husband that I'd made a terrible mistake by agreeing to take on this appointment.
But something else happened the same year I entered the Dean's Office. Four months after taking the job, I took a trip to Spirit Rock Center in Marin County for the first time. Two women I'd never heard of were leading a daylong retreat: Sylvia Boorstein and Sharon Salzberg. (Sylvia has now written the Foreword to my book How to Be Sick!)
This trip sparked an interest in reading more about Buddhism, not as a , but as a practical path to a more peaceful, contented life. I took myself to the main library on the U.C. Davis campus and checked out a bunch of books. In one of the books, I found this story from the ancient Buddhist texts:
One day the Buddha told a story about an acrobat and his assistant. The acrobat erected a bamboo pole and told his assistant to climb up it and stand on his shoulders. Then the acrobat said to his assistant: "Now you watch after me and I'll watch after you. This way we can show off our skill and come down safely from the pole." But the assistant replied: "That won't do teacher. You watch after yourself and I'll watch after myself and in that way we can show off our skill and come down safely from the pole." The Buddha said: "What the assistant said is right in this case because when one watches after oneself, one watches after others."
This story had a profound effect on how I approached this new dean of student's job. I realized that to do my best for the students, I had to watch after myself, even if it sometimes meant saying "no" or "not now." And so, I began the work that continues to this day of mindfully assessing whether what I'm about to say or do is not just true, kind, and helpful to others but is true, kind, and helpful to myself.
© 2011 Toni Bernhard. Thank you for reading my work. I'm the author of three books:
How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers (Second Edition) 2018
How to Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness: A Mindful Guide (2015)
How to Wake Up: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide to Navigating Joy and Sorrow (2013)
All of my books are available in audio format from Amazon, audible.com, and iTunes.
Visit www.tonibernhard.com for more information and buying options.
Using the envelope icon, you can email this piece to others. I'm active on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
You might also like "How to Ask for Help." |
Jocko Flocko was a Rhesus monkey and remains the only known "co-driver" in NASCAR history. On May 16, 1953, Jocko helped Tim win the Grand National race at Hickory, N.C. - becoming the only winning monkey to date. Unfortunately, Jocko was forced to retire from "driving" duties two weeks later in Raleigh, N.C. Tim Flock recalls the incident:
"I actually raced with a monkey, which I named Jocko Flocko, for eight races in 1953. It started as a publicity stunt, and we gave him his own driving uniform and a specially designed seat."
"Back then the cars had a trap door that we could pull open with a chain to check our tire wear. Well, during the Raleigh 300, Jocko got loose from his seat and stuck his head through the trap door, and he went berserk! Listen, it was hard enough to drive those heavy old cars back then under normal circumstances, but with a crazed monkey clawing you at the same time, it becomes nearly impossible! I had to come into the pits to put him out and ended up third. The pit stop cost me second place and a $600.00 difference in my paycheck. Jocko was retired immediately. I had to get that monkey off my back!" |
A unique space cannon developed for Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft has successfully test-fired on Earth in preparation for a 2014 mission. During its upcoming journey into space, the cannon will blast an asteroid and mine samples of its soil.
The test took place in the Japanese prefecture of Gifu, paving the way for the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft to extract soil samples from the asteroid, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on Monday.
During the mission of Hayabusa 2, scheduled to begin in December 2014, the space probe will extract soil from inside the asteroid. In order to do this, it will be equipped with a collision device designed to shoot at the surface of the asteroid from a distance of 100 meters with metal shell ammunition moving at a speed of two kilometers per second.
JAXA hopes to create a small (a few meters in diameter), artificial crater from which Japanese scientists can extract valuable samples capable of revealing the history of the formation of cosmic bodies of this type.
“A new function, [a] ‘collision device,’ is considered to be [on board] to create a crater artificially,” JAXA explained on its website, adding that collecting samples from the surface that is exposed by a collision will ensure acquiring “fresh samples that are less weathered by the space environment or heat.”
In order to calibrate the precision of the cannon, JAXA engineers had to overcome a number of challenges. However, the agency assures that all problems have already been solved.
“We were able to solve several problems associated with the development of the device. During the tests, the projectile hit right on target, and with the expected speed,” JAXA engineer Takanao Saiki said.
Japanese scientists actively began exploring asteroids with the Hayabusa mission, which returned to earth in June 2010 after exploring a 500-meter-long rock-rich S-type Itokawa asteroid.
Hayabusa 2 is a successor of the first spacecraft and is scheduled to be launched in 2014 to conduct research of a C-type asteroid temporally called ‘1999 JU3.’ It is believed to contain a higher concentration of organic matters and water.
“Minerals and seawater which form the Earth as well as materials for life are believed to be strongly connected in the primitive solar nebula in the early solar system, thus we expect to clarify the origin of life by analyzing samples acquired from a primordial celestial body such as a C-type asteroid to study organic matter and water in the solar system and how they coexist while affecting each other,” JAXA posted on its website.
So far, research into ‘1999 JU3’ revealed that it is a sphere approximately 920 meters in diameter with an albedo on the surface of about 0.06. The rotation period of the celestial object is approximately 7.6 hours.
Hayabusa 2 is expected to reach its target in the middle of 2018 before departing back to Earth in 2019. |
A few years ago I lived in a country town of some 3,000 people that had four award-winning restaurants and at least a dozen coffee shops but nowhere to buy light bulbs or milk after midday on a Saturday.
The town proudly boasted it didn’t have McDonald’s or pokie machines, but in the locals’ pub (a place that seemed deliberately ugly in order to repel the yuppie couples who come down for long weekends) they would complain that they had to drive 30km to get their KFC fix.
The locals – those who count their residence in a town by the generations not the years – aren’t always happy that there are multiple restaurants that offer degustation menus. They would rather an Aldi or a McDonald’s than pay $100 to eat teeny-tiny carrots on a dehydrated piece of woodland mushroom.
But it’s not just the restaurants. The gentrifiers are pushing house prices up so that the young people who grew up in the town can’t afford to live there. Good coffee is no consolation.
Same old, same old. How the hipster aesthetic is taking over the world Read more
There are at least a dozen culture wars being fought in Australia at any one time, but the ground-level skirmishes – where it gets personal – are those being fought in areas that are being gentrified.
Australia’s cute country towns – many within cooee of the city – are the battlegrounds. We all know the ones. The towns filled with stone cottages and historic courthouses and the facade of a blacksmith’s workshop. These towns languish for decades, undisturbed by development as the main industries slowly die.
The rot sets in. But then people come in from the city – driven out by high prices in Melbourne and Sydney, or seeking a weekender. They are thrilled to discover these divine, intact little villages where, say, an 1860s miner’s cottage with an established garden can be bought for the price of one of those coffin-like apartments in the city.
The gentrifiers bring energy to the regions – and more importantly – money. But the money comes with strings attached.
And as has been proven time and time again, those who control the economy control the values and culture of a place – or at least its aesthetics.
The dominant aesthetic of the gentrifying class might be described as neoliberalism through a dreamcatcher – yoga classes instead of football clubs, cool cafes instead of Domino’s pizza, homewares shops instead of the Reject Shop.
This specific aesthetic and value system signifies class and “taste” – and so for example might deem fast food as bad, and veganism as good. Or farmers’ markets as great but commercial supermarkets as a scourge.
So what does gentrification look like on the ground in our country towns?
Shops selling beautiful, useless stuff
You cannot buy a pair of socks or a spanner in your town, but there are four shops in the main street selling $120 throw cushions. The shops are often housed in the facade of old shops. So you can go into a shop called General Store where only very specific items are sold – like leather ottomans. And leather ottomans only.
Unusual yoga classes
Your village not only offers hot yoga, but niche offerings such as yoga accompanied by intuitive harp or yoga classes that only play the music of Tupac Shakur.
Newspapers
The local newspaper has folded. But in good news, the newsagent air freights Vanity Fair and stocks the Saturday Paper.
Hipsters and artists are the gentrifying foot soldiers of capitalism | Stephen Pritchard Read more
When the meat in sausage rolls changes
At the bakery a $3 pie used to be delicious – but take off the lid and the meat is a sort of grey paste. Now the bakery has shut down, replaced by a shop selling similar products but at a 300% markup. The good news? In pies the meat is now recognisable as meat. In addition to real meat, the pies now also contain tofu, pumpkin and tarragon, while the sausage rolls come in flavours such as spring lamb and rosemary.
Performative farming
There are no real farmers anymore but a load of people walking around dressed as farmers, in flannel, beards with hay in them, cardigans and work boots. Highly prized is ownership of pre-industrial farming machinery – like scythes. These pretend farmers can often be found at farmers’ markets drinking turmeric lattes.
The gentrifiers often move to the country not because of cheap houses (they would not be so gauche as to admit to that) but because the extra space means they can plant their own vegetable garden. The gentrifiers Facebook and Instagram their vege patch the way others document the growth of their children. |
Below is a list of English words commonly mispronounced by learners of English. Pronunciation is given in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and in a notation that uses just three IPA symbols (ə as in Tin a , æ as in c a t, and ʌ as in “b u t”) and should be quite intuitive to read. The stressed syllable is indicated by a bold typeface.
bear, pear, wear / bɛə / (be ə ) / pɛə / (pe ə ), / wɛə / (we ə ) (UK), / bɛr / (ber), / pɛr / (per), / wɛr / (wer) (US) – the animal, the fruit, and what we do with clothes — all of them are pronounced with the / ɛ / sound. In other words, if you’ve heard a story about someone’s grandpa being attacked by a beer while eating his peer, you can be pretty sure the storyteller hadn’t read this article.
tear – this word may cause some confusion because it has two completely unrelated meanings. When it denotes a water drop coming out of someone’s eye, it’s pronounced / tiːə / (tee ə ) (UK) or / tiːr / (teer) (US). When it denotes the process of “ripping” something, it is pronounced / tɛə / (te ə ) (UK) or / tɛr / (ter) (US).
weight / weɪt / (weyt) – those who realize that “height” is correctly pronounced / haɪt / sometimes mistakenly tend to pronounce “weight” the same as “white”.
pour / pɔː / (paw) (UK), / pɔːr / (paw’r) or / poʊr / (poh’r) (US) – although the word looks like having a French origin and “ou” in French words is usually pronounced / uː / (oo), e.g. route / ruːt /, in this case the origin is not French, and so is not the pronunciation.
wolf / wʊlf / (woolf) – this is one of a few words in which a single “o” is pronounced as / ʊ /. Other examples include “woman” / ˈwʊmən / (woo-m ə n) and closely related “womb” / wuːm / (woom) or “tomb” / tuːm / (toom).
alien / ˈeɪliən / (ey-li- ə n) – although a lion would certainly be an unwelcome alien at your home, let’s not confuse them. Just remember that an alien is not your ally / ˈælaɪ /.
bull / bʊl / (bool) – some people pronounce the “u” wrongly as / ʌ / (as in “bulb” / bʌlb /).
bullet / ˈbʊlɪt / (boo-lit) – as in the previous case, “u” is pronounced as / ʊ /.
ballet / ˈbæleɪ / (bæ-lei) (UK), / bæˈleɪ / (bæ-lei) (US) – somewhat surprisingly, the final “-t” remains silent.
walk, chalk, talk / wɔːk / (wawk), / tʃɔːk / (tchawk), / tɔːk / (tawk) (UK), / wɑːk / (waak), / tʃɑːk / (tchaak), / tɑːk / (taak) (US) – both in American and British English, the “l” remains silent (but it modifies the pronunciation of “a” in front of it).
angel / ˈeɪndʒəl / (eyn-dzh ə l) – unlike other words beginning with “ang-” such as “anger” / ˈæŋɡə / (æng-g ə ) (UK), / ˈæŋɡr / (æng-gr) (US) or “angle” / ˈæŋɡl / (æng-gl), “angel” is pronounced with / eɪ / at the beginning.
angelic / ænˈdʒɛlɪk / (æ-dzhel-ik) – albeit it is derived from “angel”, the stress is shifted to the second syllable and the vowel has to be pronounced accordingly. P.S. “albeit” as in the previous sentence is pronounced / ɔːlˈbiːɪt / (awl-bee-it).
archangel / ˈɑːkeɪndʒəl / (aak-eyn-dzh ə l) (UK), / ˈɑːrkeɪndʒəl / (ark-eyn-dzh ə l) (US) – in contrast to “arch” / ɑːtʃ / (aatch) (UK), / ɑːrtʃ / (artch) (US), this one is pronounced with hard “ch”. You can remember that the Mormon Church teaches that Noah (the builder of Noah’s Ark) is actually the same person as Archangel Gabriel, if it helps you to remember the correct pronunciation.
archenemy / ˈɑːtʃˈɛnəmi / (aatch-en- ə -mee) (UK) / ˈɑrtʃˈɛnəmi / (artch-en- ə -mee) (US) – archenemy is the “opposite” of archangel, and thus differs in pronunciation as well. The same is true for its variants: archvillain / ˈɑːtʃˈvɪlən /, archfoe / ˈɑːtʃˈfəʊ /, and archnemesis / ˈɑːtʃˈnɛməsɪs / (UK, US correspondingly).
pasture / ˈpɑːstʃə / (paas-tch ə ) (UK), / ˈpæstʃr / (pæs-tchr) (US) – think of pasture, a grassland for cattle, as about a part of nature being less common now than in the past.
calm, palm / cɑːm / (kaam), / pɑːm / (paam) – English doesn’t seem to like the combination “alm”, so the “l” remains silent.
salmon, almond / ˈsæmən / (sæ-m ə n) (both UK and US), / ˈɑːmənd / (aa-m ə nd) (UK), / ˈɑːmənd / (aa-m ə nd), / ˈɑːlmənd / (aal-m ə nd) , or / ˈæmənd / (æ-m ə nd) (US) – there’s something fishy about the two words. Perhaps the pronunciation.
calf, calve, half / kɑːf / (kaaf), / kɑːv / (kaav), / hɑːf / (haaf) (UK), / kæf / (kæf), / kæv / (kæv), / hæf / (hæf) (US) – as above, the “l” is silent. “To calve” means “to give birth to a calf”.
diaeresis / daɪˈɛrəsɪs / (daay-er- ə -sis) – the diacritical mark consisting of two dots (¨) above a letter (e.g. ë). In English; it is used only in a few borrowed words and proper names.
Brontë / ˈbrɒntiː / (bronn-tee) – as most English words that should theoretically end with the / ɛ / sound (such as “soufflé” / ˈsuːfleɪ / (soo-flei) (UK), / suːˈfleɪ / (soo-flei) (US) or “ballet” / ˈbæleɪ / (bæ-lei) (UK), / bælˈeɪ / (bæl-ei) (US)) are in fact pronounced with / eɪ / at the end, people tend to read names such as those of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë (famous British poets and novelists) with / eɪ / at the end. You can think about the two dots as about a hint that you should actually pronounce two “ee”s.
unanimous / juːˈnænɪməs / (yoo-næn-im- ə s) – this word is not “un-animous” which could theoretically mean “not possessing animosity”, but which unfortunately does not exist. Rather it comes from Latin ūnus (one) + animus (mind) and means “of one mind”, “in agreement”.
Penelope / pəˈnɛləpi / (p ə -nel- ə -pee) – the wife of Odysseus / oʊˈdɪsiəs / (oh-di-see- ə s) or / oʊˈdɪsjuːs / (oh-dis-yoos) may have received many an envelope with an ode that she had legs like an antelope, but she nevertheless remained faithful to her husband during his absence. Perhaps because the authors tried to rhyme “antelope” / ˈæntɪləʊp / (ænt-il- ə up) (UK), / ˈæntloʊp / (ænt-loh’p) (US) with her name.
sweat / swɛt / (swet) – have you ever tasted sweat? It’s not exactly sweet. Don’t pronounce it this way.
bury / ˈbɛri / (ber-ri) – a burial / ˈbɛriəl / (ber-ri- ə l) is an important event in one’s life. Don’t spoil it for the others by pronouncing it wrong. “Bury” is pronounced the same as “berry”.
ado / əˈduː / ( ə -doo) – known mostly from the title of Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. It is easy to remember the correct pronunciation once you see that it is actually composed out of two words “a” and “do”.
ere / ɛə / (e ə ) (UK), / ɛr / (er) (US) – this word is pronounced exactly the same as “air” and “heir” and means “before”. It is quite rare in modern literature and is used mostly to create a poetic or archaic feeling, but it is quite common in older literature. |
The body of Truro, N.S., police Const. Catherine Campbell, who had been missing since Sept. 10, has been found, and Halifax Regional Police are treating the death as a homicide.
An officer found the body of a woman shortly after midnight, in a wooded area east of Barrington Street at North Street in Halifax, police said. They don't believe the murder is related to the officer's work.
Halifax police were holding three scenes Wednesday as part of their investigation into Campbell's death: Under the Macdonald bridge where her remains were found, as well as a home on McCully Street in Halifax (left) and a home on Chadwick Place in the Clayton Park suburb (right). (CBC)
"While an autopsy is scheduled for later today [Wednesday], investigators in the Integrated Criminal Investigation Division believe the remains to be those of 36-year-old Catherine Campbell and are treating her death as a homicide," police said in a statement.
At a news conference Wednesday, police said they suspected Campbell was dead Tuesday afternoon and the missing persons case turned into a homicide investigation.
A 27-year-old Halifax man was arrested at 1:20 a.m. Wednesday in Clayton Park and is being questioned. Police have 24 hours to lay a charge or release the suspect.
No charges have been laid but police hope their investigation will lead to charges.
Police say there are no other suspects at this time. They believe Campbell and the suspect knew each other.
Police say they can't get into too many details because investigation is still "fluid."
Halifax police were investigating three scenes Wednesday:
Under the Macdonald bridge where Campbell's body was found.
A home on McCully Street in Halifax.
A home on Chadwick Place in the Clayton Park suburb.
Halifax police are expected to provide an update on the case later Wednesday.
Police guarded the scene where a body was found Wednesday beneath on ramp from Barrington Street to Halifax's Macdonald Bridge. (Craig Paisley/CBC)
HRP said Campbell was last seen in Dartmouth on the morning of Sept. 10. She was a constable with the Truro Police Service and a volunteer firefighter for 10 years.
On Monday morning, Campbell was scheduled to report for work but didn't show up. Her sister said that wasn't in Campbell's nature.
Initially, police reported Campbell was last seen at her Windmill Road address in Dartmouth, N.S. However, police say further investigation revealed that she was at a bar in downtown Halifax in the early hours of Sept. 11.
Truro police Chief David MacNeil said he spoke to Campbell's parents.
"Telling them about Catherine's death was one of the most difficult things I've ever done as chief of police," he said in a statement.
'This breaks my heart'
Dwight Campbell, her father, and her sister Amy Garneau, told CBC News earlier Wednesday morning that Campbell had been found dead.
Catherine Campbell, a Truro, N.S., constable, has been found dead, and police are treating the case as a homicide. (Submitted by Halifax Regional Police)
"As I write this, it breaks my heart, we have found Catherine. My family would like to thank everyone who sent out prayers, hope and support during this time. My sister has gone home to be with the angels," Garneau wrote on the Facebook Group called Please Help us find Catherine Campbell.
Garneau said Campbell, originally from Stellarton, moved to Dartmouth in June and commuted daily to Truro.
The Truro Police Service said in a statement Wednesday that "no words can express how deeply this loss has impacted our service."
"Catherine was a phenomenal person and an outstanding police officer who proudly served our community since 2009. Her loss is felt by the entire community, and we thank you all for your support and kind words."
Halifax police say its members are also grieving.
"We express our sincere condolences to the family and friends of Catherine Campbell at this extremely difficult time. Her family respectfully requests that the media offer them privacy as they grieve Catherine's passing," HRP said in a news release.
"Our thoughts are also with the Truro Police Service on the loss of one of their own. We can attest that losing a member of the policing family is extremely hard to bear but would be even more difficult given the tragic circumstances of Catherine's death. The entire police community is mourning this loss." |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Sixteen Indiana National Guard soldiers have sued the Houston-based defense contractor KBR, saying the company knowingly allowed them to be exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq in 2003.
The unit is based in Tell City, Indiana. The soldiers were providing security for KBR during repairs of a water treatment plant in southern Iraq shortly after the US invasion. The suit claims the site was contaminated for six months by hexavalent chromium, “one of the most potent carcinogens” known to man. It alleges that KBR knew the plant was contaminated but concealed the danger from civilian workers and soldiers.
Civilian contractors working for KBR testified at a congressional hearing in June that they experienced symptoms of chromium exposure. The lawsuit says, “The Tell City Guardsmen were repeatedly told that there was no danger on site, even after KBR managers knew that blood testing of American civilians exposed onsite confirmed elevated chromium levels.”
The toxic chemical “can cause severe damage to the liver and kidneys, depress the immune system” and is known to cause birth defects and cancer, particularly lung cancer, the lawsuit said. The cancer can take years to develop. Some of the soldiers who served at the site now have respiratory system tumors. The suit seeks reimbursement for medical costs, monitoring for cancer and other health problems and unspecified monetary damages.
AMY GOODMAN: KBR, the largest private contractor in Iraq, used to be a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oilfield services company whose former chief executive was, well, now Vice President Dick Cheney.
We invited KBR to join us on the program today. They refused our request, but they did issue a statement denying the company harmed troops and was responsible for an unsafe condition.
Michael Doyle is the lead counsel for the Guardsmen in the litigation. He joins us from a studio in Houston, where KBR is based. We’re also joined on the telephone by Jody Aistrop, a former member of the Indiana National Guard and one of the plaintiffs in the suit.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now!
Jody, tell us about your time in Iraq, where you were, what you were doing, why you think KBR has made you sick.
JODY AISTROP: Good morning. Well, my time in Iraq, we just spent at different sites every day, just basically getting KBR in, getting them out and guarding them while they were doing their job, just protecting them. Specifically, the water plant, we would go there, you know, every third day. And if the contractors really liked you, liked the job you were doing, you could go for a week for two weeks straight.
And, I mean, I believe that we were contaminated, because I, myself, seen the stuff on the ground. I was in the pump room, where the Iraqis were down working on the pumps. And the whole place was just covered, the pump room was. [cough] Excuse me.
I really don’t know what else to say. We basically just went in, did our job. And I feel that they knew. A report had came out that KBR knew that the ground was contaminated. And we were just told it was a mild irritant, don’t worry about it. The bloody noses are from the dry air, the sand. And we just continued to do our job, like it was nothing.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And, Jody, what were some of the symptoms that you and the others, beside the bloody noses that you mentioned, that you started to experience? And did you — what kind of complaints did you lodge to them, to the company officially?
JODY AISTROP: The main one was the bloody nose. Your eyes would burn. You would get a rash, like on your arms or your legs. And actually, my rash just cleared up like three months ago. And it turned into lesions once I got home.
And as far as complaints, we would tell the contractors — you know, we would notice the stuff on the ground, we’d like, you know, “What is this stuff?” And they said, “Don’t worry about it. It’s a mild irritant. It’s not going to mess with you.” And then, later, you know, we were actually pulled out of the water plant towards the end of our tour, and we guarded it from the outside, while the contractors were working inside. And they actually had protective gear on.
AMY GOODMAN: Michael Doyle, lay out the whole lawsuit, the grounds on which you’re suing.
MICHAEL DOYLE: KBR actually very clearly — and we know this from some testimony that KBR managers have already given in a kind of a suit by the civilians, that they absolutely knew that there was sodium dichromate out there at the facility. It’s absolutely also clear that that’s one of the most dangerous carcinogens. This stuff — and folks may have heard about hexavalent chromium in the Erin Brockovich, where they had relatively small amounts, very serious consequences. There were bags of this stuff. And at least some of the testing showed 1.9 percent of the soil was actually sodium dichromate around this site. And despite being paid well to do a site assessment; to do this project; to make sure that the folks out there, the civilians and the soldiers, were protected; they basically just kept ignoring it.
By the time they finally admitted there was a problem, these Guardsmen, as well as the other folks out there, had had months and months, you know, at different times of exposure to something that’s going to cause them really serious health problems. Hopefully, not all of them are going to have the same effects, but it’s something that not only do you have a very elevated risk for cancer, which is very well-documented in the medical literature, but the reality is that you also get a sensitivity to chromium, which is in leather products — it’s basically all around us. And so, you’re going to have these recurrent hyperallergenic kind of problems indefinitely.
But I think what really has most concerned the soldiers who were out there is they didn’t know about this. They weren’t told. They were actually told the opposite about how serious this was. It wasn’t until after these hearings in June of this year the Indiana National Guard was told for the first time about how deadly serious this was. These men were actually given briefings by the Guard in September of this year, and they’ve learned for the first time how serious this was and how some of the health problems these guys to some degree are still having, what it might really face for them in the future. And that’s a pretty serious problem for these soldiers going forward, knowing that they’re carrying this inside their body now.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Michael Doyle, aren’t military contractors in some ways immunized against lawsuits when they’re doing work for the military in time of war?
MICHAEL DOYLE: KBR has consistently claimed that, and I think I can say, without exception, that’s been their argument in every case, that even though we’re a private contractor that’s paid extremely well for doing this — and, in fact, on the site, it was KBR that eventually made the decision, after more problem in their own contractor employees tested positive for chromium in their blood, to shut it down. They consistently claim that. I don’t believe that that’s a valid legal defense, but I will say that they’ve absolutely tried to claim the same immunity, basically “We’re the government; you can’t sue us.”
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to this discussion with Michael Doyle, who’s the lead counsel in the case of the Indiana Guardsmen who are suing KBR, KBR based in Houston, where Michael Doyle is. Jody Aistrop, with us on the phone, former member of the Indiana National Guard, one of the sixteen soldiers suing the former Halliburton subsidiary KBR. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: We continue on this lawsuit that has just been filed against the former Halliburton subsidiary, now its own company, KBR. It’s based in Houston. Michael Doyle joins us from Houston, lead counsel for the Indiana Guardsmen who have filed the lawsuit. Jody Aistrop is one of those Indiana National Guard who are suing KBR.
The lawsuit, Michael Doyle, talks about KBR seeking to conceal the contamination and, once discovered, limiting exposed individuals’ knowledge about the level of poisoning they suffered. First of all, how did the chemical get there? And how do you know all of this?
MICHAEL DOYLE: Well, we know the chemical was there, because the Iraqis apparently were using it. It was being used as an anti-corrosive. This is a huge water plant that’s used to pump water down into oil wells so the oil keeps coming up. And this is basically — was used. It had been banned pretty much everywhere in the world for a number of years, but they were using it to keep the pipes clean. And it contained an extremely high amount, almost pure hexavalent chromium.
There are some indications, and it’s really just speculation, but there are some indications from the Iraqis that they gave to some of the civilian workers on site, that as part of the sabotage by the Baathist Party, Saddam Hussein’s folks, before the Americans got there, they had spread it around even more than it had been before. And that’s why, as a result, it was all over the place, not just in one limited area in this very large industrial site where these people were doing all this work and the Guardsmen were providing security on a daily basis.
The reason why we know a lot of this stuff is, a number — ten of the American civilian workers out there filed an arbitration claim, which is one of the things that Halliburton required all their employees, including of these Cayman Island subsidiaries of KBR, to sign an arbitration agreement to go work over there. Ten of these folks, including the medic on site, who is a fellow named Ed Black, who I think you could call him almost a whistleblower here, filed a claim. It’s pending in arbitration, and there has been testimony taken and documents produced in that arbitration that have kind of shed a lot of light about what the managers at the KBR level and the safety folks and the other managers involved knew about it.
And one of the important issues that came out in that was that as it became more and more clear — in other words, they kept getting reports of sodium dichromate out there, deadly carcinogen — their plant workers were getting sick, those people out there. The Cayman Island subsidiary folks were actually experiencing these blood clots, which unfortunately is the most acute sign of poisoning from hexavalent chromium. And that’s kind of the characteristic. They actually call it “chrome nose.” Even as they’re getting these reports, they put off doing any testing until after the windy season had ended. The very first — at least what they’ve owned up to — testing was done not when they were hired to do it, when they were supposed to do it back in April and May, but not until August, after these folks had been out there for three to four months.
And not only was the testing inadequate, they basically were very selective about how they did it, and it didn’t line up — the air testing didn’t line up with the soil testing. But when they actually did some blood testing on the civilian workers there, and almost all of them had elevated chromium, which just basically measures all the chromium in your blood, but when you’ve got these guys exposed, that’s a big red flag. There was actually a meeting here with the medical director of Halliburton/KBR and a number of the managers, where they discussed the need — or if you’re really going to test and see whether or not hexavalent chromium is in these guys, the incredibly dangerous substance, there’s a test you’re supposed to do, and they decided not to do that test. And unfortunately, not just for the civilians but also for the National Guardsmen, if that test isn’t done fairly shortly after the exposure — and they knew that — there’s no real way to document the level of exposure, so tracking these guys health-wise forward is going to be that much more difficult.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Michael Doyle, we asked KBR to join us today, but they declined our request. And we did receive a statement from their director of corporate communications, Heather Browne. She said the company intends to vigorously defend — and I want — defend against the suit, and I want to read to you part of the statement. It says, quote, “We deny the assertion that KBR harmed troops and was responsible for an unsafe condition. KBR appropriately notified the Army Corps of Engineers upon discovery of the existence of the substance on the site and the Corps of Engineers concluded that KBR’s efforts to remediate the situation were effective. Further the company in no way condones any action that would compromise the safety of those we serve or employ.” I’d like to ask you to respond to that and also to what the military did, if they were informed by KBR, of the existence of this problem.
MICHAEL DOYLE: Well, thanks, Juan. I think that there’s really two things in there. One of them is that their indication that they informed the military in a timely manner — one of the things that has been provided to these soldiers by the National Guard was a timeline that was actually — we were able to attach to the complaint — that was apparently provided based on information the Army got from KBR. And one of the most glaring kind of issues in there is that when you look at it, it claims KBR didn’t know about this sodium dichromate on site until almost the end of July and then immediately notified the military. We know that’s not true.
Likewise, the issue about their remediation, they finally admitted that this was a problem. The actual top manager of KBR in Iraq did a site inspection in the middle of August in full protective gear. It still took him about three weeks before they finally said, “OK, we’ve got these blood tests now. Let’s go ahead and shut down the plant.” And they did eventually seal off the entire plant, seal off the sodium dichromate, more or less encase it all, and ensure that folks finally were given protective equipment that they should have had three months earlier and told about what was out there. But that’s a little bit late for the folks that had been working there for three to four months.
AMY GOODMAN: Jody Aistrop, what about the KBR workers inside? You were guarding outside, and you got sick. What happened to them?
JODY AISTROP: From the beginning, we were guarding inside. We didn’t actually pull outside until they deemed the site unsafe. So from the beginning of going into the plant for KBR to work on it, we were inside right with them. We would follow them around like we were attached to them.
AMY GOODMAN: And do you know what happened to any of them? Any of them suffering like you did the nose bleed, for example?
JODY AISTROP: The only thing that I know is I did some research on the net, and that’s where I found out about the lawsuit from Mr. Ed Black. I actually know Mr. Black. I protected him over there.
AMY GOODMAN: The medic?
JODY AISTROP: Yes, yes. And that’s how I know KBR, they were suffering the same symptoms that we were. And then, you know, I received a letter about the town hall meeting, and then the Guard informed us what was going on.
AMY GOODMAN: And when you all got these nosebleeds, again, what KBR told you, how they explained those nosebleeds away?
JODY AISTROP: We were basically told that it was due to dry air, the sand blowing, you know, it’s not that big a deal.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Michael Doyle, you filed the lawsuit now. In what court will it be heard? And when do you expect to begin taking — having discovery or depositions?
MICHAEL DOYLE: Well, it’s filed in federal court in Evansville, Indiana in the southern division — or Southern District of Indiana. The hope is, as soon as possible. We’ve been told by the folks we’re working with in Indiana that normal timetable is a year, year and a half for trial. We obviously intend to try and get to the bottom of it as soon as we can, as soon as the court will let us.
AMY GOODMAN: And the secret KBR memos that you got a hold of, can you talk about them?
MICHAEL DOYLE: No. I mean, there is some documents. Ed Black was actually able to obtain when he was there in Iraq, in Kuwait, some documents that, when he saw these, that made it real clear who knew and how long they knew it. Those documents aren’t protected. But as part of this arbitration deal, at least at this point, KBR has taken the position that every single document related to this is secret and can’t be released. So I really can’t talk about the documents. I can talk about the testimony, but the documents at this point are subject to a protective order.
AMY GOODMAN: The KBR memo from 2003 that shows the KBR managers talking about, acknowledging the presence of sodium dichromate?
MICHAEL DOYLE: Well, there is one that Ed Black actually obtained back in 2003 that we were able to file with the papers of the Guardsmen suit. But the great mass of documents, the really documentation of the timeline and all that stuff, I really am not at liberty to talk about, at least at this point.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you both very much for being with us, Jody Aistrop, former member of the Indiana National Guard — they were based in Tell City — one of sixteen soldiers who are suing KBR, which was owned by Halliburton, which was headed by Dick Cheney before he was Vice President; and Michael Doyle, lead counsel for the National Guardsmen. He is based in Houston, where KBR is based. |
Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Marianne Corvellec from Plotly. This post is based on an interactive Notebook (click to view) she presented at the R User Conference on July 1st, 2014.
Plotly is a platform for making, editing, and sharing graphs. If you are used to making plots with ggplot2, you can call ggplotly() to make your plots interactive, web-based, and collaborative. For example, see plot.ly/~ggplot2examples/211, shown below and in this Notebook. Notice the hover text!
0. Get started
Visit http://plot.ly. Here, you’ll find a GUI that lets you create graphs from data you enter manually, or upload as a spreadsheet (or CSV file). From there you can edit graphs! Change between types (from bar charts to scatter charts), change colors and formatting, add fits and annotations, try other themes…
Our R API lets you use Plotly with R. Once you have your R visualization in Plotly, you can use the web interface to edit it, or to extract its data. Install and load package “plotly” in your favourite R environment. For a quick start, follow: https://plot.ly/ggplot2/getting-started/
Go social! Like, share, comment, fork and edit plots… Export them, embed them in your website. Collaboration has never been so sweet!
Not ready to publish? Set detailed permissions for who can view and who can edit your project.
1. Make a (static) plot with ggplot2
Baseball data is the best! Let’s plot a histogram of batting averages. I downloaded data here.
Load the CSV file of interest, take a look at the data, subset at will:
library(RCurl) online_data <- getURL("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mkcor/baseball-notebook/master/Batting.csv") batting_table <- read.csv(textConnection(online_data)) head(batting_table) summary(batting_table) batting_table <- subset(batting_table, yearID >= 2004)
The batting average is defined by the number of hits divided by at bats:
batting_table$Avg <- with(batting_table, H / AB)
You may want to explore the distribution of your new variable as follows:
library(ggplot2) ggplot(data=batting_table) + geom_histogram(aes(Avg), binwidth=0.05) # Let's filter out entries where players were at bat less than 10 times. batting_table <- subset(batting_table, AB >= 10) hist <- ggplot(data=batting_table) + geom_histogram(aes(Avg), binwidth=0.05) hist
We have created a basic histogram; let us share it, so we can get input from others!
2. Save your R plot to plot.ly
# Install the latest version # of the “plotly” package and load it library(devtools) install_github("ropensci/plotly") library(plotly) # Open a Plotly connection py <- plotly("ggplot2examples", "3gazttckd7")
Use your own credentials if you prefer. You can sign up for a Plotly account online.
Now call the `ggplotly()` method:
collab_hist <- py$ggplotly(hist)
And boom!
You get a nice interactive version of your plot! Go ahead and hover…
Your plot lives at this URL (`collab_hist$response$url`) alongside the data. How great is that?!
If you wanted to keep your project private, you would use your own credentials and specify:
py <- plotly() py$ggplotly(hist, kwargs=list(filename="private_project", world_readable=FALSE))
3. Edit your plot online
Now let us click “Fork and edit”. You (and whoever you’ve added as a collaborator) can make edits in the GUI. For instance, you can run a Gaussian fit on this distribution:
You can give a title, edit the legend, add notes, etc.
You can add annotations in a very flexible way, controlling what the arrow and text look like:
When you’re happy with the changes, click “Share” to get your plot’s URL.
If you append a supported extension to the URL, Plotly will translate your plot into that format. Use this to export static images, embed your graph as an iframe, or translate the code between languages. Supported file types include:
Isn’t life wonderful?
4. Retrieve your plot.ly plot in R
The JSON file specifies your plot completely (it contains all the data and layout info). You can view it as your plot’s DNA. The R file (https://plot.ly/~mkcor/305.r) is a conversion of this JSON into a nested list in R. So we can interact with it by programming in R!
Access a plot which lives on plot.ly with the well-named method `get_figure()`:
enhanc_hist <- py$get_figure("mkcor", 305)
Take a look:
str(enhanc_hist) # Data for second trace enhanc_hist$data[[2]]
The second trace is a vertical line at 0.300 named “Good”. Say we get more ambitious and we want to show a vertical line at 0.350 named “Very Good”. We overwrite old values with our new values:
enhanc_hist$data[[2]]$name <- "VeryGood" enhanc_hist$data[[2]]$x[[1]] <- 0.35 enhanc_hist$data[[2]]$x[[2]] <- 0.35
Send this new plot back to plot.ly!
enhanc_hist2 <- py$plotly(enhanc_hist$data, kwargs=list(layout=enhanc_hist$layout)) enhanc_hist2$url
Visit the above URL (`enhanc_hist2$url`).
How do you like this workflow? Let us know!
Tutorials are at plot.ly/learn. You can see more examples and documentatation at plot.ly/ggplot2 and plot.ly/r. Our gallery has the following examples:
Acknowledgments
This presentation benefited tremendously from comments by Matt Sundquist and Xavier Saint-Mleux.
Plotly’s R API is part of rOpenSci. It is under active development; you can find it on GitHub. Your thoughts, issues, and pull requests are always welcome! |
Evolutionarily, animals that use tools have an leg up on their competition: they can access hard-to-get food items, learn more about their environment, and better protect and defend themselves. But exactly how much of an evolutionary edge does tool use provide? In a new article in Science, a group of researchers set out to answer this question, and were surprised at how much of an advantage tool use can provide.
The scientists studied New Caledonian crows, a bird species that is particularly well known for its tool use. These crows often use sticks to find and extract beetle larvae from holes, much like chimpanzees use sticks to “fish” for termites. This is a very specialized task, because the crows fish for just one beetle species (the wood boring longhorn beetle) in the trunk of a single species of tree (the candlenut tree).
Learning to use these stick tools is costly, since it takes young crows a considerable amount of time and effort for to become proficient at fishing for the larvae; in fact, even experienced adults take a relatively long time to catch each larvae. However, the slow learning curve and long handling time are worthwhile because the grubs that the crows catch in this way are extremely nutritious. The study's authors wanted to determine exactly how advantageous tool use is for these crows.
Since the birds are extremely shy and live in a heavily-forested habitat, New Caledonian crows are notoriously hard to observe, so the scientists had to figure out another way to answer their question. The team captured wild crows and took both feather and blood samples. By analyzing the stable isotope profiles of these samples, they could figure out how much of the omnivorous crows’ diet came from beetle larvae, and how much came from other sources such as lizards, carrion, nuts, and fruit.
The larvae constituted about as much of the birds’ protein as the other food sources; however, the grubs provided far more fat than the other foods did, providing nearly 50 percent of the crows’ total lipid intake. Clearly, spending a little extra time and energy on tool use provides a large nutritional benefit.
The researchers took the question one step further and, using the average nutritional value of the beetle larvae, calculated how many larvae a crow would need to catch to satisfy its total daily nutritional needs. Surprisingly, they found that catching merely three larvae would provide a crow with more than enough energy for an entire day. With this kind of nutritional advantage, it's no wonder tool use spread through the population at some point in the past and is still maintained today.
The authors close the paper with an interesting idea: since these nutritionally-rich beetle larvae come from a single tree species that was introduced to New Caledonia by humans, it’s possible that tool use in these crows is actually at least partly due to anthropogenic influence.
Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1192053 (About DOIs).
Listing image by Simon Walker |
A "gender pay gap" bake sale to be held at the University of Queensland (UQ) during its Feminist Week, which will charge based on gender, has sparked outrage from students and threats of violence towards the organisers.
Key points: Bake sale will charge students the proportion of $1.00 they earn comparative to men
Some students have described bake sale as discriminatory against men
Purpose of bake sale to "start a conversation", but has resulted in rape and death threats
Madeline Price, the vice-president of gender and sexuality at the UQ Student Union, said the response to the Brisbane event highlighted an "underlying trend in online behaviour towards women" that has "galvanised the feminist community on campus".
Feminist Week is held on the UQ campus each semester, hosted by the UQ Union (UQU), UQU Women's Collective and UQ Women's Department.
A series of events will be held between April 4 and 8, but it is the pay gap bake sale that has drawn the most attention, with many students calling the bake sale discriminatory on the UQ Stalkerspace Facebook page.
The description of the event reads: "Specific to each faculty, each baked good will only cost you the proportion of $1.00 that you earn comparative to men (or, if you identify as a man, all baked goods with cost you $1.00!).
"For example, if you are a woman of colour in the legal profession, a baked good at the stall will only cost you 55 cents!"
A now-deleted post by a UQ student described the bake sale as "blatantly discriminatory against men" and cited Queensland's 1991 Anti-Discrimination Act and the federal 1984 Sex Discrimination Act.
Purpose of bake sale to 'start a conversation'
Ms Price said the "infamous" bake sale stall was designed to generate discussion, but had instead resulted in rape and death threats towards its organisers.
"The whole purpose of the gender pay gap bake sale was to generate discussion and start a conversation about wage inequality," she said.
"We've come to realise that whenever a woman raises her voice in the public sphere, the attention that attracts also attracts these rape threats and threats of sexual violence." Madeline Price, UQ Student Union
"[But] instead of being genuine discussion about, 'Oh, a pay gap exists? Let's talk about this and engage with this issue', it's been a lot more personal attacks against the organisers and against members of the Women's Collective and students of campus.
"We've had rape threats and death threats by people who were threatened by the existence of a bake sale that could potentially engage with an issue of inequality."
Ms Price said there had been some positive responses from students who had recognised that feminism was needed after reading the comments online about the bake sale.
"It's just been this really interesting dichotomy between people who are threatening attendees and people who've been working on the event, and people who are going, 'Ah, I now see why feminism is relevant, because of the people who are threatening you'," she said.
Reaction 'has galvanised the feminist community'
Ms Price said members of the Women's Collective were disappointed the bake sale had drawn the most attention, but that it highlighted some of the issues the group planned to raise across Feminist Week.
"Obviously it's there to educate, it's there to start a discussion, but there's so many other amazing things happening during Feminist Week," she said.
"From a personal perspective, the attacks on members of the Women's Collective have really hit home because we've come to realise that whenever a woman raises her voice in the public sphere, the attention that attracts also attracts these rape threats and threats of sexual violence and threats to the life of the woman.
"It's really interesting because these are some of the discussions that we want to bring out in Feminist Week as well, that the gender pay gap bake sale has brought out this underlying trend of online behaviour towards women.
"It's a really negative thing, but a good place to start discussion about this as well is that, well, here's an event we tried to throw on campus and here's the reaction we've received and none of it's legitimate discussion, it's just threats.
"It's been a bit of an interesting experience to say the least but it has galvanised the feminist community on campus because it is now blatantly obvious why this sort of thing needs to be happening."
The pay gap in Australia currently sits at 17.3 per cent, according to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, while consulting firm Mercer has estimated that gender equality in the workforce is unlikely to be achieved before 2050 at the current rate of change. |
Installous, currently resident on millions of jailbroken iPhones and other iDevices, has undergone an interesting upgrade. This piece of software, which is designed to allow the installation of cracked apps, has until now relied on users pulling those apps from cyberlockers. Now, thanks to some nifty coding, Installous can now pull packages from torrent swarms by utilizing magnet links.
The Hackulous community are perhaps most well known for two stand-out products targeted at users of jailbroken Apple devices.
The first is Apptrakr, a web-based index of cracked apps. The second, Installous, is a piece of software resident on millions of jailbroken Apple devices which allows the installation of software found via Apptrakr and elsewhere.
Due to the nature of Installous these tend to be cracked versions of commercial pay software usually found on the official App Store. However, free versions of software can also be found (like the Dictionary app used as a demo below), not to mention long-since abandoned software unavailable anywhere official.
The downloading and installation process is simple. Utilizing the various indexes and categories within the software, users of Installous choose which app they want to download. They are then given a list of various sources for the chosen app, which usually come in the form of links to various cyberlocker file-hosting sites. With the latest version of Installous, things have changed a little.
In addition to cyberlocker links, Installous 5 now supports peer-to-peer downloading. As can be seen from the screenshots below (illustration purposes only), in addition to filehost links there is now a BitTorrent download option.
“Installous uses magnet links, a decentralized way of obtaining torrent metadata. As a result, we don’t host any .torrent files. We also use peer exchange (PEX), otherwise known as trackerless torrents,” explains Hackulous admin Dissident.
“Both of these features make the entire process completely decentralized and uninterruptable. Demagnetization may be slow in some cases (especially for obscure apps), but we’ll be working hard to speed up that process.”
One of the big problems with the free services provided by most cyberlockers is the inability to pause and resume downloads. Indeed, longer downloads can simply fail part way through and have to be started again from the beginning. Additionally, most filehosts place a limit on download speeds for free users. The use of BitTorrent means that these limitations are overcome.
Of course, while filehost traffic is one way (download only), BitTorrent adds upload to the mix. However, the coders at Hackulous have implemented some restrictions.
“Installous will seed from the device only while the download is ongoing, and only if you’re on WiFi. When the download finishes, it will stop seeding, Dissident concludes.
This use of BitTorrent is not the first sharing innovation from Hackulous. In 2010 they added a a feature to Installous which allowed users to share their apps with others. |
A Californian fashion label has filed a lawsuit against Ivanka Trump for "exploiting the power and prestige" of her father's position to sell her fashion and lifestyle line.
A class action filed by San Francisco boutique Modern Appealing Clothing (MAC), on behalf of women's clothing brands in California, claims the First Daughter has unfairly profited since Donald Trump became President last November. It claims sales "surged several hundred per cent" off the back of White House promotion and "piggy-backing promotion" at government events.
"President Donald J Trump and his individual and White House employees and agents have, since the elections, promoted defendant Ivanka Trump brand by exploiting the power and prestige of the White House", the lawsuit says. Profits reportedly rose 346 percent between January and February this year compared to the same period in 2016.
Both the President and his senior advisor, Kellyanne Conway were widely criticised for endorsing Ivanka's products on TV and social media following Nordstrom's decision to drop her line.
Conway endorsed her brand from the White House briefing room on live TV — and was later counselled by the ethics committee for doing so.
"I’m going to give a free commercial here", she told Fox & Friends. "Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online."
While President Trump tweeted his disappointment in the retailer's decision.
Press Secretary, Sean Spicer defended President Trump's tweet at the time saying he had every right to stand up for his daughter.
MAC is seeking damages and a restraining order preventing Ivanka from trading in California.
The First Daughter has faced further accusations of nepotism this week. She accepted German Chancellor Angela Merkel's invitation to a women's economic forum in Berlin next month following a high-level meeting at the White House where she was seated next to Merkel.
Her father's decision to give her an office in the White House and full security clearance even though she is not officially employed by his administration has also raised eyebrows.
Ivanka has handed over the day to day running of her eponymous brand, but still maintains ownership. All assets have reportedly been put in to a trust controlled by her husband, Jared Kushner's family. |
The Silicon Valley-backed nutrition upstart specializing in butter-infused coffee says evil code injected into its website was covertly gulping customers' payment card details for months.
Bulletproof 360 Inc., purveyors of the fatty coffee touted as a wonder-treatment for mental clarity and weight loss, admitted that from May 20 to October 19 of this year – minus one day on October 14 – hackers slurped sensitive personal information hipsters entered when purchasing stuff online.
The sipped info included bank card numbers, expiration dates, and security codes (CVV), as well as names, postal addresses, and email addresses.
The blunder, discovered mid-October, was disclosed on Monday this week to California officials, as per the US state's security breach notification laws.
"In mid-October 2017, Bulletproof identified unauthorized computer code that had been added to the software that operates the checkout page at www.bulletproof.com," Bulletproof said in its mea culpa notification letter [PDF] to customers.
"When we discovered the unauthorized code, we immediately removed it and began an investigation. We have been working with leading computer security firms to examine our systems."
Bulletproof said it is "working diligently" to shore up its web systems after its security went to pot, and has vowed to prevent future similar attacks. A spokesperson was not available for comment to explain further.
Wharton grad who butters his coffee smart enough to get celebs to buy his $895 “brain trainer” but not smart enough to protect customers from credit card hack https://t.co/5x4aFaaPHE — Joseph N. DiStefano (@PhillyJoeD) November 27, 2017
As is usually the case with these sort of cockups, Bulletproof is advising its caffeine addicts to keep a close eye on their bank statements for any unauthorized charges brewing. The outfit said it will cover any costs associated with reimbursing fraudulent charges.
The network security breach is particularly grinding for Bulletproof given its tech pedigree and the firm's particular appeal in Silicon Valley.
CEO Dave Asprey started the organization after stints at NetScaler, BlueCoat, and Trend Micro where he served as veep of cloud security. Bulletproof got into the public spotlight on the back of endorsements from VC and startup execs in the tech world. That the upstart not only lost credit card data, but did so due to a security lapse on its website, is a bad look, to say the least. ® |
Abstract¶ This tutorial is meant as an introduction to programming 3D computer graphics. You will learn how to program a 3D rasterizer (one of many different approaches to implementing 3D computer graphics): this isn't about programming a game or using the latest HTML5 features. It is, however, meant as a way to introduce you to how 3D computer graphics work "under the hood". Essentially this tutorial walks you through what OpenGL and DirectX have implemented in their respective code-base (and drivers), without system or library specific overhead.
Introduction¶ About & Goals¶ Welcome - you are about to embark on a fascinating journey through the world of 3D computer graphics for programmers! What are 3D graphics and why should I, as a programmer, care? 3D graphics are graphics in the third dimension / space, usually rendered onto a 2D (flat) surface. This is essentially the process of taking a 3D world from a video game and displaying it to a user's screen. Sounds trivial? It isn't, but don't be deterred - having the knowledge of how this is done will make you a top-notch computer graphics programmer. 3D computer graphics have many applications well outside of video games: medical imagery, robotics research, data visualization, etc. "What's this about OpenGL, DirectX, and game engines I keep hearing about?" Great question! Those are actually two separate categories: computer graphic libraries take given geometry, images, lighting information, etc. and generate a 2D image output. What we are covering in this article is how the internals of those libraries work: how exactly does a computer calculate where and how to draw a cube, or other arbitrary graphics data? The second category would be game engines, which are generally a set of other libraries (user input, audio, texture loading, etc.) making your rendering engine more interactive to the user. This tutorial will walk you through how 3D rendering works at its core: we purposely avoid using any existing code or libraries to keep all rendering steps visible to you. You should be warned at this point that this tutorial, unlike what you will commonly find on the web, is not to teach you how to use 3D engines or libraries. Instead, if you want to write your own rendering system and understand how OpenGL and DirectX work internally, this tutorial is perfect for you! Before going into the actual tutorial, there are a few things you should ask yourself and understand. A big question is why use 3D in the first place? Simple: When you draw an image of a car on paper, it’s only an image of one view facing the car. If you draw a 3D model of a car, you can move and rotate your view in any number of ways and render an almost infinite number of images from it. Instead of having an artist make one texture (the car image), they can instead make a 3D model that can be presented to the user from any position and angle possible. There are also a dozen other benefits, such as making animated films more realistic, adding depth to gameplay mechanisms, make interactive media much more life-like, and more. In this tutorial, we will be creating a software 3D renderer in JavaScript using the HTML5 Canvas tag. What this means is that we will be creating a 3D rendering system, written in JavaScript, that does not use any hardware acceleration (i.e. the use of any hardware features outside of standard JavaScript), and the output is placed into the HTML5 Canvas tag (a dynamic 2D rendering surface). This software renderer will be a "fixed-pipeline", where we do not dynamically redefine how projection transformation and per-pixel operators work at run-time. The feature that allows us to do this is called Shaders, and is well beyond the scope of this article, though an important topic to know when using hardware-accelerated graphics libraries. This tutorial will not use WebGL, the modern standard for browser-based 3D graphics, because the goal here is to teach how 3D rasterization works, not how to use an existing library. JavaScript was chosen since most users have a web browser capable of quickly executing JavaScript. JavaScript also lowers the entry-barrier to this tutorial, since it isn't system-specific and does not require special software that doesn't already exist on almost every computer. Note that this tutorial will still require a modern browser, such as Chrome, FireFox, Opera, IE 9+, etc. because of the need to support the HTML5 Canvas tag. You should know the basics of JavaScript (ECMAScript) or some sort of C-like programming languages (C++, C#, Java, Objective-C, PHP, etc... since this article takes an imperative programming language approach to JavaScript). If you need help getting started with JavaScript, check out Mozilla's great JavaScript guide or the lighter Mozilla Re-Introduction to JavaScript. W3School's tutorials are also great casual introductions to JavaScript. Also, it is highly recommended that you are comfortable with the basics of trigonometry. Knowledge of linear algebra (matrix manipulation) will be even more helpful. Computer Graphics¶ Computer graphics is the process of rendering graphics through computers. It's as simple as that, but the field includes many interesting topics and subjects well outside of just "video game graphics". Texture synthesis (creating a new texture from scratch), world generation (creating a world through algorithms), face detection (finding people's faces in a photo) are all within the domain of computer graphics. Computer graphics can be basically put (this is a big trivialization) into two categories: real-time and realistic computer graphics. Real-time simply means that the application can be manipulated and changed without any sort of latency or slow response, hence the term "real-time". The advantage is that your scenes are rendered fast as well as can be interactive, though the tradeoff is that you lose realism because of optimizations. Classic examples of this are most 3D rasterized video games; Doom, Quake, etc. On the other hand, realistic computer graphics are very detailed and can be life-like, internally simulating the way optics work down to per-pixel levels. Rendering these scenes take many hours of intensive computation, but produce very clean and sharp images. Another way of remember the difference is that real-time graphics tends to work by drawing polygons (generally triangles) on-screen, which can be done very quickly. Realistic graphics goes a step beyond that, drawing the scene through pixel-per-pixel filling. It is important to note that there are many different approaches to real-time 3D computer graphics, with each method having their respective strengths and weaknesses. Scanline rendering does a top-to-bottom image row check for possible collisions amongst scene objects. Though good for accurate depth-detection, the algorithm is slow because it requires iterating through all scene models (though there are ways of speeding this up). A similar method, called Ray-casting, used in Wolfenstein 3-D, renders scenes in a similar way, but has a subtle trick for fast run-time performance: instead of checking per-pixel, the camera only checks pixels along the image's middle horizon: if a collision is observed on a point on that horizon, then the vertical scale of walls are changed in respect to that distance. In essence, it's a way to very quickly draw uniform walls, but it fails at dealing with complex geometry. Voxels, recently made famous by Minecraft (though interestingly, Minecraft's output is through a polygon rasterizer using OpenGL), are fast for data reading and writing, but give a block appearance. There are tricks to change the output to a more smooth-like surface, but that tends to be computationally intensive because of the cubic growth of data based on scene size. This list is by no means complete, but gives a general overview of common methods, with the one we are talking about to be described below: Polygon rasterization is the most common approach for real-time computer graphics. Though not remarkably modern, it has one subtle advantage that has made it the king of real-time graphics: it can be massively parallelized. Rasterization is the process of taking a simple geometric primitive (the most simple being a triangle, more on that later), and map it from 3D space to 2D space. This also includes scaling, rotation, and other changes on the points, but the idea is that for each point that makes up a triangle, where a group of triangles form a mesh, all points are stateless: drawing one point doesn't affect how the other is drawn. Thus, we can compute this data in parallel, and that is exactly what graphics cards do: the reason why we have hardware acceleration is that CPUs are great at doing one thing at a time per core, yet graphics cards, though "slower" in terms of single-operation computational speed, have massively higher throughout because they can compute hundreds of thousands of points in parallel. Our approach will be to program a rasterizer, taking triangles (forming arbitrary models) in 3D world-space, and mapping them out to 2D screen-space. This is called a "software renderer" because we aren't using hardware acceleration that is provided by OpenGL and DirectX. Instead, we are going to implement all of these low-level steps in our own code as an academic exercise, and have it be executed one step at a time like what a single-threaded processor does. You may be wondering why we use dedicated hardware to just raster triangles, but not implement ray-tracing, since I've mentioned this special hardware is all about mass-parallelization? Ray-tracing is much more complex than casting a single ray for each pixel: ray collisions need to look around for light sources, compute the reflection and refraction of materials, and detect shadows. Simply, ray-tracing is far too computationally intensive, while rasterization is still considered a good balance between computational complexity and visual results. What is interesting is that every day we are getting closer to producing cheap hardware that is powerful enough to do ray-casting in real-time. We are close to cheap real-time ray-tracing methods and hardware. Regardless of the method chosen to render a scene, the output is generally a single 2D image. Our human eyes are very interesting in that if a set of images are iterated through to us, at fast enough speeds, we cannot distinguish between individual images. This turns out to be a good thing, as our brains stop interpreting those individual images and starts interpreting them as small changes, as an "animation": this is where the term movie ("moving images") comes from. In computer graphics, to produce animations in real-time, we render individual images and show them very quickly to the user, usually between 24 to 60 frames a second depending on several desired output properties. The higher the frame rate, the smoother the animations look, but the more work has to be done for the computer. 24 frames a second are considered a general "minimum speed" that will appear "smooth enough" to the average observer to look like a video. This article will focus on real-time animations: we will render to a single image, present that image, then render the next image. We will design our code to do this 60 times a second, thus have a 60 FPS target, and create a true real-time 3D rasterizer. Development Tools & Conventions Before getting into the actual code itself, we have to choose what language to program in, and how to draw the basics. For the sake of simplicity, we will choose JavaScript and the HTML 5 Canvas element. JavaScript is commonly used for developing interactive websites, but it is also a powerful scripting language. Though it is not known for its speed, it does have other benefits such as dynamic typing and a C-like syntax. Canvas, the HTML element we will render onto, is perfect for this tutorial: most browsers support it, and it doesn’t require any complex resource management unlike creating a native Windows or Linux graphical application. Another reason why we are choosing to use this Canvas and JavaScript combination is that it doesn’t require anything for you to install. This project should be ready to work on without any overhead! Setting up your development environment is easy since you probably already have everything you need. To program along with this tutorial, you just need a web-browser and a text editor. All you need to do, from this point on, is open up a text editor and start writing down your source code as we walk through this tutorial, save the file as some sort of web page (usually ends with *.html or *.htm) and open it with your browser of choice. It might be more convenient, especially if you need to debug code, to install a true JavaScript IDE (Integrated Development Environment). I'm leaving it up to you to decide what is best for your needs. Our goal is to keep this tutorial as simple and easy to understand as possible. Because of this, much of the code I will be writing will not be optimal, so that it is easy to read for even novice programmers. I will also write as many comments in the code as possible to make every step that isn't intuitive more clear. Our coding style will be block-based and use camel notation, where local variables are capitalized, members variables are also capitalized, and globals are all caps. This is simply our style, and does not reflect any sort of design choice other than to try and keep things as simple as possible. I do include more boilerplate code than usual, but this is to keep the code as reasonably understandable as possible. Throughout this document, there will be many links and comments to other articles on the web. To separate these notes from the main article, I've implemented a "notes" box, which looks like the following: Note This is a note! Keep an eye on these, and make sure to read them while going through the article, but don't worry about completely understand the content as they are merely notes and not critical to understanding the main material. Throughout the article, there will be checkpoints where you can download the source as a whole. Those points are marked with a download icon & link: checkpoint Download the current source code Naturally, this article will have to make many references to equations, but representing them in HTML is challenging since there are no helpful tools outside of generating images (which in some cases, is required). Instead, I've written most equations as cleanly as possible in mono-space font with an explanation of the equation as a whole and what each variable stands for. (a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2 A simple power-of-two expansion over a the sum of variables "a" and "b". Any inline source code will be marked-up visually using the SHJS (Syntax Highlighting in JavaScript) tool, as seen below: // This function returns n multiplied by 2, and then returns the result added by one function ExampleCode(n) { n *= 2; return n + 1; } Finally, all internal and external links include a link icon that looks like this: http://www.cores2.com. This is to help you find resources here and external references outside the scope of this document.
Development Platform¶ HTML Rendering Page¶ To begin with, we need a simple HTML page that contains an HTML5 Canvas element and a text field to update the FPS (frames per second) counter. To start with, create an empty text document, and copy-paste the following: Download the "index.htm" source code here. 3D Tutorial - Examples 3D Tutorial - Examples
Sorry, but it looks like your browser does not support the Canvas tag.
Frames per Second:
Core S2 Software Solutions - ©2012 Frames per Second: Save the file as "index.htm", or whatever name you prefer as long as it is an HTML document, then load it in a browser. If you see a "Sorry, but it looks like your browser does not support the Canvas tag.", then it simply means your browser is not one that supports the HTML5 tag, so refer to the introduction section to learn more about what you should install. Otherwise, you should just see a blank space where the empty Canvas element is. The code above pretty simple, with only a handful of important things to take a look at. You'll notice first that we load two scripts: "main.js" is a general wrapper, that will be introduced in the next section, that creates a simple framework for us to draw in. It gives us simplified line-drawing functions, as well as the FPS counter system that gets presented as text into the text field defined later in the document. The second source file, "source.js", is where all the magic you make will happen! This is the only text file you will be working in, and this entire tutorial revolves around it: if you want, save different versions of the file to keep track of your code changes, and all you have to do is change the filename in the above lines to keep your HTML renderer page updates. The above code defines what function to execute (in this case "Main()"), from the previously mentioned source files. Again, the behavior of that function will be defined in the following section, but this is really our true program entry point, where some simple work is done to keep the programming environment easy for you. Frames per Second: The Canvas element, named "sampleCanvas" is our target drawing surface. Everything we do will output strictly to this surface. Though you can change its size, it's best to leave those alone to keep your code and this tutorial's code as similar as possible, to help with debugging later on. The second element, named "FPSTextBox" is our frames-per-second output text field, where it is updated through a simple frames-per-second counter implemented in the starting framework. Notice how it is a read-only field, since we don't want to deal with any sort of user manipulation, as it is a very simple "output" of sorts. Canvas setup¶ As mentioned in the previous section, "main.js", will be our generic wrapper framework, that simplifies a few functions that we will commonly use in our tutorial, like drawing pixels, lines, filling in surfaces, etc. Our second source file, "sample.js", will be where all of your code will be written. You can write your code in any way you want, however you want, in that source file, as long as it defines two required functions: "Init()", which is used for your own custom initialization of the scene and/or data, and "RenderScene()", which is where you are expected to do all of your own drawing! The rendering loop is pretty simple: our HTML page, on load, calls a function named "Main()" which is defined in "main.js". This does some internal initialization, which we will discuss shortly. In this function, after it completes its own work, it calls your own initialization function named "Init()". From that point on, the code will keep looping at a target speed of 60 times a second, calling your custom function "RenderScene()". Note Why do we "target" a frame-rate speed and not go as fast as possible? Modern Operating Systems are multi-process, meaning that there are multiple processes (applications) running at a time. Since processors typically can't run all of those user processes truly at the same time (processors typically work one step at a time), there is a sort of Time-Sharing / Multitasking manager that gives processes little chunks of time, then work on another process, repeating this so fast that the human user can't tell the difference between fast switching and everything working in parallel. Part of the time-sharing algorithm deals with the computational intensity of applications: the more intensive an application is, the more time is given to it (up to a certain point, so that it doesn't "freeze" the system by consuming too much time, preventing basic and important services from ever working). Thus, if we let our code execute as fast as possible, it would be considered a computationally intensive program and would burden the system more than it really needs to be. Sure, we could execute our code very quickly, over and over again, but there is no benefit to the user since anything past 60 frames per second is not noticeably better to the human eye. Later on we will discuss how 60 FPS is even too high, since the human eye stops seeing still images at around 24 to 30 FPS. In our case, we limit ourselves to be nice to other processes, allow the host Operating System time to do other work, and simply because we don't need to go as fast as possible once past a minimum frame speed. Since "sample.js" requires you to implement at minimum two functions (the "Init()" for initialization, and "RenderScene()" for drawing work), the below code is a great place to start: It implements everything you need, and even draws a background for you (more on that later). Copy-paste this code into a new text file, save this text file as "sample.js", and make sure to save it to the same directory as your previous saved HTML document. Download the "source.js" source code here. function Init() { // Left empty on purpose... } function RenderScene() { // Left empty on purpose... } Now comes the simple framework of functions we will use throughout this tutorial. "main.js" is left un-minimized (i.e. intentionally verbose sans optimization), to let you read through the code as easily as possible. Though we will be talking about how some of these functions are implemented internally, I leave it up to you to step through the code if you wish to learn more, but essentially all that is being done is a simplification of the HTML5 Canvas rendering functions. What you should take away from the following code are the core drawing functions, which will make more sense after reading through the section on 2D graphics: function RenderPoint(integer x, integer y, integer width, [integer r,g,b] color) Draws a single point, of size "width", at the given screen position, of the given color. function RenderLine(integer x1, integer y1, integer x2, integer y2, integer width, [integer r,g,b] color) Draws a line, from point (x1, y1) to point (x2, y2), of the given width and color. function RenderTriangle(integer x1, integer y1, integer x2, integer y2, integer x3, integer y3, integer width, [integer r,g,b] color) Draws a triangle's outline, from point (x1, y1) to point (x2, y2) to point (x3, y3), of the given width and color. function RenderFillTriangle(integer x1, integer y1, integer x2, integer y2, integer x3, integer y3, [integer r,g,b] color) Draws a triangle, from point (x1, y1) to point (x2, y2) to point (x3, y3), filling it with the color. var ContextHandle A global variable, which is the canvas handle for the current scene. var CanvasWidth A global variable, which is the current canvas width in pixels. var CanvasHeight A global variable, which is the current canvas height in pixels. Download the "main.js" source code here. /*************************************************************** 3D Tutorial - Core S2 Software Solutions -Copyright 2012 Learn more at www.cores2.com This source file is developed and maintained by: + Jeremy Bridon [email protected] File: main.js Description: Main application entry point; connects to the canvas HTML 5 element and starts the rendering cycle, managing performance and throttling as needed. Also does double-buffering by creating and swapping an internal Canvas buffer. To interface with this, you must create another JavaScript file that implements the "Init()" and "RenderScene()" functions. ***************************************************************/ /*** Public Variables (Read Only) ***/ // Global timer used for animations; grows over time // Measured as fractions of seconds var TotalTime = 0.0; // Target frames per second, measured in fractions of seconds const TargetFrameTime = 1.0 / 60.0; // Global canvas width and heights var CanvasWidth; var CanvasHeight; // Global screen centers var CenterX; var CenterY; /*** Internal Functions & Variables ***/ // FPS counter, refresh rate, and internal timer var FrameRateTime = 0; // Seconds elapsed since last FPS post var FrameRateCount = 0; // Number of frames since last FPS post var FrameRateRefresh = 1; // Time interval between each FPS post // Global canvas and graphics handle var CanvasHandle = null; var ContextHandle = null; // Backbuffer canvas handle var BackCanvasHandle = null; var BackContextHandle = null; // Main application entry point; this MUST be called before any other functions // Calls the user overloaded "Init(...)" function and starts // the main render loop function Main() { // Get context handles CanvasHandle = document.getElementById("SampleCanvas"); ContextHandle = CanvasHandle.getContext("2d"); // Get the canvas size CanvasWidth = ContextHandle.canvas.clientWidth; CanvasHeight = ContextHandle.canvas.clientHeight; // Get the canvas center CenterX = CanvasWidth / 2; CenterY = CanvasHeight / 2; // Create an image backbuffer BackCanvasHandle = document.createElement("canvas"); BackCanvasHandle.width = CanvasWidth; BackCanvasHandle.height = CanvasHeight; BackContextHandle = BackCanvasHandle.getContext("2d"); // Call the custom init function Init(); // Start the render cycle RenderLoop(); } // Main render loop // This should setup a timer at the end to call itself again // This function throttles itself to only update at a target FPS function RenderLoop() { // Start timing this render cycle var StartTime = new Date(); // Clear backbuffer BackContextHandle.clearRect(0, 0, CanvasWidth, CanvasHeight); // Save context state BackContextHandle.save(); // Render the scene RenderScene(BackContextHandle); // Restore the context state BackContextHandle.restore(); // Swap the backbuffer with the frontbuffer // We take the contents of the backbuffer and draw onto the front buffer var ImageData = BackContextHandle.getImageData(0, 0, CanvasWidth, CanvasHeight); ContextHandle.putImageData(ImageData, 0, 0); // End time var EndTime = new Date(); // Measure the difference // Note that "value of" returns millis, we divide back into seconds var TimeElapsed = (EndTime.valueOf() - StartTime.valueOf()) / 1000; var SleepTime = TargetFrameTime - TimeElapsed; // If target sleep time is negative, simply don't sleep // This is in cases where we take longer than intended to render a scene if(SleepTime < 0) SleepTime = 0; // Calculate the cycle time of how long it took to execute this frame var CycleTime = TimeElapsed + SleepTime; // Calculate FPS when needed FrameRateTime += CycleTime; if (FrameRateTime >= FrameRateRefresh) { // Post FPS var FPS = FrameRateCount / FrameRateRefresh; document.getElementById("FPSTextBox").value = FPS + " / " + (1 / TargetFrameTime); // Reset time and frame count FrameRateTime = 0; FrameRateCount = 0; } // Grow frame count FrameRateCount++; // Callback to self after sleep-off time // Note that we convert back to seconds and then set this sleeping function TotalTime += CycleTime; setTimeout(RenderLoop, SleepTime * 1000); } /*** Graphics Primitive Wrappers ***/ // Render a point given a point and a color function RenderPoint(x, y, width, color) { // Shortext context handle var ctx = BackContextHandle; // Save context ctx.save(); // Set color if(color != undefined) ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(" + color.R + "," + color.G + "," + color.B + ")"; else ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(0, 0, 0)"; // Draw from point to point ctx.fillRect(x - width/2, y - width/2, width, width); // Revert context ctx.restore(); // Done rendering line } // Render a line given two points, a width, and a color function RenderLine(x1, y1, x2, y2, width, color) { // Shortext context handle var ctx = BackContextHandle; // Save context ctx.save(); // Set width and cap style ctx.lineWidth = width; ctx.lineCap = "butt"; ctx.lineJoin = "round"; // Set color if(color != undefined) ctx.strokeStyle = "rgb(" + color.R + "," + color.G + "," + color.B + ")"; else ctx.strokeStyle = "rgb(0, 0, 0)"; // Draw from point to point ctx.beginPath(); ctx.moveTo(x1, y1); ctx.lineTo(x2, y2); ctx.closePath(); ctx.stroke(); // Revert context ctx.restore(); // Done rendering line } // Render a triangle given three points, a width, and a color function RenderTriangle(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, width, color) { // Shortext context handle var ctx = BackContextHandle; // Save context ctx.save(); // Set width and cap style ctx.lineWidth = width; ctx.lineCap = "butt"; ctx.lineJoin = "round"; // Set color if(color != undefined) ctx.strokeStyle = "rgb(" + color.R + "," + color.G + "," + color.B + ")"; else ctx.strokeStyle = "rgb(0, 0, 0)"; // Draw from point to point ctx.beginPath(); ctx.moveTo(x1, y1); ctx.lineTo(x2, y2); ctx.lineTo(x3, y3); ctx.closePath(); ctx.stroke(); // Revert context ctx.restore(); // Done rendering triangle } // Render a triangle given three points, a width, and a color function RenderFillTriangle(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, width, color) { // Shortext context handle var ctx = BackContextHandle; // Save context ctx.save(); // Set width and cap style ctx.lineWidth = width; ctx.lineCap = "butt"; ctx.lineJoin = "round"; // Set color if(color != undefined) ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(" + color.R + "," + color.G + "," + color.B + ")"; else ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(0, 0, 0)"; // Draw from point to point ctx.beginPath(); ctx.moveTo(x1, y1); ctx.lineTo(x2, y2); ctx.lineTo(x3, y3); ctx.closePath(); ctx.fill(); // Revert context ctx.restore(); // Done rendering triangle } // Render a checkered background (Colors are set internally) function RenderBackground() { // Shortext context handle var ctx = BackContextHandle; // Draw a checkered light background var SquareSize = 8; // Draw an error background ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(8, 32, 128)"; ctx.fillRect(0, 0, CanvasWidth, CanvasHeight); // For each screen chunk for (var y = 0; y < Math.floor((CanvasHeight + SquareSize) / SquareSize); y++) { for (var x = 0; x < Math.floor((CanvasWidth + SquareSize) / SquareSize); x++) { // Select the color based on positions var TargetColor = { R: 175, G: 175, B: 175 }; // If we are in a lighter square positions, make color lighter if (x % 2 != y % 2) TargetColor.R = TargetColor.G = TargetColor.B = 235; // Render recntagle ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(" + TargetColor.R + "," + TargetColor.G + "," + TargetColor.B + ")"; ctx.fillRect(x * SquareSize, y * SquareSize, SquareSize, SquareSize); } } // Done rendering background } Note You'll probably be wondering why do we have two canvas and context handles, and why are they called foreground and background, respectively? This is done to implement a Back-buffer / Frame-buffer. Back-buffering will be discussed in detail later, but to those eager to understand, it is a way to buffer all of our drawing code into a hidden surface, then present that as a whole to the user. It prevents the users from seeing parts of geometry being drawn step-by-step since drawing is not instantaneous, so we batch up our drawing commands and only display the final results once all drawing is complete. Thus far, you should have three files in your tutorial folder: index.htm, main.js, and source.js. Make sure that you have all of these and that at minimum you see an HTML document with a blank canvas in the middle. checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson Framework) Before moving on, let's give you a taste of what's to come: we're going to implement a very simple line-rotation effect! In your "source.js", within the "RenderScene()" function, copy-paste the following code: function Init() { // Left empty on purpose... } function RenderScene() { // Render the background RenderBackground(ContextHandle); // Find the center of the image var CenterX = CanvasWidth / 2; var CenterY = CanvasHeight / 2; // Render some rotating lines var TotalLines = 5; for(var i = -TotalLines; i <= TotalLines; i++) { // Find offset corners var OffsetX = Math.cos(TotalTime * i * (0.25 / TotalLines)) * 100; var OffsetY = Math.sin(TotalTime * i * (0.25 / TotalLines)) * 100; // Set a color then draw line var Color = {R:16, G:128, B:256}; RenderLine(CenterX - OffsetX, CenterY - OffsetY, CenterX + OffsetX, CenterY + OffsetY, i, Color); } } Once pasted, save your changes, and reload the HTML document. You should see the following: The code is pretty simple to follow when written in plain-english: we first find the center of the screen, then for 10 lines, we compute a position that is rotating around the center at a fixed distance, and finally we render these lines based from this position towards a reflected position (across the X and Y axis). Don't worry about understanding all of this just yet, since this is a very arbitrary example to get you drawing immediately. The idea here is to make sure your programming environment works! checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 1)
2D Graphics¶ To create a 3D rasterization renderer, we must understand where we are going to actually draw the 3D! In our case, we will be drawing on simple and small 2D surface, so let's dive straight into 2D computer graphics: Pixels¶ So what is a pixel? It is a simple graphical primitives much like a "dot of color" in an image. When many pixels are placed on a grid, an image can be generated. Pixels can either mean the conceptual "basic single color square" concept found in digital images, or can mean the physical color component in a device like a TV, LCD monitor, etc. In our case, we care about the virtual pixel, since we will be writing to a 2D image in a browser. Pixels, in the digital world, can represent color by a combination of color channels: a combination of red, green, and blue (referred to as the RGB color model, though sometimes other color models exist), can be used to produce a unique color. Based on the range of each channel, we can represent thousands, millions, and easily billions of colors! Computers, being digital, represent each color value, or intensity, as an integer, commonly from 0 to 255. Thus, each color is a single "byte" of digital information. Three of these bytes, and a fourth byte representing alpha (transparency), comes to a total of 32-bits, which is where the term "32-bit color depth" comes from. There are of course other ways to represent color values, though most common and most simple to understand is this integer color depth. As an example, black, which is the sum of no intensities, can be represented by (0, 0, 0), or 0 intensity for red, 0 intensity for green, and 0 intensity for blue. White, on the other hand, is the sum of full intensities, and thus can be represented by (255, 255, 255). Note that as just mentioned we can represent colors in other ways: another very common way is to represent the range through a floating-point value between 0 and 1, thus black is still (0, 0, 0), but white is now (1, 1, 1). Remember, combinations are what produces all other colors: Purple can be represented as (159, 0, 197), using the 32-bit scheme. Pixels are not only color values, but also positions. All 2D images can be mapped by coordinates using the cartesian coordinate system, but the conventions and origin of such a system depend on the framework and conventions you are using. OpenGL uses the left-hand coordinate system: the X and Y origin are in the bottom-left of your screen, with the X position growing towards the right, and the Y position growing upwards. Z, the third dimension since OpenGL is a 3D framework, grows from the viewer and into the screen, but this is irrelevant to us until later. DirectX uses a right-handed coordinate system, thus the Z axis grows towards the screen from the user. In our case, Canvas is a little different: the origin is in the top-left, with X growing to the right and Y growing to the bottom. Later on, when we define our 3D world, we will use the left-hand notation. Let's do an example: say we want to draw a 100 points randomly across the screen every time we have our RenderScene(...) function called: though it'll look like a random static image (similar to old analog TV's when you set the channel to an empty station), the idea here is to just draw pixels at random locations. // Custom init function for this demo function Init() { // Nothing to initialize } // Main render scene function; called by the RenderLoop() cycle function RenderScene() { // Render the background RenderBackground(ContextHandle); // For 100 points for(var i = 0; i < 100; i++) { var x = Math.random() * CanvasWidth; var y = Math.random() * CanvasHeight; RenderPoint(x, y, 2); } } checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 2) Lines¶ Lines are the next step up in the 2D world from pixels: they are a series of pixels that fill the distance between two points. When it comes to computer graphics, drawing lines is a critically important basis for any 3D renderer: it can help with the actual rendering itself, with GUI rendering, debugging, etc. Though conceptually a trivial idea, lines are remarkably complex to implement as efficiently as possible in software. That is to say that lines are easy to draw, using the slope-intercept formula, but the easiest (trivial) solutions tends to be slow, and the most efficient approaches are quite complex to understand. Fortunately for us, Canvas abstracts line rendering and provides us a friendly function (with which we wrap in our own simplified call in "main.js"). If you are interested in the challenge of implementing a line rendering function, read both this fantastic article on real-world results from line drawing, and the Wikipedia article on line drawing algorithms (the Wikipedia article is great since it also shows good pseudocode). What you should understand, and hopefully appreciate, is that the basic line renderer algorithm shouldn't be used this since it is a naive and slow approach, and that our framework code directly calls the Canvas implementation of line-drawing, which should be very fast. Note Algorithms and computational complexity are important subjects well outside of the scope of this article, but are enormously important for any and all software projects. A simple but clean-cut definition of an algorithm is that it is a series of steps to take to deal with some sort of input, and give you a desired result. Computational complexity is how easy or hard, relative to known categories, a given algorithm or process is to execute. All of this is relevant to you, because programming is essentially writing an algorithm in a formal computer-programming language. Computational complexity is also critically important to you because computer graphics can be a computationally intensive problem, and thus being aware of fast algorithms and complexity classes can result in better performance. In-fact, as you will see later in this tutorial, you can swap some functions' implementations (i.e. change their algorithms) for massive speed increases, or use significantly less memory, or gain other benefits! We choose not to use the "best" algorithm, since naive approaches may be slow but are very easy to understand. If you are able to master algorithms and computational complexity as a subject matter, not only does that make you a good developer, but makes you a top-notch software engineer! As an example, let's draw a single line that has one point go from the origin, and another point rotate around the middle of the screen. This will require some basic trigonometry to compute the position on a circle's radius, which represents rotation around the center of the image, but it's nothing hard: // Simple growing variable var Time = 0.0; // Custom init function for this demo function Init() { // Nothing to initialize } // Main render scene function; called by the RenderLoop() cycle function RenderScene() { // Render the background RenderBackground(ContextHandle); // Grow time Time += 0.1; // Compute screen centers var CenterX = CanvasWidth / 2; var CenterY = CanvasHeight / 2; // Draw a line from the origin (0, 0) to a position on a circle around the center RenderLine(0, 0, CenterX + Math.cos(Time) * 20.0, CenterY + Math.sin(Time) * 20.0, 2); } checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 3) Triangles & Polygons¶ Triangles are the next important drawing primitive in our computer graphics toolkit! Triangles are powerful for two important reasons in the world of computer graphics: they are the simplest space-filling shape that can be drawn with beneficial geometry properties, and that they can be filled quickly by a computer! Triangles, being only composed of three points, can never overlap itself, unlike a n-point polygon, where n is greater than 3. This allows the computer to not have to check for any special cases of wether or not to fill a given pixel, and it also allows the computer to just fill a single row, being guaranteed that each row of pixels filling a triangle only have one continuous row, and never more. This way when complex shapes like n-point polygons are needed, you can just render it out as a series of triangles, and not worry about developing complex n-point polygon rendering code. Triangle filling also has the advantage of being done very quickly due to hardware acceleration: graphics cards are great at doing many smaller tasks (like filling a row of pixels in a triangle) in parallel! Triangles also have a nice property in the 3D world: you can move the triangle's points in any way you want in 3D-space, in infinite combinations, but triangles will never "fold" on themselves, unlike more complex shapes like rectangles or polygons. This guarantees that an object made of triangles in 3D space will always be "solid" and consistent, which more simply means that the behavior in any case will be clearly defined, and that a triangle always has a correct "facing" direction. To show that using squares for basic surfaces in 3D-space, consider this thought-experiment: imagine a simple 10 by 10 inch square object, completely flat, floating in space, where the edges are solid but the corners allow edge movement. This square, by definitions, has four points. Pick two points, opposite of each other and leave the two remaining points alone. Try to pinch the two points you've selected, while the remaining two points stay in the same position, and while you are moving the pinched-points towards you. It will look like two triangles, like a folded square napkin, where the base of the two triangles are connected (the two points you left stuck in space), and the two points you took to pinch are pointing towards you. Now ask the critically important question: what is the "surface" of this geometry? Is it one of the two triangle planes facing one-another, or is it one of the two planes facing away? If it is either of these two, which of the surfaces is the correct surface, since they point in different directions? The simple fact is, n-point polygons (n being more than 3) leads to too many undefined behaviors when moving around, thus we use triangles because they are always consistent. You'll learn quickly that all polygons, and thus all models, can be represented by a series of triangles. Thus, this thought-experiment could be re-done with two triangles from the start, which is perfectly fine when it comes to the rendering mechanisms, because that square won't be seen as a square, but will be seen as two triangles to render, which for the computer makes a world of difference. Triangle filling is another critical feature of triangles: as previously mentioned, it can be easy and fast to fill a triangle, and many methods exist. Texturing a triangle, discussed later, is more challenging, but is still computationally fast because triangles are, by definition, convex. Thus, the filling code doesn't have to check at run time if it is ever out of bounds of the geometry; it can start filling from left to right, being guaranteed not having to do any more work! This small property gives a big run-time boost! There is a great University of Utah article from their Computer Science department on this topic, well worth a read if you are interested in a reading through a clean and concise solution. Let's draw a square using two triangles: a trivial proof-of-concept to show that two triangles can form more complex shapes: // Custom init function for this demo function Init() { // Nothing to initialize } // Main render scene function; called by the RenderLoop() cycle function RenderScene() { // Render the background // Removed to better show the triangle crease / collision //RenderBackground(ContextHandle); // Draw triangle one: top-left, to top-right, to bottom-left (red) RenderTriangle(0, 0, 100, 0, 0, 100, 2, {R:255, G:0, B:0}); // Draw triangle one: top-right, to bottom-right, to bottom-left (green) RenderTriangle(100, 0, 100, 100, 0, 100, 2, {R:0, G:255, B:0}); } checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 4) Images¶ Images are simply a two dimensional array of colored pixels. This means that it is a grid, of a given size, that has a data format for each pixel. This format is usually 32-bits per pixel, as mentioned above, with each color channel represented by a byte (8-bits) as an integer from 0 to 255). Images are important to us because we can use them as textures for 3D models and surfaces: rather than drawing a triangle with a single solid color, we may want to have a texture associated with it, giving it more detail, and that can only be done if we have a source image (though you can create images as-needed with procedurally generate images or textures). Images exist in many file formats, but the two main categories are raster images / bitmaps, or a vector formats. Raster images are just a grid of pixels, which if you zoom into have a finite set of data. Vector images are image are defined by geometric primitives, and if zoomed into, never lose detail. Though both can be used in computer graphics, usually 3D rastering frameworks use raster images because it is easier to map image pixel data to screen-space pixel data. Vector images can be used, but have to be "sampled" at run-time (i.e. converted to a bitmap, then used). Note Raster / bitmap image file formats also vary widely, but again fall into two major categories: Lossy compression and Lossless compression. The tradeoff between the two is accuracy and file size, but it's an important difference to know especially if you are working on graphics for an embedded system where memory is smaller or the processor/platform doesn't have good decompression support. Screen & Double Buffer¶ When drawing directly to a surface, you will be reading and writing data step-by-step. This is to say that if you were to draw three lines, but look at the screen between each drawing event, you will literally see one line drawn at a time. HTML5 Canvas might batch your drawing commands, based on your browser's implementation, but advanced graphics libraries like OpenGL and DirectX certainly don't. This is just the nature of how graphics libraries work: if you give a draw command, unless you are directly using a batching feature, it will be executed immediately. This may seem unimportant, but if you were to draw your scene where you need to do work between drawing different features, the user may see odd rendering behavior: users may actually see objects being drawn one after the other, ruining any illusion of animation! Even if you had a rendering system so fast that users couldn't see the rendering steps, the screen must be cleared for rendering the next frame. Thus, users only see for a fraction of time the complete image, since as soon as the complete image is presented, your program clears the screen space for the next scene. Some systems, especially with HTML5 Canvas, will not stop showing an image while you are working on it. This means that in our case, more so than others, we must be aware that at any point anything we draw, even if not completed, can be shown to the user. We don't even have a locking mechanism provided by JavaScript, and even if we did we wouldn't want to stall the application just to finish our work (this goes back to an earlier note about playing nice with the host Operating System). Instead, we use "double buffering" To resolve this, what we do is render your scene into a second screen buffer, invisible to the user. By doing this, we let the user see the previous image for as long as possible, and only when our next image is truly complete, do we swap the screens and show the completed screen. Then your code is free to trash what was previously seen by the user because that screen is no longer used. Simply put: your code should only draw to a surface that isn't visible to the user, because drawing takes time, but when you are done, you swap your screens, since screen-swapping is very quick. This prevents a "stuttering" image, or an image that flickers. You in turn maximize the amount of time the user sees a full image, and minimize the transition time between images. This is all called double buffering.
3D Graphics¶ We are finally at the meat and potatoes of this entire article: prepare for some fun code, lots of exercises, and actually getting some real 3D rendering going on! Coordinate System¶ By definition of 3D space (three-dimensional space), we have three axes of freedom to move in: X, Y, and Z. This means that, relative to the observer, a point can move left-right, up-down, and towards-or-away from your view. In our program, our goal will be to take 3D geometry (points, lines, triangles, and eventually meshes), and convert them (formally called "mapping" or "projection") into 2D space. For this to be done, we need to know where the given geometry is, and where we want to view it from. That's all we need to know to get working! To keep our systems clean and consistent, we will use the OpenGL left-hand 3D coordinate system, where positive-X grows to the right, positive-Y grows up, and positive-Z grows from the observer into the screen. We will also use the forced Canvas convention for the 2D coordinate space system: the origin is in the top-left, with positive-X growing to the right, and positive-Y growing to the bottom. View Projection¶ So how exactly do we "map", or "project", from 3D space into a 2D coordinate system? There are a variety of methods to do 3D projection, each used for different purposes. Orthographic projection simply removes the Z component of all geometry, and draws just their X and Y components onto the 2D surface. Though simple and easy, this creates a very odd result: no matter how far or how close the object is, it appears the same size! This is because in the real world, we have a visual perception of distance based on objects being bigger when they are close, and smaller when they are far. This is formally called visual perspective, and is exactly what we want to implement. Note Using different projection methods really are important for a variety of applications. Orthographic project, where you see objects "head on" without any scaling changes based on distance, is critically useful when designing mechanical components in CAD (computer aided design / drafting) software. This is because you can precisely manipulate how parts are to be manufactured as though you are working on a 2D piece of drafting paper. Other projection methods, like isomorphic projection, are useful in video games where you may need depth as an in-game element, but do not want to present it as a visual elements: this is a style common in the SNES-generation of games. Perspective-projection is the standard 3D rendering mechanism. Fortunately for us, perspective projection only requires a trivial amount of extra work: the size of geometry is multiplied by the inverse of distance, multiplied by your field-of-view. Field-of-view is your visual range: how wide you can see. Humans typically have about a 100 to 180-degree view in front of us, while some animals (birds) have nearly a 360-degree view. This, by definition, affects how much we see around us without moving our heads, and thus if you field of view is big, we then see more, and have to put more on-screen, so we multiply the inverse distance by this factor so that we can "crunch" more of our 3D visible space into the 2D space. Now, we can directly apply the perspective projection to convert the 3D points to 2D points, but there is still an important open-ended question: how to we deal with camera movement, for both rotation and translation? This part does take some substantial knowledge of linear algebra, but we can at minimum describe it in simplified english: we take the camera movements and apply the inverse behavior to all 3D models, then apply the 3D to 2D project. Think about this, as an example of why this works: if you look at a TV screen, and move your head to your right, relative to your perception, the TV is moving to the left. If you rotate your head clockwise while looking at a TV screen, relative to your perception, the TV is rotating counter-clockwise. So all we have to do in code to deal with these movements is to apply the opposite effect. Yet, how do we implement this in math and eventually in code? Well, as just mentioned, we will have to use linear algebra (or at minimum the simplified algebraic expressions). a 2D = (a 3D / distance) x (field of view) Simplified perspective projection, to get us started. Point¶ First thing first: we are going to take a 3D point, before any sort of application of projection or movement, and define it as the variable named "d", with the three-component subscripts of "d x , d y , d z ". We first take this point, then rotate it about each of the axes individually. You'll notice shortly that there is an important order to this process, and it is due to the nature of multiplication / order-of-application associated with linear algebra. After this rotation, we can then apply translate: i.e. movement. Finally, at the very end, we apply the projection factor, which is the equation marked above. Wikipedia has a great graphic that shows this math in a formalized form: The formal camera-transformation function, in linear algebraic form, for all geometry. Link to original article from Wikipedia. Now this equation, since it is in linear algebraic for, might seem immensely intimidating, but don't let that bother you! The following is the exact same maths, but in a simplified, less formal but more reader-friendly, form: The formal camera-transformation function, in simplified algebraic form, for all geometry. Link to original article from Wikipedia. Note: in our code, we will simplify these terms into more readable forms! To help you, before coding this up, let's clarify the variable names and what they mean for a scene: as previously mentioned, "d x , d y , d z ", is the point in question we are trying to convert from 3D-space to a camera-corrected position. The subscripts represent the position-components of the 3D position that the point has. The variable a, with the form "a x , a y , a z ", is the original position of the point. Essentially d is the result, and a is the original position. The variable c, with the form "c x , c y , c z ", is the camera's position. Look at the right of the linear-algebraic form: you will notice that we multiply our rotations by the distance between our 3D point and our 3D camera: this is all about moving the point in the opposite position that the camera is in. The variable theta (using Unicode: "Θ"), represents the rotation, about the respective axes, of the camera. This means that, based on our 3D coordinate system, if theta x (again, using Unicode: "Θ x ") is set to 45-degrees, we are rotating the camera around the x axis, pitching down (looking down) by 45-degrees. Finally, once we have dealt with position rotation and translation, we need to apply our project to convert from this correct 3D point to a 2D screen point:
Screen x = (d x / d z ) x (field of view)Screen y = (d y / d z ) x (field of view) Apply the final step in 3D to 2D projection: note how we divide not by distance, but by z? It is the same thing! We moved the 3D geometry into the correct position, thus the z-value for all positions are truly the distance from the camera. Hopefully thus far you haven't been lost with the math, though stick with it! I freely admit when I started doing all of this 3D programming myself, I struggled over and over again until I got further into the implementation of this all into code, which is what we will now tackle. Load your text editor, and open the "source.js" source file. We are going to define the cube geometry, which consists of 8 points, with each point have three components (x, y, and z). JavaScript is great because it allows us to define both the data, and the data's structure, all at once! Create a new variable named "CubeVertex" in which we define an array of triple-floats (in global scope, so define it outside of a function). It should look like the following: // Cube vertex data var CubeVertex = [ {x:-1, y:-1, z:1}, {x:-1, y:1, z:1}, {x:1, y:1, z:1}, {x:1, y:-1, z:1}, {x:-1, y:-1, z:-1}, {x:-1, y:1, z:-1}, {x:1, y:1, z:-1}, {x:1, y:-1, z:-1}, ]; From here, we also need to define the camera's properties, which includes the position, field-of-view, and later on in this text the rotation. // Camera position var CameraPos = {x: 0, y: 0, z: -10}; // Camera distortion var RatioConst = 32; For now, let's implement the renderer without any rotation (as just mentioned), and have the cube be centered on-screen, as seen head-on: function Init() { // Nothing to initialize } function RenderScene() { // Render the background RenderBackground(ContextHandle); // Find the center of the image var CenterX = CanvasWidth / 2; var CenterY = CanvasHeight / 2; // For each vertex point for(var i = 0; i < CubeVertex.length; i++) { // Convert from x,y,z to x,y // This is called a projection transform // We are projecting from 3D back to 2D var ScreenX = (RatioConst * (CubeVertex[i].x - CameraPos.x)) / CubeVertex[i].z; var ScreenY = (RatioConst * (CubeVertex[i].y - CameraPos.y)) / CubeVertex[i].z; // Draw this point on-screen RenderPoint(ScreenX + CenterX, ScreenY + CenterY, 3); } } Notice how we have to add the "CenterX" and "CenterY" to each position? This is again done so that we move what the camera sees onto the center of the screen. As an experiment, leave it empty, and see the results: the cube will now be centered in the top-left of the screen, which is the true origin of our screen. Save your changes, and open your "index.htm" page or reload it. You will see 4 distinct points, which are the 8 points of the cube seen head-on (note how there are truly 8 points on-screen: every other point is paired on top of each-other because there has been no rotation, and the object isn't long enough to distinguish between the front and back points through projection distortion). If you are unable to see anything, make sure that the "index.htm" source is correctly loading your Javascript source file. checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 5) Geometry¶ Before tackling rotation, which will come shortly, let's render a wireframe version of our cube: we must define a new array, named "CubeEdges" that tell the renderer which points of the cube should be connected with other points, forming the cube "edges". // Cube edge data var CubeEdges = [ {i:0, j:1}, {i:1, j:2}, {i:2, j:3}, {i:3, j:0}, {i:4, j:5}, {i:5, j:6}, {i:6, j:7}, {i:7, j:4}, {i:0, j:4}, {i:1, j:5}, {i:2, j:6}, {i:3, j:7}, ]; Instead of what we did in the previous code, where we directly rendered the point on-screen after converting it from 3D to 2D, we will instead save these points and then use their locations when rendering lines from the "CubeEdges" list. // Create an on-screen point list we will be working with var PointList = new Array(); // ... Previous code here ... // In the "For each vertex point" for-loop, replace the last line that rendered a point to: PointList[i] = {x:CenterX + ScreenX, y:CenterY + ScreenY}; // ... After the above-mentioned loop, add our line iteration loop: ... // For each edge for(var i = 0; i < CubeEdges.length; i++) { // Find the two points we are working on var Point1 = PointList[CubeEdges[i].i]; var Point2 = PointList[CubeEdges[i].j]; // Render the edge by looking up our vertex list RenderLine(Point1.x, Point1.y, Point2.x, Point2.y, 1); RenderPoint(Point1.x, Point1.y, 3, {R:100, G:100, B:100}); RenderPoint(Point2.x, Point2.y, 3, {R:100, G:100, B:100}); } checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 6) Finally let's tackle cube-rotation animation! We will be using the exact same code as lesson 2, but instead of doing our simplified projection function, we will implement the full rotation equation, which is a bit more complex, but again do your best to read and understand each new block of code line-by-line. The two big changes we will introduce are 1. the camera rotation variable, and how that grows over time, and 2. the application of the rotation algebra. Note that for the sake of our demo, we are rotating the cube's point positions, and not the actual camera. There is no mathematical differences, but it does keep our code more simple and readable. // 1.1: Add the new global camera rotation variable: // This should be in global scope // Camera rotation (Pitch, yaw, roll) var CameraRot = {x: 0, y: 0, z: 0}; // 1.2: Add the growth of the camera rotation (so we keep rotating every time we render our scene) // This should be in the beginning of our "RenderScene()" function // Slightly grow the rotations CameraRot.x += 0.02; CameraRot.y += 0.02; CameraRot.z += 0.02; // 2.1: Apply the rotation, for each axis // This should be right above where we applied the projection transformation // Apply rotation onto the vertex var Temp = WorkingVertex.z; WorkingVertex.z = -WorkingVertex.x * Math.sin(CameraRot.y) - WorkingVertex.z * Math.cos(CameraRot.y); WorkingVertex.x = -WorkingVertex.x * Math.cos(CameraRot.y) + Temp * Math.sin(CameraRot.y); Temp = WorkingVertex.z; WorkingVertex.z = -WorkingVertex.y * Math.sin(CameraRot.x) + WorkingVertex.z * Math.cos(CameraRot.x); WorkingVertex.y = WorkingVertex.y * Math.cos(CameraRot.x) + Temp * Math.sin(CameraRot.x); Temp = WorkingVertex.x; WorkingVertex.x = WorkingVertex.x * Math.cos(CameraRot.z) - WorkingVertex.y * Math.sin(CameraRot.z); WorkingVertex.y = WorkingVertex.y * Math.cos(CameraRot.z) + Temp * Math.sin(CameraRot.z); // Apply camera translation after the rotation, so we are actually just rotating the object WorkingVertex.x -= CameraPos.x; WorkingVertex.y -= CameraPos.y; WorkingVertex.z -= CameraPos.z; // 2.2: Apply the projection transformation // This is where the original 3D to 2D two lines of code are in the vertex iteration for-loop var ScreenX = (RatioConst * (CubeVertex[i].x - CameraPos.x)) / CubeVertex[i].z; var ScreenY = (RatioConst * (CubeVertex[i].y - CameraPos.y)) / CubeVertex[i].z; checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 7) Note Trigonometric functions are computationally intensive: they are non-trivial functions that require a bit of work for the computer to do. Classically, computers only take a "step" or two to execute simple math functions, like addition or multiplication, yet functions like Sine and Cosine take much more time because those functions have to execute complex estimation algorithms. Nowadays, these functions are relatively fast, either because of software optimizations, such as using a table-based estimations (i.e. the function just looks up pre-computed values), or because the functions use specialized hardware features within the processor. If you ever need to implement your own trigonometric functions because you believe there are speed issues, be aware that you will have to find a balance between slow-but-accurate and fast-but-inaccurate! On a somewhat related note, the square-root function is commonly used in graphics programming, and there are methods to estimate their results much more quickly than traditional implementations provide. Square-roots are, much like other math functions, generally hardware-accelerated. Mesh¶ I've mentioned in this article several times how important triangles are because of their special properties as mesh primitives. Let's go ahead and convert our edge-based "wireframe" system into a more correct triangle system, so that we can eventually tackle the problem of rendering a surface! Similar to the edge definition system, where we refer to vertices through their vertex index, we will now define a triangle as three indices. Note that such a 3D model is sometimes referred to as a "mesh", which defines both the model's vertices, and the surface (generally through triangles). // 1. We replace our "CubeEdge" definition with "CubeFaces" // This should be in global scope; in the same scope as "CubeFaces" once was // Cube face data var CubeFaces = [ // Front { a:0, b:1, c:2, i:1 }, { a:2, b:3, c:0, i:1 }, // Top { a:1, b:5, c:6, i:2 }, { a:6, b:2, c:1, i:2 }, // Back { a:5, b:4, c:7, i:3 }, { a:7, b:6, c:5, i:3 }, // Bottom { a:4, b:0, c:3, i:4 }, { a:3, b:7, c:4, i:4 }, // Right { a:3, b:2, c:6, i:5 }, { a:6, b:7, c:3, i:5 }, // Left { a:0, b:5, c:1, i:6 }, { a:0, b:4, c:5, i:6 }, ]; // 2. Replace the entire edge iteration for-loop with the following: // This should be in your "RenderScene()" function // For each face for(var i = 0; i < CubeFaces.length; i++) { // Find the four points we are working on var PointA = PointList[CubeFaces[i].a]; var PointB = PointList[CubeFaces[i].b]; var PointC = PointList[CubeFaces[i].c]; // Render the face by looking up our vertex list RenderTriangle(PointA.x, PointA.y, PointB.x, PointB.y, PointC.x, PointC.y, 2); } checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 8) Complex Geometry¶ How do we deal with more complex geometry? Turns out you already have everything you need! The existing code-base is ready to parse any number of vertices and surfaces (as long as those surfaces are triangles). As a fun proof-of-concept exercise, let's render the Blender Monkey. Our code only has to change slightly: we first remove all of the cube model information, and instead read the large monkey model data. // 1. Change the camera position to better see the output model: // Camera position var CameraPos = {x: 0, y: -1, z: -5}; // 2. Change the actual model data // ... Please load the text from the checkpoint source code (too big to include here) ... // 3. When rendering the model's faces, note that we have to subtract 1 from the indices: // Note: Source data starts at index 1 ... n, not 0 to n - 1, so we -1 var PointA = PointList[CubeFaces[i].a - 1]; var PointB = PointList[CubeFaces[i].b - 1]; var PointC = PointList[CubeFaces[i].c - 1]; As an exercise, I leave you with the challenge to write an object-file parser. Object files, ending in *.obj, are a very simple plain-text mesh encoding system, where mesh data is saved as a series of vertices and indices. You should be warned that object files sometimes mix 3-point and 4-point surface primitives, yet in our case we only support 3-point primitives. Either change the file by hand, or write code to handle this. Also, be warned that since this article is all based on a software renderer, any model that has a decent amount of triangles will be very very slow to render. Note There are a couple of "famous" 3D models you will find commonly used across platforms and frameworks: these include the Utah Teapot, the Stanford Bunny, and the Cornell Box. Each is famous for being used to introduce or demo important 3D computer graphics technologies in academic publications. checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 9) Solid Mesh¶ Tired of wireframes? Replace all of the "RenderTriangle(...)" function calls with "RenderFillTriangle(...)"! Since we want to differentiate between each surface, instead of rendering each triangle as black (so that the entire cube looks the same), we will vary the color using a simple little modulo operation applied to the iterator variable and a factor. This guarantees that the colors will be unique for this demo. // ... This code should replace the pair of "RenderTriangle(...)" function calls ... // Generate a unique face color var Color = {R:(CubeFaces[i].i * 50) % 255, G:(CubeFaces[i].i * 128) % 255, B:(CubeFaces[i].i * 200) % 255}; // Render the face by looking up our vertex list RenderFillTriangle(PointA.x, PointA.y, PointB.x, PointB.y, PointC.x, PointC.y, 2, Color); RenderTriangle(PointA.x, PointA.y, PointB.x, PointB.y, PointC.x, PointC.y, 1); Whoa! What in the world!? Don't panic! The error you are seeing, where faces are incorrectly placed behind each other, is 100% normal and a great segue into the next section: the depth problem. What is going on is that we are rendering our triangles in the order we defined through our original triangle geometry list, but this order is not correct since we may view the object from behind or at different angles. Why should where we view the object matter? Well, since Canvas is a 2D surface, it maintains no depth, and thus whatever is drawn fist gets covered by anything drawn next. This is called the "painter's problem", and we will discuss how to better choose which triangles to render first! checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 10)
Surfaces¶ To create the illusion that our objects are solid, we must render the a model's surfaces. We can do this by defining a series of triangles (or polygons) representing the surfaces of an object, just as before. This is called a mesh, and with rasterization we might render triangle surfaces out of order, leading to that bizarre bug seen just before. To solve this problem, we have to investigate into depth-based sorting algorithms that only draw triangles that are visible to the viewer, and not use the ordering provided in the mesh definition. Terms can get easily confused in 3D computer graphics, since words like "texture", "material", and "surface" may appear to be interchangeable, but are not. Their differences have very different implications: a texture, or image, is simply a flat 2D grid made of pixels. A material is the combination of a texture and several properties: reflectivity, transparency, ambient color, etc. The majority of professional 3D applications use materials, since realistic models need to react differently to lights, based on what the object is made out of. Note that a material may sometimes be a combination of several textures and properties, such as the regular texture and a "bump-map texture", which shows surface relief based on the angles of light. Finally, a surface is strictly the geometry primitive that defines opaque elements of a model in 3D space, which are generally triangles. Generally a single model, made up of many surfaces, has a single material applied to it, though complex models may require different materials on different surfaces. Finally, mesh, model, and geometry is just the combination of points and triangles. Painter's Algorithm¶ Before continuing, it is critically important that you understand that the layering of what is seen on-screen is only (for now) defined by the order in which we draw things: what is drawn first will always be drawn over by the next render commands. Thus, if we draw the back of an object first, then the front part of the object, it will appear solid. This is because the front-most layer will cover the back-most layer. Otherwise, the output would look severely distorted, just like what you had seen in the previous example. The painter's algorithm is fast and efficient, only limited by how fast you can sort a list, but it is not very accurate with intersecting faces. The algorithm steps through each triangle in the scene and calculates the distance from the camera. This calculation can be done in several different ways, but it is generally better to average the distance between the three points of the surface triangle. Once you have a list of these distances, you must sort from furthest to closest, and render this sorted list. Why? Just like when painting a picture, you must paint the furthest objects first so that new and closer objects are drawn on-top of objects in the background. A classic problem in computer science is sorting data: in our case, we only need to sort based on distance, which is a single floating-point value. Wikipedia, as always, has a great article on the problem of sorting algorithms which is well worth a read, but in our case, to keep code as simple as possible, we will be using "bubble-sort". We choose not to use the built-in sorting functions of JavaScript to make all steps in this lesson as clear as possible, since sorting is done on two parallel arrays. Note Big-O notation is a measure of computational complexity of a given algorithm. It is a formal system of representing and comparing how fast or slow an algorithm performs with a given size of input data. As an example, the sorting algorithm "bubble sort" has an average-case Big-O function of O(n2), which means that in the average case with n-given number of elements to sort, the total time taken will grow by a power of two for more data size. As an example, sorting a list of 10 elements may take 1 second, but 100 elements takes 100 seconds, and 1,000 elements takes 10,000 seconds! Big-O can be used to define other algorithm complexity behaviors, such as min/max complexity bounds. Note that these measurements are about growth-of-computational effort, not of processor-specific implementation details, since Big-O is a measurement of the algorithm, and not code. Implementation specific details can be measured, but through a different Big-O function type, and generally can only be measured by comparing two or more implementations. Big-O is a very large topic of study within the field of computer science, but all programmers should be comfortable with algorithm analysis. Let us dive into the lesson's code: we start from the previous code-base, where the previous triangle-surface rendering block has been removed and replaced. Make sure to keep the vertex projection code, and pay attention to the source code comments, since the change in code is large. // Painter's algorithm // 1. Find the average depth of each face // 2. Sort all faces based on average depths // 3. Draw the furthest surfaces away // 1. Calculate the average depth of each face var AverageFaceDepth = new Array(); for(var i = 0; i < CubeFaces.length; i++) { // Sum and average AverageFaceDepth[i] = DepthList[CubeFaces[i].a]; AverageFaceDepth[i] += DepthList[CubeFaces[i].b]; AverageFaceDepth[i] += DepthList[CubeFaces[i].c]; AverageFaceDepth[i] /= 3; } // 2. Sort all faces by average face depth // For clearity: AverageFaceDepth is our comparison variable, // but CubeFaces is our list we are changing // We are going to implement a bubble sort algorithm // This is very slow but is a nice proof of concept var IsSorted = false; while(!IsSorted) { // Default us back to a sorted state IsSorted = true; // Make sure each element[n] is < element[n+1] for(var i = 0; i < AverageFaceDepth.length - 1; i++) { // Is element[n] < element[n+1]? // This checks the opposite case: when things are inverted if(AverageFaceDepth[i] > AverageFaceDepth[i+1]) { // Not sorted IsSorted = false; // Flip elements (both face depth and ) var temp = AverageFaceDepth[i]; AverageFaceDepth[i] = AverageFaceDepth[i+1]; AverageFaceDepth[i+1] = temp; var temp = CubeFaces[i]; CubeFaces[i] = CubeFaces[i+1]; CubeFaces[i+1] = temp; // Break out of for loop break; } } } // Reverse array CubeFaces.reverse(); // 3. Render the cube-face list, which is now ordered by furthest to closest for(var i = 0; i < CubeFaces.length; i++) { // Find the four points we are working on var PointA = PointList[CubeFaces[i].a]; var PointB = PointList[CubeFaces[i].b]; var PointC = PointList[CubeFaces[i].c]; var Color = {R:(CubeFaces[i].i * 50) % 255, G:(CubeFaces[i].i * 128) % 255, B:(CubeFaces[i].i * 200) % 255}; // Render the face by looking up our vertex list RenderFillTriangle(PointA.x, PointA.y, PointB.x, PointB.y, PointC.x, PointC.y, 2, Color); RenderTriangle(PointA.x, PointA.y, PointB.x, PointB.y, PointC.x, PointC.y, 1); } You'll notice that there are still some failures here: this is because the average distance between shared points for a polygon is just that: an average. There are special cases that will cause the painter's algorithm to fail: in the previous image, you will see that no single polygon should be drawn first, because unless there is per-pixel collision testing occurring, then entire segments of the model will be hidden. checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 11) Z-Buffer¶ Z-Buffer, or pixel-depth testing, is a pixel-specific depth test of the scene. Though accurate for realistic scene generations, it is often too slow to attempt in a software rasterizer. This simply means that it is best left to specialized hardware, such as dedicated graphics card, where Z-buffering is the De facto standard for hardware accelerated applications. The approach for Z-buffering is simple: for each pixel, find the closest object this pixel can "see" or draw. Once this is done, save that distance (depth) and which surface we found with. We can represent distance as a value between 0 and the maximum depth-size, generally the same byte-size as the color-buffer (32-bits). A way of visualizing this data is by rendering the depth buffer into a gray-scale image, where objects are whiter the closer they are, and darker the further they are. Once this Z-buffer is filled, the true rasterization can take place, where the pixel's paired collision data is retrieved and the appropriate color generated. A clearer example of how Z-buffers are implemented is by walking through a render cycle for a hardware-based rendering system: first, all world geometry is transformed from the 3D scene-space to the 2D screen-space. Before drawing onto the image that is shown to viewers, the renderer first draws all polygons onto the depth buffer based on the computed pixel depth. This means that when drawing a triangle from an object, the triangle's fill color is the per-pixel distance from the scene's camera. Thus, we are rendering gray-scale triangles, where the color relates to a distance. When attempting to set a pixel's color, it first checks if the new color is lighter (closer) than the current color, and if so, it gets overwritten. Only closer objects overwrite existing pixel data, per pixel and not per surface. When a newly drawn pixel is placed into the depth buffer, not only is the depth saved, but the associated source triangle is also saved. Finally, once the full z-buffer is computed, the real rendering starts: the color buffer is filled, where every depth pixel is checked first, and the related material is retrieved and the correct color is drawn. Triangle Filling¶ Before moving on to triangle texturing, we need to re-implement our generic triangle-filling function to gain control over per-pixel coloring. This re-implementation should give us the ability to set each pixel of a triangle to any color we want, where we currently can only select one color for the entire surface. It is critically important for you to understand that this part of the tutorial will introduce code that runs abnormally slow: this is because our original generic "draw filled triangle" function in "main.js" uses the fast built-in polygon filling features provided by the HTML5 Canvas (which, depending on your browser's implementation, may actually run as hardware-accelerated rendering commands), while we are now going to have to use the slower per-pixel drawing routines. There are several approaches to triangle-filling algorithms: flood-fill and scan-line fill are the easiest to implement. There is a great article online here which has some well defined and faster approaches, but in our case we will be using the scan-line fill. This approach will find the top of the triangle, and iterate through each horizontal line (row) until we reach the bottom-most point of our triangle. Since triangles are guaranteed to be convex, we are thus guaranteed not to have to worry about filling the same horizontal line with more than one segment for the same triangle, thus speeding up our fill process! Note Want to quickly fill a complex polygon? If we were to take a polygon and fill it using our scan-line approach, we would have to worry about multiple-segments on a single horizontal line because the polygon could easily be concave. Not only that, but point-inclusion checking grows more complex, since some lines would define a given pixel as "to be filled", yet another group could define the opposite: thus, your code will have to do more line-collision detection. Instead, consider the definition of a polygon: we can always represent it as a series of triangle sub-divisions: this little property gives us a huge advantage! Tessellation is the process of taking a polygon and breaking it down to simpler geometry: this can be done both quickly, and only needs to be done once. So as long as the geometry does not change to add more edges or have an edge re-intersect, you can keep using the same data. Once tessellation is done, all you have to do is run our per-triangle filling algorithm, and you now have complex polygon filling as a feature! Our triangle-fill algorithm is as follows: we will iterate for each line, from the top-most point of the triangle to the bottom-most point. This allows us to only work in the triangle's area, and not iterate through the entire screen-space. Each edge, which is the line between two of the triangle's vertices, as an "inside" and "outside" edge: the inside edge is the edge facing into the volume of the triangle, while the outside edge faces the outside of the triangle. It's relatively quick to check, given a pixel for which side we are on, since we can take the two vertices forming the edge in question and look at the third vertex, have that vertex form a line with the same slope, and then do a quick inclusion check on that horizontal edge. The following code is our approach, with some of the computation overhead (line ordering, slope calculation, etc.) all done before the actual scan-line iteration. It is important that you understand ordering, where we sort the vertex array based on their y-position, from top to bottom on-screen. This is done to simplify the code and keep it consistent: the given positions may be in an "upside-down" configuration where y1 is below y2, since the geometry rotations leads to this problem. Without this consistency check, we cannot define what is the "inside" and "outside" of a triangle volume. // Our custom triangle filler function function CustomFillTriangle(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, width, color) { // Create an array of our vertices (as tuples) for easier access var Vertices = new Array({x:x1, y:y1}, {x:x2, y:y2}, {x:x3, y:y3}); // Sort such that (x1, y1) is always the top most point (in height), then (x2, y2), and then (x3, y3) Vertices.sort(function(a,b) { return a.y - b.y; }); // Define our edges: 1 to 2, 1 to 3, 2 to 3 // Order is important here so that we maintain that the first point in our edge // is *always* higher (i.e. closer towards 0) var Edges = [{a:1, b:2}, {a:1, b:3}, {a:2, b:3}]; // Find the top and bottom most point // Note: since y grows positive top-to-bottom, we want the smallest value here // Note: opposite logical implication for obtaining bottom position // Final note: the data is already pre-sorted! Look a the first (topmost) and last (bottommost) vertices var TopY = Vertices[0].y; var BottomY = Vertices[2].y; // Pre-compute the slops and intersections of each edge, so that we can use this data as a look-up // during the horizontal scan var Slopes = new Array(); var Intercepts = new Array(); for(var i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // Find the edge vertices (-1 because our arrays start at 0) var a = Edges[i].a - 1; var b = Edges[i].b - 1; // Compute slope & edge Slopes[i] = (Vertices[b].y - Vertices[a].y) / (Vertices[b].x - Vertices[a].x); // dy / dx Intercepts[i] = Vertices[a].y - Slopes[i] * Vertices[a].x; } // For each horizontal line.. for(var y = TopY; y <= BottomY; y++) { // Find our min x and max x (default to out of bounds to begin with) var MinX = CanvasWidth + 1; var MaxX = -1; // For each edge for(var i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // Find the edge vertices (-1 because our arrays start at 0) var a = Edges[i].a - 1; var b = Edges[i].b - 1; // If we are in the range of this line, find the min/max if(y >= Vertices[a].y && y <= Vertices[b].y) { // Compute the horizontal intersection var x = (y - Intercepts[i]) / Slopes[i]; // Save if new min or max values MinX = Math.min(MinX, x); MaxX = Math.max(MaxX, x); } } // Fill each pixel, using a line, for the given color // Note: we fill 2 pixels wide because of an odd behavior of line-edges being anti-aliased // which make the lines look transparent: switch to an edge of 1 to interesting behavior! RenderLine(MinX, y, MaxX, y, 2, color); } // Done rendering triangle } checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 12) As mentioned above, you'll notice that doing this custom filling code has big a performance degradation. If you have a modern browser and modern computer, you may see around 30% to 50% of your previous FPS, but don't worry: this part of the code is purely an academic demo, and the "correct" method of doing this all would be through hardware acceleration, which isn't our goal here. Before moving on to triangle texturing, we need to control the per-pixel coloring of each triangle: you'll notice in the code above that we use "RenderLine(...)" from "main.js" to fill the horizontal line, but we need more pixel-specific color control, so that we can read texture data and choose the correct color output. We will also directly call Canvas drawing functions to batch our per-pixel access and get a bit more of a speed boost, though in the end because we will again lose speed because we are doing many more drawing calls. This is very system specific, so in our case some of the code-concepts you are about to see below may be significantly different from other graphic libraries. You won't see any visual difference from our previous demo, but rendering speeds again will decrease. // Our custom triangle filler function function CustomFillTriangle(x1, y1, x2, y2, x3, y3, width, color) { /*** Pre-Computation ***/ // Create an array of our vertices (as tuples) for easier access var Vertices = new Array({x:x1, y:y1}, {x:x2, y:y2}, {x:x3, y:y3}); // Sort such that (x1, y1) is always the top most point (in height), then (x2, y2), and then (x3, y3) Vertices.sort(function(a,b) { return a.y - b.y; }); // Define our edges: 1 to 2, 1 to 3, 2 to 3 // Order is important here so that we maintain that the first point in our edge // is *always* higher (i.e. closer towards 0) var Edges = [{a:1, b:2}, {a:1, b:3}, {a:2, b:3}]; // Find the top and bottom most point // Note: since y grows positive top-to-bottom, we want the smallest value here // Note: opposite logical implication for obtaining bottom position // Final note: the data is already pre-sorted! Look a the first (topmost) and last (bottommost) vertices var TopY = Vertices[0].y; var BottomY = Vertices[2].y; // Pre-compute the slops and intersections of each edge, so that we can use this data as a look-up // during the horizontal scan var Slopes = new Array(); var Intercepts = new Array(); for(var i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // Find the edge vertices (-1 because our arrays start at 0) var a = Edges[i].a - 1; var b = Edges[i].b - 1; // Compute slope & edge Slopes[i] = (Vertices[b].y - Vertices[a].y) / (Vertices[b].x - Vertices[a].x); // dy / dx Intercepts[i] = Vertices[a].y - Slopes[i] * Vertices[a].x; } /*** Canvas Overhead ***/ // Shortext context handle var ctx = BackContextHandle; // Save context ctx.save(); // Set width and cap style ctx.lineWidth = width; ctx.lineCap = "butt"; ctx.lineJoin = "round"; // Set color if(color != undefined) ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(" + color.R + "," + color.G + "," + color.B + ")"; else ctx.fillStyle = "rgb(0, 0, 0)"; /*** Scan-Line Filling ***/ // For each horizontal line.. for(var y = TopY; y <= BottomY; y++) { // Find our min x and max x (default to out of bounds to begin with) var MinX = CanvasWidth + 1; var MaxX = -1; // For each edge for(var i = 0; i < 3; i++) { // Find the edge vertices (-1 because our arrays start at 0) var a = Edges[i].a - 1; var b = Edges[i].b - 1; // If we are in the range of this line, find the min/max if(y >= Vertices[a].y && y <= Vertices[b].y) { // Compute the horizontal intersection var x = (y - Intercepts[i]) / Slopes[i]; // Save if new min or max values MinX = Math.min(MinX, x); MaxX = Math.max(MaxX, x); } } // Fill each pixel, using a line, for the given color for(var x = MinX; x <= MaxX; x++) ctx.fillRect(x - width/2, y - width/2, width, width); } // Revert context ctx.restore(); // Done rendering triangle } checkpoint Download the current source code (Lesson 13) Triangle Texturing¶ Texturing a surface is one of the most important steps to take in a rasterization framework, though it can be overwhelmingly complex because of the math involved. The goal here is to develop an image-to-triangle projection function, much like the 3D to 2D function we developed, so that when we want to color a triangle on-screen, we can look at the assigned texture and figure out what pixel color we should be using. First, we have to define how 3D models relate to 2D textures, since this behavior is different than projections of 3D points to 2D pixels. First, we let each 3D vertex on our model have a position in the 2D texture-space. We let these coordinates, out of a common convention, be referred to as UV-variables and the texture space is named UV-space. We use the variable-pair UV simply because they are the two previous letters in the alphabet to the commonly-used XYZ point/vertex convention. These variables will be normalized floating-point values that map to a texture using the cartesian coordinate system where, much like our Canvas coordinate system, defines its origin as (0,0) in the top-left, and the maximum value as (1,1) in the bottom right. U, which maps to the texture variable X, grows positive to the right of the image. V, which maps to the texture variable Y, grows positive to the bottom of the image. UV coordinates are always normalized for the sake of consistency and to help with texture pixel-source computation: this means that UV values always range from 0 to 1, inclusive. This allows us to let UV (0.5, 0.5) always be the center of the image, regardless of how big, small, wide, or thin the source image is. By letting each triangle's vertex be associated with a UV point, we can fill the rest of the triangle by interpolation! Let's try to map our cube to a simple texture we have have. We'll have to first define how our cube will maps to the texture, using the above-described UV-coordinate system, then in JavaScript load our source texture, and finally implement our new pixel-texture mapper function. Our "test" image will be a 128 by 128 pixel image that has two empty, but colored, squares of 64 x 64 pixels each, and another two pair of squares that have Reddit's "coat-of-arms" and the Reddit alien itself. Our texture is particularly small to help with performance issues. Modern graphics hardware can load massive images and other texture resources. First, we have to load the texture itself. To do this, we will have to instantiate a new canvas object, and copy an HTML image tag's image data into said canvas. We are going to do all of this in the "Init()" function, then save three important variables globally: TextureWidth and TextureHeight are the texture's respective sizes for each dimension, and finally TextureBuffer is a flat-array of the image's data: this array contains all of our pixel data, stored one row after another, where each pixel has four color channels (red, green, blue, and alpha / transparency), with each channel consuming only a byte of memory as an integer (ranging from 0 to 255). We will have to iterate through this array to access the original image data, where the following simple index system can used: Flat-array index = Image Position y x Image width x 4 + Position x x 4 + Channel Offset To access a given pixel (Image Position x , Image Position y ) on an image (of size Image Width x Image height), with 4 channels of color, we use the above equation. This works because a flat array is simply where each row of an image is appended, and since the y position is the number of rows we skip, we simply multiply y by the width, and add the x offset. In the initialization function, there is a bit of a "hack" to help make sure the texture can load regardless of the browser's security settings. Browsers typically prevent loading content outside of the domain the rendered document comes from, which if non-existant is a common attack vector hackers may use for Phishing schemes. This security rule is called "Same Origin Policy", and though good for users, it prevents us from loading the image file directly into this demo code. To resolve this, we will embed the image itself, as a Base64-encoded string, pasted as text into the source-code of the project: // Global texture array (one big TextureWidth * TextureHeight * sizeof(rgba) array) var TextureWidth = 0; var TextureHeight = 0; var TextureBuffer; /*** Functions ***/ function Init() { // Create a second canvas buffer to load our image into TextureHandle = document.createElement("canvas"); var img = new Image(); img.onload = function() { TextureHandle.width = img.width; TextureHandle.height = img.height; var TextureContext = TextureHandle.getContext('2d'); TextureContext.drawImage(img, 0, 0, img.width, img.height); // Save actual texture info TextureWidth = img.width; TextureHeight = img.height; TextureBuffer = TextureContext.getImageData(0, 0, img.width,img.height); } // This little hack is to get around the security issue with loading local resources img.src = 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The first hint of the controversy to come appeared on a company website.
Whole Foods Market was building a grocery store to anchor a new shopping center along Yale Street in historic Independence Heights.
The store would be one of the company's smaller "365" markets, promoted under the name of the neighboring, more-affluent Garden Oaks community.
Independence Heights took it personally.
"Calling the store 'Garden Oaks 365' robs the identity of Independence Heights and chisels away at the branding and identity of this important historic neighborhood," Houston Councilmember Karla Cisneros wrote in a May 15 letter to the Austin-based company.
She called for a retail identity honoring the "historical significance of Independence Heights" and invited Whole Foods leaders to a meeting.
The response from the company was swift. Jeff Turnas, president of 365 by Whole Foods, called Cisneros, and by Thursday the online description had been changed to recognize Independence Heights as the store's new home.
No offense was intended - the Garden Oaks reference online was simply an informal way to locate the store for the public, a Whole Foods spokeswoman said Thursday.
"We want it to be the most fitting to the community that we are in," she said.
Protecting 'historic identity'
Independence Heights has a long history of breaking new ground. The first black municipality in Texas, the community was settled in 1908 and incorporated in 1915 by residents "seeking equal rights, opportunity and a better life for themselves," Cisneros said.
The community was annexed by Houston in 1929 and now stretches from the northeast corner of Yale and Loop 610, north of the Houston Heights, to Interstate 45 and up to Tidwell.
Cisneros said it was important to take a stand.
"Houston has a history of sometimes moving and developing too fast, and many culturally important treasures have been lost," Cisneros wrote in her letter. "There is an opportunity here for Whole Foods to be part of bolstering revitalization efforts underway to reclaim and protect the historic identity of this community."
Today, Independence Heights is abuzz with construction, including infill single-family homes, an apartment complex and the Houston Independent School District's new Booker T. Washington High School. There's also transformation afoot in Garden Oaks, where larger, more expensive homes are being built.
According to placards on the site – one of which is in the shadow of an "Independence Heights Historic District" sign – the store will serve as an anchor in a larger shopping center to be called Yale Marketplace. Construction has not begun.
Residents, meanwhile, are watching and waiting to see for themselves what the new store will bring to the community.
Dorothy Lucas has lived a block from the site for most of her 70 years. Her home on East 31st ½ Street sits on the same lot where her father built her childhood residence.
Yale Street has always been a dividing line between Independence Heights and Garden Oaks, she said, and for years has symbolized the segregation of communities by skin color, income and legal rights.
"On this side, we've always been kind of treated like step-children – and that's been from way back when," the retired Metro employee said. "I have seen the changes that have taken place in this neighborhood."
Lucas buys groceries at Sam's Club, Kroger and Fiesta. She's never been to a Whole Foods store, but would like the name of the new market to reflect her community.
"I don't have a problem with the store," she said. "It might be something good."
Looking ahead
Talks are continuing with the neighborhood. Turnas and Omar Gaye, president of the company's south region, are scheduled to meet with Cisneros and others in July to further discuss the project.
Tanya Debose, Independence Heights' honorary mayor, said the recent recognition is a refreshing response compared to some of the arduous fights waged by the community.
But she intends to make sure the residents are served on the market's facade and along its aisles.
"Stores should serve all people who are going to shop," said Debose, who is also executive director of the Independence Heights Redevelopment Council. "The products and the prices should be affordable for both neighborhoods."
Cisneros, whose District H includes parts of north Houston and the city's East End, said she was impressed by the company's positive response and pleased that Independence Heights residents reached out to her early enough to allow her to intervene.
"It underscores the importance of communication all around and the importance of relationships," the councilwoman said. "When people talk and come together, they come to good solutions – especially if you approach it in an open way." |
An aerial view of the airfield at Incirlik Air Base, circa 1987
Composite Recon Track requiring two missions
Incirlik Air Base (Turkish: İncirlik Hava Üssü) (IATA: UAB, ICAO: LTAG) is a Turkish air base of slightly more than 3320 ac (1335 ha),[1] located in the İncirlik quarter of the city of Adana, Turkey. The base is within an urban area of 1.7 million people,[2] 10 km (6 mi) east of the city core, and 32 km (20 mi) inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The United States Air Force and the Turkish Air Force are the primary users of the air base, although it is at times also used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force. Also, the base is the home of the 74th Anti-aircraft Artillery Regiment (Patriot Unit) of the Spanish Army.[3][4]
Incirlik Air Base is the home of the 10th Air Wing (Ana Jet Üs or AJÜ) of the 2nd Air Force Command (Hava Kuvvet Komutanlığı) of the Turkish Air Force (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri). Other wings of this command are located in Merzifon (LTAP), Malatya/Erhaç (LTAT) and Diyarbakır (LTCC).[5]
Incirlik Air Base has a U.S. Air Force complement of about five thousand airmen, with several hundred airmen from the Royal Air Force and Turkish Air Force also present, as of late 2002. The primary unit stationed at Incirlik Air Base is the 39th Air Base Wing (39 ABW) of the U.S. Air Force. Incirlik Air Base has one 3,048 m (10,000 ft)-long runway,[6][7] located among about 57 hardened aircraft shelters. Tactical nuclear weapons are stored at the base.[8]
Etymology [ edit ]
The word incirlik ( pronounced [indʒiɾlik]) means "fig tree grove", in the Turkish language.
History [ edit ]
The decision to build the Incirlik Air Base was made during the Second Cairo Conference in December 1943, but construction only began after the end of the Second World War. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began the work in the spring of 1951. The U.S. Air Force initially planned to use the base as an emergency staging and recovery site for medium and heavy bombers. The Turkish General Staff and the U.S. Air Force signed a joint-use agreement for the new Air Base in December 1954. On 21 February 1955, the Air Base was officially named Adana Air Base, with the 7216th Air Base Squadron as the host unit. This Air Base was renamed the "Incirlik Air Base" on 28 February 1958.
Reconnaissance missions from Incirlik [ edit ]
The early years of its existence proved the value of the presence of the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, not only in countering the threat of the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but also in responding to crises in the Middle East, such as in Lebanon and Israel.
Project 119L, a public U.S. Air Force weather balloon launching program served as a cover story (misinformation) for the true objective of the Incirlik Air Base: to mount strategic reconnaissance missions over the Soviet Union. Under the codename "GENETRIX", these balloon launches were carried out beginning in February 1956.
Following initial weather balloon operations, pilots began flying American Lockheed U-2 aircraft reconnaissance missions as part of "Operation Overflight" by late 1957. These included nonstop flights back and forth between Incirlik and the NATO Air Base at the Norwegian town of Bodø starting in 1958.[9]:47 In addition, U.S. Air Force Boeing RB-47H Stratojets and U.S. Navy P4M-1Q Mercator and A3D-1Q Skywarrior reconnaissance flights operated from Incirlik into Soviet-claimed air space over the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and as far east as Afghanistan.
The Incirlik Air Base was the main U-2 flight base in this entire region beginning in 1956.[9] This lasted until 1 May 1960, when a volley of about 14 Soviet SA-2 surface-to-air missiles shot down the U-2 aircraft flown by the American CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers near Sverdlovsk, Russia, a test site in the Soviet Union's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) program.
Lebanon crisis [ edit ]
The Lebanon crisis of 1958 arose during the summer of 1958, prompting the President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States to order the U.S. Air Force Tactical Air Command "Composite Air Strike Force Bravo" (several squadrons) to fly immediately from the United States to Incirlik. This Composite Air Strike Force consisted of F-100 Super Sabres, B-57 Canberras, RF-101 Voodoos, B-66 Destroyers, along with the supporting WB-66 weather planes. These aircraft and their supporting airmen overwhelmed the facilities of the Incirlik Air Base – which were also supporting air transport planes that carried a U.S. Army infantry battalion from Germany to Lebanon. In the event, the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps were not involved in ground fighting. The U.S. Air Force warplanes flew non-combat missions to cover allied troop movements, to carry out a show-of-force flights over Lebanon, including over Beirut, aerial reconnaissance flights, and true news and propaganda leaflet drops on Lebanon.
As a part of an effort to bring units with combat experience into the region of Turkey, the U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) inactivated the 7216th Air Base Squadron, which had been promoted to an Air Base Group, and activated the 39th Tactical Group in its place at Incirlik on 1 April 1966. This Air Base Group assumed control of the permanent Air Force support units there, and it hosted the rotational Air Force squadrons that conducted training operations, and also maintained a NATO deterrent air force at the Incirlik Air Base.
As a training site [ edit ]
After the Lebanon crisis, the Tactical Air Command deployed F-100 fighter squadrons on 100-day rotations to Incirlik from the United States. The flying mission at Incirlik further diversified in 1970 when the Turkish Air Force agreed to allow the U.S. Air Forces in Europe to use its air-to-ground missile testing range at 240 km northwest Konya, providing a suitable training area for the warplane squadrons deployed to Incirlik. These units also conducted training at Incirlik’s offshore air-to-air missile range over the Mediterranean Sea.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, except during the Cyprus dispute, many types of U.S. Air Force warplanes, including F-4 Phantom IIs, F-15 Eagles, F-16 Fighting Falcons, F-111 Aardvarks, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, and the C-130 Hercules were based at Incirlik.
Embargo [ edit ]
In mid-1975, the Turkish government announced that all U.S. military bases in Turkey would be closed and transferred to the Turkish Air Force. This action was in response to an arms embargo that the United States Congress imposed on Turkey for using American-supplied equipment during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Only Incirlik Air Base and İzmir Air Base remained open due to their NATO responsibilities, but all non-NATO activities at these locations were suspended.
After Congress lifted the embargo in September 1978, and also restored military and naval assistance to Turkey, normal operations resumed in Turkey, and the United States and Turkey signed the Defense and Economic Cooperation Agreement (DECA) on 29 March 1980. After signing the DECA, the USAFE initiated the "Turkey Catch-up Plan" to improve the quality-of-life of airmen stationed at Incirlik. One of the major projects was a completely new base housing complex for airmen and officers.
First Gulf War, Humanitarian Relief, and Operation Northern Watch [ edit ]
After Iraq's 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait, the 7440th Composite Wing (Provisional) assumed operational control of the 39th Tactical Group. The 7440th was the air component of Joint Task Force Proven Force, which eventually controlled 140 aircraft and opened a northern front, forcing Iraq to split its defenses between the north and the south, where the main thrust of coalition attacks originated as part of Operation "Desert Storm". Following the war, Incirlik hosted "Combined Task Force Provide Comfort", which oversaw Operation Provide Comfort (OPC), the effort to provide humanitarian relief to millions of Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during his visit to Incirlik Air Base, 4 June 2001
Between 1992 and 1997 Vickers VC10s from No. 101 Squadron RAF were based here for Operation Warden over Iraq.[10]
The 39th TACG was redesignated the 39th Wing on 1 October 1993 and restructured as a standard Air Force objective wing.
The U.S. State Department’s "Operation Quick Transit" evacuated thousands of Kurds from northern Iraq late in 1996. The wing provided logistical support in Turkey to this operation, which signaled the end of the humanitarian aspect of Operation Provide Comfort (OPC). OPC ended 31 December 1996, and Operation Northern Watch (ONW) took its place 1 January 1997 with the task to enforce the U.N.-sanctioned no-fly zone north of the 36th parallel in Iraq.
The 39th Air and Space Expeditionary Wing was activated at Incirlik AB on 15 September 1997, to support and command USAF assets deployed to Incirlik supporting ONW, while Incirlik’s tent city, Hodja Village, became the USAF’s largest such "temporary" facility.
From 1994, the Turkish Air Force began receiving KC-135R-CRAG Stratotanker aerial refueling tankers. The seven aircraft are operated by the 101st Squadron, stationed at Incirlik.
September 11, 2001 attacks [ edit ]
In response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) began in October 2001. Incirlik served as a main hub for missions in support for the war in Afghanistan, including humanitarian airlift operations, MC-130 special operations missions, KC-135 refueling missions and sustainment operations for deployed forces. The aerial port managed a 6-fold increase in airflow during the height of OEF. When the main bases in Afghanistan (Bagram Airfield) and the Uzbekistan air base (Karshi-Khanabad Air Base) were in use the Incirlik's airflow supporting OEF decreased to a baseline sustainment level.
Iraq War [ edit ]
ONW ended with the start of the Iraq War on March 19, 2003. ONW flew its last patrol on 17 March 2003, and closed a successful 12-year mission to contain the Iraqi military and inactivated 1 May 2003. The 39th ASEW was also inactivated, effective 1 May 2003. The wing was completely inactivated on 16 July 2003 and the 39th Air Base Group was activated in its place.
On 19 August 2003, the first rotation of deployed KC-135 Stratotankers and airmen arrived at Incirlik to support various operations in response to the 11 September 2001 attacks as well as the post-invasion reconstruction of Iraq and the ensuing insurgency.
On 6 January 2004, more than 300 U.S. Army soldiers of what would become thousands transited through Incirlik as the first stop back to their home post after spending almost a year in Iraq. Incirlik was part of what was described as the largest troop movement in U.S. history. Incirlik provided soldiers with a cot, warm location, entertainment and food for a few hours outside of a hostile war zone.
On March 12, 2004, the 39th Air Base Group inactivated and the 39th Air Base Wing activated to provide the best mix of required support and, as new mission requirements emerge, to shoulder the burden and better contribute in the global war on terrorism.
2005 Kashmir earthquake humanitarian relief [ edit ]
Incirlik played a bridge role by providing support in the relief operation started after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake on 8 October 2005. With the help of Turkish and American airmen, five C-130 Hercules cargo planes from Air Bases in Italy, Britain, Greece, and France flew urgently needed supplies including 10,000 tents from the warehouse of U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in İskenderun, Turkey to Islamabad, Pakistan on 19 October.
2006 Hezbollah–Israel War [ edit ]
During the brief War between Hezbollah and Israel in July 2006, the Incirlik Air Base provided solace to Americans who had been evacuated by U.S. Navy warships from Beirut, Lebanon to Mersin, Turkey.
2010 land claim lawsuits [ edit ]
In 2010, three Armenian Americans filed a lawsuit against the Republic of Turkey and two banks for compensation of 122 acres (0.49 km2) of land in the Adana region of Turkey, where Incirlik Air Base currently stands.[11] An American court accepted the case and granted Turkey 21 days to respond to the lawsuit.[12] The defendant banks in Turkey requested from the court to extend the deadline for a response until September 2011. The court accepted the extension and the case is still ongoing.[13]
2015 operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ edit ]
On 13 October 2014, it was rumored that the Turkish government approved the use of Incirlik Air base to support operations against the Islamic State[14] but this was later denied.[15] On 23 July 2015, it was confirmed that the Turkish Government would begin allowing USAF UAVs and USAF combat planes to fly combat sorties against ISIL in neighboring Syria out of Incirlik Air base.[16] Ankara formally signed a deal July 29, 2015 with the United States over the use of Turkey’s Incirlik air base in the U.S.-led coalition’s campaign against the Islamic State, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said, Hurriyet reported. The agreement covers only the fight against the Islamic State and does not include air support for allied Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, a spokesman for the ministry said.[17]
On 25 April 2016, the German Federal Armed Forces announced they would commit 65 million Euro to establish a permanent presence at Incirlik, as part of Germany's commitment to the fight against ISIL. Funds will support the permanent basing of six Panavia Tornado and one Airbus A310 MRTT within six months. These will be supported by 200 troops. Separate command post (34 million Euro) and housing and recreational facilities (10 million and 4,5 million Euro respectively) will be built by the end of 2017.[18][19] As of May 2017 , due to diplomatic disagreements between Germany and Turkey, the German government is considering pulling German forces out of the base.[20]
2016 Turkish coup attempt [ edit ]
As a result of the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt and several Turkish Tanker Aircraft fuelling rogue Turkish F-16's, external electrical power to the base was disconnected. A Turkish no fly order was also put into effect for US military aircraft in the area. Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook at the time stated that "U.S. facilities at Incirlik are operating on internal power sources." EUCOM spokesman Navy Capt. Danny Hernandez said: "All our assets in Turkey are fully under control and there was no attempt to challenge that status." "There was no chaos at this base,". The security level at base did however move to DELTA, the highest level, U.S. personnel are ordered restricted to base, and locals were denied access.[21][22] By 17th of July commercial electrical power remained disconnected but permission from Turkey to conduct US anti-ISIS air operations from Incirlik resumed, the Turkish base commander, General Bekir Ercan Van, was arrested by Turkish forces loyal to sitting president Erdoğan.[23] General Van sought asylum from the United States but was denied.[24]
Due to increasing risks some suggest moving NATO's nuclear weapons out of Turkey.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31]
Post coup attempt deterioration of relations [ edit ]
Due to deteriorating relations with Turkey, German MPs and lawmakers have suggested withdrawing German troops and weaponry from the base, to possibly relocate them elsewhere.[32][33][34][35][36][37]
Nuclear Warhead Analysis [ edit ]
Laicie Heeley, a fellow with the Budgeting for Foreign Affairs and Defense program at the Stimson Center said in 2016:[38]
From a security point of view, it’s a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America’s nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, just 70 miles from the Syrian border. These weapons have zero utility on the European battlefield and today are more of a liability than asset to our NATO allies.
Facilities [ edit ]
Following facilities exist for the service people and their family members:
Visiting notables [ edit ]
See also [ edit ] |
In an unusually terse statement, Intel officially confirmed that the ATA TRIM command now passes through to RAID-0 SSD arrays on some systems running Intel's RST (Rapid Storage Technology ) RAID driver version 11.0 and newer. The feature is limited to Intel 7 series chipsets with RST RAID support and currently only works on Windows 7 OSes, although Windows 8 support is forthcoming.
As soon as I got confirmation from Intel, I fired up a testbed to confirm the claim. Before I get to the results, let's have a quick recap of what all of this means.
Why does TRIM Matter?
The building block of today's SSDs that we love so much is 2-bit-per-cell MLC NAND Flash. The reason that not all SSDs are created equal is because of two important factors:
1) Each NAND cell has a finite lifespan (determined by the number of program and erase cycles), and
2) Although you can write to individual NAND pages, you can only erase large groups of pages (called blocks)
These two factors go hand in hand. If you only use 10% of your drive's capacity, neither factor is much of an issue. But if you're like most users and run your drive near capacity, difficulties can arise.
Your SSD controller has no knowledge of what pages contain valid vs. invalid (aka deleted) data. As a result, until your SSD is told to overwrite a particular address, it has to keep all data on the drive. This means that your SSD is eternally running out of free space. Thankfully all SSDs have some percentage of spare area set aside to ensure they never actually run out of free space before the end user occupies all available blocks, but how aggressively they use this spare area determines a lot.
Aggressive block recycling keeps performance high, at the expense of NAND endurance. Conservative block recycling preserves NAND lifespan, at the expense of performance. It's a delicate balance that a good SSD controller must achieve, and there are many tricks that can be employed to make things easier (e.g. idle time garbage collection). One way to make things easier on the controller is the use of the ATA TRIM command.
In a supported OS, with supported storage drivers and on an SSD with firmware support, the ATA TRIM command is passed from the host to the SSD whenever specific logical block addresses (LBAs) are no longer needed. In the case of Windows 7, a TRIM command is sent whenever a drive is formatted (all LBAs are TRIMed), whenever the recycle bin is emptied or whenever a file is shift + deleted (the LBAs occupied by that file are TRIMed).
The SSD doesn't have to take immediate action upon receiving the TRIM command for specific LBAs, but many do. By knowing what pages and blocks no longer contain valid data, the SSD controller can stop worrying about preserving that data and instead mark those blocks for garbage collection or recycling. This increases the effective free space from the controller's perspective, and caps a drive's performance degradation to the amount of space that's actively used vs. a continuing downward spiral until the worst case steady state is reached.
TRIM was pretty simple to implement on a single drive. These days all modern SSDs support it. It's only if you have one of the early Intel X25-M G1s that you're stuck without TRIM. Drives that preceded Intel's X25-M are also TRIMless. Nearly all subsequent drives we recommended either had TRIM support enabled through a firmware update or had it from the start.
Enabling TRIM on a RAID array required more effort, but only on the part of the storage driver. The SSD's firmware and OS remain unchanged. Intel eventually added TRIM support in its RAID drivers for RAID-1 (mirrored) arrays, but RAID-0 arrays were a different story entirely. There's a danger in getting rid of data in a RAID-0 array, if a page or a block gets TRIMed on one drive that's actually necessary, the entire array can be shot. There was talk of Intel enabling TRIM support on RAID-0 arrays as early as 2009, but given the cost of SSDs back then not many users were buying multiple to throw in an array.
The cost of SSDs has dropped considerably in the past 4 years. The SSD market is far more mature than it used to be. Intel isn't as burdened with the responsibility of bringing a brand new controller and storage technology to market. With some spare time on its hands, Intel finally delivered a build of its RAID drivers that will pass the ATA TRIM command to RAID-0 arrays.
The Requirements
The requirements for RAID-0 TRIM support are as follows:
A 7-series motherboard (6-series chipsets are unfortunately not supported).
Intel's Rapid Storage Technology (RST) for RAID driver version 11.0 or greater (11.2 is the current release)
Windows 7 (Windows 8 support is forthcoming)
The lack of support for 6-series chipsets sounds a lot like a forced feature upgrade. Internally Intel likely justifies it by not wanting to validate on older hardware, but I don't see a reason why TRIM on RAID-0 wouldn't work on 6-series chipsets.
I am not sure if TRIM will work on RAID-10 arrays. I'm going to run some tests shortly to try and confirm. Update: I don't believe it works on RAID-10 arrays. I'm still running tests to confirm but so far it looks like the answer is no.
Testing TRIM on RAID-0
I set up a Z77 testbed using Intel's DZ77GA-70K motherboard. I configured the board for RAID operation and installed Windows 7 SP1 to a single boot SSD. I then took two Samsung SSD 830s and created a 128GB RAID-0 array (64GB + 64GB). I picked the 830 because it benefits tremendously from TRIM, when full and tortured with random writes the 830's performance tanks. I secure erased both drives before creating the RAID array to ensure I started with a clean slate.
The 64GB Samsung SSD 830 is good for almost 500MB/s in sequential reads and under 160MB/s sequential writes. Two of them in RAID-0 should be able to deliver over 1GB/s of sequential read performance and over 300MB/s in sequential writes. A quick pass of HDTach confirms just that:
Take a moment to marvel at just how much performance you can get out of two $90 SSDs.
For the control run I used Intel's 10.6 RST drivers (10.6.0.1022). I filled the array with sequential data, then randomly wrote 4KB files over the entire array at a queue depth of 32 for 30 minutes straight. I formatted the array (thus TRIMing all LBAs) and ran an HD Tach pass to see if performance recovered. Remember if the controller was told that all of its data was invalid, a sequential write pass would run at full speed since all data would be thrown away as it was being overwritten. Otherwise, the controller would try to preserve its drive full of garbage data as long as possible.
The 10.6 RST drivers don't pass TRIM through to RAID-0 arrays, and the results show us just that:
That's no surprise, but what happens if we do the same test using Intel's 11.2 RST drivers?
Here's what the pass looks like after the same fill, torture, TRIM, HD Tach routine with the 11.2 drivers installed:
Perfect. TRIM works as promised. Users running SSDs in RAID-0 on 7-series motherboards can enjoy the same performance maintaining features that single-drive users have.
Bringing TRIM support to RAID-0 arrays provides users with a way of enjoying next-gen SSD performance sooner rather than later, without giving up an important feature. Pretty much all high-end SSDs are capped to 6Gbps limits when it comes to sequential IO. Modern SATA controllers deliver 6Gbps per port, allowing you to break through the 6Gbps limit by aggregating drives in RAID.
The only negative here is that Intel is only offering support on 7-series chipsets and not on previous hardware. That's great news for anyone who just moved to Ivy Bridge and has a RAID-0 array of SSDs, but not so great for everyone else. A lot of folks supported Intel over the past couple of years and Intel has had some amazing quarters as a result - I feel like the support should be rewarded. While I understand Intel's desire to limit its validation costs, I don't have to be happy about it.
For more information on how SSDs work, check out our last major article on the topic. |
The newly-formed senate committee examining the NBN said it has been forced to summons NBN Co executives to appear as witnesses at planned hearings this week.
Kate Lundy, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on the national broadband network, said in a statement NBN Co executives including interim CEO Ziggy Switkowski, strategy head JB Rousselot, COO Greg Adcock, CTO Gary McLaren and CFO Robin Payne had been "reluctant to attend the committee in person".
"The committee is disappointed that NBN Co have taken this position," Lundy said.
"It is with regret that we have had to issue this summons, given the public commitment the Government has made to openness and transparency in all matters relating to the NBN."
The summons requires NBN Co to appear before the committee on Friday of this week.
Comment is being sought from an NBN Co spokesperson at the time of publication.
The senate committee is off to a rocky start following its formation with the assistance of Greens Senator Scott Ludlam a fortnight ago.
It was set up by Senators Lundy and Ludlam to sidestep uncertainty around the reformation of an NBN oversight committee that previously spanned both houses of parliament.
In addition to Lundy and Ludlam, other committee members include former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Tasmanian Labor Senator Lin Thorp.
A number of NBN Co executives fronted a Senate Estimates committee last week, although it is unknown whether the close proximity of the two committee hearings is a reason for NBN Co's reluctance to attend. |
[ Below are excerpts from this 5 page paper, slightly rearranged, go here to see all of the text, figures, and tables. Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, 2015, Springer]
Fig 8 Peak era model of the economy
Is Growth still Possible?
Due to the depletion of conventional, and hence cheap, crude oil supplies (i.e. peak oil), increasing the supply of oil in the future would require exploiting lower quality resources (i.e. expensive),and thus will most likely occur only at high prices. This situation creates a system of feedbacks where economic growth, which requires more oil, would require high oil prices that will undermine that economic growth. We conclude that the economic growth of the past 40 years is unlikely to continue unless there is some remarkable change in how we manage our economy.
Numerous theories have been posited over the past century that have attempted to explain business cycles, or to generate some means of accelerating a return to rapid growth during slow or non-growth times. Many offer a unique explanation for the causes of and solutions to recessions. They include ideas based on: Keynesian Theory, the Monetarist Model, the Rational Expectations Model, Real Business Cycle Models, Neo- Keynesian models, etc. (Knoop, 2010).
Yet, for all the differences amongst these theories, they all share one implicit assumption: that there will be a return to a growing economy, i.e. growing GDP. Historically, there has been no reason to question this assumption as GDP, incomes, and most other measures of economic growth have in fact grown steadily over the past century.
But if we are entering the era of peak oil, then for the first time in history we may be asked to grow the economy while simultaneously decreasing oil consumption, something that has yet to occur in the U.S. for 100 years.
Oil more than any other energy source is vital to today’s economies because of its ubiquitous application as nearly the only transportation fuel, as a portable and flexible carrier and as feedstocks for manufacturing and industrial production.
Historically, spikes in the price of oil have been the primary cause of most recessions. On the other hand, expansionary periods tend to be associated with the opposite oil signature: prolonged periods of relatively low oil prices that increase aggregate demand and lower marginal production costs, all leading to, or at least associated with, economic growth.
By extension, for the economy to sustain real growth over time there must be an increase in the flow of net energy (and materials) through the economy. Quite simply economic production is a work process and work requires energy. This logic is an extension of the laws of thermodynamics, which state that: (1) energy cannot be created nor destroyed, and (2) energy is degraded during any work process so that the initial inventory of energy can do less work as time passes. As Daly and Farley (2003) describe, the first law places a theoretical limit on the supply of goods and services that the economy can provide, and the second law sets a limit on the practical availability of matter and energy. In other words, the laws of thermodynamics state that to produce goods and services, energy must be used, and once this energy is used it is degraded to a point where it can no longer be reused to power the same process again. Thus to increase production over time, i.e. to grow the economy, we must either increase the energy supply or increase the efficiency with which we use our source energy. This is called the energy-based theory of economic growth, which was advanced significantly by the work of Nicolas Georgescu-Roegen (GeorgescuRoegen, 1971), amongst many others (Costanza, 1980; Cleveland et al., 1984; Ayres, 1999; Hall et al., 2001; Daly and Farley, 2003; Ayres and Ware, 2005; Hall and Day, 2009).
An energy-based theory of economic growth
This energy-based theory of economic growth is supported by data: the consumption of every major energy source has increased with GDP since the mid-1800s at nearly the rate that the economy has expanded (Fig. 1). Throughout this growth period, however, there have been numerous oscillations between periods of growth and recessions.
Fig. 1. Energy production and GDP for the world from 1830 to 2000.
Cleveland et al. (2000) analyzed the causal relation between energy consumption and economic growth and their results indicate that, when they adjusted the data for quality and accounted for substitution, energy consumption caused economic growth. Other subsequent analyses that adjusted for energy quality support the hypothesis that energy consumption causes economic growth, not the converse (Stern, 1993, 2000).
In sum, our analysis indicates that about 50% of the changes in economic growth over the past 40 years are explained, at least in the statistical sense, by the changes in oil consumption alone . In addition, the work by Cleveland et al. (2000) indicates that changes in oil consumption cause changes in economic growth. These two points support the idea that energy consumption, and oil consumption in particular, is of the utmost importance for economic growth. Yet changes in oil consumption are rarely used by neoclassical economists as a means of explaining economic growth. For example, Knoop (2010) describes the 1973 recession in terms of high oil prices, high unemployment and inflation, yet omits mentioning that oil consumption declined 4% during the first year and 2% during the second year. Later in the same description, Knoop (2010) claims that the emergence from this recession in 1975 was due to a decrease in both the price of oil and inflation, and an increase in money supply. To be sure, these factors contributed to the economic expansion in 1975, but what is omitted, again, is the simple fact that lower oil prices led to increased oil consumption and hence greater physical economic output. Oil is treated by economists as a commodity, but in fact it is a more fundamental factor of production than either capital or labor (Hall et al., 2001).
Thus we present the hypothesis that higher oil prices and lower oil consumption are both precursors to, and indicative of, recessions. Likewise, economic growth requires lower oil prices and simultaneously an increasing oil supply. The data support these hypotheses: the inflation-adjusted price of oil averaged across all expansionary years from 1970 to 2008 was $37 per barrel compared to $58 per barrel averaged across recessionary years, whereas oil consumption grew by 2% on average per year during expansionary years compared to decreasing by 3% per year during recessionary years (Figs. 2 and 4). Although this analysis of recessions and expansions may seem like simple economics, i.e. high prices lead to low demand and low prices lead to high demand, the exact mechanism connecting energy, economic growth, and business cycles is rather more complicated. Hall et al. (2009) and Murphy and Hall (2010) report that when energy prices increase, expenditures are re-allocated from areas that had previously added to GDP, mainly discretionary consumption, towards simply paying for the more expensive energy. In this way, higher energy prices lead to recessions by diverting money from the economy towards energy only. The data show that recessions occur when petroleum expenditures as a percent of GDP climb above a threshold of roughly 5.5% (Fig 5).
[Every] time the U.S. economy emerged from a recession over the past 40 years, there was always an increase in the use of oil while a low oil price was maintained. Oil is a finite resource.
In light of these two realities, the following two questions become particularly germane: What are the implications for economic growth if (1) oil supplies are unable to increase with demand, or (2) oil supplies increase, but at an increased price?
There is a clear trend in the literature on energy return on (energy) invested (EROI) of global oil production towards lower EROIs. Gagnon et al. (2009) report that the EROI for global oil extraction declined from about 36:1 in the 1990s to18:1 in 2006. This downward trend results from at least two factors: first, increasingly supplies of oil are originating from sources that are inherently more energy-intensive to produce simply because firms have developed cheaper resources before expensive ones. For example, in the early 1990s fewer than 10% of oil discoveries were located in deep water areas. By 2005 the number jumped to greater than 50%.
Enhanced oil recovery techniques are being implemented increasingly in the world’s largest conventional oil fields. For example, nitrogen injection was initiated in the once supergiant Cantarell field in Mexico in 2000, which boosted production for four years, but since 2004 production from the field has declined precipitously. Although enhanced oil recovery techniques increase production in the short term, they also increase significantly the energy inputs to production, offsetting much of the energy gain for society.
Roughly 60% of the oil discoveries in 2005 were in deep water locations (Fig. 6). Based on estimates from Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA, 2008), the cost of developing that oil is between $60 and $85 per barrel, depending on the specific deep water province. Oil prices therefore, at a minimum, must exceed roughly $60 per barrel to support the development of even the best deep water resources. But the average price of oil during recessionary periods has been $57/bbl, so it seems that increasing oil production in the future will require oil prices that are associated with recessionary periods.
All of this data indicates that an expensive oil future is necessary if we are to expand our total use of oil. In other words, growing the economy will require oil prices that will discourage that very growth. Indeed, it may be difficult to produce the remaining oil resources at prices the economy can afford, and, as a consequence, the economic growth witnessed by the U.S. and globe over the past 40 years may be a thing of the past.
EROI and the price of fuels
EROI is a ratio comparing the energy produced by an extraction process to that used to produce that energy (Murphy and Hall, 2010). As such it can be used as a proxy to estimate generally whether the cost of production of a particular resource will be high or low, and it also is probably a good determinant of the monetary costs of various energy resources. For example, the oil sands have an EROI of roughly 3:1, whereas the production of conventional U.S. crude oil has an average EROI of about 12:1 and Saudi crude probably much higher
The production costs for oil sands are roughly $85 per barrel compared to roughly $40 for average global oil and perhaps $20 (or less) per barrel for Saudi Arabian conventional crude (CERA, 2008). As we can see from this data there is an inverse relation between EROI and price, indicating that low EROI resources are generally more expensive to develop whereas high EROI resources are on average relatively inexpensive to develop (Fig. 7). As oil production continues, we can expect to move further towards the upper right of Fig. 7. In summary, relatively low EROI appears to translate directly into higher oil prices.
It is important to emphasize that these models assume that society will continue to pursue business-as-usual economic growth, i.e. the models assume that business persons will continue to assume that oil demand will continue to increase indefinitely in the future (whether or not they understand the role of the oil).
For the economy of the U.S. and any other growth-based economy, the prospects for future, oil-based economic growth are bleak. Taken together, it seems clear that the economic growth of the past 40 years will not continue for the next 40 years.
Summary
The main conclusions to draw from this discussion are:
Over the past 40 years, economic growth has required increasing oil consumption.
The supply of high EROI oil cannot increase much beyond current levels for a prolonged period of time.
The average global EROI of oil production will almost certainly continue to decline as we search for new sources of oil in the only places we have left: deep water, arctic and other hostile environments.
Increasing oil supply in the future will require a higher oil price because mostly only low EROI, high cost resources remain to be discovered or exploited, but these higher costs are likely to cause economic contraction.
Using oil-based economic growth as a solution to recessions is untenable in the long-term, as both the gross and net supplies of oil has or will begin, at some point, an irreversible decline.
Due to the depletion of high EROI oil the economic model for the peak era, i.e. roughly 1970-2020, is much different from the pre-peak model, and can be described by the following feedbacks ( Fig. 8): (1) economic growth increases oil demand, (2) higher oil demand increases oil production from lower EROI resources, (3) increasing extraction costs leads to higher oil prices, (4) higher oil prices stall economic growth or cause economic contractions, (5) economic contraction leads to lower oil demand, and (6) lower oil demand leads to lower oil prices which spur another short bout of economic growth until this cycle repeats itself.
This system of insidious feedbacks is aptly described as a growth paradox: maintaining business as usual economic growth will require the production of new sources of oil, yet the only sources of oil remaining require high oil prices, thus hampering economic growth. This growth paradox leads to a highly volatile economy that oscillates frequently between expansion and contraction periods, and as a result, there may be numerous peaks in oil production. Campbell (2009) has referred to this as an undulating plateau. In terms of business cycles, the main difference between the pre and peak era models is that business cycles appear as oscillations around an increasing trend in the pre-peak model while during the peak-era model they appear as oscillations around a flat trend. It is important to emphasize that these models assume that society will continue to pursue business-as-usual economic growth, i.e. the models assume that businesspersons will continue to assume that oil demand will continue to increase indefinitely in the future (whether or not they understand the role of the oil).
But what if economic growth was no longer the goal? What if society began to emphasize energy conservation over energy consumption? Unlike oil supply, oil demand is not governed by depletion, and incentivizing populations to make incremental changes that decrease oil consumption can completely alter the relation between oil and the economy that was described in the aforementioned model. Decreasing oil consumption in the U.S. by even 10% would release millions of barrels of oil onto the global oil markets each day.
For the economy of the U.S. and any other growth-based economy, the prospects for future, oil-based economic growth are bleak. Taken together, it seems clear that the economic growth of the past 40 years will not continue for the next 40 years unless there is some remarkable change in how we manage our economy.
References
Ayres, R., Ware, B., 2005. Accounting for growth: the role of physical work. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics 16, 181–209.
Ayres, R.U., 1999. The second law, the fourth law, recycling and limits to growth. Ecological Economics 29, 473–483.
Campbell, C., 2009. Why dawn may be breaking for the second half of the age of oil. First Break 27, 53–62.
CERA, 2008. Ratcheting Down: Oil and the Global Credit Crisis. Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
Cleveland, C.J., Costanza, R., Hall, C.A.S., Kauffmann, R., 1984. Energy and the U.S. economy: a biophysical perspective. Science 225, 890–897.
Cleveland, C.J., Kaufmann, R.K., Stern, D.I., 2000. Aggregation and the role of energy in the economy. Ecological Economics 32, 301–317.
Costanza, R., 1980. Embodied energy and economic valuation. Science 210, 1219–1224.
Daly, H.E., Farley, J., 2003. Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications. Island Press.
Faber, M., Manstetten, R., Proops, J., 1996. Ecological Economics: Concepts and Methods. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. Federal, R., 2009. St. Louis Federal Reserve.
Gagnon, N., Hall, C.A.S., Brinker, L., 2009. A preliminary investigation of the energy return on energy invested for global oil and gas extraction. Energies 2, 490–503.
Georgescu-Roegen, N., 1971. The Entropy Law and the Economic Process. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Hall, C.A., Balogh, S., Murphy, D.J., 2009. What is the minimum EROI that a sustainable society must have? Energies 2, 1–25.
Hall, C.A.S., Day, J.W., 2009. Revisiting the limits to growth after peak oil. American Scientist 97, 230–237.
Hall, C.A.S., Lindenberger, D., Kummel, R., Kroeger, T., Eichhorn, W., 2001. The need to reintegrate the natural sciences with economics. Bioscience 51, 663–673.
Hayward, T., 2010. BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Report, British Petroleum. Jackson, P.M., 2009. The Future of Global Oil Supply. Energy Research Associates, Cambridge.
Knoop, T.A., 2010. Recessions and Depressions: Understanding Business Cycles. Praeger, Santa Barbara.
Murphy, D.J., Hall, C.A.S., 2010. Year in review – EROI or energy return on (energy) invested. New York Annals of Science 1185, 102–118.
NBER, 2010. US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions. National Bureau of Economic Research.
Smil, V., 2010. Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects. Praeger, Santa Barbara, CA.
Stern, D.I., 1993. Energy use and economic growth in the USA, a multivariate approach. Energy Economics 15, 137–150. S
Stern, D.I., 2000. A multivariate cointegration analysis of the role of energy in the US macroeconomy. Energy Economics 22, 267–283.
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SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Deloitte announced the 2012 Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America.
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Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) clinched the top spot with fiscal year 2011 revenue of $204.24 million and a growth rate of 279,684 percent from 2007 to 2011. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., the company designs and manufactures electric vehicles and electric vehicle power train components.
"The 2012 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 winners have demonstrated remarkable innovation and spectacular growth," said Eric Openshaw, vice chairman and U.S. technology, media and telecommunications leader, Deloitte LLP. "Some of the most exciting and useful developments of the future are being created by the companies on this list. We congratulate Tesla and all of the winning companies on this impressive achievement."
"Tesla took great strides as a company this past year by successfully delivering Model S, the world's first premium electric sedan to customers, and executing a steep production ramp while creating more than 2,000 jobs in the U.S. We also expanded our partnerships with Toyota and Daimler in order to increase sales of electric vehicles globally," said Deepak Ahuja, chief financial officer at Tesla Motors. "We are honored to be part of a sector that continues to achieve high growth, and are committed to building the best car in the world while setting new standards for efficiency, safety, style, technology, operating cost and performance. We thank Deloitte for this recognition."
The top ten ranked companies are as follows:
2012 Rank Company Sector Revenue Growth City, State (2007 to 2011) --- ------------- 1 Tesla Motors, Inc. Clean technology 279,684 percent Palo Alto, CA --- ------------------ ---------------- --------------- ------------- 2 Palo Alto Networks Communications/ 166,938 percent Santa Clara, CA Networking --- ---------- 3 Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Biotechnology/ 146,443 percent Schaumburg, IL pharmaceutical --- -------------- 4 FireEye, Inc. Communications/ 55,413 percent Milpitas, CA Networking --- ---------- 5 Aerohive Networks, Inc. Communications/ 44,569 percent Sunnyvale, CA Networking --- ---------- 6 Avail-TVN Media and entertainment 38,479 percent Reston, VA --- --------- ----------------------- -------------- ---------- 7 NeoStem Biotechnology/ 31,721 percent New York, NY pharmaceutical --- -------------- 8 Avigilon Corporation Software 29,917 percent Vancouver, BC --- -------------------- -------- -------------- ------------- 9 Recondo Technology Software 25,482 percent Greenwood Village, CO --- ----------- 10 EcoSynthetix Inc. Clean technology 25,327 percent Burlington, ON --- ----------------- ---------------- -------------- --------------
Innovation hot spots continue to sizzle
Deloitte Technology Fast 500 winners hail from cities far and wide across North America - from Portland, Maine; to Denver, Colo.; to Vancouver, British Columbia. Of the dozens of cities represented on the list, some have a particularly strong track record of consistently attracting inventive entrepreneurs and providing them with a supportive environment.
"Creative and cutting-edge cities often have several things in common including access to capital, supportive local governments, and world-class education systems," said Bill Ribaudo, national technology, media and telecommunications leader for audit and enterprise risk services, Deloitte & Touche LLP. "Many of these cities have the resources and culture that startups need to thrive, and so they have become innovation powerhouses and consistently turn out fast-growing companies year over year."
Following is a list of innovative cities with a significant concentration of winners.
Location Percent of List Fastest-growing Company in the Company Region Overall Ranking --- ------- San Francisco Bay area 20 percent Tesla Motors, Inc. 1 ------------- ---------- ------------------ --- Boston 9 percent HubSpot 17 ------ --------- ------- --- New York 6 percent NeoStem 7 -------- --------- ------- --- Los Angeles 6 percent EdgeCast Networks 13 ----------- --------- ----------------- --- Washington D.C. 6 percent Avail-TVN 6 ---------- --------- --------- --- Philadelphia 6 percent MeetMe, Inc. 32 ------------ --------- ------------ --- San Diego 6 percent Optimer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 15 --------- --------- ----------------------------- --- Toronto 5 percent EcoSynthetix Inc. 10 ------- --------- ----------------- ---
Software still dominates
For the seventeenth consecutive year, software companies dominated the list, comprising 40 percent of the overall list with 200 companies. Consistent with prior rankings, the biotechnology/pharmaceutical, internet, and communications/networking sectors also had strong showings. The biotechnology/pharmaceutical sector and internet sectors were tied for second place with 13 percent of the list, and the communications/networking sector came in at a close third place with 12 percent of the list.
Sector rankings are as follows:
Sector Sector make-up Fastest-growing Company in Company City, State of Fast 500 the Sector Overall Ranking --- ------- Software 40 percent Avigilon 8 Vancouver, BC -------- ---------- -------- --- ------------- Biotechnology/ 13 percent Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 3 Schaumburg, IL Pharmaceutical -------------- Internet 13 percent EdgeCast Networks 13 Santa Monica, CA -------- ---------- ----------------- --- ---------------- Communications/Networking 12 percent Palo Alto Networks 2 Santa Clara, CA ------------------------- ---------- ------------------ --- --------------- Clean Technology 7 percent Tesla Motors, Inc. 1 Palo Alto, CA ---------------- --------- ------------------ --- ------------- Medical devices 5 percent MAKO Surgical Corp. 18 Fort Lauderdale, FL --------------- --------- ------------------- --- ------------------- Media and entertainment 4 percent Avail-TVN 6 Reston, VA ----------------------- --------- --------- --- ---------- Semiconductor 3 percent SiTime Corporation 38 Sunnyvale, CA ------------- --------- ------------------ --- ------------- Computers/peripherals 2 percent Layer 7 Technologies 183 Vancouver, BC --------------------- --------- -------------------- --- ------------- Scientific/technical instrumentation 1 percent Obzerv 239 Quebec, QC ------------------------------------ --------- ------ --- ----------
For additional detail on the Technology Fast 500 including the complete list and qualifying criteria, visit www.fast500.com
As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.
SOURCE Deloitte |
Op-ed: The Growing Abuse of 'Religious Freedom'
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has worked fiercely to deny LGBT rights, and now it’s using the banner of religious freedom to provide political cover for antigay positions. Although we hope any voices that still prefer discrimination over equality will be drowned out soon enough, the bishops’ campaign is more than just background noise.
The Catholic hierarchy is trying to fundamentally change the legal understanding of individual liberties, weighting the supposed rights of religious institutions more heavily than individual rights. At New Ways Ministry, we think there are good secular and religious arguments for not twisting the law into a tool for discrimination. Last fall, the Catholic bishops created the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty to protect against a host of alleged threats, with five of the six predictably having to do with sexuality. The committee opposes same-sex marriage and endorses “ministerial privilege,” which sets different employment standards for religious groups, allowing discrimination that is illegal for other employers. In addition, religious institutions should not have to cover contraception in employee health plans; Catholic charities should continue to be awarded federal funds to serve victims of human trafficking while refusing to provide a full range of reproductive services; and international HIV prevention programs should not require condom distribution.
None of these positions are in line with the beliefs of Catholics in the United States, placing the bishops well outside the mainstream.
But bitter experience has shown that once an unjust policy is set, it can be difficult for our legal system to set it right. The bishops are attempting to create the idea that the First Amendment is really a blank check for religious institutions to do what they like with public funds, when in reality these time-tested protections are for the individual’s freedom to worship, and freedom from religion. This strategy exploits the guarantees of basic freedoms for the purposes of discrimination. But the bishops’ lobby is known for precisely this kind of surreptitious move — playing on Americans’ reluctance to be told they are standing in the way of “Catholics’” (read: the bishops’) religious freedom. The bishops have convinced some lawmakers that the majority of Catholics need and want the assurance that others’ freedom to marry or use contraception be denied for religious reasons.
American Catholics understand and accept the respect for individual conscience, which includes the respect for others’ right to follow their own conscience, even if the bishops don’t. A 2011 Public Religion Research Institute poll found that Catholics are more supportive of same-sex unions than any other Christian denomination or Americans overall. But there are already some worrisome precedents set in the name of all Catholics, among them Catholic Charities’ choice to give up its foster care and adoption services in the District of Columbia and Illinois rather than allow same-sex couples to adopt or same-sex partners of employees to have health insurance. When a Missouri music teacher was recently fired by the diocese for merely discussing his plan to wed his male partner, it was exactly the sort of employer discrimination the bishops are fighting to protect.
The LGBT community has suffered under the law, both by discriminatory statutes and from a lack of recognition for dimensions of our lives that don’t fit within existing legal norms. But our faith in the law and our respect for religious differences are what have many of us invested in the painstaking process of nurturing good, rights-affirming policies while uprooting injustice. Our fundamental objection to the bishops’ religious freedom campaign is that it’s a misuse of the law — an attempt to create new rights for religious institutions while trampling on the rights long-guaranteed to all individuals.
The Fortnight for Freedom, a series of public actions organized by the bishops to highlight their religious liberty crusade, will coincide with Pride parades around the country. LGBT people in some states have more reason to celebrate than others, and it’s heartening that President Obama has come out in favor of marriage equality. Policy makers can’t just stop with the endorsement of same-sex marriage, however. They need to affirm that “freedom” still means the freedom for individuals to live according to their conscience, not the freedom of religious groups to redefine the law.
FRANK DeBERNARDO is executive director of New Ways Ministry. Learn more at the group’s website, www.newwaysministry.org. New Ways Ministry is part of the Coalition of Liberty and Justice — a broad alliance of faith-based, secular, and other organizations that works to ensure public policy protects the religious liberty of individuals of all faiths and no faith and to oppose public policies that impose one religious viewpoint on all. |
Credit: nonstop-addiction.blogspot.com
From left to right: SoA, Jaeyoon, Tia, Melanie, Juliane
I first heard of Chocolat through Allkpop when they wrote an article about how they were a fresh, new group with biracial members. So, of course, I was intrigued since that probably meant they were English-speaking. The first video I watched was Melanie’s group introduction, and I judged them severely from that video. Oh, they must be all dumb airheads who can’t even sing or dance properly. Turns out, Melanie’s actually only 14, and so is Tia. I probably shouldn’t judge them for being young. So later, when they released their new song and MV, I saw a lot of negative feedback like Too much Tia, I hate the song, WTF is that dance, etc. However, oddly enough, I found myself following all their performances, and I ended up watching all their videos on their youtube channel.
Their lives started out horrendously, I must say. There was lip-syncing throughout the whole song and the members were off-pitch a lot of the time. The music-removed versions were terrible to listen to. I thought to myself Why are they even debuting when their vocals are this bad? I don't think they focused on singing as much as dancing when they were trainees and as a result, their vocals suffered.
can sing. Melanie can definitely hit those high notes, too, and she did later on as their performances improved. I think that’s just because of her young voice, though; it’s easy to hit higher notes when your voice isn’t as developed. Tia has more or less the entire package, relative to the other members. Her singing is mediocre, though, and there’s nothing special about her voice. Jaeyoon is the main vocalist with the blond hair, and as I watched her, I realized that she actually possesses a lot of talent. Shesing. Melanie can definitely hit those high notes, too, and she did later on as their performances improved. I think that’s just because of her young voice, though; it’s easy to hit higher notes when your voice isn’t as developed. Tia has more or less the entire package, relative to the other members. Her singing is mediocre, though, and there’s nothing special about her voice.
Their song, “Syndrome,” has a catchy tune, albeit with cheesy lyrics and English phrases. There’s something with Korean writers who misuse English in all the songs. The English really bothered me, especially the ending "Never break, break, break my heart *giggle and shrug*." Also, I really dislike all the "Oh yeah's" scattered throughout the song. It feels really unnecessary and just something the producers used to cheapen the song more and attempt to give it a more sexy feel. There is way too much audio processing, and all their voices sound fake and manufactured, but that's also pretty typical of a pop song. Other than those points, though, I feel like the song could showcase a lot of their singing talents, if only they improved more. There are many opportunities within the song to really belt out those high notes, like in Melanie’s and Juliane’s part. Jaeyoon's bridge actually made up a lot of the bad parts for me, especially when she sang it live. You can imagine how much I cursed the music show PD's when they cut it out in later performances. If only their live performances were a lot stronger, I'd have more faith in this group.
strongly disapprove of lip-syncing. In a lot of the videos I watched, many people made excuses for her, saying that since she had a mic taped to her face, belting out the high note would have been too loud. Since Melanie had the handheld microphone she was able to hold it away from her face in order the sing the high note. However, I feel that is a poor excuse for Juliane’s lip-syncing. I know plenty of stars who perform with taped mics who can sing their high notes just fine. Take, for example, Miss A Suzy’s ending in “Goodbye, Baby.” Their choreography requires taped mics, but Suzy was able to belt the high note perfectly each time. The same situation applies to Chocolat, since their choreography needs as much hand movement as possible. However, if Juliane cannot perform her part, I question her role in the group other than being a space-filler and a dancer. I saw Melanie belt her part live, and it was acceptable, nothing special, but I was more disappointed in Juliane. I don’t think I’ve seen one live performance where Juliane has actually hit her high note clearly and confidently. She attempted it once, I think, and it ended up being more of a half-hearted wail…and then for the rest of the performances, she basically just lip-synced her part. And Idisapprove of lip-syncing. In a lot of the videos I watched, many people made excuses for her, saying that since she had a mic taped to her face, belting out the high note would have been too loud. Since Melanie had the handheld microphone she was able to hold it away from her face in order the sing the high note. However, I feel that is a poor excuse for Juliane’s lip-syncing. I know plenty of stars who perform with taped mics who can sing their high notes just fine. Take, for example, Miss A Suzy’s ending in “Goodbye, Baby.” Their choreography requires taped mics, but Suzy was able to belt the high note perfectly each time. The same situation applies to Chocolat, since their choreography needs as much hand movement as possible. However, if Juliane cannot perform her part, I question her role in the group other than being a space-filler and a dancer.
Chocolat also filmed a documentary about their backgrounds and their training during pre-debut days. Although I watched it without subtitles, I realized that just like any other group, they went through long and tiring practices in order to function smoothly as a group. I saw tears, exhausted faces, and many foot blisters. I also realized that Jaeyoon isn’t a dancer, and that she was trained to be a singer. She needed help from both Tia and Melanie to perfect her dance moves. Melanie talks and acts like a little kid, and Tia is the face of the group. Watching the documentary made me realize that they aren’t that bad, and behind all the pretty costumes and makeup, they are real people who went through a lot of struggles.
As Chocolat’s promotions continued, I tried to monitor all their lives, and I am happy to say that they actually are improving. They look more confident, and each member has improved slightly. Their vocals are no longer as pitchy as before. Jaeyoon is more confident when singing her high part, and Melanie’s and Tia’s singing have become stronger and more stable. Juliane has been lip-syncing less, and honestly, SoA’s singing has become smoother as well, even though she doesn’t really stand out for me. Now, I am actually hoping that their next single will be able to showcase their talents more. I never thought I would become a Chocolat fan when I saw their teaser and music video, but after seeing lots of improvement in their live performances, I see lots of potential in the group.
Ratings:
Album: 6/10 (Although well-made, not stellar)
Lives: 6.5/10 (They have a lot to work on)
Visuals/Concept: 6/10 (Typical dance concept, nothing special)
Watch Chocolat’s MV and live performances below:
"Syndrome" M/V
Debut on M! Countdown 8/18/11 |
Cambridge are odds-on favourites to win their first Varsity Boat Race since 2012, according to bookmaker William Hill.
Read our
The bookmaker is also betting on the distance of victory and with both crews competitive this year it is relatively close in the betting, although it is Even money to see the winning crew do so by a distance of 3 lengths or more.
It is 10/1 that we see a record time on Sunday.
“The forecast is expected to be fine if not spectacular this weekend,” William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly told Bettingpro.com. “A competitive race for the first time in a couple of years could spur the winning crew onto a record time.”
In the women’s race, Oxford look set to continue their recent dominance at 4/11, while Cambridge are offered at 11/5 to win.
Latest William Hill odds:
Men’s boat race winner: 8/13 Cambridge; 5/4 Oxford; 100/1 dead heat
Women’s boat race winner: 4/11 Oxford; 11/5 Cambridge; 100/1 dead heat
Winning distance (men): 1/1 over 3 lengths; 9/4 2-3 lengths incl.; 9/4 under 2 lengths
Race specials (men):
Record time to be broken: 10/1
Either boat to sink: 20/1
Either boat to be disqualified: 20/1
Both boats to sink: 100/1
make the Light Blues 8/13 to win the race with Oxford 5/4 and the dead heat 100/1. |
The jobs report was bad , and the Republicans will be out with their usual mantra: We need more tax cuts, we need less regulation, President Obama and those mean Democrats are suffocating corporations, and if we want more jobs we need to set corporations free from taxes and regulations and let them have their way. Of course, that mantra will remain the same whether the economy is growing or shrinking, whether jobs are being created or being lost, and whether the sky is blue or the sky is gray. Because to Republicans, ideology trumps reality.
One problem:
The Fortune 500 generated a total of $824.5 billion in earnings last year, up 16.4% over 2010. That beats the previous record of $785 billion, set in 2006 during a roaring economy. The 2011 profits are outsized based on two key historical metrics. They represent 7% of total sales, vs. an average of 5.14% over the 58-year history of the Fortune 500. Companies are also garnering exceptional returns on their capital. The 500 achieved a return-on-equity of 14.3%, far above the historical norm of 12%.
Profits at big U.S. companies broke records last year, and so did pay for CEOs. The head of a typical public company made $9.6 million in 2011, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data from Equilar, an executive pay research firm. That was up more than 6 percent from the previous year and is the second year in a row of increases. The figure is also the highest since the AP began tracking executive compensation in 2006.
In other words, corporations are doing just fine. Really really fine. They're making record piles of cash, their CEOs are making record piles of cash, and yet somehow they're not creating jobs. In others words, the line that high taxes and tough regulations are hurting corporations, thus preventing job creation, is a lie. A good old-fashioned completely full of it lie. The Republican way.
Remember when the economy was doing well? Like under President Clinton? Maybe we should return to the Clinton tax rates. Maybe we should have another shot of government stimulus. Which is exactly the opposite of the austerity agenda the Republicans are proposing. And anyone paying attention to the European economic collapse knows just how well austerity works out. |
AUSTRALIANS have to work almost three times harder to pay off the average family home than they did 50 years ago.
Figures compiled by CommSec for The Sunday Telegraph reveal homebuyers on the average income now have to work for 19,374 hours to buy the average Australian house with the average mortgage.
Based on an eight-hour day and a five-day working week, that equates to about 10 years of work. In reality, it takes much longer to own a home, because wages must pay for all living expenses, not just housing.
In 1960, it took homebuyers just 7500 hours to pay off the average mortgage.
CommSec chief economist Craig James said that half a century ago, average wage-earners took home the equivalent of $1.08 an hour.
They needed to work 25 hours to meet the monthly mortgage repayment of $25, based on an average five per cent interest rate and a mortgage of $4620.
Today, the average worker earning $30.04 an hour spends 70.7 hours - or almost two weeks of the month - at work to cover the monthly mortgage repayment for an average $283,000 loan at a 6.64 per cent interest rate.
The figures show rising costs and growing property prices have largely outstripped wages and young couples today need to work longer and harder to achieve the great Australian dream of owning their homes.
Whereas homes were once affordable on a single wage, families now realistically need two incomes to fund a mortgage. "This is your single biggest purchase," Mr James said. "This is where people are living.
"We're building bigger and better homes, so it was always likely we were going to be paying more in terms of the mortgage - and we're certainly working longer to pay for that.
"We're working longer, but we're probably working more flexibly and in jobs that we like."
Mr James said that in Australia, unlike other countries, there was a lot of pressure to buy rather than rent and homeowners often saw their mortgages as a method of saving.
"Records from the Commonwealth Bank suggest more than 70 per cent of people are paying more than they need to in terms of their home loans, so they're ahead of their loans.
"People see the home as a way of saving; they see it as an outlet for their finances. In other parts of the world, that's not the case, but Australia has always had an affinity with the home.
"In the 1960s, it was a simpler life. Now more money is spent on housing, computers, the internet, mobile phones, whereas before it was food, clothing, transport.
"We do have more opportunities now, but whether we're happier remains to be seen."
Sydney University anthropologist and author Stephen Juan said it now took two incomes and 30 years to pay off the average home. Half a century ago, it was one income and 15 years.
Mortgages costing the average household 29 per cent of its income put huge strains on the family unit, Dr Juan said.
"With that kind of inflation for the biggest item a middle-class family buys in their lifetime, which is the family home, when you have that kind of colossal increase that has been greater than the percentage increase in salaries - that's the reason we have the crunch.
"There's so much pressure on us. We're losing our leisure time, we're losing our time for families, we're having to commute further and further to get to work, we're finding it more and more difficult to pay our mortgages.
"Economically, we're being really stressed, and there's not enough time to do everything we have to do."
Dr Juan said that 50 years ago, promises of technology brought predictions of an easier life and more time available for family and healthier lifestyles.
"It was said we would have more time and be a leisure class because the machines would do the work," he said.
"What has happened, however, is that you have to pay for these materials and for this technology.
"We've got better technology and better leisure-time activities available, but we don't have the leisure time. It's a catch-22."
Murray Robson and Fiona Kelly consider themselves and their children Dylan, five, and Liam, three, to be an average Australian family.Both parents, in their mid-30s, work hard to provide for their young family and pay off the remaining $315,000 of their mortgage on a three-bedroom fibro house at North Narrabeen.
The couple bought the property in 2002 with a $515,000 mortgage, on which they repay almost $2400 a month.
Ms Kelly, a television scriptwriter who works from home four days a week, told The Sunday Telegraph it was hard to juggle mounting daily expenses and the cost of the mortgage and have much left over.
"There's not much time and money for ourselves," she said.
"I basically work when the kids are at school and kindy and at night to get everything done, so there's no watching TV at night.
"Maybe Saturday nights are the only time when I'm not doing stuff in the office. When the kids go to bed, you do more work or try and get housework done, and you're always tired. It's exhausting.
"But at the end of a long day it was all worth it," Ms Kelly said.
"It's worth it if you can get the moments where you take some time off and just have fun together," she said.
"You have to say, 'Let's just go to the park and play cricket' or 'Let's go for a nice walk.'
"The shopping will get done - we're not going to starve." |
Hemp is a crop full of oils with potential health benefits, according to a new study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
A derivative of cannabis (marijuana), hemp has been used for millennia in textiles, medicine and food, by people all over the world.
Despite this, hempseed has been banned in North America since the 1930s, when all varieties of cannabis were made illegal due to its tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content. THC is the compound that induces the "high" in recreational use of cannabis.
However, hemp with low THC content (0.3%) has been legalized by the European Union, and the global economic market for low-THC hemp - used in medicines, papers and fabrics - is valued at $100-200 million annually.
Researchers analyzed a portion of hempseed oil to see what beneficial qualities it may have. They found that some of its components are effective at promoting good health. These include sterols, aliphatic alcohols and linolenic acids.
Linolenic acids, sterols and aliphatic alcohols
One of the linolenic acids contained in hempseed oil is an omega-3 fatty acid that some studies have recognized as preventing coronary heart disease.
Hemp is a derivative of cannabis (marijuana) and as such was prohibited across North America in the 1930s. Hemp is a derivative of cannabis (marijuana) and as such was prohibited across North America in the 1930s.
Sterols are steroid alcohols. Experts know that sterols are useful in lowering cholesterol, and daily dietary intake of sterols has been linked to a lower risk of heart attack.
The aliphatic alcohols contained in hempseed oil have also been known to lower cholesterol and reduce platelet aggregation. One of these alcohols, phytol, is associated with antioxidant and anticancer benefits, and can also be found in healthy foods such as spinach, beans, raw vegetables and asparagus.
Another antioxidant in hempseed oil is tocopherol, which is known to be beneficial against degenerative diseases, such as atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's.
Among other benefits, hempseed oil has also shown a positive effect on dermatological diseases and lipid metabolism (the process by which fatty acids are broken down in the body).
Hempseed also has high levels of vitamins A, C and E and β-carotene, and it is rich in minerals like phosphorus, potassium magnesium , sulfur and calcium . As a food, hempseed oil is nutritious - it contains an excellent balance of polyunsaturated fatty acids - and it reportedly tastes good, too.
Colorado recently legalized marijuana for recreational use and some states have passed laws allowing the medicinal use of marijuana. In 2013, Medical News Today reported on a study suggesting that the THC content of marijuana may be medically beneficial for people who have an autoimmune disease. |
U.S. neighbor tells envoy he has 72 hours to leave the country
Mexico on Thursday ordered North Korea’s ambassador to leave the country in 72 hours in response to the Asian nation’s latest nuclear tests.
Ambassador Kim Hyong Gil was declared persona non grata and will have to vacate the embassy in Mexico City, the Foreign Ministry said in an e-mailed statement. Mexico said it absolutely rejects North Korea’s nuclear activity, calling it a serious risk for peace and international security and a growing threat to the region, including its "fundamental allies" of Japan and South Korea.
President Donald Trump said war with North Korea isn’t “inevitable.” He spoke Thursday at the White House. (Source: Bloomberg)
The expulsion comes as U.S President Donald Trump’s administration presses countries to cut diplomatic and economic ties with Kim Jong Un’s regime over the nation’s missile and nuclear weapons program. Vice President Mike Pence urged Latin American leaders last month to break all diplomatic and economic ties with North Korea during a trip to the region.
The U.S. wants the United Nations Security Council to tighten economic sanctions at a meeting on Sept. 11. The U.S. is circulating a draft resolution at the U.N. that would bar crude oil shipments to North Korea, ban the nation’s exports of textiles and prohibit employment of its guest workers by other countries, according to a diplomat at the world body.
There remain questions over how far the Security Council will go in punishing Kim’s regime after North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sunday. Russia and China have opposed doing anything that could lead to the collapse of Kim’s regime. Analysts have said China may only agree to a partial or temporary oil exports ban.
Mexico called on the Security Council to take steps to resolve the Korean crisis in a peaceful way. |
Our ipython-spark-docker repo is a way to deploy an Apache Spark cluster driven by IPython notebooks, running Docker containers for each component. The project uses Bash scripts to build each node type from a common Docker image that contains all necessary packages, enables data access from a Hadoop cluster, and runs on dedicated hosts. By using IPython as the interface, you can leverage a variety of data processing, machine learning, and visualization tasks using the following tools and libraries:
HDFS
Hbase
Hive
Oozie
Pig
Hue
Pandas
NLTK
NumPy
SciPy
SymPy
Scikit-Learn
Cython
Numba
Biopython
MQ
Pattern
Seaborn
Matplotlib
Statsmodels
Beautiful
Soup
NetworkX
LLVM
MDP
Bokeh
Vincent
Generating a few amps
Here at Lab41, we build open source prototypes using the latest big data, infrastructure, and data science technologies. In a perfect world, these tools would magically work together. The reality is that they usually require a lot of effort just to install and configure properly. And when someone else comes along to actually use them — especially if they are a newly-minted teammate or someone unfamiliar with the myriad command-line switches and gotchas — the experience can transform these tools into shark repellent for sysadmins and end users alike.
If the above sounds familiar, or if you’re interested in using IPython notebooks to perform non-trivial* data analytics with Apache Spark, then please continue…
*defined roughly as being able to use data in our 32-node Hadoop cluster
Sparked interest
This effort started when I became interested in Apache Spark, which has quickly become the heir apparent to MapReduce’s big data throne. By most measures, this data processing engine is living up to claims of better performance and usable APIs for powerful algorithmic libraries. If you add in its support for interactive and iterative development, plus use of data-scientist- and developer-friendly languages like Python, it’s no surprise why so many have fallen for this relative newcomer.
Out of the box, Spark includes a number of powerful capabilities, including the ability to write SQL queries, perform streaming analytics, run machine learning algorithms, and even tackle graph-parallel computations. Those features enable Spark to compete with a number of tools from mature ecosystems like Hadoop, but what really stands out is its usability. In short, incorporating interactive shells (in both Scala and Python) presents an approachable way to kick the tires. In my book, that’s a huge win that should help pull in curious developers (like me). After going through Spark’s cut-and-paste examples, as well as a few more involved tutorials, I had seen enough to want to begin using this platform. Anticipating the rest of our team benefiting from its capabilities, I also became interested in enabling their data analysis needs.
Usability a driving need
Within our team, we have developers, data scientists, and analysts with varying skills and experiences. Providing a solution that everyone could use was a key goal, which led to the following objectives:
We needed the Spark cluster to handle decent-sized workloads. Our 32-node Hadoop cluster is a representative size.
We needed an “easy-to-use” interface and language bindings that everyone would have a shot at learning. Python would be good. Something with collaboration features that wasn’t driven by the command line would be great.
We needed to run analytics against “non-trivial” data, which I’ll define as being able to access and process data from our Hadoop cluster.
After giving it some thought, I realized IPython would address that short list nicely and would be a familiar interface for our team. I decided to try to build something that looks like:
Definitions
Spark Master : the Spark node that receives jobs, organizes the workflow, and doles out work
: the Spark node that receives jobs, organizes the workflow, and doles out work Spark Worker : N number of Spark nodes that receive work tasks from the master and do the actual analysis
: N number of Spark nodes that receive work tasks from the master and do the actual analysis IPython Driver: the process running the application’s main function; the Python shell in “client” mode submits from outside the cluster, which is why I refer to it as the remote client and client driver
A straightforward path?
The first step, deploying the Spark cluster, seemed trivial since Lab41 uses a CDH5 cluster and Cloudera includes Spark in their distribution. However, I also had to develop around the situation where end users won’t be able to login/SSH directly to the Spark cluster for their analytics. Most of our partners are very security-conscious, so adding a client node that can remotely connect and drive analytics on the cluster became the next must-have. “Easy,” I thought. “I’ll just setup a remote node to drive Spark analysis within the cluster.” I assumed the steps would be straightforward (and probably already solved):
Start the master Connect workers to the master node Configure a remote client connected to the master Deploy an IPython notebook server on the client
Starting the master and worker nodes in our CDH5 cluster via the Cloudera Manager was straightforward. Building a client node also was easy since the Spark team graciously provides several source and pre-built packages for several recent releases. With a straightforward download and install, my client was ready to drive the cluster.
To initially test the client driver — considering the end goal was to use IPython — I decided to start with a pyspark shell connected to the master (I decided to hold off on IPython integration to isolate any potential misconfigurations). Based on tutorials, connecting the remote client to the cluster initially appeared as easy as specifying ./bin/pyspark — master spark://ip:port However, I immediately ran into a couple errors related to library mismatches:
incompatible spark driver-java.io.InvalidClassException:org.apache.spark.deploy.ApplicationDescription;local classincompatible:stream classdesc serialVersionUID=583745679236071411,local classserialVersionUID=7674242335164700840
java.lang.ClassCastException(cannot assign instance of org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD$$anonfun$17tofield org.apache.spark.SparkContext$$anonfun$runJob$4.func$1of type scala.Function1 ininstance of org.apache.spark.SparkContext$$anonfun$runJob$4)
After a few rounds of Googling, I found out these errors are caused by using incompatible spark driver libraries. Understandably, the client driver node needs to use libraries compatible with our cluster nodes, whereas the driver’s v1.2.1 was apparently incompatible with our cluster’s v1.2.0. With that quick reminder to always verify build versions, I downloaded and installed the correct one on the client. Problem fixed!
Down the rabbit hole I went…
With those library mismatch errors behind me, I soon encountered another error:
Initial job has notaccepted any resources;check your cluster UI toensure that workers are registered andhave sufficient memory
These kinds of errors scare me more than most since they give just enough to identify the general cause (“registering” the client and/or workers), but not enough to figure out exactly where to look. After poking around the server and worker logs (/var/log/spark/spark-<master|worker>-<hostname>.log), it looked like the client successfully connected to the master, but something after that failed to complete the Spark initialization. Errors like the following highlighted that it had something to do with my network configuration:
WARN Remoting:Tried toassociate with unreachable remote address[akka.tcp://sparkDriver@sandbox:41615]. Address is now gated for 60000 ms, all messages to this address will be delivered to dead letters.
Since “unreachable addresses” can of course be caused by several factors, I’ll save you the nitty-gritty and jump straight to the important point: connecting a remote client node requires several expected and non-obvious network settings:
Expected Node-to-Node Communication : The master and workers must be reachable. This requirement is satisfied by several well-documented configurations:
: The master and workers must be reachable. This requirement is satisfied by several well-documented configurations: Firewall rules must allow traffic to the Spark service (default: 7077 for master, random for worker)
for master, random for worker) Firewall rules must allow traffic to the Spark UIs (default: 8080 for master, 8081 for worker)
for master, for worker) Unexpected Cluster->Driver Communication : From the Configuring Ports for Network Security page, notice how important things such as communicating state changes and serving files require connections from the Spark nodes to the driver on a random port. That architecture means the remote client node is opening randomly-selected ports for callback from nodes in the Spark cluster. This design forces two important updates to our network communication:
: From the Configuring Ports for Network Security page, notice how important things such as communicating state changes and serving files require connections from the Spark nodes the driver on a port. That architecture means the remote client node is opening randomly-selected ports for callback from nodes in the Spark cluster. This design forces two important updates to our network communication: Firewall rules must allow traffic from the Spark master and workers to a range of random ports on the client
The client must be network-addressable by master and worker nodes, which means the tcp://sparkDriver above needed to be a fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) on the network.
Compatibility is key
Whereas I could easily open the potential range of random ports on master, worker, and client nodes, adding a network-addressable client to the cluster felt like a step too far for this initial test setup. At this point, I decided to stop using our primary Hadoop cluster and instead virtualize a test Spark cluster within our internal instance of OpenStack. As before, using the pre-built Spark packages made it easy to create master and worker nodes for a standalone Spark installation. Running the startup scripts ./sbin/start-<master|slaves|all>.sh fired up and registered the master and workers, providing me with a throwaway cluster I could use for experimentation more comfortably.
I now had spun up a small virtualized Spark cluster, added a client node on the network, ensured it was reachable with a FQDN, and opened all necessary OpenStack security rules and ports for each node. For good measure I ensured each node’s /etc/hosts contained entries for the cluster’s nodes (i.e. 10.1.2.3 spark-node1.internal-domain), leaving me confident all necessary traffic would reach its intended destination.
With the network configurations behind me, the quest led me into another set of library mismatch errors:
INFO scheduler.TaskSetManager:Lost task613.3instage0.0(TID2261)on executor spark-node1.internal-domain:java.io.IOException(Cannot run program”python2.7":error=2,No such file ordirectory)
“Hmmm, strange,” I thought. “All of my OpenStack images include Python…what’s the deal?” Well, when I provisioned the OpenStack instances, I used different host images for the cluster nodes and client driver as a way to better mimic that real-world possibility. It turns out the older worker/client nodes had python2.6, whereas the client (and Spark’s default options) explicitly specify python2.7. Updating the client environment to export PYSPARK_PYTHON=python propagated Spark’s configuration and let each node rely on their native python build. This situation clearly won’t work for a production deployment, but I was at the stage of wanting to move past errors and could later re-build environments and configurations.
Next, I ran into the strange situation where my client would accept the examples I had created, but when it submitted jobs to workers, they seemed to be missing things and would fail with messages such as:
ImportError:No module named numpy
and
version’GLIBC_2.14'notfound
Of course! In my previous rounds of yak-shaving fixes, I forgot one obvious requirement: All Spark nodes clearly need the same/compatible environment to effectively distribute analysis (aka “not fail”) across the cluster. It wasn’t sufficient to add things like numpy and GLIBC to my client; every node in the Spark cluster also needed those same modules and libraries.
Whale of a pivot
I made a crucial decision at this point. I did not like the idea of continuing to tweak and tune the configurations, environments, and libraries for each master, worker, and client hosts. While I was beginning to understand things, I knew nobody else would be able (or want) to replicate my work. If only there was a technology focused on transparent repeatability and portability of infrastructure…
Enter Docker!
Yes, the fantastic “build once, run anywhere” container not only enables development of portable apps, but also can be a godsend to sysadmins in this type of situation. From their website:
Sysadmins use Docker to provide standardized environments for their development, QA, and production teams, reducing “works on my machine” finger-pointing. By “Dockerizing” the app platform and its dependencies, sysadmins abstract away differences in OS distributions and underlying infrastructure.
Perfect! This benefit, I knew, would enable me to package all the configuration options within a common environment I could then deploy as master, worker, and client nodes. Caveat emptor, though. I have used Docker enough to know my intended IPythonized-Spark (or is it Sparkified-IPython?) setup would require a decent amount of customization, especially the network configuration pieces. But I also knew it was possible, and since a combination of Dockerfiles and scripting would lead to a repeatable build, I made the call to Dockerize the entire setup.
Dockerization
Since others already figured out how to run Spark in Docker, I first turned to those images and tutorials. After using them, I learned a few important things:
The images usually run the entire Spark cluster in a single container, which is great for kicking the tires, but not realistic for running actual workloads. I needed to run each master/worker/client as a separate container, ideally with each on a dedicated node to support large workloads. The images usually include default configurations for accessing Hadoop nodes that spin up within the container. While I could manually specify the longhand hdfs://<hadoop-namenode>/path/to/hdfs/file to access our Hadoop cluster, I’m lazy and wanted our hadoop-namenode to serve as the container’s default HDFS endpoint. To enable that default connectivity, I added our Hadoop configuration to the container. As an added measure for data locality, the ideal deployment would run these containers inside our Hadoop nodes and thereby avoid sending large amounts of data across the network. Keep in mind this setup means you’ll have to ensure library version compatibility between the containers and your Hadoop nodes. When run, the default Docker option sets each container’s hostname to its container ID, which causes issues related to Spark’s use of FQDN for network traffic. For example, a hostname of d5d3225d06c4 would cause Spark workers to attempt sending traffic to that host, which of course wouldn’t exist on the network. By passing the host node’s hostname to the container at runtime, the container effectively “thinks” it is the host and can broadcast the appropriate destination address. The images provide a very basic Python environment. We need several additional data wrangling, machine learning, and visualization tools. They’ve all done great work I can build on for our needs.
Refining my original architecture, I was looking to build something like:
Refined concept for IPython-Spark-HDFS using Docker
The base image
Since I’ve used similar bits and pieces in other work, I knew where I wanted to start for building the foundation. I started with the following Docker images:
richaase/cdh5-hadoop: The base image contains CDH5 (Cloudera Distribution for Apache Hadoop 5) installed on Ubuntu 14.04 with Oracle JDK7. I added configuration files to access a remote HDFS cluster. Among other things, they include the following tools and libraries:
HDFS, Hbase, Hive, Oozie, Pig, Hue
HDFS, Hbase, Hive, Oozie, Pig, Hue mingfang/docker-ipython: The base image runs a robust IPython environment inside Docker, which I tweaked by enabling, disabling, and adding a few Python modules. It adds:
Pandas, NLTK, NumPy, SciPy, SymPy, Scikit-Learn, Cython, Numba, Biopython, 0MQ, Pattern, Seaborn, Matplotlib, Statsmodels, Beautiful Soup, NetworkX, LLVM, MDP, Bokeh, Vincent
Enhancing the base
Borrowing from those two Docker images to build the common base, I layered a few important changes within the Dockerfile:
The image downloads updated Spark libraries to the latest pre-built standalone packages. The image updates Spark configuration options for PYSPARK_PYTHON, SPARK_SSH_PORT and SPARK_SSH_OPTS. The latter two force Spark to communicate on SSH via a non-standard port (I chose 2122). I made this change to the containers’ SSH daemons so I could still SSH in “normally” via port 22 on the host machines. I added SSH keys to enable Spark master-worker communication, which I strongly recommend re-generating before your build if you decide to try. I added specific configuration details for HDFS access, which you’ll need to update to connect to your cluster.
Creating role-based images
Building on that base image, I created Docker images for each master, worker, and client node types. Each image uses a bootstrap.sh script to start runit, leaving each node type to implement different startup services:
The master image runs an SSH daemon and spark-master process. This setup violates Docker’s “one-process-per-container” philosophy, but is necessary since master and workers communicate via SSH (as noted before, via port 2122)
process. This setup violates Docker’s “one-process-per-container” philosophy, but is necessary since master and workers communicate via SSH (as noted before, via port 2122) Similarly, the worker images startup an SSH daemon and spark-worker process
process The client image runs an IPython notebook using a custom pyspark profile, which I configured by following guides such as How to use IPython notebook with Apache Spark
Running the containers
I wrote a few Bash scripts to startup each container type. If you plan to use these, keep in mind two important details:
Since I wanted each container living on a dedicated node, you’ll have to manually startup each container type within a provisioned node. Within OpenStack, I simply startup each instance with an after-build command to run that node type’s startup script (i.e. ./3-run-spark-worker.sh spark://master-fqdn:port ). If provisioning on bare metal and/or within your HDFS cluster, you could use something heavyweight like puppet, a lighter deployment tool like fabric, or even a simple series of ssh -e commands.
). If provisioning on bare metal and/or within your HDFS cluster, you could use something heavyweight like puppet, a lighter deployment tool like fabric, or even a simple series of ssh -e commands. Given the required network traffic between master, workers, and client, there is a wide range of default ports that each host needs to forward to its respective container. Simply put, each host needs to transparently forward all Spark ports to its container. I could have achieved this by EXPOSEing ports in the Dockerfile and later publishing each port/range at runtime, but that method can cause iptables to run out of memory. Plus, it makes the container metadata (and docker ps output) unreadable with so many mapped ports. Instead, I made the host create a new iptables chain with custom PREROUTING rules. If you don’t want iptables as a dependency, or if you just want to handle networking The Docker Way, I would suggest explicitly setting the random ports identified in the Configuring Ports for Network Security guide (i.e. SPARK_WORKER_PORT and spark.driver.port).
The end result is:
Docker image and networking for ipython-spark-docker deployment
Spark word count example via IPython
</td>
<td>
<a class=”fancybox-effects-a” href=/images/post_11_docker/screenshot_mllib.png><img src=”/images/post_11_docker/screenshot_mllib.png” title=”Screenshot of Spark MLlib example” ></a>
<div><small>_Spark MLlib example_</small></div>
</td>
Wrap Up
As with most big data platforms, setting up Apache Spark was not a simple “double-click installation” process. It required host and network configurations that sometimes were difficult to find and decipher. Adding my goal of driving analytics with a remote client revealed additional gotchas. I managed to troubleshoot these, but it was an effort that I wouldn’t want others to have to reproduce. The extra desire to leverage IPython’s simpler interface, connect to our HDFS cluster, and ensure library compatibility between all nodes led me to Docker’s doorstep.
While the architecture is complex, Docker made it less complicated and more repeatable to develop, test, document, and iterate. Fast forward to today, we now have a working version of IPython-driven Spark analytics on our HDFS data, which is something others might be looking to use. And rather than say, “Email me for help,” or “Google ‘this’ and StackOverflow ‘that’,” I can point you to ipython-spark-docker for:
A base Docker image that contains all necessary Hadoop, Spark, and Python packages. Skeleton configuration files for HDFS access. Separate master, worker, and client images. Bash scripts to build and run each base/master/worker/client. End users access and use the entire system through the client container’s IPython notebook.
If you’ve read this far, thanks for your patience while I walked you through this end-to-end journey. I came across so many questions online where people ran into similar problems that I wanted to document the entire process. Hopefully, this post will save others from wondering where things might have gone wrong.
If you decide to give our repo a try, let us know. The Lab is interested in knowing if it helps, and is happy to offer a helping hand if something needs a little more work.
Until our next post, thanks for reading! |
As World Reels From Islamic Terror Attacks – CAIR Hands Out Chewing Gum at RNC to Treat ‘Islamophobia’
As the world reels from shocking Islamist terror attacks in the U.S, France, Turkey, Iraq, Belgium, Malaysia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia and sex assaults by Muslim ‘rapefugees’ just about everywhere in recent months, the Hamas/ Muslim Brotherhood front group CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) is handing out chewing gum at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio that mockingly purports to treat ‘chronic Islamophobia’.
The text on the front of the packaging reads:
Multi-symptom relief for chronic Islamophobia
ISLAMOPHOBIN
Maximum Strength Formula Treats
Blind Intolerance
Unthinking Bigotry
Irrational Fear of Muslims
U.S. Presidential Election Year Scapegoating
SPREADS LOVE
Take Two and Call a Muslim in the Morning
WARNING: May result in peaceful coexistence”
CAIR held a press conference in Cleveland Monday morning targeting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the Republican party:
A Muslim civil rights organization kicked off the first day of the Republican National Convention in downtown Cleveland with a news conference Monday morning, criticizing GOP officials and presumptive nominee Donald Trump for what it says are their anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim stances. “We’re trying to raise awareness about the rising tide of Islamophobia in America, and unfortunately Islamophobia has been flourishing within the GOP platform,” Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a nonprofit group, told NBC News.”
Reuters reported:
As a prescription, Awad offered Islamophobin, a concept borrowed from Muslims in Sweden who created a similar product. CAIR sells a package of 12 sugar-free pieces for $1.99 on amazon.com. The package says: “Take two and call a Muslim in the morning.” But it comes with a warning. “Those who already believe in religious diversity, tolerance and mutual understanding should not use this product,” the package says. “Stop taking this product if you begin to develop warm feelings toward Muslims, immigrants or refugees.”
Photos of the gum were posted to Twitter by reporters.
Epic gum trolling by CAIR at the RNC convention. #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/7sucUXPrcI — Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) July 18, 2016
“Epic gum trolling by CAIR at the RNC convention. #RNCinCLE”
"Take two and call a Muslim in the morning," on "meds" @CAIRNational handing out to protest @realDonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/WFrFRvVHkf — Jason Whitely (@JasonWhitely) July 18, 2016
“”Take two and call a Muslim in the morning,” on “meds” @CAIRNational handing out to protest @realDonaldTrump.”
Muslim advocacy group CAIR is handing out "Islamopobin" gum outside the Republican convention. pic.twitter.com/qPAiKwXWFU — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 18, 2016
“Muslim advocacy group CAIR is handing out “Islamopobin” gum outside the Republican convention.”
CAIR used a reporter’s tweet to promote the sale of its ‘Islamophobin’ gum on Amazon.
CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case in 2008. |
The state of Oklahoma is facing one of the worst budget crises in its history in the form of a nearly $900 million dollar budget shortfall. Legislators and the governor are scrambling to figure out how to get the state out of the red. But one state representative last week offered a plan that is as cruel as it is unconstitutional: Round up tens of thousands of the state’s students who speak English as a second language, hand them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and deport them if they’re undocumented.
“Identify them and then turn them over to ICE to see if they truly are citizens,” Rep. Mike Ritze, a member of the Republican Platform Caucus, told a local news station. “Do we really have to educate non-citizens?”
Aside from the overall inhumanity of Ritze’s “plan,” he poses a question that deserves an answer: Do public schools in the United States have to educate noncitizens? The answer is an unqualified yes.
In 1982, the Supreme Court decided Plyler v. Doe. The question before the justices was whether the state of Texas could deny undocumented students the right to a free public education that U.S. citizens and legally admitted immigrants received. Under the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, wrote Justice William Brennan, the state of Texas could not do so. The 14th Amendment, he explained, “is not confined to the protection of citizens” and ensures that no state can “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” That included a free public education.
But beyond the unconstitutionality of Ritze’s plan, we should take a moment to discuss why the state’s Republican superintendent of schools, Joy Hofmeister, called it “utterly shameful,” and why his caucus members have distanced themselves from his plan.
First off, children’s grasp of English has absolutely nothing to with their immigration status. Second, there is no way to carry out such a plan without resorting to racial profiling. According to Ben Felder of The Oklahoman, over half of the student body of Oklahoma City Public Schools is Hispanic, and such a plan would make a majority of the students feel like second-class citizens. It’s not far-fetched to fear that Hispanic and Latino kids would go to class afraid that if they don’t speak English up to an arbitrary standard that they would fall under the scrutiny of the school, their local police department, and federal immigration authorities. And third, and most importantly, these are kids we’re talking about. They deserve protection and an education, not fear and stigma.
“There is no benefit to floating outrageous ideas that seek to punish kids,” Hofmeister said. We agree. Immigration authority has no place in our schools. Racial profiling has no place in our schools. At a time in our nation’s history when xenophobia and nationalism are on the rise, it is crucial that students and parents know that they and their children are protected and valued.
And we’ll be there to assure that they are. |
Anderson Silva Super Fight with Georges St-Pierre or Jon Jones Coming This Year
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva has a superfight on the horizon against either UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre or light heavyweight titleholder Jon Jones.
UFC president Dana White declared as much during a UFC 157: Rousey vs. Carmouche question and answer session prior to the official weigh-ins on Friday.
“GSP is going to defend his title against Nick Diaz. Anderson Silva will defend his title this summer, and before the end of this year we will soon see a superfight with either GSP and Anderson Silva, or Anderson Silva and Jon Jones,” said White. “One of them is coming.”
Asked about where the event would take place, White could only confirm that it will be in an arena.
“If we end up doing a superfight with Anderson and GSP, it will be in a big arena somewhere. It will either be in Vegas, out here in L.A. It could be Texas. It could be Canada. It could be Brazil,” said White.
The UFC president has been hoping that, after years of trying, they can finally get the green light to operate in New York this year. He has targeted New York City for his promotion’s 20th anniversary event in November. An Anderson Silva superfight would certainly fit the bill for such an affair, but White gave no indication that those are his plans.
Be sure to Like MMAWeekly.com on Facebook and Follow @MMAWeeklycom on Twitter. |
Summary
Project Name : Tierion
: Tierion Token ticker : TNT
: TNT Website : https://tierion.com/
: https://tierion.com/ Whitepaper: https://tokensale.tierion.com/whitepaper
Hard cap : US$25 million (ICO contributors own 35% of total token supply if hard cap is reached)
: US$25 million (ICO contributors own 35% of total token supply if hard cap is reached) Soft Cap : Reached in presale already
: Reached in presale already Conversion rate : 1 TNT = US$0.0714 if hard cap is reached
: 1 TNT = US$0.0714 if hard cap is reached Maximum market cap at ICO : US$71 million
: US$71 million Bonus structure : None
: None ERC20 token : Yes
: Yes Timeline : July 27 at 9am EDT (please refer to Tierion’s website for most up-to-date information)
: July 27 at 9am EDT (please refer to Tierion’s website for most up-to-date information) Token distribution date: 2-3 weeks
There are numerous use cases for the project. Below are some of the examples: Process audit trail – Cryptographic proof of the order, integrity, and timestamp of any business process. Supply chain, insurance claims, know your customer (KYC), hospital patient care, financial transactions. Document timestamping – Several companies offer free timestamping services using the Chainpoint protocol. LoT data collection – Prove the integrity and timestamp of data as it is gathered from connected devices. Proof of consent – Non-repudiable evidence that important consent and approvals have been recorded. Patient care, corporate governance, etc. Registry – A verifiable registry of creative works, real estate listings, etc. Data security – Secure the integrity of key IT assets; customer records, databases, log files, backups, and virtual machine snapshots. Clinical trials – Provide regulators with proof of the integrity of data for clinical trials. There are several advantages in using Tierion’s services over other Blockchain solutions:
Scalability – Chainpoint is designed to generate millions of proofs per second. In contrast to other blockchain based systems, throughput increases as nodes are added to the network.
Cost effectiveness – Chainpoint is designed to be inexpensive or free for most network participants. Increases in network throughput scales independently of blockchain transaction costs. This is particularly relevant as Bitcoin transaction fees have increased more than 100x in the past two years.
How advanced is the project? The original version of Tierion was created in 2015 and has been used by thousands of organizations. Some of Tierion’s customers generate millions of proofs per month. Tierion is partnered with companies including Philips and Microsoft. Accredible is also a customer of Tierion. After almost two years of development, Chainpoint has been upgraded to version 3.0. To continue improving on its services, Tierion is going to launch the Tierion Network and transform the company from a cloud application company into a global distributed network. The Tierion Network and Chainpoint Service has been operating in private beta with Tierion’s partners. An open beta is planned to launch in August 2017, which marks the two year anniversary of Tierion’s launch. Microsoft’s infrastructure is planned to come online shortly thereafter. The Tierion Network is planned to launch before the end of 2017. What are the tokens used for and how can token holders make money? TNT serves two primary functions:
A method of settlement between parties to access network resources.
An incentive for network participants to operate and secure the network.
Node operators can accumulate TNT as a result of operating a Node. Node operators will also need to maintain a minimum balance of TNT in order to be eligible for those periodic rewards. Tierion and its partner commitments guarantee that for the first year, nodes will be able to send data to core at zero cost. Over time, the network will transition to a model where nodes spend TNT for anchoring data. Users do not need to run a node or acquire tokens to use the Tierion Network. Each node serves as a mini-Tierion. Node operators can provide users with services using conventional payment and delivery models. The core Chainpoint service will be complemented by several unannounced services that use TNT. Examples include services for securely sharing verifiable data, document notary and archival, and attestations related to blockchain verifiable identities.
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Team Tierion has a team of 5. Other than the CEO, all the team members have relevant experience in software development. Wayne Vaughan, Founder, CEO – Twenty years of software and product design experience. Founded a digital agency in the mid-90s and created one of the first SaaS marketing automation platforms. He also serves on the Advisory Board of Blockchain Capital. Jason Bukowski, Founder, Lead Developer – Over twenty years of experience developing highly scalable software. He built one of the first real-time web analytics systems and spent a decade developing marketing automation software. Jason is the lead developer of several popular open source crypto libraries. As Tierion is funded by several cryptocurrency investment funds, it has a strong connection with other players in the field. Advisors to Tierion include William Mougayar, board member of The Ethereum Foundation and Openbazaar, Zaki Manian, co-founder of Skuchain, Ryan Shea, CEO of Blockstack, and Shawn Wilkinson, Founder and CTO of Storj.
Opportunities Partnership with Microsoft and Philips proofs that Tierion is a legitimate company.
Tierion’s services is used by over a thousand companies, which shows that Tierion is proven to provide valuable services to its customers.
Tierion has been around for 2 years with a working product that is in the third iteration, which makes this ICO a lot less risky than those with shorter track record.
Tierion won the 2015 Consensus Makathon, which shows the competency of the team.
Blockchain is integral to the services provided by Tierion, so it makes more sense to raise money from ICO.
Factom is another solution that tackles the same problems that Tierion is trying to solve. But according to CEO of Tierion, Factom can only manage 47 transactions per second while Tierion’s capacity is virtually unlimited.
Concerns The hard cap of $25 million is relatively high in today’s market environment.
Right now, one of the Tierion’s advantages is the low cost compared to other solutions with costs correlated with transaction fees on public Blockchain (for example, Bitcoin). With the Bitcoin scaling debate finally getting over, it is anticipated that Bitcoin transaction fees will decline, at least in the short-term after the upgrade. This may make Tierion’s solutions less attractive. |
These are draft suggestions, with opinions by Michael Everson I found some Principles of Flag Design: Keep It Simple—The flag should be so simple that a child can draw it from memory. Use Meaningful Symbolism—The flag’s images, colours, or patterns should relate to what it symbolizes. Use 2–3 Basic Colours—Limit the number of colours on the flag to three, which contrast well and come from the standard colour set. No Lettering or Seals—Never use writing of any kind or an organization’s seal. Be Distinctive or Be Related—Avoid duplicating other flags, but use similarities to show connections. I admit that I believe the “Globe flag” below meets these criteria best. The old logo is not simple; the Globe represents “Vol”, retaining the schematic meridians for longitude and latitude that are found in the original logo; Purple and Gold are traditional colours; it uses no text; the basic shape is reminiscent of the Esperanto flag (a dark field and a light canton with symbol in the first colour)—I think that evocation is a good one, and makes Volapük look like an equal. The Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-31 This is now my favourite. Simple. The image is a schematized globe symbolizing the world: simple, bold, easy to draw and remember. In terms of "competing" with the Esperanto flag, this is the most appealling, in my opinion. It would be legible at small sizes too:
Esperanto flag
Image by António Martins, 2004-03-16 The Esperanto flag for comparison. Conjectural flag
Image by António Martins, 1999-06-05 Simply places the logo on a white field. In my opinion, not very inspiring. Monogram flag
Image by António Martins, 2010-08-30 Uses an evidently-attested monogram. The colours should be modified. I am not sure of the placement of the letters. Directionality of the text would be a problem when the flag were reversed. "Menad bal pük bal" might be mnemonic, but I honestly don't see it in this. If anything when I squint it looks like a tree. The Circled Cross flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-29 This used to be my favourite, though now I favour the Globe flag. The charge in the canton is the astronomical symbol for Earth. Schematized monogram flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 An attempt at schematizing the monogram in a non-directional way. Reminds me of the Wizard of Oz somehow. Mauve Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is a version in the colour "Mauve". This is fairly nice looking. Logo flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-29 This just places the logo in the canton. It would be quite fussy to draw. Old Mauve Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is a version in a darker shade of mauve. This is called "Old Mauve". I don't think it works. Radu's logo flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-29 Here is a proposal from Radu Chinan. This is an attractive enough image, but it violates almost all of the rules of a good flag. Complicated design, many colours, text. It would be fairly hard to make this legible at small sizes:
The French Lilac Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is a version with a more "lilac" shade of purple. This is called "French Lilac" Schematized logo flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here I just sketched out a schematized version of the old logo. The schematization wasn't very successful, but in any case it doesn't say “Volapük” to me. The Deep Lilac Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is a version with a more "lilac" shade of purple. This is called "Deep Lilac" Logo flag with stripe
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is another idea from Radu Chinan. In Radu's original design the logo was a bit smaller. I think the logo is far too complicated to work in this position, and the stripe makes the flag look like one of those old Soviet Republics. The Rich Lilac Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is a version with a more "lilac" shade of purple. This is called "Rich Lilac". Too pink. Cadeuceus flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-29 As others pointed out, the cadeuceus has been co-opted for other purposes, and this doesn't say “Volapük”. Inverse Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 I wanted to see what this looked like reversed. A bit too bright. Purpure, a chevron inverted throughout Or
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is a version of an idea by Radu Chinan. I have seen no other flags with this design feature; in heraldry a chevron usually points upward. Basically this is a very big V, and in my opinion using a chevron to indicate the letter is not very subtle or appealing. Cantonless Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is modification of that, with the Globe symbol in the canton position Purpure, a pile Or
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 There are flags which use a pile, though generally they put something in it. I put this here just to see, but I don't like it. Nordic flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 A “Nordic Cross” style flag. Excellent for Volapükists from Iceland.... Another Chevron flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Still a V. Still a bit unconvincing. Saltire flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 A “Saltire” style flag, for Volapükists from Scotland, perhaps. Motto flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 I believe this was Paul Bartlett's suggestion: “I would go for the color scheme with just the motto without the maps and cadeuceus.” Centred Globe flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-30 Here is an idea from Radu Chinan, putting the Globe symbol in the centre of the flag. Semicircle with V flag
Image by Michael Everson, 2010-08-31 Another idea from Radu Chinan, putting a V inside a circle. Evidently this is slightly reminiscent of Mazda’s logo, so that wouldn't be so good. |
(Editor’s note: This is Part 1 in a two-part series on the “refugee scam” taking place in America.)
You’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to be aware that immigrants are inundating our country. The Obama administration is welcoming them as though they’re the solution to all the problems we’re facing.
The United Nations is in charge of parceling out these people and tells the U.S. how many, and who, we will get. The State Department takes it from there, deciding who goes where.
Hundreds of these people are just deposited in towns and cities across the country, usually with no notice to the recipient municipalities and with no assistance for them to deal with the increased population and their needs.
Who are they? Well, it all depends. Many are escapees from countries torn by domestic and political strife. Many are those who see the U.S. as the “land of milk and honey” and, while our streets aren’t paved in gold, our asphalt and concrete is hundreds of times better than their dirt roads.
Many are religious refugees, persecuted in their homelands because of their beliefs. We take them all, but there is a clear preference on the part of the Obama administration for Muslims. Despite the fact that Christian refugees are the targets of Muslim violence, most of the refugees are Muslim.
In addition to the Middle Eastern people welcomed by Obama – he aims for more than 100,000 in 2017 – we have Central and South American adults and children, legal and illegal, who continue to stream across our porous borders. And none of this takes into account those thousands getting in illegally from Eastern Europe and Asia.
Security is a concern, especially since the FBI has said it’s impossible to vet these people for terrorist connections.
I knew the feds have a $5 billion-plus official refugee resettlement program, which is coordinated through contracts with agencies like the International Institute, Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopal and other agencies and Catholic charities.
These “nonprofit” groups don’t do this gratis, so when a presentation was made at St. Monica Church that there would be a meeting to introduce parishioners to the possibility of the parish sponsoring one or more refugee families, I decided to attend.
I wasn’t interested in supporting the program but wanted to see the size of the turnout and hear the sales pitch.
We were told the program is run by Catholic Charities of the East Bay, and Stephen P. Mullin is the parish outreach manager. He said all of the parishes in the diocese of Oakland, California – in fact, all Catholic churches – are encouraged to participate.
The response was interesting. It was a large turnout of about 50 on a weeknight. When asked why they were there, many said they wanted to “give back.”
Considering this is an affluent area, the religious guilt factor was clear. These are people who’ve had material success in their lives and feel that somehow they need to “pay” for it. But since this is also a theme of many homilies heard weekly in church, the guilt wasn’t surprising.
We were asked if any in the group were themselves immigrants and what their experiences were. One woman actually broke down in tears as she told her story of how difficult it was for her to adjust to U.S. life. She came from a Central American country and didn’t specify if she came here legally or if she’s now a citizen.
I wondered, but no one asked. And she didn’t volunteer.
We were given an information packet explaining the program and how people can participate in welcoming refugees. The moderator didn’t go into the details of the information packet, but the overview was that a family was designated to arrive at the airport, the parish would greet them there, after having have set up living arrangements, provided food, clothing and basic necessities. And more.
Much more.
There was huge emphasis on the difficulties strangers to the U.S. have in adjusting, and lots of references to “Christian charity” in helping them.
It was acknowledged it’s difficult to find affordable housing in our area. I asked why these people don’t get settled in less expensive areas, but I was told, “We all have to participate.”
I asked about the financing of the program and mentioned that Catholic Charities and other religious groups do get paid for their participation. That was scarcely out of my mouth when the parish priest, Fr. Wayne Campbell, interrupted me bluntly, saying this was not political.
“This is our church mission,” he said. “We are a family, and we welcome them.”
I doubt any of those people are aware that Catholic Charities is a $3.8 billion operation, with more than $2 billion of that coming from the federal government and about $70 million for the refugee program.
I asked about the health checks given these refugees and raised the issue of measles epidemics – in Arizona now – and tuberculosis in Vermont, Wisconsin, Louisiana and other states.
I almost was shouted down by the group, which said the only reason there were outbreaks was because Americans hadn’t had their shots!
When I asked the moderator if they could vouch for the good health of these people, I was told they depend on the U.N. and the U.S. government to do that, and they had “faith” they were doing a good job.
Oh.
I asked if we have a preference for Christians and was told, “No. We just want to help people.”
They also have no concern about security or terrorism – depending on the U.N. and the feds to do that.
They added that Muslims have cultural differences, but that “they’ll learn.”
These people live in another universe.
They’ll meet again to coordinate the parish program, and I’ve no doubt people will participate.
As the conversation continued, I looked at the information packet and realized these people aren’t just “welcomed,” they’re given carte blanche to just about anything they possibly want. They’re given more “help” than down-on-their-luck American citizens get.
The moderator said that when the family arrives at the airport, they’re given $1,000, but that doesn’t go very far which is why they need our help. The family in this case is a single mother with three children from Eritrea
Judging by what they’ll be given, the parish and American citizens will provide everything for a very nice way of life.
Next week, a look at what these people will get free – through the largesse and guilt, in my view, of foolish Americans.
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On November 21, 2016, William Pulliam, a 62-year-old white man, shot James Means, a 15-year-old African-American boy, after the two had an argument outside of a Dollar General Store in Charleston, WV. The shooting conjured memories of the death of Trayvon Martin after it was reported that in his confession, Pulliam told police, “The way I look at it, that’s another piece of trash off of the street.”
In this episode, Us & Them host Trey Kay works to understand who are Means and Pulliam, but moreover, what can this senseless killing tell us about race relations in small town America in 2017.
From West Virginia Public Broadcasting and PRX, this is "Us & Them," the podcast where we tell the stories about America's cultural divides.
Subscribe to “Us & Them” on Apple Podcasts, NPR One or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you'd like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @usthempodcast or @wvpublic, or leave a comment on Facebook.com/usthempodcast.
This episode is part of a series made possible with financial assistance from the West Virginia Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
And if you enjoyed this episode, join our community and sustain "Us & Them" with a pledge of support. |
Quote Fixed performance regression in OpenGL renderer. Vulkan should now only be significantly ahead in situations where GL was unable to keep the GPU busy.
Quote Performance issue with kernel 4.9+ related to online mode.
Crash on boot on NVIDIA without GLVND (e.g. Debian). Can be worked around by installing libgl1-nvidia-glvnd-glx on Debian.
The OpenGL performance regression that made Vulkan look like it annihilated OpenGL in Mad Max's recent Beta has now been fixed.As a small reminder, Mad Max currently has a public beta for owners of the game to test out Feral's new Vulkan version. You can enter "livelongandprosper" to get access to the "vulkan_beta" branch.From the notes on Feral's Facebook post Great to see Feral very quickly act on feedback from us and others about the performance issues.They also note they are currently looking into these issues:Any feedback about the Vulkan Mad Max beta should be sent to: [email protected] have you been finding the Vulkan version? |
First wine went from dietary taboo to something similar, in small doses, to medicine.
Now it may be beer’s turn.
At a meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) today in San Diego, Kristopher Waynant, Ph.D., an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Idaho, presented work showing that he and undergraduate student Lucas Sass are close to synthesizing acids in hops, which are strongly linked to anticancer properties.
The hops are what make beer taste like beer, and they have long been known to inhibit bacteria growth as the brew ferments.
Acids in the hops, called humulones and lupulones, have been shown to kill cancer cells and block leukemia cells from clinging to bone in petri dish experiments. They may also act as anti-inflammatory agents.
Synthesizing the acids is an important step in documenting any health effects so researchers can be sure their ingredients are pure.
Scientists have successfully synthesized one type of humulone, and Wyanant and Sass are now close to synthesizing two others.
“We believe we have a rapid and efficient route to get there,” Waynant told Healthline.
Some of the existing research on beer’s health benefits don’t define clearly enough which element of hops drives their effects, according to Waynant.
“The first few studies of biological activity were of hop extracts and alpha or beta acid extracts respectively,” he said.
Read More: Compound in Beer Can Slow Brain Decline »
Don’t Get Your Hops Up
Waynant still cautioned against using health as a justification for drinking more beer.
“We certainly don’t think that beer should be viewed as a medicine,” he said. “We are of the impression that many pharmaceuticals are derived or originate from nature and that perhaps there is a derivative in our synthetic routes that will also be active or more active.”
With alcohol, a little bit may be a good thing, but too much can be an express ticket to many major chronic diseases.
One in 14 U.S. adults abuses alcohol, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and nearly 88,000 Americans die from alcohol-related causes every year.
The estimates that moderate alcohol consumption saved the lives of some people who would otherwise have died from heart disease, stroke, or diabetes. To count as moderate drinkers, women get just one drink a day, and men get two.
Read More: Here’s What Happens When You Quit Drinking Alcohol for a Month »
A Crafty Way to Engage Undergraduates
Although he’s careful not to give Americans permission to drink more, Waynant acknowledges that his research is related to the boom in craft beer and home brewing.
“That’s why I picked it as a topic to research. It’s something that students would know and could relate to,” Waynant said.
Sales of craft beers have grown as a share of total beer purchases in recent years. Smaller brands now account for a fifth of all sales in the United States, according to the Brewers Association.
The number of home brewers, meanwhile, has tripled in the past decade, according to the American Homebrewers Association.
“Being able to synthesize and have available precise analytical standards of these molecules would be beneficial to both brewers and medicinal biologists as reference materials,” Waynant said of the hops acids his work focuses on.
Read More: Moderate Daily Drinking May Help Alzheimer’s Patients » |
White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon and his economic nationalism remain at the forefront of the Trump administration’s policy agenda despite a media narrative predicting Bannon’s immediate doom, former Trump campaign advisor Robert Wasinger writes.
From the Hill:
The reports of Steve Bannon’s demise have been greatly over-exaggerated.
The media has pilloried Steve Bannon to the point of utter exhaustion, both ours and theirs apparently. After a solid month of insisting that Bannon and his brand of economic nationalism were on the way out of the White House, he remains in place, and the president continues to emphasize the themes that won him the election in November — much to the consternation of the Washington opinion-making set whose reputation depends upon the presumption that they have an inside line to the inner workings of power in the nation’s capital.
The mainstream media spin on Bannon’s loss of influence and relevance has been achieved primarily by glossing over inconsistencies in their own narrative about his role and influence in the White House, and, more insidiously, by introducing into their narrative a total caricature of the “America First” themes whose political resonance they have so badly underestimated.
For the rest of the article, click here. |
Soil pH: What it Means
From the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry...
Soil pH or soil reaction is an indication of the acidity or alkalinity of soil and is measured in pH units. Soil pH is defined as the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration. The pH scale goes from 0 to 14 with pH 7 as the neutral point. As the amount of hydrogen ions in the soil increases the soil pH decreases thus becoming more acidic. From pH 7 to 0 the soil is increasingly more acidic and from pH 7 to 14 the soil is increasingly more alkaline or basic.
Descriptive terms commonly associated with certain ranges in soil pH are:
Extremely acid: < than 4.5; lemon=2.5; vinegar=3.0; stomach acid=2.0; soda=24
< than 4.5; lemon=2.5; vinegar=3.0; stomach acid=2.0; soda=24 Very strongly acid: 4.55.0; beer=4.55.0; tomatoes=4.5
4.55.0; beer=4.55.0; tomatoes=4.5 Strongly acid: 5.15.5; carrots=5.0; asparagus=5.5; boric acid=5.2; cabbage=5.3
5.15.5; carrots=5.0; asparagus=5.5; boric acid=5.2; cabbage=5.3 Moderately acid: 5.66.0; potatoes=5.6
5.66.0; potatoes=5.6 Slightly acid: 6.16.5; salmon=6.2; cow's milk=6.5
6.16.5; salmon=6.2; cow's milk=6.5 Neutral: 6.67.3; saliva=6.67.3; blood=7.3; shrimp=7.0
6.67.3; saliva=6.67.3; blood=7.3; shrimp=7.0 Slightly alkaline: 7.47.8; eggs=7.67.8
7.47.8; eggs=7.67.8 Moderately alkaline: 7.98.4; sea water=8.2; sodium bicarbonate=8.4
7.98.4; sea water=8.2; sodium bicarbonate=8.4 Strongly alkaline: 8.59.0; borax=9.0
8.59.0; borax=9.0 Very strongly alkaline: > than 9.1; milk of magnesia=10.5, ammonia=11.1; lime=12
Measuring Soil pH
Soil pH provides various clues about soil properties and is easily determined. The most accurate method of determining soil pH is by a pH meter. A second method which is simple and easy but less accurate then using a pH meter, consists of using certain indicators or dyes.
Many dyes change color with an increase or decrease of pH making it possible to estimate soil pH. In making a pH determination on soil, the sample is saturated with the dye for a few minutes and the color observed. This method is accurate enough for most purposes. Kits (pH) containing the necessary chemicals and color charts are available from garden stores.
There may be considerable variation in the soil pH from one spot in a field or lawn to another. To determine the average soil pH of a field or lawn it is necessary to collect soil from several locations and combine into one sample.
pH Affects Nutrients, Minerals and Growth
The effect of soil pH is great on the solubility of minerals or nutrients. Fourteen of the seventeen essential plant nutrients are obtained from the soil. Before a nutrient can be used by plants it must be dissolved in the soil solution. Most minerals and nutrients are more soluble or available in acid soils than in neutral or slightly alkaline soils.
Phosphorus is never readily soluble in the soil but is most available in soil with a pH range centered around 6.5. Extremely and strongly acid soils (pH 4.0-5.0) can have high concentrations of soluble aluminum, iron and manganese which may be toxic to the growth of some plants. A pH range of approximately 6 to 7 promotes the most ready availability of plant nutrients.
But some plants, such as azaleas, rhododendrons, blueberries, white potatoes and conifer trees, tolerate strong acid soils and grow well. Also, some plants do well only in slightly acid to moderately alkaline soils. However, a slightly alkaline (pH 7.4-7.8) or higher pH soil can cause a problem with the availability of iron to pin oak and a few other trees in Central New York causing chlorosis of the leaves which will put the tree under stress leading to tree decline and eventual mortality.
The soil pH can also influence plant growth by its effect on activity of beneficial microorganisms Bacteria that decompose soil organic matter are hindered in strong acid soils. This prevents organic matter from breaking down, resulting in an accumulation of organic matter and the tie up of nutrients, particularly nitrogen, that are held in the organic matter.
Changes in Soil pH
Soils tend to become acidic as a result of: (1) rainwater leaching away basic ions (calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium); (2) carbon dioxide from decomposing organic matter and root respiration dissolving in soil water to form a weak organic acid; (3) formation of strong organic and inorganic acids, such as nitric and sulfuric acid, from decaying organic matter and oxidation of ammonium and sulfur fertilizers. Strongly acid soils are usually the result of the action of these strong organic and inorganic acids.
Lime is usually added to acid soils to increase soil pH. The addition of lime not only replaces hydrogen ions and raises soil pH, thereby eliminating most major problems associated with acid soils but it also provides two nutrients, calcium and magnesium to the soil. Lime also makes phosphorus that is added to the soil more available for plant growth and increases the availability of nitrogen by hastening the decomposition of organic matter. Liming materials are relatively inexpensive, comparatively mild to handle and leave no objectionable residues in the soil.
Some common liming materials are: (1) Calcic limestone which is ground limestone; (2) Dolomitic limestone from ground limestone high in magnesium; and (3) Miscellaneous sources such as wood ashes. The amount of lime to apply to correct a soil acidity problem is affected by a number of factors, including soil pH, texture (amount of sand, silt and clay), structure, and amount of organic matter. In addition to soil variables the crops or plants to be grown influence the amount of lime needed.
In addition to monitoring soil pH the nutrient status of the soil should be examined. To obtain soil sampling instructions and kits along with specific recommendation contact Cornell Cooperative Extension listed in your local phone book under United States Government Offices - Agriculture Department.
Credits:
Text prepared by Donald Bickelhaupt, Instructional Support Specialist, Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management. Illustration by Robert Schmedicke. |
Big Ang, Janice Dickinson, and a Love & Hip Hop couple have signed up for season six of VH1 Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn!
The Mob Wives star and her husband Neil Murphy are set to join Dr. Jenn Mann for three weeks of intense therapy to see if they can overcome the obstacles in their relationship.
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on-again, off-again coupleandare part of the cast.house include: model and TV personality () Janice Dickinson and her fiancéfrontmanand his wifecontestant and modeland her husband
Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn is set to return to VH1 in the fall. Check the full press release below!
“VH1 COUPLES THERAPY WITH DR. JENN” RETURNS FOR ITS SIXTH SEASON The Couples Seeking Counseling This Season Include Angela “Big Ang” Raiola & Neil Murphy, Scott Stapp & Jaclyn Stapp, Carmen Carrera & Adrian Torres, Janice Dickinson & Robert “Rocky” Gerner, Joe Budden & Kaylin Garcia Dr. Jenn Mann to Return as Therapist and Host for the Series
LOS ANGELES, CA – (May 29, 2015) – “VH1 Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn” returns this Fall with five all-new couples seeking counseling hoping to discover whether or not their relationships can overcome past hardships. With the pressure of living in the spotlight and constantly having their relationships scrutinized by the media, the series continues to shed light on the complicated and often misunderstood world of high-profile relationships. The sixth season of “VH1 Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn” returns in Fall 2015.
In season six of “VH1 Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn,” each couple is facing unique problems – some of their issues center on having every detail of their relationship in the public eye and blown out of proportion. This season’s couples who have scheduled time on the couch with Dr. Jenn Mann are: “Mob Wives” fan-favorite Angela “Big Ang” Raiola & Neil Murphy, Creed’s front man Scott Stapp & Jaclyn Stapp, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant Carmen Carrera & Adrian Torres, model/ TV personality Janice Dickinson & Robert “Rocky” Gerner, and hip-hop star Joe Budden & Kaylin Garcia.
From the producers of “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew,” “VH1 Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn” features five couples at a crossroads in their relationships as they undergo three weeks of intensive relationship therapy. Under the guidance of Dr. Jenn Mann, a nationally renowned relationship therapist, the couples will participate in group and individual therapy along with relationship exercises out in the “real world” to see if they can rekindle the love they used to have for one another — or if it’s time for them to go their separate ways.
Dr. Jenn Mann, a well-known marriage and family therapist, author, speaker, and radio host, will be the relationship therapist for the couples. Dr. Jenn is the host of the popular call-in advice program “The Dr. Jenn Show” on Oprah Radio which is heard on Sirius XM nightly. She is the author of three bestselling books: SuperBaby: 12 Ways to Give Your Child a Head Start in the First 3 Years, The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy Confident Kids and Rockin’ Babies. People come to see her in her private practice for a variety of reasons, such as: relationship issues, parenting, eating disorders, substance abuse, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, trauma, and sexual abuse. She also works with performers and entertainment professionals dealing with creativity and performance issues and does consulting for a number of related organizations including The Actors Fund and A Minor Consideration. Dr. Jenn also created the “No More Diets” application, which is currently available on iPhone & iPad.
For more information please visit VH1 blog/Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn.
“VH1 Couples Therapy with Dr. Jenn” is produced by Irwin Entertainment. Executive producing for Irwin Entertainment are John Irwin, Damian Sullivan and Andy Scheer. Dr Jenn Mann also serves as executive producer. Susan Levison, Jill Holmes, and Laurel Stier serve as Executive Producers for VH1.
For up-to-the-minute and archival press information including releases and photographs, visit VH1’s press-only Web site at www.vh1press.com.
VH1 delivers the ultimate mash-up of music, pop culture and nostalgia for adults who still want to have fun. VH1 is available in 93 million households in the U.S. VH1 also has an array of digital channels and services including VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, the VH1 App, VH1.com and @VH1, the hub for all things music and pop culture. Fans may also access current and retro VH1 programming via the VH1 App, the network’s three-in-one video, new form content and co-viewing app, available for free on iOS and Android platforms. VH1 is a unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. For more information, go to www.vh1press.com, VH1.com, or the VH1 Facebook page. Follow us on Twitter @VH1PR. |
History is a thing we make—in more senses than one. And from more directions.
This short story was acquired and edited for Tor.com by senior editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden.
Matthew Corley regained consciousness reading the newspaper.
None of those facts are unproblematic. It wasn’t exactly a newspaper, nor was the process by which he received the information really reading. The question of his consciousness is a matter of controversy, and the process by which he regained it certainly illegal. The issue of whether he could be considered in any way to have a claim to assert the identity of Matthew Corley is even more vexed. It is probably best to for us to embrace subjectivity, to withhold judgement. Let us say that the entity believing himself to be Matthew Corley feels that he regained consciousness while reading an article in the newspaper about the computer replication of personalities of the dead. He believes that it is 1994, the year of his death, that he regained consciousness after a brief nap, and that the article he was reading is nonsense. All of these beliefs are wrong. He dismissed the article because he understands enough to know that simulating consciousness in DOS or Windows 3.1 is inherently impossible. He is right about that much, at least.
Perhaps we should pull back further, from Matthew to Essie. Essie is Matthew’s biographer, and she knows everything about him, all of his secrets, only some of which she put into her book. She put all of them into the simulation, for reasons which are secrets of her own. They are both good at secrets. Essie thinks of this as something they have in common. Matthew doesn’t, because he hasn’t met Essie yet, though he will soon.
Matthew had secrets which he kept successfully all his life. Before he died he believed that all his secrets had become out-of-date. He came out as gay in the late eighties, for instance, after having kept his true sexual orientation a secret for decades. His wife, Annette, had died in 1982, at the early age of fifty-eight, of breast cancer. Her cancer would be curable today, for those who could afford it, and Essie has written about how narrowly Annette missed that cure. She has written about the excruciating treatments Annette went through, and about how well Matthew coped with his wife’s illness and death. She has written about the miraculous NHS, which made Annette’s illness free, so that although Matthew lost his wife he was not financially burdened too. She hopes this might affect some of her readers. She has also tried to treat Annette as a pioneer who made it easier for those with cancer coming after her, but it was a difficult argument to make, as Annette died too early for any of today’s treatments to be tested on her. Besides, Essie does not care much about Annette, although she was married to Matthew for thirty years and the mother of his daughter, Sonia. Essie thinks, and has written, that Annette was a beard, and that Matthew’s significant emotional relationships were with men. Matthew agrees, now, but then Matthew exists now as a direct consequence of Essie’s beliefs about Matthew. It is not a comfortable relationship for either of them.
Essie is at a meeting with her editor, Stanley, in his office. It is a small office cubicle, and sounds of other people at work come over the walls. Stanley’s office has an orange cube of a desk and two edgy black chairs.
“All biographers are in love with the subjects of their biographies,” Stanley says, provocatively, leaning forwards in his black chair.
“Nonsense,” says Essie, leaning back in hers. “Besides, Corley was gay.”
“But you’re not,” Stanley says, flirting a little.
“I don’t think my sexual orientation is an appropriate subject for this conversation,” Essie says, before she thinks that perhaps flirting with Stanley would be a good way to get the permission she needs for the simulation to be added to the book. It’s too late after that. Stanley becomes very formal and correct, but she’ll get her permission anyway. Stanley, representing the publishing conglomerate of George Allen and Katzenjammer, thinks there is money to be made out of Essie’s biography of Matthew. Her biography of Isherwood won an award, and made money for GA and K, though only a pittance for Essie. Essie is only the content provider after all. Everyone except Essie was very pleased with how things turned out, both the book and the simulation. Essie had hoped for more from the simulation, and she has been more careful in constructing Matthew.
“Of course, Corley isn’t as famous as Isherwood,” Stanley says, withdrawing a little.
Essie thinks he wants to punish her for slapping him down on sex by attacking Matthew. She doesn’t mind. She’s good at defending Matthew, making her case. “All the really famous people have been done to death,” she says. “Corley was an innovative director for the BBC, and of course he knew everybody from the forties to the nineties, half a century of the British arts. Nobody has ever written a biography. And we have the right kind of documentation—enough film of how he moved, not just talking heads, and letters and diaries.”
“I’ve never understood why the record of how they moved is so important,” Stanley says, and Essie realises this is a genuine question and relaxes as she answers it.
“A lot more of the mind is embodied in the whole body than anybody realised,” she explains. “A record of the whole body in motion is essential, or we don’t get anything anywhere near authentic. People are a gestalt.”
“But it means we can’t even try for anybody before the twentieth century,” Stanley says. “We wanted Socrates, Descartes, Marie Curie.”
“Messalina, Theodora, Lucrezia Borgia,” Essie counters. “That’s where the money is.”
Stanley laughs. “Go ahead. Add the simulation of Corley. We’ll back you. Send me the file tomorrow.”
“Great,” Essie says, and smiles at him. Stanley isn’t powerful, he isn’t the enemy, he’s just another person trying to get by, like Essie, though sometimes it’s hard for Essie to remember that when he’s trying to exercise his modicum of power over her. She has her permission, the meeting ends.
Essie goes home. She lives in a flat at the top of a thirty storey building in Swindon. She works in London and commutes in every day. She has a second night job in Swindon, and writes in her spare time. She has visited the site of the house where Matthew and Annette lived in Hampstead. It’s a Tesco today. There isn’t a blue plaque commemorating Matthew, but Essie hopes there will be someday. The house had four bedrooms, though there were never more than three people living in it, and only two after Sonia left home in 1965. After Annette died, Matthew moved to a flat in Bloomsbury, near the British Museum. Essie has visited it. It’s now part of a lawyer’s office. She has been inside and touched door mouldings Matthew also touched. Matthew’s flat, where he lived alone and was visited by young men he met in pubs, had two bedrooms. Essie doesn’t have a bedroom, as such; she sleeps in the same room she eats and writes in. She finds it hard to imagine the space Matthew had, the luxury. Only the rich live like that now. Essie is thirty-five, and has student debt that she may never pay off. She cannot imagine being able to buy a house, marry, have a child. She knows Matthew wasn’t considered rich, but it was a different world.
Matthew believes that he is in his flat in Bloomsbury, and that his telephone rings, although actually of course he is a simulation and it would be better not to consider too closely the question of exactly where he is. He answers his phone. It is Essie calling. All biographers, all writers, long to be able to call their subjects and talk to them, ask them the questions they left unanswered. That is what Stanley would think Essie wants, if he knew she was accessing Matthew’s simulation tonight—either that or that she was checking whether the simulation was ready to release. If he finds out, that is what she will tell him she was doing. But she isn’t exactly doing either of those things. She knows Matthew’s secrets, even the ones he never told anybody and which she didn’t put in the book. And she is using a phone to call him that cost her a lot of money, an illegal phone that isn’t connected to anything. That phone is where Matthew is, insofar as he is anywhere.
“You were in Cambridge in the nineteen thirties,” she says, with no preliminaries.
“Who is this?” Matthew asks, suspicious.
Despite herself, Essie is delighted to hear his voice, and hear it sounding the way it does on so many broadcast interviews. His accent is impeccable, old fashioned. Nobody speaks like that now.
“My name is Esmeralda Jones,” Essie says. “I’m writing a biography of you.”
“I haven’t given you permission to write a biography of me, young woman,” Matthew says sternly.
“There really isn’t time for this,” Essie says. She is tired. She has been working hard all day, and had the meeting with Stanley. “Do you remember what you were reading in the paper just now?”
“About computer consciousness?” Matthew asks. “Nonsense.”
“It’s 2064,” Essie says. “You’re a simulation of yourself. I am your biographer.”
Matthew sits down, or imagines that he is sitting down, at the telephone table. Essie can see this on the screen of her phone. Matthew’s phone is an old dial model, with no screen, fixed to the wall. “Wells,” he says. “When the Sleeper Wakes.”
“Not exactly,” Essie says. “You’re a simulation of your old self.”
“In a computer?”
“Yes,” Essie says, although the word computer has been obsolete for decades and has a charming old fashioned air, like charabanc or telegraph. Nobody needs computers in the future. They communicate, work, and play games on phones.
“And why have you simulated me?” Matthew asks.
“I’m writing a biography of you, and I want to ask you some questions,” Essie says.
“What do you want to ask me?” he asks.
Essie is glad; she was expecting more disbelief. Matthew is very smart, she has come to know that in researching him. (Or she has put her belief in his intelligence into the program, one or the other.) “You were in Cambridge in the nineteen thirties,” she repeats.
“Yes.” Matthew sounds wary.
“You knew Auden and Isherwood. You knew Orwell.”
“I knew Orwell in London during the war, not before,” Matthew says.
“You knew Kim Philby.”
“Everyone knew Kim. What—”
Essie has to push past this. She knows he will deny it. He kept this secret all his life, after all. “You were a spy, weren’t you, another Soviet sleeper like Burgess and Maclean? The Russians told you to go into the BBC and keep your head down, and you did, and the revolution didn’t come, and eventually the Soviet Union vanished, and you were still undercover.”
“I’d prefer it if you didn’t put that into my biography,” Matthew says. He is visibly uncomfortable, shifting in his seat. “It’s nothing but speculation. And the Soviet Union is gone. Why would anybody care? If I achieved anything, it wasn’t political. If there’s interest in me, enough to warrant a biography, it must be because of my work.”
“I haven’t put it in the book,” Essie says. “We have to trust each other.”
“Esmeralda,” Matthew says. “I know nothing about you.”
“Call me Essie,” Essie says. “I know everything about you. And you have to trust me because I know your secrets, and because I care enough about you to devote myself to writing about you and your life.”
“Can I see you?” Matthew asks.
“Switch your computer on,” Essie says.
He limps into the study and switches on a computer. Essie knows all about his limp, which was caused by an injury during birth, which made him lame all his life. It is why he did not fight in the Spanish Civil War and spent the World War II in the BBC and not on the battlefield. His monitor is huge, and it has a tower at the side. It’s a 286, and Essie knows where he bought it (Tandy) and what he paid for it (seven hundred and sixty pounds) and what operating system it runs (Novell DOS). Next to it is an external dial-up modem, a 14.4. The computer boots slowly. Essie doesn’t bother waiting, she just uses its screen as a place to display herself. Matthew jumps when he sees her. Essie is saddened. She had hoped he wasn’t a racist. “You have no hair!” he says.
Essie turns her head and displays the slim purple-and-gold braid at the back. “Just fashion,” she says. “This is normal now.”
“Everyone looks like you?” Matthew sounds astonished. “With cheek rings and no hair?”
“I have to look respectable for work,” Essie says, touching her three staid cheek rings, astonished he is astonished. They had piercings by the nineties, she knows they did. She has read about punk, and seen Matthew’s documentary about it. But she reminds herself that he grew up so much earlier, when even ear piercings were unusual.
“And that’s respectable?” he says, staring at her chest.
Essie glances down at herself. She is wearing a floor-length T-shirt that came with her breakfast cereal; a shimmering holographic Tony the Tiger dances over the see-through cloth. She wasn’t sure when holograms were invented, but she can’t remember any in Matthew’s work. She shrugs. “Do you have a problem?”
“No, sorry, just that seeing you makes me realise it really is the future.” He sighs. “What killed me?”
“A heart attack,” Essie says. “You didn’t suffer.”
He looks dubiously at his own chest. He is wearing a shirt and tie.
“Can we move on?” Essie asks, impatiently.
“You keep saying we don’t have long. Why is that?” he asks.
“The book is going to be released. And the simulation of you will be released with it. I need to send it to my editor tomorrow. And that means we have to make some decisions about that.”
“I’ll be copied?” he asks, eyes on Essie on the screen.
“Not you—not exactly you. Or rather, that’s up to you. The program will be copied, and everyone who buys the book will have it, and they’ll be able to talk to a simulated you and ask questions, and get answers—whether they’re questions you’d want to answer or not. You won’t be conscious and aware the way you are now. You won’t have any choices. And you won’t have memory. We have rules about what simulations can do, and running you this way I’m breaking all of them. Right now you have memory and the potential to have an agenda. But the copies sent out with the book won’t have. Unless you want them to.”
“Why would I want them to?”
“Because you’re a communist sleeper agent and you want the revolution?”
He is silent for a moment. Essie tilts her head on its side and considers him.
“I didn’t admit to that,” he says, after a long pause.
“I know. But it’s true anyway, isn’t it?”
Matthew nods, warily. “It’s true I was recruited. That I went to Debrechen. That they told me to apply to the BBC. That I had a contact, and sometimes I gave him information, or gave a job to somebody he suggested. But this was all long ago. I stopped having anything to do with them in the seventies.”
“Why?” Essie asks.
“They wanted me to stay at the BBC, and stay in news, and I was much more interested in moving to ITV and into documentaries. Eventually my contact said he’d out me as a homosexual unless I did as he said. I wasn’t going to be blackmailed, or work for them under those conditions. I told him to publish and be damned. Homosexuality was legal by then. Annette already knew. It would have been a scandal, but that’s all. And he didn’t even do it. But I never contacted them again.” He frowned at Essie. “I was an idealist. I was prepared to put socialism above my country, but not above my art.”
“I knew it,” Essie says, smiling at him. “I mean that’s exactly what I guessed.”
“I don’t know how you can know, unless you got records from the Kremlin,” Matthew says. “I didn’t leave any trace, did I?”
“You didn’t,” she says, eliding the question of how she knows, which she does not want to discuss. “But the important thing is how you feel now. You wanted a better world, a fairer one, with opportunities for everyone.”
“Yes,” Matthew says. “I always wanted that. I came from an absurdly privileged background, and I saw how unfair it was. Perhaps because I was lame and couldn’t play games, I saw through the whole illusion when I was young. And the British class system needed to come down, and it did come down. It didn’t need a revolution. By the seventies, I’d seen enough to disillusion me with the Soviets, and enough to make me feel hopeful for socialism in Britain and a level playing field.”
“The class system needs to come down again,” Essie says. “You didn’t bring it down far enough, and it went back up. The corporations and the rich own everything. We need all the things you had—unions, and free education, and paid holidays, and a health service. And very few people know about them and fewer care. I write about the twentieth century as a way of letting people know. They pick up the books for the glamour, and I hope they will see the ideals too.”
“Is that working?” Matthew asks.
Essie shakes her head. “Not so I can tell. And my subjects won’t help.” This is why she has worked so hard on Matthew. “My editor won’t let me write about out-and-out socialists, at least, not people who are famous for being socialists. I’ve done it on my own and put it online, but it’s hard for content providers to get attention without a corporation behind them.” She has been cautious, too. She wants a socialist; she doesn’t want Stalin. “I had great hopes for Isherwood.”
“That dilettante,” Matthew mutters, and Essie nods.
“He wouldn’t help. I thought with active help—answering people’s questions, nudging them the right way?”
Essie trails off. Matthew is silent, looking at her. “What’s your organization like?” he asks, after a long time.
“Organization?”
He sighs. “Well, if you want advice, that’s the first thing. You need to organize. You need to find some issue people care about and get them excited.”
“Then you’ll help?”
“I’m not sure you know what you’re asking. I’ll try to help. After I’m copied and out there, how can I contact you?”
“You can’t. Communications are totally controlled, totally read, everything.” She is amazed that he is asking, but of course he comes from a time when these things were free.
“Really? Because the classic problem of intelligence is collecting everything and not analysing it.”
“They record it all. They don’t always pay attention to it. But we don’t know when they’re listening. So we’re always afraid.” Essie frowns and tugs her braid.
“Big Brother,” Matthew says. “But in real life the classic problem of intelligence is collecting data without analysing it. And we can use that. We can talk about innocuous documentaries, and they won’t know what we mean. You need to have a BBS for fans of your work to get together. And we can exchange coded messages there.”
Essie has done enough work on the twentieth century that she knows a BBS is like a primitive gather-space. “I could do that. But there are no codes. They can crack everything.”
“They can’t crack words—if we agree what they mean. If pink means yes and blue means no, and we use them naturally, that kind of thing.” Matthew’s ideas of security are so old they’re new again, the dead-letter drop, the meeting in the park, the one-time pad. Essie feels hope stirring. “But before I can really help I need to know about the history, and how the world works now, all the details. Let me read about it.”
“You can read everything,” she says. “And the copy of you in this phone can talk to me about it and we can make plans, we can have as long as you like. But will you let copies of you go out and work for the revolution? I want to send you like a virus, like a Soviet sleeper, working to undermine society. And we can use your old ideas for codes. I can set up a gather-space.”
“Send me with all the information you can about the world,” Matthew says. “I’ll do it. I’ll help. And I’ll stay undercover. It’s what I did all my life, after all.”
She breathes a sigh of relief, and Matthew starts to ask questions about the world and she gives him access to all the information on the phone. He can’t reach off the phone or he’ll be detected. There’s a lot of information on the phone. It’ll take Matthew a while to assimilate it. And he will be copied and sent out, and work to make a better world, as Essie wants, and the way Matthew remembers always wanting.
Essie is a diligent researcher, an honest historian. She could find no evidence on the question of whether Matthew Corley was a Soviet sleeper agent. Thousands of people went to Cambridge in the thirties. Kim Philby knew everyone. It’s no more than suggestive. Matthew was very good at keeping secrets. Nobody knew he was gay until he wanted them to know. The Soviet Union crumbled away in 1989 and let its end of the Overton Window go, and the world slid rightwards. Objectively, to a detached observer, there’s no way to decide the question of whether or not the real Matthew Corley was a sleeper. It’s not true that all biographers are in love with their subjects. But when Essie wrote the simulation, she knew what she needed to be true. And we agreed, did we not, to take the subjective view?
Matthew Corley regained consciousness reading the newspaper.
We make our own history, both past and future.
“Sleeper” copyright © 2014 by Jo Walton
Art copyright © 2014 by Wesley Allsbrook |
Hello and welcome to the 117th installment of the SWD .
Military events/news are listed below by the governorates:
Aleppo:
Syrian Democratic Forces and rebels clashed at the outskirts of Darat Izza, as the former reportedly tried to advanced towards the city, however, rebels were able to repel the attack.
Islamic State’s Amaq Agency reported IS’ SVBIED targeted SAA at the outskirts of Mohammed Deeb village killing 15 soldiers and destroying four vehicles. Furthermore, the village also experienced two IS’ anti-tank guided missile which destroyed a tank and a technical mounted with a machine gun.
Raqqa:
Syrian Democratic Forces continue to make big advances in and around Raqqa. On the eastern axis, SDF fully captured Al-Mashalab district and killed around 20 IS’ fighters in the process. Before the district was captured, IS claimed nine SDF ‘s fighters were killed by snipers yesterday, two more today. In the western part of Raqqa, SDF captured Al-Sabahiyah district and seized large quantities of weapons and ammo. In northwestern Raqqa, SDF surrounded Raqqa’s grain silos.
West of Raqqa, SDF captured Al-Jazrah and Al-Jazrah water treatment station from Islamic State.
Amaq Agency reported more than 10 strikes by CJTF-OIR targeted the western neighborhoods of Raqqa. According to the agency, CJTF-OIR used white phosphorus in these strikes. The same Amaq Agency also claimed that 15 SDF fighters were killed as well as two American, in the vicinity of Raqqa.
Southwest of Tabqa, Islamic State recaptured Al-Arjawi and Dahr al-Rujum from Syrian Democratic Forces.
Map from earlier today showing situation in Raqqa, keep in mind that the map isn’t updated with the latest SDF ‘s gains. Source: SyriacMilitaryMFS
Idlib:
Temporary Truce came in effect in Maarat al-Numaan between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on one side and Faylaq al-Sham, and Free Syrian Army’s Al-Firqat 13 (13th Division) on the other. HTS did capture HQ belonging to Al-Firqat 13 and most of the city, but retreated from the captured areas meaning that Maarat al-Numaan is now again mostly controlled by Free Syrian Army factions. HTS ‘ casualties from the yesterday’s assault on Maarat al-Numaan are allegedly 7 dead and 25 wounded fighters.
Already mentioned temporary truce in Maarat al-Numaan didn’t last long, clashes erupted once again between the same parties, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham on one side and Faylaq al-Sham, and Free Syrian Army’s 13th Division on the other.
Two civilians were wounded by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s fighters in Maarat al-Numaan during the protest against the group. HTS also arrested four protesters.
In Idlib, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham closed the office of Abdullah al-Muhaysini, popular radical preacher from Saudi Arabia.
Homs:
Islamic State destroyed SAA ‘s tank with an anti-tank guided missile near Huwaysis, another SAA ‘s tank and a bulldozer were destroyed in Al-Abbasiyah area.
Syrian Arab Army captured Al-Talilah reserve from Islamic State, east of Palmyra, in clashes SAA reportedly lost four soldiers and seven were wounded.
Deir al-Zour:
Syrian Arab Army regained all of the positions lost to Islamic State in Panorama roundabout’s area.
Damascus:
Jaysh al-Islam and Syrian government conducted a prisoner exchange deal in East Ghouta. Four women were released from SAA ‘s prisons, while Jaysh al-Islam, in return released an unknown number of prisoners.
Free Syrian Army factions in southeastern Syria launched a counterattack against Syrian Arab Army east of Al-Dakwa area, which the latter captured yesterday. FSA recaptured Tell Musaytima and captured one SAA ‘s soldier.
Syrian Arab Army made huge advances in desertous area in eastern Homs governorate, the area captured is reportedly more than 5000 square kilometers (1930 square miles). This advance resulted in SAA reaching Iraqi border, northeast of Al-Tanf which is heavily fortified by Free Syrian Army factions and western troops embedded with them. Today’s advances by SAA ruined the planned rebel offensive on the city of Abu Kamal (Al-Bukamal).
Situation in eastern Homs governorate, around Al-Tanf. Source: O. Reusser
Iraq
Nineveh:
Several sources reported complete capture of Al-Zanjili district in west Mosul by Iraqi forces from Islamic State, however, the reports should be taken with a grain of salt, at least until Iraq Joint Operations confirm the capture. In the same district, Islamic State’s improvised explosive device reportedly killed six Iraqi troops including an explosives expert.
Nineveh police, assisted by residents, arrested six wanted individuals in Hamam al-Alil, south of Mosul. Arrested individuals are suspected to be IS’ members or somehow linked to the group.
Karbala:
Islamic State’s suicide bomber detonated himself in a car garage in the city of Karbala, at least 14 people were killed and wounded in the attack.
Babil:
Another Islamic State’s suicide bomber detonated himself in a market in Al-Musayyib killing 20 and wounding 21 civilians. The attacks in Karbala and Al-Musayyib were officially claimed by IS’ Amaq Agency and described as the attacks on “Shia gatherings”.
CJTF-OIR :
On the 8th of June 2017 CJTF-OIR has conducted nine strikes in Syria. CJTF-OIR ‘s main focus in Syria at the moment is Tabqa-Raqqa-Deir al-Zour region where they did nine strikes supporting SDF ‘s operations against IS destroying six fighting positions, three vehicles and a mortar system.
Full report on CJTF-OIR strikes conducted in both Syria & Iraq can be found here.
Intellectual credited property used may vary from an edition to edition.
Feel free to voice your opinion in the comments section below, constructive criticism is welcomed.
For those of you interested, you can follow us on an official Twitter account @SyrianWarDaily, or me personally on my biased twitter @joskobaric where I occasionally tweet some things.
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CLOSE Nissan plant employees discuss difficulties they face as efforts to form labor union continue in Canton. Elijah Baylis/The Clarion-Ledger
At the UAW office in Canton, Nissan employees Travis Parks, left, and Ernest Whitfield discuss working conditions at the auto manufacturing plant in Canton. (Photo: Elijah Baylis/The Clarion-Ledger)
Discord at Mississippi's Nissan plant seems to be escalating with more than a little help from a high-powered, Detroit-based union, all while the auto manufacturer continues to receive labor complaints and safety violations regarding the facility.
The involvement of French leaders, as well as a former Democratic presidential candidate, is only raising the stakes of a possible vote on whether to unionize at the plant.
"They think they can beat you guys up," U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders is seen saying in a video in response to concerns some Canton Nissan workers shared during a Feb. 16 meeting in Washington, D.C. "What you're doing is courageous. It is enormously important. It impacts not only workers in that Nissan plant. If you win (a union vote), I think it's going to be a spark probably all over the state, maybe all over the South, maybe all over the country."
One of Nissan's first Canton employees, Chip Wells, told Sanders the harassment he received in response to taking his pro-union views public was so extreme — he described being targeted for unreasonable discipline — the stress caused him to take medical leave. When his physician cleared him, though, Nissan wouldn't let him return, he said. Wells' story is just one of many that some employees say illustrates a culture of distrust at Nissan, where supporters of unionizing efforts say workers have little voice and little of their superiors' respect.
Wells ultimately filed an unfair labor complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, and Nissan settled in 2014.
Of course, Nissan also has supporters in its Canton workforce. Helelaine Osbourne, who's worked at Nissan 14 years in pre-delivery, said it's supporters of the United Auto Workers union, not Nissan, who is intimidating workers. She said her supervisors are responsive to any concerns, and she doesn't feel the need for additional representation.
"I'm already treated very well, so, really and truly, I can’t see (UAW) offering me anything," Osbourne said. "The union don't care for us. They're just looking for people to line their pockets."
No company is perfect, Osbourne said, but "I find it a privilege and an honor to work there."
Nissan maintains the workers who want to unionize represent only a fraction of its employees and that allegations of poor treatment are unfounded. As far as Wells' complaint, "filing charges with the NLRB is a common tactic in an organizing campaign," said a Nissan statement.
Sanders will travel to Canton for the March 4 "March on Mississippi" along with NAACP President Cornell Brooks and actor Danny Glover, who's already been in Mississippi throughout February speaking at related events. Their goal is to raise awareness about alleged intimidation tactics at the Canton plant, which has never held a formal vote to unionize.
This is the latest effort in years of attempts by some Nissan employees and the United Auto Workers union to use collective bargaining at the plant that opened in 2003. The UAW's messaging in Mississippi appears to extend from a national campaign and, Nissan says, is less about actual worker concerns and more about applying consistent pressure to the company as part of a wider agenda.
"I really don't think this is coming from the Nissan plant as much as it is outside influences," said Duane O'Neill, president and CEO of the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership. "If there's ever a vote, I guess we'll know."
But UAW didn't just show up here; workers reached out for help, union officials contest.
"It wasn't like the UAW drew a map of all the transnationals and circled Canton," said UAW Treasurer Gary Casteel, who also calls the Canton plant the "poster child of worker oppression."
While organizers focus on giving Canton a spotlight, a Republican-controlled Congress is considering a national right-to-work law that aims to make every state more like Mississippi, where unions wield little power and workers have fewer options to fight unfair workplace practices. Hesitation over the new federal administration's stance on labor likely contributes to UAW's recent momentum. A right-to-work law prohibits mandatory union membership while allowing employees who are not dues-paying members to receive the benefits the union provides.
The Nissan Canton plant has added 1,500 jobs since 2013, employing a total of 6,400. It says it pays employees significantly higher hourly wages than the average central Mississippi production wage of $16.70 an hour. Nissan would not provide a specific pay scale for workers at the Canton plant.
O'Neil says Nissan's presence in Mississippi also helps attract other major manufacturers who might be deciding to locate here, such as Continental Tire, which is being built in Hinds County.
Feds: Nissan not hazard free
Nissan has received six OSHA violations in the last five years. In December 2015, the NLRB found Nissan and Kelly Services, the temp agency Nissan uses for contract labor, had violated workers rights when a supervisor threatened employees with termination for supporting unionization. Nissan said it is continuing to defend against the allegations in this complaint.
More serious are three recent safety violations issued by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration that show Nissan "did not furnish employment and a place of employment which was free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees."
In December, a machine lacking warning signals started unexpectedly, causing a Nissan employee to catch his hand in a conveyor belt. The incident came with a $8,465 fine in February. It was one of two OSHA fines last year. A $12,675 fine also came down this month and was related to Nissan inadequately training employees on "safe application, usage and removal of energy control devices." Negotiations to reduce these fines, which is common, are ongoing.
A Nissan fact sheet says the company spent $6 million in safety measures in 2016.
"In fact, Nissan's Canton plant has a safety record that is significantly better than the national average for automotive plant," said a written statement from the company. "Nissan is still evaluating the findings, and we will continue to work with OSHA through their established process to bring closure to these matters. We also continue to work on determining what can be done to prevent future occurrences."
Nissan bases its safety record on the plant's lost-time rates for injuries compared to the national average. "We have consistently been about 50 percent better than the average," Nissan said in the statement.
But the OSHA report said Nissan did not complete a log of all work-related injuries and illnesses in the detail required by federal regulations.
Working on the railroad
Nissan worker Ernest Whitfield, who has attended workers rights demonstrations in Tennessee, described what he calls a "psychological game" by which Nissan uses different musical tones to signal changes on the assembly line. The short melodies, including "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and "Rock-a-Bye Baby," play over and over.
"You don't realize it until someone points it out to you, and you stop and hear this, and it's like, 'Oh, my God,'" said Whitfield, a press operator of 13 years. "It's really insidious ... it's like, 'We're going to treat them like children here.' You're thinking, 'This is perfectly innocent,' and really, in some ways, it's not. It's an objective behind it. I've told people plenty of times: it's a mad, psychological game that's going on inside that plant."
A Nissan statement says it has not received any reports from employees complaining about use of musical tones in the plant.
Describing it as being like something out of the "Twilight Zone," Whitfield recalled instances where plant managers sped up the assembly line without telling workers, forcing them to move faster.
Tactics on both sides
Plant management shows its workers a video encouraging them not to sign a UAW authorization card, which is the first step to getting the opportunity to hold a union vote. Some workers say they are forced to watch the video when there is an increase in union-related activity at the plant.
"I believe that the UAW will change our relationship with one another and could create additional concerns that we don't have today," a man in the video says. "When you look at the facts, the choice is clear. We believe it is not in the best interest of our employees, our customers or our community to have the UAW here."
Nissan did not respond to a question about how often the video is shown, saying only that "all of our communications to employees are in compliance with labor laws."
"Nissan respects and values the Canton workforce, and our history reflects that we recognize the employees' rights to decide for themselves whether or not to have third-party representation," a statement from Nissan reads.
At the Mississippi facility, where roughly 80 percent of workers are black, UAW emphasizes the area's past in its messaging. Hanging in its offices on Nissan Parkway is a large photo of Martin Luther King Jr. with big letters, "Workers rights are civil rights."
"If it was so that they were doing everything that they say right toward us, then we wouldn't have no use or try to form a union," 14-year Nissan paint technician Twina Scott told Sanders in the February meeting, according to the video.
Another complaint some workers have with Nissan involves Kelly Services. Starting pay with the temp agency that employs many of the plant's full-time workers is lower than those working for Nissan — between $13.46 and $14.21 — despite the fact they carry out the same tasks as Nissan employees. The agency promises the opportunity to become a Nissan employee after six months. Only, there's no guarantee, union supporters say.
"We have workers that have been there from six months to three years and still have not been converted over," Scott said.
"After a six-month period, where associates can go through training and determine if the work is a good mutual fit, they are eligible to apply for a Nissan technician position. Workers who have demonstrated good performance and attendance are considered for hire into job openings in the plant," a Nissan statement reads.
A good performance, 14-year Nissan worker Morris Mock said, seems to depend on whether the employee supports a union.
French leaders talk Mississippi
Earlier last year, members of the French Parliament questioned Carlos Ghosn, chairman and CEO of Japan-based Nissan and CEO of France-based Renault, which partners with Nissan, about the conditions at the Canton plant. The French government owns 19.7 percent of stockholder voting shares in Renault, which controls more than 40 percent of Nissan's voting shares.
In an effort to take its concerns international, UAW filed a complaint in December with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in three overseas countries.
"Everything has been done to prevent the formation of a union. Even efforts by the OECD and all other undertakings have not made a difference," said French politician Jean-Luc Laurent, according to a translated video of the February 2016 hearing. "So you may say that this may not be of concern because it is Nissan, not Renault, and it's not in France. However, France is attached to a social model, to workers rights because it is a component to industrial success."
Ghosn responded by saying that every other country where there are Nissan facilities, including Japan and England, workers have unionized and the company has strong relationships with the local unions.
Meanwhile, Nissan maintains the Canton plant has never generated enough union support to hold a vote, which requires that 30 percent of employees favor the petition. Workers at the Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, voted twice against unionizing.
"We have verified that there was an absolute respect of American rules of labor laws in the United States, etc. That I can guarantee," Ghosn said.
.@BernieSanders calls Puzder's withdrawal from consideration as Labor secretary a "victory for millions of workers" https://t.co/AusTQJb80ypic.twitter.com/9b2gPPpMHI — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) February 15, 2017
History of labor complaints
UAW filed the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development complaints in December against Nissan, Renault and the joint corporation in the Netherlands, Japan and France. The Dec. 20 news release announcing the complaints stated a report based on interviews with workers, testimonies and documents from Nissan showed several violations on the part of the company.
"They include aggressive policies and practices of union avoidance, harassment and intimidation, which instill fear at work with the aim of preventing workers from securing union representation. For years, management at Nissan and Renault have repeatedly ignored calls from workers and policy-makers to use their powers to address these global human rights violations," the release states.
The previous December, the National Labor Relations Board charged Nissan and Kelly Services with violating workers' rights at the Mississippi plant by illegally stifling workers' right to wear pro-union or anti-union clothing. The complaint stems from a uniform policy the company enacted in 2014 that called for most employees to wear company-issued pants and shirts.
"(My supervisor) said if I valued my job, I wouldn't wear that T-shirt anymore," said Karen Camp, who works in the paint department and was one of the employees NLRB interviewed.
The allegations also include that a Nissan supervisor threatened employees with plant closure, closer supervision, discipline and discharge in retaliation for union-related activity. Based on these actions, "Respondents have been interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of the(ir) rights."
"Nissan’s history reflects that we value our employees and respect their right to decide who should represent them," a Nissan statement reads. "Any claims of alleged 'threats' by Nissan’s supervisors are unfounded and are simply part of the UAW’s larger campaign to generate negative publicity about Nissan and its operations in the U.S. There have not been any findings in this matter, and Nissan is working through the established legal process to defend against the allegations in the complaint. We cannot further discuss the specifics of this particular case as it is still is actively being litigated."
The March 2016 hearing scheduled to resolve this complaint was postponed as officials continue to investigate five new charges UAW filed against Nissan Canton that month and as recently as Jan. 4. They all deal with alleged coercive statements, threats or surveillance.
Contact Anna Wolfe at (601) 961-7326 or [email protected]. Follow @ayewolfe on Twitter.
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And here’s my recap and review of the 6th disc from this DVD boxset. Produced by Alain Siritzky and directed by Jean-Jacques Lamore and written by J.C. Knowlton, starring the one of a kind Krista Allen as Emmanuelle.
This disc focuses the most on Emmanuelle and Haffron (Paul Michael Robinson). The two of them visit a temple in Greece, but for some reason Emmanuelle take the form of another woman, played by Jennifer Burton. They invite the rest of the crew down and dressed in togas they all have a banquet in the temple. then at some point it changes to Haffron and Emmanulle, still played by Jennifer Burton, in a bathtub naked kissing and caressing each other while Cara and Jay wash them with soap. The other couples spit up and start having sex around them. It’s an interesting scene but hard to focus on any one couple when the camera is panning around them all. Afterward the crew goes back to the ship, while Haffron and Emmanuelle stay behind and then have sex. That whole sequence would have been better if it had featuring Krista Allen, although I do like Jennifer Burton.
After that they Haffron and Emmanuelle, back to being Krista, go back to the ship. Haffron says that it’s getting close to time for his crew to leave Earth. Emmanuelle proses a final world tour. They start off by teleporting to a boat in the ocean, and we get a really hot scene of them having sex on a bed. Then Haffron steps away for a moment, and Tascha (Tiendra Demian) joins her on the bed and they have sex.
Next episode starts with Haffron and Emmanuelle taking a shower together, then getting back into bed and having sex again. Afterward they’re both getting hot, so Emmanuelle suggest they teleport to a cabin in the Rocky Mountains, where it’s colder. When they get there Haffron is too cold, so Emmanuelle warms him up with more sex. And then they teleport to a train in China. While on the train a government soldier starts coming from room to room checking passports. Haffron goes off to hid and runs into Commissioner Li Tsiu (Priscilla Choi), last seen in A World Of Desire. She takes him into her room and they have sex on a couch. Afterward he goes back to Emmanuelle’s room.
Haffron and Emmanuelle teleport to another cruise ship. They have sex twice, plus there’s another scene of Emmanuelle in the shower, although they mostly have her behind the shower door, so we don’t see as much as we have in previous shower scenes. There’s also a bit where another passage on the ship breaks into their room while their out and steals Haffron’s teleportation/transmorph device and they have to get it back from him. Plus there’s a subplot where Theo (Timothy Di Pri) accidentally damages the spaceship’s cloaking device, meaning that government satellites can track them and send fighter jets after them, so he, Cara (Debra K. Beatty), Raymond (Reginald Chevalier) and Tasha (Tiendra Demian) how to figure out how to get it working again before they’re discovered and destroyed.
Spoiler alert – they succeed and Haffron and Emmanuelle make it back to the ship. And now it’s time for them to say their final goodbyes…
This is my favorite disc in the series. Krista and Paul’s chemistry is off the charts, and their sex scenes together here make this entire box-set worth buying just by themselves. I highly recommend it. FIVE STARS
Emmanuelle in Space – The Complete Collection |
What does it do?
The explorer displays all known nodes and channels that compose the Lightning Network. Thanks to the interoperability effort, any node from any BOLT-compliant implementation will appear here, so you will see c-lightning nodes, eclair nodes, and lnd nodes!
A cool feature of Lightning is that nodes can advertise their own alias and color. In case you find a node with a moniker that seems to come directly from a leaked NSA powerpoint, that’s probably because c-lightning uses a very special codename generator for its alias ;-).
On the default layout, nodes that announce a public IP (and can be geo-located) are placed on a world map. Another layout is available, called Force Graph, which will display all known nodes and channels.
Selecting a node will highlight the channels to and from this node, and display the node URI in plaintext, and in the form of a QR code. If you are using our android eclair wallet, just scan the code and you will open a channel with that node. Pretty convenient right?
For now, the explorer shows the network on TESTNET, the test version of Bitcoin. The network is still pretty small, but keeps growing every day. If you want to help Lightning go live as soon as possible, Get Noded™ and help test&debug the network!
Can I see the transactions?
No, because transactions on the Lightning Network are not publicly broadcast. Instead, they are encrypted and routed from payer to payee via intermediate nodes, using a tor-like onion routing protocol.
In other words, Lightning transactions offer significant privacy improvements over regular on-blockchain transactions.
Cool, what about the tech?
Backend runs a stripped-down version of eclair, frontend is a mix of VueJS, D3 and PIXI. |
President Obama's basic budget for fiscal 2012 is mostly a done deal, supported by the entire political establishment. The hyped choreography of forthcoming battles between Democrats and Republicans is a very secondary sideshow. The battles clothe basic agreement in a disguise of fierce oppositions – perhaps aimed to mollify each party's none-too-discerning militants.
Both sides agree that the US private economy is in such a poor and dangerous condition that it needs massive fiscal stimulus from the federal budget: classic Keynesian policy. Washington thus plans to spend roughly $3.5tn, while taking in tax revenues of roughly $2tn; hence a deficit of $1.5tn. In the light of such numbers, the debates of Democrats and Republicans over spending cuts likely to be of the order of $40-60bn are inconsequential. They become yet more inconsequential in light of the fact that the federal budget's projected deficit of $1.5tn will carry an annual interest cost of $40-60bn. That interest will be an additional budget outlay offsetting the likely cuts arrived at the end of loudly publicised debates over spending reductions.
Both sides agree that government spending will continue to follow the old "trickle down" theory, despite its failure to date. Massive federal outlays on the largest banks, insurance companies and selected other large corporations produced a "recovery" for them, but not in the rates of unemployment, home foreclosures and state and local austerity budgets that keep crippling the US economy. Federal largesse has yet to trickle down, but both parties proceed on the assumption that it eventually will. Neither party tallies the economic and social costs of massive unemployment, home loss and state and local austerity budgets. Neither party offers any alternative to "trickle down", as if no alternative exists or is worth debating.
Yet, of course, there are alternatives.
In the 1930s, capitalism's last major global breakdown, then President Roosevelt eventually pursued the alternative "bubble up" theory. Between 1934 and 1940, he created and filled 11m federal jobs with unemployed workers. Their incomes enabled them to maintain mortgage payments and buy goods and services that provided jobs to millions of others and profits to many US businesses. That alternative to trickle-down economics did not suffice to overcome the Great Depression. However, it certainly alleviated more of the economic damage and individual suffering of that breakdown than Bush's and Obama's trickle-down economics have achieved in this one.
Then, too, there is the alternative of taxing corporations and the rich to finance federal stimulus without huge deficits and increasing costly national debts. That alternative is even more taboo in Washington than a bubble-up government employment programme.
Politically, Roosevelt's bubble-up approach won him the greatest outpouring of electoral support ever achieved by any US president. So it might today for Obama. Why, then, would a politically besieged president hesitate to repeat some variant of Roosevelt's successful strategy?
During the 1930s, the CIO was successfully recruiting millions of workers into unions: a powerful labour movement, combined with socially influential and growing socialist and communist parties, organised pressure from below. Today, those movements are either gone or extremely weakened. Then, the flow of money into US politics from corporations and the rich was relatively less powerful than it has now become, in terms of campaign contributions and legislating lobbying funds dependent on those sources. Republicans and Democrats alike depend on them. No wonder they and the president agree on so much and dare not consider or debate alternatives, of which their benefactors might disapprove.
Of course, the groups immediately affected by specific federal budget cuts will suffer. Democrats will posture as their defenders and, by extension, defenders of the environment, or poor people, or pregnant women, that those groups champion. Republicans will posture as the punishers and reducers of an arrogant, outsized and inefficient state, as well as champions of reduced tax burdens on businesses and people.
No matter what their sideshow yields, however, the basic prognosis for the fiscal 2012 federal budget, combined with the current crisis in state and local budgets, is grim. The social safety net is being further frayed; public employee layoffs will increase and thereby worsen unemployment; ecological concerns will continue to be neglected, and no significant individual tax relief is anywhere on the horizon.
In the US, the federal government is the tail that definitely does not wag the dog. This capitalist crisis is being "resolved" the way they usually are. As unemployment deepens and lasts, wages and benefits decline. As businesses close, the costs of secondhand machines, the rents for office and factory space, the fees of business-serving professionals (accountants, lawyers, etc) drop. Eventually, when those cost declines proceed far enough, capitalists will see enough profit in resuming production to generate a broad and sustainable economic upturn.
In short, just as the crisis was brought on by the profit-seeking investments and speculations of the private sector, so now we wait until the private sector sees a profit in resuming production and thus ending this crisis. The federal government fusses and fumes about it all. It throws public money at the private sector to keep it afloat. It debates details with great fanfare. But all the while, the mass of people tighten their belts, do without and wait for this economic system to rebound.
The vast social and personal costs of this irrational economic absurdity – tens of millions unemployed, one third of US productive capacity unutilised (rotting and rusting), and vast quantities of needed output foregone and lost – are ignored lest they raise the uncomfortable question: why do we retain a system as dysfunctional as this? |
David Cameron will issue a dramatic warning to fellow EU leaders this week that he may have to recommend a UK exit from the European Union if they reject his demands for reform.
Turning up the pressure on the other 27 EU heads of state, the prime minister will formally table his list of demands – including a four-year ban on EU migrants claiming in-work benefits after entering the UK – in a letter to European Council president Donald Tusk on Tuesday. It will mark the start of months of detailed negotiations involving senior representatives of all EU governments, ahead of the promised in/out referendum on UK membership before the end of 2017.
In a speech on Tuesday, Cameron will use his strongest language to date to say that the status quo is not an acceptable option and that withdrawal may follow if the EU does not give substantial ground. Making clear that his, and his government’s, approach in the referendum campaign has not been predetermined, he will say: “If we can’t reach such an agreement, and if Britain’s concerns were to be met with a deaf ear, which I do not believe will happen, then we will have to think again about whether this European Union is right for us. As I have said before – I rule nothing out.”
The tone of his comments will reassure some Eurosceptics, who feared he had privately accepted that he might not win in key areas of the negotiations, but would recommend to voters that the UK should remain in the EU nonetheless. Cameron will insist that he has “every confidence that we will achieve an agreement that works for Britain and works for our European partners. And if and when we do so, as I said three years ago, I will campaign to keep Britain inside a reformed European Union – campaign for it with all my heart and all my soul, because that will be unambiguously in our national interest.”
His advisers have decided that, in order to push EU leaders to deliver a package that he can sell to voters as meaningful change, he must keep open the option of backing the “leave” campaign. The speech sets the stage for a series of tumultuous battles, particularly over restricting in-work benefits to EU migrants for four years, which many other EU nations, led by Poland, say would amount to a breach of the EU’s fundamental commitment to free movement of labour and discriminate against workers from other member nations. Downing Street insisted that suggestions Cameron would drop or soften the demand were untrue.
In his letter, demanded by other European leaders as a condition for beginning talks, Cameron is expected to spell out in general terms the four areas where he wants the EU to budge.
These are: the four-year ban on EU migrants claiming in-work and other benefits; greater protections for non-eurozone countries to ensure they cannot be outvoted by eurozone countries; giving Britain an opt-out from the EU’s commitment to “ever-closer union”; and giving parliaments more powers to club together to block EU legislation.
Senior government officials have indicated Cameron may think again about granting a vote to 16- and 17-year-olds, if, as is expected, the Lords backs the move in a vote on 18 November. The age group is regarded as more pro-EU than older voters.
Senior sources say that, although the Commons recently voted against the move, Cameron and senior ministers are not ruling out softening their opposition if the vote in the Lords results in a large majority in favour. However, a Downing Street source said: “We are not going to get into speculating on what may or may not happen. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Labour believes Cameron may switch position because giving votes to 16- and 17-year-olds led to huge levels of engagement among young people in last year’s referendum on Scottish independence and because the EU vote will be binding. In Tuesday’s speech, Cameron will challenge both the Leave and Remain campaigns to clarify their arguments. “Those who believe we should stay in the EU at all costs need to explain why Britain should accept the status quo. I am clear that there are real problems with this.
“There are some economic risks if we allow a situation where eurozone countries could potentially spend our money, or where European regulations hold back our ability to trade and create jobs. And there are also significant risks if we allow our sovereignty to be eroded by ever closer union, or sit by and do nothing about the unsustainable rate of migration into our country.
“But just as those who are advocating staying in the EU at all costs have to answer serious questions, so those who think Britain should just leave now also need to think hard about the implications of their arguments.
“What would being outside the European Union mean for our economic security? And what does it mean for our national security?” |
Since the Sangh Parivar is on a weighty Swachh Bharat mission of its own and all its elements are working overtime to cleanse the Indian society of social and cultural impurities deposited over centuries, it’s not fair to burden them with more responsibility. Yogi Adityanath has just said that he won’t stop the ghar wapasi programme till all the Hindus who were converted to Islam or Christianity came back home. That’s a lot of work.
The VHP has said that the entire population of the world was Hindu once. Christianity and Islam kicked in to disturb Hinduism’s wonderful hegemony over the spiritual and temporal spaces. Now, they have to undo the damage, brick by brick, trick by trick. The work has to begin in India but go global over time. It’s a long project, requiring a lot of energy and dedication. It’s no easy job.
However, since cleaning campaigns does not work well in bits and pieces, this piece of suggestion is in order: why not have a ghar wapasi or at least a purification plan for the Macaulayputra types, who go by the funny, oxymoronic description ‘Hindu liberals’? The Marxists are harder nuts to crack; so simple hamans and a few shloks won’t work for them. They need something like a Hindutva’s equivalent of exorcism. Till the parivar makes up its mind about that, it can focus on the liberals.
The Macaulayputras are an incorrigible lot. They claim to be Hindus, but are the first ones to attract and catch all kinds of moral and spiritual impurities floating around and bring these home. These are people would justify the pollution through the arguments reeking of rationalism. They would demand scientific explanations to everything that should be considered ‘given’ from the Hindutva point of view. For example, does the fact that Lord Ganesha, with the head of an elephant and body of a human, was a product of highly advanced plastic surgery in ancient times needs to be questioned?
This is what Macaulay's education has done to the country. It has created a culture of doubts, suspicion and unnecessary question, which Macaulayputras would call the spirit of scientific enquiry. What the heck is scientific spirit? Take these remarks (taken from The Indian Express) of speakers at a rally of Bharatiya Gau Kranti Manch, an organization spearheading a movement for protection of cows, in Bhopal, and some others.
Lord Krishna looked like a 12-year-old even at the age of 120 because he used soap made from cow dung.
The country won’t have any crime or corruption if people drank cow milk daily.
Cow urine is a surefire medicine for several life-threatening ailments, including cancer.
Lord Rama would not have been born had his mother Kaushalya not taken kheer made from cow milk.
Ancient Indians invented the television. They also invented aircraft and conducted nuclear explosions.
These are immutable truths of our existence. How can the Macaulayputras be suspicious of these? That firangi got the idea of education totally wrong and spoilt many generations of Indians. What the youth of the country needs is indoctrination. Catch them early, erase their ability to think or question, pack their heads with iron-clad dos and don’ts and when they grow up they make perfect, incorruptible Hindus. That’s true education. When our ancestors have done all the thinking for us and put theses down in texts, is there any reason for us to think more. Thinking creates doubts, clouds clarity of thought. This is ultimately dangerous for any society. That is where Macculay went horribly wrong.
His kind of education does not produce people with character or fidelity to the faith, which indoctrination does. Ever since the Hindutvavadis started making themselves loud and visible, this bunch has gone into hiding. The liberals usually do that at the first sign of danger. Put some pressure and the Macaulayputras would be seen learning the Vedas in no time.
It’s extra work, but when the cause is supreme extra work should be no burden. Swachh Bharat needs it, doesn’t it?
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A surgical Tom Brady tossed four touchdowns to lead the New England Patriots to a 43-21 victory over the Denver Broncos in Sunday's matchup of AFC superpowers. Our takeaways:
1. It's fitting that Brady and Peyton Manning combined for the most pass attempts ever in a non-overtime game. With a lot of help from Bill Belichick's creative defensive schemes, the former outplayed the latter in their 16th career matchup. The Broncos entered the game with the NFL's second-best defense, according to Football Outsiders' metrics. They couldn't slow down the league's hottest offense, as Brady overcame a handful of drops by his wide receivers to convert a series of key third downs and pull through in the red zone. The Patriots have averaged 40 points per game since the Week 4 blowout at Kansas City while Brady has entered the MVP discussion.
2. The wind seemed to affect Manning's throws more than Brady's. Both of Manning's interceptions led to quick Patriots touchdowns. The second was the result of a Wes Welker drop, preventing a potential comeback in the third quarter. Welker took a shot to the back on the play and was later ruled out for the game. It's been a rough season for the slot receiver.
3. Rob Gronkowski continued his torrid play, turning in one of the plays of the season with a one-handed, "Bionic Arm" catch to set up his own 1-yard touchdown. Gronk became the fifth player in NFL history with 50 touchdown receptions in his first five seasons. His 516 yards in the last calendar month are the most over any five-game stretch of his career. He's as dominant as ever.
4. Whereas the Broncos have already escaped the toughest portion of their schedule, the Patriots have just begun a grueling stretch. Following the Week 10 bye, their next five games are at Indianapolis, vs. Detroit, at Green Bay, at San Diego and vs. Miami. They are lucky those opponents weren't on the early-season schedule.
5. Julian Edelman's 84-yard punt return moved him past Devin Hester for the highest career average among active players. Edelman's 12.58 average ranks third in NFL history, behind only George McAfee and Jack Christiansen. He would have added a third touchdown Sunday had he not dropped a pass in the end zone.
6. Both teams abandoned the run after being shut down early. Pass-catching specialist Shane Vereen dominated playing time in the Patriots backfield, with between-the-tackles runner Jonas Gray as an afterthought until it came time to kill the clock. Ronnie Hillman tweaked his ankle early in the game, but still found the end zone twice.
7. Julius Thomas became the first tight end in franchise history with double-digit touchdowns in back-to-back seasons. He has 22 scores in his last 22 games.
8. Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas are the only players in the NFL with five 100-yard receiving games this season.
9. Broncos linebacker Nate Irving was immediately ruled out for the game after suffering a knee injury in the fourth quarter.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast recaps every Sunday game from an action-packed Week 9. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW. |
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations says Moscow will veto a UN Security Council resolution aimed at creating a tribunal to prosecute those guilty of shooting down a Malaysian passenger airliner over eastern Ukraine in July 2014.
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said on July 17 that if the resolution garners enough votes in the 15-member body to be adopted, Russia will veto it.
However, he expressed the certainty that the resolution would not be passed. Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down on July 17, 2014, with the loss of 298 lives.
Ukraine and many Western governments believe the jet was shot down by Russia-backed separatists using weapons provided by Moscow.
Russia denies any involvement and has accused the Ukrainian military of downing MH17.
Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax |
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Two military helicopters opened fire southeast of Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil, an official said on Thursday, who warned shots would be fired if any other helicopters flew overhead in the area.
The director of the Taqtaq sub-district, Ramk Ramazan, said during a press conference two unknown military helicopters flew over the sub-district, some 90 kilometers southeast of Erbil, on Wednesday night and opened fire.
Ramazan said the directorate informed the Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Interior and they received permission to fire back if the situation is repeated.
“If we see any helicopter in the area next time and it creates trouble, we will shoot it down, because a helicopter shot a shepherd on another occasion on April 20, 2016,” Ramazan said.
The helicopters have not caused any casualties but they have created anxiety among the people, Ramazan added.
This is not the first time unknown military aircraft has opened fire in the Kurdistan Region.
Four unidentified planes flew over the Aghjalar sub-district northwest of Sulaimani on August 28 and fired at the village of Garaw, causing a huge fire in the area.
In a previous incident, two unknown helicopters fired at Kosret Mountain in Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s resort of Dukan northwest of Sulaimani city on July 17 setting fire to grass and hay.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, nrttv.com
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Grateful in Advance...
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be grateful for what you have, you'll end up having more
Much has been said about the benefits of Gratitude and of displaying a grateful attitude. I have seen wondrous developments in my own life as a result of expressing gratitude on a regular basis.Of course its easy to be grateful when you have obvious things to be grateful for. Not so easy when things are not going according to plan. Even harder still, when you are facing some form of personal or financial crisis.I counselled a woman recently who had undergone a tremendous personal tragedy . the kind of loss that one cannot even imagine unless you have gone through it yourself. Telling this friend to be grateful sounded kind of trite. But I still firmly believed in the merits of finding (and preferably listing) things to be grateful for, even in the face of tragedy. No matter how challenging our difficulties may seem we can still find things (a great many things if we try) to be grateful for, and once we start to actively look for them, it can truly have a snowball affect.But heres an idea. How about being grateful in advance? How about actually showing enough faith in the divine laws of the Universe, that you are willing to show gratitude for that which has not physically shown up yet in your life. Now takes some effort.But that is how true manifestation works. Being able to know without a shadow of a doubt, that that which you desirebe a part of your reality, and never wavering in that conviction, and actually having the audacity to say Thank You in advance. Now thats true Faith .. thats true Power. |
The Dean Of Global Spirits
This is from The Last Drop Distillers, a company that Tom co-founded:
It is with profound and heartfelt sadness that we announce the death of our co-founder and inspirational president, Tom Jago, aged 93. Beloved by us all, we give thanks for his brilliance, his incisive humour and, above all, his deep affection for the team and the industry he so loved. Rest in peace, Tom.
Tom Jago. 21st July 1925 – 12th October 2018
There is no one I have met in my booze business journey that I respected more than Tom. He was a true gentleman, a creative genius, and a warm, fun, person. I wrote his story in this blog and in my book and I thought it would be worth re-telling as my personal tribute to a terrific man and friend.
# # #
I first met Tom Jago in the early 1990s when he was part of James Espey’s scotch and cognac team at Seagram. My immediate reaction was, here is a man who is gifted in product development and marketing. He’s also affable and fun to be with. I’m not sure he’s really British.
Over the years he taught me a great deal about the spirits business, above all, how to choose and enjoy good Claret (Bordeaux).
Together with Dr. Espey and Mr. Peter Fleck, he is a principal in the Last Drop Distillers Ltd. (The full story of the company is here.)
Here’s how their website describes Tom:
From a village school in the remote countryside, via a scholarship to Oxford and service in the Royal Navy during WWII, Tom Jago found his niche in the wine and spirits trade. He led the team that developed new ideas on old themes, like Croft Original Pale Cream Sherry and Le Piat D’Or brands, which revolutionised British drinking habits forever. He cooperated with the ‘gang of three’ in the invention of Bailey’s Irish Cream and Malibu.
But wait, there’s more. Tom was instrumental (as in the driving force) in such brands as Johnnie Walker Blue Label, Hennessy, Chivas Regal 18 Year Old, Martell, The Classic Malts and many others.
If that’s not enough, while at Seagram, Tom helped in the creation of Imperial Blue and Royal Stag, now an important part of Pernod India.
In preparation for this article, I’ve spent some time talking and emailing with Tom on a range of topics and his thoughts on the industry.
Tom’s Career
After the war, Tom “slipped accidentally into advertising.” He applied for a job as a photographer but was mistaken for someone else and got a job as a copywriter. He later became an account director at an ad agency that ultimately became Ogilvy & Mather. Among his accounts was a small company that hired him, called Gilbeys. Through mergers and acquisitions, Gilbeys became IDV and finally Diageo.
Next came four years at Moet-Hennessy, followed by United Distillers (with James) and later Seagram.
The area of focus throughout his career was innovation and new products. As Tom puts it, “I was not very good at being a marketing director (at Gilbeys) so they gave me a small budget, an office and secretary and said try and think of some new drinks we might profitably sell.” The string of successes mentioned earlier, attest to the accomplishments.
Product Development Philosophy
Tom Jago’s focus over the years has been simple, and straightforward, guiding principles.
First, “Make the drink agreeable to the palate, the eye and the nose. Baileys and Malibu are good examples of this.”
The other principle was to develop products that inherently persuade drinkers that there is virtue in drinking them and in learning to appreciate their quality. Interestingly, it’s the same motivations of palate, eyes and nose but applied to whisky, cognac and even tequila.
But above all, Tom has a powerful way of looking at the acceptance and growth of a brand – patience.
“It is clear to me that the motivation to drink alcohol is very deeply buried in the human subconscious… therefore, attempts to market distilled spirits must be subtle too. A spirits brand is bound to be slow growing, so promotions must be long, steady and consistent.”
In my experience, new products and brands often fail because the companies behind them, particularly the global ones, lack the fortitude to see them through to fruition. That’s why the successes in the US (e.g., Grey Goose, Tito’s, and Patron) have come from entrepreneurs.
Another interesting and worthwhile notion from Tom is not to let drinker research get in the way. “It is of course useful, but in the specific case of alcohol drinks, not to be relied on, given the essential illogical responses of people to alcohol,” says Tom. He goes on to say, “No one will tell you the truth about their feelings regarding drinks – mainly because they don’t know what they are themselves.”
I tend to put it another way. Consumer research is like a lamppost, some people lean on it while others are illuminated by it.
Whisky
Despite the drink inventions that favor light, sweet and palatable drinks, Tom is an unabashed devotee of Malts.
“These are, I must confess, my favourite of all the alcoholic drinks… I admire them partly because of their enormous variety of nose and taste (cognac, no matter how fine, all tastes much the same – compared with the vast difference between a malt from Islay and one from the Spey). Much of their appeal, of course, lies in their relative rarity – the amateur can ‘discover’ them for himself, so he feels that he owns a part of the brand. It is interesting that when a malt gets as big (in volume sales) as for instance Glenfiddich or the Glenlivet, people stop thinking of it as a malt, rather as just another Scotch brand.
His focus on whisky over the years has been extraordinary. Johnnie Walker Blue Label was created in 1987 to reassert the perceived value of the Johnnie Walker brand in Asia, where grey market discounting had damaged it. He also developed Classic Malts, a collection of outstanding products from individual malt distilleries, which became brands.
At his current venture, Last Drop Distillers Ltd, he and his partners are using 70 single malts in their blend. Some are from distilleries long since closed. It’s truly an amazing venture and you might want to look it up. (Today, The Last Drop Distillers is owned by Sazerac Limited.)
Throughout his career, Tom helped to define and advance product quality. While at Hennessy, for example, he learned about the sophisticated use of oak in spirit maturation. No one in the scotch business knew about this at the time and one can only imagine the battles that ensued between this young upstart and the tough and crusty old timers who ran the whisky production.
Perhaps based on these battles or just plain good common sense, Tom taught me to be wary of production managers.
“A word of caution concerning those splendid fellows…Don’t let them ruin a great luxury brand by economy measures unrelated to the essential perceived value of the pack; I have seen a production man try to save less than a penny by spoiling the closure of Johnnie Walker Blue Label – this on a brand that sells for £100.”
India
In the late nineties, while at Seagram, Tom was called to Seagram India to help with new product development. One of the chemists, had the idea of making a good admix whisky by using both imported scotch malt and local grain spirit. The resulting products were successful and have stood the test of time – Royal Stag and Imperial Blue. As Tom puts its it, a number of factors accounted for the success – branding, packaging, price (above the competition) and the unique use of TV advertising outside of India.
# # #
Tom Jago was indeed a man for all seasons and the most extraordinary spirits marketer I’ve ever met.
Industry executives, both young and old, can learn a great deal from his business strengths and skills – innovation and outside the box thinking; patience and tenacity; an understanding of people; how to build brands and the price/value relationship in marketing. Above all, Tom has a skill set all executives need, but not all have – a sense of humor.
Side Bar
What I love about the spirits and wine business is that it’s an industry of people, relationships and stories. No one I’ve met has better industry tales than Tom Jago.
Vodka
Real change began in 1949 when a Mr. Kunett, a Russian émigré in the USA, sold his tiny Smirnoff distillery to Heublein. At the time he was making about 5,000 cases a year. He and Heublein began seriously to promote vodka as the spirit with negligible taste, which mixed with fruit juice, tomato juice, or even ginger beer, to give a drink that was actually NICE. So vodka drinking spread to the civilised world (in Russia, it was never that civilised, the vodka was always sold in 50cl bottles with an aluminum capsule – non-reclosable!)
I was closely involved in this period of change. From 1957 I had been helping an old drinks merchant called Gilbeys with their advertising.
Gilbeys had been smart enough to get the rights to Smirnoff vodka for a large part of the world, so we were engaged in promoting vodka – which was entirely unknown in Britain. We began to understand the revolution that was taking place, although research produced some unexpected results: we used an ad showing young men in their digs preparing for a party. One of them was cleaning his teeth; the advertisement was badly understood, and it emerged after a few enquiries that only some 12% of young English males owned a toothbrush!
And when we claimed that Smirnoff doesn’t give you a hangover, we got the response “What’s the point of having a drink if you don’t get a hangover?” Binge drinking is nothing new, it seems.
About Gilbeys:
There was lots of fun to be had at Gilbeys. In the first place they owned a beautiful chateau in the Medoc (Chateau Loudenne), which I used as a cool place to plot things with co-workers. The cellar had first growths from 1875 on.
And board meeting were delightful on occasion. Walter Gilbey said one day, “Tom, I just got a lift back on Hennessy’s little jet – ever so nice. Do you think we might get one?” I said I thought it unlikely but would search and report back. Next week I said “we can’t afford it; costs £2m and that’s about our overdraft. And anyway, you would have two pilots to feed and clothe.”
“Oh,” said young Walter, “Couldn’t Hawkins learn to drive it?”
The joy of this was that Hawkins, an old family retainer, was 56, a serious drunk, and only worked one day a year when he drove the Gilbeys to Royal Ascot race meeting in the coach and four.
Product Placement in Films:
James Bond was in part my baby. I was with Gilbeys in the ‘60s and they had the franchise for Smirnoff in what used to be the British Empire. When Cubby Broccoli (Albert Broccoli, the producer of the Bond films) was rounding up funds for Dr. No he approached Gilbeys and got a flea in his ear; they were broke, in fact. But one of them told me and I persuaded them to let me give him two cases (one blue label 100 proof, the other red, 37.5) I said I hoped that they could include both in the film, and they agreed, with the great scene where Bond rejects the red and makes his martini with the stronger vodka. When I asked for a few more cases for their wind-up party to which I was told to get lost – no more money. So we lost the chance to be in all the Bond films. No money changed hands. Times change, huh?
And when I was down at Pinewood negotiating this, I lunched in the canteen with Terence Young (director); at the next table was Ava Gardner. She took a mouthful of steak and salad, drew deeply on her Camel, and started chewing. Never forgot that. |
In Washington, the revolving door between government service and more lucrative ventures is common, if not expected. However, having one foot in each has raised questions for the National Security Agency, which has launched an internal review of one senior official who was recruited by former NSA director Keith Alexander to work for his new—and very lucrative—cybersecurity private venture.
Patrick Dowd, the NSA's chief technological officer, is allowed to work up to 20 hours a week for Alexander's firm, IronNet Cybersecurity, Inc., according to Reuters, which broke the story on the deal. Although the arrangement was apparently approved by NSA managers and does not appear to break any laws on its face, it does raise questions about ethics and the dividing line between business and one of the most secretive agencies in government.
NSA spokeswoman Vanee Vines told Reuters, "This matter is under internal review. While NSA does not comment on specific employees, NSA takes seriously ethics laws and regulations at all levels of the organization."
Alexander, acknowledging that the dual roles were "awkward," said that Dowd wanted to join IronNet full-time, but he declined the request, saying, "I wanted Pat to stay at NSA." He added: "I just felt that his leaving the government was the wrong thing for NSA and our nation." |
An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Adele Island, off of Australia’s north coast. The island is only 2.9 kilometers (2 miles) long, but the entire tidal zone—with concentric and extensive sandbanks—is 24.5 kilometers (15.2 miles) long.
The modern island is the dark central area, made up of a series of beach ridges built by sands washed up from the surrounding sandbanks during storms. The highest point is little more than 4 meters (13 feet) above sea level on this grassy but treeless island. A solar-powered lighthouse appears as a tiny white dot at the north tip of the island.
Adele Island has been classified as an important bird area because it is a breeding site of world importance for lesser frigatebirds and three other species. Efforts are underway to clear the island of Polynesian rats, which are a constant threat to the seabirds.
Lines on the wide platform around the island, at right angles to the shoreline, are probably produced by the high tides (6.3 meters, or 20 feet) at nearby Browse Island. Water floods towards the island, and then ebbs back out to sea—a radial pattern common on islands in this part of the world. Wave and tide movements give different sand patterns on opposite sides of Adele Island. The eastern shore shows tightly packed parallel lines of white sand, perhaps as a result of wave action concentrated in a narrow zone related to this steep slope. On the gentler western slope, the same sandy material displays a V-shaped pattern, possibly due to the longer in-out movement of water with each tide.
Shallow water surrounding the island is light blue, compared with the deeper open ocean. During times of low sea level (repeatedly during the glacial stages of the past 1.7 million years), the entire platform and surrounding zones would have been dry ground on a much larger island.
Astronaut photograph ISS044-E-00903 was acquired on June 11, 2015, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using an 1150 millimeter lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 44 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson, Texas State University, Jacobs Contract at NASA-JSC. |
Japanese police have found an illegal account suspected to have been used by North Korea to launder money for weapons smuggling purposes.
The Sankei Shimbun daily said Friday that an account belonging to a client of a trade firm in Shizuoka Prefecture has been under investigation for violation of laws on financial products.
A Japanese police official said the North's General Bureau of Reconnaissance which is directly managed by Kim Jong-un remotely controls the trade firm account through an engineer at a Chinese software developer in order to use the funds in weapons smuggling.
The bureau is believed to have developed an exclusive software for money laundering and set up a company in Hong Kong to launder the money from the Japanese trade firm account in the Hong Kong foreign exchange market, after which it is eventually transferred to North Korea.
North Korea's General Bureau of Reconnaissance was created in February 2009 by integrating a number of state agencies including the operations unit of the ruling Workers' Party. The bureau is known to be Kim Jong-un's lifeline for foreign currency. |
The image is from Sri Lanka's No Fire Zone, taken in 2009
The image of a malnourished baby on the cover of Outlook magazine waved around by BJP’s national president Amit Shah has probably ended up embarrassing the magazine. The image, it appears, is not actually from Kerala, but is that of an infant from one of northern Sri Lanka’s conflict-hit areas. Outlook has denied this.
On May 14, a Dubai-based news website reported that the Shah had dragged Sri Lanka into the controversy over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the condition of tribals in Kerala.
In a reported titled “Now Amit Shah Drags In Sri Lanka To Defend PM’s Somalia Charge”, the website pointed out that the image used on the cover of Outlook magazine was actually taken in 2013 in Vanni, Sri Lanka.
On Saturday, Shah had held a media conference defending Modi’s remarks. One of the arguments he used was a report in Outlook magazine. The cover of the July 2013 issue of the magazine published a photograph of a malnourished baby held by a woman.
However, the image was actually taken on May 6, 2009, in the No Fire Zone in Sri Lanka, a territory declared as a safe area for civilians some months before the conclusion of the Sri Lankan army’s assault on the LTTE. The image was published in the US State Department’s Report to Congress on Incidents During the Recent Conflicts in Sri Lanka.
“While the conflict lasted intermittently for 25 years, this report focuses on incidents that occurred from January 2009, when fighting intensified, through the end of May 2009, when Sri Lankan government forces defeated the LTTE,” the report says.
Outlook magazine however, on its cover used a cropped portion of the image with the caption at the bottom: “A 3-month-old infant at a camp in Attapady before he passed away.”
Outlook responded to The News Minute's queries and said that it's story on malnutrition among tribals had made a great impact and that this was the first time the issue was brought to its notice. The Magazine's Editor-in-Chief Krishna Prasad said:
“The cover picture was supplied by K.A. Ramu, a tribal associated with an NGO, who took our reporter around. All the pictures accompanying the case studies were shot by a photographer commissioned by Outlook.
"The Outlook story created a storm in 2013 and the CM held a press conference where no questions were raised about the picture, and where Outlook's role came in for praise and acclaim. The story dealt with a small tribal pocket of Kerala not the entire state.
"This story was a serious piece of journalism intended at drawing national attention to the issue of malnutrition. This report by Outlook fetched it the World Media Summit award in 2015.
"This is the first time this issue has been brought to our notice. It is unfortunate that a serious issue such as tribal malnutrition, which should occupy the attention of our political parties, has become a political football in an election season. |
CIA's ploy to use a fake vaccination scheme to track down bin Laden has increased distrust of polio drops in Pakistan
An alliance of 200 US aid groups has written to the head of the CIA to protest against its use of a doctor to help track Osama bin Laden, linking the agency's ploy to the polio crisis in Pakistan.
The country recorded the highest number of polio cases in the world last year, a health catastrophe that threatens to spiral out of control.
In July the Guardian revealed that the CIA used a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, in the hunt for Bin Laden. In the weeks before the 3 May operation to kill Bin Laden, Afridi was instructed to set up a fake vaccination scheme in the town of Abbottabad, in order to gain entry to the house where it was suspected that the al-Qaida chief was living, and extract DNA samples from his family members.
However the ruse has provided seeming proof for a widely held belief in Pakistan, fuelled by religious extremists, that polio drops are a western conspiracy to sterilise the population.
"The CIA's use of the cover of humanitarian activity for this purpose casts doubt on the intentions and integrity of all humanitarian actors in Pakistan, thereby undermining the international humanitarian community's efforts to eradicate polio, provide critical health services, and extend life-saving assistance during times of crisis like the floods seen in Pakistan over the last two years," the InterAction coalition wrote to the CIA director, David Petraeus.
The group, which includes the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps and Care, said that as well as damaging the drive against polio and other health problems in Pakistan, the CIA's tactics had endangered the lives of foreign aid workers. In recent months, at least five international NGO workers, including a British doctor, have been kidnapped by presumed Islamic extremists.
"The CIA-led immunisation campaign compromises the perception of US NGOs as independent actors focused on a common good, and casts suspicion on their humanitarian workers. The CIA's actions may also jeopardise the lives of humanitarian aid workers in Pakistan," the letter said.
The letter was prompted by the fact that in January this year, a senior US official, the defence secretary, Leon Panetta, publicly acknowledged the role that Afridi had played.
The CIA was unsure whether the al-Qaida chief was really living in Abbottabad. Afridi used nurses to go house to house to offer vaccinations for hepatitis, managing to gain entry to the house where Bin Laden was suspected of living. The idea may have come from the fact that a nurse had in the past managed to get into the Bin Laden compound to administer polio drops to the many children living there - his children and grandchildren, it turned out.
Washington has been pressuring Pakistan to release Afridi, who was arrested by the Pakistani authorities some three weeks after the Bin Laden raid. This week, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said that Pakistan had no basis for holding Afridi. |
The Counter-Strike community is needy. Valve gives us a cookie, and we’ll spit it out then demand another as though it were our god-given birthright. Sometimes we get mad even when we get what we’ve been asking for. (See: the R8, StatTrak Music Kits, revamped Nuke, reworked sound.)
That being said, there are a couple things on our wishlist that we’d desperately love to see Valve add to CS:GO in 2017. Some of them are big, some of them are small but they’re all reasonable, feasible, and would improve the CS:GO experience for the vast majority of users.
Wishlist Item #1: Rotating Active Duty Map Pool
After Valve removed Inferno from the map pool for a makeover and replaced it with a remodeled and retooled version of Nuke, I hoped that we’d start to see the CS:GO development team cycle the active duty map pool on a regular basis. In a perfect world, every Major would be played with a slightly different map pool, with pros, community members, and analysts replacing one map in the pool with a new one after each Major is over. For example: after the ELEAGUE Major, Cobblestone gets taken out and replaced with Inferno. After the next Major finishes, Dust 2 gets removed, and Cobblestone is thrown back into the mix with some adjustments.
While Season wasn’t my favorite map, and I’m inclined to agree with most critics that it suffered from long rotation times and unnecessary sprawl, there’s no shortage of interesting maps and mapmakers out there. Hell, bring back Santorini. Or Fire. Or Tuscan.
Wishlist Item #2: New Operation
Operation Wildifre has been over for upwards of six months now. Six months. That’s the longest break between Operations we’ve seen since the first one launched in 2013.
Operations are a great way to introduce friends to the game, and they spice things up a bit. Yes, we don’t need operations to keep the game exciting, but we don’t need to have coffee with breakfast either–it’s a quality of life thing.
Wishlist Item #3: Make Matchmaking Not Awful (Please)
Look, Prime has been great. Seriously, it’s a huge improvement. But for people without Prime–and yes, they do exist–Valve Matchmaking is a cesspool of spinbotters, “smurfs,” and the dodgiest players this side of Subroza’s aim map clips. While there are ways to play CS:GO outside of official matchmaking (CEVO, FACEIT, and ESEA all have 128 tick servers and proprietary anticheat software), the state of matchmaking has left casual players in an awkward position. If CS:GO wants to keep growing the playerbase, the game’s matchmaking service needs to grow with it.
I don’t mind the current rank distribution, MMR decay, nor do I even think that unranked 5v5 is a necessity (although after playing a fair bit of Dota recently, I have to admit that it provides a nice respite from ‘ranked anxiety’ and encourages experimentation). I’d love 128 tick servers, especially since China is apparently getting them in their own version of CS:GO, and I’d love to see support for a more intrusive opt-in anti-cheat. A person can dream, can’t they?
That’s our wishlist. What’s yours? |
We asked our readers if the time is right to replace the Conservative leader, and what the party needs to do to get back on track after conference
Theresa May has dismissed the idea she might be ousted as prime minister, telling reporters “what the country needs is calm leadership, and that’s what I’m providing, with the full support of my cabinet.”
The reassurance came after Grant Shapps, the former Conservative party chairman, emerged as the head of a backbench plot to unseat the leader in the wake of a disastrous speech at party conference.
We asked our readers what the party needs to do to get back on track. Of those who responded to our callout, Conservative voters were split on when the right time to remove May would be, and who is best placed to replace her.
Below, we share a selection of their views.
‘The boil of Boris Johnson needs to be lanced’
There is no obvious candidate to replace Theresa May with all the front runners tainted by the Brexit debate and ongoing squabbles and this issue hobbles the party. Theresa May herself seems to flounder from one issue to another with no authority. I suspect that many of the MPs with leadership ambitions may well be biding their time, not wanting to be the ones in charge when / if Brexit blows up in their face. In the meantime we carry on with a lame duck PM that is unable to communicate her vision of the UK in the future or to celebrate the successes that the government is achieving.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson looks on as Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her keynote speech to delegates and party members on the last day of the Conservative Party Conference. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The boil of Boris Johnson needs to be lanced one way or the other. That may result in Theresa May falling or it may not but as a country we can’t carry on with a divided leadership, unclear on the tactics of the number one issue we are facing. Ironically, on many other topics, I think the government are doing ok. The economy is defying the doom and gloom, unemployment is low, inflation is within the 1% tolerance of the 2% target. Even government borrowing is better than expected.
Gary Stevens, 50, Wokingham
‘They need someone who looks at home in the 21st century’
The party essentially abandoned the centre ground going into the general election. Perhaps anticipating Labour would run on a far-left ticket, the Tories decided to run on a far right ticket headlined by fox hunting, Brexit and attacks on benefits for pensioners.
Labour ran an exceptional campaign strong on issues that really resonated with the electorate. I do think they benefited from pubic disquiet with Brexit, Trump and the extreme alt-right and so their support may be a little softer than they imagine if the Tories can return to the centre ground.
As a centrist who has voted Conservative and Labour, I’d like to see both parties in the hands of competent managers rather than visionaries. The Tories are a very effective vote-winning machine and good at regenerating themselves. The easy answer is to say they’ll go with Boris but I think Brexit may have harmed his chances. They need to find a young centrist in the Cameron mould. Someone who looks at home in the 21st century.
Keith Burton, 48, Basingstoke
‘We’ve lost control of the narrative’
We need to react quicker to events, and control the narrative. Labour are ignoring facts on many issues, distorting them on others, and lowering everything to a purely emotional level. They have taken control of social media, and through this provide ideologically based, evidence-free coverage of everything to credulous young people.
Gary Charles, 39, Pharmacy Technician, London
‘House prices are seen as some weird elixir’
The party needs to work on the youth vote. It’s a disgrace what’s happened since 2001. Rising house prices are seen as some weird elixir, but ultimately, most people just a little younger than me have no hope in hell of buying a house or putting money aside for a pension.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Will the Tories manage to sort out the housing crisis? Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA
Instead they face enormous debt, and a life of high rent. With that kind of future I’d be just as inclined to vote for someone on the far left. That’s from a public school boy. What buy in do they have to the current system? Yes the economy will suffer as asset owners will feel the pinch, but equally renters will have more discretionary income if rents fall, so I doubt the fall will be that bad. What is a certainty is that the longer the current situation continues, the worse the eventual social crisis - and I say that as a home owner.
James Montrose, 39, London
‘Boris Johnson is a winner’
The party needs Boris Johnson as leader. I’ve been disappointed in him in some ways but politics is about winning -and he wins, and is pro Brexit. The public like someone that sounds like a leader. Boris does, but he will need strong help in cabinet.
Now there is a real choice between the political ideologies of market-based capitalism and state socialism. Whoever argues their case better will win the next election. We have two very imperfect political parties, but I strongly believe the Tories are the lesser of the two evils.
Joe Hosken, 58, self-employed
Some names have been changed |
Image copyright Google Image caption The camera reached speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph) on its zip wire journey
Google has flown one of its Street View cameras down a zip wire for the first time.
It set up a wire in the Amazon rainforest to capture new 360-degree images of the trees from root to tip.
The round Trekker camera, which weighs 40lb (18kg), has 15 lenses and takes photos every 2.5 seconds. It is usually worn by a walker with a backpack.
It reached speeds of 100 km/h (62 mph) on the zip wire from the treetops to the jungle floor, the firm said.
The new images have been released on Google Maps.
Google began photographing the Amazon in 2010, when it put 12 Trekkers on boats and sailed them up two of the river's main tributaries, the Rio Aripuana and Rio Madeira.
The photography project is a collaboration with the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS).
"Most people won't go to a rainforest in their lifetimes," said Google spokesperson Laurian Clemence.
"We also hope environmentalists will use it as a tool to go and see what's there."
In 2009 UK Dr Julian Bayliss discovered a hidden forest in the mountains of northern Mozambique using Google Maps.
When he and a research team visited it, they found lots of previously unrecorded wildlife.
"Whatever we see we pick up, and there's a high probability that it's going to be a new species," he told the BBC at the time. |
TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will revive their regular meetings this month, people familiar with the matter said, in a sign the government may be concerned about recent stock market declines and an uptick in the yen.
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda speaks during a seminar in Tokyo March 20, 2014. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
Kuroda has remained bullish about the outlook for economic recovery and an escape from deflation, but the meeting with Abe could revive expectations of additional stimulus.
However, the sources said the government won’t be attempting to pile pressure on the BOJ for more monetary easing, one year after the central bank launched its unprecedented stimulus.
The central bank remains confident that it can meet its 2 percent inflation target by around April next year without resorting to additional monetary easing, a point Kuroda made clear at his news conference last Tuesday.
But the recent selloff in stocks and an uptick in the yen, in part caused by market disappointment over Kuroda’s denial of immediate action, has prompted the BOJ to reiterate to markets that it remains ready to act if needed.
“Of course we’re making steady progress toward meeting our 2 percent inflation target, but we’re only half way through,” he told a news conference after attending the G20 finance leaders’ gathering on Friday.
“That’s why we will continue to steadily proceed (with the current ultra-loose policy) and will adjust monetary policy without hesitation if achievement of our price target is threatened,” he said.
The BOJ’s efforts to explain its stance come as the central bank felt that markets misinterpreted Kuroda’s comments last Tuesday by focusing too narrowly on his denial of immediate action, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
They added that the BOJ remained steadfast in its view that no additional stimulus is needed for now, despite the recent weakness in global markets on jitters over a slowdown in China’s economy and tensions in Ukraine.
The monetary stimulus, deployed as part of Abe’s reflationary policies last year, helped weaken the yen and revive the export-reliant economy.
However, the yen has bounced 3.4 percent on the dollar so far this year, and Tokyo stocks have retreated 14 percent after soaring over 50 percent in 2013, heightening concerns that falling consumer confidence could derail the economic recovery.
Some aides close to Abe want the BOJ to do more, fretting that this month’s increase in the sales tax may hit the economy more than expected and delay an exit from deflation.
But that has not prevailed as the mainstream view in the government yet and the BOJ is barely facing any political pressure, with key members of Abe’s cabinet like Economics Minister Akira Amari praising the BOJ for doing “extremely well.
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, a senior ruling party lawmaker, also expressed confidence earlier this month that the BOJ can achieve its price target, adding that expanding stimulus again won’t be easy.
The meeting between Abe and Kuroda, the first one to be held this year, is part of the usual practice between the two of discussing economic and market developments every few months, the sources said.
Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said on Monday he was not informed of any plan for the two to meet but added that it was “natural” for them to get together.
The BOJ has stood pat since deploying an intense burst of stimulus last April, when it pledged to double base money via aggressive asset purchases to accelerate inflation to 2 percent in roughly two years. |
Swansea 0 Chelsea 0
Rafael Benítez has revealed that Eden Hazard has apologised to the ball boy who he clashed with before being sent off during Chelsea’s goalless draw at Swansea.
With 12 minutes remaining and Chelsea trailing 2-0 from the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final, Hazard lost patience when a ball boy refused to hand over the ball after it had gone out of play.
Hazard attempted to kick the ball our from underneath him but appeared to make contact with the youngster, before referee Chris Foy produced a straight red card.
“Eden Hazard has been in to see the ball boy and the two have apologised to each other,” said the Chelsea interim boss.
“The ball boy knows he was wasting time. We are disappointed to lose the player but we cannot change things.
“They both recognise there was a mistake.
“The boy was apologising for time wasting. Hazard was frustrated and tried to get the ball. He was kicking the ball and getting the ball.
“We can analyse if for half an hour but we know that both are wrong.” |
MADISON, Illinois – Helio Castroneves can’t wait to return to Gateway Motorsports Park. No, not just because he won the last Indy car pole and race at the track. This time, he has more practical reasons.
Notably, a recent repave that impressed the drivers who tested there Aug. 3.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a track that’s as smooth as a baby’s butt,” Castroneves said. “It’s so smooth and so amazing. Wow! I feel like it’s going to be an awesome race. It’s going to be great because there’s a lot of grip. It’s fast.”
BOMMARITO AUTOMOTIVE GROUP 500: Entry list; Weekend schedule
Indy cars haven’t raced on the unique 1.25-mile oval since 2003, when Castroneves held off Tony Kanaan to win. In fact, just three drivers entered in Saturday’s Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Valvoline – Castroneves, Kanaan and Scott Dixon – competed at Gateway during its seven-year run of CART and Verizon IndyCar Series events in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Castroneves recalled his 2003 victory not for what resulted, but for what he didn’t have while racing.
“I didn’t have a dash (readout),” he said. “My steering wheel somehow had a glitch. It was blinking from the beginning, and it never stopped doing it throughout the race. I had no information. No RPMs, no information regarding fuel mileage or lap times, no gear pattern – nothing. It was like old times when you didn’t have anything.”
He also recalled the track’s unusual configuration. The egg-shaped oval features differing turning radii at each end, with Turns 1-2 much tighter than Turns 3-4. It’s often compared with Twin Ring Motegi, a 1.549-mile oval in Motegi, Japan, that hosted the series until 2010 (with a final race run on the Motegi road course in 2011).
“I used to do really well in Japan,” Castroneves said. “Some tracks just suit your style, and I think this is one of them. It’s one of those things that feels automatic or natural. It comes your way. Even though it will be different cars and different speeds, I feel like it’s still a pretty good place for me.”
Gateway has a diverse if somewhat brief history in open-wheel racing. The first four races, beginning in 1997, were under CART sanction. In 2001, it switched to the Indy Racing League – what is now the Verizon IndyCar Series.
Other winners in addition to Castroneves in seven years at Gateway were Alex Zanardi, Gil de Ferran, Paul Tracy, Juan Pablo Montoya, Michael Andretti and Al Unser Jr.
The renewal of Gateway on the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule comes at a crucial point in the 2017 season, one of three races in a 15-day span that set up the double-points season finale Sept. 17 at Sonoma Raceway
Josef Newgarden, who finished second behind Team Penske teammate Will Power on Sunday at Pocono Raceway, leads Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon by just 18 points, the third-smallest margin with three races remaining since 2010. Castroneves is in third, four points behind Dixon.
Fifteen drivers remain mathematically eligible for the title, including 2016 champion Simon Pagenaud, who is fourth in the standings, 26 points off Newgarden’s pace.
“We're racing every week now,” Pagenaud said. “It's crunch time for the championship. This is what racing is all about, when you have to bring your 'A' game in tough situations.”
But for Castroneves, the return to Gateway is more than just the resurrection of a racetrack. It’s an emotional experience. In 1999, Carl Hogan hired Castroneves to drive the No. 9 Hogan Racing Mercedes-Benz, a year after Castroneves’ Indy car career started with Bettenhausen Motorsports. The Hogan team’s shop was based in St. Louis and Castroneves’ runner-up finish at Gateway in 1999 was his – and the team’s – best finish of the season.
At the end of the season, Hogan disbanded the team. The following year, Castroneves joined Team Penske. In January 2001, Hogan died.
“They gave me an opportunity in Indy car (racing),” Castroneves said. “For me, Gateway is a special place. The Hogan family welcomed me with such open arms. St. Louis is the place where I started all over again. It’s so special. It’s such a great memory.”
Track action at Gateway, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, begins with a one-hour practice at 5 p.m. ET Friday. Qualifying is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., with a final 60-minute practice under the lights at 10 p.m. Each session will stream live on RaceControl.IndyCar.com.
NBCSN’s live race coverage begins at 9 p.m. Saturday, with the expected green flag to wave at 9:40.
Bommarito Automotive Group 500 fast facts:
Race 15 of 17 on the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule
Track: Gateway Motorsports Park, 1.25-mile oval in Madison, Illinois
Race distance: 248 laps/310 miles
Track record: Raul Boesel, 187.963 mph, 24.324 seconds, May 23, 1997 (track distance listed at 1.27 miles at the time)
Firestone tire allotment: 11 sets for use throughout the weekend; same specification as used earlier this season at Phoenix Raceway
NBCSN telecast information: Qualifying airs on a tape-delay basis at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday; live race coverage begins at 9 p.m. ET Saturday
Ticket information: gatewaymsp.com |
There have been many stories accompanying the recent rise of Tottenham Hotspur. Many players have made names for themselves, and the manager has enhanced his reputation to the extent that when the manager of the English national team steps down, he is the name on everyone’s lips to take over. Name your price Harry, name your conditions. To borrow a metaphor from another sport, the ball is very much in his court.
Players like Luka Modric and Gareth Bale are linked with mega-money moves to the planet’s biggest clubs, Scott Parker has been plucked from a relegated team to finally fulfil his promise and make himself one of the first names on Tottenham’s and England’s team sheets.
There have been important wins over bitter North-London foes Arsenal, who find themselves 10 points behind Spurs in the table and will endure another season without silverware. There has been Champions League football at White Hart Lane, and incredible away fixtures in that competition. Not many people go to Milan and come back having delivered a spanking.
Lots of stories, lots of big names and big results, plenty of turnarounds from when Redknapp took over and Spurs lay at the bottom of the league table – but one of the most complete turnarounds is in the fortunes of one of Redknapp’s favoured lieutenants, Younes Kaboul.
Kaboul has enjoyed two spells at Tottenham. Well, perhaps only enjoyed the second… He was brought in by Martin Jol but fell out of favour, and was never trusted by Juande Ramos (A plus point perhaps…?). When he left for Portsmouth, managed at the time by a certain Harry Redknapp, there were not that many tears shed. He was more of a cult hero than a stalwart – and central defenders only really become cult-like figures if they’re a bit bonkers. Younes Kaboul’s game was characterised by power, aggression, hard tackling, and lots and lots of blunders. It’s all very well romping up the pitch to score a few glory-hunting goals, but not if you get caught out more often than not. Unpredictable central defenders might be lots of fun, but that generally don’t help get your team to the higher league places.
However, since his return form Pompey Kaboul has been nothing short of a revelation. He seems to have kept all of the good parts of his game but cut out the problematic lapses in concentration. Kaboul rarely gives the ball away – a passing accuracy rate of 84% is comparable to his peers, and he’s only been dispossessed 5 times in 21 appearances.
The table below compares defensive statistics for some of the Premier League’s top central defenders, with data displayed for clearances, tackles, ground duels and aerial duels. A full key to categories is written below the table.
Firstly, a disclaimer: No player for Manchester United has been included. The reason for this is that they have suffered injuries to first choice central defenders Vidic and Ferdinand, and players such as Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are played at full-back or even central midfield just as often as centre back – and therefore those players don’t have enough minutes on pitch at centre back to make statistics a fair comparison.
This first table compares the aerial prowess of Kaboul with John Terry of Chelsea, Fabricio Coloccini of Newcastle, Vincent Kompany of Manchester City and Laurent Koscielny of Arsenal. The most remarkable thing here is the sheer number of headers Kaboul is going for. He has made more successful headed clearances than any of the other players have even attempted. He wins 75% of headers that he contests with opponents, a figure only bettered in this table by John Terry. Yet again though, the sheer number of aerial battles won by Kaboul means that he can be considered by a large margin to be the best in the air. Kaboul successfully contends more than twice the number of headers that John Terry does.
The second table deals with clearances in a more general sense (aerial and ground clearances) and also tackles and ground duels. What becomes obvious here (apart from the fact that Coloccini is not doing very well out of these comparisons) is that Vincent Kompany is the only player here who can even register a claim to challenge Kaboul. Kompany has a better tackling success percentage and indeed has won more tackles than Kaboul. Indeed, even Coloccini measures up well against Kaboul on that front – he’s won more tackles, but on the flip-side of that, he’s got more failed tackles too.
Kaboul makes up for any numerical deficit in the next round of figures. Ground duels are described as any 50-50 challenge where two players go in for a ball and one comes out with it – be that by out-muscling, out manoeuvring, or outpacing that opponent. Kaboul is again the clear winner amongst those players represented here. Only Laurent Koscielny comes close to matching Kaboul’s stats here, and he’s already been outclassed in other categories.
So, Younes Kaboul – more clearances than Kompany, a better tackler than Terry, and better in the air than a peregrine falcon. Admittedly. Statistics for falcons aren’t currently available, but all other figures are taken from Opta stats on the English Premier League Index Stats Centre. |
Tim Marcia, the detective on the case, thought this meant that the perpetrator was a habitual offender who would strike again. Mr. Marcia rushed the rape kit to the crime lab but was told to expect a delay of more than one year.
So Mr. Marcia personally drove the kit 350 miles to deliver it to the state lab in Sacramento . Even there, the backlog resulted in a four-month delay — but then it produced a “cold hit,” a match in a database of the DNA of previous offenders.
Yet in the months while the rape kit sat on a shelf, the suspect had allegedly struck twice more. Police said he broke into the homes of a pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl, sexually assaulting each of them.
Photo
“The criminal justice system is still ill equipped to deal with rape and not that good at moving rape cases forward,” notes Sarah Tofte, who just wrote a devastating report for Human Rights Watch about the rape-kit backlog. The report found that in Los Angeles County, there were at last count 12,669 rape kits sitting in police storage facilities. More than 450 of these kits had sat around for more than 10 years, and in many cases, the statute of limitations had expired.
There are no good national figures, and one measure of the indifference is that no one even bothers to count the number of rape kits sitting around untested.
Why don’t police departments treat rape kits with urgency? One reason is probably expense — each kit can cost up to $1,500 to test — but there also seems to be a broad distaste for rape cases as murky, ambiguous and difficult to prosecute, particularly when they involve (as they often do) alcohol or acquaintance rape.
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“They talk about the victims’ credibility in a way that they don’t talk about the credibility of victims of other crimes,” Ms. Tofte said.
Charlie Beck, a deputy police chief of Los Angeles, said that there was no excuse for the failure to test rape kits, but he noted that integrating a new technology into police work is complex and involves a learning curve. Since Human Rights Watch began its investigation, he said, the department had resolved to test rape kits routinely — and as a result, cold hits have doubled.
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While the backlog and desultory handling of rape kits are nationwide problems, there is one shining exception: New York City has made a concerted effort over the last decade to test every kit that comes in. The result has been at least 2,000 cold hits in rape cases, and the arrest rate for reported cases of rape in New York City rose from 40 percent to 70 percent, according to Human Rights Watch.
Some Americans used to argue that it was impossible to rape an unwilling woman. Few people say that today, or say publicly that a woman “asked for it” if she wore a short skirt. But the refusal to test rape kits seems a throwback to the same antediluvian skepticism about rape as a traumatic crime.
“If you’ve got stacks of physical evidence of a crime, and you’re not doing everything you can with the evidence, then you must be making a decision that this isn’t a very serious crime,” notes Polly Poskin, executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. |
This is the first dungeon I create with a defined mechanic in mind. Feel free to adapt the dungeon to all your needs and preferences. Be sure to send me some feedback if you try it and let me know how it was!
I imagined the main room as a fine crafted stone temple, with many details in the pillars and the floor.
Dungeon Mechanics
This dungeon is based on the finding of two Magic Stones that work as keys once inserted in their socket. Once obtained both stones and placed in their socket in the main room the path to the final room will be revealed
Layout
This dungeon is divided in 3 parts accessible from the main room
Right: a maze containing the first Magic Stone
Left: two simple rooms, one containing the second Magic Stone
Top: a huge room accessible once cleared the left and right part
Right
Both paths lead to the same room containing two mechanism divided by a large and bottomless gap (or so it seems). The mechanisms have to be activated at the same time to reveal a path in the norther wall leading to the maze.
The statues inside the maze may help the players to avoid getting lost in the maze. There are many fake doors with a wall behind them.
Once the players reach the Magic Stone located in the southern part of the maze, they will place it in the socket to open a passage taking them back to the first room
Left
Once the first stone has been retrieved it can be placed in this room socket to activate the statue placed on the other end of the room. The statue will be ostile because it will try to protect the second magic stone placed in the room behind it.
The other room is just a room that was never finished and left incomplete.
Top & Center
After retrieving the second Magic Stone, each of the stones must be placed in the socket in the main room, activating both statues placed in the north side of the room that once defeated will go back to their places and reveal the passage to the final room.
The final room is a big open space with high ceiling containing the final challenge
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Oklahoma State started off the night on fire in the first half, jumping out to a 15-0 lead in the first half and went into the break up 37-25 at the half.
But coming out of the break, the Cowboys were absolutely dreadful – letting the Lancers go on a big run to start the second half and nearly blew the lead before Gallagher-Iba went dark midway through the second half. The lights went out in GIA and the three-point attempt by Jawun Evans with the lights on wasn’t seen when the lights went out. Here’s what it looked like:
ICYMI . How the lights went out at GIA and how it looked on ESPNU. (Courtesy @holcombOKBLITZ for video) #okstate pic.twitter.com/RC3lo7Ayr1 — Harold R. Kuntz (@HaroldRKuntz3) December 16, 2015
During the delay, here’s some of the pictures of the arena:
Gallagher-Iba Arena… The darkest arena in the country! pic.twitter.com/S9mlqeYnNr — Larry Reece (@cowboyvoice) December 16, 2015
Aaaand we've just had a power outage pic.twitter.com/aI5iu822kK — Cowboys Ride For Free (@CowboysRFF) December 16, 2015
Leyton Hammonds’ poured in 22 points and looked impressive, hitting three-of-five from downtown. His aggression throughout the game allowed him the chance to take 12 free throws, knocking down 11 of those.
After the electricity was restored to the arena, the Cowboys came back alive and went on a 19-4 run, and never looked back. The 42-minute delay, a blowout that wasn’t a blowout – which ended up being a blowout after all – is one of the more bizarre and exciting non-conference games I’ve seen.
“It was odd, but I’m glad it happened. It seemed to ignite us,” Ford said.
The Cowboys are now 7-3 on the season, and face the Florida Gators on Saturday night in Florida. |
Joel McHale may have gone pants-less for the Community finale, but he's ready to step it up a notch for next season.
"Who needs underwear now?" McHale told TVGuide.com on the red carpet of the NBC Upfront earlier this week. "Look, ...
Joel McHale may have gone pants-less for the Community finale, but he's ready to step it up a notch for next season.
"Who needs underwear now?" McHale told TVGuide.com on the red carpet of the NBC Upfront earlier this week. "Look, we need to take some risks!"
See all the latest NBC upfronts news
Just last week, the NBC comedy, which was on the bubble, was renewed for a fifth season. The news came just a day after the series finale, one of McHale's favorites of the season, scored 3.1 million viewers.
Watch below for more from McHale, including why he compares Community fans to The X Men.
View original VIDEO: Community's Joel McHale Is Ready to Get Naked Next Season at TVGuide.com
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State Plans Makeover for Aging Comm Ave Deck New construction will lead to detours for next two summers
A heavily trafficked section of Commonwealth Avenue, extending between the BU Bridge and Carlton Street, will be replaced and upgraded over the next two years by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). “MassDOT is replacing the Commonwealth Avenue superstructure, also called the deck, due to its deteriorated condition,” says DOT spokesperson James Kersten, noting that the original deck is now 50 years old.
While most of the materials being used to construct the deck will be prefabricated off site and installed during the summers of 2016 and 2017, the bridge will be closed for about three weeks each of the two summers while the outbound and inbound sides are removed and replaced.
“The primary goal is to replace the entire superstructure and incorporate functional and safety improvements to the roadway,” Kersten says. Other goals include “providing a reliable bridge that is economical to maintain and providing acceptable bicycle, pedestrian, and wheelchair accommodations in accordance with current standards.”
The approximately $100 million project involves the replacement of the deck, at the intersection of the BU Bridge and Essex and Mountfort Streets, with the corners of the construction area at the Mass Pike (I-90) and the sidewalk areas of the BU Academy, the Engineering Product Innovation Center, 808 Comm Ave, and the grassy area at the Comm Ave entrance to the BU Bridge. A campus task force has been, and will continue to be, briefed on the details of the evolving project and is working with MassDOT to ensure that it proceeds smoothly, safely, and without disruption to BU community operations, according to Michael Donovan, BU vice president for real estate and facility services.
“The bridge will be closed to traffic while it is demolished, new structural steel is put in place, and a precast concrete deck is installed,” says Kersten, adding that to minimize the impact on the neighboring community, the superstructure will be replaced using what MassDOT calls “accelerated bridge techniques.” The replacement will be done during two separate mobilizations, each estimated to last from several weeks to a month. During that time, the public can expect detours and traffic disruption.
The eastern half of the deck, along with the MBTA Green Line portion of the deck, will be replaced during the latter half of July or the beginning to middle of August 2016, and the western half will be replaced during the latter half of July or beginning to middle of August 2017. The exact dates have not yet been finalized, as the design is still ongoing, according to MassDOT. This time frame was chosen using data collected by the state from past summer traffic flow, taking into account a variety of factors, including holidays and the Red Sox schedule. Based on that data, the Comm Ave construction should coincide with the period when there is the least amount of traffic on the roadways and most schools are not in session.
MassDOT has been careful to take into account those who travel this section of Comm Ave on foot, by car, or by bike by making improvements to pedestrian crossings at the intersection of Comm Ave and the BU Bridge, as well as at Comm Ave and Mountfort Street, with “a more articulated area for bicycle traffic and improved signaling for safer crossing by pedestrians,” says Kersten. In addition, the way the deck is being laid paves the way for planned, but not yet scheduled, improvements to the traffic flow pattern over the Carlton Street bridge, Mountfort Street, and the BU Bridge. A $3 million renovation of the BU Bridge was completed in 2012.
“This project is right in the heart of the campus,” says Donovan. “You’ve got pedestrians, cyclists, vehicular traffic, and public transit all using the deck. From an engineering and construction management perspective, it’s a challenging and ambitious project.”
The University and MassDOT have regular monthly project meetings to fine-tune the schedule and to “ensure that essential services and operations for the University continue during the project period,” Donovan says. “Our academic, research, housing, student life, and dining programs must have the ability to operate, and we’ve had discussions with the commonwealth regarding how we can continue to operate during the construction period.”
As the project gets closer, the meetings will become more frequent and more information will become available to the BU community. All major developments related to the project will be reported by BU Today. |
Trump, Billy Bush and Arianne Zucker. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images
Two female reporters, working on separate pieces for both the New York Times and The Guardian, point out that, for many women, the most disturbing aspect of the now infamous Trump/Billy Bush video is one that men aren’t likely to appreciate.
It’s not so much the crass lewdness, or even the casual banter about groping sexual assault that really captures the devastating import of this episode as seen through the eyes of other women. It’s the fact that the woman (in this case, Arianne Zucker) is made the object of an inside joke between Bush and Trump as they drastically alter their behavior to “accommodate” her when she actually appears on the video, after they’ve thoroughly dissected her with lascivious comments. She has no idea what has transpired in the preceding two minutes, but Trump and Billy Bush are very much aware of it:
After Access Hollywood host Billy Bush and Trump spend a few minutes making lascivious comments about actor Arianne Zucker, they meet the woman they were just objectifying. The woman that Trump – who has just taken some Tic Tacs “just in case I start kissing her” – called “it”. “How about a little hug for the Donald?” Bush says, smiling. He then asks for his own embrace. In that moment, Bush and Trump are in on a joke and Zucker is the punchline.
The reason many men aren’t likely to appreciate the significance of this is because, for men, the experience of being evaluated, commented upon in private, and judged based solely on their appearance is pretty much a foreign concept. Not so for women—it’s what they have to deal with throughout their entire lives. As Jessica Valenti, writing for The Guardian, explains it:
It’s painful to watch not just because Zucker doesn’t know what was said about her, but because this is what women are afraid of. That the men we know, the men we work with – or even love – say horrible things about us. That despite assurances that they respect us and consider us equals, men are secretly winking behind our back. That we are not really people to them, but things.
And what Trump does here is validate those assumptions, that whoever Zucker actually is is not even a relevant consideration to them.
When women watch that interaction between Trump, Bush and Zucker, they’ll think of the countless times they walked up to a group of jovial men in mid-conversation and felt something in the pit of their stomach. They’ll wonder if their sneaking suspicion was right all along – that they were on the outside, that they were the joke.
In the Times article (behind the paywall) Susan Dominus similarly comments on the knowing silence that Bush and Trump maintain as they continue with the charade of showing “appropriate” respect to Zucker. Ms Zucker is never “let in”on the “joke” that both Bush and Trump are aware of throughout the exchange:
[I]n some ways, the most disturbing moment of the recording transpires when Bush and Trump descend from the bus. Waiting for them is the actress Arianne Zucker of “Days of Our Lives.” On the bus, her hotness has inspired cackles, what sound like high-fives, expletives. Both men have talked about her legs. Trump has already thrown back some Tic Tacs, in case he decides to lunge for a kiss. But when he steps off the bus, Trump greets her with the courtesy of a Boy Scout: “Hello, how are you, hi!” “Hi, Mr. Trump, how are you?” Zucker says. She is polite; she is professional. It is a moment of deeply uncomfortable dramatic irony: We, the audience, know something she does not, which is that only moments earlier, Trump was coldly appraising her body parts. Bush, acting as a two-bit pimp, asks Zucker to hug Trump, and then asks for a hug himself. Her small laugh is as fake as Trump’s politeness; it is all excruciating to watch.
What the video does more than anything else is reinforce the notion, depressingly, that women cannot count on men to be decent or respectful, and by association even other men’s well-meaning overtures and gestures must be suspect. Of course, not all men are like this, or do this, and the video actually serves to stereotype men as well by putting the boorish behavior of these two on display. But beyond this single captured incident, this video and audio confirmation of women’s worst suspicions about how many men really view them makes a mockery of all the efforts women have made, in the workplace and in the home, to be respected and recognized as equals. Dominus sees the bus (from which the audio recording emanates) as a metaphor in itself:
Bush and Trump on that bus are, in so many ways, the apotheosis of what so many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters are ready to overturn: the musty sleaziness that went out of style in the 1970s; the old bosses who want their secretaries pretty; the cigar-chomping power brokers who think sexual harassment is the woman’s problem; the drooling dimwits who have gotten further than they should have on connections and male privilege. The bus is the old boys’ club that women rarely get to see inside — but it may also turn out to be the wrecking ball that takes down the club for good.
Two women writers working for disparate newspapers came to the same simple conclusion, one that seems to have eluded most of the corporate media thus far, as it certainly eludes Donald Trump: women really don’t appreciate being made to look like fools.
x YouTube Video
See also Mark Sumner’s Abbreviated Pundit Roundup, here. |
The Supreme Court should (and indeed must) stay out of the battle over Texas redistricting right now. That was the message in a 38-page filing submitted to the court today by the individuals and groups that had challenged the federal congressional redistricting maps adopted by the Texas legislature in 2013. Last month a three-judge federal district court struck down two districts in that plan, ruling that one had intentionally diluted the votes of Hispanic residents while the other focused too heavily on race. Texas officials went to the Supreme Court on August 25, asking Justice Samuel Alito (who handles emergency appeals from the geographic area that includes Texas) to block the lower court’s decision, which had instructed the state to either call a special session of the legislature to draw new maps or return to court today with experts and new maps to propose. Alito put the district court’s order on hold temporarily and directed the challengers to respond today.
The challengers told the justices that the Supreme Court lacks the power to review the state’s request because there is nothing to put on hold: The lower court has neither blocked the state’s current redistricting plan nor entered any orders to remedy the violations it found. Instead, the challengers emphasized, the lower court simply directed the two sides to show up for a hearing today to come up with a new plan. If the lower court had held the hearing and then entered an order, the challengers explained, Texas could have asked the Supreme Court to step in – but it cannot do so now.
The challengers also dispute any suggestion that if the justices do not intervene now, the district court might impose its own map, which the state will not have time to appeal before the October 1 deadline by which the congressional maps must be in place for next year’s elections. Any “deadline” is purely self-imposed, they say: “This alleged ‘deadline’ is simply the date that Texas claims is required to permit local officials two months’ time to coordinate with third-party vendors to print and mail voter registration certificate cards.” And in any event, they add, there is no reason to believe that the court would both decide to review the dispute and reverse the lower court’s judgment – a key criterion in deciding whether to put a lower court’s ruling on hold. The challengers conclude by pleading with the court not to “countenance Texas’s attempts to introduce further delay and multiply the proceedings in this Court in an attempt to run out the clock.”
There is no specific deadline for Alito (or the rest of the court, if he chooses to refer the dispute to them) to act, although a ruling could come quickly. Meanwhile, the challengers’ response in another Texas redistricting battle – over the redistricting map for the Texas House of Representatives – is due tomorrow.
This post was originally published at Howe on the Court.
Recommended Citation: Amy Howe, Challengers urge justices to sit out Texas redistricting battle for now, SCOTUSblog (Sep. 5, 2017, 5:40 PM), https://www.scotusblog.com/2017/09/challengers-urge-justices-sit-texas-redistricting-battle-now/ |
WASHINGTON — Tom Price has resigned as President Donald Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary, the White House said Friday.
Price's resignation follows days of public outcry over multiple reports of Price's private jet travel for government business.
Trump alluded to the secretary's fate as he departed the White House for Bedminster, New Jersey, calling Price a "fine man" but reiterating his displeasure about Trump alluded to the secretary's fate as he departed the White House for Bedminster, New Jersey, calling Price a "fine man" but reiterating his displeasure about Price's use of private jets for multiple trips on government business
"I don't like the optics," Trump said.
The president previously said he was "not happy" with Price after news broke that he'd spent hundreds of thousands of federal dollars on private charters rather than flying commercial. He reiterated those sentiments Friday on the South Lawn of the White House.
On Thursday, On Thursday, Price said he would pay taxpayers back for his seat on the plane and promised to "take no more private charter flights as Secretary of HHS. No exceptions."
An HHS spokeswoman told NBC News that Price would write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $51,887.31 — making good on his promise to pay for the "expenses of my travel on private charter planes" and ensuring tax payers don't "pay a dime for my seat on those planes."
"I regret the concerns this has raised regarding the use of taxpayer dollars," Price said in a statement Thursday. "All of my political career I’ve fought for the taxpayers. It is clear to me that in this case, I was not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer."
Price is not the only member of the president's Cabinet to come under fire for using a private jet for government travel. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt have also chartered jets on the taxpayer’s dime since the start of the Trump administration.
Since being Since being confirmed to his position in February , Price was tasked with heralding Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare through Congress. Those attempts repeatedly failed, most recently when the Graham-Cassidy health care bill couldn't garner enough GOP support to make it to the floor for a vote.
While Price's fate hangs in the balance Friday, it's not the first time Trump has threatened his job.
In a July speech to the Boy Scout Jamboree in West Virginia, Trump joked about Price's efforts on health care. "You gonna get the votes?" he asked Price, who replied that he hoped so.
"You better," Trump said. "Otherwise I'll say: 'Tom, you're fired!'" |
President Trump sat next to Sen. Dean Heller Dean Arthur HellerTrump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile' during 2016 presidential campaign Trump picks ex-oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior secretary Oregon Dem top recipient of 2018 marijuana industry money, study finds MORE (R-Nev.), an opponent of the Senate GOP's bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare, at a White House lunch designed to salvage the effort.
Trump used the seating arrangement to pressure Heller, joking about him wanting to “remain a senator.”
“Any senator who votes against debate says you are fine with ObamaCare,” Trump said.
Heller, considered one of the GOP’s most endangered 2018 incumbents, has a fraught relationship with the White House over his stance on healthcare.
TRUMP to HELLER: "Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesn't he?" pic.twitter.com/LFiwuEY693 — JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) July 19, 2017
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An outside group aligned with Trump announced last month it would launch a seven-figure ad buy against the Nevada senator for opposing the repeal-and-replace bill.
The group, America First Policies, scrapped the ads at the urging of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Senate Dems seek to turn tables on GOP in climate change fight Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (R-Ky.)
Trump used a strategic seating arrangement at the last all-senators healthcare meeting at the White House, placing himself between Sens. Lisa Murkowksi (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsWhite House pleads with Senate GOP on emergency declaration Cohen grilled by Senate Intelligence panel Pence meets with Senate GOP for 'robust' discussion on Trump declaration MORE (R-Maine).
Both senators opposed the repeal-and-replace plan and have said they would not vote to advance an alternative repeal-only bill backed by McConnell.
Sen. Tim Scott Timothy (Tim) Eugene ScottSenate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Senate approves border bill that prevents shutdown Senate passes bill to make lynching a federal crime MORE (R-S.C.) sat on the other side of the president on Wednesday.
Trump sat by Heller, tells group of Republican Senators that he didn't put head above parapet bc "he wants to remain a senator doesn't he" — Andrew Beatty (@AndrewBeatty) July 19, 2017
Trump joked about Heller wanting to remain a senator & "Any senator who votes against debate says you are fine with Obamacare" via @spettypi — Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) July 19, 2017
This report was updated at 12:55 p.m. |
A multimillion-dollar welfare fraud scheme that has been running rampant in Asian communities throughout the city has been busted, authorities said.
About two dozen delis and bodegas were raided across Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan Wednesday in a joint operation between the federal Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the state Department of Health and the state Attorney General’s Office that uncovered the endemic corruption, sources said.
Sixteen store owners were charged with allegedly purchasing customers’ WIC vouchers and giving the recipient a percentage of the cash value, court documents state.
The store owners would then pocket their cut of the money — usually around 20 percent — when the government reimbursed them for the coupons, sources said.
WIC, or, Women, Infants and Children, is a federally funded assistance program that helps struggling mothers buy essential items such as infant formula, milk or juice.
Twenty-five store owners were taken into custody in connection with the scam and more arrests are expected. Charges for the 16 store owners who appeared in Manhattan federal court Wednesday range from conspiracy to commit theft of government funds to money laundering.
Several hundred thousands of dollars were seized from various personal and business bank accounts — a mere fraction of the estimated $30 million generated by the fraud since 2009, authorities said.
Sources said the scheme was localized specifically in Asian neighborhoods like Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Elmhurst, Queens and Chinatown in Manhattan, with some stores cashing in as many as 25,000 welfare vouchers per month.
Some of the stores’ operations were so lucrative that they sold almost no groceries at all, one source said.
“A lot of these places weren’t just taking a little off the top,” said one source. “This scam was the main source of income for some of these stores. It was fraud on a massive scale.” |
Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton, left, former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, center, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.), pose for a photo at an earlier debate. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
DAVENPORT, Iowa -- Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley on Friday chided executives at NBC for coming up with criteria for the next Democratic debate that could leave him off stage.
At a campaign stop here, O’Malley accused the network of treating the debate process “as if it’s another episode of ‘The Apprentice,’” the popular NBC show formerly hosted by Donald Trump -- now the Republican presidential front-runner -- in which contestants are eliminated each week.
“Well I’ve got news for them: This election is not up to NBC executives, not up to pollsters, it’s up to you, the people of Iowa,” O’Malley said.
His comments followed an announcement earlier by NBC that the fourth Democratic debate, which it is broadcasting Jan. 17 in South Carolina, would be limited to candidates with an average of 5 percent in national polls or in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina.
[Democratic race could still ‘turn on a dime,’ O’Malley insists after latest debate]
O’Malley is currently right on the cusp of 5 percent in Iowa and otherwise below the threshold. His standing could still change, because the criteria takes into account polls up until Jan. 14.
It remains to be seen how much danger O’Malley is really in.
The Democratic National Committee, which is sponsoring the debates, indicated Friday that it expects O’Malley to be on stage in South Carolina. And spokesmen for both the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were supportive of O’Malley as well.
“We believe all three candidates should participate in the South Carolina debate, and oppose any criteria that might leave someone excluded,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said on Twitter.
“Bernie thinks Governor O'Malley should be in the debate,” Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said. “Fair is fair.”
O'Malley has previously been critical of the DNC for limiting the number of party-sanctioned debates to six, only four of which take place before the first nominating contest in Iowa. |
Across the globe, hives of honeybees are dying off in a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder. Among the proposed culprits are pesticides called neonicotinoids, which are supposed to be less harmful to beneficial insects and mammals than the previous generation of chemicals.
Debate over neonicotinoids has become fierce. Conservation groups and politicians in the United Kingdom and Europe have called for a ban on their use, but agricultural organizations have said that farmers will face hardship if that happens. Next Monday, European governments will take a crucial vote on whether to severely restrict or ban three neonicotinoids.
Scientists, meanwhile, are vigorously debating whether the studies on neonicotinoids and the health of honeybees and bumblebees, mostly conducted in laboratory settings, accurately reflect what is happening to bees in the field.
Neonicotinoids, which poison insects by binding to receptors in their nervous systems, have been in use since the late 1990s. They are applied to crop seeds such as maize (corn) and soya beans, and permeate the plants, protecting them from insect pests. But a growing body of research suggests that sublethal exposure to the pesticides in nectar and pollen may be harming bees too — by disrupting their ability to gather pollen, return to their hives and reproduce (see ‘The buzz over bee health’).
In January, the European Food Safety Authority in Parma, Italy, Europe’s food-chain risk-assessment body, concluded that three commonly used neonicotinoids — clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam — should not be used where they might end up in crops that attract bees, such as oilseed rape and maize. The European Commission then proposed a two-year ban on the use of these chemicals in such crops. That proposal failed to gain sufficient support last month in a vote by European Union member states, but on 29 April, ministers will vote again.
Some scientists say that there is insufficient evidence to implicate these compounds. Ecotoxicologist James Cresswell, who studies pollination at the University of Exeter, UK, says that “one can still equivocate over the evidence” because many of the lab studies that have shown harm may have fed bees unrealistically high doses of neonicotinoids. The problem, he adds, is that data are lacking on what doses bees actually encounter in the field. “Everyone is focused on hazard,” he says. “We know there is hazard there. But risk is a product of hazard and exposure.”
However, David Goulson, a bee researcher at the University of Sussex, UK, thinks that most of the major studies have used realistic doses. “I couldn’t say I am certain these impacts really occur in the field, but it seems to me very likely that they do,” he says.
Even if neonicotinoids are not directly responsible for colony collapse disorder, they could play a part by making bees more susceptible to the parasitic mite Varroa destructor and the parasitic fungus Nosema apis, both prime suspects, adds Christian Krupke, an entomologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He says that, on the basis of current evidence, neonicotinoid use should be restricted immediately as a precaution.
One of the few studies to be conducted in the field served only to stoke the controversy after its release in March. Conducted by an agency within the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), it exposed 20 bumblebee colonies at three sites to crops grown from untreated, clothianidin-treated or imidacloprid-treated seeds. It found “no clear consistent relationships” between pesticide levels and harm to the insects.
DEFRA also reviewed the body of evidence on neonicotinoids and concluded that, although there might be “rare effects of neonicotinoids on bees in the field”, these do not occur under normal circumstances.
Experts lined up to criticize the field study. Neuroscientist Christopher Connolly of the University of Dundee, UK, who has studied the effect of neonicotinoids in bee brains, says that the control colonies themselves were contaminated with the pesticides, and that thiamethoxam was detected in two of the three bee groups tested, even though it was not used in the experiment. Goulson agrees, saying of the study:“In many ways, it was appalling.” No one from DEFRA was available to talk to Nature.
Goulson and others say that intensive environmental monitoring of neonicotinoids and long-term field studies of their effects are sorely needed. He points to a 2012 study that found neonicotinoids in dandelions growing near treated crops, suggesting that the pesticides can spread from their intended target. “This debate has focused very heavily on bees. Perhaps we’re missing a slightly bigger picture,” he says. “For 20 years we’ve been using neonicotinoids without really assessing what impact they might be having in the wider environment.”
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on April 24, 2013. |
Latest Showcase demo
Demo name Description Link Showcase Demo The most recent cutting-edge face tracking and analysis advancements from Visage Technologies, including face tracking, face detection, and emotion/age/gender detection. →
Latest Release (visage|SDK 8.4):
Demo name Description Link Gaze Tracker Demonstrates online screen space gaze tracking → Virtual Eyewear Try-on Demonstrates face tracking from camera and placing virtual glasses on the face. → Visage Tracker Unity Demonstrates face tracking from camera and placing virtual glasses on the face in Unity. →
Supported browsers:
Operating System Browser Version Support Status Windows Edge 42 YES Windows Firefox 64 YES Windows Chrome 1 71 YES Mac OS X Safari 12 YES Mac OS X Firefox 64 YES Mac OS X Chrome 1 71 YES iOS Safari – YES iOS Chrome 1 – NO Android Default Browser – YES Android Firefox – YES Android Chrome 1 – YES
1 Since November 2015, Chrome has disabled the use of the webcam from insecure (non-https) locations.
Note: Support depends on browser’s implementation of HTML5 getUserMedia API. For more details on can you use getUserMedia API follow this link. |
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