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Wow. Just wow. That's a lot of stuff.
I got a giant care package from Belgium! Everything was wrapped in mega bubble wrap (it's not as fun as it sounds, they don't pop :'( ) Inside the bubble wrap was three books. I don't think I know these, but I can't wait to read them. Besides the books was a small paper bag with jawbreakers, as well as a bag of almond cookies (they didn't stand the trip, however I assume that they are still as delicious as ever). There was also some chocolate and a DVD with my favorite movie of all time, The Shawshank Redemption.
My gifter had also made me a custom bookmark for the books. On one side is a dragon, an elf and a human (he has an Apple logo on the chest!!) On the other side, an exploding TARDIS (Doctor Who) as well as an omega sign (My name is Ohm, and I love the omega signs). This will be my permanent bookmark for all future books!
Thanks Naomi! | {
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Published time: January 22, 2015 19:13
Soybean workers exposed to the agrochemicals like glyphosate, the main component in Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’ herbicide and other biocides, suffer from elevated DNA and cell damage, according to a new study.
The study, published in the journal Mutation Research/Genetic Toxicology and Environmental Mutagenesis, involved 127 people, including 81 exposed to biocides while working in the Brazilian soybean industry and 46 non-exposed individuals in a control group.
The exposed group exhibited an elevated level of cellular apoptosis, as well as DNA damage, according to researcher Danieli Benedetti and his team, which concluded that the now-common use of genetically-modified soybeans in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, especially in the city of Espumoso, has toxic ramifications for workers.
“Our findings indicate the advisability of monitoring genetic toxicity in soybean farm workers exposed to pesticides,” the researchers said.
Genetically-engineered seeds, proliferated across the globe by multinational agribusiness conglomerates like Monsanto, are designed to withstand dousing by glyphosate and other biocides in order to terminate insect, fungus, and weed nuisances.
RT | {
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Sunderland was one of the first constituencies to declare its result on the night of the Brexit referendum and the margin of victory for leave sent shockwaves through the political establishment and the financial markets. Since then, Sunderland has become a symbol of Brexit Britain, stereotyped as a “left behind” former mining community marked by anti-immigration, anti-European sentiment.
To pin local election reverses purely on Brexit is both lazy and ridiculous Read more
But as the Sunderland MP Bridget Phillipson writes online for the Observer today, something interesting happened there in Thursday’s local elections. Labour haemorrhaged votes, but they didn’t all go to Ukip; there was a significant swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats, who picked up two more seats, and to the Greens, who won their first-ever council seat in the city.
A similarly complex picture has emerged across the country, which underlines why both main parties are wrong to interpret the results as a cry of frustration at their failure to implement Brexit. Voters chose to punish them both: the Tories suffered their worst local election performance in two decades, losing around 1,300 council seats. Labour proved unable to take advantage of the government’s dire ratings: it also saw a significant drop in its projected vote share and a net loss in council seats, ceding control of councils in Labour strongholds such as Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Bolsover. But the unalloyed winners were the smaller, pro-remain parties, whose achievements were nothing short of stunning. The Lib Dems had net gains of almost 700 council seats, the Greens almost 200.
The country remains divided, voters united only in their apparent unhappiness with both main parties
It seems extraordinary that both main parties appear to have extracted a “just get on with Brexit” message from these results. It would be preposterous to write off Lib Dem and Green success as a protest vote against the two main parties, given their unambiguous support for a confirmatory referendum. The number of spoilt ballots suggests real frustration among some leave voters. But the gains made by pro-remain parties show that remain voters are as likely to punish the main parties for their Brexit positions. The country remains divided, voters united only in their apparent unhappiness with both main parties.
And who could blame them? The Tories thoroughly deserved their drubbing. This has been a desperately dysfunctional government, the prime minister’s authority shot to pieces, cabinet ministers more interested in their own leadership bids than running the country. May has proved a dreadful prime minister, running her Brexit negotiations as a hostage to the hard Eurosceptic flank of her party, rather than seeking to build compromise in the wake of a vote that split the nation 52-48. She has inflicted years of public service cuts that have imposed terrible burdens on families: child poverty predicted to soar to record levels; schools forced to close on Friday afternoons; 1.4 million older people going without the basic support they need with everyday tasks.
All this should have set the stage for substantial gains by the opposition. Labour’s losses – it did badly in leave- and remain-supporting seats alike – were at least in part a rejection of its disingenuous Brexit policy. Last week, we called for Jeremy Corbyn to come clean about where Labour stands on Brexit. But the party has continued to do all it can to avoid levelling with the public. It continues to say its preferred outcome is an impossible-to-achieve Brexit deal that maintains the benefits of EU membership and protects jobs and a general election that it simply does not have the parliamentary votes to trigger.
Both parties appear to view these results as further impetus to strike some sort of compromise deal to deliver Brexit. The appeal for May is obvious: she is desperate to deliver Brexit before leaving No 10 and a bargain with Labour looks perhaps the only potential route to doing so. If she strikes a deal with Corbyn, but Labour MPs don’t back it in sufficient numbers, it at least allows the Tories to try to lay the blame for blocking Brexit with Labour.
All the evidence suggests that Labour would be penalised for enabling Brexit
But striking a deal with May is an incomprehensibly bad strategy for Labour. Any guarantees that she offers will not be binding on her successor, who is likely to come from her party’s Eurosceptic wing. Our future relationship with the EU will be thrashed out only once we have left. There is nothing to stop a future Conservative prime minister building a different parliamentary coalition, for a much harder Brexit, once the withdrawal agreement has been passed and May has stepped down.
All the evidence suggests that Labour would be penalised for enabling Brexit. Three-quarters of Labour voters think Britain was wrong to vote to leave the EU. As the academic Rob Ford has highlighted, in most leave-supporting Labour seats, the majority of Labour voters will still be remainers. Thursday’s elections saw swings from Labour to the Lib Dems and Greens even in leave-supporting areas such as Sunderland.
But the volume of the message pro-referendum voters will get to send to Labour in the European elections later this month will depend on the extent to which the smaller parties work together. The Lib Dems say their overtures to the new Change UK grouping of MPs have been rejected. This is immensely disappointing. Change UK cannot claim to be challenging the old, broken politics while continuing to embrace its worst aspects, running candidates in every region because it arrogantly regards itself as the only channel through which voters can express their dissatisfaction with the main parties.
Labour must urgently switch tack and back a confirmatory referendum before the European elections: it is both the right thing to do and the only sensible electoral strategy for the party. If it fails to do so, it deserves to be roundly punished by voters. But their ability to deliver a strong message will depend on the smaller parties working together to avoid fragmenting the pro-referendum vote. | {
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From the "child-like fanatic" of the Cold War era to today's "Shiite Muslim martyrdom."
[ opinion ]
March 5 marks the 45th anniversary of the death of Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iran's popular prime minister who was ousted in a CIA MI6 -sponsored coup in 1953, or "Kudeta-ye 28 Mordad," as Iranians call it, referring to the coup's date (August 19) on the Persian calendar.
That moment in history continues to fire up new generations of Iranians who see parallels between it and the West's standoff with the Islamic Republic today. Others, though, believe it's time to move on. "The phenomenon of 28-Mordadism as a political paradigm that peaked in modern Iranian political culture has now finally exhausted itself," Hamid Dabashi wrote in late 2009. "With the commencement of the Reform movement in the late 1990s, 28-Mordadism began losing its grip on Iranian political culture, after decades of abusing it to sustain an otherwise illegitimate state apparatus.
"The end of 28-Mordadism of course does not mean the end of imperial interventions in the historical destiny of nations, It just means we have a renewed and even playing field to think and act in postcolonial terms."
Join the debate. Tell us what you think. -- The Editors
* * *
As the ideological groundwork for military strikes on Iran is laid by hawks and certain Western media outlets, there is a wide array of parallels to be drawn between the disastrous past and the contentious present. One underlying and constantly recurrent presumption warrants special focus as it is a key impetus for intervention -- that leaders in much of the developing world, Iran in particular, are emotional, unpredictable, and, most importantly, do not calculate in the same rational manner that Western leaders do. Consequently, they cannot be trusted to their own devices.
In the 1950s, Time, then one of the most influential publications in the United States, did not merely parrot the arguments uttered in the corridors of power in support of overthrowing Iran's nascent but burgeoning democracy, but seriously affected the contours of the debate. Indeed, Time made the case for intervention and lobbied for it by erroneously yet effectively portraying Iran's Premier Mohammad Mosaddegh as a "demagogic, emotional, child-like fanatic" who could easily be duped by communism. The central idea was that Iran's leaders could not be trusted to govern their own country simply because they were too immature to be trusted during the Cold War to safeguard vital Western interests in -- access to the resources, oil and gas, that fueled the capitalist West's economic superiority. Such portrayals and their underlying logic thus rendered Iran an acceptable arena for the exercise of Western power: Americans knew better than Iranians themselves how the Middle Eastern country should be governed.
This was not limited to Western depictions of Iran's leadership. During the Cold War, much of the developing world was targeted for intervention under a similar rubric of rationality and its lack. In the case of the Congo, for instance, independence leader Patrice Lumumba was depicted much in the same vein as Iran's leadership had been cast. As Odd Arne Westad describes in The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times,
While most US political leaders up to the early 1960s had thought of Africans as children who were destined to remain children, the Kennedy administration began seeing Africans as adolescents, in the process of growing up, as witnessed by the creation of new states and political movements. The anti-Communist argument was no longer that socialism did not fit "the African tribal mentality"...but the fear that Communists might seduce adolescent African leaders.
Lumumba, like Iran's Mosaddegh, was judged to be fickle and immature, therefore unfit to rule a resource-rich country vital to Western Cold War strategic interests. As a result, the West supported and armed right-wing forces that overthrew and summarily executed him.
Unfortunately, after decades of interaction with Iran, this arrogant demeanor has not only persisted, but worsened. More than 20 years after the end of the Cold War and almost six decades after the U.S.-British overthrow of Iran's "child-like fanatic" Premier Mosaddegh, Iran continues to be portrayed as emotional and irrational. Even more troubling, it is now also presumed to be "suicidal" because of its Islamic culture. Expatriate Iranians are hardly innocent of promulgating such depictions. For instance, last year a journalist of Iranian descent at the Los Angeles Times referred to Iran, a country of more than 75 million, as "steeped in a culture of Shiite Muslim martyrdom."
Such labels, erroneously as in the past, cast Iran and its leadership as unpredictable and irrational. It is consequently seen as unfit to be trusted with its own affairs, such as developing nuclear energy, a legal right to all signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), among which Iran can be counted since 1968. Should "child-like" Iran be "allowed" to continue to develop nuclear technology, the anachronistic argument goes, the world would be threatened with the possibility of a nuclear armed Islamic state that would be unconstrained by the mutual assured destruction doctrine that kept the "peace" between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Iran would not abide by the doctrine because it is seemingly "suicidal" and "steeped in a culture of Shiite Muslim martyrdom" and could imaginably use a nuclear device on an adversary even if it guaranteed its own annihilation. Iran, scrutinized according to such grossly inaccurate presumptions, thus warrants intervention in 2012 just as it did in 1953.
Until the media and Western leaders break with such depictions that justified, indeed demanded, ruinous intervention in the developing world generally and Iran in 1953 specifically, the contours of the debate will continue to be shaped in a manner that will make military conflict unavoidable and potentially even more disastrous than in the past.
Pouya Alimagham is a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan's history program. He blogs at iPouya.com. Follow him on Twitter @iPouya. The opinions expressed are his own.
Copyright © 2012 Tehran Bureau | {
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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see cop on highway pass him | {
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“I’ve often thought it unfair that women are expected to stay at home when there’s a fight to be won. If a woman has the strength to bear a child, she can swing a sword as well as any man.” ~ Karen Hawkins
Fierce women do exist. In fact, they outnumber the fierce men! Spooky Mistwallow just came out with this dress for her RP line, Mirage, and I put it on and felt my woman warrior emerge. Yeah, I know a warrior needs to be shielded and covered but this one is so lithe and fast she can fly through the air and get out without damage. The textures on the dress are so lush, especially the gold embroidery at the hem and bodice and the shape is sexy and my girl can be sexy and strong all at once.
Knee-high tie-up gladiator heels from Harry Hyx make the look even fiercer and sexier especially with serpent arm bracelets from Sissy Pessoa. I ran to the I Love Role Play gachas get gorgeous eyes from Filomena Quinnell and a raid horn from Thord Karu. I lucked out on my first try with both! And yes, fierce women can wear nail polish on their fingernails and toes—this one of Zozicon’s latest with beautiful spring textures and colors from the Pre-Release Gacha Garden.
My skin is PeachieMuah’s latest for her doll series. I can imagine this skin could be a perfect doll-like skin on a different shape but on mine it turns out to be a little more sophisticated, despite the dimples. I love the liner around the eyes and their shape with well-groomed brows and a slight blush. My hair is a two-piece mesh beauty from Morphine Janick. I love the blonde texture and having it in two pieces allows the option to not wear the braid and just have the wind blown look.
“I do not believe in using women in combat, because females are too fierce.” ~ Margaret Mead
Hair: [monso] My Hair – Elsa/ Light Blonde by Morphine Janick for [monso]
Skin: (FreshFace) Belle Natural _ Smaller breasts by PeachieMuah for Fresh Face *
Eyes: !Musa! Agate Eyes Wheat by Filomena Quinnell for Musa, available at We Love Roleplay
Dress: =Mirage= Ashwari Dress – Dark – Passion by Spooky Mistwallow for =Mirage= Arabian Treasure Company *
Sword: [HOT] Medieval Sword (In Right Hand) by Reynevan3
Hands: Slink Mesh Hands (av) Bag Right and Slink Mesh Hands (av) Casual Left by Siddean Munro for Slink
Nail appliers: -{ZOZ}- Magenta Purple – Fingernail Hud Single by Zozicon for ZOZ, available at the Pre-Release Gacha Garden *
Bracelets: Baiastice_Snake Bracelet-red gold by Sissy Pessoa for Baiastice
Horn: Primus.X Raid Horn 1.2 (female) (silver) by Thord Karu for Primus Weapons, available at We Love Roleplay
Feet: Slink Female Feet (AvEnhance) – Mid by Siddean Munro for Slink
Shoes: ISON – lace-up gladiator sandals (plum) by Harry Hyx for Ison
Poses by Rogan Diesel for DieselWorks Animations * | {
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When Seth Maness joined the team, I flagged him as truly one of the weirdest prospects in baseball. He had a long history of success in the minors, despite a below average strikeout rate, and because of a microscopic walk rate and an astonishing groundball rate. He was a weird prospect, who was going to put to the test a pretty much unheralded skillset.
Not that he's the first control artist/groundballer to appear in MLB, but almost no one had the preposterous 9+ K/BB rate he had in the minors, and certainly no one did so while striking out a below average number of batters. Nobody had a good sense of how he would do, because there wasn't really anyone with that extreme an array of talents.
After almost 30 innings, Maness tentatively looks like a success, with the caveat of the 30 innings we're talking about.
He's keeping up the miniscule walk rate. Of the 5 walks he has issued in those 30 innings, only 2 were unintentional. The intentional walks give him a 4% walk rate, but his unintentional walk rate is more around 1.8%. Going into last night, he was ranked 12th among all pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched. Teammates Edward Mujica and Adam Wainwright check in at first and third on this list, in case anyone wants to note a big factor in the success of the Cardinals' pitching staff. Unfortunately, there's not an easy way to compare unintentional walks, as best I know. Although that walk rate is not reliable given the sample size (it's getting close, though; he's faced 121 batters, and walk rate stabilizes at 175), his walk rate is completely in line with his minor league numbers.
The other big story of Maness's success is the groundball rate. He has a 70% groundball rate; as of last night, he was second in the majors among the hundreds of pitchers who have thrown 20 innings or more (Brad Ziegler has him beaten by a little). I don't even know what to say about that. Even Jake Westbrook doesn't throw 70% groundballs. Unlike his early walk rate, his groundball rate HAS reached the point where it becomes sustainable.
You can't argue with the results. Maness has a 2.73 ERA, a 3.37 FIP, and a 2.92 xFIP. For those who are interested in such things, he has an enormous SIERA-xFIP split (two stats which normally track each other very closely), driven largely by that unearthly ground ball rate. Compared to his 2.92 xFIP, he has a 2.12 SIERA. Good god, man.
The other thing that one should note about Maness - and part of his remarkable utility in a fireman role - is that he generates an astonishing number of groundball double plays. Of the seven PAs with the highest WPA for Maness, SIX resulted in inning-ending double plays. He has generated nine double plays in his 121 batters faced. Only starters Jake Westbrook (12) and Adam Wainwright (17) have generated more double plays; Westbrook has faced twice as many batters (249) as Maness, and Wainwright has faced more than four times as many (547).
That ability to generate a double play makes Maness very valuable out of the bullpen, especially in light of his 13.8% K rate, relative to the 21.4% league average. Not many guys with a 90 mph fastball do so well in relief.
I don't want to oversell Maness; he's one of many relievers performing very well. Trevor Rosenthal and Edward Mujica are almost certainly better relievers. But both of them come with more conventional reliever skills. If Maness isn't the best reliever, he is surely the weirdest. | {
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Your really, really strong password just became a little bit easier to break.
Jeremi Gosney, founder and CEO of Stricture Consulting Group, a company that handles password-cracking, has unveiled a computer cluster boasting 25 AMD Radeon graphics cards. The cluster's horsepower allows it to make 350 billion password guesses per second against the NT Lan Manager (NTLM) security protocol Microsoft has used in Windows Server since 2003.
Ars Technica was first to report on the cluster.
Speaking to Ars in an e-mailed statement, Gosney said that his company's technology "can attack hashes approximately four times faster" than it previously could. Using a brute force method, the cluster is capable of guessing every single eight-character password containing letters, numbers, and symbols in 5.5 hours. If companies use LM, an earlier password option for Windows Server, the cluster can figure out a password in six minutes.
So, how does the cluster do it? According to Ars, the cluster is running Virtual OpenCL, a platform that makes the GPUs believe they're all functioning together in a desktop computer. To actually crack a password, Gosney and his team uses a free password-cracker called ocl-Hashcat Plus.
Password security continues to be a major challenge for consumers, corporations, and online services. A so-called "strong" password, which in most cases wouldn't be broken for days, if not weeks, is now easier and easier to crack with advanced tools. In other words, watch out and create as strong a password as possible. | {
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Bloq is the enterprise-focused blockchain startup co-founded by Tally Capital Founding Partner Matthew Roszak and former Bitcoin Core contributor Jeff Garzik. The duo appeared on stage together at the recent Distributed Markets conference in Atlanta to discuss to their vision for enterprise adoption of blockchain technology.
During their fireside chat with Money 20/20 Chief Marketing Officer Sanjid Kalita, Garzik and Roszak explained how a multi-step approach is needed to bring blockchain technology to their enterprise customers. Bloq intends to attract enterprise customers to their blockchain stack through simple pitches, such as cutting costs, at first before helping them transform entire industries.
“[We’re talking about going from] cutting settlement from T+30 days to T+90 minutes for settling physical gold to disrupting the entire gold industry,” noted Garzik. “That’s where the innovative parts of these enterprises are really going to start to pick up the interest in Bloq Enterprise, but we have years to get there.”
Cost, Growth, and Transformation
There are three main steps in Bloq’s process of bringing blockchain technology to enterprises: cutting costs, growth, and transformation. Bloq sees blockchain technology’s ability to cut costs in their enterprise customers’ back offices as an example of how to get their feet wet with this new technology.
“You’re not going to get an enterprise customer, especially the ones that are racing into the room (banks and insurance companies), to just jump to transformation,” said Roszak during the fireside chat.
Roszak added that stepping stones are needed to get enterprise customers interested in the more transformative capabilities of the technology. He compared the process to how intranets, which are private computer networks, were used to eventually get these sorts of large enterprises on the internet.
“On our blockchain that we just used to lever here, let’s now open this up to customers, suppliers, and partners, and let’s extensify this particular railroad,” Roszak explained as the second layer of Bloq’s staircase strategy. “And then it opens up a lot of doors that can’t be seen right now that gets you to that transformative piece.”
The Two Sides of Blockchain Innovation
Roszak also explained that there are essentially two kinds of revolutions happening in terms of the use of blockchain technology. “On [one] side, it’s the replumbing of Wall Street,” he said. “A lot of enterprise companies are trying to replumb themselves, be more efficient. And that’s happening in real time.”
Roszak went on to explain that the other side of the blockchain revolution is the “whippersnapper” blockchain companies who want to disrupt the old systems and create new, decentralized models.
“Are these worlds going to connect or collide?” Roszak wondered aloud.
A Network of One is Not Very Exciting
Near the end of this particular part of the fireside chat, Garzik specifically mentioned permissioned blockchains, where the network is controlled by a set group of entities rather than a permissionless P2P network (some have noted this isn’t much different from traditional database systems), as stepping stones for enterprise adoption of public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
“Blockchains are networks, and a network of one is not very exciting,” said Garzik. “But again, how do enterprises digest software? The first step is going to be that intranet type shape. And so, you have a private network, you have a permissioned chain, but we see that as a staircase to – where’s that front of innovation? That is the public networks (the Bitcoins and Ethereums). You absolutely want to have compatibility and a migration path towards those public networks.”
On the point of compatibility with public blockchains, it was recently announced that Bloq has joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), which is an effort to connect Fortune 500 enterprises and startups with Ethereum experts.
Compatibility between private blockchains and the public Ethereum blockchain is a key goal of the EEA.
“It’s very much a, maybe, ‘blockchain with training wheels’ type approach where you start out small but you have a migration path towards that bigger picture,” added Garzik.
Image from Wikimedia Commons. | {
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Aww this is so cute but also sad...like Twilight will get to see all of her friends and family die out at some point...they aren't immortal like her or Cadance or Flurry Heart etc. Same goes for Flurry, she will see how her Dad dies of old age. Rarity is shown at the end with already some grey hair which implies that she's hitting her middle age (which is like 8-12 for horses) so that means they will die in like next 20 years or so...and she will probably attend to all funerals with Spike because even he will outlive mane 5 at this point since i've heard he hit his teenage years even tho he looks like an full grown adult he will still grow I guess...Hasbro should make Shining Armor an alicorn too so AT LEAST the crystal family stays the same... | {
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The death of Australian tourist Madison Jane Lyden, who was hit and killed while cycling around Central Park, will lead to lasting changes in the streetscape of New York.
After months of heated debate, Manhattan's Community Board 7 voted overnight, Australian time, to add a protected bike lane on the road that runs along the western flank of the iconic park.
Madison Lyden was on the trip of a lifetime before tragedy struck in New York. Credit:Facebook
Lyden, 23, from Geelong, was killed by a garbage truck driven by a drunk driver as she cycled in the painted bike lane along Central Park West. The collision happened when she swung out of the lane to avoid a taxi, which was pulling out from the kerb.
“There have been many crashes on Central Park West, many crashes with injuries,” said an official at a public meeting in New York on Tuesday night. | {
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"Inconceivable!" Or perhaps not, in this age of insecurity.
One of the most memorable lines from the classic 1987 film "The Princess Bride" had some passengers aboard a Qantas Airlines flight this week feeling as if they were trapped in the Pit of Despair.
The adventure began Sunday night when Wynand Mullins, a native of New Zealand was flying from his current home in Sydney, Australia, back to Auckland, New Zealand, wearing a T-shirt featuring a famous quote from the comic fairy tale.
The message on an oversized name tag read: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
The line is uttered numerous times by actor Mandy Patinkin in "The Princess Bride" as his swordsman character was on a lifelong quest for revenge against the man who slew his father.
TRENDING: Wildfires to get worse thanks to Clinton policies, says fire expert who predicted uptick in blazes
According to New Zealand-based Stuff, "Mullins was approached by a flight attendant who said some people on board were intimidated by the words on his shirt."
It noted Mullins is used to getting questionable looks and received a few while in line waiting to board, but the reaction he received on the plane was "a bit over the top."
Mullins indicated, "The flight attendant said to me: 'Are you able to remove it because some of the passengers are quite intimidated by it.' I thought it was all a bit silly. The person next to me was laughing, because they knew the movie."
However, Mullins did not respond by saying, "As you wish."
Like Inigo Montoya noted in the film, Mullins may have been thinking, "I do not think it means what you think it means."
He didn't happen to have another shirt – nor a holocaust cloak for that matter – as he hoped he would get to wear a pilot's shirt, but also wondered if other passengers might have an adverse reaction to that.
Without forming a brute squad to handle the situation, the flight attendant left to look for another T-shirt, but never returned, and didn't make eye contact with Mullins again.
"I wouldn't be surprised if they had someone watching me the whole time," Mullins said. "The whole experience was a bit over the top, but also a bit comical."
A Qantas spokesman told Stuff the airline had no record of the incident, apparently having been handled by the crew on board.
"Qantas does have dress standards for passengers traveling on our aircraft ... particularly for slogans which other passengers may find offensive or threatening," the spokesman said. | {
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Andrea Bocelli will not perform at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, Page Six has exclusively learned — because of backlash over the gig.
We reported first the famed tenor was being approached to sing for the political event. Some fans then floated a “Boycott Bocelli” movement on social media in reaction.
A source said that, by Monday, “Bocelli said there was no way he’d take the gig . . . he was ‘getting too much heat’ and he said no.”
But another source told us, “Trump suggested to Bocelli he not participate because of the backlash. It’s sad people on the left kept him from performing on a historic day.”
Reps did not comment on his exit. | {
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LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday promised parliament it would receive a proper analysis of any Brexit deal once it has been finalised with the European Union.
Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by William James; editing by Kate Holton Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | {
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The moderators were alerted that something was going on when they started receiving friend requests on their personal accounts from the very people and organizations they were investigating. Facebook's security team later learned that a bug had revealed the moderators' Facebook profiles within the activity logs of the groups they were looking into and shutting down.
Facebook's reaction was to put together a "task force of data scientists, community operations and security investigators," according to internal emails obtained by The Guardian. However, the bug remained in place for two weeks after it was discovered, even as Facebook's head of global investigations, Craig d'Souza, was reassuring moderators that it was unlikely the terrorists would connect these personal profiles to moderation activities.
One moderator, though, wasn't willing to take a chance. He fled Ireland, where he'd moved as a child as an asylum seeker from Iraq, unsatisfied with Facebook's offer of a home alarm system and transportation to and from work. "The punishment from Isis for working in counter-terrorism is beheading," the unnamed worker told The Guardian. "All they'd need to do is tell someone who is radical here." He's since returned to Ireland, but is now suing Facebook for psychological damage.
News of this breach comes on the heels of Facebook's renewed commitment to counterterrorism. They recently reported on their efforts to thwart terrorism on the social network and their increasing use of AI to identify threats. The report also mentioned that they are hiring 3,000 more Community Operations workers -- workers like this unnamed Irish moderator, paid the equivalent of $15/hour to become an expert on analyzing and identifying suspected terrorist activities. It's not an easy task, to moderate social activity on a network with over 2 billion users, but protecting the privacy of those who do this unforgiving work should be at the top of Facebook's priority list. | {
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Nazi Germany on DVD A New Digital Look into Hitler's Bunker
For decades, the common assumption was that Hitler spent his final days in a dark, dank hole. But that's not entirely accurate. A new digital reproduction attempts a vivid reconstruction.
Von R. Jay Magill, Jr. | {
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Helsingin kaupunki julkisti tänään uuden ilmeensä. Uudistus tulee voimaan kesäkuun alussa, ja sen myötä luovutaan jostain syystä pääosin 1600-luvulta saakka käytössä olleesta vaakunasta. Miksi? Luultavasti siksi että historia on nykyään epämuodikasta, mutta vaikea sanoa. Uusi ilme näyttää kuitenkin tältä:
Miksi se näyttää tältä? Suunnittelijan mukaan kyseessä on ”merellisyyttä kuvaava aaltokuvio” joka ”herää eloon kaupungista poimituilla väreillä”. Toisaalta, minkä kaupungin? Koska vaikka suunnittelija puhuukin ”Suomenlinnan vaaleanpunaisesta” ja ”spåran vihreästä” niin tämä ei vaikuta uskottavalta. Katsotaanpa:
Helsingin raitiovaunut ovat esimerkiksi tunnettuja juuri vihreästä väristään – eivät mintunvärisyydestään.
Lisäksi Suomenlinnassa on todistettavasti olemassa vaaleanpunaisia taloja, mutta se tuskin on saaren tunnusväri. Ja vaikka olisikin, niin miksi Suomenlinna muutenkaan määrittelisi koko Helsingin väriä millään tavalla? Ei, luultavampaa onkin että selitys on jälkikonstruktio.
Itseasiassa kun katsoo tarkemmin värit ovatkin lähinnä haettuja Elloksen vuoden 1987 syyskatalogista:
Jos siristää silmiään tämän vintageluettelon kanneessa voikin halutessaan nähdä kaksi aikuista kaupunkia aikuisten värissä – ja niiden välissä Helsinkin puettuna uuteen graafisen ilmeeseensä.
Miksi värit siis ovat todellisuudessa valittuja? Luultavasti siksi että ovat ”muodikkaita ja kivoja” – kuka nyt ei pitäisi millennial pinkistä?
”Brändityönsä kulmakivet Helsinki kiteyttää lausahdukseen ”One Hel of an impact”” Kaupungin mukaan kyseessä ei ole slogan, vaan asenne, joka haastaa ajattelemaan isosti.”
Se on söpöä, mutta oikeastaanhan lausahduksen pitäisi oikeastaan olla ”One Ellos catalogue. From 1987.” Joka haastaa miettimään miksi uudistus on tehty.
Mutta vakavasti puhuen, miksi luopua viisisataa vuotta vanhasta vaakunasymbolista, ja korvata se muodikkaalla värikombolla, viitteellisellä vaakunan alaosalla ja kömpelöllä fontilla?
Ote brändityökirjasta: ”Kaupungin mainetta rakennamme me helsinkiläiset, joiden intonhimona on merkityksellisten ongelmien ratkaiseminen”.
Nyt pitäisi näköjään siis helsinkiläisenä ihan ensimmäiseksi ratkaista tämä ongelma. | {
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Magic: The Gathering takes its place in fun and games history as the collectible card game gets inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Wizards of the Coast first published Magic: The Gathering in 1993, and the uniquely collectible card game became such a success that the WotC initially had trouble keeping up with demand. The game — which draws on popular fantasy themes — requires both chance and skill to defeat opponents in one-on-one or group play, encouraging players to collect new cards and to refine their deck and strategies. It continues to evolve and produce new sets of cards and storylines.
“Magic: The Gathering changed the landscape of collectible card gaming with its introduction more than 25 years ago, and it’s become a part of pop culture — leading to book series, electronic games, and even a series on Netflix," says curator Shannon Symonds. "The fact that it continues to maintain popularity is a testament to its revolutionary gameplay and constant evolution, making it engaging for beginners and experts alike.”
Joining Magic: The Gathering in the National Toy Hall of Fame's 2019 induction class are Matchbox toy cars and coloring books. The honorees were chosen from a field of 12 finalists that also included Care Bears, Fisher-Price Corn Popper, Jenga, Masters of the Universe, My Little Pony, Nerf Blaster, Risk, smartphone, and top.
The National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong, established in 1998, recognizes toys that have inspired creative play and enjoyed popularity over a sustained period. | {
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Elon Musk spent part of his Labor Day weekend tweeting about World War III.
Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX's CEO wasn't making doomsday predictions because North Korea is testing nuclear weapons. What's got Musk much more worried about world war is artificial intelligence.
North Korea "should be low on our list of concerns for civilizational existential risk," Musk said in one of a series of posts on Twitter (TWTR) early Monday.
"Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo," Musk said in another tweet, using the Internet short-hand for "in my opinion."
Related: 10 cities living in the future
The dire prediction was in response to a recent comment from Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Artificial intelligence is the future not only of Russia but of all of mankind," Putin said. "Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world."
At the moment, the United States, China and India are the three countries leading the AI race, according to one top tech industry executive.
But Musk believes others will try to catch up by any means possible. "Govts don't need to follow normal laws," he said in one tweet. "They will obtain AI developed by companies at gunpoint, if necessary."
Related: Elon Musk backs call for global ban on killer robots
In another reply on Twitter, Musk speculated that an AI system could choose to start a war "if it decides that a prepemptive [sic] strike is most probable path to victory."
Musk has repeatedly issued warnings about the perils of AI, calling for new regulation to keep the public safe.
Related: Elon Musk's new plan to save humanity from AI
In the process, Musk has clashed with at least one fellow tech billionaire: Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg called Musk's AI doomsday rhetoric "pretty irresponsible." Musk responded by calling Zuckerberg's understanding of the issue "limited."
Musk has tried to address his AI anxieties through two new ventures: OpenAI, a non-profit AI research company, and Neuralink, a startup building devices to connect the human brain with computers.
"I was trying to really sound the alarm on the AI front for quite a while, but it was clearly having no impact," he said in one interview around the launch of Neuralink. "So I was like, 'Oh fine, okay, then we'll have to try to help develop it in a way that's good.' " | {
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In this part of the Android development tutorial we are going to set up the app backend for handling spends. To create a secure spend, the app backend needs to handle two things: request a spend and verify a spend.
Request a spend
Before the user actually spends Kin, the app needs to request a spend from the backend so it can be verified later. Just like with storing users, you typically store payment requests in a database. But for simplicity’s sake, we again are are going to use the filesystem as a makeshift database. On the app backend, create a folder called “payments”. Similar to what we did in the users folder, we are going to store our spend requests here, in the “payments” folder.
The endpoint to request a spend will be:
http://SERVER-IP:8001/spend_request?device_id=DEVICE_ID
The app backend will create a random token, store it together with the amount to be payed and device ID in the payments folder, and return the token to the app. The token can then be added in the transaction by the app.
Let’s create the endpoint: open the server.py file and add the new endpoint:
# Add to imports
import random
import string
def spend_request():
device_id = request.args.get('device_id')
amount = "5" # Define as string because we save it in a file
token = ''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for _ in range(10)) @app .route('/spend_request')def spend_request():device_id = request.args.get('device_id')amount = "5" # Define as string because we save it in a filetoken = ''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_uppercase + string.digits) for _ in range(10)) with open("payments/" + token, "w") as text_file:
text_file.write("%s
%s" % (device_id, amount)) return token
Try it out! Navigate to the endpoint. You should see a random string in the browser. Then check the payments folder. A file should be there with the token as filename with the supplied amount and device ID in the file.
A note on security: Just like with the earns, here you should also take care of XSS and SQL attacks (if you use a database). One can still inject actual Python code in the device_id parameter, which is then stored in the filesystem.
Validate a spend
After the app has sent the requested amount of Kin to your wallet, the device should ask the backend to validate the spend and give the user what they bought. The app should send the transaction ID to the app backend so the app backend can verify the transaction.
When the app backend receives a request to validate the spend, it should retrieve the transaction details from the Kin blockchain using the Kin backend. If you do an API call to the Kin backend to get payment information for a particular transaction ID, the Kin backend will return the amount of Kin that was sent, the sender and receiver address and the memo which should contain the token.
The backend can then open the token file in the payments folder and verify that the transaction matches all the fields from the spend request:
Sender address is associated with the correct device ID
Receiver address is your app wallet
Transaction amount is equal to the amount in the payment request
If the file could not be found, the token is incorrect and we should deny the payment. If all goes well, we can confirm the spend transaction and give the user what he bought. Then, we delete the token file again so you cannot use the same transaction twice.
The endpoint will be the following:
First, let’s see what we get if we try to retrieve a transaction from the Kin backend. Add the following endpoint to the server.py file:
Now run the server and navigate to that endpoint with some transaction. This can be a test transaction of your own, or you can take one from the Kin blockchain explorer (select the testnet and a payment transaction; create account transactions won’t work). Here is an example of a result:
{
"amount": 10.0,
"destination": "G...",
"memo": "1-abc-MEMO",
"source": "G...",
"timestamp": 1566617609.0
}
As you see from the Python code, we call the Kin backend with a GET request to get the payment information of a particular transaction. The Kin backend returns the amount, destination address, memo, source address and the timestamp when the transaction was executed.
The memo contains 3 parts: the number 1, the app ID (it will be ABCD if you follow the tutorial), and the memo field. The app is responsible for putting the token there, the string returned from the spend_request endpoint.
Now we can validate all these properties to see if the transaction is valid. Modify the endpoint so it reads as:
# Add to imports
import os
def spend_validate():
transaction_id = request.args.get('transaction_id')
result = requests.get('
tx = result.json() @app .route('/spend_validate')def spend_validate():transaction_id = request.args.get('transaction_id')result = requests.get(' http://localhost:8000/payment/' + transaction_id)tx = result.json() token = tx["memo"].split("-")[2] try:
with open("payments/" + token, "r") as pay_file:
data = pay_file.read().split("
")
device_id = data[0]
amount = int(data[1]) with open("users/" + device_id, "r") as user_file:
data = user_file.read().split("
")
address = data[0] # Validations
if amount != tx["amount"]:
return "Amount incorrect"
elif address != tx["source"]:
return address + " " + tx["source"]
return "Sending address incorrect"
elif tx["destination"] != "YOUR-RECEIVING-KIN-ADDRESS":
return "Destination address incorret" # Spend is valid. You can add logic here to give the user
# what they bought # Now delete the file to prevent double spending.
os.remove("payments/" + token) return "Spend is valid"
except:
return "Payment is incorrect"
This is what happens: First we get the transaction and from the transaction we retrieve the token. Then we try the validation and if it fails (because the token file doesn’t exist, or the device ID has no matching Kin address, for example), we return “Payment is incorrect”.
For the validation, we need to first open the transaction file, with the token as filename. From the device_id in that file we can fetch the source Kin address because that is stored in the users/device_id file. When we have all that data, we validate everything. If nothing is wrong, the payments file is removed to prevent double spending and return that the spend is valid. There you can add logic to give the user what he bought. This is like setting a premium attribute to true, or notifying a shipping party to send a mug. Note that this needs to be done in the backend because it’s the only place you have full control over everything.
Now we can try it out: It will be a bit tricky to pass all validation with a test transaction because everything must be correct. But that is precisely the point. As a “homework assignment”, try to create a user and payment file combination that matches a random payment transaction in the block explorer (search for a payment transaction, not a ‘create user’ transaction). Then see if you get the payment to be valid; you’ll notice that you have to set everything to the actual transaction. It is not possible to cheat the system.
Wrapup
We now have a working backend that supports secure spending. In the next tutorial, we will connect the app to the app backend by creating a button to spend Kin. | {
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TB3 enabler is a brand new hack from Khaos Tian that enables unsupported Thunderbolt 3 devices on the latest MacBook Pro.
As explained by Tian, Apple impedes support for some categories of Thunderbolt 3 devices by implementing a software block. TB3 enabler allows users to bypass that software block, enabling access to previously unsupported Thunderbolt 3 devices.
It just so happens that I have an “unsupported” Thunderbolt 3 dock in my possession — StarTech’s Thunderbolt 3 Dual-4K Docking Station. I was really disappointed when I found out that this dock would only support Windows, but after using the TB3 enabler hack, I’m able to use the dock on macOS 10.12.1.
But before you get too excited, know that there are some downsides to using this method, and remember that this Dock doesn’t feature official macOS support and therefore has limitations.
It’s still not totally clear as to why Apple chose to implement a software block for certain Thunderbolt 3 devices, but according to an email reply from Apple, it appears to be more of a business decision surrounding certification than an outright technical decision.
Oh perfect. So in addition to USB-C and TB3 compatibility issue, there is the Normal TB3 and macOS-Certified TB3 accessories 🙃 #ThisIsFine pic.twitter.com/vLKqw43rRs — Khaos Tian (@KhaosT) November 19, 2016
At any rate, your mileage may vary, and by using this hack, you take full risk and responsibility for running the script that enables unsupported Thunderbolt 3 hardware on macOS.
How to enable unsupported Thunderbolt 3 devices on the MacBook Pro
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Step 1: Verify that your Thunderbolt 3 device is unsupported by macOS.
Connect your Thunderbolt 3-enabled device to your MacBook Pro with a Thunderbolt 3 cable. Be sure that you are using a proper Thunderbolt 3 cable, and not a generic USB-C cable. There is a difference, despite what you may hear.
Click Apple () in the menu bar, hold the Option (⌥) key, and click System Information. Click Thunderbolt under the Hardware section, and ensure that your connected Thunderbolt 3 device is being recognized as an unsupported device.
Step 2: Disable System Integrity Protection.
To run this script successfully, you’ll need to disable SIP. To do so, reboot your Mac, and as its booting back up, hold Command (⌘) + R. Once you arrive at the Recovery menu, click Utilities in the menu bar, and select Terminal.
In the Terminal window, type the following and press the Return key on your keyboard:
csrutil disable
If successful, restart your Mac normally.
Step 3: Download the TB3 enabler script using Safari.
You can find TB3 enabler on KhaosT’s GitHub page. Click the link for tb3-enabler.py and right-click on the Raw button and select Download Linked File. The script file should be saved to your Downloads folder if using default Safari settings.
Step 4: Give the script execute permissions.
Open a Terminal window and type the following:
chmod +x
Place a space after the x, and drag the tb3-enabler.py file from your Downloads folder on to the Terminal window to copy the path to the file. Press the Return key on your keyboard to give the script execute permissions.
Step 5: Run the tb3-enabler script.
In the same Terminal window, type the following:
sudo
Place a space after sudo, and drag the tb3-enabler.py file on to the Terminal window to copy the path to the file. After the space type apply and press the Return key on your keyboard. You’ll be asked to enter your Mac’s user account password. Enter your password and press the Return key on your keyboard.
Step 6: Reboot your Mac
Once the script is finished running, restart your Mac.
Step 7: Verify your connected Thunderbolt 3 device.
After your reboot, click Apple () in the menu bar, hold the Option (⌥) key, and click System Information. Click Thunderbolt under the Hardware section, and ensure that your connected Thunderbolt 3 device is being recognized as a supported device instead of an unsupported device.
How to remove the TB3 Enabler hack
If you wish to remove the patch, simply repeat step 4, but replace apply with restore. After that, repeat step 1 and replace disable with enable.
The main downside that I’ve encountered with this method for enabling unsupported Thunderbolt 3 devices is that you have to keep System Integrity Protection disabled, and it only (as of this post) works on the latest publicly available version of macOS. I had to restore my macOS installation from the 12.10.2 beta back to 12.10.1 in order to test this out.
The StarTech Thunderbolt 3 dock
The folks at StarTech sent me this dock well over a month ago in anticipation for the MacBook Pro’s adoption of Thunderbolt 3. Unfortunately, this dock is labeled as being for Windows-only, and showed up as unsupported when connecting it to my Mac.
I actually was in the process of shipping the dock back to StarTech when I got wind of this hack, so I’m glad I didn’t return it yet, as it allowed me to verify that it works.
The main thing I like about this dock is that it’s a true Thunderbolt 3 dock, meaning it supports full Thunderbolt 3 bandwidth. I was able to connect to my 4K display via the DisplayPort connection on the dock, and get full 4K support at 60Hz.
If you have displays with Thunderbolt 3 ports, StarTech says that you’ll be able to connect to multiple 4K displays using this dock, though I’ve yet to test that functionality.
Along with the display output ability, the dock features a couple of USB-A ports, an extra 5Gbps USB-C port for connecting USB-C devices, Gigabit ethernet and a pair of 3.5mm ports for headphones and a microphone.
The biggest downside that I encountered while using this dock is that it only provides 15W of power to my MacBook Pro when connected via Thunderbolt 3. StarTech’s documentation says that the dock is fully capable of supporting USB Power Deliver 2.0, which provides up to 100W of power, but apparently it’s seeing the MacBook Pro as a USB accessory, not a computer. This is probably something that StarTech could fix via a firmware update, but who’s to say if that will ever happen considering the device isn’t supported on Macs without taking advantage of a hack?
Needless to say, the lack of adequate charging power is a major downside to using this dock, assuming StarTech won’t be in a hurry to address it. Of course, you could opt to connect your MacBook Pro’s charger, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a one-cable-solution dock.
Despite these warnings, I know that some of you will want to use this dock for its ability to connect to 4K (and 5K) displays at 60 Hz. I definitely can’t outright recommend it due to its limitations and the hoops that you have to jump through, but it’s pretty awesome to be able to turn what was essentially a paperweight (for Mac users, it works great on Windows machines and even in bootcamp) into something useful. In fact, despite its lack of proper charging ability at the time, I think I’ll use this dock, instead of the CalDigit USB-C dock we recently covered, due to its added bandwidth and display output abilities.
You can find the StarTech Thunderbolt 3 Dual-4K Docking Station on Amazon for a little over $200. It comes with a power adapter and a 0.5 meter Thunderbolt 3 cable.
I’ve reached out to StarTech about this hack, and will be reporting back with any official updates about future support or firmware upgrades. I know that the company is also in the process of producing additional Thunderbolt 3 accessories for Mac as well.
I’m happy to get the dock working to a certain extent, but I’m even more excited about the potential prospects of using eGPUs on the MacBook Pro. I’ve seen reports of people having success using Razer Cores and other Thunderbolt 3 enclosures by means of this hack, which is definitely good news for anyone interested in beefing up the performance of the MacBook Pro while on the desktop.
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Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: | {
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Our Kanye: Noam Chomsky to visit #OccupyBoston today (UPDATE: event postponed until Saturday, 10/22)
| {
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On February 9, Russian Internet users started sharing a recording of Vesti-Khamchatka news anchor Alexandra Novikova bursting into hysterical laughter while reporting a three-percent increase in certain social-security payments. Novikova loses her composure when explaining that the state’s new indexing of payments will leave recipients with “a little more than 1,500 rubles” ($23.50) a month to help with payments for medicines, health resort packages, and “international travel” (sic) to these facilities.
Drawing on a “set of social services,” Novikova explains in the report, beneficiaries can spend almost 900 rubles ($14.09) on medicines, 137 rubles ($2.15) on vouchers, and the remaining balance “on international travel.” When uttering the last phrase, the news anchor breaks down in laughter and says, “I honestly really tried not to laugh right there.”(Laughter begins around 0:48 in the video.)
Ведущая «Вестей» на Камчатке рассмеялась на записи эфира, говоря о повышении выплат льготникам на 3%: из ежемесячных выплат на санаторий и проезд к нему выделяется 264 рубля.
ВГТРК удалила копию оригинального сюжета из YouTube и соцсетейhttps://t.co/YcGGfOP5Wb pic.twitter.com/a6EgmA6YZ4 — TJ (@tjournal) February 10, 2020
Novikova then jokes that she’s happy not to have laughed during a live broadcast. The website TJournal says the footage that leaked online is likely one of several takes that were not included in the final report aired on television. TJournal reports that Alexandra Novikova does work for GTRK Kamchatka and has appeared in other reports aired on Vesti. The studio that recorded the report also belongs to the state television network, according to TJournal.
By the time of this writing, GTRK Kamchatka had removed the original report featuring Novikova from YouTube and VKontakte, though copies of the anchor laughing continue to circulate online. The GTRK Kamchatka does not have its own separate website.
TJournal also points out that Novikova incorrectly reported the new social payments for “international” travel. Starting on February 1, 2020, benefits paid to three types of recipients went up by three percent: disabled combat veterans, persons exposed to radiation, and persons honored as Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia and Heroes of Socialist Labor.
These beneficiaries will now receive 1,155 rubles and 6 kopecks (about $18.08) a month for purchasing essential medicines (889 rubles and 66 kopecks, or $13.92), health resort packages to prevent major diseases (137 rubles and 63 kopecks, or $2.15), and free travel on the local commuter rail and 127 rubles and 77 kopecks ($2) for roundtrip intercity transport.
Alexey Kostelyov, the director of VGTRK’s Kamchatka branch, told the publication Pdmnews that he knows the identity of the individual who leaked the footage on social media. He says he plans to punish the person who was responsible, and he says anchor Alexandra Novikova is not in any trouble.
(c)MEDUZA 2020 | {
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It's getting harder and harder to purchase a genuine stripped down vehicle these days. Manufacturers have discovered that it's both cheaper and easier to offer every model with a surprisingly high level of content rather than build multiple variations on the same theme. That's why tricks like power locks and windows are all but ubiquitous, even on bargain-basement models.Not so in Japan. Toyota is offering buyers a stripper version of the company's new GT86 sports coupe. The vehicle comes as a blank canvas just waiting for your personal touch. Outside, the stock 17-inch alloy wheels are replaced with 16-inch steelies, and the bumpers, side mirrors and door handles all arrive unpainted. Don't expect to find any fog lights, either.Indoors, niceties like a stereo, air conditioning and even trim work around the steering wheel and shifter are nowhere to be found. Toyota even went so far as to ditch the plastic intake cover under the hood. The vehicle doesn't come with a limited-slip rear differential, but the sacrifice seems worth it to us. For starters, the GT-86 RC carries a price tag of 1.9 million Yen, or $24,601 at current conversion rates. That's significantly less than the standard model. Then there's the fact that the RC weighs nearly 100 pounds less than the base GT-86.Sadly, we doubt either Scion or Subaru will offer a similarly stripped-down version of their respective FR-S or BRZ models, though history disagrees with us. Scion did, in fact, offer a stripper version of the tC back in 2007 called the tC Spec Package | {
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You don’t need arms to fly but engineers from Seoul National University in South Korea have developed a robotic appendage designed to give drones a better grip on the world. Inspired by origami, the innovative arm can be folded for transport and self-assembles into a rigid appendage when it’s needed for use.
In recent years, the ancient art of calculated folding has inspired designs for spacecraft, artificial muscles, and Kevlar shields, thanks to its ability to save space without significantly compromising functionality.
“Imagine using an origami-inspired design,” Kyu Jin Cho, a Seoul National University roboticist who led the project, told Digital Trends. “To make them easily foldable, the structure becomes weak. If you make the structures strong, they are either heavy or not easy to fold. Our design is lightweight and easy to fold and unfold, but can become very stiff. Meeting all these requirements at the same time expands the usage of origami designs. Not just the drone arm we have shown, but imagine a robot that folds itself into a packable size and, when needed, unfolds by itself to become a robot.”
The arm developed by Cho and his team is made up of seven actuators and a single wire that enables it to shift from folded to extended, sort of like an umbrella being opened and closed. When unfolded it can total 27.5 inches in length. This allows it to attach to drones, where it can remain packed during transport and flight, only to unfurl when needed. The arm can sport a gripper or camera on the end to suit its needs.
“If you attach a robotic arm to a drone you can now pick up stuff and perform various manipulations with the drone,” Cho said. “But attaching an arm will make the drone heavy, and bulky. This arm will solve this issue making it easier for drones to attach arms.”
In a video accompanying a paper published last week in the journal Science Robotics, Cho and his team’s drone can be seen flying with the arms packed neatly underneath, before extending downward a few times the length of the drone. The video shows the drone arm performing a number of tasks, including shooting video with a camera and picking up an object from a ditch.
Though the clever design offers a glimpse into the future capabilities of drones, Cho stressed that this is just an initial concept and his team will be working to strengthen and add joints to the arm moving forward.
Editors' Recommendations | {
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Eric Bangeman
Eric Bangeman
Eric Bangeman
White Castle is known for a lot of things, but serving delicious and nutritious food is not one of them. But when word made it to the Orbiting HQ that the oldest fast food chain in the United States was now dishing up Impossible Burgers, we decided we needed to investigate.
The White Castle-Impossible Burger partnership is an unlikely one, to be sure. The former is perhaps best known for being the last step in finalizing a massive hangover as well as the intended destination of a hungry duo seeking late-night sustenance. The latter is a plant-based burger that "bleeds," sears, and even purports to taste like a beef-based burger. Earlier this year, a few of my colleagues ventured out to a DC-area burger joint to taste-test the Impossible Burger. The reviews were mixed, with the highest praise coming from Tim Lee, who called it a "convincing imitation" of the real thing.
For the uninitiated, a slider from White Castle is a tiny slab of beef with five holes. It's steamed on a griddle with a bunch of minced onions and served inside of what looks like a dinner roll. The burgers are tiny—you can get 18 sliders from a single pound of ground beef. (I once ate 19 in a single sitting to win a contest in college.) Under certain conditions—or a suitably altered state of mind—they can be delicious. But a visit to Whiteys can also result in gastrointestinal regret for some. I have a proverbial cast-iron stomach, and I get a White Castle craving about once a year, so I volunteered to see what the Impossible Slider is all about.
The White Castle on the far northwest side of Chicago I dined at trumpeted the arrival of the Impossible Burger with a large poster in a window. As I walked inside, I was greeted by the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of White Castle. It was a bit jarring to be there before midnight, but I collected myself and walked up to the counter to place my order: three Impossible Sliders (one without cheese), two regular sliders (the control burgers), fries, and a medium Fanta Lime. I found an empty booth and sat down to await my fate.
Eric Bangeman
Eric Bangeman
Eric Bangeman
Eric Bangeman
Eric Bangeman
Eric Bangeman
White Castle cooks the Impossible Slider to order on a grill used solely for the plant-based burgers. Unlike the beef burgers, which are shipped to the stores frozen in hole-punched patty form, the Impossible Burger shows up fresh. Each Impossible Slider is individually made and flattened out with a spatula. It is then cooked on a 300-degree grill; the grill for meat sliders is set to 230 degrees. The familiar holes are missing from the Impossible Slider, and it's made much thicker than its ex-cow counterparts in order to hold together during the cooking process, according to store General Manager Tahita Hale.
My order arrived in the usual boxes on a paper plate. The packaging was familiar, but what was inside was not. The Impossible Slider is significantly thicker than a normal White Castle burger, and it actually looked more burger-like than a slider—White Castle habitués know what I'm talking about. Lifting the bun from the cheese-less Impossible Slider revealed a lumpy mass with a pickle on top and a bit of pink toward the center. I replaced the top of the bun and took a bite.
It tasted... fairly burger-like. Unlike the Impossible Burgers my colleagues had in DC a couple of months ago, my slider was moist and had a texture that offered a passable impression of a beef burger. With the smoked cheddar, the Impossible Slider was even better. I suspect that the more trimmings and condiments on your Impossible Slider, the more it will mask the differences between it and a normal burger.
What it didn't taste like was a slider. A White Castle burger has its own character, a taste of beef and onions with slight hints of regret. The parts of the bun in contact with the burger soften a bit and take on a bit of the meat and onion flavor to create something greater than the sum of its parts. In contrast, the bun on the Impossible Burger remained dry, tasting of white bread and little else.
The Impossible Burger is priced at $1.99, compared to 95¢ for a cheeseburger and 77¢ for a slider. They are currently only available at White Castles in Chicagoland, New York, and New Jersey, so if you're dying for an excuse to visit Whiteys and don't live in one of those areas, you'll need to go elsewhere for your plant-based burger alternative. Is it worth the trip? If you're a vegetarian who has always wondered what it would be like to eat at White Castle, go for it. It's prepared properly, and it tastes like an Impossible Burger should. It's worth checking out if you're just Impossible-curious. But if you're craving the One True Slider, skip the Impossible Slider and get a sackful of the old standby. You won't be disappointed... for a couple of hours, at least.
Listing image by Eric Bangeman | {
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The number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States under the federal refugee resettlement program has declined for the fourth consecutive month.
In February, the first full month of the Trump administration, 673 Syrian refugees were admitted into the country. In March, that number fell to 282. The decline continued into April, when 226 were admitted and the number admitted so far in May has declined further to 156.
All told, since January 21, President Trump’s first full day in office, a total of 1,603 Syrian refugees have been admitted into the United States, according to the State Department’s interactive website.
This contrasts with the 12,587 Syrian refugees admitted into the United States in FY 2016 (out of 84,994 total refugees admitted), the last full year of the Obama administration, and the 4,618 Syrian refugees (out of 30,122 total refugees admitted) during the 3 months and 20 days President Obama was in office during FY 2017.
On the campaign trail, President Trump said he would stop the inflow of all Syrian refugees, at least temporarily, a marked contrast to Hillary Clinton, who said she wanted to dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees admitted into the country.
“When I’m elected president, we will suspend the Syrian refugee program and we will keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country,” Trump promised just days before the election.
He also promised that “[a] Trump administration will not admit any refugees without the support of the local community where they are being placed.”
President Trump’s executive orders to temporarily halt the entire refugee program for 120 days and impose a travel ban on a handful of Middle Eastern countries deemed to be havens of terrorism by previous administrations for 90 days have been stymied by the courts.
Overall, 16,262 refugees have been resettled during the first 4 months and 11 days of the Trump administration: 2, 326 during the last 11 days of January, 4,580 in February, 2,070 in March, 3,316 in April, and 3,957 in May.
According to a New York Times story last week, officials in the State Department have told the voluntary agencies (VOLAGs), who are paid more than $1 billion per year by the federal government to resettle refugees, the number of refugees who will be resettled during the last 4 months of FY 2017 will double.
As Breitbart News reported, it is not clear if the White House was informed of – or approved – this increase before the State Department announced it to the VOLAGs.
Should the State Department follow through on its statement to the VOLAGs, as reported by the Times, the total number of refugees resettled in the United States during FY 2017 will be less than in FY 2016, but comparable to all the other prior years of the Obama administration, as Breitbart News noted last week:
Earlier this week, Breitbart News estimated that if the refugee entry rate continued at the level of 817 per week (the rate of the four most recent weeks), the total number of refugees admitted to the United States in FY 2017 by September 30 would be 60,672. If the rate of refugee admission continues at the 1,500 per week level reported by the Times for the remaining 18 weeks of FY 2017, the total number of refugees admitted in the United States during FY 2017 will be 72,996. . . “Before FY 2016, the number of refugees resettled in the United States under the Obama administration declined from 74,649 in FY 2009 to 56,424 in FY 2011, then increased to 69,933 in FY 2015,” Breitbart News reported. During the George W. Bush administration, the number of refugees admitted into the United States annually “ranged from a low of 28,390 in FY 2003 to a high of 60,191 in FY 2008.”
Last month Breitbart News reported, “[President] Trump has reduced the overall number of refugees resettled, something that he implied but did not specifically promise on the campaign trail, but the level of reduction falls far short of the virtual halt many of his supporters had hoped to see.”
One month later, the continued decline in the number of Syrian refugees resettled in the country is offset by the New York Times report that the number of refugees is likely to double for the next four months. | {
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Minister Jackie Trad (Queensland) and Peter Dutton (Federal) get a progress report on the first rail track laying on the Petrie to Kippa-Ring Moreton Bay Rail Link Credit:Tony Moore "This investigation will be transparent and I will confirm details in the coming days about who I will entrust with this task." Serious concerns were investigated by QR last week and reported to Mr Hinchliffe on Monday morning. Mr Hinchliffe indefinitely delayed opening the Moreton Bay Rail Link citing serious safety concerns. The fault meant the signalling system would crash after three trains passed through Petrie station, where the new rail line meets the old line, creating serious problems throughout the network.
QR was not included in the design and construction phase of this project . They were excluded from the process by the previous Liberal National Party government to look for savings, as Newman government transport minister Scott Emerson said in 2012. "Previously, the delivery of the project was split between the Department of Transport and Main Roads and Queensland Rail," Mr Emerson said in a statement issued on July 11 that year. "By bringing the project under one agency I am looking for better more innovation and savings for the funding partners and the people of Queensland." That decision was seriously questioned by Rail Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow on Monday afternoon.
"If Queensland Rail had been there from day one, we don't think these signalling issues and deficiencies would have happened at all," he said. "They would have recognised there were deficiencies from day one, because the two systems are not talking to each other properly. "The system on the Moreton Bay Rail Link is not exactly the same as the system on the rest of the network." Mr Dow said his network of advisers and rail enthusiasts became aware of signal problems about two months ago, but believed it could have been fixed. Mr Dow said QR should have been involved from the start of the project.
"Queensland Rail has always been involved in the construction alliance since the Caboolture to Beerburrum line in 2008-09," he said. Mr Dow said QR was involved in the Corinda to Darra rail line expansion, Darra to Richlands and then the Richlands to Springfield Central. "You need a proper rail authority involved in a rail project like that." he said. "You need that expertise." Mr Emerson said when he was transport minister the department assured him the project was "on track".
"When the contract was awarded, we were assured this project was on track, would be delivered and would be appropriate and that was the assurances we got from the department," he said. Mr Emerson said most of the main construction work had been done over the past 18 months while Labor was in office. "I think there are very serious questions for Mr Hinchliffe and Labor to answer about what they have been doing for the past 18 months," he said. "What questions has he been asking up until five minutes 'til midnight." "All the major works in this project – including the signalling work – has been carried out under the Labor Party."
Mr Emerson said Thiess, which won the contract, found savings because they were already doing bridge work and embankment works on the rail corridor. Mr Emerson said he himself did not suggest QR be excluded from the project design and construction. "All these projects and the awarding of these tenders are made by an independent tendering panel within the department," Mr Emerson said. Loading "It would be inappropriate for a minister to get involved in this." | {
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A day off did nothing to slow down Curtis Granderson.
The New York Yankees center fielder has homered in consecutive games and three of his last four heading into Saturday night's road matchup against his former team, the Detroit Tigers.
Granderson has 17 homers to tie Toronto's Edwin Encarnacion and the White Sox's Adam Dunn for second in the majors behind Texas' Josh Hamilton.
His three-run homer was a big blow in Wednesday's 6-5 road win over the Angels and he delivered his fourth career grand slam in Friday's 9-4 win in the opener of this three-game set.
Granderson is 6 for 16 with six runs scored against Detroit (24-28) this year, homering in the last three matchups. He has hit safely in his last 11 games against his former club, including last year's AL division series that the Tigers won in five games.
Granderson was traded by the Tigers to the Yankees before the 2010 season.
"This is where I started my career, I made a lot of friends and I have some family in the area so it's always good to come back," he said.
The Yankees (28-23) entered Friday with the AL's second-worst mark with the bases loaded at .151.
"I've said all along that our bats have not been bad, we just haven't gotten the hits and eventually that's going to turn," manager Joe Girardi said.
New York improved to 5-2 on a nine-game trip in which it has homered 13 times. Mark Teixeira has four homers in the seven games and Robinson Cano has three.
Detroit has dropped four of five to fall a season-worst four games below .500 for the second time. Rookie Quintin Berry and Delmon Young each had three hits Friday.
Prince Fielder had an RBI single in three at-bats, and is hitting .423 with three homers and 18 RBIs over his last 18 games.
Fielder owns the most experience among the Tigers against New York starter Hiroki Kuroda (4-6, 3.96 ERA), going 3 for 9. Kuroda enters off an outstanding outing with eight innings in Sunday's 2-0 victory at Oakland.
The right-hander's lone outing against Detroit came in 2010 with the Dodgers as he yielded two runs over six innings in a 6-2 loss.
Kuroda matched up with Rick Porcello (3-4, 5.21) in that contest and will again face the right-hander. Porcello is 0-2 with a 5.75 ERA in his last four outings, yielding three runs over six innings Sunday before leaving without a decision in a 4-3 victory at Minnesota.
Porcello is 2-2 with a 5.56 ERA in four regular-season starts against the Yankees, and was also charged with a 10-1 defeat in Game 4 of last year's division series after allowing four runs in six innings.
Granderson is 3 for 8 against Porcello, including that playoff game, while Teixeira and Derek Jeter are each 1 for 12.
Detroit's Alex Avila could return to the lineup after getting hit in the helmet with a foul ball in Thursday's 7-3 win at Boston. Manager Jim Leyland said Avila is healthy enough to catch.
Outfielder Andy Dirks did not start for the third straight game with a sore Achilles. | {
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Last Monday, one of the most iconic figures of the 1980s passed away. Whatever your viewpoint, in terms of strength, drive, and unrelenting sense of purpose, we're unlikely to see their like again. This was someone who knew what they wanted and saw it through to the bitter end, dammit, no matter how shrill the outraged screaming. To admirers, an anti-establishment hero; to detractors, a subhuman hate figure who heartlessly devastated entire communities: a monster to dress up as for your next Halloween party.
Yes, Richard Brooker, the former English stuntman who played the ice-hockey-masked killer Jason Vorhees in the Friday the 13th movies, died last Monday. Maggie Thatcher died the same day, triggering a nationwide outpouring of grief as the TV schedules filled with boring tribute shows. The homages weren't limited to TV screens however. Git-haired One Direction sex minnow Harry Styles hastily tweeted an RIP, prompting many of his fans to wonder aloud just who this "Thatcher" person was, much to the amusement of onlookers not quite smart enough to understand how time works. It's unfair to berate One Direction fans for their Maggie ignorance: for one thing, they're about 10 minutes old. They've only just learned to grasp objects. When I was their age I didn't know who Alec Douglas-Home was. Still don't, come to think of it. Just had to Google him. Woah – sexy!
Incidentally, Maggie herself was a huge One Direction fan – by which I mean she wasn't for turning!!!! LOL OMG HaHa #AceGag
Still, not everyone has shown as much respect as the Dickensian chimney-sweep pin-up Master Styles. Within hours of the news breaking, "celebration" parties were attended by people so utterly committed to humanitarian causes that they're compelled to dance in the street when an old lady dies. Throughout the 80s I hated Thatcher, partly for selfish reasons. I figured that, thanks to the likes of her, the planet was about to receive a mushroom-cloud makeover, and I've never been that keen on burning to death unexpectedly on a school day. I found her almost too frightening to watch on TV. She seemed to display such cold disregard for those crushed by the wheels of her personal brand of progress, it was hard to believe she fully understood what human beings are, let alone cared about them.
Maybe, being the first female prime minister, she was consciously subverting cliche by being as masculine as possible. It's like Barack Obama using flying robots to bomb brown folk overseas – critics chuckle and say: "Man, I didn't expect the first black president to do THAT!"
Millions sang for joy when the Tories themselves kicked Thatcher out of No 10 back in 1990. Breaking into song again 23 years later because she's died of a stroke following years of debilitating illness and seclusion strikes me as futile and a bit sad – not unlike dancing into the British Museum to shake your fist at a mummy. But any active celebrations seemed fairly isolated until the press noticed an online campaign to get Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead into the charts. They were so outraged that they decided to promote it on their front pages, thereby causing a further surge in sales, which they then pretended was a crisis for the BBC, on the basis that Radio 1's weekly chart show – a factual record of what music the British public has been buying – might be forced to play the tune.
Pardon me for swearing, but in the spirit of robust free speech, not to mention accuracy, what the papers have perpetrated there is what Viz magazine would describe as "a cunt's trick". I'd think of a less offensive description, but there isn't one. I simply can't believe they've forced me to use such vile language in an article about our late premier. And by "they", I mean the BBC: officially to blame for anything bad since the eradication of cholera. On last week's Question Time, Charles Moore berated the BBC for even mentioning the Ding Dong! campaign on air, apparently unaware that, by doing so, he was himself promoting it on the BBC, which means he either a) believes himself to be invisible and inaudible, or b) had missed a golden chance to take another opportunistic pop at them before drawing his next breath. (Mind you, he didn't look as dumb as David Blunkett – also on the panel – who gleefully recounted dialogue from a famous Spitting Image sketch starring the Thatcher puppet that he'd somehow mistaken for a real-life quote from the woman herself. He's lucky Dimbleby cut him off before he went on to claim she'd had someone's arm up her arse at the time.)
Many of the obituaries have noted that Thatcher had little sense of humour, although we don't know how advanced her sense of irony was (being made of iron, she was quite irony herself). So we don't know how she'd react to the loudest squabble in the aftermath of her death being a surreal fight over an old musical number repurposed as an anti-tribute to her memory – a protest people actually have to pay to take part in. She'd laugh at that aspect, at the very least. It's hard to believe she'd turn in her grave. After all, as she told us herself, the lady's not for turning!!!! LOL OMG haha #AceGag #WellDone #Legend #JobDone #SigningOff #SeeYa | {
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The murders—it dignifies them to call them a “tragedy”—in Aurora, Colorado, have hit us all hard, though the grief of the friends and families of the victims is unimaginable. Still, it hits home, or someplace worse than home, for any parent who (as I did, as so many did) had a kid at one of the many midnight screenings of the new Batman movie last night, they having gone to see it the moment it opened. Once again, as so often before, the unthinkable news is disassembled, piece by piece, into its heartbreaking parts. After the Virginia Tech shooting, the horrifying detail, as I wrote at the time, was that the cell phones were still ringing in the pockets of the dead children as their parents tried to call them. In Colorado, you can’t expunge the knowledge of the sudden turn from pleasure to horror that those children experienced. As the smoke bomb went off, some of the kids inside apparently thought that it was a special effect, part of the fun, until they began to see “people holding themselves.” According to the Aurora police, the suspect, James Holmes, who is twenty-four, was carrying both a rifle and a handgun. The bullets were fired so freely that they penetrated the wall separating one movie theatre in a multiplex to devastate people in the next one.
The truth is made worse by the reality that no one—really no one—anywhere on the political spectrum has the courage to speak out about the madness of unleashed guns and what they do to American life. That includes the President, whose consoling message managed to avoid the issue of why these killings take place. Of course, we don’t know, and perhaps never will, what exactly “made him” do what he did; but we know how he did it. Those who fight for the right of every madman and every criminal to have as many people-killing weapons as they want share moral responsibility for what happened last night—as they will when it happens again. And it will happen again.
The reality is simple: every country struggles with madmen and ideologues with guns, and every country—Canada, Norway, Britain—has had a gun massacre once, or twice. Then people act to stop them, and they do—as over the past few years has happened in Australia. Only in America are gun massacres of this kind routine, expectable, and certain to continue. Does anyone even remember any longer last July’s gun massacre, those birthday-party killings in Texas, when an estranged husband murdered his wife and most of her family, leaving six dead?
But nothing changes: the blood lobby still blares out its certainties, including the pretense that the Second Amendment—despite the clear grammar of its first sentence—is designed not to protect citizen militias but to make sure that no lunatic goes unarmed. (Jill Lepore wrote about the history of the Second Amendment in The New Yorker recently.) Make sure that guns designed for no reason save to kill people are freely available to anyone who wants one—and that is, and remains, the essential American condition—and then be shocked when children are killed. For all the good work the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence tries to do, nothing changes. On the last episode of Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” Jeff Daniels’s character, in a scene set shortly before the Gabrielle Giffords gun massacre, was thought to display political courage by showing, accurately enough, that it’s a lie to say that Barack Obama is in any way in favor of gun control. This was said in Obama’s defense.
Only in America. Every country has, along with its core civilities and traditions, some kind of inner madness, a belief so irrational that even death and destruction cannot alter it. In Europe not long ago it was the belief that “honor” of the nation was so important that any insult to it had to be avenged by millions of lives. In America, it has been, for so long now, the belief that guns designed to kill people indifferently and in great numbers can be widely available and not have it end with people being killed, indifferently and in great numbers. The argument has gotten dully repetitive: How does one argue with someone convinced that the routine massacre of our children is the price we must pay for our freedom to have guns, or rather to have guns that make us feel free? You can only shake your head and maybe cry a little. “Gun Crazy” is the title of one the best films about the American romance with violence. And gun-crazy we remain.
The horror is touched, inflected, by the way that the killings now intertwine with the everyday details of our lives. The killings will go on; the cell phones in the pockets of dead children will continue to ring; and now parents can be a little frightened every time their kids go to a midnight screening of a movie designed to show them what stylized fun violence can be, in the hands of the right American moviemaker. Of course, there have been shootings at school, too. We’re a nation of special effects.
Read The New Yorker's full coverage of the Aurora shootings.
Photograph by Barry Gutierrez/AP Photo. | {
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Steelers will allow NFL to handle any disciplinary measures versus LeVeon Bell and LeGarrette Blount. Again, Roger Goodell not likely to act in 2014. Both will play tonight.
Fantasy Impact:
It's unlikely that either back misses any time this season, but we're still not fans of Bell's ADP given that his workload is likely to be reduced in 2014. | {
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This Teen Nearly Died In A School Shooting. Now She's Just Trying To Live
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
It's 5 o'clock in the morning, and Sarah Salazar would rather be sleeping. Not just because it's early. Or because she's a teenager and can't seem to get enough sleep. Doctors say the shotgun pellets embedded in her shoulder, lung and back have sent her lead levels skyrocketing and leave her feeling tired much of the time.
Her injuries also make it hard for Sarah to do even simple tasks, like bathing. Her home, in the small town of Santa Fe, Texas, has one shower for six women — Sarah, her mother and four sisters — so she now wakes early, before everyone else, to take her time in the shower.
Later, in her room, Sarah picks a shirt for the day — though definitely not her favorite navy top with thin white stripes. Its wide, open neckline is now too wide, too open, too revealing. Sarah's younger sister Sonya helps her fasten her bra.
By 6:20 a.m., Sarah catches a ride to school with her best friend, Emma Lovejoy, and Emma's grandmother in their Jeep Wrangler. Unlike her sisters, Sarah, now a junior, doesn't ride the bus to Santa Fe High School anymore. Not since she missed the bus on May 18, 2018 — the day that changed her life forever.
According to police, that's the day a 17-year-old student carried a Remington 870 shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol into Sarah's art classroom. He killed eight students and two teachers and wounded 13 others, including Sarah.
This is her story — the story of one teenager's long, slow struggle, physically and emotionally, to rebuild her life after a school shooter nearly took it from her.
May 18, 2018
Enlarge this image toggle caption ScapeWare3d/DigitalGlobe/Getty Images ScapeWare3d/DigitalGlobe/Getty Images
When the shooting begins, Sarah, then 16, is the last person to hide inside her art room's supply closet. Her classmates try to block the door, but the gunman can still see them through a small window in the door. He aims his shotgun at the glass and fires.
Small lead pellets explode into the closet. Sarah's neck, left shoulder and leg are hit. She drops to the floor and, trying to stay calm, reaches for a classmate.
Trenton Beazley is also hit, in the back. The sophomore catcher on the baseball team feels a tug and turns. In the dim light he can see a girl bleeding badly from her neck and shoulder, her long black hair in her face. Sarah gasps for help.
Trenton grabs Sarah's jacket from her lap and wraps it like a tourniquet around her shoulder to stop the bleeding. He doesn't remember thinking about it.
"It's not like you practice something like that. It's more like an instinct. You just look down, and you see something you think might work," Trenton says later.
Before she is shot, Sarah prays for God to protect everyone in the closet.
After she is shot, she calls to God again:
Here I am. If you're ready to take me home, I'm not scared. But if you want to let me stay, then that's fine too.
The students wait more than half an hour for the shooting to stop and for help to arrive.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Daniel Kramer/AFP/Getty Images Daniel Kramer/AFP/Getty Images
Sarah's mom, Sonia Lopez, says her own prayers the moment she hears that there has been a shooting at her daughters' school. She tries to make her way to Santa Fe High but, at a designated meeting point, has to wait for Sarah to come back to her.
Bus after bus reunites students with their families. Sarah never comes.
"Lord, please be with Sarah. Let her be OK," Lopez prays over and over and over.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
Then word comes: Sarah has been shot and taken to HCA Houston Healthcare Clear Lake. The blast caused serious bleeding in Sarah's neck. Doctors decided it was too risky to repair the two damaged veins, so they tied off the ends instead. Her shoulder joint has been shattered, and remnants of the shell are scattered through her body.
To Lopez, this all seems a blessing.
"I know that the Lord was there with [Sarah] because she called unto him, and he answered. She may not have seen him, but I know that he protected her because none of her vital organs were touched. Her brain was intact," Lopez says.
Still, it takes back-to-back emergency surgeries to stabilize Sarah. Dr. Brandon Low, the orthopedic surgeon on call, checks the scans and knows it is a devastating injury.
"The joint where the shoulder meets up with the socket was just destroyed — hardly visible even on X-ray, it was in so many pieces," Low says.
Low often treats gunshot patients and says Sarah's injury is a triple hit: shot at close range with a powerful weapon in a vulnerable part of her body.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
The surgeon joins the rest of the trauma team in the operating room and begins removing nonviable body tissue to prevent infection. They also remove as many pellets as they can, as well as fragments from the shell itself, before sewing up the wound.
Nearly a month later, Sarah will have a complete shoulder replacement.
SUMMER
Enlarge this image toggle caption Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
Sarah's hospital room fills with balloons, flowers and visitors. Pop star Justin Timberlake promises her tickets to his upcoming Houston show. NFL star J.J. Watt pays a visit. "Santa Fe Strong" starts appearing on T-shirts and billboards across South Texas.
Doctors have to wire Sarah's mouth shut so her fractured jaw can heal, limiting her diet to chicken broth and applesauce. Her best friend, Emma, visits almost every day. They play cards and watch Netflix. At first, Emma is surprised at how swollen Sarah's neck has become — "like a marshmallow," she says.
Seventeen days after the shooting, Sarah is discharged and moves back to her mom's three-bedroom house. Though her jaw is still wired shut, she begins supplementing her limited diet by sucking on Flamin' Hot Cheetos, her favorite snack. A small taste of her old life.
In July, she begins aquatic physical therapy to exercise her new prosthetic shoulder joint and regain some strength. In the water, Sarah feels more comfortable. Her arm is lighter and so is the pain.
In August, on the first day of school, Sarah doesn't hesitate to return to class at Santa Fe High. She wants to focus on her junior year and prepare for college. Her dream school is Texas A&M University in College Station. Her dream career: nurse anesthetist.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
Sarah's mother, Sonia Lopez, worries more about her daughter's reentry. For one thing, how will she navigate the bustling hallways of a school with 1,400 students?
"We were scared that people were going to bump into her in the hallways, you know? And she was like, 'No, I can do it, I can do it. I don't need anybody carrying my books,' " Lopez says.
Sarah admits later, though, that the return is difficult at times. Whenever someone knocks at the classroom door, she has to check who it is before she can continue her work. The new alarms on the doors are loud and make her feel anxious.
In September, Sarah's mother and other families that have been irreparably scarred by the massacre appear before the Santa Fe school board. They publicly recognize their loved ones who were killed and ring a bell for each. They then recognize the 13 injured, including Sarah, though the board president tries to stop the group.
Lopez worries that the board is doing too little to help the community recover and protect against future threats. At the lectern, she pleads with the district.
"We need to set an example out of this, so what happened to my daughter will not happen again," she says, near tears.
In the packed audience, Sarah sits silently, her left arm in a sling.
FALL
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
On a breezy Saturday night in October, a DJ pumps Mexican ranchera and cumbia music in between Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus as dozens of people mingle inside the community center at Santa Fe's Runge Park.
This isn't Sarah's party. It's her younger sister Sonya's quinceañera, her 15th birthday party — a rite of passage in many Hispanic families. It is also the first time their extended circle of family and friends has had something to celebrate since the shooting.
Sarah arrives late, having picked up the last of the balloons. She wears a short, sleeveless pink dress and a black crepe jacket to cover the scar on her shoulder. Her father, Nick Salazar, proudly walks her from table to table to greet family members and friends.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
"She looks like she's having fun," he says later. "Which is good to see her smile and everything. I'm happy that she's happy."
"Some of these people I met through the shooting," Lopez says as she serves rice, beans and cabrito with lamb to a long line of guests.
Another survivor, Flo Rice, stops by with her husband. The former substitute teacher walks with a cane and smiles for a selfie with Sarah.
After the official dance and presentations, Sarah slips outside and takes off her black ankle-strap heels. She's tired and thinking about going home early.
"This was a good distraction. It's nice," she says. "It was good to keep my mind off other things."
The fact is, many things are still hard for Sarah. She can't raise her left hand past her waist. At her dad's house, she can't reach the microwave to heat up ramen noodles. Also, her mom doesn't think her shoulder has healed enough for her to drive safely, so even after Sarah turns 17 that November, she still depends on others to get around.
Some days she wishes she could simply put her long black hair in a ponytail without help.
As winter approaches, Sarah's inner circle — her mother, four sisters and Emma — help her piece together a new routine. When the insurance company deals her a hard blow, refusing to pay for any more aquatic therapy sessions, her older sister, Suzannah, encourages Sarah to do some exercises at home. Her mom keeps track of medical appointments. Each morning, sister Sonya, who shares a room with Sarah, helps her get dressed, while her two youngest sisters, Star and Sophya, pitch in with Sarah's household chores and help feed the family's pets.
Some days I'll just wake up and be like, 'Today is not going to be a good day.'
In between all this work, there's still plenty of time for fun too. The family hosts a regular Friday game night. And every night, Sarah can find comfort and distraction with the family's many animals: four dogs, two cats, four parakeets, 11 fish, plus a turtle and a goat named Michelle. The goat was supposed to be dinner at the quinceañera but now hangs out in the backyard with a menagerie of chickens and ducks.
Sarah loves to snuggle in bed with her gray kitten or practice her Spanish by bingeing on her favorite telenovela, Sin senos sí hay paraíso.
"Netflix is the cure," she says with a smile.
"I feel like she's slowly getting to a new normal, a new happy and stuff. But I wouldn't say that she's completely there yet," Emma says. "It kind of depends on the day. But ultimately, I feel like she's still processing, and she's going to for a while."
WINTER
Once every other week, Sarah skips advisory period at school to join a small therapy group with a few others affected by the shooting, though they don't talk much. Only twice have they actually discussed that day.
Instead, they make arts and crafts. A Christmas wreath that now hangs on the door to the family's laundry room. A rock covered in magazine clippings that sits on Sarah's windowsill. Sarah prefers creating things over talking. Art makes her feel calm.
"I don't know how talking about it is gonna help how I feel about it," she says.
But she knows, emotionally, she has a long way to go.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
"The wellness counselor at the school — I have a lady that I talk to — she says that I keep my emotions in and that's not good," Sarah says. "I do do that, and so, emotionally, I've not come that far because I try to keep it to myself."
Even before the trauma, Sarah was pretty quiet. But since May, it has been hard even for her best friend to know what's going on sometimes. And they've known each other since first grade.
"She does what I do whenever I'm bothered by something — just kind of puts on this front that makes everybody think that everything's going all great," Emma says. "But you know there's still things that are bothering her."
At school, offhand remarks can trigger difficult emotions. Sarah can't stand to hear students mention their weekend hunting plans — a frequent topic in this small Texas town. Even the moment of silence her school holds every morning can be difficult.
"Sometimes they're like, 'OK, pause for a moment of silence,' and I start praying. And then they're like, 'All right!' And I'm like, 'I can't even pause,' " Sarah says. For her, prayer has been a constant comfort "in the morning and at nighttime and whenever I need someone."
I don't know how talking about it is gonna help how I feel about it.
Sometimes Sarah wonders what will happen to the former student accused of shooting her and killing so many of her classmates and teachers. One day in February, she and her mom file inside Galveston County's state courthouse. They sit near the front so they can get a good look at him. When the accused shuffles inside, handcuffed, his lawyers ask the judge for a change of venue. They argue that the mass shooting has gained so much attention in the community that he won't receive a fair trial.
Sarah watches him closely. That day in May, in the art room, she never made eye contact with the shooter. This day, she wants to look him in the eyes.
But he keeps his head down.
SPRING
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
As the shooting's May anniversary draws closer, the emotions that Sarah keeps tucked inside grow more intense, especially the sadness.
"Some days I'll just wake up and be like, 'Today is not going to be a good day,' " she says. "It's like, 'No, I just want to go back to bed.' Or just, like, throughout the day, I guess I'll be having an OK day, and then I'll just get sad."
Sarah doesn't know how she'll feel on the actual anniversary. Or what she'll do.
"It's just been a year, but it doesn't feel like it, because the year's gone by so fast — I don't have time to process things," she says.
Sarah's physical recovery has also been slow. She has had six surgeries since the shooting and, nearly 11 months later, must now have a seventh. Pellets from the blast remain embedded in her chest, shoulder and back, and they've pushed her lead levels four times past the acceptable limit.
"It gives her headaches, stomachaches, dizziness," her mother, Sonia Lopez, says. "I just can't wait till they're gone — all these pellets."
It's another 5 o'clock morning, mid-April, and Sarah is already awake. Not to claim the shower though. She, her mom and younger sister Sonya pull up in their rusty Toyota Corolla to the outpatient surgery center at UTMB Health in League City.
Inside, Sarah waits calmly in the pre-op area.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Allison Hess for NPR Allison Hess for NPR
"I saw Grey's Anatomy," she says. "There's this one episode where a girl is scared to have surgery. I don't know, I'm not scared." Because it's all so routine by now.
Sarah has one unusual request for the surgeon. She wants to keep the pellets he finds.
"They were inside of me, so they're mine," she says.
"I'll have to talk to some people. I don't know in terms of the evidence, chain of command, forensic," says Dr. Ikenna Okereke.
The fog of anesthesia settles over Sarah. Lopez leans down and kisses her forehead.
"God bless you," she whispers.
As Sarah is wheeled into surgery, her mother calls out to the staff, "Bless y'all if you're working on Sarah today. Know that there are a lot of people praying for y'all today!"
The doors to the operating room close.
Once again, Lopez waits for her daughter, Sarah Grace, to come back to her. | {
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Senior doctors at Palmerston North Hospital say they need 41 extra doctors to deal with their workload.
Senior doctors at Palmerston North Hospital say they are burnt out and can't spend enough time with patients, because of chronic understaffing.
The hospital's top staff say they are short by 41 positions, including 10 in the emergency department, which is contributing to shockingly high burnout levels among doctors.
A survey of clinical heads of department at MidCentral DHB returned alarming results – nearly half said their staff had inadequate time to spend with patients and families to provide good quality patient care.
READ MORE:
* Billion dollar underfunding of healthcare claims 'nonsense', says John Key
* Doctor who prescribed his own drugs said he was overworked and stressed
* Doctors turn to booze and drugs to feed addictions* Specialists 'too busy' - doctors' union
Hospital management say they are taking the issue seriously and are aware of the risk of burnout.
Of the hospital's 32 department heads, 28 responded to the survey, conducted by the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.
Association executive director Ian Powell said nationally, 50 per cent of specialist doctors reported suffering burnout and were an increased risk to patients.
"That is not heartening for patients to know that there is a 50 per cent chance that the surgeon operating on them or the paediatrician treating their child, is burnt out."
Powell said the health system was coming under major pressure due to a growing and aging population.
"What we can see increasingly clearly is that senior doctors are working shorthanded and as a result are under a lot of pressure to do more with less.
"This is not a sustainable situation for them and obviously not satisfactory for the many patients who struggle to see a specialist when they need to."
Powell said hospitals could not simply stop people coming through the door, but, meanwhile, there was a time lag between identifying the need and filling the position.
"It does take time. Specialists don't grow on trees. It's not like you can go to the supermarket and get one."
MidCentral chief medical officer Dr Kenneth Clark said the hospital was taking the issue "very seriously".
"We would be very foolish to ignore 87.5 per cent of our senior leaders."
However, Clark said there were "economic realities".
"There is absolutely no doubt in some areas we would love to employ more staff."
But the DHB had to weigh up what they spent money on, taking into account staff, equipment and buildings.
"You are always trying to juggle those things to get the best possible outcome for the patients.
"Senior doctors are incredibly important in that and we need enough of them and we need to look after them."
Clark said he was "particularly concerned" with the effects of burnout.
"The risk of burnout is considerable. It is incumbent on people like me to always be looking forward."
Clark said he was "constantly assessing the staffing levels".
Labour health spokeswoman Annette King said the issue could not be brushed aside.
"To have that level of stress and burnout is worrying."
King said patient and staff safety was in jeopardy, and something needed to be done.
"It does not require, 'we will look at it'. It requires action."
King said the complaints were symptomatic of underfunding in healthcare across the entire country.
The survey of heads of departments at MidCentral was carried out in May as part of a broader research project to understand staffing levels at selected district health boards. | {
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Guests inside Jerry Lynn's Pittsburgh-area home may think their ears are ringing if they stick around long enough.
At exactly the same time every evening, the ringing begins -- well, beeping, actually.
The noise often startles people as they relax on the couches in their living room. But it's something Jerry Lynn and his wife, Sylvia, have grown accustomed to over the years.
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Thirteen years ago, Lynn was doing some home repairs when he got the idea to dangle an alarm clock, which was attached to a string, through an air vent on the second floor. He set the timer for 10 minutes, hoping the sound would give him a clue as to where to drill a hole in the living room wall to pass a wire through for a TV cable.
"I thought it was convenient at the time," Lynn told CBS Pittsburgh.
Little did he know, the plan was about to unravel.
As Lynn lowered the clock down, the string snapped. The clock crashed to the ground.
"As I was laying it down, all of a sudden I hear it go 'thunk!' as it came loose," Lynn said. "I thought, well, that's not a real problem. You know it's still going to go off. And it did."
Jerry Lynn, a Pittsburgh-area resident, says an alarm clock has been ringing inside his living room wall for 13 years. CBS Pittsburgh
Lynn couldn't pull the clock back up, but he figured maybe three or fourth months down the road it would run out of battery.
That was in September 2004.
"It is still going off every day," Lynn said. "And during daylight savings time it goes off at ten minutes 'til eight. And during standard time it goes off at ten minutes to seven at night."
The Lynns say they can live with the noise, although some guests are startled and confused by it.
"It starts with a soft 'beep, beep, beep, beep' and it gets louder and closer together, and people are like, 'What is that?'"
Maybe someday the clock's battery will die, but for now, the homeowners have come to terms with the daily alarm. | {
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The new PPS M2 is everything you're looking for in a compact handgun. The slim profile push button magazine release smooth trigger pull and Carl Walther signature ergonomics deliver the features that you want from Walther and are housed in a frame that fits just about anyone. | {
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Look what we found: Tiny female lion cub in French garage
This image released on Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 by the Douane Francaise (French Customs) shows a female lion cub found in a garage in Marseille, southern France. Marseille's customs brigade found a small female lioness inside a cage on Wednesday weighing just "a few kilos." Experts say she's one to two months old and has not been weened. (Douane Francaise via AP)
This image released on Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 by the Douane Francaise (French Customs) shows a female lion cub found in a garage in Marseille, southern France. Marseille's customs brigade found a small female lioness inside a cage on Wednesday weighing just "a few kilos." Experts say she's one to two months old and has not been weened. (Douane Francaise via AP)
PARIS (AP) — France’s customs agency says it’s made an extremely surprising discovery in a garage in Marseille: a lion cub.
Marseille’s customs brigade found a small female lioness inside a cage Wednesday that weighed just “a few kilograms (pounds).” Experts say she’s 1 to 2 months old and has not been weened.
The agency said a man who was placed in detention said he acquired the cub from some people in “a building” in the southern French city who said they didn’t know how to look after a wild cat and gave the animal up.
The custom agency says the feline was immediately handed over to France’s animal protection group for specialized care.
In January 2007, two lion cubs were discovered by Montpellier customs before being given to the Marseille Zoo. | {
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PsychStudies is a website owned and maintained by Dr Andrew G. Thomas, Swansea University, UK.
The purpose of the site is to host online questionnaires and experiments which are used as part of psychological research.
All psychological research conducted through this website has been approved by the ethics committee of the psychology department at Swansea University. | {
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After Volkswagen was caught cheating its emissions tests with trick software, another rumor of Volkswagen cheatery popped up in motorsports. Could the Volkswagen team be using traction control to win at Global Rallycross, where driver aids such as traction control are expressly banned?
Scott Speed and Tanner Foust seemed almost untouchable at Global Rallycross weekend at the Port of Los Angeles. To some, an Instagram video of Speed’s launch from series commentator Toby Moody provided an explanation. Wheels stop and start as the Beetle struggles to find grip, hinting that the they may be running traction control.
Here’s the video that everyone’s been talking about, where you can see the wheels of Scott Speed’s Andretti Autosport Volkswagen Beetle slow and pause independently of each other, suggesting that a system on the car may be diverting power to other wheels as it detects one wheel is slipping:
To contrast, here’s a slow motion video Moody took of Steve Arpin’s launch at the GRC round at Washington, D.C.
The front wheels start spinning before the rears here–likely due to a handbrake being on–but there’s no small pauses in the wheels like you can see on Speed’s car.
Volkswagen and Andretti both declined comment on the behavior of the wheels in the video. VW driver Tanner Foust also denied the cars have traction control, saying that all cars look that way from driveshaft flex.
Traction control works by detecting slip in wheels and diverting power away from those slipping wheels over to wheels that aren’t slipping. The result is that the car puts down the maximum power it can put to the ground, and the car is better at keeping that power down in standing starts and tight corners on loose surfaces.
It’s technology that can save lives in the real world. Problem is, driver aids like traction control are specifically banned in this racing series.
Andretti Autosport’s own site for the team even mentions starts its explanation on the series with, “Global Rallycross (GRC) features vehicles without electronic traction aids.”
Naturally, several of the other teams picked up on the bizarre motion of Scott Speed’s wheels on the Instagram post, adding their own comments to that effect.
Drivers including Rhys Millen (rhysmillenracing), Bucky Lasek (buckylasek) and Nelson Piquet Jr. (piquetjr) chimed in with snark and condemnation of the apparent use of an illegal system on the thread.
Several of the members of the Hoonigan Racing team chimed in, including Digital Media Manager Ron Zaras (roncar), Senior Director of Brand and Marketing Matthew Tuccillo (mvtt), and Ken Block’s trainer Kit Cope (kitcope).
Even Subaru Head of Motorsports Rob Weir added in a #smh.
Feeding the rumor further are the right rear tire issues many teams were having at Los Angeles. Writer and amateur rally car driver/builder Bill Caswell, who was at the Los Angeles race, wrote on Build Race Party that nearly every team there was struggling with that tire blistering on their right rear tires–but Volkswagen was not. Furthermore, he writes Volkswagen’s competitors told him the team’s tire temperature was about a third lower than that of other teams.
If this is a traction control system at work, how are they sneaking it past GRC?
“The cars made it through post race inspection, so either the system is really good, really complicated, or we’re seeing something that works like traction control but really isn’t,” Caswell wrote.
A source close to the series speculated that Bluetooth is using being used to remotely trigger the traction control system before the car goes out to race, but could provide no evidence that this was happening. Alternate theories posted on Build Race Party suggest that the system was triggered by GPS (when it senses the car is on the race circuit) or that it was triggered by the car turning or launching from a standing start. This would allow the team to have the system completely off for inspection, but on for competition.
Rumors are swirling that it’s possibly the same traction control system Volkswagen uses in the World Rally Championship, where they utterly dominated yet again this season. Caswell’s Build Race Party article suggests that it’s why Scott Speed and Tanner Foust can’t do donuts after their runs, either.
However, Foust told us that the cars look this way from driveshaft flex, not from any trick WRC-level banned technology:
Yeah, I mean, every car on a launch has gear lash and twisting that goes on in the driveshaft, and I think it is in a lot of cars, including a lot of ours, and so when a driveshaft twists and it releases, you know, the tires move — they stutter back and forth. You notice that all four tires don’t stutter all at the same time, which would be an engine-control thing. They all stutter at different times because that’s the twist of the driveshaft and the gear lash. But all cars do it and it started a discussion that really, I think, is less about the way that our Beetles launch and more about how we were able to really conserve tires in Los Angeles. And that, I would say, is chopped up to Andretti. I think we did a good job of setting the cars up and Scott is, I think by far, the most disciplined driver in the series, and I have learned a lot from him about saving tires, and I so I think between that and good car setup, we were able to have our Yokohamas all ten laps while other teams were literally getting four or five laps of sliding around sideways before they’d just start to blister.
If there are two drivers who know about sliding and conserving tires, it would be Speed and Foust. Scott Speed was the last American to drive in Formula One before Alexander Rossi came in this year, and open-wheelers need to be driven carefully so as not to destroy their tires (or at the very least, not become very, very annoying to drive due to flat spots and uneven tire wear).
Foust also has a long history with Formula Drift, which is all about sliding a car around and controlling it past its limit. He explained that it’s not just their car that looks like this sometimes:
If you look at slow motion of cars launching, every so often, you get a stutter and that’s just twisting of the driveshaft and everything. And it’s something that we’ve seen on our cars and other cars in the series from the beginning. But understandably, when people see something like that who aren’t familiar, it’s something that looks kind of weird.
But when the Andretti Autosport team is the only group publicly chiming in with an explanation as to why they’re not cheating, that explanation is a little hard to swallow.
Naturally, we wanted another opinion from a technical source who’s familiar with these cars. It’s a rumor with too many notable proponents, which involves a manufacturer recently busted for illegal technology in their road cars, complete with a video that looks extremely fishy, even to racers from other series.
“When I drove in Pirelli World Challenge for the factory Volvo team, they do standing starts and the AWD S60 didn’t have any noticeable flex and they have [over] 600 hp with Pirelli slicks,” said Robb Holland, professional touring car driver and Jalopnik contributor.
Then we reached out to David Mountain at Mountune. Mountain has been involved in the technical side of rallying since the Group B days and has also been building the GRC engines for Ford. Ford currently leads the GRC manufacturer’s championship with 42 points over Volkswagen’s 38, so if there’s one group who might call technical foul on VW right now, you’d think it would be Ford.
However, he sides with Volkswagen’s explanation: It’s an effect caused by driveshaft twist. When we asked about the rumors surrounding this video, Mountain told us:
That’s a difficult question as we also as Mountune build the Ford engines for GRC so my comments may not be seen as unbiased but my honest personal view is that VW are not using traction control and this is just some slip with the diff and also torsional wind up of the driveshafts. I am familiar with this video and also of the whole subject of others pointing the finger at VW team. I think they are just doing a very good job of the car and they have very strong drivers. Having worked before with Jost Capito the VW motorsport director I can only say he would not allow any cheating under his watch. The GRC organisers have a data logger in the cars and given expert investigation they should be able to prove what’s going on.
Why do the driveshafts flex on these cars despite the fact that they’re running on a loose surface? It’s how they manage the large amount of torque. “As these cars have so much torque around 900 nm [633 ft-lbs] the drive shafts are made from special steel which allow them to twist and not fail so you get a wind up like a spring and then the shaft unwinds,” explained Mountain.
Is the allegedly donut-averse Volkswagen team actually cheating, then? Perhaps not, although I suspect there may be more poking around than usual in technical inspections for this weekend’s races in Barbados thanks to the viral spread of this video among the GRC faithful. Besides, some teams just don’t do donuts.
As much as I love a good post-race donut, even I have to admit that they are hard on a car.
Alanis King also contributed to this report.
Contact the author at [email protected].
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Boris Johnson has challenged critics of his “do or die” Brexit strategy by declaring Britain “can easily cope” with a no-deal scenario.
Admitting that the chances of striking a deal with Brussels before the October 31 deadline were now "touch and go" he dismissed suggestions that leaving without an agreement would lead to food shortages.
The Prime Minister said that whether an agreement was reached with the EU depended “entirely” on European leaders, whom he is pressing to drop the insurance plan for the Irish border they had agreed with Theresa May.
He told Sky News that if no deal was reached, the £39 billion divorce settlement agreed with the EU would no longer be “legally pledged”, freeing up “substantial” funds to spent in the UK.
But a senior EU diplomat insisted that the “ball is really squarely and firmly in the UK court”, with the onus on the UK to offer alternatives to the so-called “backstop”.
Mr Johnson’s intervention came on the second day of his first summit of world leaders, in south-west France, as he also revealed that Donald Trump wants to strike a post-Brexit trade deal “within a year”. | {
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Jennifer Lopez is many things—actress, singer, possible vampire who never ages, and American Idol judge, to name a few. One thing she's not as commonly known for? Sparking the creation of Google Image Search. For real.
In an article on Project Syndicate, Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google, reveals that JLo and her infamous 2000 Grammys Versace dress are the reason we can type a name into the search bar and look at countless photo results without having to deal with the ocular burden known as "text."
Getty Images
He writes of the dress, "At the time, it was the most popular search query we had ever seen. But we had no surefire way of getting users exactly what they wanted: JLo wearing that dress. Google Image Search was born." Fun fact: The dress is also one of the few specific articles of clothing to have its own Wikipedia page.
So, thank you Google, thank you Versace, and, most importantly, thank you Jennifer Lopez. | {
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Former Disney star Adam Hicks was arrested with his girlfriend Wednesday morning, Jan. 24, in connection with an eye-catching number of armed street robberies in Burbank, authorities said.
“I’d say four street robberies back to back is pretty unusual,” said Burbank Police Department Lt. Claudio Losacco.
Burbank residents Hicks, 25, and Danni Tamburo, 23, were arrested in connection with the robberies, the Burbank Police Department said.
Hicks is perhaps best known from the Disney XD show “Zeke and Luther,” on which he played skateboarder Luther from 2009 to 2012. He appeared in 2015’s Jennifer Lopez-starring “The Boy Next Door,” and has a regular role in Hulu’s current high-schoolers-vs.-mutants series “Freakish.”
“I’ve heard of this,” Losacco said when asked about Hicks’ Disney Channel past. “It’s not something we’re interested in looking at.”
Hicks and Tamburo are both being held at Burbank City Jail in lieu of $350,000 bail and are due in court on Friday, Jan. 26, authorities said.
Losacco said the duo attempted four armed robberies, with two being successful. Police recovered a variety of property including a cellphone, wallet, necklace and credit cards.
“All the property has been recovered, as was the handgun we believed used in the robberies,” Losacco said.
“Our belief is the female was driving the car, and the male was doing the actual robberies,” the lieutenant said.
LOS ANGELES, CA – SEPTEMBER 23: Actors Lili Simmons (L) and Adam Hicks attend the 9th annual Teen Vogue’s Young Hollywood party at Paramount Studios on September 23, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 13: Actor Adam Hicks attends the 2012-13 Disney Channel Worldwide Kids Upfront at the Hard Rock Cafe – Times Square on March 13, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 13: Actors Doc Shaw, Adam Hicks, Leo Howard and Tyler Jackson Williams attend the 2012-13 Disney Channel Worldwide Kids Upfront at the Hard Rock Cafe – Times Square on March 13, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 13: (L-R) Actors Doc Shaw, Adam Hicks, Disney Channels Worldwide President and CCO Gary Marsh, actors Leo Howard, Tyler Jackson Williams and VP/GM, Disney XD Worldwide David Levine attend the 2012-13 Disney Channel Worldwide Kids Upfront at the Hard Rock Cafe – Times Square on March 13, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
SANTA MONICA, CA – FEBRUARY 18: Actor Adam Hicks attends the 2nd Annual Cartoon Network Hall of Game Awards at Barker Hangar on February 18, 2012 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
SANTA MONICA, CA – FEBRUARY 18: Actor Adam Hicks attends the 2nd Annual Cartoon Network Hall of Game Awards at Barker Hangar on February 18, 2012 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
BURBANK, CA – MAY 30: Actor Adam Hicks from the television show “Zeke and Luther” attends the 2009 Disney & ABC Television Group summer press junket at the Walt Disney Studios on May 30, 2009 in Burbank, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
BURBANK, CA – MAY 14: Actor Adam Hicks attends the Disney ABC Television Group Host “May Press Junket 2011” at ABC Studios on May 14, 2011 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 07: Actor Adam Hicks arrives at A Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival Sponsored by Disney, benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, held at Wadsworth Theatre on June 7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 07: Actor Adam Hicks arrives at A Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival Sponsored by Disney, benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, held at Wadsworth Theatre on June 7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 07: Actor Adam Hicks arrives at A Time for Heroes Celebrity Carnival Sponsored by Disney, benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, held at Wadsworth Theatre on June 7, 2009 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA – JANUARY 10: Actors Adam Hicks and Bridgit Mendler speak at Disney ABC Television Group’s TCA “Winter Press Tour” Panels at The Langham Hotel on January 10, 2011 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CA – AUGUST 19: (L-R) Actor Adam Hicks, actress Hayley Kiyoko, actor Chris Brochu and actor Blake Michael sign autographs at the D23 Expo 2011 at the Anaheim Convention Center on August 19, 2011 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CA – AUGUST 19: (L-R) Actor Adam Hicks, actress Hayley Kiyoko, actor Chris Brochu and actor Blake Michael sign autographs at the D23 Expo 2011 at the Anaheim Convention Center on August 19, 2011 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
ANAHEIM, CA – AUGUST 19: (L-R) Actor Adam Hicks, actress Hayley Kiyoko, actor Chris Brochu and actor Blake Michael sign autographs at the D23 Expo 2011 at the Anaheim Convention Center on August 19, 2011 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
The series of robberies started around 5:15 a.m. Wednesday when a 52-year-old man was walking near Burbank Boulevard and Griffith Park Drive when a man with a handgun approached him, authorities said.
Authorities said the suspect pointed a handgun at the man and demanded his wallet before the victim ran away, fearing for his life and escaping to safety.
While authorities investigated the first robbery, authorities said, three additional armed robberies occurred within minutes of each other, with all taking place in the Burbank hillside community and involving unsuspecting victims out for a walk.
The victims gave similar descriptions of the suspect and his vehicle, which witnesses described as a dark-colored Kia with at least two occupants, authorities said.
Moments later, authorities said, a witness reported seeing a Kia matching the description on the 1600 block of Scott Road.
When police officers responded, authorities said, they found the car and detained a woman connected to at least one of the robbery suspects.
Losacco said authorities don’t believe that woman was aware of the robberies and didn’t drive the car during the robberies. She’s a family member related to Tamburo, he added.
Officers found property in the vehicle that belonged to one of the robbery victims and additional stolen property in a nearby area, authorities said.
Around 1:15 p.m., authorities said, Burbank Police Department detectives were led to a home believed to be linked to the suspects on the 1800 block of North Niagara Street.
Because of the nature of the crimes, authorities said, members of the Burbank police S.W.A.T. team helped serve a search warrant on the home, and Hicks and Tamburo were placed under arrest.
Losacco said officers on scene requested that the duo come outside of the house, and “they came out” with no issues.
They robbed two victims in their 70s, two victims in their 50s and one victim who was about 20, all within a couple miles, Losacco said.
“It was within 15 minutes,” Losacco said.
Tamburo was the driver, authorities said, and additional stolen property was found in the home during the serving of the search warrant.
There were no injuries as a result of the crimes, authorities said.
Anyone with information on the crimes is asked to contact the Burbank Police Department at 818-238-3210. | {
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A A
I went to bed March 14 with the ghastly images of the horrific incident in Christchurch, New Zealand, in my head. Racism and xenophobia have deeply seeped into our everyday lives. No country, no individual remains immune to its virulent viciousness. And while this beast spreads its roots, it transforms to take a variety of shapes and forms. This is that story – the story of the various mutations of racism.
My Canadian journey began rather tempestuously. In 2010, Hurricane Igor hit Atlantic Canada hard and strong. My flight was one of the last ones to land. Having just finished watching the TV series Lost, hurtling towards an island in a turbulent airplane wasn’t the arrival I expected. But, as you can see, I survived to tell the tale.
Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) brought me to Atlantic Canada. This is where I pursued and completed my master’s in engineering management. The experience at MUN was, for the most part, good. I am grateful for the amazing professional opportunities – including my first job here – that MUN provided. However, one particular incident stands out clearly that left an indelible impression on my mind. On the first day of a new job at MUN, I was asked to introduce myself – which I did with my name, Prajwala Dixit. And upon doing so, I was asked, "So what can we call you?" A little confused, I kept mum following which these words tumbled out of my supervisor’s mouth, "You know because it's hard to say …"
Yes, like many ethnically unique and melanin-rich individuals, I, too, have experienced racism here in Atlantic Canada. It pains me to tell you that it is alive and well but, like us, it has evolved. In its new avatar, it is, usually, not direct but is expressed through micro-aggressions, like the above-mentioned instance. A micro-aggression is an indignity that is expressed verbally, behaviourally and/or environmentally that (either through ignorance or intent) conveys hostility and prejudice towards an entity.
An encounter that has been a constant in my experience is being complimented on my English. At first, I was happy to receive the compliment but soon began to understand the bias beneath this ‘praise’. The assumption that a person of my colour did not speak fluent English, coupled with a lack of understanding of the entrenched colonialism in the Indian subcontinent, made the prejudice stand out loud and clear.
Funnily, another example also involves English. Of the six languages I have learnt, English is one of my first languages (Kannada being the other). However, solely based on my accent and the my melanin-rich skin, in various professional settings, it has been assumed that English is my second language, due to which I have lost out on professional opportunities.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I wish I wasn’t included or excluded from anything. All I want is to contribute positively to the social, cultural and economical growth of the place I call home.
Through this journey, I can tell you that words matter, especially what is used within the diversity movement. Buzzwords like "inclusion" and "integration" (used significantly with newcomers and immigrants), at their very core, have the ability to empower an individual to act upon including or, more importantly, excluding an entity that they encounter. The scales are unfavourably tipped onto one side, putting all the power into one entity’s hand.
I can’t speak for everyone, but I wish I wasn’t included or excluded from anything. All I want is to contribute positively to the social, cultural and economical growth of the place I call home.
Experiences, like the ones peppered here, aren’t often spoken about and many a time cause immigrants to silently move away from Atlantic Canada, something that I seriously debated, too. Alongside the micro-aggressive "othering", the alarming rise in the prices of heat, gas and groceries, combined with a volatile oil-dependent economy, continue to add considerable stress to a young and growing family, like mine, looking to set roots.
However, having lived in five different cities across three countries and two continents, I realize that every place comes with its own set of pros and cons. I remind myself that the rugged beauty of the coast, the stillness and ferociousness of the Atlantic, the vibrancy of the Jelly Bean Row houses and (of course!) the (many) wonderous people I’ve encountered are great descriptions of a place to call home. Hence, choosing to see the positives, I continue to live, grow and thrive here hoping to create priceless memories that colour Atlantic Canada vibrantly.
Prajwala Dixit is an Indian-Canadian engineer, journalist and writer in St. John’s, N.L., who writes a monthly regional column for the SaltWire Network. When she isn't engineering ways to save the world, she can be found running behind her toddler, writing and volunteering. Follow her and reach her at @DixitPrajwala
RELATED: | {
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With a modest operating surplus of $342,667 (up from an operating deficit of $2.1 million the year before) the company’s bottom line was bolstered by a number of significant bequests.
Opera Australia has posted an operating surplus of $342,667 for 2018, on turnover of over $115 million dollars, the company announced in its annual report. The modest surplus is a positive sign for Australia’s largest performing arts company, which posted an operating deficit of $2.1 million in 2017, when the Sydney Opera House’s Joan Sutherland Theatre was closed for seven months for renovations. Bolstered by a number of significant bequests, the company has posted a consolidated profit of $5,590,519 for 2018, which OA Chair David Mortimer described as “a year of consolidation”.
Nicole Car in Opera Australia’s La Traviata. Photos © Prudence Upton
The operating surplus was “in line with expectations,” OA CEO Rory Jeffes said. “In 2018, Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini again delivered an outstanding season of programming and the OA singers, artisans and musicians continued to deliver high calibre productions which are now synonymous with the company,” he said. “The positive operating result is a reflection of the company’s strong commitment to fiscal responsibility, artistic capability and ensuring the long term success of the organisation and the sector more broadly.”
Artistic Director Lyndon Terracini described 2018 as a “wonderfully successful year”, highlighting –... | {
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David Cameron announced a new racist crackdown on Monday. He declared he would remove housing from “failed” asylum seekers.
The authorities are determined to turn the refugee crisis into a security crisis.
The new anti-migrant fence the Tories threatened is being built this week at the French entrance to the tunnel. Now it promises extra sniffer dogs to hunt down migrants. These are being sent to aid the reinforced French riot police.
All sides agree that the only solution is to find ways to stop migrants coming. But Socialist Worker says that all these problems would be finished by removing the border fences.
Cameron argues that if conditions for refugees are made as bad as in France then fewer will come. Asylum seekers in France are forced to sleep rough while their cases are processed.
The new measures are to be added to the immigration bill, which he hopes to rush through when parliament meets again at the beginning of September.
The aim is to be able to evict people without a court order, removing another check on the mistreatment of tenants.
Any landlord who failed to follow these rules would face a criminal conviction and be liable for five years in prison.
Racist
This is a charter for the racist scapegoating of all black people, not only asylum seekers.
This will make landlords reject all tenants who look like they might be a “problem”. It means that any foreign or black person will have to carry a passport when they are trying to find a place to live.
The government’s talk of “rogue” landlords is an attempt to repeat the tactic that got people to worry about “people traffickers” in the Mediterranean. They don’t want people to ask why migrants would take such desperate measures.
Cameron dismissed the refugees as “a swarm of people coming across the Mediterranean, seeking a better life”, last week.
Acting Labour leader Harriet Harman rightly called these comments “incendiary”. But her main worry has not been over inhumanity to the migrants, but whether British holidaymakers and hauliers would get compensation.
Nigel Farage of Ukip has so far been outflanked and was reduced to repeating the prime minister’s offensive reference to a swarm.
Home secretary Theresa May sternly informed desperate refugees that “our streets are not paved with gold”. With her French counterpart, Bernard Cazeneuve, she is attempting to work out way to repatriate the migrants, rather than offering them refuge.
Police and crime commissioner Kevin Hurley—in charge of neighbouring Surrey not Kent—went as far as calling for the British army to send in the Royal Gurkha Rifles. He added, “They could help to ensure that our border is not breached”.
The British media is wrong about the Calais “crisis”. Beyond the opportunities granted by the tailbacks the strike caused there is no great change in the number of migrants in Calais.
Meanwhile at least one more migrant—a 26-year-old Sudanese man—died on Wednesday of last week. Another two were seriously injured in the same incident.
Protesters in Folkestone show support for migrants
Around 30 people demonstrated in support of the Calais migrants on Saturday outside the Eurotunnel Service Area at Folkestone in Kent. The demonstration was called by Folkestone United and Thanet People’s Assembly.
Bridget Chapman, from Folkestone United, told the demonstrators she wanted migrants in Calais to know that a lot of people stand with them.
She also said Operation Stack, which parks backed-up lorries on the M20 motorway, is an inconvenience. But she argued that the difference between being slightly delayed and ending up dead on top of a train is quite a big one.
Bridget told Socialist Worker that it is possible to take on the distortions in the media and can change people’s minds. She said, “You have to argue and point the finger at the government—and you can get somewhere.”
Around 40 fascists from Britain First and the EDL also turned up in a counter demonstration.
Stand Up to Racism called a demonstration to support the Calais migrants outside Downing Street in central London last Friday.
Weyman Bennett from Stand Up to Racism said, “French workers are striking for a living wage. It’s not the migrants that are causing the blockade—it’s the bosses.”
Thanks to Steve Wilkins
Trucking bosses put drivers at risk
A strike by ferry workers in Calais has led to long delays for lorries crossing the English Channel.
Haulage firms remain determined to get the maximum profit out of one of the world’s biggest shipping routes—so the pressure has been on drivers.
They face long queues—some as long as 12 hours—on both sides of the Channel.
On the British side, the government is now set to use Ministry of Defence land as extra queueing space.
It has also extended the maximum time drivers can spend in their cab, which drivers’ union Unite warns could endanger safety.
Czech driver Petr told Socialist Worker, “I think the authorities who are making us wait on the motorway are to blame. That’s why there’s such a big blockage.” | {
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india
Updated: Dec 17, 2019 18:57 IST
A delegation of 12 opposition parties, led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, on Tuesday met President Ram Nath Kovind and urged him to ask the government to withdraw the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Addressing the media after the meeting, Gandhi accused the government of “shutting down” the voices of the people and bringing legislations that are not acceptable to them.
The whole country is agitating against the CAA, she said, adding the opposition was anguished over the police action against the protesters in the Northeast and in Delhi. On Tuesday, police fired tear gas shells on a crowd protesting against the amended citizenship law in Delhi’s Seelampur area, barely a day after a crackdown on the Jamia Millia Islamia campus in south Delhi.
“The situation is very serious. We are very anguished at the manner in which police dealt with peaceful protesters exercising their democratic rights,” said Gandhi flanked by other opposition leaders.
She said police personnel entered women’s hostels in Jamia Millia Islamia and “mercilessly” beat up students. “Delhi is an example where the police trespassed into the Jamia women’s hostel and dragged them out. They beat up students mercilessly. You have seen that the Modi government seems to have no compassion when it comes to shutting down people’s voices,” she said.
Apart from Gandhi, the delegation comprised of Trinamool Congress leader Derek O’Brien, TR Baalu of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Ram Gopal Yadav and Javed Ali of the Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, D Raja of the Communist Party of India, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Manoj Jha, ET Mohammad Basheer of the Indian Union Muslim League, National Conference’s Hasnain Masoodi and Sirajuddin Ajmal of the All India United Democratic Front.
The other two signatories of the memorandum submitted to the President were Sharad Yadav of Loktantrik Janata Dal and Shatrujeet Singh of the Revolutionary Socialist Party.
Gandhi’s colleagues AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma and Jairam Ramesh were also part of the delegation. The leaders first assembled at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the Parliament House Complex and later proceeding to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
“As the Head of the State, you are the custodian of the Indian Constitution. We, the undersigned, appeal to you to safeguard our Constitution from being violated. We urge you to intervene in the matter and advise the government to immediately withdraw the Citizenship Amendment Act,” the opposition parties said in their memorandum to the President. | {
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The second round of voting to determine who will appear on the cover of Madden 13 continues until April 4. When it was announced that Calvin Johnson had advanced to the second round, Lions fans started expressing a variety of opinions on whether or not they wanted him to receive such an honor because of the “Madden curse”.
The Madden video game started featuring players on the cover of US versions with Madden 2001. Since that time, some feel a trend has developed in which bad things happen to the players whose images appear on the game’s cover. The Madden curse theory is now so ingrained in the landscape of NFL fandom that 66% of Lions fans in a recent poll said they don’t want to see Calvin Johnson on the cover of Madden 13.
Is the Madden curse really something to be concerned with? As it turns out, not surprisingly, no.
At this point you have two choices as a Lions fan. One, just go vote for Calvin Johnson over Arian Foster to move on in the cover tournament. Two, read through whatever portion of the next 2,000 words you need to come to your senses and conquer your irrational fears of the Madden curse and then go vote for Calvin Johnson.
Here’s the real story behind all 12 Madden covers.
Madden 2001 Cover: Eddie George
The Curse Says: The defending AFC Champion Tennessee Titans were upset by the Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs in part because of a bobbled pass by Eddie George that ended up as an interception by Ray Lewis. While George would go on to play four more seasons, he wouldn’t ever again play at the level he had made routine through his first five seasons.
The Truth: Eddie George had the best statistical season of his career while store shelves were stocked with Madden video games bearing his photo. He set career-highs in carries, rushing yards, rushing touchdowns, receptions and receiving yards while leading the Titans to a division title. History tells us that the “upset” at the hands of the Ravens wasn’t particularly surprising considering the decade of success that followed – not to mention the fact that the Ravens had also beaten the Titans in the regular season and would go on to win Super Bowl XXXV. As for the drop off in George’s play post-Madden cover, such is life as an NFL running back.
Madden 2002 Cover: Daunte Culpepper
The Curse Says: Daunte Culpepper appeared on the Madden cover after breaking out as one of the top young quarterbacks in the NFL. However, he took a sharp decline during the 2002 season when he threw 23 interceptions and fumbled the ball 23 times.
The Truth: A classic case of confirmation bias. Proponents of the curse point to Culpepper’s 23 interceptions in 2002-03, ingoring the fact that Madden 2002 was released for the 2001-02. Culpepper couldn’t live up to the ridiculous standard he set in 2000-01 that earned him the Madden cover but a look at Culpepper’s career shows that the player we during his cover season was more likely the “real” Culpepper. Still, Culpepper was able to have a fantastic season in 2004-05 before ultimately having his career by a devastating knee injury – another piece of evidence some will stretch to use as support for the curse. A much more reasonable explanation exists. Part of what made Daunte Culpepper so special was his combination of a huge arm and mobility. Culpepper was able to make plays with his feet and was a beast to bring down. His size meant it was bad idea to tackle him high if you wanted to bring him down. It was Chris Gamble’s low tackle of Culpepper that brought him down after an 18-yard run and tore ligaments in Culpepper’s knee.
Madden 2003 Cover: Marshall Faulk
The Curse Says: The St. Louis Rams offenses of the late 90s and early 2000s were among the most prolific in NFL history and Marshall Faulk had a lot to do with that. He appeared on the cover of Madden 2003 and never ran for 1,000 yards again. His production in the passing game also fell off and the St. Louis Rams lost their spot among the NFC’s elite.
The Truth: Even the most durable NFL running backs start to break down around their 30th birthday and Faulk is no exception. He had an incredible stretch of season in his mid to late-20s but succumbed to the same phenomenon seen so many times. Look at the career of LaDanian Tomlinson. He never appeared on the Madden cover (although he reportedly turned down the chance to appear on the cover of Madden 08) and has faced a nearly identical career arc as Faulk. He put up big numbers and was a sure-bet first or second pick in fantasy leagues throughout his career until Tomlinson’s age 29 season in 2009 when he was good but not great and it only went downhill from there. Faulk faced the added dimension of deteriorating knees and the arrival of Stephen Jackson in 2004. If the end of Faulk’s career is the result of a curse, then all NFL running backs are cursed.
Madden 2004 Cover: Michael Vick
The Curse Says: Madden 2004 was released on August 11, 2003 and Michael Vick broke his leg in a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens just five days later. Vick would later be found to have been involved in a dog fighting operation and missed the 2007 and 2008 seasons while he served his prison sentence.
The Truth: Like Daunte Culpepper a couple years earlier, Michael Vick, another highly mobile quarterback, suffered a leg injury while scrambling out of the pocket – just the sort of injury a quarterback like Vick leaves himself susceptible to. The lost games due to injury were unfortunate but Vick returned later in the season to lead the Falcons to a 3-1 record in his four starts. Any fears of lingering effects of the leg injury were put to rest when Vick ran for 141 yards against the Carolina Panthers in his first start of the season.
Michael Vick’s legal problems resulting from dog fighting came about as a result of his own actions, linking his downfall to the Madden curse only absolves Vick of some responsibility and diminishes the severity of his actions.
Madden 2005 Cover: Ray Lewis
The Curse Says: A wrist injury put an early end to the season for Ray Lewis. It was the first season in which Ray Lewis failed to record an interception in his career.
The Truth: It’s a huge stretch to blame a Madden curse for a perceived dip in performance for the season in which Ray Lewis appeared on the Madden cover. His injury only cost him the final game of the season and the lack of an interception is hardly a troubling statistic, even for a playmaker like Lewis. The Ravens ended up winning that final game without Lewis and still missed the playoffs with a 9-7 record.
Forget the curse, this is a Madden cover the team at EA Sports got absolutely correct. Madden 2005 sought to bring back the defensive side of football to the game play with new features like the hit stick and improved gang tackling. The Baltimore Ravens are the prime example of a successful defensive-minded team and Ray Lewis is the public face of that effort.
Madden 06 Cover: Donovan McNabb
The Curse Says: A sports hernia bothered McNabb through much of the season while he graced the Madden cover and wound up on injured reserve after injuring his groin in November. McNabb faced more injury problems a year later, landing on injured reserve after blowing out his knee.
The Truth: While it is true that McNabb had his season cut short in the two years that followed being named Madden’s cover athlete, there was a trend that actually precedes the supposed Madden curse. The early finishes to the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons made for three of the last five for McNabb. He also played in just ten games during the 2002-03 season. That made for three years out of five that McNabb’s season ended at least six games early.
Neither of McNabb’s “cursed” years lived up to his standards statistically but they weren’t horrible either. Any attempts to blame the Madden curse for the troubles McNabb had as a Redskin or Viking is simply an excuse for the decline of an aging quarterback.
Madden 07 Cover: Shaun Alexander
The Curse Says: Shaun Alexander suffered a foot injury that forced the reigning league MVP to miss six games. He never returned to form and didn’t play after the 2008 season.
The Truth: Shaun Alexander doesn’t believe in the curse and neither should you. Alexander was credited with saying, “Do you want to be hurt and on the cover (of Madden), or just hurt”? Injuries happen and it just so happened that Alexander’s came when he was on the cover of Madden.
By this point in the article you should be quite familiar with the natural difficulties NFL running backs face as they approach their 30th birthday. How old was Shaun Alexander when he was on the cover of Madden and suffered his foot injury? 29. Alexander was working against more than just an injury as he tried to get back to action. It’s quite possible that Alexander’s career would have ended at the same time as it did even if he hadn’t suffered that foot injury. The only reason anyone gives it any thought is because he appeared on the Madden cover. There really isn’t anything remarkable about the way Alexander’s career ended outside of that.
Madden 08 Cover: Vince Young
The Curse Says: Not all that much. Vince Young missed one game during the 2007 (the season for which Madden 08 was released) but made slight statistical improvements over his rookie season. Young did have injury problems beginning the following year and eventually lost his starting job to Kerry Collins.
The Truth: What happens when a one-hit wonder graces the cover of a Madden video game? You get a perfect opportunity to create a narrative around the Madden curse.
Young got a lot of publicity for leading the Titans to six wins in their final seven games of the 2006 season. That buzz combined with the recent memories of Vince Young’s dazzling performances as a Texas Longhorn made him a convenient cover man from a marketing perspective. As it turns out, Vince Young just never became a very good NFL quarterback and part of what landed him on the Madden cover was an inaccurate projection of what he might become, not what he was. We shouldn’t feel too bad for him, though. Vince is part of the dream team now.
Madden 09 Cover: Brett Favre
The Curse Says: Brett Favre was lined up to be on the Madden cover as a retired football hero but he came back to play for the New York Jets and endured a not-so-good season. Favre had off-field problems as a result of a sexual harassment charges from a former Jets employee.
The Truth: Does this seriously need an explanation? What went down post-Madden cover was a direct continuation of everything NFL fans had watched unfold with Favre before he appeared on the cover. His move to New York was a recipe for disaster from the beginning as he simply wasn’t a good fit.
Even if one points to the sending of sexual-charged text messages as a change of character somehow relating to the Madden curse, it is a situation he brought upon himself. It’s not like he was some sort of unlucky bystander. It’s more likely that Favre cursed Madden than the other way around.
Madden 10 Cover: Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald
The Curse Says: Troy Polamalu battled various knee injuries throughout the season.
The Truth: The 2009 does represent a low point for Polamalu in terms of his ability to stay on the field but that is an issue that has plagued him his entire career and did not start with his appearance on the cover of Madden 10. He failed to play in all 16 regular season games twice before the cover’s unveiling. It should also be pointed out as a piece of anti-curse evidence that Polamalu did play in all 16 games last season.
The claims of the Madden curse are quite quiet on the Fitzgerald front and for good reason. Not even the believers in the curse appear willing to stretch a sub-1,100 yard receiving yardage year by Fitzgerald into the category of curse-worthy. Larry Fitzgerald’s career high for receiving touchdowns came during the season he appeared on the Madden cover.
Madden 11 Cover: Drew Brees
The Curse Says: Brees threw twice as many interceptions as the season before and saw his quarterback rating drop by nearly 20 points. His season ended in the Wild Card round of the playoffs when the Saints were defeated by the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks.
The Truth: The drop in quarterback rating is not much of a second piece of “curse” evidence considering the drop is almost entirely accounted for by the increase in interceptions. The number of interceptions did double compared to the previous season but he threw 144 more passes. It was the fourth season in which Drew Brees had an interception rate of at least 3% and the 3.3% rate wasn’t the highest of his career. Brees threw interceptions on 4.3% of his passes during the 2003-04 season. Was the season up to typical Drew Brees standards? No, but calling it a cursed season is plain silly – especially in light of the historic season Brees put together in 2011-12.
The playoff upset at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks came through no fault of Drew Brees. The interception problems that plagued him in the regular season were not a factor in the defeat as he was not picked off in that game. Brees completed 39 of 60 passes and threw for 404 yards. The Saints’ downfall was their defense, not Brees or the offense.
Madden 12 Cover: Peyton Hillis
The Curse Says: Hillis missed six games due to a variety of injuries that took a toll on his performance just one year after enjoying a breakout season in 2010.
The Truth: Let’s play a little game of “one of these things is not like other”. Can you guess which cover athlete doesn’t fit with the rest of the group examined here? It’s Peyton Hillis. Vince Young at least had the aura of a college star when he landed on the Madden cover after generating just one season of NFL buzz. Hillis was a novelty as the first white running back to run for 1,000 yards in over two decades and it was enough to earn him the fan vote that determined the cover athlete for Madden 12. Hillis had a very good season in 2010 but that might be as good as it gets for the former seventh-round draft pick. He’ll play for his third team in five years now that he has signed with the Kansas City Chiefs so while his good season was enough to win a fan vote, it wasn’t enough to earn a long term contract from the Cleveland Browns. Hillis isn’t cursed, he just isn’t that good. | {
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Laura Loomer has won her appeal against Big Tech giants Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, and will see her day against them in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.
Loomer is suing the Big Tech giants for conspiring to suppress her speech because of her political views. Loomer has been banned from Facebook and Twitter.
The District Court for the District of Columbia had dismissed Loomer’s lawsuit, but on appeal Loomer and the nonprofit group Freedom Watch prevailed over the Big Tech companies, which must now face Loomer at trial.
“In layman’s terms, this means Laura Loomer has a real case,” attorney Mike Cernovich declared.
Laura Loomer's case vs. Google alleges anti-trust violations + a claim for discrimination. That case is in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, as it was filed in D.C.
Loomer's other lawsuit is in Florida, and that's the one @RonColeman is representing her in.
She's been busy. — Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 21, 2019
The court order setting the case for trial can be found here.
In a huge procedural win for Laura Loomer, the D.C. Court of Appeals has agreed to hear the merits of her lawsuit against Google. https://t.co/9FQF0pavc0 — Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 21, 2019
The lawsuit alleges violations of antitrust laws, the First Amendment, and the D.C. Human Rights Act via collusion to suppress conservative content.
On May 2, 2019, Facebook banned Loomer from Facebook and Instagram. At the time of the ban, Loomer had nearly 100,000 followers on Facebook, and over 120,000 on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
The banning of Loomer, along with several other high profile conservatives sparked international outrage, as users wondered how Facebook could claim that Loomer and others were more “dangerous” than terrorist groups like ANTIFA and ISIS, which have accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
Go Laura Loomer!
In a huge procedural win for Laura Loomer, the D.C. Court of Appeals has agreed to hear the merits of her lawsuit against Google.
Every Conservative should be standing up and cheering for Laura to win this lawsuit! https://t.co/FVUqB2YkWd #WednesdayWisdom — Amy Mek (@AmyMek) August 21, 2019
Loomer’s attorney Larry Klayman sued Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg years ago for allegedly furthering a Palestinian intifada which resulted in the death of Jews. In addition to founding Freedom Watch, Klayman also founded Judicial Watch.
Loomer was banned from Twitter in November after criticizing radical Muslim Democrat Ilhan Omar. Loomer had hundreds of thousands of follower on the platform.
You won't see any mainstream coverage of Laura Loomer's lawsuit vs. Google.
Like always, they'll do stories for days about Tweets, but when a lawsuit is going up in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, an actual Big Deal, you get nada.https://t.co/9FQF0pavc0 — Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 21, 2019
Apple and Google have also been accused by many of conspiring to censor conservative content, notably after Infowars host Alex Jones was banned from Facebook, YouTube and Apple’s iTunes store on the same day.
D.C. Circuit won't summarily affirm ruling dismissing Freedom Watch & Laura Loomer lawsuit accusing @Google, @Twitter, @Facebook and @Apple of conspiring to suppress conservative views. Orders full appellate briefing. prior coverage: https://t.co/h1uoUeGqPh pic.twitter.com/3Rjx2NLGO0 — Wendy N. Davis (@wendyndavis) August 21, 2019
Laura Loomer's case vs. Google alleges anti-trust violations + a claim for discrimination. That case is in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, as it was filed in D.C.
Loomer's other lawsuit is in Florida, and that's the one @RonColeman is representing her in.
She's been busy. — Mike Cernovich (@Cernovich) August 21, 2019
Project Veritas has released many videos of Big Tech insiders admitting that conservatives are being intentionally censored by these platforms.
Whether Loomer uses the Project Veritas whistleblowers and their testimony as evidence remains to be seen at trial.
Loomer began her career working as an undercover investigative journalist for Project Veritas where she worked for three years before going independent and launching her own media company, Illoominate Media.
Loomer holds the title of “Most Banned Woman In The World”.
She has been suspended and banned on all of the following platforms:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Periscope
PayPal
Venmo
GoFundMe
Chase Bank
Uber
Uber Eats
Lyft
Medium
TeeSpring
You can support Loomer’s legal defense fund here. Along with this lawsuit, Loomer has also filed suit against Twitter and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Florida. She recently sued Facebook for $3 BILLION in punitive damages for defamation after the social media giant labeled her a “dangerous individual”, banned her from Facebook and Instagram, and then told its nearly 2 billion users that it was ok for people to incite lethal violence against Loomer on Facebook.
You Might Like | {
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From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 12:29 am (UTC)
I agree with Intel's actions. Mir is not a community project - due to the CLA, Canonical has an advantage over other contributors. They also didn't try to work with Wayland community first. And their initial Mir announcement slandered Wayland. Essentially Mir is a Canonical project exposed to the public.
Although the patch "seems rather minimal and not very invasive", the Intel team will end up having to carry it, support it, test it, update it etc going forwards. That commitment is far larger than the patch so far - who knows how big it will eventually get? Those costs should rightfully be borne by Canonical not Intel. The easiest way to ensure that is that Canonical have to keep them in their fork, support them, test them, update them etc.
From: libv
2013-09-10 01:06 am (UTC)
I disagree with the burden of the patch, as clearly explained in the main post :) And I think that Chris made his decision on that one too.
In any case, that is a decision that should be up to the actual driver developers, and should not be imposed by bad political games.
Edited at 2013-09-10 01:09 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 08:01 am (UTC)
Intel and Red Hat are probably the biggest open source contributor out there. As a Linux and open-source user I should be grateful and I was but until recently but not anymore. I stopped trusting those companies. I know that's wierd when talking about open-source but there are reasons to be wary and the recent NSA news are one of them.
I do not trust Canonical either because I still belive if Mir is a sucess they will at some point change the Licence of Mir to non-free Software and go Apple.
From: libv
2013-09-10 09:53 am (UTC)
If Canonical is successful with Mir, and has a userbase that likes it, then, when it decides to change the license, Mir will simply get forked.
From: libv
2013-09-10 10:19 am (UTC)
I must say that the above "who's who of reinventers" is quite unfair to Rasterman. He chose his own path, what, 15 years ago, and stuck with it. 15 years of constant honing and improving, until things are absolutely perfect. I doubt that he always had support of a giant like samsung in that time. I have profound respect for rasterman because of that.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 04:48 pm (UTC)
I'm glad you added this clarification, as it's the one thing that struck me as out of place when I followed the link.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 10:30 am (UTC)
While I despise Intel's action here, and like your blog post, I think you've got Intel's fears wrong.
The threat from Mir isn't that it is a better solution that will eventually overtake Wayland. It's that it's that this weaker solution will steal developer time and user testing away from Wayland. Intel (or at least I) believes that Wayland will eventually dominate, but will arrive there slower because of Mir (and time to market is hugely important in modern IT).
In a sense, Intel is strongarming Canonical against the reinvention of the wheel which you criticised in your introduction. While both companies have their reasons, I dont think anybody has the moral high ground here. Canonical started the mess, and Intel made it worse. In the end, Linux and its users lose.
From: libv
2013-09-10 10:54 am (UTC)
Involving the graphics driver is simply not the way. Strongarming is totally out of bounds in a mess like this. Intel should have been above this, for many many reasons.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 01:30 pm (UTC)
"Why is Canonical not allowed to do this?"
I'll bet you money that you can't find a single quote of some respected open source software developer who ever said that Canonical isn't allowed to develop their own display server. I don't see how making your own display server automatically means that everyone that YOU depend on HAS TO support you no matter how retarded your idea is.
If they want their own display server and can't convince people that it's worthwhile they'll simply have to do it on their own. As simple as that. No one has ever said they are not allowed to do what they want.
From: libv
2013-09-10 01:39 pm (UTC)
Nobody is able to stop them, that is true. But the amount of flack canonical gets for what it can rightfully do with its own resources, and now intels software fascism, is really out of proportion.
Intel as a whole does not have to support Mir. Intel graphics driver developers on the other hand will have to as it will be a large part of their customer base.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 01:51 pm (UTC)
"Who are they hurting apart from their own resources and their own users? It's not that I am applauding Canonical for their decision, but I really don't see the massive problem here."
I disagree with your view that Mir hurts nobody. In my opinion there will be a clear winner of the "post-X" era and that will be the x-server, which will get binary support from AMD and nvidia. If past experiences are any indication, neither AMD nor nvidia will support both Wayland and Mir. Canonical, as a big company, will fight for this binary support.
Once Mir is supported and used on a big fraction of all Linux PCs, we will have to wait a long time to see official support for Wayland from both companies. The same applies for display drivers for cellphone chipsets, which I expect Canonical to target, too.
So yeah, in my opinion Mir hurts Wayland, if it is successful.
From: libv
2013-09-10 02:00 pm (UTC)
Either company will drag its feet on supporting either display infrastructure. Wayland has been around for a long while now. Intel is doing its thing with wayland, which does not make nvidia or amd more keen to support it. Conversely, the fragmentation that Canonical caused, plus their use of libhybris, is not spurring either on to support Mir either. At most, canonical simply reinforces the status quo.
On the other hand, it can be argued that Wayland has all the vendor support it needs.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 02:20 pm (UTC)
Thanks you for this detailed post.
It was a nice read and explains the situation very well, especially from your side of view as a driver developer.
A good contrast to all the hatred.
From: libv
2013-09-10 02:49 pm (UTC)
It is amazing how much of this blind hatred makes it impossible for most to see the real damage being done. I think that my blog post tries hard to not take sides in the wayland versus mir battle, it focuses on the horrible move intel just made, and the damage that does. Yet only few people seem to be able to grasp that.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 02:24 pm (UTC)
My personal opinion; Canonical started throwing around just a few too many demands compared to their contributions; As much as I hate politics and know that this wasn't done by for altruistic motives Canonical had to be reminded by someone that they aren't the only fish in the pond - and Intel did that. Canonical is making decisions soley for business reasons that can be seen as specifically hurting the larger community, and it just so happens that Intel is aligned with the larger community on this issue.
One thing that isn't mentioned nearly enough is another unmentioned tidbit; Canonical will not provide support to anyone for Mir, and they are building Mir specifically for their products with no compatibility guarantee outside their ecosystem. Canonical can break the client-side Mir API daily if it suited them, and the onus is on literally everyone else to just keep up. Mir could be forked, but we already have Wayland. Mir is and will always be a Canonical-specific product, and Canonical will always be the sole proprietor. Even if someone did fork, Canonical could break the Mir api and accuse forks of 'holding back progress' and we'd get another can of worms. Supporting Mir is just a huge risk.
Canonicals products have become increasingly dependant into this sort of one-way community. Desktop enviornments and minor standards like unity panels aren't as damaging to the wider developer crowd; You can make a DE without making life terrible for hundreds of developers, or optional standards and developers can pick and choose if they like them. Canonical has gone deeper into the stack than it ever has with Mir, and *is* making life terrible for developers now.
Looking soley at the graphics aspect - I really really like the idea of competition. With the decoupling effort going into all the DEs and (hopefully) graphics cards, I'd love to see this part of the graphics stack be as interchangable as other portions of the system. Have everything be generic, so if something new and fantastic and mind-blowing comes out it would 'just work'. But Mir was done Mir the wrong way, and in reality it's about as open as a black hole and as accessible as a one-way street. Canonical has taken almost Microsoft-ish tactics recently, their pitting a product against a protocol and trying to attack the competition, and they did indeed slander Wayland heavily when they announced Mir (even after supporting Wayland).
Going 'round circle... Intel may not be an angel guarding over us, but Canonicals interest is not in the community that built it. They've been disregarding community feedback for years, and now Canonical has finally bumped up against a bigger dog and their learning the hard way that they can't shovel all their crap into everyone else without getting some of it back. A slice of humble pie is good once and a while, and event hough it'll hurt users in the short term Canonical may have to start learning to be a better citizen - which will help everyone in the long run.
From: libv
2013-09-10 02:30 pm (UTC)
The trouble is the way in which this was done, not the fact that intel openly states that it dislikes Mir. Forcing things through from the graphics driver side is wrong, and it leads to driver which is worse than it could be. Canonical might have started this war, but Intel chose to use Sarin instead of conventional weapons.
From: libv
2013-09-10 03:07 pm (UTC)
Just to let the trolls know. If it is clear to me that you're just spewing random Canonical/Mir hatred and haven't even bothered to read or understand the post to which you are replying, i will not unscreen your anonymous replies. You either read the thing, or you should go spew your hatred on the phoronix forums instead
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 03:55 pm (UTC)
From 'code fascism' to 'comments fascism'?
From: Samium Gromoff
2013-09-10 03:45 pm (UTC)
Luc, thank you for this post!
You could reference it on g+, btw : -)
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 03:58 pm (UTC)
Do you think they will get the same/different response from other vendor's driver mantainers?
Or is the decision to reject canonical's patch taken by the xorg foundation?
Also thanks for the article.
From: libv
2013-09-10 04:11 pm (UTC)
It was a decision taken by other parties than the actual driver maintainers. The driver maintainers saw no issues with this code and wanted their driver to be as universally used as possible.
In case you missed it, the X.org foundation is a dead organization that managed to lose their sole achievement of the last half a decade in about a year or so. It never had any technical leverage to begin with, but now it declared itself dead.
And that's the jist of it: the driver maintainers were perfectly ok with things, but bad politics had to undo that and make the world a tad worse for everyone.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 04:11 pm (UTC)
A bit wrong on the wayland/hybris thingie: libhybris already implemented wayland-egl. The wayland patch you mention is actually targeted at weston, and the only "hybris" part is an env variable.
From: libv
2013-09-10 04:13 pm (UTC)
Granted, but that doesn't make the whole libhybris premise harmless :)
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 04:28 pm (UTC)
Great post. Thank you. At least not everybody in the Linux community joins the army of ivory tower geeks with a bucket full of primitive hatred and justifications.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 06:36 pm (UTC)
Thankyou very much for a great read! You sir should be commended.
You kept it pretty simple considering the tech involved, you focused on what is truely the problem as I see it aswell.
I want Wayland to be a huge hit, I also want Mir to be a huge hit. Admittedly for slightly different reasons.
From: (Anonymous)
2013-09-10 06:40 pm (UTC)
I agree 100% with the post. | {
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PARIS--French anti-terrorist investigators are hunting for a man who stabbed a soldier in the throat at a busy Paris shopping and transport center.
Detectives are also examining whether there is a link between the attack and the killing of a British soldier who was hacked to death in London on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old French soldier, Pfc. Cedric Cordier, was patrolling the busy underground corridors beneath the La Defense arch in the French capital’s business district with two other soldiers when an attacker approached him from behind shortly before 6 p.m. on Saturday, authorities said. They said Cordier was stabbed in the neck with a knife or cutter that narrowly missed his carotid artery.
The soldier, a member of the Gap 4th Rifle Regiment, was taken to a hospital, where doctors said his life was not in danger. The attacker, who fled into a nearby shopping center, was described as of North African appearance and around 30 years old. He was still being sought on Sunday.
The area where the attack occurred adjoins the busy La Defense train station, and is monitored by video cameras run by the city transport network. Investigators are now going through footage from the cameras.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who visited Cordier in the hospital a few hours after Saturday’s attack, said it was clear the victim was targeted because he was a soldier. Le Drian and Interior Minister Manuel Valls issued a joint statement condemning what they described as a “cowardly attack” on the soldier.
On Sunday, Valls told France 5 television there were “elements” that led police to believe it was a terrorist act.
“I cannot say more at this stage as the inquiry has only just begun,” he said.
President François Hollande, on an official visit to Ethiopia, said “all hypotheses” would be investigated.
“At this stage, I don’t think there’s a link [with the London attack], but we’re asking all our soldiers to be even more aware and vigilant,” Hollande said.
France has been on heightened security alert since the country launched a military intervention in Mali in January to drive out Islamic fundamentalists who had been pushing through the country from the north.
The Paris stabbing came just three days after two men attacked British soldier Lee Rigby in the London neighborhood of Woolwich. Rigby, 22, was first run down by a car before the men jumped from the vehicle and attacked him with a knife and meat cleaver.
The London attackers were said to have cried “Allah Akbar” (God is great) as they attacked Rigby, leading to suggestions they were part of an Islamic extremist group. The men were later shot by police and are now under hospital arrest.
Christophe Crepin, a spokesman for the French police union, said there were similarities between the attacks. “I think this person wanted to imitate what happened in London,” he told French television.
ALSO:
Rockets hit Beirut, stirring fear of Syria conflict spillover
Taliban attack international aid group in Afghanistan capital
Slain British soldier’s family did not expect he’d face danger at home | {
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AP
LONDON (AP) — No sooner had Anthony Joshua brutally dispatched another pretender to his heavyweight titles than attention turned to who the British fighter would face next as he seeks to clean up boxing's most glamorous division.
An eagerly anticipated fight on Dec. 1 will go a long way to clearing that up.
Deontay Wilder, the WBC champion, is scheduled to take on Tyson Fury, the former champion before drug and health issues got in the way, somewhere in Las Vegas. It's a fight between two unbeaten heavyweights who represent the biggest threat to Joshua, the WBA, IBF and WBO belt-holder, and could provide his next opponent.
Joshua, now with a 22-0 record after toughing out a victory over Alexander Povetkin in front of 80,000 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, said he isn't bothered who wins out of Wilder and Fury. In fact, he even suggested he won't even watch it.
His promoter has other ideas, however.
"We want Wilder," Eddie Hearn said.
For Hearn, Wilder vs. Joshua — pitting the two biggest punchers in boxing together — would be one of the biggest fights in boxing history and would be must-see viewing, stylistically. There's also the issue of unifying the belts while the opportunity is there.
"We want to be undisputed heavyweight champion of the world," Hearn said, looking across to Joshua.
Hearn also sees Fury, a loudmouth out of the ring and a pragmatic boxer in it, as something of a turn-off.
"I don't want to be disrespectful here, but Tyson Fury is the most unentertaining fighter I've ever seen," Hearn said, dismissively. "He's never been in a good fight in his whole career. Deontay Wilder against Joshua is the biggest fight in world boxing and it's the most exciting matchup you can make."
The Wilder and Joshua camps negotiated last year for a fight — there was talk of $50 million on the table — but couldn't find a middle ground. Hearn is eager to resume talks and agree to a deal in the coming weeks that can be rubber-stamped as soon as Wilder beats Fury. He said $50m would be "peanuts" compared to what could be offer next year.
"I don't want to wait until December for him to finish his fight, get some rest and then start negotiating," said Joshua, who is contractually obliged to return to Wembley on April 13 for his next fight. "I start training for a fight again early January. I want to get my fight fixed as soon as possible this side of the year, so I know what I'm doing next year."
Aside from what will undoubtedly by tough negotiations with Wilder's people, another possible barrier for Hearn will be if Fury wins on Dec. 1. That would make a rematch likely, and also make Wilder a less-appealing prospect.
Joshua would then have to turn to someone like fellow Briton Dillian Whyte for his April 13 fight.
So, it's a case of wait and see for Joshua, who has a seven-month break before getting back in the ring. He'll do so with more experience in the bank after a difficult fight against Povetkin that started with the Briton getting a busted nose in the first round and ended with a devastating flurry of punches that sent the 39-year-old Russian nearly stumbling through the ropes.
In his last two fights, Joshua has beaten the previously undefeated Joseph Parker convincingly on points and then inflicted only Povetkin's second career loss. They were both ranked as the No. 3 heavyweight in the world when they took on Joshua, who realistically only has two credible rivals currently in the division.
Fury has returned after a 2 1/2-year absence with two almost farcically easy fights, which gave him some much-needed time in the ring but barely proved a thing.
Fury vs. Joshua — the bad boy against the poster boy — would get Britons excited but Wilder vs. Joshua really gets the pulses racing.
"No problem, I fight whoever," Joshua said. "I'll always knock them down, one by one."
___
More AP sports: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
___
Steve Douglas is at www.twitter.com/sdouglas80 | {
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There is speculation whether impeachment will hurt some House Democrats from marginal districts; no doubt, a few will squirm.
If, as seems likely, the House votes to impeach Donald Trump, and it goes to the Senate for a trial, a handful of Republicans there - who may hold the balance in next year's elections - may squirm even more.
These include Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Sen. Joni Ernst (R Iowa) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). All are either slight favorites or in toss-up races against likely formidable opponents.
Voters, according to politicians and polls, care more about health care, the economy, immigration and education than impeachment. But a pitched congressional battle over removing Trump will affect marginal races, probably energizing voters on both sides.
Any possible Senate votes wouldn't occur for at least ten weeks. Ten weeks ago, little was known about the scandal, in which the president pressured the Ukrainians to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden while holding up much-needed military assistance.
Senate Republicans have to be worried what else may come out in the weeks and months ahead; court tests may be settled that would require turning over more information - and perhaps even the testimony of administration witnesses in the face of White House stonewalling. Static analysis is perilous in this saga.
Polls show a pronounced partisan split on impeachment: Democrats overwhelmingly for; Republicans overwhelmingly against - with independents divided.
That's why a vote might cause some angst for maybe 15 percent of the new House Democrats who won Republican-held seats last year and several non-freshmen Democrats.
But any on the fence have a believable argument: Impeachment is like an indictment, and plenty of abuse of power and obstruction of justice particulars have emerged.
That won't avail in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53 to 47 Republican majority and it takes a two-thirds vote to convict.
If this scenario plays out, it will pressure a few Democratic Senators - but it will mainly affect those handful of Republicans in battleground states, where the public is divided. Three of those states - North Carolina, Iowa and Arizona - voted for Trump, who likely would be on the ballot next year. Democrats say all these states will be in play next year.
If more comes out and Senate Republicans look for a compromise like censure instead of impeachment, that's likely to be opposed by one prominent party leader: Donald J. Trump.
Senior Senate Republicans, Like Tennessee's Lamar Alexander, who's retiring, and Rob Portman of Ohio, not up until 2022, may offer an easier cop-out. They say the president's actions were "inappropriate" and "wrong," but trying to shake down a foreign country to go after your political opponent isn't an impeachable offense. In the House, Portman voted to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about sex. Alexander wasn't in Congress yet.
These office holders know Trump owns the party and his base will punish any Republican who goes off the reservation. A recent illustration: Sen. Mitt Romney (R- Utah) has been one of the more outspoken GOP critics of Trump's behavior; in 2012, Romney and former Sen. Rick Santorum basically tied for first in the Iowa caucuses - in last weekend's Iowa poll, Republicans gave Romney a 36 percent favorability rating. Trump, by contrast, has an 85 percent rating.
Most of the marginal Republican Senate incumbents, keenly aware of the Trump base, have indicated, as of now, they'd vote against an impeachment conviction, while trying to avoid the issue. Ernst struggled over a Trump impeachment-related question at a town hall. Gardner has repeatedly declined to say whether it was proper for Trump to pressure a foreign country to smear his political opponent, but he laments impeachment as a "partisan exercise."
McSally, who literally rushed away from reporters at the Capitol when asked about the issue, knows the dangers of trying to walk a fine line. In the Arizona Senate race last year, she tried to self-identify both with Trump and the late Sen. John McCain, two men of profoundly different values and views who had contempt for one another. She lost. She was appointed to the Senate this year to fill a vacancy.
Collins, facing the toughest race of her career in Maine, may be walking the most delicate line. A recent Boston Globe analysis concluded that other than the president, no politician "is more jammed up by impeachment than Collins." | {
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En skola i Göteborg stängde av två lärarvikarier eftersom rektorn misstänkte dem för att sympatisera med våldsbejakande extremism.
Rektorn säger att hon bara gick på magkänsla och ärendet utreds nu av Diskrimineringsombudsmannen.
Men DN:s granskning visar att det finns kopplingar mellan en av bröderna och en förbjuden tysk extremistgrupp. | {
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Senator Elizabeth Warren at Boston Pride 2018. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Senator Elizabeth Warren has submitted a bill that would require the US government to refund gay couples the cost of overpaid taxes.
Until 2013, the US government barred married gay couples from jointly filing taxes.
Under the now-defunct Defence of Marriage Act rules, gay couples who were legally married under state law were forced to continue paying federal taxes as individuals.
This meant that many couples ended up paying far more in tax than their heterosexual counterparts would have.
A proposal today attempts to correct the historical injustice.
Left-wing Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren today introduced a bill to Congress which would compensate gay couples who were forced to overpay taxes.
Senator Warren introduced the Refund Equality Act, which would permit gay couples to amend their tax returns and file jointly.
The change could secure an estimated total of $67 million in refunds for married gay couples.
Senator Warren said: “For nearly a decade, legally married same-sex couples had to file their taxes as single persons, often paying more taxes than they would owe if they could file as married.
“This bill is a simple fix to allow same-sex couples to claim the tax refunds they earned but were denied because of who they love.”
30 senators and 39 members of the House of Representatives cosponsored the legislation.
Rep. Richard Neal, who submitted the bill in the House, said: “All legally married couples in this country deserve to be treated equally.
“This bill would codify into law an important correction that would enable same-sex married couples to go back and claim the tax refunds and credits for which they qualify.
“The Supreme Court has ruled as such, and now it’s time for Congress to act and make sure all Americans are treated with the fairness and equality they deserve under the law.”
All of the listed sponsors are Democrats.
The Republicans hold majorities in both houses. | {
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After years of speculation, a remastered version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s single-player campaign is finally here, bringing an enhanced version of one of the most iconic FPS games of the late 2000s onto modern hardware.
The enhanced version of Modern Warfare 2 only includes the single-player campaign. The remastered version adds high-definition visuals and audio improvements to the original story from 2009, according to a blog post by Activision. The game is available digitally on PS4 for $19.99 and will be a timed exclusive until April 30th, when it launches on PC and Xbox One, though preorders are currently not available at this time.
‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ was originally released in November 2009
PS4 owners who purchase the remastered Modern Warfare 2 — which, it should be noted, is not a sequel to last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — will also get in-game items in both the 2019 game and the battle royale spinoff Warzone, which launched earlier this month. Some items featured in the bundle include a new character skin as well as a couple of weapon blueprints, which grant you access to stronger weapons without having to earn them through progression.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was originally released in November 2009 and is often regarded as one of the best games of that year, thanks in part to its strong single-player narrative as well as a robust multiplayer mode. The title also ignited controversy over its optional fourth mission, “No Russian,” which had players take part in a terrorist attack.
After a remastered version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released in November 2016, many were speculating as to when its sequel would receive the same treatment. Microsoft made the original Modern Warfare 2 backwards compatible on Xbox One in late 2018, but Activision didn’t announce the game would be remastered before today. | {
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It’s been clear for years that the PlayStation 4 is outpacing the Xbox One in sales. What wasn’t clear, however, was by how much. Due to an inadvertent admission by EA CEO Andrew Wilson on an earnings call, we now know that the Xbox One has sold less than half the number of consoles as the PS4 despite the two consoles releasing within a week of one another in 2013. Microsoft moved roughly 30 million Xbox Ones by the end of 2017, while Sony crossed the 73 million mark at the same time (via Variety).
In the midst of discussing EA’s projections for its current fiscal year, Wilson offered console sales figures. “Turning to our expectations for fiscal 2019, we expect sales of current generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony to continue to be strong, with the installed base growing to 130 million consoles by the end of calendar 2018 from 103 million at the end of calendar 2017,” he said.
A little math is required to figure out the breakdown, but the 103 million combined sales leads to a clear answer. Sony released sales figures at the end of 2017, revealing that the PS4 had eclipsed the 73 million mark. That leaves the Xbox One with roughly 30 million in sales to its name.
Microsoft stopped releasing Xbox One sales figures about four years ago, probably because of its positioning in comparison to the PS4. This means that the Xbox One, on average, has sold less than eight million units per year since launch, while the PS4 has sold more than 18 million per year.
While it’s abundantly clear that the Xbox One will never catch up to the PS4, it may well find itself behind yet another competitor before long: Nintendo Switch. The Switch sold ten million units in its first nine months on the market, and surpassed its predecessor, the Wii U, before turning one year old with close to 15 million sales.
Wilson projected the Switch to hit the 30 million mark by the end of year, which would put it in striking distance of the Xbox One going into 2019. If the current trajectories hold, the Switch will be poised to pass the Xbox One next year, despite the Xbox One having more than three years of lead time.
Editors' Recommendations | {
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On the Bulletproof Diet, you eat lots of healthy fat, high-quality protein, and minimal carbohydrates.
It’s designed to melt body fat, improve focus, and boost your overall performance by limiting your exposure to anti-nutrients, toxins, hormones, and other junk that makes you weak.
The Paleo diet is a primal or ancestral diet based on the types of foods presumed to have been eaten by early humans — meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit.
The ketogenic diet places you in a fat-burning state called ketosis. To get there, you eat lots of fat, moderate protein, and very few carbs.
There is quite a bit of overlap in what foods you eat on Paleo vs. keto vs. Bulletproof. Read on to understand the key differences, and what makes Bulletproof stand out.
Choosing the right diet makes all the difference in how you feel every day. I was in my 20s when I started suffering from severe fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. I was 300 pounds, sick constantly, and almost had to drop out of grad school because I couldn’t concentrate.
Back then, I thought my inability to think clearly and perform at high levels was some sort of moral failing. I would beat myself up. I would work harder and stay up later, trying to catch up with my peers.
I tried every diet imaginable, including raw vegan, keto, and Paleo, and spent years falling off the low-fat bandwagon. I hit the treadmill for hours every day. Nothing worked. So I took matters into my own hands.
“The Bulletproof Diet” was born after a decade of working with some of the world’s top health and nutrition researchers. Over a span of about 15 years, I devoured thousands of research papers and books on human nutrition. I used my body as a testing ground to determine what worked best for my biology.
The result is a diet that has helped thousands of people lose fat and gain the energy and clarity they thought they’d lost forever. So, what differentiates the Bulletproof Diet from other low-carb diets? Read on to find out.
Related: Take the guesswork out of keto with this 7-Day Cyclical Keto Meal Plan, plus Keto Recipes Cookbook
Bulletproof vs. keto vs. Paleo: The big picture
If you were to map out the most popular diets, you’d see a vast spectrum of practices and plans ranging from low-fat vegan to high-fat, low-carb (HFLC). This deliciously fatty end of the spectrum is where the Bulletproof Diet and the keto, Paleo, and Atkins diets would lie.
Keto
The ketogenic diet is a style of eating that places you in ketosis — a state in which your body burns fat for fuel, instead of carbs. To achieve this state, you eat lots of high-quality fat, moderate protein, and very few carbs. This diet doesn’t specify how you hit your macros, and it doesn’t restrict full-fat dairy. Learn more about keto with this detailed beginner’s guide.
Paleo
The Paleo diet eliminates processed foods and focuses on what our Paleolithic ancestors ate — mostly meat, plants, nuts, and seeds. It excludes dairy, grain products, and sugary processed foods. The Paleo diet uses proteins and healthy fats to support strong muscles, healthy bones, and optimal immune function.
The Bulletproof Diet
The Bulletproof Diet is similar to these diets, but it upgrades your life by taking your food a step further. The Bulletproof Diet is designed to maximize your willpower by reducing cravings and minimize aging by focusing on how food works in your body on a biochemical level. Cavemen didn’t have mass spectrometers and microscopes and modern science. They weren’t biohackers and lacked the control of their environment that we take for granted today.
New to the Bulletproof Diet? Here’s the overview:
The Bulletproof Diet tells you what type of food to eat, when to eat it, and how to cook it.
It features high amounts of healthy fats, moderate amounts of high-quality protein, and tons of organic vegetables. You eat within certain timeframes in order to create unbelievable levels of energy and mental clarity throughout the day.
It identifies the exact foods that provide the most energy and contain the least performance-robbing, inflammation-causing anti-nutrients and toxins.
It hacks the root of food cravings, allowing you to lose weight with zero hunger or a battle of willpower.
While the Paleo and Bulletproof diets agree that sugar and grains aren’t really food, Bulletproof came about through anti-aging, cognitive performance, and fertility research, not by focusing on ancestral health. The Bulletproof Diet is different than Paleo and similar diets because it takes into account the factors outlined below.
The Bulletproof approach to fats, meat, and carbs
The Bulletproof Diet focuses on both quality and quantity: the quality of your food is super important, but you should also play around with the ratios of fat, protein, and carbs you consume. We encourage a bit more fat than most Paleo authors (50-70% or more), including butter (a food that’s been debated in the Paleo community for a while), and moderate protein consumption.
This is opposed to most Paleo meal plans, which offer a bit more protein, and moderate fat and carb consumption.
One of Bulletproof’s most distinguishing, most effective features in making you feel your best is that it encourages you to eat more fat than most low-carb diet plans and includes one day per week of protein fasting. Pretty unheard of in the Paleo scene.
And of course, there’s Bulletproof Coffee, which isn’t technically Paleo, because cavemen didn’t have butter, lab-tested mold- and toxin-free coffee, or the ability to concentrate the most useful 6% of coconut oil in a non-oxygen atmosphere (i.e. Brain Octane Oil). Or blenders. Cavemen didn’t have those either. But Bulletproof Coffee totally rocks when you add it to the Paleo template!
A focus on food quality
Think about how vegans, particularly raw vegans, pay attention to food quality. They’re obsessive for a reason — because it matters! On the Bulletproof Diet, you eat grass-fed, wild-caught, and organic foods because they have more nutritional value and fewer hormones, pesticides, and other toxins that can mess with your mojo. Check out my two-part series on why grass-fed beef is healthier than grain-fed.
Bulletproof food quality principles agree with veganism on food quality more so than, say, Atkins diet followers. Many people who follow an Atkins or general low-carb diet will eat non-organic produce and grain-fed meat out of a sense of convenience — or maybe they just don’t know any better. But these foods contain hormones, pesticides, and other toxins that can harm your performance and make you slow, tired, and unfocused. A Bulletproof Diet includes nutrient-dense, high-quality foods that feed your body at a cellular level and minimize your body’s exposure to harmful chemicals and mold. Learn more about how mold affects your performance.
A focus on food processing
You likely know that processing your food is bad. But cooking food is processing food, even if you do it yourself. The Bulletproof approach to nutrition focuses on how your food is prepared or cooked. That means cooking your food gently and avoiding overcooking or charring your meat.
Cavemen stuck their meat on a stick over a fire and they created heterocyclic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (a.k.a. HCAs and PAFs, capable of damaging DNA after they are metabolized), a topic ”The Bulletproof Diet” specifically addresses and teaches you how to avoid. The bottom line is that better prep = better food.
Some Paleo authors might recommend crispy bacon or charred, heavily cooked meats — Bulletproof does not. Gently cook your foods, or they will lose some of their most important nutrients.
Pitfalls of Paleo and keto: Why you should customize your diet
If you strictly follow the Paleo diet, you don’t eat any dairy at all — but then you’d miss out on all the benefits of grass-fed butter or raw dairy, if you tolerate it. On the ketogenic diet, severely restricting carbs for extended periods of time can lead to impaired sleep quality and thyroid problems. That’s why the Bulletproof Diet advocates carb cycling, also known as keto cycling.
Meanwhile, no two Bulletproof Diet followers eat the exact same way or take the exact same supplements.
We like to think of it as “this is more Bulletproof or less Bulletproof.” Everybody is different, but the Bulletproof Diet Roadmap makes it easy to identify potentially performance-robbing, brain-fog inducing Kryptonite foods that make it hard to reach your peak mental and physical performance.
Maybe you should eat nightshades, maybe you shouldn’t. The best way to find out is to try both for yourself and see what kind of difference you feel. But if you don’t have a spectrum to tell you that these are suspect, then you have no way of telling how the foods you put in your body are affecting your everyday performance.
The only way to really figure out which foods may be giving you problems is to use your body as a testing ground. This means eliminating suspect foods, then methodically adding them back in. There are some guidelines on how to do this in “The Bulletproof Diet.”
Food, technology, and timing
It’s OK to improve food through the use of technology. The Bulletproof Diet doesn’t reject improvement of food using technology, like xylitol. Birch sugar is totally acceptable on this diet, even if it is made in a lab, because the biochemistry works. It’s also OK to use supplements to help you digest your food or promote better energy or sleep.
The Bulletproof Diet also incorporates some meal timing elements that various versions of Paleo have yet to adopt. For example, Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting is not the Paleo-approved plain intermittent fasting because you’re drinking Bulletproof Coffee, but it works very well, giving you energy and clarity throughout your day. Bulletproof also encourages you to time your carb consumption to improve sleep quality.
Is Bulletproof a ketogenic diet?
Yes … and no. It does emphasize a diet high in high-quality fats, and it utilizes intermittent, cyclical ketosis to melt fat and promote high energy. However, the Bulletproof Diet discourages long-term ketosis for everyone. Some people struggle with thyroid or hormone problems, adrenal fatigue, poor sleep quality, and extremely dry eyes when they severely limit their carb intake. On the Bulletproof Diet, you moderately increase your carbs (and go out of keto) once per week to support your body’s systems.
The Bulletproof Diet also places more importance on food quality. On the ketogenic diet, it’s possible to achieve ketosis by eating a high-fat diet filled with grain-fed meat, but you won’t feel your best. When you eat grass-fed meat, wild-caught seafood, and organic vegetables, you limit your exposure to anti-nutrients, toxins, antibiotics, and hormones that make you feel sluggish and weak.
The bottom line
Paleo is committed to the ancestral modality, and I’m a fan of it. Meanwhile, the Bulletproof Diet focuses on the research behind ways to improve performance and mental clarity by providing ample amounts of resources for your body’s building blocks.
But we’re all friends. We’re all working toward higher food quality, more grass-fed meat from healthy animals, better vegetables, and higher-performance humans. | {
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Apple Watch: 3 odd features you may have missed
The Apple Watch has arrived in a whirlwind of new products and information, and while the big features are splayed all over the place for all to enjoy, you might have missed some of the finer details between it all. Fret not — we’ve scrounged through everything Apple has revealed this afternoon and picked out three odd features for your edification.
The Button Beneath the Crown
The digital crown dial is getting all the attention, but the physical button located just beneath it is just as interesting. When you press this button, you get a list of contacts, and upon selecting a contact, you can communicate with them using tiny little drawings on the screen. If that isn’t quite interesting enough for you, you can also send that contact your heartbeat, which the person on the receiving end feels as a series of vibrations.
Walkie Talkie
Another interesting feature that’ll be arriving with the Apple Watch is a walkie talkie functionality, allowing the Apple wearable to be used as an old-school radio for purposes vast and no doubt wonderful. Unfortunately, Apple didn’t go into many details about this functionality, so we’ll have to wait to find out more.
Animated Emoji
Emoji are a universal language all of their own, transcending spoken word to convey thoughts and feelings using expressive cartoon faces and situation-representative drawings. The Apple Watch will facilitate communication in this “universal language” with the inclusion of animated emoji, which can be customized for even more fined-tuned communication. Users can make the emoji do different things, like play an animated wink or stick out its tongue.
For more news and product information, be sure to check out the SlashGear Apple Hub! | {
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*250,000 Californians from the north and the south are currently evacuated from their communities. At least 48 people are dead with more than 7,000 structures in ruins. It’s five weeks before Christmas and once again firestorms are raging across the Golden State.
Six years of unrelenting drought in tandem with elevated (ocean and air) temperatures are most certainly a deadly combination.
Since 2010, more than 130 million mature trees have perished across the state. Water-starved coniferous trees communicate their plight to bark beetles. The insects deliver the coup de grâce.
In fact, across western North America this is a pattern that’s all too familiar: 30 billion mature dead trees. Instead of removing CO2 and giving off oxygen, gigantic tree graveyards are decomposing and contributing to the overburdened and overheated atmosphere.
No trees. No life.
Those dead trees are also kindling for firestorms like the plume-driven Carr Fire in northern California earlier this summer. These are a new terrifying breed of climate-driven firestorms. 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit with 165 mile per hour winds spawning firenados and plumes evident 7.5 miles into the troposphere.
Also this past summer, the Mendocino Complex Fire (459,123 acres) eclipsed the 2017 Thomas Fire (281,893 acres) as the largest fire in Californian history.
It’s axiomatic: the warmer it becomes the larger and more intense the California (and elsewhere) firestorms. Both wind and plume-driven conflagrations are increasing.
The irrefutable driving force is fossil fuel heat. Recently, my Princeton University colleagues and others revealed that since 1991 an additional 325 zettajoules have been added to the oceans. Since the Industrial Revolution, Man has infused 397 zettajoules of fossil fuel heat into the oceans. That’s the equivalent of detonating five Hiroshima-style bombs a minute for 75 consecutive years.
Since the oceans drive the climate, Earth has entered into climate instability. That is, higher highs and lower lows with much extreme weather piling up in between. In September, for example, Hurricane Walaka submerged Hawaii’s East Island, wiping out vital habitat for the endangered green turtles and critically endangered monk seals. The Antarctic glaciers are even groaning as they, too, rapidly disappear.
The Antarctic glaciers are even groaning as they, too, rapidly disappear.”
Presently, America is amidst the largest fracking (water poisoning) frenzy in history. Far from being alone, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Nigeria, Russia, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere are also furiously extracting and burning more climate destroying fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, vast areas under the sea (corals and kelp forests) and on land (ancient forests) are dead. Cooked to death.
Ladies and gentlemen, we only have one home where we all must breathe air, drink water and eat food. How much more death and destruction must we endure before the world leaders enact a zero-combustion global economy?
It’s a no-brainer to tackle this planetary catastrophe head-on:
End the annual $5.3 trillion fossil fuel subsidies.
Reduce fossil fuel emissions now.
End all seismic surveying in the oceans for fossil fuels.
Protect all the remaining ancient forests and wetlands because they are the most perfect CO2 warehouses to have ever evolved on Earth.
Roll out solar concentrated plants with supercritical steam and lithium ion battery storage facilities on all continents, which will easily power all towns and cities.
It’s time to globally mobilize and address this Man-made climate crisis with innovative technology that already exists.
Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Unacceptable! | {
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The third edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is to be released online and not as a book, under an arrangement with Orion imprint Victor Gollancz and ESF Ltd, a new company set up by the contributors to the first two editions of the book. The content will be available on www.sf-encyclopedia.com and be free to all users, with Gollancz acquiring electronic rights to the book through United Agents' Robert Kirby.
An initial "beta" version of the site will go live in conjunction with Gollancz' celebrations of its 50th anniversary as a science fiction publisher. The initial version of the third edition will contain around 3 million words, up from the second edition in 1993, which contained 1.3 million, and will feature about 12,000 entries and more than 100,000 internal links. The entries cover all areas of science fiction, including authors, illustrators, movies, music, games and fanzines. The text will be completed, through monthly updates, by the end of 2012.
The directors of new company ESF are John Clute and David Langford, leading editors of the edition, as well as Peter Nicholls who edited the first edition and is editor emeritus of the third edition. Graham Sleight is managing editor of the edition, and also a director of the company. Sleight said the company had been set up with the "financial backing of friends of the project and of science-fiction".
Orion deputy c.e.o. and group publisher Malcolm Edwards said: "We're delighted to have been able to facilitate the online publication of this monumental and definitive work--more than ever the single, reliable reference source which anyone interested in SF needs. As a contributing editor to that long-ago first edition, it's a particular pleasure to me to have been able to play a part in making this happen."
This is the first time Gollancz has been involved with the ESF. In terms of the electronic rights deal, Edwards said: "It is a slightly fine distinction, we have licensed it and underwritten the web development." On why Gollancz had decided to enter into the project, and to make the content available for free and only online, Edwards added: "There are other announcements we are planning to make that clearer next week. It's not entirely altruistic." He added: "We explored various paywall options and we realised none of them were really practical with the way that the web is moving . . . The ESF is very much not a wiki model, the content is controlled by the editors." He said that the sheer volume of content made the prospect of a print edition challenging, but said: "if there proves to be the demand then we will look at it."
Sleight said "never say never" when asked if the title would ever be available as a physical edition or e-book, but said: "We are hoping to be more directly in touch with the whole communtity [through the content being available online]."
When asked if ESF could take on other similar projects, he didn't rule out the possibility, and mentioned Clute had co-edited an encyclopedia of fantasy, but said: "At the moment, with 3 million words, we've all got enough on our plates." | {
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All the news for this weekend’s FA Cup third-round matches as Premier League and Championship sides join the party
This article is more than 2 years old
This article is more than 2 years old
Aston Villa v Peterborough Utd
Venue Villa Park, Saturday 3pm
Ref Robert Jones
Odds Aston Villa 4-6 Peterborough Utd 9-2 Draw 3-1
If Steve Bruce’s League Cup selections are anything to go by we can expect a weakened Aston Villa team to line up against Peterborough, with promotion being the main focus this season. Scott Hogan will hope to retain his place; the £12m striker scored only his second league goal for the club last time out but has good cup form with three goals in the Carabao Cup this term.
Match pointer Aston Villa have progressed in 13 of their previous 15 FA Cup ties against lower league opposition
Birmingham City v Burton Albion
Venue St Andrew’s, Saturday 3pm
Ref Jeremy Simpson
Odds Birmingham City 6-5 Burton Albion 3-1 Draw 5-2
Burton and Birmingham, who occupy the Championship relegation zone in 22nd and 23rd place respectively, have respite from the fight for survival. Striker Che Adams will not start for Birmingham as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury while Liam Boyce returns for Burton.
Match pointer Never met in the FA Cup before but Burton have won all of their league encounters
Blackburn Rovers v Hull City
Venue Ewood Park Saturday 3pm
Ref Oliver Langford
Odds Blackburn Rovers 5-4 Hull City 12-5 Draw 9-4
Tony Mowbray will pick a Blackburn side capable of upsetting Hull, despite fellow League One promotion contenders Shrewsbury visiting Ewood Park next Saturday. David Marshall will make his first start in the visitors’ goal since being beaten seven times by Tottenham as Hull were relegated from the Premier League.
Match pointer Tony Mowbray, has been eliminated only once in six previous FA Cup third-round ties
Bolton Wanderers v Hudderfield Town
Venue Macron Stadium, Saturday 3pm
Ref Roger East
Odds Bolton Wanderers 13-5 Huddersfield Town 16-13 Draw 12-5
Bolton, who last lifted the FA Cup 60 years ago, will be hoping to make smooth progress against a Huddersfield side likely to make wholesale changes as David Wagner focuses on the Premier League. Monaco loanee Terence Kongolo, who is likely to make his first start in defence, has three Holland caps.
Match pointer Bolton have beaten Huddersfield in each of their five FA Cup ties, most recently in January 1976
Bournemouth v Wigan Athletic
Venue Vitality Stadium, Saturday 3pm
Ref Andrew Madley
Odds Bournemouth 11-13 Wigan Athletic 18-5 Draw 3-1
Eddie Howe will not want to relive last season’s third-round upset at the hands of Millwall but could be on course for something even worse. Wigan lead League One, have scored 50 league goals (more than double the hosts’ tally) and are unbeaten in 10 in all competitions while Bournemouth flirt with relegation.
Match pointer Bournemouth have lost three of their last four home ties in the FA Cup, failing to score in each defeat
Brentford v Notts County
Venue Griffin Park, Saturday 3pm
Ref Tim Robinson
Odds Brentford 1-2 Notts County 13-2 Draw 18-5
Brentford’s Dean Smith and County’s Kevin Nolan are young English managers who are earning plenty of praise in their respective divisions, and while the Championship side are favourites County, led by the veteran striker Jon Stead, are riding high in League Two and may scent an upset.
Match pointer Notts County are in the third round for the first time since 2012 but progressed to the fourth on the last three occasions
Brighton & Hove Albion v Crystal Palace
Venue Amex Stadium, Monday 7.45pm
TV BT Sport 2
Ref Andre Marriner
Odds Brighton 17-10 Crystal Palace 17-9 Draw 2-1
Plenty of subplots here, including Neil Swarbrick becoming England’s first video assistant referee, and a big, awkward security operation following November’s disorder and false police claims about fans carrying knuckledusters. Both managers have to balance expectations for a proper M23 derby with the desire to rest senior players but Roy Hodgson’s injury list is likely to force his hand.
Match pointer Brighton have failed to score against Crystal Palace in four of their past five meetings in all competitions
Cardiff City v Mansfield Town
Venue Cardiff City Stadium, Saturday 3pm
Ref Lee Probert
Odds Cardiff City 3-5 Mansfield Town 5-1 Draw 3-1
Cardiff are on the slide in the Championship after losing four on the bounce. Neil Warnock will ring the changes, because of injuries and a bug going around the Bluebirds, for Mansfield’s visit. Wales international Jazz Richards is set to make his first appearance in three months.
Match pointer First meeting in the FA Cup – the last league match Cardiff won 1-0 through Robert Earnshaw in 2003
Carlisle Utd v Sheffield Wednesday
Venue Brunton Park, Saturday 3pm
Ref David Webb
Odds Carlisle Utd 3-1 Sheffield Wednesday Evens Draw 5-2
Sheffield Wednesday, still under caretaker Lee Bullen’s control, are on a run of one win in their past 10 league matches. Bullen has said the side are “playing for their futures” and Carlisle could give them a chance to impress. Wednesday’s last visit to Brunton Park ended in a 3-2 defeat though.
Match pointer Carlisle have reached the fourth round only once since the Millennium, in 2015/16
Coventry City v Stoke City
Venue Ricoh Arena, Saturday 3pm
Ref Martin Atkinson
Odds Coventry City 4-1 Stoke City 3-4 Draw 3-1
Mark Hughes has promised to field a strong side but the Stoke manager still has big problems in defence with Ryan Shawcross, Bruno Martins Indi and Erik Pieters out injured. Coventry’s Mark Robins, a former team-mate of Hughes, has also stated his desire to progress and may get his wish if Stoke bring their dismal league form to the party.
Match pointer Coventry have been eliminated in each of their past five FA Cup ties against Premier League opposition
Doncaster Rovers v Rochdale
Venue Keepmoat Stadium, Saturday 3pm
Ref Andy Woolmer
Odds Doncaster Rovers 8-7 Rochdale 5-2 Draw 5-2
Doncaster and Rochdale meet for the second time at the Keepmoat in eight days with Rovers coming out on top 2-0 in League One. The home side are without Ben Whiteman, who has been recalled by Sheffield United, and that could prove crucial as Whiteman opened the scoring last time with a peach.
Match pointer Doncaster have won their two FA Cup ties against Rochdale, winning 2-1 on both occasions
Exeter City v West Bromwich Albion
Venue St James Park, Saturday 3pm
Ref Lee Mason
Odds Exeter City 4-1 West Bromwich Albion 4-5 Draw 5-2
Alan Pardew has a golden opportunity to win his first match as West Bromwich Albion manager, at the ninth time of asking, against League Two’s Exeter. But Paul Tisdale’s side have nothing to lose and would surely relish dishing out some pain on the big boys. If Exeter do fail they still could have the consolation treat of Pardew’s latest touchline tango.
Match pointer It’s Pardew’s first FA Cup tie since the 2016 final between Crystal Palace and Manchester United
Fleetwood Town v Leicester City
Venue Highbury Stadium, Saturday 12.45pm
TV BBC One
Ref Simon Hooper
Odds Fleetwood Town 11-2 Leicester City 8-13 Draw 17-5
The Jamie Vardy derby. Fleetwood are likely to be partying regardless of the result as they welcome home the player who fired them into the Football League in 2011 with 34 goals in 42 games. Unfortunately Vardy may have to watch from the stands nursing the groin injury that made him miss Leicester’s win over Huddersfield.
Match pointer Fleetwood have never gone beyond the third round and never played top-flight opposition before
Fulham v Southampton
Venue Craven Cottage, Saturday 3pm
Ref Michael Oliver
Odds Fulham 2-1 Southampton 6-4 Draw 13-5
Mauricio Pellegrino embarks on his first FA Cup campaign and fans will be eager for him to replicate his impressive run to the Copa del Rey final with Alavés last season. They may have a relatively easy first step against Fulham, whose manager, Slavisa Jokanovic, continues to rail against the club’s inactivity in the transfer market.
Match pointer Southampton have progressed past lower league opponents in 17 of their past 18 FA Cup ties
Ipswich Town v Sheffield Utd
Venue Portman Road, Saturday 3pm
Ref Michael Jones
Odds Ipswich Town 2-1 Sheffield Utd 6-4 Draw 12-5
Ipswich’s league form has nosedived and a mid-table finish beckons; they are racked with injuries and there are doubts over the futures of star players Bartosz Bialkowski and David McGoldrick, not to mention the manager Mick McCarthy. They might get a helping hand from his counterpart Chris Wilder, though; Sheffield United’s designs on promotion are more realistic and several key players may be rested at Portman Road.
Match pointer Ipswich have not won an FA Cup match since January 2010, drawing four and losing eight since
Manchester City v Burnley
Venue Etihad Stadium, Saturday 3pm
Ref Graham Scott
Odds Manchester City 1-5 Burnley 19-1 Draw 8-1
Pep Guardiola has said he will field a strong City side though he will be without Gabriel Jesus, Benjamin Mendy, Phil Foden and Vincent Kompany owing to injury. Kyle Walker also faces a late fitness test. Sean Dyche’s injury list is lengthy, too. Tom Heaton, Chris Wood, Stephen Ward, Robbie Brady, and Scott Arfield are out as Burnley’s manager aims to reverse the outcome of October’s league meeting, a 3-0 defeat at the same venue.
Match pointer City have progressed to the fourth round in each of the last five seasons, beating West Ham 5-0 last year
Middlesbrough v Sunderland
Venue Riverside Stadium, Saturday 1pm
Ref Chris Kavanagh
Odds Middlesbrough 4-5 Sunderland 4-1 Draw 5-2
Chris Coleman says Sunderland “are a club in need of cleansing”. It seems plenty of elbow grease will be required in the coming months but it would be no surprise if energies were conserved for relegation battles to come rather than the FA Cup. Promotion is Tony Pulis is expected to field a strong Middlesbrough side as he implements a new, much more direct, system of play.
Match pointer Sunderland are looking to win their first FA Cup game since February 2015, losing three of the last four
Millwall v Barnsley
Venue The Den, Saturday 3pm
Ref Darren Bond
Odds Millwall 21-20 Barnsley 3-1 Draw 13-5
Barnsley emerged 3-1 victors at the Den in September’s Championship fixture and Paul Heckinbottom’s side will be feeling better about the prospect of returning after ending a run of 10 games without a win on New Year’s Day. Striker Tom Elliott is a doubt for Millwall while defender Byron Webster and midfielder Shane Ferguson miss out.
Match pointer Millwall have not conceded a goal in their past four FA Cup home games against league sides
Newcastle Utd v Luton Town
Venue St James’ Park, Saturday 3pm
Ref Neil Swarbrick
Odds Newcastle Utd 1-2 Luton Town 13-2 Draw 4-1
A big day for the Lee family sees Rob Lee – one of the finest midfielders to have graced St James’ Park – cheering on his sons, Olly and Elliot, who play for Luton. “It’s a dream come true,” says Lee senior. It could also be an important afternoon for Freddie Woodman, the highly rated hero of England Under-20s World Cup triumph last summer, who is expected to make his Newcastle debut.
Match pointer Newcastle have been eliminated by lower league opposition in five of their past six FA Cup ties
Newport County v Leeds Utd
Venue Rodney Parade, Sunday noon
TV BBC One Wales
Ref Mike Dean
Odds Newport County 3-1 Leeds Utd 4-5 Draw 5-2
Paul Hayes could make a belated debut for the home side – the striker signed for Newport in October but registration issues have left Mike Flynn frustrated in his efforts to field the 34-year-old. Leeds will look to Kemar Roofe, scorer of a hat-trick when these sides met in August, to fire them into the fourth round.
Match pointer Leeds beat Newport 5-1 in the League Cup – their first meeting in 69 years – earlier this season
Norwich City v Chelsea
Venue Carrow Road, Saturday 5.30pm
TV BT Sport 2
Ref Stuart Atwell
Odds Norwich City 6-1 Chelsea 1-2 Draw 4-1
The 2017 runners-up Chelsea could give David Luiz a first start since November while Eden Hazard is likely to miss out with a knock picked up against Arsenal. Daniel Farke is unfazed by the Premier League champions, saying his side are looking forward to creating something special at Carrow Road.
Match pointer Norwich have been eliminated in all four previous ties against Chelsea, most recently in 2006-07
Nottingham Forest v Arsenal
Venue City Ground, Sunday 4pm
TV BT Sport 2
Ref Jonathan Moss
Odds Nottingham Forest 11-2 Arsenal 3-5 Draw 4-1
The defending Cup winners should travel to Nottingham confident they have the quality to progress despite Arsène Wenger beginning a three-match touchline ban. Forest’s experienced striker Daryl Murphy is a doubt but Ben Brereton or Tyler Walker can deputise and test rusty Cup goalkeeper David Ospina.
Match pointer Arsène Wenger has never exited in the third round of the FA Cup; the club’s last failure was 95-96
Queens Park Rangers v MK Dons
Venue Loftus Road, Saturday 3pm
Ref James Linington
Odds Queens Park Rangers 10-13 MK Dons 4-1 Draw 5-2
Ian Holloway will have to overcome his terrible FA Cup record to beat MK Dons. QPR can take some hope in the away side’s dismal run of two wins in their past 15 league matches. Robbie Neilson intends on fielding a strong side and has new Chelsea loanee Ike Ugbo available for selection.
Match pointer Ian Holloway has lost six of his last seven third-round ties, the only win against a non-league side
Shrewsbury Town v West Ham Utd
Venue New Meadow, Sunday 2pm
TV BBC One
Ref Paul Tierney
Odds Shrewsbury Town 3-1 West Ham Utd Evens Draw 5-2
David Moyes has mixed memories of Shrewsbury Town. While he enjoyed his three years there as a player, he prefers not to think about them knocking Everton out of the FA Cup in 2003. West Ham’s manager will be desperate to avoid another upset. Shrewsbury, who are second in League One, will be confident. Joe Hart also returns to his hometown to face the club where his career began.
Match pointer West Ham’s last defeat to Shrewsbury was in April 1980, 14 days before they won the 1980 FA Cup final
Stevenage v Reading
Venue Lamex Stadium, Saturday 3pm
Ref Ben Toner
Odds Stevenage 10-3 Reading Evens Draw 11-4
It was 20 years ago that Stevenage, then a non-league club, battled their way through to round four and took Newcastle to a replay after forcing a draw in Hertfordshire. They have never been beyond the fourth round but may fancy their chances of getting there again against Jaap Stam’s inconsistent Reading.
Match pointer Reading have not lost to a fourth-tier side in the Cup since December 2001, a 2-0 defeat at York City
Tottenham Hotspur v AFC Wimbledon
Venue Wembley Stadium, Sunday 3pm
Ref David Coote
Odds Tottenham Hotspur 1-7 AFC Wimbledon 33-1 Draw 10-1
AFC Wimbledon head to Wembley for the second time in their history hoping for a repeat of the celebrations that followed their League Two play-off success in 2016. Tottenham are likely to rest many players to preserve their strength for the Champions League but should still have too much quality for the visitors.
Match pointer Spurs have failed to progress only once in the last 11 seasons, against Arsenal in 2014
Watford v Bristol City
Venue Vicarage Road, Saturday 3pm
Ref Craig Pawson
Odds Watford 1-2 Bristol City 7-1 Draw 15-4
Troy Deeney could return for Watford after serving a four-game suspension but Marco Silva’s injury migraine remains as (deep breath) Kiko Femenía, Will Hughes, Younès Kaboul, Miguel Britos, Craig Cathcart, Nathaniel Chalobah and Isaac Success remain out. Bristol City have no such problem and will rotate.
Match pointer Watford were beaten 3-2 by Bristol City in the first round of the League Cup earlier this season
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Swansea City
Venue Molineux, Saturday 3pm
Ref Anthony Taylor
Odds Wolves 11-13 Swansea City 4-1 Draw 11-4
New signing Rafa Mir may make his Wolves debut after joining from Valencia. The 20-year-old, who scored 25 goals in 60 games for Valencia B, could make an instant impact too because Swansea are set to rest Lukasz Fabianski. Kyle Naughton and Tammy Abraham also miss out while Wilfried Bony returns.
Match pointer Swansea have lost against Wolves in both previous FA Cup ties, each in the third round
Wycombe Wanderers v Preston
Venue Adams Park, Saturday 3pm
Ref Peter Banks
Odds Wycombe Wanderers 3-1 Preston 17-16 Draw 27-10
Wycombe’s Gareth Ainsworth, a former fans’ favourite at Preston, is relishing this tie. His promotion-hunting League Two side with the cult-figure striker Adebayo Akinfenwa will face a Championship team freshened up after the Christmas programme and featuring new signing Billy Bodin up front.
Match pointer Wycombe, who beat Stourbridge last year, have never made the fourth round in consecutive seasons
Yeovil Town v Bradford City
Venue Huish Park, Saturday 3pm
Ref John Brooks
Odds Yeovil Town 4-1 Bradford City 4-5 Draw 3-1
League Two Yeovil are the lowest ranked side and have had their chances of remaining so boosted by the signing of four players on loan. Stuart McCall takes charge of his first third-round tie as the Bradford manager – he has managed eight FA Cup matches but never beyond the second round.
Match pointer Yeovil have won their past three matches against Bradford, all in League One between 2007 and 2015 | {
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Man crushed to death by falling boat in Weymouth Published duration 17 April 2018
image caption Emergency services were called to Weymouth Sailing Club on Monday afternoon
A man has been crushed to death after a boat fell on him at a boatyard.
Emergency services were called to Weymouth Sailing Club off Barrack Road on Monday at about 12:45 BST.
The man, thought to be in his 50s, and from the town was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed.
Dorset Police said an investigation was under way and The Health and Safety Executive had been informed.
The sailing club's commodore, Euan McNair, said: "Everybody is very shocked, it's an extremely sad occasion for us and our thoughts go out to his relatives."
He added: "My understanding is that nothing was being moved - the yard is effectively shut down and the boats are ashore for storage."
image caption Police remain at the sailing club off Barrack Road | {
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What even is a flying car? Designs have run the gamut from the AVE Mizar (basically a Ford Pinto with wings, to VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) designs like the Piasecki VZ-8 Airgeep. Even today, you've got roadable aircraft like the Terrafugia Transition, though these are quickly being pushed into the periphery in favor of VTOLs like the Bell Nexus being developed for Uber Elevate. That is, modern designs generally focus on serving as personal aircraft, rather than automobiles that can also fly.
Sathish Muthukrishnan, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Honeywell Aerospace, points to advancements in computing as having enabled the recent bevy of development. "The ability to collect, store, process and compute data has improved over the last two decades," he told Engadget. "Everything is now connected so when you have the ability to collect data in a real-time basis, is almost pathbreaking to have these flying cars, because you're you have to be able to respond in real-time."
More than 70 companies are currently developing their own personal flying vehicles, with varying degrees of progress. The EHang 184 quadcopter, which made its debut at CES 2016, has already completed a number of test flights but has yet to receive FAA approval to operate in the US while Volocopter's 18-fan aerial vehicle is set to begin trials in Singapore later this year. Lilium recently released a new video of its 5-passenger electric air taxi, though the vehicle won't be ready until 2025. NEC's flying taxi project is just getting off the ground and it won't enter production until 2026.
No firm is putting more resources into getting its service off the ground than Uber. The ride hailing company is adamant that it will have a fleet of air taxis in operation by 2023, dubbed UberAir. Uber has already teamed with a number of aerospace companies including Boeing, Bell, Karem Aircraft, and Jaunt Air Mobility.
"I think we can't underplay how much of an impact Uber has had actually creating a platform and pushing it," Mike Stewart, Honeywell Aerospace VP of Engineering, told Engadget. "I think that's generated a lot of buzz."
The company debuted a prototype of its electric VTOL design from Bell at CES 2019 in January. These aircraft use four vertical fans for lift and a separate propeller for forward thrust. They'll be able to carry four passengers plus a pilot up to 60 miles on a single battery charge at speeds in excess of 150 MPH. These aircraft are likely to begin flight tests next year in the skies over Dallas, Los Angeles, and Melbourne.
Uber reps noted during the third Elevate Conference held in Tokyo last September that the vehicle's batteries will charge enough for short, in-city flights in just 8 minutes, enabling crews to top off the power in the time it takes for one group of passengers to disembark and another to load in at one of Uber's designated "Skyports," aka helipads. The company hopes to get that timing down to an even 5 minutes with future advances in battery chemistry. As for the price of a flight, Uber expects to charge around $6 per mile flown when the program first launches but hopes to get that figure down to around $2 a mile as the service scales.
But if the goal of establishing a viable commercial air taxi service in the next 4 years -- especially from a company that lost $5.24 billion just last quarter and whose ground-based autonomous navigation systems have already killed one person -- seems a bit ambitious, that's because you're correct. This industry is still in its infancy and faces a slew of technical, regulatory and infrastructure challenges.
Take automation for example. Conventional helicopters are relatively simple to control as the pilot has just two rotors to pay attention to. That difficulty multiplies once we start adding extra spinning bits. Quad-rotor designs like Bell's, much less the 18-rotor Volocoper, are simply too complex for one person to operate each fan individually and still be able to fly.
"A pilot can't be in control of 8 or 10 different rotors and expect to maintain any degree of situational awareness," Brian German, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told Wired 2018. "So when you push on the stick in this system, everything that happens to point the aircraft in the desired direction is automated."
AI still also lacks the common sense that passengers expect from pilots. "It's really hard for autonomous systems to understand different scenarios," German continued. "Maybe, for instance, you're flying an airplane and you see a forest fire out of the left window. A human pilot knows immediately that it's probably not a good idea to fly right over it. But how will an autonomous system know that?"
And that's just one pilot operating one aircraft. For fleets of these vehicles to operate safely over urban areas, significant changes to our existing air control system will be needed. Luckily, Uber is already working with NASA on just such a solution. "[AI are] going to be needed in the big history of this," Stewart argued. "Maybe not in the short term, but definitely in the long term, they will come into play."
Uber and its allies are also betting big on electric propulsion. "The current vision for these adopters is almost predominantly electrified, Stewart noted. "Very few of us are seeing hybrid electric now, dependent on the mission they have and the availability of infrastructure to get the electric charge necessary." However, we're still likely decades away from the necessary advancements in battery technology that will enable regional travel, much less transcontinental flights. "The range would have to get pretty big before these things become something that would affect an airline," Stewart said. "The airlines are moving masses of people a pretty big distance."
He does however believe that the sorts of VTOL aircraft that Uber has in mind could eventually prove a boon to smaller regional airports like those in Burbank, California or Deer Valley, Arizona. Stewart points out that for a time, turboprop passenger planes were seen as a viable regional flight option. But after 9/11, "it drifted away because the models for security and everything just didn't make sense," he said.
"I think as the vehicles and the battery technology and all that becomes better, we start to see that [business model] maybe come back," Stewart corollaried, "where you have a 20 passenger electric aircraft that only has to go 300 miles -- that starts to become a reality."
It'll be quite some time before we're hopping on VTOLs for our LA-Vegas jaunts. In the meantime, Muthukrishnan is confident that we'll find plenty of use for these aircraft in the congested hearts of urban centers. "Think about the number of people that go from downtown Manhattan to Midtown or Uptown," he said. "In the black cars, during peak hours, it takes anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes," at a cost of anywhere from $75 to $200. "If you had short vertical takeoff and landing, you could do that for $50 in less than 10 minutes."
Image: EVA HAMBACH/AFP/Getty Images (Jaunt Air) | {
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Marvel published Fatal Attractions in 1993, a six-chapter X-Men saga complete with wrap-around covers and holograms! Where are all the holograms now, I ask you? WHERE?!
But I digress. The mind-boggling complexity of this x-travaganza might put you off, if you are not into x-tensive sub-plots of 1993. So let’s skip all that and just rock the covers and holograms!
The big highlight of the story? Magneto gets fed up with our favorite mutant and rips all the adamantium out of Wolverine’s body! That’s gotta hurt! It was also the first time we discovered the claws were not implants but a part of Wolverine’s body – even without the adamantium.
If you like this Wolverine hologram below, you’ll love my scan of the hologram cover to Wolverine #100.
Collector’s Guide:
Just looking at them on the monitor not good enough for you? Do you need to have the real deal? Then here is your guide to collecting the whole series.
– From the Fatal Attractions series; Marvel, 1993.
Individual issues:
X-Factor #92
X-Force #25
Uncanny X-men #304
X-Men #25
Wolverine #75
Excalibur #71 | {
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Another violent incident at the Don Dale detention centre has sparked widespread criticism of the Northern Territory government for continuing to operate the maligned facility, a year after the royal commission called for its closure.
The NT government said on Wednesday it couldn’t guarantee there wouldn’t be a repeat of the previous night, after young detainees allegedly attacked a staff member, stole keys and burned down the facility’s school room.
It was the second time in three weeks that young detainees had stolen keys and caused damage, and was the latest in a long line of violence at the centre in recent years.
All 25 young people are now being held in the Darwin police watch house, and their lawyers are applying for immediate bail, saying it is an unsafe environment, the ABC reported.
Reports that the centre has been closed indefinitely were incorrect, Guardian Australia has confirmed, and it’s understood police are likely to return the unburned majority of the centre to the control of Territory Families once inspections are completed.
NT barrister, John Lawrence SC – a former crown prosecutor who also worked for Aboriginal legal services, and is a former director of the Law Council of Australia and the NT Bar association – represented one of the families involved in the royal commission.
Lawrence said he’s not surprised the children appeared to be trying to “burn Don Dale down”.
“I don’t think there is anything other than the bleeding obvious. It’s not a proper place for a human being to be.”
Don Dale is a retired adult prison, widely acknowledged to be unsuitable for children, and a chief recommendation of the royal commission into the protection and detention of children in the NT was to close it down as soon as possible.
However construction of its proposed $70m replacement is not scheduled to begin until the middle of next year.
“There shouldn’t be any children in an advanced country interned in a condemned derelict former adult male jail, and yet that’s what has been going on since 2014,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence said it was “obvious” the only reason it occurred in Australia was because the detainees were Aboriginal.
“Because there’s no way in the world white children would be kept in a condemned former adult jail. That’s reality.”
The Human Rights Law Centre said the NT government had been “all words and little action” after agreeing to all 226 royal commission recommendations.
“We keep getting told that things are improving at Don Dale – we are either being lied to, or authorities don’t actually understand what is going on there,” said Amnesty International Australia’s Rodney Dillon.
The general manager of youth justice for the Territory Families department, Brent Warren, told media in Darwin on Wednesday there had been “significant focus on making the [Don Dale] facility as good as it can be”, increasing training and staff numbers, and making structural improvements to the centre.
“Territory Families has inherited a retired adult prison, which was retired a number of years ago, and we’re trying to make do with what we’ve got.”
He said there were fewer detainees than before, but the cohort is “complex”.
Colleen Gwynne, the NT Children’s Commissioner, told the Australian she had viewed CCTV footage and the initial assault was extremely violent and premeditated.
Around half the youths surrendered to police within two hours, but officers deployed tear gas to disperse others who allegedly gained access to building equipment and used an angle grinder in an attempt to cut through an outer perimeter fence.
The royal commission recommended tear gas be banned inside juvenile facilities.
Warren said Territory Families had ended its use in day to day operations, and NT Police commander Matt Hollamby said it was used “from a distance” on Tuesday night.
“It was a very dynamic situation, the decision was made at the time to prevent the youth from escaping and in real terms to minimise the need to use force on escaping detainees.”
The Strong Grandmothers of the Central Desert, a group of senior Indigenous women campaigning against child removals and for greater Indigenous involvement in addressing social issues, laid blame with Territory Families and its minister, Dale Wakefield.
“There is a duty of care,” said the group.
“Those kids have been moved to the watch house which is not fit for children. We need to know if the kids are OK. Who’s looking after their safety and wellbeing in the cells now?”
“Kids don’t act up for nothing,” said former Don Dale detainee Dylan Voller. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP
Dylan Voller, a former longterm detainee at Don Dale who was awarded compensation from the NT government by the Supreme Court for his treatment, said the recent behaviour of those now inside was a “cry for help”.
“Kids don’t act up for nothing – they act up when they are scared and they can’t be heard,” he said.
Gerry Georgatos, suicide prevention researcher, said Don Dale housed some of Australia’s most vulnerable children, but didn’t adequately support them.
“They need validation and trauma recovery rather than being hit with compounding trauma where their distress or aberrant behaviour – cries for help – are responded to with abominable maltreatment and abuses such as being locked down, caged, for 15 hours a day, day after day.”
The NT police association accused Territory Families of putting its officers in danger, and the public service union criticised the decision to keep building equipment and angle grinders in a room accessible with keys.
Two independent MPs, both of whom were former Country Liberal party members, called for youth justice to be handed back to Corrections, for new facilities to be built away from residential areas, and for a “balanced tough love” approach.
The Territory Families department took control of youth justice from the Corrections department in 2016.
“Anything less than a tough response will be viewed with contempt by young tough offenders,” said Robyn Lambley and Terry Mills.
Lawrence rejected calls for more “tough on crime” action around youth justice and crime issues in the NT.
“These shallow interpretations are politically motivated, they don’t bear scrutiny and quite frankly they’re boring,” he said.
“It’s about time we moved on to something that is intelligent, effective and less costly.”
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The Algonquin once lived in harmony with the vast territory they occupied. This balance was upset when the Europeans arrived in the 16th century.
Gradually, their Aboriginal traditions were undermined and their natural resources plundered.
Today, barely 9,000 Algonquin are left. They live in about 10 communities, often enduring abject poverty and human rights abuses. These Aboriginal people are suffering the threat to their very existence in silence.
Richard Desjardins and Robert Monderie have decided to sound the alarm before it's too late. They challenge perceptions by spotlighting the sad reality of the Algonquin of Quebec and bringing the history of this people to the screen for the first time. | {
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The statistics are grim. There is a roughly 60% chance that today there will be at least one mass shooting in the US. And there is a 17% probability that there will be exactly two shootings.
This weekend, at least 29 people were killed in two mass shootings within 24 hours in the US. The back-to-back events, in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, prompted widespread shock, but according to data collected by the Gun Violence Archive, the phenomenon isn’t new.
Since 2014, there have been 334 mass shootings per year, on average, in the US. (The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting event as one in which at least four people were killed or injured.) With so many mass shootings every year, the probability is high that on any given day there is more than one incident.
Since 2014, there have been 484 individual days with two or more mass shootings—on 407 of those days, at least one person was killed. And that doesn’t include events like this past weekend, when shootings happen within 24 hours but on consecutive days.
The deadliest mass shooting in American history—the 2017 Las Vegas massacre that killed 59 people—wasn’t the only incident that day. Three people were killed and two injured in a shooting in Lawrence, Kansas on the same day.
Mass shootings have become so commonplace in the US that even the hourly probabilities are shocking. All else being equal, during the typical eight-hour work day, there is a one-in-four chance that at least one mass shooting incident will occur, and a 3% probability that there will be two. | {
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With a 7-1 record at the midpoint of the season, the New Orleans Saints are off to their best start since their 2009 championship season. Great team efforts and tactful coaching make it difficult to pick any team against them despite a difficult remaining schedule. However, some position groups need to perform better if the Saints are to finish strong and clinch a high playoff seed.
Here’s an attempt to rank the Saints’ position groups against each other after eight games.
Ranking the New Orleans Saints Position Groups at Midseason
1 – Quarterback
Typically this group consists of one sole contributor in Drew Brees. His play alone this season is still probably enough to top the list, but third-string quarterback and jack of all trades Taysom Hill solidifies this ranking.
By some measures, Brees is having the best season of his prolific career. He currently boasts a 76.3 completion percentage, which would top his own single-season NFL record by 4.3 percent. Brees has thrown just one interception through eight games. Even if he throws an interception in every remaining game, it would be his second lowest total in a full season. So far Brees is averaging 8.4 yards per pass attempt, just behind his career high of 8.5 yards per attempt in 2009. His current 120.6 passer rating is exactly 10 points ahead of his career high in 2011.
While Hill’s greatest value may be the distracting effect he has on opposing defenses, he’s made valuable contributions on offense and special teams. Hill has gained 135 rushing yards and a touchdown at a 5.8 rushing average. He’s made valuable plays on fourth down throughout the season, including a pass completion and a successful run on fake punt plays as well as his nine-yard fourth down scramble last week. In the kicking game, Hill averages 24.5 yards per return and has three tackles as a gunner in kick coverage.
2 – Offensive Line
The success of the Saints offensive line is a big reason why the offense has excelled despite limited options in the passing game. They also helped New Orleans average 418.2 yards per game in the first four weeks despite running back Mark Ingram‘s suspension during that time.
The line has allowed a league-low nine sacks, or just over one per game. For context, the Cleveland Browns, who rank last in this category have given up 35 sacks. The Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams star-studded pass rushes both failed to sack Brees. The Baltimore Ravens got him just once after recording 11 sacks the week before. The offensive line also helped the Saints running game top 100 yards against these three teams, which all have top-13 run defenses.
If Brees weren’t having an MVP-type season, this group would be at the top of the list.
3 – Running Back
After gaining just 105 combined rushing yards in the first two games, New Orleans has averaged 132 rushing yards per game since then. Ingram’s return helped generate this figure, but most of the production is still coming from Alvin Kamara.
The 2017 Offensive Rookie of the Year currently ranks third among skill players with 12 offensive touchdowns. Kamara averages 114.6 yards from scrimmage per game at 5.7 yards per touch, and he’s the Saints second leading receiver with 51 receptions for 427 yards. He hasn’t fumbled once despite 162 touches already in 2018.
Ingram has averaged just 45.3 rushing yards and 15.5 receiving yards per game, but he looks better each game and those averages will likely rise in the coming weeks.
4 – Defensive Line
None of the Saints defensive linemen have posted Pro Bowl numbers, but this has been their strongest defensive unit this season. New Orleans has allowed the fewest rushing yards per game (76.4) and the lowest rushing average (3.4). While the credit belongs to the entire Saints defense, this achievement wouldn’t be possible without the line’s dominant play in the trenches.
Left defensive end Cameron Jordan has been the star of the group once again with 5.0 sacks and eight tackles for losses, but New Orleans has built incredible depth here. Alex Okafor, Marcus Davenport, and Trey Hendrickson have all had good moments while sharing the right defensive end spot. Sheldon Rankins is having his best season at defensive tackle but David Onyemata has stolen many of Rankins’ snaps with his solid play. At nose tackle, starter Tyeler Davison and backup Taylor Stallworth are consistently plugging holes in the run game.
Consistent quarterback pressure is the only thing this group is lacking. The Saints’ 17 sacks on the season rank 28th in the NFL. With Jordan consistently getting double teamed, someone on the Saints’ young defensive line has to step up and give opponents another pass rush threat to worry about.
5 – Linebacker
I had high hopes for this group before the season, and so far they have taken a big step forward after an inconsistent 2017 showing.
The signing of Demario Davis looks like the Saints’ best off-season move so far. He’s shown great range and diagnosis ability while stopping runs all over the field. Pro Football Focus currently has Davis graded as their 16th best linebacker and he leads the Saints with 62 tackles, including six for losses, and two sacks.
A.J. Klein was heavily criticized for his play last season, but he’s playing much better this year in a reduced role. Alex Anzalone is coming along nicely after playing just four games in his rookie season. Veteran Manti Te’o is still a positive force against the run, but he’s seen his role greatly reduced because of Davis.
While these linebackers have played brilliantly against the run, there’s room for improvement in the passing game. They’re giving up too many short and intermediate catches in the middle and need to play more disciplined in zone coverage. However, Anzalone made a great interception last week by reading Jared Goff‘s eyes and getting in front of a dig route. Making more plays like this will take pressure off the secondary.
6 – Wide Receiver
This was the most difficult position to rank because of the disparity between Michael Thomas and the rest of the group in terms of production.
Thomas leads all wide receivers with an 88.6% catch rate. His 70 catches and 110.0 receiving yards per game both rank second. He’s on pace to shatter the Saints single-season catch and receiving yardage records by 36 catches and 361 yards. Fortunately, opposing defenses are still hesitant to double Thomas, which is likely because Brees will throw to any open target.
Meanwhile, the other four Saints wide receivers have accumulated 529 yards and six touchdowns on 38 receptions. This group is banged up too. Cameron Meredith joined Ted Ginn and Tommylee Lewis on injured reserve earlier this week, a move that coincided with New Orleans signing Dez Bryant. Bryant quickly caught the injury bug as well with a potentially season-ending Achilles injury on his second day of practice.
For now, the Saints passing game depends largely on the excellence of Brees and the valuable skillsets of Thomas and Kamara, which has actually worked quite well so far.
7 – Specialists
This ranking is more so a result of the lack of time specialists have spent on the field than their overall play, which has been excellent.
New Orleans has punted the least of any team this season, but Thomas Morstead is hitting his usual standard of excellence. Just half of his 19 punts have been returned for a total of 43 yards and seven of punts have fallen inside the 20-yard line. Morstead’s 42.6 net punting average ranks fourth in the NFL.
Kicker Wil Lutz has been even better. He’s 16 of 17 kicking field goals on the season, including 9-10 on field goals from 40 yards away or longer. His only blemishes are a missed 44 yard field goal and a missed extra point. Lutz was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Month in September.
The Saints could use more production from their return game, but only a handful of teams are getting a significant impact from their returners right now.
8 – Tight End
Ben Watson‘s return to New Orleans has brought some production back to the tight end position. He’s recorded a healthy 292 yards and two touchdowns on 26 catches at an 81.3% catch rate. Longtime backup Josh Hill has been more slightly productive than usual with 10 catches for 134 yards and a touchdown.
However, Jimmy Graham set a high standard for tight end production earlier in the decade and these numbers pale in comparison. There was hope that converted wide receiver Dan Arnold would evolve into a playmaker, but so far he has just two catches for 35 yards.
This group is performing better on the blocking front, where they’ve been a big part of the Saints’ run success again this season.
9 – Defensive Back
The defensive backfield is the Saints’ only real liability after becoming the most improved position group last season. This has been apparent without even looking at the stats, which are grim to say the least. Opposing quarterbacks are averaging a 70.1 completion percentage, 311.4 passing yards per game, 8.8 yards per attempt and a 112.1 passer rating. All of these figures rank in the bottom five among NFL defenses.
On the bright side, there’s undoubtedly a lot of talent in the secondary, led by 2017 Defensive Rookie of the Year Marshon Lattimore. This group consists primarily of second and third year players who appear to be having growing pains. The Saints trade for Eli Apple three weeks ago hasn’t led to an immediate transformation, but he’s giving up fewer big plays than previous starter Ken Crawley.
Strong safety Vonn Bell is quietly having a great season. His 76.3 Pro Football Focus grade ranks 26th at the position. Free safety Marcus Williams isn’t playing as well as he did last year, but he’s not making as many of the metal errors that crippled New Orleans early in the season.
If the Saints’ secondary can improve to even just an average unit, it would be hard to find a more complete NFL team. | {
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North Texas SC’s first ever USL League One match was a huge success. NTSC garnered lots of national attention in the soccer community for its first match because of a hat-trick from a certain 16-year-old named Ricardo Pepi.
Lineup
NTSC: Maurer, Bonilla (Almaguer 57’), Evans, Montgomery, Reynolds, Jatta, Servania, Arturo Rodriguez (Bicou 68’), Sealy (Damus 81’), Pepi, Romero
NTSC lined up in a 4-3-3. In the middle of the field, Jatta and Servania seemed to interchange and share duties staying back and pushing up the field. NTSC was shorthanded and had only five substitutes available.
The Match
NTSC found a breakthrough in just the 13th minute. Oscar Romero played a ball over the top that looked a little too far ahead of Ricardo Pepi, but there was a miscommunication between the defender and goalkeeper that allowed Pepi to tap the ball first time between the legs of the Chattanooga keeper, Alex Mangels.
NTSC had another great chance right after the goal. Dante Sealy found space in the middle of the field and charged forward. After dribbling around one defender, Sealy played the ball on the ground to Pepi, who touched it out wide to Bryan Reynolds in space. Reynolds had some nice interplay with Oscar Romero, who crossed the ball in to Pepi. Pepi launched a strike right at Mangels, who parried the ball to Reynolds, who kicked the ball over the open goal.
In the 25th minute, NTSC executed a trick corner kick play. Romero tapped the ball and acted like the ball was not in play. He went into the box while Dante Sealy jogged over to the corner flag, acting like he was going to take the corner kick. The ball was already in play, however, and Sealy dribbled the ball from the corner, taking it around a defender and into the box, and taking a good shot that forced a save from the keeper.
Sealy had another good opportunity in the 38th minute. He received the ball from a bad pass by Chattanooga. He was challenged from behind and fell in the box. The referee said play on, but it looked like it should have been a penalty.
Pepi nearly scored a minute later. Alfusainey Jatta slipped a great pass to Pepi, who was in on goal, but his shot from a difficult angle was deflected out of play by Mangles for an NTSC corner kick.
Early in the second half, Kevin Bonilla suffered an injury and subbed out for Imanol Almaguer. Almaguer was extremely active once he came on. Just a few minutes later, in the 61st minute, Almaguer sped up the field and unleashed a powerful shot. The shot was saved, but the rebound fell to the feet of the wide open Reynolds, who missed his second good opportunity.
In the 62nd minute, NTSC broke through for a second time. Jatta played the ball to Romero, who was in tons of space on the right side of the box. Romero played a cross to Pepi, who tapped home an easy second goal.
Chattanooga had a good chance to cut NTSC’s lead in the 70th minute. Eamon Zayed had an open header directly in front of goal that he redirected wide.
Pepi completed his hat trick in the 78th minute by scoring what would surprisingly turn out to be the game-winning goal. Center back Brecc Evans launched a long ball up the field, which again, like the first goal, looked too far for Pepi. Also like the first goal, there was a miscommunication between the defender and goalkeeper. A misplayed header back to the keeper fell right to Pepi, who chipped the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper and scored into the empty net.
In the 85th minute, Chattanooga broke NTSC’s shutout. Goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer came out of his box and awkwardly cleared the ball with his knee. It fell to Chattanooga player Steven Beattie, whose shot scored past the retreating Maurer.
Then again in the 92nd minute, Chattanooga made it nervy when former OKC Energy player Richard Dixon bounced a header into the net to make the score 3-2, which is how the match ended.
Be sure to check out the highlights from our first-ever @USLLeagueOne game!
What a performance from the team! #NTXvCHT | #WeAreNext pic.twitter.com/tHyOSeescP — North Texas SC (@northtexasSC) March 31, 2019
Notes
Pepi’s hat trick of course is extremely impressive, but that was not the only thing to be impressed by in this match from him. Pepi had really impressive movement during the game that helped him get many chances to score. He also helped his teammates and had several really good flicks and touches.
Brandon Servania periodically would pull off some really nice passes that started pushes up the field for NTSC.
North Texas SC heavily utilized the team’s fullbacks in the attack. Bryan Reynolds in particular was involved in a lot of attacking play. He was good at creating, but missed two opportunities to score that he really should have put away. When Almaguer subbed in for Bonilla, Almaguer played great when he pushed up the field. He also, though, probably should have been able to clear the cross which Richard Dixon scored at the match’s conclusion.
Dante Sealy showed a lot of talent. Sealy has got speed and is aggressive on the dribble. He created tons of opportunities, but he would also periodically make poor decisions on his passes which gave the ball away.
Jimmy Maurer did not have a good showing. While he had a couple of good saves throughout the match, he fell apart at the end when Chattanooga scored twice.
This 3-2 win was a great way to start the season for North Texas SC. They have a week off next week, and then will be back in action on Saturday, April 13, against Forward Madison FC again at Toyota Stadium. It will be a late game, starting at 9:20 pm following the FC Dallas home match against the Portland Timbers. | {
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Michigan rapper NF names Top 5 Eminem songs in his extended conversation with NME on religion, therapy, being diagnosed with OCD and shoving Chance the Rapper out of the charts.
Nathan Feuerstein, a rapper from a small town in Michigan, who has found escape and emotional outlet in hip-hop after years of physical abuse and the traumatic death of his mother, is famous for his honest and raw lyrics. So many people can relate to this passion, that NF repeatedly finds his records topping the charts and leaving behind the releases of Tom Petty, Lil Pump and, just this July, Chance The Rapper.
During his recent interview, NF named his top 5 Eminem’s tracks:
“As far as top 5 Eminem songs, I’d say “The Way I Am” that song is ridiculous. I think Eminem Show is one of the best albums ever. “White America,” “Cleanin’ Out My Closet,” “Sing For The Moment,” there is so many dope songs, I don’t know…”
To choose just 5 songs out of Eminem’s legacy is tough, watch below how NF dealt with that: | {
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On which loss was worse: Matt Hardy’s loss or Steen losing the World Title: “Oh, no doubt, Matt Hardy. Matt Hardy is the most important part of Ring of Honor right now. The man has 800,000 followers; this guy is a legit superstar and the way that the Ring of Honor fans treat this guy is just horrendous. This guy is a legit star, I mean they done so many things with this guy. And the fans, if you hate Matt Hardy, you’re a bad person, you know? That’s what I’ve come to learn about Ring of Honor Fans. They boo him, for what? The call him names and everything like that, but he’s doing something right. I see his picture money every night, you know because I have to take 10%, and the guy is an absolute rock star. Ring of Honor fans should be pleased that this guy is going to be the next world champion.”
On whether he is happy being the leader of SCUM or does he want to be in the ring: “No, I suggested this role. This is the role that I want. You know I’m almost 40 years old and these guys in Ring of Honor are such exceptional athletes; you think about it, from top to bottom. People can talk about Kevin Steen’s physique; think about it, this kid is 272 pounds and this kid can go 30 minutes without breathing heavy. You’ve got Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards, two of the finest guys ever. Michael Elgin is the strongest kid I’ve ever wrestled. You’ve got Mike Mondo that’s really fit into it. You’ve got Tommaso Ciampa coming back, Mike Bennett is back, Adam Cole is a superstar. Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, I mean Roderick Strong, Jay Lethal; all these guys, all these young guys are so hungry and so good. I thought to myself, where would I fit in the best? Where I can still contribute the best way I know how and this role is perfect for me because the best thing I can do is talk, you know? I’m a talker and it’s a dying thing in wrestling; to actually be a guy that can talk and can talk people into loving them or hating them; there’s so many things I can do in that role and I love it. I absolutely love it because it doesn’t take the physical toll on my body and I can still get out there and it gets to the point where people want to see me get beat up. They want to see that; they’re getting so into Nigel (McGuinness). This is what, and I can picture myself; the more color commentating I do. That’s stuff that’s going to be, and it sounds weird, but it’s career longevity. I can talk for 10 or 15 years, if I get the opportunity to; Lawler can’t live forever, right? Think about it.”
On beiong at Madison Square Garden the night Austin first stunnered Vince McMahon: “How about that, him stealing my thunder! I won a dark match that night. Yeah, that should have been the big news “Holy Crap, Steve Corino won, like, this dark match and we should probably sign him.’ And the Austin goes and stuns McMahon and everyone forgets about me. Unbelievable; story of my life.”
On the Montreal Screwjob and its validity: “That’s the thing; that’s what they wanted you to believe, that it was a total shoot, because the screwed WCW over. Amazing; absolutely. Whoever thought of it, whether it be Triple H, or Shawn, or Vince, or Bret. Whoever thought of it; absolute genius. You know, I wish I could think of something 1/100th of something that would have had the impact that that did. That changed wrestling. We talk about how if it hadn’t been for ECW, there wouldn’t be the Attiude Era, but let’s face it; the Montreal Screwjob was the spark. They’d already come in with Austin and he was over, DX was getting there. They were already on the verge of the Attitude Era. But here’s my thing; Vince McMahon is the smartest businessman that professional wrestling has ever seen. You don’t think, for one second, that he would have just forget that those documentary people were there for ‘Wrestling with Shadows’? Come on! He knew it!” | {
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Image copyright Getty Images
US economic growth slowed in the third quarter, but beat some economists' expectations of a bigger contraction.
The Commerce Department data put GDP growth at 1.9% during the three months, ahead of the 1.6% predicted.
Consumer spending held up better than expected, offsetting a fall in business investment and lower public spending.
But the growth was still the slowest for 2019, and comes hours before the Federal Reserve is due to make its latest interest rate announcement.
GDP growth in the previous quarter - the three months to end-June - was just below 2%. In 2018, the US economy grew by 3.4% in the third quarter.
The Trump administration's trade war with China has eroded business confidence, while the fading stimulus from last year's $1.5tn tax cut package is also casting a shadow on the expansion.
Analysis: Andrew Walker, BBC economics correspondent
For many economists, the biggest worry about the US outlook is the trade conflict with China and others.
The new figures did show some growth in exports after a marked decline in the previous three months. But it was pretty feeble growth.
Imports, many of which are subject to additional tariffs as part of this trade conflict, were also higher, though again not strongly, after two quarters in which they failed to grow at all.
So the figures do play into the story of trade as a continuing problem for US economic growth.
All that said, it was still reasonable growth overall and more or less in line with many estimates of the economy's realistic potential.
That means the economy couldn't really be expected to grow much faster for a sustained period.
Wednesday's figures, suggesting resilient consumer spending and strong-than-expected housebuilding, is likely to ease fears that the US will enter recession.
Growth in consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of US economic activity, slowed to a still-healthy 2.9% rate last quarter after surging at a 4.6% pace in the second quarter, the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2017. Consumer spending is being powered by the lowest unemployment rate in nearly 50 years.
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the growth figures "could have been worse" but the fourth quarter "probably will be".
"Growth beat consensus mostly because consumption rose at a 2.9% rate.
"We doubt that Q4 [the fourth quarter] will see such a solid increase in consumption, not least because the chainstore numbers indicate that people pulled forward spending after the 1 August announcement of tariffs on imported Chinese consumer goods. This boosted Q3 spending at the expense of Q4."
Rate cut?
In a tweet on Wednesday before the growth figures were released, US President Donald Trump boasted of the "Greatest Economy in American History".
But in 2012, when Barack Obama was president, he had warned that a 1.9% growth rate spelled "deep trouble".
Ahead of the GDP figures, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said global growth is slowing and has had a modest impact on the US, adding the US economy remained strong with good capital inflows.
"There is no question that the global economy is slowing down and that has had some modest drag on the US economy," he said at an investment conference in the Saudi Arabia capital Riyadh.
Later on Wednesday, the US central bank was expected by many economists to wrap up its two-day policy meeting with an announcement of a cut in interest rates.
"Nothing in today's report will surprise the Fed," said Sal Guatieri, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. "The capital expenditure crunch stemming from the trade war will motivate a third rate cut. However, a still-sturdy consumer could give reason for pause at future meetings." | {
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READ ALSO:
Cabinet ministers, ex-cops slam Maria transfer
READ ALSO:
After uproar over Maria's removal as police chief, govt says he'll 'monitor' Sheena probe
READ ALSO:
In hurried move, CM upgraded CP post to DG rank to fit Javed
Will he quit?
MUMBAI: Rakesh Maria did not react publicly to his abrupt transfer on Tuesday but his face spoke volumes about his emotions. He is reportedly of the view that his shunting is a political move and could be a fallout of the Sheena Bora murder case .Defending his ‘personal interest’ in the case, people close to Maria said that after the Khar police arrested Indrani Mukerjea and her driver, police inspector Dinesh Kadam told him Indrani was speaking “hi-fi English” and humiliating policemen with her attitude. It was then, Maria said, that he thought of interrogating Indrani himself. He added that after each interrogation session, he used to update the home secretary and chief minister.Confusion galore after Maria's removal: Who’s in charge of murder case?Maria, who is credited with solving several major cases, particularly the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, rubbished his predecessor Satyapal Singh’s allegations that he was close to Peter Mukerjea. “I swear by my sons that I have never met Indrani or Peter in my life. I saw Indrani for the first time at the Khar police lock-up and although I have been visiting Khar police station to pursue the Sheena case, I first saw Peter only this Monday when I interrogated him,’’ he is reported to have said.Maria believes Singh holds a grudge against him for having taken the initiative to evict him from the police bungalow at Hill Road in Bandra which the former CP was occupying even after he quit the force and joined BJP in 2013.Maria has pointed to his investigations in the 1993 serial blasts, the twin Gateway blasts in 2003, and the Neeraj Grover case as proof of his interest in solving complex whodunits. He is also reported to have said that ACP Sanjay Kadam and PI Dinesh Kadam were transferred to the Sheena case only after a committee headed by joint CPs Deven Bharti and Anoop Kumar approved it.“Yes, I’m thinking of resigning,” was Maria’s terse response when asked about his next course of action. He refused to elaborate. However, highly-placed sources said he'd wanted to resign immediately after he was pulled up over his 2014 meeting with Lalit Modi in July this year but was waiting for his promotion as DGP. Maria said he had requested the government for a transfer to a non-executive post as his elder son Kunal, who is settled in the US, is likely to get married by end-November. | {
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A Turkish journalist compared his experiences in Israeli and Syrian jails having recently been released from a Syrian prison after a two-month detention period.
Adam Özköse returned to Turkey on Monday and gave his account about his incarceration experiences in Syria and Israel, where he was briefly held in June 2010 together with other activists who arrived in Israel on board the Marmara ship.
Related stories:
"Compared to Syria, Israeli prisons are 5-star hotels," he said. Özköse said that in Syria, he slept on the prison's floor and would occasionally hear people screaming "either out of pain or over their own tragic circumstances."
The Turkish journalist said that as an espionage suspect he was interrogated while blindfolded. "All through the interrogations they cursed the Turkish leaders, called them US collaborators and accused them of betraying Syria," he said.
According to Arab media. Özköse was kidnapped in early March together with fellow journalist Hamid Coskun, after the two entered Syrian territory. They were detained by Assad loyalists who had randomly detected them. Later, the two were transported to a prison in Damascus via helicopter.
A day prior to their release Özköse and Coskun received a visit from an Iranian senior official. According to Özköse, they were turned over to the Iranians at the airport, flown to Tehran and eventually returned to Turkey on a private jet.
A senior official at the Iranian embassy in Ankara confirmed that Iran had played the role of mediator in the case.
Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition reported of the release of two Iranians. However, the Iranian official stressed the two cases were not connected.
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| {
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The Arizona Cardinals were quite simply, mauled on Sunday. After a tie and a one-score defeat, fans and media members predicted Arizona’s first victory of 2019, against the Cam Newton-less Carolina Panthers. However, the Panthers completely mauled Arizona, on both sides of the football. The Cardinals fell to 1-2 on the season and remain winless. Today we take a quick look at what went wrong at State Farm Stadium.
Beware of Cats
The Cardinals offense started quickly, scoring a touchdown on their first drive of the game. In fact, the score was preceded by a turnover created by the Arizona defense. Arizona’s offense finished with 248 total yards of offense. The first scoring drive accounted for 74 of those yards. As a whole, it was a disappointing showing for the offense. The ground game did enough to stay competitive but the passing attack finished with 173 yards. For quarterback Kyler Murray, the 4.02 yards per attempt tell the story of an offense without a bite. Typically a low yards per attempt average is a result of numerous incompletions. However, Murray completed 69.7% of his passes on Sunday.
The #Cardinals might want to make some adjustments pic.twitter.com/JprQKloem3 — Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) September 23, 2019
Latest Cardinals News
The issue can be found when examining the yardage of each attempt. Completions were plenty for Kliff Kingsbury’s offense, but yards were lacking, and Carolina made no effort to push the issue. The Panthers defense kept a close watch on Arizona pass catchers and did a solid job of make tackles in the open field. Of Murray’s 43 passing attempts, just seven went beyond 10 yards through the air, with zero going to the right side of the offense. It is the type of predictability which results in defenses figuring out the best pressure packages to get after the quarterback.
Kitty Litter
Quick throws help get the football out of the hands of the quarterback in a timely manner. The idea is to offset any pass-rushing advantage held by the defense. However, even with the short passing game proving fruitful for Arizona, Murray was sacked eight times on Sunday. By comparison, Panthers quarterback Kyle Allen was brought down twice on the day. Over the first two quarters, the Cardinals offensive line fared well, aided by the ground game. As the deficit grew and the Cardinals abandoned the run, the offensive line struggles returned.
Latest From FPC on SportsCastr
The right side of the line struggled in particular. Jordan Mills signed with the Cardinals last week and saw a handful of snaps in Baltimore. The veteran started at right tackle on Sunday and played 59 snaps on offense. Carolina found success on the right side of the end, often sending an edge rusher to the outside, before sending a safety or linebacker through the B-gap. While the line struggled, part of the problem fell on Murray. The rookie is quick to go down in the pocket and has shown a propensity to hold on to the football. In time Murray will progress and eliminate those issues, until that point though, the offense will remain inconsistent.
Scratching Post
The longer that Carolina’s offense spent on the field, the better it looked. Arizona’s defense kept the team in the game through the initial two and a half quarters. Then, midway through the third quarter, the defense forgot how to defend. Over the game’s final quarter and a half, Carolina scored 24 points. It essentially ended any chance of Arizona’s first victory of the season. Issues against the run have been chronicled over the past two seasons. Christian McCaffrey finished with 153 yards on 24 carries and a score. The coverage woes continued with Panthers’ tight end, Greg Olsen, producing six reception for 75 yards and two touchdowns. On the season, tight ends have accounted for 348 yards receiving on 23 receptions, totaling five touchdowns.
Latest NFL News
For all the issues with the Cardinals roster, the biggest issue seems to stem from a player currently under contract, Patrick Peterson. The loss of Peterson due to suspension has handcuffed the defense. Peterson is one of the few cornerbacks who can take away one side of the field. That ability allows the rest of the defense to focus on the other four possible receivers. As it stands, defensive coordinator Vance Joseph has deployed his safeties to play over the top, offering support for his shaky corners. This opens space behind the linebackers who have been sucked near the line of scrimmage. As a result, opposing offenses have found acres of space over the middle, between 10-15 yards downfield. Peterson’s suspension ends after week six.
What Comes Next
The good news for Arizona is the chance to sleep at home this weekend. Arizona hosts Seattle on Sunday for the division opener for both teams. The Cardinals and Seahawks have consistently offered exciting finishes. There are issues on both sides of the football which need to be addressed. Seattle’s ground game will test the Cardinals. A young and athletic defensive line for the Seahawks is frothing at the mouth with excitement. We’ll be back later in the week to preview the matchup.
– Ryan Adverderada is the Managing Editor for Full Press Coverage Cardinals. Like and follow on Follow @ryanadverderada Follow @Cardinals and Facebook. | {
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Stu is getting married. Along with Doug, Phil, and his soon-to-be brother-in-law Teddy, he regretfully invites Alan to Thailand for the wedding. After a quiet night on the beach with a beer and toasting marshmallows by the camp fire, Stu, Alan and Phil wake up in a seedy apartment in Bangkok. Doug is back at the resort, but Teddy is missing, there's a monkey with a severed finger, Alan's head is shaved, Stu has a tattoo on his face, and they can't remember any of it. The wolf-pack retrace their steps through strip clubs, tattoo parlors and cocaine-dealing monkeys on the streets of Bangkok as they try and find Teddy before the wedding. Written by napierslogs | {
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475 shares
In a happy, feel-good wrestling story to round off 2018, this beautiful moment between Frankie Kazarian and Lanny Poffo came full circle backstage at September 1st’s All In show.
On the latest edition of The Genius Cast podcast, Lanny Poffo had AMBY and backstage IMPACT Wrestling TV host, Alicia Atout on as a guest. In this fun interview, the two were reminiscing back to what a wonderful experience All In was for everyone involved when Lanny got emotional reminiscing back to a special moment that took place backstage.
Recommended reading: Deep Drive: A Randy Savage Baseball Career Retrospective
“You know what really touched me?” Poffo began. “Frankie Kazarian.”
“He came up to me and he says, ‘I met you in Los Angeles when I was about eight-years-old.”
Lanny paused for a moment as he began to choke up.
“And [Frankie says], ‘You were nice to me.'”
Lanny stopped again to gain composure. “I’m sorry, I’m getting emotional about it.”
Lanny Poffo continued, “I try to be nice to everybody but not everybody becomes Frankie Kazarian.”
“I said [to Frankie], ‘Well, I’ve followed your career and I am very proud of you.'”
In a tweet earlier in the year, Frankie backed up the sentiments shared by Lanny. “Lanny Poffo was the first wrestler I ever met. It was at the LA sports arena in 1987. I was a very young, excited fan. I never forgot how kind he was. He couldn’t have been more of a gentleman then, and still is to this day.”
Don’t you just love it when things come full circle like this?
To hear this story in full plus how Randy Savage got injured on the set of Spider-Man but told nobody about it, heroes letting down their fans, and so much more, tune in to the latest episode of The Genius Cast below or via your favorite podcast app! Be sure to hit the subscribe button!
Happy New Year from everyone here at Pro Wrestling Stories! We look forward to bringing you the very best in wrestling stories in the new year and beyond.
Editor’s edit: After reading our article, Frankie Kazarian took to Twitter to add, “I met Lanny long before meet n’ greets were a thing. He was larger than life. He was a superstar. Still is. Could not have been more kind to this very young kid. Happy to call him my friend. “For us, meeting a fan last a moment. For them, it could last a lifetime.”
Beautiful.
Follow us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram
The Pro Wrestling Stories Podcast - your favorite stories, in the form of audio! | {
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Katy Perry first illuminated the Met Gala pink carpet dressed as a chandelier, then made everyone hungry by changing into a hamburger.
The singer took a page out of Lady Gaga’s book on Monday and did an outfit change during the Met Gala. Perry graced the pink carpet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art dressed as a giant chandelier designed by Moschino, completed with Swarovski crystal stones. The dress even lit up like a real light fixture.
KATY PERRY STEPS OUT AS A CHANDELIER AT MET GALA
After she was inside the venue, the “American Idol” judge headed to the restroom to change into her second look — a hamburger. Video posted on social media showed Perry wearing a green off-the-shoulder dress and lifting up her glittery burger costume. She completed the outfit with a headpiece that symbolized a toothpick.
Perry even had pairs of matching shoes designed to look like chandeliers and burgers for each costume.
Celebrities arrived at Monday night’s event in over-the-top outfits for the gala’s theme, “Camp: Notes on Fashion.” The theme was inspired by a seminal 1964 essay by Susan Sontag in which she describes the phenomenon as something that shall not be talked about: "To talk about Camp is therefore to betray it."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Lady Gaga graced the red carpet in four different outfits.
Fox News' Mariah Haas contributed to this report. | {
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Heavyweight Democratic donor George Soros is back in the game — and he’s coming out swinging.
Politico reported that the 85-year-old Soros, who had by and large withdrawn from the political stage after failing to unseat President George W. Bush in 2004, has committed more than $25 million to support Hillary Clinton and a whole slate of Democratic candidates in November.
Since the start of the year, Federal Election Commission records show Soros has given more than $4 million to progressive super PACs like American Bridge PAC and to Democratic candidates like New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan who is tied up in a close Senate race.
George and His Billions Are All In for Hillary
Sources also told Politico that Soros, who Forbes estimates is worth nearly $25 billion, will likely commit even more as the election draws near.
Other Jewish donors have not been shy with their contributions to the Clinton campaign and pro-Clinton super PACs. At least eight of the top 12 donors to the major pro-Clinton group Priorities USA are Jewish, and donations by Jews comprised more than half of the $41 million raised by the group as of February.
While bigtime Jewish donors like Haim Saban have already donated millions this year to support Clinton, some insiders say a dramatic move by Soros may trigger a slew of donations by Jewish and other Democratic donors.
George and His Billions Are All In for Hillary
On the other side, Jewish Republican donors have largely frozen out GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Though the Republican Jewish Coalition has stood by their party’s candidate, their money has not. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal revealed that board members of the RJC had collectively donated just $5,400 to Trump in May — a far cry from the nearly $17 million RJC members had donated to candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.
Jewish GOP kingmaker Sheldon Adelson, who endorsed Trump in May, has promised $100 million to the Trump campaign. However, there is no sign that Adelson’s millions will end up in the Trump war chest any time soon, which has led to questions about how strongly the megadonor will support the GOP candidate.
Contact Drew Gerber at [email protected] or on Twitter, @dagerber | {
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Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will attend a NATO meeting at the end of the month, the State Department announced Friday, after previous mixed signals on whether he would attend sparked alarm among some allies.
Acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tillerson will meet with NATO in Brussels on March 31.
Monday night State Department officials said he would skip what would have been his first official meeting of NATO countries' diplomats which had been scheduled for April 5-6. The Secretary's trip to Russia later in April was also confirmed.
By Tuesday afternoon, the State Department left open the possibility of his attendance, saying Tillerson had a scheduling conflict and suggested alternative dates. NATO has said it was in contact with the State Department on scheduling.
A NATO official on Friday confirmed it is currently planning to hold the meeting of NATO foreign ministers on March 31 but added "consultations on scheduling among allies are ongoing."
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Changing the date of the NATO Foreign Ministerial requires a consensus among all 28 member countries.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaks at the Meeting of the Ministers of the Global Coalition on the Defeat of ISIS on March 22 at the State Department in Washington. Cliff Owen / AP
The State Department said Tillerson on March 30 will travel to Turkey to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other government officials, where he will discuss strategies to defeat the terror group ISIS.
President Donald Trump will attend a meeting of NATO heads of state and government in May, something White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer repeated on Twitter this week after news broke that Tillerson could skip the April meeting.
Trump has in the past called NATO "obsolete" and suggested he would not protect allies unless they upped their military spending.
Trump has recently spoken in more reassuring terms toward NATO, but many analysts say that even the suggestion that the U.S. might not respond to an aggression might leave allies vulnerable.
At a press briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House last week, Trump said he "reiterated to Chancellor Merkel my strong support for NATO, as well as the need for our NATO allies to pay their fair share for the cost of defense."
But Trump created new controversy when he said on Twitter a day after that meeting that Germany "owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!"
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen rejected Trump's claim in a statement on Sunday, saying that "there is no debt account at NATO." Von der Leyen added that it was "wrong" to link the alliance's bar for member nations to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024 to NATO alone.
Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. NATO ambassador, also dismissed Trump's characterization, saying in a Tweet "that's not how NATO works" and the United States decides how much it contributes to defending NATO countries. | {
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NOTE: This is our third post on Father Frank Pavone’s use of a child’s body in a public video, supporting Donald Trump, opposing Hillary Clinton. The first post is here. The second is here.
Update – 7 November, 2016 at 21:10 pacific time: Fr. Frank Pavone defends sacrilege: “The issue is not how I’m treating a baby.” Click here for more.
Update – 8 November , 2016 at 08:45 pacific time: In qualified apology, Father Pavone asks us to reach out – we did and didn’t hear back… – Oh, and the videos are still up. Update: the first video and apology have been removed! (Click here for more.)
Update – November 8, 2016 at 15:23 pacific time: Father Pavone’s action was so ridiculous, Snopes.com was asked to verify it. Have they stored Baby Choice for years? We believe so.
Update – November 8, 2016 at 15:30 pacific time: Diocese of Amarillo Slams Father Frank Pavone and Priests for Life, Opens Investigation (Statement) (See more here.)
Update – November 9, 2016 at 12:00 pacific time: Fr. Frank Pavone: Thank me, for “today is a great day for America and the Church”; Rebukes Bishop. (Statement by Priests for Life) Click here for more.
Update – 12 November, 2016 at 21:50 pacific time: Victory or deceit: Father Frank Pavone Removes 1 of 2 Videos of Dead Baby on Altar for Trump! He also removed his ‘apology’ video. (Also, Priests for Life of Canada Rebuked Pavone!) Click here for more.
Unable to find satisfaction in using Facebook Live on Sunday to commodify the body of a child in promoting the cause of Donald Trump, Father Frank Pavone uploaded a second video, much shorter than the first, to the internet.
Found on his Youtube channel, Father Pavone’s video “Facebook Live – Fr. Frank Pavone praying over aborted baby. – Election Prayer” seems to have been recorded on Sunday, 6 November, but was clearly published today, 7 November, even after we’ve seen a remarkable amount of backlash across the internet.
The video was uploaded about 7 hours ago, around 9 AM pacific time.
The video is disturbing.
The body of the child is in a different position than in Father Frank’s Facebook Live video. Perhaps it is better to say the body used as a prop is in a different location on the stage of “Father Frank, Live!” We were originally unsure as to whether Father Frank used the body of a child in his propaganda video or a creatively placed image of one. Priests for Life did little to help us believe Father Frank wouldn’t do such a horrible thing. This second video makes it more difficult to avoid the regrettable conclusion that Father Frank commodified the body of a child. This is an act of sacrilege, profanity, and desecration.
Is it really a second, distinct video? Is it a second take for “Father Frank, Live!”? The following in the second video differs from the first and contribute to why we think it is actually a second, distinct video: camera angle, duration, script, date uploaded, and the positioning of the child’s body are all different.
At the time of publishing this post, the Youtube video has had 148 views.
You can go to the video and give it a “thumbs down” and report it to Youtube if you don’t think it should be on there.
Father Frank’s Facebook Live post is yet to be commented on by the Diocese of Amarillo, the USCCB, or the Pontifical Academy for Life.
In a second e-mail, we asked Priests for Life:
A) has the child had been buried and then disinterred?
B) who gave him permission to do this?
C) how is this in line with the theology of burial as an act of mercy and a sign of respect (cf. CIC 1176.2, CCC 2300)?
We have received no response to these questions.
You can see our original post on the video here.
Until next time,
Keith Michael Estrada | {
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Frick How much impact will those extra ROP's and TMU's have? I have not looked into GPU designs and how the stuff in them affects performance since the Radeon R200/300 series.
Because the GK208 version of the GT 640 have half the ROPs and TMUs. I hope it will not get much hotter, because I'm after a decent low profile card that is not too loud.
I don't believe that doubling the ROPs count will have any impact on the performance in this case. As you can clearly see, the hardware is pretty much a low-end solution for upgrading budget PCs of Pentium G9650/Arrandale era, I'm pretty sure that it won't go into any newly built PC (because of adequate prices on current products of this niche, GTX 750 and R7 260X).Talking about ROP performance impact, I can share some of my personal experience (however, I highly recommend to contact game developers if you want to have an advanced knowledge of this theme). If you use your GPU for general-purpose computing (let's say we have a simple C++ AMP application that multiplies two square matrices of size 512 both), you don't explicitly direct your compiler to make any use of ROPs. If we take a look at the whole graphics computing pipeline, we'll see that there's no atomic task that we can force to be executed with ROP logic w/ GPGPU instruments. Keep in mind that it doesn't mean that they're not being used when you execute your GPU-accelerated app, we just don't say anywhere in our code that we care about them. In specific tasks (like programming game engines), we generally use HLSL programming language, which is not that different in terms of compile-time product. Basically, it allows us to go at "lower" level while writing code so we can directly manipulate every single piece of GPU logic available (yeah, and ROPs, too). When the code is compiled, we can use "profiler" tools given us by GPU manufacturers or Microsoft too see which part of our code is being slower then expected. That way we'll be able to optimize it. The exact same thing goes to TMU's - they're just a specific part of GPU logic that makes its job the way it was designed to: we can use it explicitly if we need to, or we can just forget about them if we're writing more general-purpose code. The impact will differ: I'd say, we won't benefit from extra ROPs/TMUs in GPGPU apps, but in games there will be a small difference. | {
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It all started with Aware, the meditation app. The guide instructed me, at the beginning of every session and with a very soothing voice, to “keep a half-smile”. Of course, I couldn’t keep it up throughout the whole session but whenever I remembered, I gently smiled. It felt good.
It has been proven that smiling activates a range of positive reactions in our bodies.
The main result of smiling is triggering the release of neurotransmitters (dopamine, endorphins and serotonin) that decrease stress, increase relaxation, lower the blood rate and blood pressure.
While endorphins act as a natural pain reliever, serotonin serves as a mood lifter or antidepressant.
And dopamine? Well, among other things, it tells the brain that whatever it just experienced is worth getting more of. | {
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Google’s domain name registry is showing limited data for Whois records.
We’re just weeks away from domain name registrars and registries beginning to obscure Whois records to comply with their interpretation of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). One major ICANN-regulated registry has already changed the Whois records it displays on thick Whois records: Google.
Sometime last month, the registry began showing only information that probably isn’t deemed personal: State, Country, and Organization Name.
Here’s an example from a .app domain I just registered:
Note how limited this record is. If I registered this domain under my personal name the only data related to me is the state and country.
There’s no email address and no way for people to contact me about this domain name.
Google has not yet truncated Whois records at its registrar. | {
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Students in one of the largest computer science courses at the University of California, Berkeley, have spoken out about problems with the automated system used to grade their work.
The class prompting complaints, CS 61B, or Data Structures, relies on an autograder to evaluate hundreds of students’ coding skills and assign them grades.
Autograders are widely used in computer science and engineering programs, particularly in large introductory-level courses such as the one at Berkeley, which has more than 800 students.
Autograders test students' computer programs, identify errors in their work and assign a score. Universities commonly design their own autograders in-house.
Berkeley's system, designed by the computer science faculty, typically works without incident, but the students ran into technical obstacles this semester. The problems were first reported in the university's student newspaper, The Daily Californian.
One sophomore student in CS 61B, who asked to remain anonymous because she is still taking the class, said there were autograder difficulties with each of the three projects she and her classmates have submitted so far this semester.
The autograder stopped running for a "very frustrating" few hours on the evening of the deadline of the first project, preventing students from seeing whether or not their code worked, she said.
“Many students complained on Piazza -- our online interface with the staff -- and we were simply told that it would be up again as soon as possible.”
With the second project, the autograder misrepresented students' results and had to be modified -- resulting in some students “getting fewer points than they had on previous submissions,” the student said. Students were given a 24-hour deadline extension to make up for this issue. “That extension has been the only concession that the staff has made to compensate for their autograder’s problems,” she said.
On the third project, rather than being able to submit their work multiple times before the deadline to see if they achieved their desired grade, students were told the autograder would run only once, 24 hours before the deadline. But with everyone submitting their work at the same time, there were “multihour delays between submission and result,” the student said.
“It seems odd that the autograder for a required course -- that routinely has over a thousand students in it -- doesn’t have the capacity to handle peak submission times, such as in the 24 hours before and after the deadline,” the student said.
The student said although her grade might be “slightly negatively impacted” by the autograder issues, the main impact was “a significant increase in my stress levels.”
“It’s one thing to be stressed out because of a big project with an impending deadline; it’s another entirely to be worried that I might not even know whether my code passes the staff’s hidden tests before the deadline,” she said.
James Demmel, chair of the electrical engineering and computer sciences department at UC Berkeley, said in an email that the technical glitches that occurred with the autograder this semester “are due to some new projects that were introduced into the course, rather than symptoms of scale.”
It is “quite uncommon” for anything to go wrong with the autograders used at UC Berkeley, said Demmel.
“In our largest courses, autograders and other pieces of infrastructure typically run smoothly. In fact, as the courses have grown, the technology infrastructure has generally improved because more instructor and staff time is available for larger courses," he said.
“In general, we have not observed that student feedback about our courses has decreased as the course sizes have grown to meet the increasing demand for computer science at UC Berkeley,” he said. “On the contrary, ratings for teaching effectiveness have reached their highest level ever in recent semesters for our largest courses -- CS 61A and CS 61B -- even though these courses have increased in size by more than a factor of three in the last seven years.”
The student who did not want to be named, and another classmate who also asked to remain anonymous, said they are unhappy with the way their professor, Paul Hilfinger, has handled the problems with the grading system.
"It doesn't seem that Professor Hilfinger is particularly concerned about the student experience," the first student said. “He seems unwilling to accept responsibility,” she said.
Hilfinger confirmed there was an error with the autograder earlier in the semester that meant students’ work had to be rerun through the system, resulting in some students getting lower marks. He also acknowledged that large numbers of students submitting work at the same time caused some students to receive their results back slower than usual.
Hilfinger said part of the problem is that some students submitted work “many, many times, somewhat pointlessly” before getting any results back -- causing a backlog. “I’m not sure why they are doing that, but they do,” he said.
Asked if he would consider staggering deadlines to alleviate the backlog, Hilfinger said he felt this would be unfair because it would give some students a time advantage.
“I think what we’ll probably do at some point is move into the cloud -- use some scalable service that would allow us to scale up the processing as the frequency of submissions increases,” he said.
Tushar Soni, co-founder of free computer science autograding tool AutoGradr, said autograding systems should be built with the expectation of handling large numbers of submissions at the same time. He agreed with Hilfinger that staggering deadlines would not be the right solution as it would give some students more time than others.
At the current class size, it would be “unfeasible” to assess students’ projects without an autograder, said Hilfinger. He said there are downsides even when the system is functioning at full capacity -- an autograder can tell you whether or not a program works, but not measure how creative it is.
Mark Guzdial, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, said in an email that while not using an autograder does take more time and require more teaching assistants to help with grading, it results in better feedback for students.
“For the things that I teach, the subjectivity of a human being is better than the objectivity of an autograder,” said Guzdial. | {
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Archivo
La actividad ganadera liderará este año la inversión en el campo, con un aporte de 22.500 millones de dólares, por encima de la contribución que hará la agricultura al sector. Esto se debe al proceso de recuperación que lleva adelante la producción de carne, que impactará en el resto de la cadena productiva.
Según un informe del Instituto de Estudios Económicos y Negociaciones Internacionales de la Sociedad Rural Argentina (SRA) difundido ayer, todas las actividades del campo inyectarán este año a la economía, entre inversión y gastos, un total de 58.000 millones de dólares. De ese monto, la ganadería contribuiría con el 39%.
"El productor destinará 13.765 millones de dólares a la reposición de hacienda. Se espera un aumento de la participación en la faena de novillos pesados destinados habitualmente para exportación, con el beneficio de que la mayor cantidad de kilos por cabeza, a su vez, generará más cantidad de carne para el mercado interno", indica el trabajo.
Desde hace un tiempo hay en la actividad ganadera un proceso de retención de vientres con el objetivo de aumentar el stock de animales. Esto significa que el ganadero se queda con las hembras para producir más terneros a lo largo de su vida útil.
Vale recordar que durante las tres administraciones kirchneristas se perdieron 10 millones de cabezas del rodeo, por las intervenciones del Gobierno en el mercado y las trabas que se aplicaban para exportar carne, que llevaron a una liquidación progresiva de la hacienda por parte de los productores.
Ese proceso se agravó en medio de la intensa sequía que afectó al campo en los años 2008/2009. Como resultado, para fines de 2010 el stock ganadero había caído a 48,3 millones de cabezas.
IEE-SRA y Senasa - LA NACION
Hoy, el rodeo bovino ya está en 52,6 millones de cabezas, mostrando una recuperación de casi el 10% respecto de la caída que tuvo en los años anteriores.
"Este sector invertirá también 3446 millones de dólares en gastos directos, principalmente suplementación, confección de pasturas y sanidad, entre otros. Además, inyectará 2576 millones de dólares en gastos indirectos, principalmente en estructura y financiamiento. Por último, el sector ganadero adquirirá bienes de uso durable por 1075 millones de dólares", detalla el informe de la Rural sobre la actividad ganadera.
"Esta expectativa estimula a una mayor demanda de semillas forrajeras. Se espera que esta tendencia se afirme para la siembra de primavera, sumando la conformación de reservas, la renovación de alambrados, molinos y aguadas, entre otros insumos necesarios para mejorar la productividad", añade el trabajo.
Segundo en el ranking
El rubro que seguirá en el ranking de inversiones en el campo este año será la agricultura, con 21.000 millones de dólares, equivalentes al 36% del total.
Para ello, el informe calcula que la siembra se expandirá en 2,5 millones de hectáreas. En este contexto, se espera que se sumen un millón de hectáreas más con trigo, otro millón de hectáreas extras con maíz y 450.000 adicionales con girasol.
En esos tres cultivos bajaron a cero las retenciones a las exportaciones, lo que hizo que mejoraran los ingresos de los productores en medio de un repunte de precios de los granos.
"Se sembrará un total que superaría los 34 millones de hectáreas, con una producción de más de 110 millones de toneladas. De esta manera, transportar la cosecha de este año generará cinco millones de viajes de camión, 500.000 más que el año pasado, y que podrán alcanzar a seis millones el año que viene", precisa el estudio de la cámara.
En la Sociedad Rural están convencidos de que la rebaja de las retenciones al sector y la quita de las trabas para exportar, medidas que tomó el gobierno de Mauricio Macri apenas asumió, fueron clave para incentivar las inversiones este año.
IEE-SRA y Senasa - LA NACION
En la entidad destacan que gran parte de la inversión del agro se gasta en los pueblos del interior. "La reactivación es evidente: el 80% de ese dinero se gasta y se invierte en los pueblos donde se produce, o sea, en cada rincón de cada provincia", remarca el informe.
El trabajo también explica que el Estado percibirá por retenciones a la exportación de soja de la campaña actual (este grano continúa gravado con una alícuota del 30%) 7155 millones de dólares.
Ya hay un clima de reactivación en el sector que se observa en diversos indicadores. Las ventas de fertilizantes crecieron un 25% durante el primer cuatrimestre de este año, las de sembradoras lo hicieron en un 28% y las de implementos agrícolas en general sumaron 9 por ciento.
En la industria automotriz también se siente el repunte del agro, con una demanda de camionetas que subió 25% en lo que va del año.
No subieron al tren
Sin embargo, no todos los sectores del campo se subieron al tren. Los productores tamberos afrontan una fuerte pérdida de rentabilidad, en medio de un aumento de costos, y los productores de porcinos, además del incremento de precios de insumos clave y la caída de ingresos, protestan por la importación de carne de cerdo desde Brasil.
Respecto de este último tema, la Federación Agraria Argentina (FAA) se movilizará mañana en el acceso del puente Rosario-Victoria para reclamar medidas de apoyo al sector. La movilización al puente tiene un valor simbólico para este sector, ya que "por ahí es donde entran los camiones con carne que vienen de Brasil", dijo Pablo Paillole, dirigente de la entidad convocante. Y alertó que "por este camino, centenares de chacareros que nos dedicamos a la producción chanchera vamos a tener que abandonar la actividad en poco tiempo".
La Rural ve una recuperación incipiente en otros sectores que estaban afectados por la situación anterior. "Los cultivos plurianuales, si bien han tenido fuertes pérdidas a causa de condiciones climáticas adversas, como en el caso de la vitivinicultura, las manzanas, el azúcar y el tabaco, entre otros, comienzan a ver una reacción positiva a partir de los cambios en los precios relativos. En esta línea, en el caso de las exportaciones desde los puertos al sur de Bahía Blanca, durante los primeros cinco meses del año, los embarques de peras frescas aumentaron un 9% y los de jugos de frutas concentrados, un 33%", concluye el informe.
El optimismo de la Rural por el futuro del sector se refleja en otro dato. Cree que en los próximos cinco años la actividad puede crear 1,3 millones de empleos nuevos, directos e indirectos. | {
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South Korean Commandos Battle Pirates In Rare Raid
Enlarge this image toggle caption South Korean Defense Ministry/Getty Images South Korean Defense Ministry/Getty Images
South Korean special forces launched a bold rescue mission on a hijacked vessel in the Arabian Sea at dawn Friday, killing eight Somali pirates but saving all 21 crew members.
The top-secret operation reportedly lasted about five hours, and photographs from the raid show commandos crouching on the deck of the Samho Jewelry, which was captured by pirates on Jan. 15. Commandos scrambled up a ladder onto the ship, aboard which the pirates were armed with AK assault rifles and antitank missiles. A South Korean destroyer and hovering Lynx helicopter provided covering fire.
Pockmarks from artillery fire blanketed the ship's bridge. One of the hostages was wounded — the captain suffered a gunshot wound — but all were alive in a remarkable ending for a risky rescue.
We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future.
Five Somali pirates were captured alive during the raid.
A wife of one of the South Korean crew cried in gratitude as the weeklong hijacking came to an end. "Family members couldn't sleep or eat well and prayed for a safe return. I am very relieved," she said, according to Yonhap news agency.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak called the operation "perfect," and analysts said he likely will win political points for taking such an aggressive stance. Lee and his administration took heat in November after North Korea shelled a South-held border island, killing four people. Critics said the military's response was too slow and soft.
"We will not tolerate any behavior that threatens the lives and safety of our people in the future," Lee said in a brief televised statement.
Friday's operation was unprecedented for South Korea, which has been growing increasingly concerned about the threat from pirates who have long tormented shipping in the waters between Africa and the Arabian peninsula.
It also marked the first rescue operation by a South Korean navy vessel that has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden to help fight piracy since 2009. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the destroyer was accompanying the vessel to a safe area; it didn't elaborate.
"This operation demonstrated our government's strong will to never negotiate with pirates," Lt. Gen. Lee Sung-ho said.
Other countries' special forces have launched several raids to rescue pirated ships in the past few months, but as soon as they were assured — and never before they confirmed — that the crew was locked in a safe room, commonly referred to as a "citadel."
The raid on the Samho Jewelry in waters between Oman and Africa was rare because it happened a week after the Somali attackers seized the 11,500-ton chemical carrier as it was sailing from the United Arab Emirates to Sri Lanka.
Militaries are usually reluctant to launch such raids because of the risk of harm to hostages. A French rescue in 2009 that came two days after a sailboat was taken left one hostage dead.
Countries have different criteria for deciding whether to launch raids, said Graeme Gibbon-Brooks, the head of Dryad Maritime Intelligence, which provides information about piracy to shipping companies. Some countries are aggressive, but others consider that the risk of hostages being caught in a crossfire is greater than the risk of waiting out the hijackers.
But Gibbon-Brooks said it's unlikely the pirates would try to retaliate by harming other crews.
That "would be spectacularly unwise. Somalis are known for being good business people, and I think that that would lead to very a quick collapse of their business model," he said.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, during which time piracy has flourished off its coast, sometimes yielding multimillion-dollar ransoms. The ransoms the pirates get are among the few sources of income for small businesses that supply the pirates with food and other goods.
The Bahrain-based U.S. 5th Fleet referred all questions to South Korea, although it said the U.S. Navy was aware of the rescue. Samho Shipping did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
The Samho Jewelry was the second vessel from South Korea-based Samho Shipping to be hijacked in the past several months.
In November, Somali pirates freed the supertanker Samho Dream and its 24 crew — five South Koreans and 19 Filipinos — after seven months of captivity.
In April 2009, a French navy commando team stormed the yacht Tanit. The shootout killed two pirates and one French hostage and freed four French citizens. The order for the rescue came after the pirates threatened to kill the hostages.
In the same year, U.S. navy snipers also shot three pirates who were holding an American captain hostage in a lifeboat after they had abandoned a larger ship, the Maersk Alabama.
With reporting for NPR from Michael Rhee in Seoul, and material from The Associated Press. | {
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Furia fanów „Gry o tron”: Dlaczego w trailerze nie ginie żaden z głównych bohaterów?
4. sezon na cenzurowanym jeszcze zanim się rozpoczął.
Lepsze jest wrogiem dobrego – o tej zasadzie przekonuje się teraz telewizja HBO po premierze zwiastunu 4. sezonu „Gry o tron”. Okazuje się bowiem, że trzecia seria superprodukcji na podstawie prozy George’a R.R. Martina tak wysoko podniosła poprzeczkę, że widzowie nie są w stanie zaakceptować niczego nawet tylko odrobinę mniej efektownego.
– To najgorszy trailer w historii „Gry o tron”. Dlaczego nie ginie żaden z głównych bohaterów? Mało ich tam macie? – pyta na fanpage’u HBO jeden z wielbicieli serialu.
– Nawet postaci drugoplanowe są w tym sezonie dziwnie żywotne. Naliczyłam tylko dwa zgony w ciągu 104 sekund – wtóruje mu fanka. – W trailerze „trójki” ginęli co 17 sekund, o „dwójce” nawet nie wspominając.
HBO próbowało się początkowo bronić, wskazując, że w kadrze widać wiele trupów, ale po kolejnej fali krytyki („jakie trupy? To tylko mięso armatnie padłe w bitwie!”) stacja ustąpiła.
Jak się dowiadujemy, w kolejnym zwiastunie zginie przedpremierowo lider jednej z kluczowych frakcji.
(c) ASZdziennik 2011-2014. Wszystkie cytaty i wszystkie wydarzenia zostały zmyślone
Fot. youtube.com | {
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tired of begging God to take mil. she has been a needy mess for 10 yrs and doc keeps her on just enough meds to keep her alive but not functional. so sad that dh cannot enjoy his retirement due to her needs. she has always been irresponsible but enough! | {
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Labour’s annual conference has voted to reject a bid to commit the party to campaigning for Remain in any future EU referendum.
The result bolsters the position of leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose proposal to promise a referendum but wait until after the general election to decide which side to back was passed overwhelmingly.
And it marks a formidable setback to anti-Brexit campaigners who had hoped to secure Labour’s support in the fight for Remain.
It means Labour will almost certainly go into the general election expected within the next three months without a clear position on whether it would campaign to stay in the EU or leave in a referendum.
Shadow cabinet minister Diane Abbott hailed the vote – which was greeted by choruses of “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” from the conference floor – as a display of unity behind the leader. But Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon denounced it as an “abdication of responsibility”, while Conservative chair James Cleverly said it showed Labour was offering only “more talk, more indecision and more pointless delay”.
There was anger after the crucial vote, which took place amid chaotic scenes at the Brighton gathering, as disputes broke out over whether the vote by a show of hands had been passed or not.
National Executive Committee official Wendy Nichols, who was chairing the session, admitted she had initially thought the vote was in favour of Remain, but was told by general secretary Jennie Formby that delegates had in fact voted against. She resisted angry demands for a card vote to get a precise measure of the balance of opinion.
Under rule changes agreed last year and implemented at this conference, delegates no longer have the right to demand a card vote, which is instead at the discretion of the chair.
Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn walks past anti-Brexit campaigner on the second day of the party conference in Brighton AFP/Getty Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures A protester holds a sign mocking Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's Brexit stance at the party conference in Brighton EPA Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Activists from anti-climate change movement Extinction Rebellion march on the Labour conference in Brighton AFP/Getty Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Delegates take part in an informal vote on Labour's Brexitr stance at the party conference in Brighton AFP/Getty Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry leads a march in support of a second referendum on Brexit Getty Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Anti-Brexit protesters take part in a People's Vote rally during the Labour party conference in Brighton EPA Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Extinction RebelliActivists from anti-climate change movement Extinction Rebellion march on the Labour conference in Brightonon EPA Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Extinction Rebellion activists march on the Labour conference in Brighton AFP/Getty Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures A delegate arrives carrying a briefing from the Labour Representation Committee to the Labour party conference in Brighton Getty Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Prominent anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray protests on Brighton beach during the Labour party conference Reuters Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Anti-Brexit protesters take part in a People's Vote rally during the Labour party conference in Brighton EPA Brexit and climate protests at Labour party conference: In pictures Activists raise a banner calling for the Labour party to restore the original Clause 4 of its constitution, which would pledge the party to nationalising all industry Getty
One Labour Remainer said: “It was the grassroots against the party machine and the machine won.”
Remain-backers’ hopes were boosted earlier in the day when a string of trade unions, led by the country’s largest union Unison, came out in favour of a motion tabled by more than 80 constituency Labour parties, calling for the party to campaign “energetically” for continued EU membership in any referendum.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer left little doubt where his sympathies lay, telling delegates moments before the vote: “I have a very simple message today: if you want a referendum – Vote Labour. If you want a Final Say on Brexit – Vote Labour. If you want to fight for Remain – Vote Labour. Labour will let the people decide”.
Starmer was joined by fellow frontbenchers Emily Thornberry and Clive Lewis at a large People’s Vote rally on the first day of the conference, at which many delegates demanded outright support for Remain.
Speaking to Politico shortly after the vote, Starmer said it was still “likely” that the party would eventually fight for continued EU membership in a referendum.
“Obviously I am disappointed by the result,” he said. “But we had a vote. That’s what the Labour Party does.”
Sir Keir said he would continue personally to campaign for Remain, and said that the NEC position represented “quite considerable movement” over the past 12 months.
Emily Thornberry and Sir Keir Starmer march at the anti-brexit Trust the People rally (PA)
Mr Corbyn’s plan, approved by a show of hands, envisages a Labour government negotiating a “credible” Brexit deal within three months of taking power, with the UK remaining in the EU’s customs union and maintaining a close single market relationship, while safeguarding European-style workplace, environmental and consumer protections.
The plan commits Labour to a referendum within six months, but leaves the question of which side the party would take to be decided at a special conference after the election. Starmer announced that Labour would legislate to fix the date of the referendum ”immediately” after taking office.
Following the vote, close Corbyn ally Ms Abbott said: “The message is – despite the chatter from commentators – the party is determined to unite behind its leader.”
But Michael Chessum of the pro-EU Another Europe Is Possible group, which drafted the Remain motion, said: ”Labour members, 90 per cent of whom want to stay in the EU, will be deeply disappointed with this decision. It is possible that the Remain motion had a majority in the constituency Labour parties, but because there was no card vote we will never know.”
Mr Chessum said it was “not too late for Labour to make clear that it opposes Brexit outright”.
“Though it is not the policy we supported, the calling of a special conference to democratically decide Labour’s Brexit policy was a concession which we won,” he said. “But a fudge is not a unity position. It is deeply divisive among members, and risks losing a large chunk of our voter base.”
Andrew Lewin, founder of Remain Labour, said “We were told the Labour Party would embrace democracy, but today it was the grassroots against the party machine – and the machine won.
“If this fudge is the Labour policy at the next general election, we will drive Remain voters away. It simply isn’t viable to be ‘neutral’ on Brexit.”
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, whose own party committed to revoking Brexit at its conference last week, said: “Jeremy Corbyn has again shown a total lack of leadership on Brexit and settled on yet another fudge on the biggest issue facing our country. Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly had the opportunity to put the full force of the Labour behind a Remain position, but he has once again shown today that he is a Brexiteer at heart.”
Ms Sturgeon tweeted: “Labour rejects a clear pro-Remain position and instead stays firmly perched on the Brexit fence... It beggars belief – from a practical and principled point of view – that Corbyn thinks he can go through a General Election without saying if he backs Remain or Leave. The SNP’s position is unequivocally Stop Brexit.”
Labour’s mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “I do not believe this decision reflects the views of the overwhelming majority of Labour members who desperately want to stop Brexit. Labour is a Remain party. I will continue campaigning with London Labour to give the public the Final Say and stop Brexit.”
Labour MP Ian Murray, a prominent campaigner for Remain, said: “It’s important to recognise that we now have a policy of a public vote on any deal with the option to Remain. That’s really the only show in town.
“But it is of course deeply disappointing that we have not chosen to campaign for Remain at this stage, as that certainly does not reflect the strong views of the overwhelming majority of our members and supporters.
“It is simply not tenable for our leadership to be neutral when we face the biggest crisis our country has witnessed in modern times.”
And Green MP Caroline Lucas said: “After the climate crisis, the biggest issue we face – and Labour refuses to take a side. At a time when we need a strong opposition more than ever, they’ve left the pitch. This is a tragedy for our politics and our country.” | {
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We have all experienced that creepy feeling at one point or another where you can sense paranormal energy around you or in your home. These energies are often referred to as Ghosts or Spirits, and many would like to believe that they are loved ones that are trying to connect with them from the other side.
There is, however, a difference between a Ghost and a Spirit.
Ghosts
Ghosts are spirits of those whom have died but have not crossed over to the other side. Encounters with Ghosts are unpleasant, and it leaves you with a spine-chilling, hair-raising uncomfortable, creepy feeling. As they have not yet crossed over, they can appear to us in a manifestation of there original form. They can also be attached to a place an object or human being.
Here are a few things that may occur when people have Ghostly encounters:
Hearing strange noises – The sound of footsteps but there is no one around, breathing noises sometimes even knocking, scratching or banging. Hearing furniture being moved, or something being dropped.
Cupboard doors and Drawers open by them self– Doors, cupboards, and drawers open by themselves with no rational explanation on how that could have happened.
Constantly looking for things – Different household items just seem to disappear, and everyday objects go missing and then reappear a few days later in a completely different spot.
Feeling of being watched or touched– Feeling someone’s breath in our neck, the sensation of a hand sweeping pass. Waking up with scratches. Tripping over thin air, feeling that you get pushed when walking past a particular spot. A freakishly feeling you are being watched
Your pets are overly sensitive– Pets can sense and feel what we can’t. Random barking growling in certain spots in your home.
Spirits
Spirits, on the other hand, are those who have crossed over to the other side. When you do have an encounter with Spiritual energy, you will feel content, relaxed and at ease, you will not feel fear. Spirits appear to us in the form of dreams, visions and sometimes shadow’s but as they come from a place of light they are surrounded by a calmness.
Below are a few things that might happen when you have a Spiritual encounter:
Interference with an electronic or electrical device – Hearing a favorite song you shared with someone who passed on. TV or Radio changing channels, volume or moving to static without any logical explanation.
Lights turning on and off or light bulbs keep blowing – You keep replacing the same light bulb, but the electrician can find any electrical faults. Lights go on or off when you enter a room or start flickering.
Coming across things that remind you of loved one that has passed – Random objects that belonged to a loved one keeps appearing. Photo frames with a picture of loved ones hang distort or moved forward to be in better view. Entering a room and smelling their perfume or aftershave.
Seeing shadows in your peripheral vision – unexplained shadows emerging and when you look there is nothing.
Finding “gifts” at your feet. – Finding feathers, coins and other random gems at your feet or waking up with feathers or other objects next to your bed.
These occurrences are not always the workings of ghosts or spirits but can be caused by residual haunting.
Recommended: All About Shadow People
Residual Haunting
Residual Haunting – One of the most common types of hauntings that is caused by a continuous replay of a traumatic or life-changing event that took place in a particular location that disturbed the natural flow or Chi of the area. The occurrence is nothing more than an expression of stored energy that created an imprint on an object, location, date even a set time during the day. Residual Hauntings can be the cause of the noises, smells that recur.
This energy can quickly be cleared by doing a cleansing or sage smudging ritual.
When it comes to Spirits and Ghosts, however, you will know exactly what you are dealing with if you listen to your intuition and pay attention to the effect it has on you. Spirits will only appear when they have a message for you, where ghosts are connected to a place or object.
If you suspect your home is affected by darker spirits you can use these tips to clear the energy:
• Get professional help by consulting a paranormal expert, Shaman or energy healer
• Using a Sage smudge, you can cleanse home on a regular basis
• By Place crystals around your home or in the affected area will also bring a different energy to the environment. Don’t forget to cleanse the crystal by placing them in the sun for an hour or two a day.
• Seeing that particular spirits are connected to an object declutter your home can help in eliminating the energy
• Incense or diffuse essential oils is an excellent way to cleanse as well, and it makes your home smell nice at the same time
Darker Spirits are mostly lost souls that have an earthly attachment, and they like creating fear and anger as they need dark energy to feed on. That’s why its best to avoid engagement with them and try not to react. Instead, surround yourself and your home with love and light, and it will raise the positive vibrations of your home and make it unpleasant for the darker spirit to remain there.
This article is copyrighted material and not permitted to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute without asking for prior permission by The Open Mind.
Picture Source
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AResidual_haunting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit | {
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Ben Stein (Screenshot)
Democrat Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is promisng Americans the same thing brutal dictators promised, and those promises are never realized, Ben Stein explained in a Fox News Channel interview this week.
Stein, an economist, lawyer and writer, warned that, when politicians promising to punish success in the name of equality obtain power, their policies invariably have terrifying results:
"We have a society in which there are an awful lot of people who have no idea that Stalin, Hitler, Mao Tse Tung all came to power promising the same kinds of things that Miss Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is promising. "That led to mass murder, led to dictatorship, and led to genocide. "These promises are old promises, and they invariably lead to bad things. The promise of saying to the people do what you can within the law to make your life better and your family's life better that system works extremely well. Capitalism is a system that allows people to make something of themselves instead of oppressing other people."
American society works because people are free to succeed - but, communism and socialism lead only to oppression, violence, corruption - and broken promises - Stein concluded: | {
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no hard feelings No ill will; no resentment or anger. Often said as a standalone phrase. I'm sorry that things ended this way. No hard feelings? Unfortunately these layoffs are out of our control. I hope there are no hard feelings. hard, no See also: feeling Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
no hard feelings and not any hard feelings and Fig. no anger or resentment. I hope you don't have any hard feelings. No, I have no hard feelings. hard, no See also: feeling McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
no hard feelings No resentment or anger, as in I hope there are no hard feelings about excluding your group. This idiom uses hard in the sense of "severe" or "harsh," a usage dating from about a.d. 1000. hard, no See also: feeling The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. | {
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This week, a giant political volcano has been showing signs that it is about to erupt, though most of the news media, and almost all of the public, are blissfully unaware of it.
Having previously written a couple of times about the bizarre saga of former GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy and former Playboy playmate Shera Bechard, this whole story sure seems based either in the most amazing series of coincidences most people could possibly imagine, or it is by far the biggest presidential scandal of our time. Because it is either or, and because most of the news media is both dumb and extremely risk adverse, the latter possibility has been, this this date, almost completely ignored.
But just because the news media is pretending that it is not very possible that President Donald Trump was actually the man who impregnated Bechard, while president, and paid her, through Broidy, to have an abortion and keep quiet about it, doesn’t mean that the story isn’t still developing in rather significant ways. This week, numerous things happened, under the media’s radar, which deserve some legitimate analysis.
The first sign of the lava getting ready to blow was that Broidy announced that he was going to stop paying off the $1.6 million NDA he has with Bechard, which was supposedly created to hide their alleged affair and pregnancy. The media, led by the Wall Street Journal which has broken several elements of this story, took this as a further indication that Briody was indeed the person who had the affair with Bechard. After all, now that, thanks the raid on the office of Michael Cohen (who just happened to be Broidy’s lawyer for the Bechard NDA) causing the “affair” to become public, there is no need for him to keep paying good money to keep it quiet.
Like nearly everything in this case, however, there is how events appear if you look at them with no skepticism, and then there is a completely different reality which appears when they are viewed through the prism of a more seasoned worldview.
Law professor Paul Campos, who was the first person to publicly detail the theory that everything we know about this case makes far more sense if Trump had the affair than if Briody did, has written for New York Magazine again about what Broidy stopping the payments may really mean. In short, it appears Broidy is pretending that the NDA was made invalid—when it was not—as a ruse so that he can limit his criminal liability should the real truth of this story eventually blast into the public sphere.
The timing of this gambit by Broidy is particularly interesting because it coincides almost exactly with Cohen making it very clear that, barring some sort of presidential pardon, he is no longer on Team Trump. If Cohen, the highly un-respected lawyer the super-rich Broidy chose to handle this matter for no apparent reason, can no longer be counted on to keep quiet, then obviously Broidy and his new legal team must start thinking about the worst case scenarios.
The lawyer who is now representing Broidy in this matter, Chris Clark, is a very high-priced criminal defense attorney. Not only is Broidy using the high-class Clark the exact opposite strategy of the baffling hiring of low-rent Cohen (who, for some strange reason, Broidy grossly overpaid), but it is far more consistent with someone who now thinks they have serious criminal vulnerability rather than concern over what should be a fairly minor legal battle over an NDA. Of course, this begs the question, why didn’t Broidy just hire Clark to handle this situation in the first place?
Another significant event which occurred here was in reaction to Campos’ latest New York Magazine piece. Clark demanded the right to have a statement condemning the column placed within it, but what was really important is what neither Clark nor Broidy are willing to say.
According to Campos, during the editing process, Broidy and his team were given multiple opportunities to simply state that Broidy had an affair with Bechard, and they never did so. Think about how absurd that is. Broidy’s name is now very publicly linked to him having paid Bechard to cover up an affair and abortion, and yet, despite having nothing at this point to lose (if it is true) neither he nor his representatives have ever clearly stated that this actually happened.
So, to review, Broidy is no longer paying Bechard for this alleged affair, and he is not even willing to say clearly that it actually happened. Gee, I wonder why the group of people who aren’t buying this version of story is growing rather rapidly?
Weirdly, the two reporters on this story for the Wall Street Journal are not among them. One went on MSNBC this week and declared that Trump was not involved in this story. After the other, Joe Palazzolo, said via Twitter that there is “zero evidence to support the theory that Broidy is covering for Trump,” I asked him, twice, what evidence there was that Broidy and Bechard have ever even met.
I still have not gotten any response at all. This part of the drama is a classic case where the absence of evidence appears to be strong evidence of absence (of an affair between Broidy and Bechard).
This should be easily proven by now and yet not even one photo of the two of them together has ever been produced (what sixty-two year old non-celebrity having an affair with a prominent Playboy playmate has no photos of her, or even any correspondence between them?) Making this stunning lack of evidence even more mystifying is that Broidy’s computer was hacked, allegedly by the country of Qatar, and yet nothing indicating an affair was ever released (as if this element of the story could get any more peculiar, Broidy’s representatives originally suggested that the affair was exposed by this hack, even though the timing of that is nonsensical, but then immediately claimed that this was not true and that they never said that).
That question I asked Palazzolo is one of many very simple inquires which remain unanswered about this crazy situation. Many of them deal with the astronomical coincidences related simply to the lawyers involved here. Considering the following:
Shera Bechard’s original attorney here, Michael Cohen’s pal Keith Davidson, also happened to represent Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, both of whom clearly had affairs with Trump.
Like Daniels and McDougal, Bechard fired Davidson because she thought that he was working in cahoots with Cohen, whose primary (only?) client was, of course, Trump. And yet, Bechard, was still somehow able to leverage $1.6 million from the unknown but business-savvy Broidy (it is almost as if her story had something about it which made it exponentially more valuable than even an affair with Trump being divulged during a presidential campaign!)
Bechard’s new lawyer is Peter Stris, who just happens to also represent McDougal. He also has publicly offered to represent anyone who had an affair with Trump pro bono, and on Thursday night he retweeted a legal colleague cryptically promising Trump that the #MeToo movement was still going after him.
This retweet by Stris became even more significant on Friday when possibly the biggest bombshell of the entire case was detonated, with Stris suing, among others, Broidy, Davidson, and, most notably, Stormy Daniels’ attorney Michael Avenatti. This facilitated incendiary statements from Avenatti which made it very clear that he does not believe the currently accepted version of the story, and that he intends to depose Bechard himself as early as July 16th.
There are those in the small legal community that have been riveted by this case who believe that Stris and Avenatti are neither co-conspirators nor the enemies they appear to be, but are rather engaging in an elaborate dance where each may get what they want. One which, assuming the truth ever comes out, will either leave a lot of close observers like me rather embarrassed, or President Trump suddenly facing the worst personal political scandal in modern American history.
John Ziegler hosts a weekly podcast focusing on news media issues and is documentary filmmaker. You can follow him on Twitter at @ZigManFreud or email him at [email protected]
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author. | {
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adidas’ Boost technology has been one of the best technological advancements in running silhouettes over the past year and a half. The cushion system not only provides one of the most stable, comfortable rides out there, but the bubbly, styrofoam esque pattern is definitely a head-turner in the aesthetic department too. So far, the only knock against Boost is the fact that adidas hadn’t found a way to add a colorful twist to it, given that the material is made up of near microscopic air pockets and colors would appear to crack. That is, until now. The latest adidas NMD, a pair that we previewed yesterday with Japanese branding throughout, features black Boost – marking the first time the tech has departed from the all white theme. It’s a pretty big update given that fans have been clamoring for an updated color on the tech for quite some time. Could this lead to updated colors on the Yeezy Boost Series? As for the rest of this release, a unique katana version of “3-Stripe Boost” lands on the midsole and heel tab, marking the only white accents throughout. Check out more photos below and be on the look out for this new NMD release to hit retailers in the near future.
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The head of a big publicly traded pot company said he's preparing for potential changes that will make his products available in America.
Cannabis is still illegal in the United States under federal law, even though a number of states have legalized marijuana. But Bruce Linton, the co-founder and CEO of Canopy Growth (CGC), told CNN's Julia Chatterley on the First Move show Friday that he thinks some of the laws prohibiting marijuana could soon be relaxed.
"Republicans have had a strong history of supporting state rights," Linton told Chatterley.
Linton said he believes federal regulators could decide it's okay for pot to be legal in states like California and Massachusetts that have already approved the sale and possession of small amounts of marijuana. They could leave in place a broader federal ban.
"If they did that, it would be good for me," Linton said.
Pot's illegality hasn't stopped American companies from getting involved in the business.
Shares of Canopy Growth have soared since Corona owner Constellation Brands said last month it was spending $4 billion to boost its stake in the company.
Constellation (STZ) first invested in Canopy Growth last year, when it bought a 10% stake. The company upped its holding in Canopy last month to 38%, and it has the option to purchase a majority controlling share of more than 50%. The two companies plan on developing cannabis-based beverages for countries where that is legal.
Canopy is one of several pot stocks that have been on a tear in the past few months. Tilray (TLRY) and Cronos (CRON) have both surged because investors are betting on a big boost in sales as Canada's legalization of recreational marijuana draws closer.
Shares of tiny New Age Beverages (NBEV), a maker of trendy Kombucha drinks, has soared more than 300% in the past five days -- including an 80% pop Thursday -- after the company said last month it would debut CBD infused drinks. CBD is cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis.
Even DavidsTea (DTEA) -- a Montreal-based company -- has gotten caught up in the pot frenzy. Shares surged 12% Thursday on speculation that it could make a play for the marijuana market.
But New Age Beverages, DavidsTea and Tilray plunged Friday as some investors fear that the pot stock craze could be a bubble. Canopy and Cronos also took a hit Friday.
Still, more big beverage companies -- and even drug makers -- may invest in cannabis as a result of the Constellation-Canopy deal. That could make the pot stocks a better long-term bet.
Tilray's CEO suggested on CNBC that cannabis made sense as a hedge for beverage makers and pharmaceutical firms. Another Canadian pot company, Aurora Cannabis (ACBFF), has surged this week on speculation it could do a deal with Coca-Cola (KO).
Canopy's Linton agreed the major drug companies and beverage producers must have a cannabis strategy. He argued these industries can't ignore pot, and Constellation is ahead of the curve.
But he warned that the United States is "still a no fly zone" for marijuana sales as long as it remains federally illegal. | {
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God in heaven,O Creator,O One who loved me into being…
Now that the voices are silenced
and the crowded world of projects
and overwhelming noise is hushed,
here, at my bed, I seek your consolation.
My spirit roots for you, as an infant
seeks out the breast,
seeks you as a child seeks
the succor and embrace of a father —
the parent who will whisper,
“Shh, I am with you,”
and bring solace to the soul
with an unconditional love.
I believe in your love,
and I hope in you,
and I pray you will grace me
with the gift of faith, unfailing,
the gift of wisdom, beyond my instincts,
the gift of trust, which is so hard.
I give glory and thanks to you
for this day as it ends,
and beg that you will give me eyes to see
that in all things, you have been with me:
in what was difficult, and what was easy,
in what was anxious and what was peaceful.
In those times I sought you out,
or forgot to,
You were with me, still, and I thank you.
Today, I failed in love; you know this.
I beg you to forgive me.
Today, I lost my temper; you know this.
I beg you to forgive me.
Today, I was selfish; you know this.
I beg you to forgive me.
Today, I felt desolate, unsure, and afraid;
I beg you to reach me, and to teach me again
that you love me, and are near.
That you are, O God, the safest of safe places,
the wayside resting place,
where I may catch my breath,
and seek you out, before going on.
Before I rest tonight,
I must thank you for your love,
beg your pardon for my failings,
and your shelter
from my interior storms.
O my Lord, at this moment, all is calm,
and sleep beckons me.
It is your world!
I place all of my concerns into your hands,
and all of my fears into your Sacred Heart,
the Self-immolating gift that is never consumed.
I believe in you.
Although I cannot understand
all that is before me,
I know all things work toward
the purposes of your mysterious plans
for my own good.
And I trust in this.
And I beg for the gift and grace
to trust you even further,
day by day.
I ask this in the name of Christ Jesus,
seeking the prayers of Mary, his Mother,
and of my guardian angel and patron saint (Name).
I will lie down in peace and sleep comes at once
for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4:9)
Amen. | {
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I once thought the hardest thing about adulthood was putting a Weber grill cover back in place. Now? It’s believing anything that comes out of Roger Goodell’s offices.
Last week the NFL changed the start of the Steelers-Chiefs playoff game from early afternoon to deep into prime time, claiming an ice storm was expected during the day in Kansas City.
Although that storm didn’t quite materialize, the NFL apparently chose to err on the safe side. Protecting the game’s patrons, the quality of the game and the greater good of all humanity, the NFL swallowed hard and switched a valuable game to a TV-valued but rough-on-patrons start. Still, the NFL, bless its TV-flexing heart, claimed to be worried that rotten weather would put people at needless risk.
Sniff. I know, enough to make you sob.
But that was last week. This week? Well, several readers asked, but we chose Tim Crowe’s:
“The remaining teams are Green Bay at Atlanta, Pittsburgh at New England, winners to the Super Bowl. One game in the Georgia Dome, the other [outdoors] in Gillette Stadium. … So which game do you schedule for 3:05 and which for 6:40?
“Easy answer, right? [In January] you play the outdoor game in New England first, then the indoor game.
“Of course, the NFL does the opposite — with a Nor’easter climbing the East Coast. Does the NFL stand for No Feasible Logic?”
No, it stands for greed, primarily TV money. AFC/CBS, NFC/FOX yearly swap Conference championship starting times. The later game — prime-time ratings begin at 7 p.m. ET on Sundays — is deemed most valuable.
Unlike last week’s switched-to-prime-time game in K.C., the quality of the games and safety of the patrons counted for nothing. Common sense counts for nothing. Meteorological, seasonal and geographical logic counted for nothing. And Gillette Stadium is in Foxborough, Mass., a long schlep for most Pats patrons.
TV money counts for everything; everything and everyone else can go to hell.
Just as MLB teams never scheduled late Sunday night games because they’d make no purchasing sense to the ticket-buying public, MLB has sold many of its best-attraction games to ESPN for late Sunday night starts, often switching the start times after those who thought they were buying afternoon tickets instead of tickets to games that end near midnight.
It’s all the same. Too bad. Go to hell. The commissioners of both sports know their marching orders: TV money wins, places and shows.
And so we end this segment with a question: What are the chances that, with dangerous weather expected, the NFL would switch a prime-time game to a 1 p.m. start?
Broadcast with unnecessary graphic detail
At this point, it’s likely too late to persuade CBS to stop, or to at least examine what it’s doing to its college basketball telecasts, but CBS has fully embraced ZTD — zero-thought distracting — telecasts.
CBS’ any-stat/anytime interruptions are remarkably stupid. For example, Saturday, with play on and Kansas beating Texas, 53-49, CBS flashed this: “FGs this half — Texas 5/10, Kansas 5/9.”
If this were “Jeopardy!,” the answer would be: “What is ‘So what?’?”
Imagine being at the game and tapping a stranger on the shoulder while the game’s being played, to tell him, “Texas is 5/10 and KU is 5/9 on field-goal attempts, this half.” The guy would summon an usher, one with a straitjacket.
Yesterday, 3:30 into Georgetown-Xavier and play on, Xavier up, 5-4, CBS ambushed us with “Field Goals — Georgetown 2/4, Xavier 1/4.” Thanks you very little.
This week, as you watch — or try to watch — college basketball on TV, consider how many of the graphics you’re forced to consider aren’t worth your consideration.
But because TV execs and game producers rarely examine what they present us as a matter of habit and misguided ingenuity, we’ll continue to suffer from the ZTDs.
By the way, if points scored off of turnovers are so statistically noteworthy, why are points not scored after turnovers unimportant?
Amazing how clean, full-screen telecasts appear, as was Sunday’s Packers-Falcons on FOX, without crawls pushing fantasy league stats and Skip Bayless/Shannon Sharpe promos.
FOX’s Joe (“Ripkowski put it on the ground!”) Buck, slick-talking at the top of Packers-Falcons about the over-under number, is another who thinks someone in Vegas makes NFL betting lines. Vegas books set opening lines, but the gambling public establishes the final lines by betting into them; too much to either side moves those lines.
Quote of the Week: Ben Roethlisberger on him versus Tom Brady: “It’s a team game; we’re not playing tennis.”
Reader Ed Stufano wonders if we’ll soon see President Trump on ESPN, filling out his NCAA Tournament bracket. Not necessary; he already has Trump University vs. DeVry University in the final.
A Knicks-Carmelo Anthony divorce? Heck, lots of us still can’t figure why, in 2014, they renewed their vows.
If you haven’t seen video of Russell Westbrook called for traveling, last week, find it. Giving directions to his offense, he walked the ball up, not bothering to dribble until his sixth step. Hysterical.
HBO to show powerful ALS doc
HBO Real Sports correspondent Jon Frankel in 2012 produced an up-close-and-extremely personal documentary with former NFL and Alabama running back/battering ram Kevin Turner, who was then 42 and two years into dying the hard way — steadily and inexorably from ALS. ESPN aired the doc as part of its “30 for 30” series.
Frankel and Turner, who died last year, remained close. Tuesday at 10 p.m. on HBO, Frankel’s down-to-the-end-and-a-bit-beyond post-mortem appears. Powerful stuff.
A side note: Turner’s son, Nolan, is a freshman on Clemson’s national title team, coached by Dabo Swinney — his dad’s roomie at Alabama.
Time for colleges and TV to thank taxpayers “for making this game possible.”
Tuesday on ESPNU, taxpayer-funded New Mexico played 942 miles away at taxpayer-funded Boise State.
New Mexico’s starting five was recruited from Sudan, Arkansas, North Carolina, Illinois and California. BSU’s had two from California, one each from Colorado, Texas and Australia.
As long as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has thrown his hat into the sports radio ring, why not use his double-muscle to right some sports wrongs?
For starters, the Mets’ “Winter Special” is a “No Fees” tickets purchase come-on. Imagine that — the price of the ticket is the price of tickets! More evidence that these tack-on fees are what they stink like: unrestricted scams.
We could use a high-ranking, sports-minded politician to protect his sports-minded constituents from all forms of unholy money-grabs, no? | {
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Hi everyone,
Please find a very important rescue story of our friends over at the PDSA below.
Biggles the cat saved thanks to PDSA
Vet charity advises that early neutering can reduce cancer risk
A cat from Gateshead has seen his odds of developing a type of cancer eradicated after an undescended testicle was picked up in the nick of time, thanks to PDSA.
Biggles, a blue-coloured domestic short haired cat, had been taken to the charity’s Gateshead Pet Hospital for a routine check-up when Vet Nurse Lauren Walton noticed something wasn’t quite right.
While examining the two-year-old cat she found that only one of his testicles had descended – which, if left untreated, would put him at a higher risk of developing cancer.
Lauren said: “I was carrying out a routine pet health check and found that only one of his testicles was present. We explained to Biggles’ owner that if we didn’t operate to remove the one that hadn’t descended there was a real risk of it becoming cancerous further down the line.”
The very next day Biggles was taken into theatre where the undescended testicle was removed from his abdomen. He was also castrated and microchipped.
Lauren added: “If we hadn’t picked up on this when we did it could easily have gone unnoticed and the outcome may have been very different.
“PDSA is educating owners about the importance of preventive health care such as neutering, vaccinations and microchipping. Thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery we will deliver 30,000 neutering operations to pets this year.”
Janine, Biggles’ owner, is extremely grateful to PDSA for the treatment her cat received.
Janine, from South Shields, said: “I’m so glad that I took him to PDSA for his check-up that day. If I hadn’t he might not be with me now. It just goes to show why it’s so important to visit your vet regularly.”
Biggles has made a full recovery following his surgery and now he is neutered he’s also less likely to roam and fight with other cats, reducing his chances of contracting conditions like FIV – the feline equivalent of the HIV virus.
For more information about pet health or neutering owners can visit www.pdsa.org.uk
We hope you liked this story and don’t’ forget that you can sign-up to our Newsletter here.
Thanks,
Marc
More about the PDSA:
PDSA is the UK’s leading veterinary charity, providing free veterinary care for the sick and injured pets of people in need and promoting responsible pet ownership. For further information about PDSA please visit www.pdsa.org.uk or call 0800 731 2502.
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Venezuela’s Government Flirts with Market Economics
The Venezuelan government published a seemingly obscure statute last week, which they’ve called "Foreign Exchange Agreement No. 27." Casual observers might be tempted to think this is just another set of arcane rules governing Venezuela’s tangled web of currency and exchange controls.
Casual observers, however, would be wrong. This is the first real attempt by Venezuelan authorities to turn away from heavy-handed policy toward some sort of market-like mechanism. The new rules set in place a currency exchange system that is remarkably open when compared to Venezuela’s prevailing system. It has the potential to significantly reduce Venezuela’s economic mess.
Ever since protests erupted a month ago, the media has focused on its root causes. High on the list is Venezuela’s soaring inflation, which, coupled with widespread scarcity of basic staples such as toilet paper, has made life miserable for most. (In the photo above, a father and daughter look on as hundreds of Venezuelans stand in line to buy basic foodstuffs at a local grocery store.)
Venezuela’s problems stem, at least in part, from currency exchange controls put in place more than ten years ago by the late Hugo Chávez. The government severely restricts who can buy the dollars it earns from oil exports, and which it chooses to sell at an artificially low price. The end result is that bargain dollars end up in politicians’ offshore bank accounts or in the country’s burgeoning black market instead of being used to import basic staples. Add in severe price controls that discourage increases in domestic supply, and you have an economic perfect storm.
With the black market dollar fetching several times more than the official rate, many economists had suggested some combination of devaluation and liberalization of the market was in order. Few of them expected the government to actually embrace these ideas.
Yet that is what it appears to have done. The new statute sets up a new currency exchange mechanism, the unappealingly titled "SICAD II," named after a scheme introduced a few months ago.
SICAD II places few restrictions on currency buyers. As opposed to existing schemes, where the participants are hand-picked based on their closeness to the government, the new system imposes few restrictions on who can participate in the new system. Although the government initially said they would sell $30 million per day in the new system, far less than demand, recent statements suggest this amount could go up.
One of the significant features of the new system is that Venezuelan debt can be bought and sold both internally as well as overseas. This goes a long way toward liberalizing severely restricted capital flows, providing an escape valve for investors with holdings trapped in local currency. The statute also allows exporters to hold a significant portion of their earnings in foreign currency, instead of requiring them to sell their profits to the government at a cheap price, as current rules mandate.
The new system is also much more transparent. The Central Bank will, supposedly, allow transaction prices to be set by market forces, and will publish the average exchange rate every day. There are pledges that transactions will be finalized within 48 hours, a stark contrast to the current delay-plagued system.
In a sign of how different the tone of the six-page law is, the word "market" appears eight times, the word "demand" five times, while the world "fatherland" does not appear at all — surely a first for chavista legislation.
Initial reaction has been mixed to positive. While some local economists have praised the overture, they are cautious as to its effects. They warn that it is, in effect, a devaluation of the currency, and that without fiscal discipline, voracious government spending will simply translate into capital flight, and the new market-based dollar may well go through the roof.
Foreign entities were more bullish about the change. In a research note, Bank of America Merrill Lynch praised the statute for limiting the discretionary actions of the government, highlighting the apparent commitment of many of the government’s economic officers to interfere as little as possible. Barclay’s was equally upbeat, saying the new system could "potentially" lead to an eventual recovery of the country’s economy.
There are still many details to be worked out, and the move could surely backfire if other measures are not put in place. Moreover, a sharp devaluation or a prolonged contraction of the economy could convince policy makers that this is a mistake, and they could scrap the whole idea altogether. Nevertheless, this is the first sign of rational economic thinking from the Venezuelan government in years, and it comes not a moment too soon.
Juan Nagel is the Venezuela blogger for Transitions, editor of Caracas Chronicles, and author of Blogging the Revolution. Read the rest of his posts here. | {
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Subsets and Splits