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Last week, the Reds reached a one-year agreement with reliever Drew Storen. The club will pay the 29-year-old pitcher $3 million, an additional $1.5 million in performance bonuses and $500,000 if he’s traded. The deal’s impact won’t be felt in wins and losses. And since it’s only for a year and a tiny amount of cash by MLB standards it doesn’t alter the trajectory of the Rebuild one way or the other.
But what caught my eye was the reasoning Dick Williams offered and the profound break it made from the recent past.
Let’s start with Williams’ comments on the WLW Hot Stove show:
“Yeah, I think fans should be really excited about this addition to the club, Drew. Not only a local kid, but a guy that’s had a lot of success pitching at the end of ballgames for successful teams. A high-leverage situation type guy.â€Â
“He’s going to fit in real well with us. He’s got a great personality, good make-up and a good track record. We think last season was a little bit of an aberration for him and created an opportunity. We swooped in and took advantage of it. I think it’s a win-win signing that gives him a good opportunity. Gives us a real good pitcher at the back end of the game.â€Â
Jim Kelch encouraged Williams to support the Storen deal by citing the reliever’s ERA from the whopping 18 innings he pitched at the end of 2016 for Seattle. Not only didn’t Williams bite, he pushed back on that thinking:
“Relievers, it’s hard to look at small sample sizes for guys like this. Drew had a six-year track record over in Washington and showed the ability to get things done. Sometimes when you switch leagues you’re facing new hitters, you’re pitching in a new park, a lot of things change about your environment. He struggled. He did make adjustments later in the year and finished strong.â€Â
Williams then elaborated an important line of reasoning.
“(Storen’s down year in 2016) created an opportunity for us. It’s not typical you can find a guy with a track record like that available to a team like us. So, there’s going to be something there that scared teams off a little bit. … There are no risk-free signings at this end of the spectrum.â€Â
“But the underlying fundamentals were strong. His walk-rate stayed low. His strikeouts stayed up. We emphasized adding pitchers in the bullpen that had command and control; that get ground balls. And he fits that category.”
Williams threw a little shade at evaluating pitchers based on ERA.
“Last year, even though he had the higher ERAs, the things he could control, the walks and strikeouts were still good. We hope that means he’s primed for a bounce back year.â€Â
Williams had used many of these themes in a conference call with local writers earlier in the day: (transcript courtesy of C. Trent Rosecrans)
“Like I said before, keeping the strikeout rates consistent with his career averages, keeping the walk rates consistent with his career averages. He really had kind of a higher batting average on balls in play (BABIP) than he had in most all of his seasons historically. The fact that he was still able to control the ball with a good three-pitch mix, we saw a guy with a very consistent track record before last year.â€Â
“He pitched with two new teams, facing new divisions, a lot of moving around. He was used a little bit differently, pitched in lower leverage situations. We hope to get him back to some of these higher leverage situations. We think the command will still be there. We think he will fit in nicely with the guys we’ve got.â€Â
Williams addressed the decline in Storen’s fastball velocity:
“We saw the numbers. We know [the velocity] was down a little bit last year. At the end of the season, the fastball was up around 93 his last [game] of the year. We still think he can be very effective in that range. He’s got a good three-pitch mix. I think he can be effective where he is.†(Mark Sheldon)
* * *
That the Reds spent $3-5 million on a reliever for the 2017 season doesn’t merit a banner headline. Maybe Drew Storen will pitch well enough the Reds can move him to a contender and get back a decent prospect. About a dozen relievers were traded to contenders at the 2016 deadline. Otherwise, we’re talking about 65 innings.
Storen does check several conventional boxes: (1) only 29 years old, (2) experience with high-leverage pitching, and (3) success with high-leverage pitching.
Given the pittance and short duration the Reds were rightly offering, their options were going to be limited. Read this carefully as you fret over a few numbers on Drew Storen’s FanGraphs player page: Any pitcher who had a good 2016 season would not be in the Reds market. None of the relievers available in their niche would be unblemished. The tricky task for the Reds front office was to select from among those flawed pitchers one they figured likely to bounce back.
That’s where the Reds front office took a modern and encouraging turn.
The front office liked Drew Storen based on outcomes a pitcher can most control like BB% and K% instead of fielding- or sequencing-dependent stats like ERA. They were attracted to Storen because they believed a chunk of his high BABIP was the product of bad luck. They valued the large sample size of Storen’s 6-year record over the small sample sizes of Storen’s 2016.
Sweet music indeed to the ears of saber-inclined Reds fans.
Yes, Drew Storen will arrive to GABP packing red flags that aren’t just the ones flashing his new wishbone-C. Anyone who signs for $3 million and one year isn’t peddling a sure thing.
And before we hail the glorious arrival of a new, unbound Reds front office, a bit of perspective. The Drew Storen deal is one, small acquisition and the rationale offered speaks merely to tactics, not strategy. The organization may well remain prisoner to any number of crippling big-picture biases. We’ll find out in the coming year as more important moves are made.
But it’s heartening that the new voice and leader of the Reds front office explained its collective thinking – at least in this instance – in ways that make sense in the analytics-based century. It’s a sea change from chasing RBI-guys, worrying about hitting with runners in scoring position, creamy veteran grit-mania and dugouts full of last decade’s Cardinals. | {
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I volunteer for Clean Ocean Action, an ocean advocacy team based in New Jersey.
We live here and we care about the waters off the coast of New Jersey and New York. It’s personal, it’s our beach.
We blow up people’s email boxes about fracking off the coast—we raise awareness about water pollution.
Did you know that the fertilizer you use could end up polluting some lake or pond or ocean nearby?
Did you know that outside lighting can affect baby sea turtles and their ability to go toward the water after they hatch?
Endangered animals are not toys or pets—don’t touch the turtles or the eggs.
Clean Ocean Action conducts Beach Sweeps twice a year in April and October, up and down the Jersey Shore.
“We use data collected about what we find to inform people and hopefully change their behavior. We are also trying to get corporations involved to reduce packaging and waste by showing them how their own products are being found in the cleanups.
The goal of the Beach Sweeps is to reduce and eliminate sources of litter.
The Beach Sweeps events are more than people picking-up trash from beaches. This program builds community support for solutions, as well as raises awareness about the negative impacts of litter on wildlife and the ocean. Citizens learn about the types and quantities of debris found along the coast and the shorelines of rivers, lakes and streams.
Most importantly, the data collected during the Beach Sweeps turns a one-day event into a legacy of information to combat litter and other sources of pollution by identifying and monitoring trends. The information helps find solutions to keep beaches clean and healthy for citizens and marine life. Indeed, the data has been used to help create federal, state, and local programs and laws to reduce litter in the environment.
Finally, the data from the COA Fall Beach Sweeps is submitted to the Ocean Conservancy in Washington, D.C. as part of its international database on marine debris and worldwide campaign against ocean pollution.” ~ Clean Ocean Action
Data reports are available on the Clean Ocean Action website, but there’s nothing like seeing it in person.
We send an email blast about a town hall meeting and drive some traffic there, because what we do matters.
Maybe all someone needs is a little nudge in the right direction.
Sometimes it is a Cub Scout troop looking for a volunteer experience for a badge.
This Cub Scout troop ranges from eight to 11-year-olds. I love when parents get kids involved early with volunteer projects, and getting up on a Saturday morning before the fast-food restaurants stop serving breakfast builds character.
Each scout is paired with an adult and briefed on how this works. There is a large white card with an extensive list of things that one could find during the cleanup. Shotgun shells, items of clothing and tampon applicators.
Participants make a tally mark for each item found, we emphasize that while collecting garbage is important, collecting data is too. The data helps us push for changes so there is less of the garbage. The kids understand this and transform into little scribes, recording what we are finding and placing into either the trash bag or the clear recycle bag.
45 cigarette butts found in one hour.
150 tiny plastic drink straws.
One scout brought his little sister and she found a pair of cargo shorts and ran over to me, “Do we recycle these?” “I think not, but you definitely found the most interesting thing today.” I shoved them in our trash bag and continued to scour the sand for cigarette butts. I find these particularly offensive, the world is not our ashtray. According to the Ocean Conservancy, cigarette butt litter accounts for one in every five items collected during cleanups.
Trash cans dot the boardwalk but somehow they are not being used.
How did I maximize this opportunity to teach young children about volunteering and the environment?
1) I briefed the boys and their parents ahead of time.
I briefed the parents about what we might find and safety precautions and I got the boys excited with some questions about what they might find when they are cleaning up. None of these kids predicted the scores of cigarette filters we would find on the sands. I also explained the big picture for this project, that Clean Ocean Action uses the data that we collect to show people what changes need to happen to reduce the amount of trash we pick up.
2) I paired each child with an adult, to keep them on task and to be an encouraging cheerleader through the process.
The adult and the child took turns being scribe or collector and we got them excited to keep filling the bags. It’s hard to collect garbage for two or three hours but the competitive boys collected quite a bit of garbage and data. We also spent a minute looking up and down the boardwalk, noting all the trash cans available but unused.
3) We debriefed afterward to explain what happens next and to let them feel the experience.
When we finished, we took pocket phone pictures of our data cards and the trash we collected. We spent a little time reflecting on the positive emotions that come from doing such a thing for themselves and others.
“People don’t recognize the hidden power of everyday experiences,” says Hanson. “We’re surrounded by opportunities—10 seconds here or 20 seconds there—to just register useful experiences and learn from them.” ~ Rick Hanson
I didn’t want to waste this opportunity to show the Cub Scouts how to be with what they just experienced.
We also talked about how other people think that what they did is important, the Beach Sweep has corporate sponsors.
Overall, the encounter was positive. The parents felt a sense of pride that they had this opportunity to share with their boys, the boys were shocked that we were responsible for removing such a large amount of trash. The data we collected will help Clean Ocean Action with their efforts at stopping litter at its origin.
And these boys hopefully learned and felt the value of what they did, that their two or three hours were meaningful in some way. I’m sure they got better at spotting trash cans.
~
Author: Josette Myers
Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock
Photo: Save the Bay | {
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NFL Announces Process For Attending 2017 NFL Draft In Philadelphia
Page Content
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/6/17
NFL ANNOUNCES PROCESS FOR ATTENDING
2017 NFL DRAFT IN PHILADELPHIA
Registration is now open for the 2017 NFL Draft in Philadelphia from April 27 to April 29, the NFL announced today. Fans may sign-up at NFL.com/FanMobilePass or download the NFL Draft – Fan Mobile Pass app to participate in the free NFL Draft Experience presented by Dannon Oikos Triple Zero, the largest fan festival created by the league, spanning the size of 25 football fields.
At the NFL Draft Experience, fans can partake in interactive activities, such as a 100-yard zip line, the Vertical Jump and the 40-Yard Dash, immersive games and virtual reality experiences, player autograph sessions, and more. Additional information, including a list of events, is available at NFL.com/DraftExperience.
The NFL is providing fans with more opportunities than ever before to see the event by constructing an open-air theater on the steps of the historic Philadelphia Museum of Art. For the first time, fans will be able to view all three days of the NFL Draft in an outdoor environment, as well as participate in free attractions as part of the NFL Draft Experience.
By registering for Fan Mobile Pass, fans will also be eligible to win a free ticket for themselves and a guest to access seating inside the NFL Draft Theater. Fans without seated tickets can still watch team selections due to the unique outdoor nature of this year’s event.
Fans attending the NFL Draft Experience will also have the chance to receive standby tickets to the theater, as seats become available, by checking-in at the event through the Fan Mobile Pass app on Thursday for Round 1, Friday for Rounds 2-3, and Saturday for Rounds 4-7.
The NFL Draft will be televised nationally by NFL Network and ESPN at the following times:
Thursday, April 27 – 8:00 PM ET
Friday, April 28 – 7:00 PM ET
Saturday, April 29 – 12:00 PM ET
Important Dates for Fans:
March 6: Fans may now sign-up for Fan Mobile Pass at NFL.com/FanMobilePass . By registering, fans will have access to the NFL Draft Experience, as well as the chance to win a free ticket for themselves and a guest to access seating inside the NFL Draft Theater.
March 19: Until Sunday, March 19 at 11:59 PM ET, fans may register for Fan Mobile Pass to be eligible for free seated tickets inside the NFL Draft Theater. After March 19, registration remains open for the NFL Draft Experience, which also makes fans eligible for standby theater tickets as seats become available.
March 22: Fans randomly selected for seated tickets will receive an e-mail on or around March 22 notifying them of the date (one of three days) and instructions for confirming attendance.
April 27 to April 29: The free NFL Draft Experience football festival opens for fans of all ages and teams. Fans in attendance will be able to view all three days of the Draft in an outdoor environment and have the chance to receive stand-by tickets to be seated inside the NFL Draft Theater.
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Richard Childress is still mulling whether to bring Dale Earnhardt’s famous No. 3 back to Sprint Cup competition.
Childress, who owns the rights to the car number that Earnhardt made famous,
has said since last November that he believes that fans would accept a return of the slanted design that marked Earnhardt’s car for six of his seven Cup championships.
Speaking on SiriusXM’s NASCAR channel Wednesday morning, Childress reiterated that only a member of his family or the Earnhardt family would race the number in Cup.
MORE: Dillon's hope | Karsyn Elledge & No. 3 | Kentucky sked | Milano's NASCAR apparel
Childress grandsons Austin and Ty Dillon have raced the number in the Truck and Nationwide series in recent years, and Austin Dillon could run a full-time Cup schedule in 2014.
Earnhardt won six of his seven championships driving the No. 3 at RCR. He died in a crash on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.
“We’re definitely in the process of discussing that,†Childress told the network Wednesday. “Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon did a great job representing it.
“We all know the history of it, what Dale did with it, and they respect it and if it did come back with one of those two young men, Dale Earnhardt would be smiling down and he would be very pleased to see it back on the racetrack. … Who knows what we’ll see come the Daytona 500 in February?â€
Austin Dillon, who was third in the Nationwide Series last year and fourth in the current standings, has driven the No. 33 for RCR in Cup this year as well as the No. 51 for Phoenix Racing.
He said he wouldn’t want to run the No. 3 in Sprint Cup with just a partial schedule.
“I kind of would like to do it as a full season, personally, going all out, having a full year to do it,†the 22-year-old Dillon said in January. “One or two spotty races are just hard to go in there and compete when you’re not competing at that level of competition every week.â€
The No. 3 has not been used in Cup since Earnhardt’s death in 2001.
“With Austin running it in Nationwide as much as he did, it’s kind of re-energized a lot of the fans,†Childress said earlier this year. “The fans come up and the cards and the calls and the emails we get, when we said he was going to run the 33 at Daytona, overwhelmingly people wanted to see the 3.â€
Not only have the Dillon brothers raced with the iconic No. 3 on their cars for much of their careers, Dale Earnhardt’s 12-year-old granddaughter, Karsyn Elledge, also is running the slanted No. 3 in mini-sprints.
“I do like running it, but you always question certain things every now and then when you think back about it and people say things,†Dillon said earlier this year. “The great thing is I had a lot of support with it, especially lately. … People come up to you and say, ‘Man, we’d love to see you in the 3 in the Cup Series.’
“That’s all I need to hear is a little bit of support here and there. Past that, it’s a number and I have to give 110 percent if I’m in the 3 or not in the 3.†| {
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A teen who rose to fame whilst voguing in the background of a video, has come out as transgender.
Brendan Jordan came to attention in 2014 after millions shared a clip of him stealing the show with poses to Lady Gaga’s ‘Applause’ in the background of Las Vegas news coverage.
Jordan came out as trans at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Time to Thrive conference on Sunday.
Speaking of the fame that followed the video of him voguing, at the opening of a local mall, Jordan said he wanted to use his voice to speak for his generation.
“Like most teenagers, I’m still figuring it out,” he said.
“I’m starting to label as one, or as part, of the trans community,” he went on.
“I can’t really label it, because, you know, some days, my more feminine side comes out — the ‘she.’ Some other days I don’t feel like putting on my fabulous mask, and the ‘he’ comes out, and I’m totally OK with that.”
Going on, Jordan said he was happy to use both pronouns “he” and “she”, and that he enjoys the “limitless” feeling his gender gives him.
He also said he doesn’t know what his identity will be in ten years.
Jordan also introduced Andreja Pejic, the first out trans person to be the face of a makeup brand.
Check out both speeches below: | {
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Some users who had been trying to post links to stories about the Baltimore riots had initially accused Facebook of selective censorship, but it soon emerged it was a system-wide issue. | {
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This information is current as of today, Tue Feb 01 16:59:10 2011.
The Department of State has issued this Worldwide Caution to update information on the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world.
U.S. citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. This replaces the Worldwide Caution dated August 12, 2010, to provide updated information on security threats and terrorist activities worldwide.
The Department of State remains concerned about the continued threat of terrorist attacks, demonstrations, and other violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests overseas. U.S. citizens are reminded that demonstrations and rioting can occur with little or no warning. Current information suggests that Al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics including suicide operations, assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings, and bombings.
Extremists may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons, and target both official and private interests. Examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas, and locales where U.S. citizens gather in large numbers, including during holidays.
U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure. Extremists have targeted and attacked subway and rail systems, as well as aviation and maritime services. In the past several years, these types of attacks have occurred in cities such as Moscow, London, Madrid, and Glasgow.
Current information suggests that Al-Qaida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. and Western interests in Europe. European governments have taken action to guard against terrorist attack and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions. In the past several years, attacks have been planned or occurred in various European cities.
Credible information indicates terrorist groups also seek to continue attacks against U.S. interests in the Middle East and North Africa. For example, Iraq remains dangerous and unpredictable. Attacks against military and civilian targets throughout Iraq continue. Methods of attack have included roadside improvised explosive devices, mortars, and shootings; kidnappings still occur as well. Security threat levels remain high in Yemen due to terrorist activities there. The U.S. Embassy has had to close several times in response to ongoing threats by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). U.S. citizens as well as other Westerners have been targeted for attack in Yemen. U.S. citizens have also been the targets of numerous terrorist attacks in Lebanon in the past (though none recently) and the threat of anti-Western terrorist activity continues to exist there. In Algeria, terrorist attacks occur regularly, particularly in the Kabylie region of the country. In the past, terrorists have targeted oil processing facilities in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen. | {
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Sunil Bahl, MD1; Lee M. Hampton, MD2; Pankaj Bhatnagar, MD3; Gadala Srinivasa Rao, MD4; Pradeep Haldar, MBBS5; Lucky Sangal, MD3; Puttaraju AK Jetty, MBBS3; Uma P Nalavade, MSc6 (View author affiliations) View suggested citation Article Metrics Altmetric: Metric Details Box References Related Materials pdf icon
During September 2–October 4, 2016, four sewage samples collected during August 3–September 19 (Hyderabad, Telangana State, India) and one sewage sample collected on August 30 (Ahmedabad, Gujarat State, India) tested positive for Sabin-like type 2 polioviruses. These polioviruses were detected approximately 4 months after April 25, 2016, when India officially ceased use of trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (tOPV), containing Sabin attenuated types 1, 2, and 3 polioviruses, and switched to bivalent OPV (bOPV), containing Sabin attenuated types 1 and 3 polioviruses (1). Detection of Sabin-like type 2 poliovirus approximately 4 months after the switch from tOPV to bOPV suggested that tOPV use might have continued after it was supposed to stop globally, creating a risk for emergence of new type 2 vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPV2s), which can cause paralysis. Genetic sequencing of the 903-nucleotide VP1 region of the isolated viruses showed zero, one, two, and four nucleotide changes in the four Hyderabad isolates and one nucleotide change in the Ahmedabad isolate, compared with the type 2 polioviruses in tOPV. These findings indicated that the isolated polioviruses had not replicated sufficiently to accumulate more than a few mutations on a potential pathway to becoming VDPV2s, and that the tOPV they originated from had likely been used during the preceding 4 months. In accordance with global guidelines for responding to poliovirus events (2), detailed investigations were initiated within 48 hours of detection of the type 2 poliovirus in Hyderabad and the neighboring Rangareddy district, and in Ahmedabad (Box). As part of global poliovirus containment efforts (3), laboratories in those areas potentially storing type 2 polioviruses had previously been found to not have such polioviruses, so they were not searched. Telangana and Gujarat state officials met with immunization program stakeholders in the affected districts and other districts in their states regarding the need to reconfirm withdrawal of all tOPV.
In Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts, the two main district vaccine cold stores, along with 13 private vaccine retailers and distributors and 4,498 public and private health facilities, were searched during September 4–October 5. Thirty-seven tOPV vials from four manufacturers were found in 17 private clinics; the majority were small clinics not affiliated with an organized medical association. Twenty-two of the tOPV vials were unopened; however, 15 had been partially used. Six vials were beyond their expiration date, and 31 had expiration dates from December 2016 to November 2017. No tOPV vials or bulk type 2 polio vaccine were found at the only vaccine manufacturer in Hyderabad. In Ahmedabad District, the main district vaccine cold store, 572 other cold chain storage points and public and private health facilities, and 12 private vaccine retailers and distributors were searched during September 14–October 17. Two tOPV vials were found at a private vaccine retailer, and another 11 tOPV vials were found at eight private clinics; the majority were small clinics not affiliated with an organized medical association. All tOPV vials had expiration dates ranging from December 2016 to November 2017. All tOPV vials found during the investigations had been purchased and delivered before the switch from tOPV to bOPV. All tOPV vials found were removed, labeled for destruction, and placed in the responsible immunization officer’s custody. These investigations for tOPV possibly in use after the global switch from tOPV to bOPV are the first triggered by detection of Sabin-like type 2 polioviruses in either environmental surveillance sewage samples or stool specimens from persons with paralysis. The finding of tOPV vials in health facilities and at a vaccine retailer indicates that some tOPV might still be in use and that future detections of Sabin-like type 2 virus anywhere should prompt checks for tOPV vials, according to the guidelines for responding to type 2 polioviruses (2). The risk that Sabin-like type 2 virus could spread and evolve into a circulating VDPV2 increases over time with the progressive decrease in population immunity to type 2 poliovirus infection following the switch from tOPV to bOPV (4). The finding that all tOPV discovered was at a private vaccine retailer or private clinics indicates that future investigations to identify tOPV still in use should carefully assess the private sector. This investigation underscores the importance of maintaining robust surveillance for polioviruses and of immunization workers being alert for tOPV vials in cold chain storage and reporting any tOPV vials that they find. Additional efforts are needed to ensure that the private sector is aware of the need for cessation of tOPV use.
Acknowledgments C. Shivleela, Institute of Preventive Medicine, Hyderabad; Disha Patel, BJ Medical College, Ahmedabad; Deepa Sharma, Enterovirus Research Centre, Mumbai; Rajeshwar Tiwari, Budhaprakash Jyoti, G. Sudheera, S. Prasanna Kumari, Ganesh Rao, Government of Telangana; N.P. Jani, Government of Gujarat, Asish Satapathy, B.P. Subramanya, Raman Sethi, Vikas Kokare, Aniket Rana, C.R. Patel, Pragath Kumar, Atul P Nagime, N Veera Bhadrudu, National Polio Surveillance Project, World Health Organization, India.
Corresponding author: Lee M. Hampton, [email protected], 404-639-4722.
1World Health Organization, South-East Asia Regional Office, New Delhi, India; 2Global Immunization Division, CDC; 3World Health Organization, Country Office for India, New Delhi, India; 4Government of Telangana, India; 5Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi, India; 6Enterovirus Research Centre, Mumbai, India.
BOX. Components of investigations to find trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine (tOPV) still in use after its use was officially ceased — Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, India
Conduct immediate search of all known vaccine cold chain storage points.
Visit all health facilities regularly reporting acute flaccid paralysis cases to inquire about tOPV use, with extensive search for tOPV vials at medical colleges and other large health facilities.
Conduct a street-by-street physical check of all public and private health facilities that do not regularly report acute flaccid paralysis cases.
Map and search all private vaccine retailers and distributors in coordination with the state drug regulator.
Upon identification of any tOPV vials at any location, trace back the source and timing of the supply. Ensure safe disposal of recovered vaccine.
Visit any OPV manufacturers to check for tOPV and bulk type 2 polio vaccine.
Meet with immunization program stakeholders (e.g., professional health associations, public and private hospitals, vaccine retailers and distributors, immunization program officers, cold chain officers, and World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund staff members) regarding the need to reconfirm tOPV withdrawal.
Suggested citation for this article: Bahl S, Hampton LM, Bhatnagar P, et al. Notes from the Field: Detection of Sabin-Like Type 2 Poliovirus from Sewage After Global Cessation of Trivalent Oral Poliovirus Vaccine — Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, India, August–September 2016. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;65:1493–1494. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6552a9external icon. | {
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DISCONTINUED – Predator – Vehicle – Blade Fighter
***THIS ITEM HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED***
This massive vehicle is an homage to a classic Kenner vehicle from the 1993 Predator toy line. When fully assembled, the Blade Fighter is over 2 feet in length and accommodates most 6″- 8″ tall action figures! (Figures sold separately.)
Featuring a hinged cockpit, ball-jointed cannons, spring-loaded projectile, spring-loaded detachable 19″ long blades, and removable wing guns that can be hand held by your Predator action figures. The Blade Fighter also includes areas for extra weapon storage and clips for holding an extra Predator mask.
This is a must-have for Predator fans and will come in gorgeous closed box packaging featuring original art and illustrations like the classic toy lines of yesteryear. | {
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The term Pax Syriana was coined as a reference for Syrian control over Lebanon as a counterweight to Israel, amid a battle for influence between Syria and Israel in the Levant.
At various times since the French mandate, Damascus has sought to exercise control over Lebanon in some way – none more so than in the period between 1975 and 2005, when Pax Syriana was at its peak. The primary driver was the conflict between Syria and Israel. The Golan Heights dominated Syrian thinking after the 1967 war, and ever since, Syria and Israel have been locked in a struggle over who controls southern Lebanon and southern Syria.
Of course, as the war in Syria started in 2011, the country battled for its survival and lost parts of its own southern territory. Now, as the government - firmly backed by the Russians - has reasserted control, Damascus is poised to re-enter the south, where a potential deal between Tel Aviv and Moscow would allow the Syrian army to retake rebel territory.
Default policy of Damascus
It is still too early to tell when and how this might materialise, but one thing is clear: slowly but surely, Damascus is falling back to its default policy of a diplomatic battle with Israel as its main objective, in the pattern set out by the late president Hafez al-Assad.
One could argue that the structure he handed over to his son is what has preserved Bashar al-Assad, especially when dealing with the Israeli threat in the south. In a remarkable twist, the Syrian military could be back to managing its border with Israel - with the irony not lost on Israel that it prefers Damascus over Iran or the extremist groups backed by the Gulf states.
Two monumental events contributed to the rise of Hafez Assad as the main influence in the Levant. One was the expulsion of the Palestine Liberation Organisation from Jordan to southern Lebanon, and the second was the peace deal between Egypt and Israel.
This is pretty much a repeat of the 80s playbook, when once the Americans quit Lebanon, they favoured Hafez al-Assad running the show, despite Israeli opposition
Syria under Hafez Assad rose as the pre-eminent threat and balancer against Israel, and by default the United States. It is a widely acknowledged fact that for almost three decades, successive US presidents came to trust, and grudgingly respect, Assad’s sovereignty over Lebanon.
Of course, the war in Lebanon, in the end, was a straight shootout between Israel and Syria's proxies. Since Israel withdrew in 2000, Syria's allies have been firmly in control. Then, like now, the fate of Russian missiles and military advisers was a key worry of the United States and Israel. Russia had military advisers and surface-to-air missile batteries in Lebanon, as it now has in Syria.
Similarly, Israel had the South Lebanon Army as a buffer between the Syrian army and Israeli forces. During the current conflict, Israel has provided support to anti-Damascus forces above the Golan. This has also tested the nerve and loyalty of Israeli Druze, who have openly revolted against Tel Aviv in what they see as a violation of not just the "Druze buffer" in southern Syria, but also the majority Druze support for Assad.
The question of Iran
Then, like now, it was Russian support for Damascus that was strategic in winning the peace, and despite Iran’s presence in Lebanon, Israel and the US accepted that Damascus would settle the fate of Lebanon. Now a repeat is happening in Syria.
Despite much hype about the Shia crescent and the undeniable rise of Iranian influence in the Levant, it is often overstated how much actual influence Iran has over Damascus. Patrick Seale, Jubin Goodarzi and Barak Barfi have all written extensively about how Iran has never fully controlled Syria and Damascus has always differed in policies in neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon.
Iraqi specialist and policy adviser Emma Sky also wrote in her book how Syria backed opposing sides to Iran after the US invasion of Iraq. The answer is relatively less complex than observers make it out to be; Iraq and Lebanon have Twelver Shia majorities, while Syria has never had a history of either mainstream Shia Islam or believing in the same politics as the mullahs of Tehran.
Syrian women walk past a large portrait of President Bashar al-Assad and a watermarked portrait of his late father, former president Hafez al-Assad, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus on 13 May 2018 (AFP) The alliance has primarily been one of convergence in Lebanon, yet even there Damascus has favoured groups that oppose Tehran whenever it has suited the Syrian security apparatus. Even in the current conflict, the former head of Syria's political intelligence, Rustom Ghazaleh, was dead opposed to Iranian involvement in southern Syria, precisely because Syria could not afford to provoke Israel, given the Syrian military was stretched on all fronts.
There has also been a clear rift between the Syrian army and some parts of the Iranian forces and militias under it. The view from the Syrian army has always been that Russia has helped the Syrian state, army and intelligence, while Iran has assisted its own proxies without directly helping the military.
It was for this reason that Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian army called for Russian help - and as soon as the Syrian military got that support, the turnaround was significant.
Of course, one cannot underestimate Iranian support to Damascus during this war; Iran knows the limits of its presence and has given an indication publicly that it will let the Syrian military take over the south. This is a clear admission of its own limitations and overreach in the conflict.
Deal or no deal?
It is still unclear what kind of precise deal can be reached between Israel and Russia over southern Syria. There has been a report in a trusted Israeli newspaper of a conversation between Moscow and Tel Aviv to allow the Syrian military to retake the south, as long as there are no Iranians or its proxies involved in the battle and post-conflict stabilisation.
Nabih Berri, another ally of Damascus in Lebanon, has hinted that a full Iranian withdrawal could take place once US forces leave Syria. President Donald Trump and the Americans are certainly not interested in the south or in staying in Syria much longer than needed – and if they feel that the Russians and Israelis have reached a deal, that would suit them perfectly.
Syria's war is far from over Christopher Phillips Read More »
This is pretty much a repeat of the 80s playbook, when once the Americans quit Lebanon, they favoured Hafez Assad running the show, despite Israeli opposition. Then, as now, the US logic was that Russia could influence Damascus to avoid an all-out war in the Levant.
This is the greatest legacy the late Hafez Assad passed on to his son - the game of chess on the Israeli border would always decide the fate of Damascus. If indeed a deal is reached in the south of Syria, it would go some way towards further entrenching the return of the Syrian government to near full control of the country.
- Kamal Alam is a visiting fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He specialises in contemporary military history of the Arab world and Pakistan, he is a fellow for Syrian affairs at the Institute for Statecraft, and is a visiting lecturer at several military staff colleges across the Middle East, Pakistan and the UK.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: Israeli tanks take positions near the Syrian border in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on 9 May 2018 (AFP)
This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition. | {
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La Riva on the 15th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina | {
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When I first started playing Minecraft a few months ago, I played with a rule: if I die, I have to delete the entire world. Now I'm trying to get to hell and back. The diary starts here , and over Christmas new entries will go up weekly on Wednesdays.
Day 17
Day 17
Day 19 >
Day 19 >
World 10, deaths 9
Right, a sea of lava. I can probably do this. There's probably a way to do this. This might be doable.
I could turn around, of course, but the whole point of this experiment is to get as far as possible in one direction in the Nether realm, so that I'll be eight times as far from home when I build a portal back to the real world. If I turn back every time I hit an obstacle - well, it's hell. It's made of obstacles.
The only thing I can think, staring out at the lava sea while dodging the occasional Ghast fireball, is that I've been in a situation like this before. Trying to avoid Creepers back in the real world, I moonwalked through the air building a one-block bridge beneath me as I went.
Ghast fireballs would make that tricky in this situation - you can't stop and carefully peer over the edge to place the next block. The fireballs don't just hurt, they destroy everything in a four metre radius. The bridge itself would be smashed and I'd fall - which, over lava, is frowned upon.
But it's really the only option. If you do it perfectly, aiming at exactly the right spot and slapping a block down with metronomic precision when the end of your bridge comes into view, you can keep moving continuously as you do this. Not fast, but maybe fast enough to be out of the blast radius when the next Ghast shot hits.
So I have to do it exactly right, and it still might not work. I hate things like that.
I do need some breathing room to get started, so I can't build this bridge from the surface. I duck back underground and tunnel out to the cliff face, so I can start my bridge out of sight of the Ghasts, in a hopefully fireball-free zone. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was famous for his strict insistence on a fireball-free working environment, as I recall.
Perfect.
OK, well it's less perfect now.
That's better.
This is daunting. But there is a clump of land out there - an island of zombie pigmen I can drop down onto when I'm half way, to restock on blocks and hide to let the Ghasts disperse. I gulp, turn around, and walk backwards out over the sea of molten rock.
Donk.
Donk.
Donk. Donk. Donk. Donk. Donkdonkdonkdonk- BOOM.
Donkdonkdonkdonkdonkdonk-BOOM-donkdonk-BOOM-donkdonkdonkdonk-BOOM-donk-BOOM-do-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-donkBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM.
Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. After minutes of being able to see nothing but the lava beneath me and the blocks I'm frantically donking down, I've glimpsed the island and it's in the wrong place . I need to be at least ten metres to the right to land on it when I drop off this bridge. With the storm of Ghast fireballs reaching fever pitch, my bridge in tatters, I have to very, very carefully change direction.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOMBOOMBOOM Donk. Donk. Donk. Donk. Donkdonkdonkdonk-BOOOOOOOOOM
It hits me. My bridge is obliterated and I'm sent flying into the air, exacly over the lava coast of the island below. But the fireball hit in front of me, sending me backwards. Backwards is the way I want to go. That gives me just enough momentum to reach dry land during my fall, at which point I pummel a hole in the blood-red rock until I'm sitting at the bottom of a dark pit, safe from Ghast eyes.
I dig a chunk out of the rock and light a fire in it to see my surroundings, and immediately burn myself on it.
God damn it.
Next: Crossing the other, bigger lava sea . | {
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Image copyright PA
It is well known that it is not only those on a tight budget that shop at the discount stores Aldi and Lidl.
But a survey suggests a huge number of the better heeled have also been browsing the aisles and may have a product from at least one of them lurking in their larders and fridges.
Retail researchers Mintel have found that 77% of households earning £50,000 or more have bought from the stores.
That is a higher proportion than UK shoppers on much lower incomes.
Among those with a household income of less than £15,500, 73% use discounters, according to Mintel.
News of further cost cuts late on Tuesday from Sainsbury's underline the impact the discounters have had on the UK's grocery market.
The UK's second-biggest supermarket chain said the market was "changing at a rapid pace" and meant the firm needed to "transform the way we operate".
Image copyright Getty Images
Discounters are the only companies whose market share is growing.
Figures on Tuesday from Kantar Worldpanel, show Lidl and Aldi now account for 12% of the food market.
Their sales continue to increase rapidly, with growth well into double digits.
By comparison, Morrisons, the fastest growing among the rest of the established chains, increased sales by 2.8%.
German companies Aldi and Lidl have been in the UK since the 1990s, but their growth spurt really took off in the years following the credit crunch 10 years ago.
They now have more than 600 stores each across the country.
Price war
However, the discounters, too, are finding profits harder to grow than sales.
Aldi reported record sales in the UK and Ireland for last year, but its profits have fallen sharply amid a fierce price war among supermarkets.
Its latest sales were up 13.5% to £8.7bn in 2016, but operating profit dropped 17%.
Image copyright Getty Images
Initially their appeal lay in price, and, perhaps novelty, but Mintel's survey also gathered shoppers' views on quality.
It says among shoppers that use Lidl and Aldi, 71% say it is as good as elsewhere, although their premium ranges do not rank as highly. Two thirds rate these as matching those on offer at rival supermarkets.
Nick Carroll, senior research analyst at Mintel, said: "The post-recession success of leading discount food retailers has been built on a softening of their hard discount roots and bringing in ranges which appeal to a wider variety of consumers.
"A part of this success has been the introduction of more premium ranges, something that is clearly going over well with shoppers." | {
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Man with extensive criminal history arrested in road rage killing of 10-year-old girl: Police Summerbell Brown, 10, was with her family when she was shot in the driveway.
A 20-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly gunning down a 10-year-old girl in what police called an apparent road rage killing, authorities said.
Joshua Gonzalez was booked on one count of first-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault in connection with the slaying of 10-year-old Summerbell Brown, Phoenix police announced Friday.
Gonzalez has an extensive criminal history, Phoenix Police Sgt. Vince Lewis said at a news conference.
Phoenix Police
A composite sketch of the suspect and images of his truck were circulated on Thursday before the arrest. A tip led investigators to Gonzalez, police said.
The truck and weapon believed to be involved in the shooting were also recovered. The suspect "did try to alter the truck's appearance," Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said.
Phoenix Police Department
The shooting unfolded at about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, when 10-year-old Summerbell was in the car with her sister and parents on their way home, according to police.
The suspect's white truck cut off the Browns in traffic, Lewis said.
Then the truck followed the family's car very closely, Lewis said.
"As soon as the truck was behind the victim, he stayed relatively close, as if he was intentionally following the victim," Lewis said.
As the family turned into their driveway, the truck stopped behind them, Lewis said.
"I got out of my vehicle," Summerbell's father, Dharquintium Brown, later told reporters. "I asked him, 'What's going on?' And he just got to firing."
KNXV
KNXV
The suspect, who never exited his car during the shooting, fled the scene.
Summerbell, who had been sitting directly behind her father, was shot and pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.
Dharquintium Brown on Thursday told reporters he "watched her eyes roll in the back of her head. And I pray nobody has to experience that."
"She died in front of me," he said.
Dharquintium Brown was also shot and suffered a non-life-threatening injury, police said. Summerbell's mother and sister were not hurt.
KNXV
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego on Friday called the killing a "senseless tragedy."
"This is heartbreaking ... that I lost my baby like this," Summerbell's mother, Taniesha Brown, told reporters Thursday, overcome with emotion.
"There was no reason for her to be taken like this. I wish it was me instead of my baby," Taniesha Brown said.
"This nightmare's going to be playing in my head every day," she said. "I just really hope she's at peace."
Lewis said the suspect and victims likely did not know each other.
ABC News' Adrienne Bankert and Alyssa Pone contributed to this report. | {
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Masonic Glass Marble Collection Here is a cute collectible that is in big demand. This marble has the Square and Compasses with the Letter "G" formed right into the glass. It is one inch in diameter and sits on its own clear glass stand. When marble collecting became really popular in the 1980s, all kinds of people rushed to produce marbles with "pictures" on them. These pictures typically were corporate symbols or logos for beverages, cars and the like, (Coke collecting was also popular at the time.) plus any other image that might potentially prove marketable. One reason new "picture marbles" were introduced was in an effort to capitalize on the fact that genuine, older picture marbles existed (shown above) , and were quite rare. A series of cartoon characters was produced in the 1930s, and there are a few old advertiser types from that era as well. On the older picture marbles, the illustrations are a dark brownish black, and look almost like they have been branded into the surface of an otherwise normal, multi-colored, opaque, standard-sized, machine made marble. New "picture marbles" are typically large, opaque white machine made marbles an inch or more in diameter. Designs are applied by a transfer-like technique to their exterior surface. Unless the logo being represented uses only one color in addition to white, the designs applied to the surfaces of the marbles typically involve multiple colors, whatever seems appropriate to the subject. A special "Thanks" to Brother Steve Kapp (kalbo on Ebay) for submitting the pictures of his wonderful Marble Collection. Steve is a Master Mason and a Masonic Collector who is affiliated with the below listed Masonic bodies: Leonard Wood Lodge No. 105, Angeles City, Philippines
Cavite York Rite, Cavite, Philippines
Okinawa Scottish Rite, Okinawa, Japan (Valley of Okinawa and Guam) Aloha Temple, Honolulu, Hawaii
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National Sailing Hall of Fame member rescued off Sanibel after craft capsizes during race
Randy Smyth's attempt at repeating or beating a record he set in 2017 in an 300-mile expedition-style race down the west coast of Florida fell short on Saturday when the National Sailing Hall of Fame member's boat capsized 12 miles south of Sanibel Island.
Smyth, 63, of Fort Walton Beach, one of North America's top multihull sailors, was rescued without injury off his 20-foot trimaran sailboat Sizzor by the U.S. Coast Guard.
At 9 p.m., Coast Guard 7th District Command Center watchstanders received a personal locator beacon activation connected to the Water Tribe Everglades Challenge. The annual race from Tampa to Key Largo is run by sailors in sea kayaks, canoes and small boats.
The Coast Guard's St. Petersburg station verified the owner of the beacon was Smyth and contacted him via VHF-FM marine band radio. Smyth stated his sailboat had capsized and was in need of emergency assistance.
A 29-foot Response Boat Small-II boat crew from the Coast Guard's Fort Myers Beach station was launched and rescued Smyth.
Smyth could not be reached for comment.
"Locator beacons like a PLB or EPIRB can give us an extremely accurate position when used during an emergency," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Jesse Ameigh, officer of the day at Fort Myers Beach Coast Guard station. "Mr. Smyth was well prepared with a PLB, and the rest of his safety equipment was readily available."
Smyth is one of nine Americans to have both been on a winning America’s Cup crew (1988) and win an Olympic medal in sailing (1988, 1992). He was one of eight people inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Smyth’s sailing resume includes winning the Worrell 1000, a grueling 1000-mile distance race which he sailed in a record 75 hours, and a role as a consultant on two Hollywood films, sailing a trimaran for Kevin Costner in "Water World" and a catamaran for Pierce Brosnan in "The Thomas Crown Affair".
In 2010, Smyth was a commentator on America’s Cup for ESPN, and in 2016 covered the Rio Olympic Games for NBC.
The Everglades Challenge is an unsupported, adventure race. The distance is roughly 300 nautical miles with a time limit of eight days or less.
Smyth has finished six such challenges and set a Class 5 sailboat record during last year's race, finishing the 300-mile course in three days, 10 hours and 9 minutes. Only about 40 percent of starters are able to finish, according to race literature.
Unsupported means that there are no safety boats or support crews to help during the race and participants are not allowed to have a support crew follow or meet during the race. It is OK to have family or friends at official checkpoints, but they cannot provide anything other than emotional support.
Connect with this reporter: MichaelBraunNP (Facebook) @MichaelBraunNP (Twitter)
More: Diver losing consciousness on boat off Naples coast rescued by U.S. Coast Guard crew
More: Fort Myers Beach Coast Guard crew rescues four in disabled, sinking boat near Sanibel
More: Coast Guard rescues two Cape Coral men from capsized boat | {
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Post by james+burgundy » Sun Jun 27, 2010 1:50 pm
Is Trolling Me still a Win? I mean not to be rude but by now it seems slightly uninspired and unoriginal. Now don't get me wrong I am not trying to get people to stop trolling but I am question as to weather it warrants a win anymore. I think that the only way trolling me could warrant a win is if people got bored of it and stopped and then some enterprising person started the trolling again thereby being the only one doing it and also being original.
Been here longer then pretty much all of you or some shit. | {
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In Oklahoma, Private Companies Run Pretrial Services, Driving People Into Debt
A company in Cleveland County exemplifies how for-profit legal services affect poor and vulnerable individuals.
In May 2017, when 47-year-old Oklahoma City resident Jeremy Brown showed up to court for a drunk driving offense, he was given three options: go to jail, pay 10 percent of his $5,000 bail, or enter a pretrial services program that would also allow him to go home with certain stipulations, such as weekly check-ins.
He requested to leave with an “oral recognizance bond,” a promise that he would return to court. But even though it wasn’t a violent crime, the judge demanded more in return for Brown’s release.
Brown chose the pretrial services program because he couldn’t afford bail and didn’t want to spend more time in jail. But there was an important requirement he didn’t consider. “I didn’t read all the paperwork,” he said. “I didn’t know I would be charged $10 a day.”
From May until August, he struggled to pay that fee and checked in once a week with Cleveland County Pretrial Services’s office in Norman, Oklahoma, roughly an hour from his home. The weekly visits took more than three hours every week with travel, preventing him from keeping a full-time job.
Brown ended up leaving the program when he was arrested for another DUI and an assault in August. But his inability to pay for his services became an additional strike against him, he said. By the end of his supervision, he owed the for-profit company $760, which he compared to a car payment every month. He didn’t have a job at the time, and he wasn’t able to pay.
“I think it’s a racket,” Brown said. “Every little thing they do, they charge you for it.”
Cleveland County Pretrial Services is one of a growing number of private for-profit corporations entering the pretrial services industry in jurisdictions across the country, charging people for their own community-based supervision. This particular company has contracted with Cleveland County, Oklahoma, since 2008, charging people anywhere from $40 to $300 per month (plus occasionally an $8 daily fee for electronic monitoring) for different levels of supervision as they await trial.
This is really a poverty trap.Joanna Weiss, Fines and Fees Justice Center
To many counties, the private companies offer a way to save money and reduce jail populations. But advocates say that these programs are creating two tiers of justice—those who can afford bail and get released, and those who have to stay jailed or pay for their own supervision.
Roughly 80 percent of criminal defendants are considered poor, according to the Oklahoma Policy Institute. After a bail reform package failed in the Oklahoma legislature this year, activists began pushing for greater transparency about companies profiting off the poor at the county level, including Cleveland County Pretrial Services.
“This is really a poverty trap,” said Joanna Weiss, co-director of the Fines and Fees Justice Center. “If you can’t afford bail, we’re already dealing with people who are the very lowest end of the economic spectrum, and then we’re charging all these fees. That’s a massive problem.”
Under the latest contract between Cleveland County and Cleveland County Pretrial Services, obtained by The Appeal under the Oklahoma Open Records Act, the county is paying up to $365,000 a year for the company to run the pretrial program, a mental health pretrial program, and a community service probation program. According to Cleveland County Pretrial Services, the provisions of the pretrial release program can include mandatory weekly reporting, electronic monitoring, drug testing, and case management, among other things.
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Sasser told The Appeal that a representative from Cleveland County Pretrial Services attends all arraignments and then uses a risk assessment to determine the level of supervision needed. There are certain violent crimes that disqualify people from pretrial release, but if a crime qualifies, prosecutors consider criminal history and other factors to determine whether they can be assigned to pretrial release and at what level (0 through 3). A judge then makes the final determination whether they can be released.
Julia Curry, owner of Cleveland County Pretrial Services, told The Appeal there are 68 people currently in the program, with the majority required to pay $10 per day. Requiring someone to pay the extra $8 per day for electronic monitoring is rare; there are only three people paying for that service right now.
Curry said her program, which she describes as a way for the county to save money, doesn’t penalize people who can’t pay. If a payment is missed, participants can stay in the program unless a judge orders their supervision to be revoked.
“If you’re not able to pay it, and you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do, there’s no penalty,” she said. “We don’t report to a credit agency. We’re not here to try to set everyone up. We’re here to make everyone successful so that they can get through this process.”
Still, she conceded that a judge could always revoke pretrial release and send someone back to jail for missed payments. Brown said that while he was on pretrial supervision, that threat loomed.
They could “put you back in jail if you don’t pay your court costs,” he said.
Sasser said he does not consider ability to pay when assigning a defendant to pretrial release, but said that in his 18 months in the DA’s office, he has never seen a judge revoke release or sanction anyone for inability to pay. The only sanctions he has seen are if someone violates the requirements, like drug testing or weekly visits, and are forced to appear before a judge.
In that case, he said, sanctions could include writing a paper, doing community service, or spending time in jail, depending on the violation, he said.
The role of private companies in the legal system, whether they’re running prisons or supervision services, has garnered increased attention in recent years from civil rights and advocacy groups. A March 2019 report from the National Consumer Law Center, “Commercialized (In)Justice,” examined private players in the legal system and found that in pretrial services, companies take advantage of their ability to threaten clients with criminal consequences. At least 10 states allow counties and municipalities to contract with private companies to administer their probation systems for misdemeanor and lower offenses, the report found, and poor people of color are most likely to bear the costs.
In Alabama, the Southern Poverty Law Center has pushed back and successfully sued to get a city to cancel its contract with a private probation company. Yet private companies continue to function in jurisdictions across the country, including many counties in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma has the country’s highest incarceration rate and, like many states, jails large numbers of people for their inability to pay bail. According to Open Justice Oklahoma, the median jail stay in Cleveland County for people accused of nonviolent offenses who didn’t post bond in fiscal year 2018 was 62.5 days for a felony and 33 days for a misdemeanor. Elsewhere in Oklahoma, median jail stays are even longer.
Since we do have the highest incarceration in the world, we can’t worry right now about doing things perfectly.Ryan Gentzler , Open Justice Oklahoma
For that reason, local criminal justice experts like Ryan Gentzler, director of Open Justice Oklahoma, are wary of criticizing any program that will help reduce jail populations, even if they impose steep fees.
“Since we do have the highest incarceration in the world, we can’t worry right now about doing things perfectly,” Gentzler told The Appeal. “Any progress toward getting more community supervision options … I would definitely view that as a positive sign that we’re starting to make some investments in alternatives to prison, because that’s just desperately needed here.”
But alternatives exist. In nearby Rogers County, Oklahoma, District Judge Sheila Condren issued an administrative order in 2017 to create a nonmonetary release program for nonviolent offenders to be released on their own recognizance. She enacted the program in response to a report from the Vera Institute for Justice which found significant overcrowding in the county jail. Though the program is in danger now due to personnel shortages, it helped to increase nonmonetary release in the country from just 3.8 percent of misdemeanor defendants in December 2016 to nearly 60 percent over the same time period the following year, according to Oklahoma Watch. The population of the jail also decreased to roughly 170 people from more than 300.
This year, Oklahoma’s legislature came close to passing Senate Bill 252, which would have required most people accused of nonviolent crimes to be released on their own recognizance. The bill ultimately failed by six votes because of opposition from law enforcement, prosecutors, and the bail bond industry, but it is already scheduled to be considered next year.
Allies could come from unlikely places. Despite her role leading a company that profits off people who can’t pay bail, Curry backed the legislation. “I definitely support any bill that addresses unreasonable and excessive bail,” she said.
Private companies in Cleveland County are involved later in the legal process as well. After cases are adjudicated, people are often assigned to a different private company for their post-conviction supervision. Assistant DA Sasser said he likes to think of the pretrial release as a “trial period” or “baby step” to show that “yes, I can be a productive member of society and complete whatever performance requirements are required by the judge.”
After Brown’s case was adjudicated, he said he was put on probation and “lo and behold, the same company is doing probation.”
Brown was ordered to a probation program run by Oklahoma Court Services, Cleveland County Pretrial Services’ sister company, which shares an owner. Through that program, he was subjected to $25 drug tests even though his original charge had nothing to do with drugs, and he racked up even more debt.
“I just recently got out from under them,” he said, explaining that he is hopeful that he will be released from probation early for good behavior.
Yet his ties to the legal system aren’t over. Because he’s unable to pay all of his fees, he said he plans to appear before a judge to dispute them. With all the requirements of the program and his arrests, he said he couldn’t hold a full-time job and lost his house. Sasser said that in situations like Brown’s, a judge could put someone on a payment plan instead.
But Brown said he still questions why he has to pay the fees at all and why private companies are being entrusted with public services.
“I think it’s a big mistake,” he said. “The [pretrial release] program sets people up for failure.” | {
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A/N: After much consideration, I've decided to put a new story series on my profile. Even though I've been very committed to my other series I need a change of pace so that my thoughts aren't restrained to one kind of idea. And thus I came up with this. There have been dozens upon dozens of these all over the sight, but I haven't tried my hand yet and I'm giving it my best.
So here goes something. (I own nothing)
Sgt. Alexander 'Maverick' Drake
USMC Timberwolves,2nd Platoon - Bravo Team
Three Clicks North of Chaman, Pakistan - (Just Outside Afghanistan/Pakistan Boarder)
July 13th, 2013 - 18:23 hours
Gunfire and the smell of smoke filled the air, the two combined with the pain was making it hard to focus.
Sargeant Alex Drake leaned heavily against the crumbling wall for cover as several rounds tore past. Leaning out of cover, he fired his M4A1 at the hostiles that had him and his squad pinned down. The rifle clicked empty making him cuss as he dropped back down to reload.
Reaching for a spare magazine on his vest, the 22 year old Marine saw blood oozing out from under his flak vest and uniform near his stomach. A similar wound was also seen on his right thigh.
It was suppose to be a routine mission. Recon the sector outside Chaman close to the Afghan boarder. There had been a lot of suspicious activity in the area for the last two months and the Brass had several squads stationed nearby to make sure nothing happened to the local civilian populations.
The Sargeant's squad was on patrol when one of their hummers struck a hidden IED and exploded. The survivors leapt out and took cover in a small abandoned town as a large group of men with assault rifles and small arms fire began shooting at them.
The ten man squad was down to six with two others wounded and being treated. And the hostiles had them boxed into a small two story house close to the town's edge.
"Overlord! This is Bravo Team, where's our damn backup!" Alex shouted into his comm as he slammed a new clip into his rifle. 'The closest Blackhawk is currently enroute to your squad's current position. ETA 10 minutes.' replied Overlord.
"10 minutes guys! Keep 'em held off!" he shouted to his squad as he started shooting again.
One of the others dropped down next to him. "Sir, your wounded!" shouted Corporal Denning seeing the blood. "I know Corporal! How are the others?" asked Alex as he managed to drop two hostiles before they could fire a shot at them.
"Stable, but we need to get them outta here for better treatment!" replied Denning as he fired a few shots.
Several shots rang out, "Fuck! Richardson's down!" shouted Private Evers as he checked the downed man's vitals. "Shit he's gone!" the Private said taking the man's tags before resuming his position.
"Fuck." Alex muttered as he took down another hostile. 'Bravo Team, this his Wingman 5-2. That you out there Maverick?' The Sargeant hit his comm, "It's me 5-2, how far away are you? We got casualties and wounded down here."
'3 minutes and closing Maverick. You guys got an open space for me to land?' Alex looked at their surroundings quickly, looking out the back window from the bottom floor. "There's a large enough backyard behind our position, we'll pop smoke."
'Roger that Maverick.' said the pilot. Alex looked over to Evers who had dropped down to reload, "Evers! Go out back and pop a smoke so we can get outta here! We'll cover you!" he shouted. The Private nodded before taking off out the backdoor while Alex and Denning kept the hostiles from getting closer.
"We're gonna make it, aren't we sir?" asked the Corporal.
Alex looked at Denning, the guy was two years younger than him and had hopes for going far in his military career. One he intended to make sure continued. "Yeah, yeah we are Corporal. I'll make damn sure of it." he said sternly making the younger soldier nod before resuming the fight.
'Sir! The Blackhawks here!' shouted Evers over the comm. "Good! Get back in here and help Denning move the wounded out back, I'll cover you!" replied Alex. Denning took the que and fell back to help the two other members of their squad move to the extraction point.
When they made it out back, Alex slumped harder against the wall. The pain from his wounds and the bloodloss had started to take it's toll on the Sargeant. But he refused to let it affect him in front of the others. He was the only high ranked official since everything started.
Their Lieutenant having died in the IED explosion.
A round struck his cover forcing the soldier back into the situation at hand. Shaking his head, he leaned out and emptied the rest of his clip as he heard the sound of chopper blades outside, followed closely by the sound of a chaingun powering up before the building that the hostiles had taken refuge in started being ripped apart by the heavier slugs.
'Maverick get the lead out!' called Wingman.
Staggering to his feet, Alex began limping as quickly as possible toward the back where the Blackhawk was landing in the middle of the very large backyard. The chopper touched down and two other soldiers leapt out to help the wounded inside.
Denning saw Alex and ran over, slinging the Sargeant's left arm across his shoulders as he helped him to the chopper. "You alright sir?" he asked as they reached the Blackhawk.
"I'll live, let's get the fuck outta here!" he said over the chopper's blades. Once everyone was loaded up, they started rising into the air to head back to base.
Denning took out the medical kit and started working on Alex' injuries. "Fuck...sir the wounds are pretty bad. We gotta get you back to base ASAP." he said putting pressure on the wounds and wrapping them in gauze.
Before Alex could speak Wingman shouted, "RPG!" The Blackhawk pitched to the left dodging the high explosive as it streaked by.
The sudden movement of the chopper caused Denning to lose his footing and tumble toward the open hatch. Alex quickly lept to the side and grabbed the Corporal's hand before he could fall out into the open air.
The wound in his stomach flared painfully from the sudden movement making him grunt. "Gotcha!" he shouted through the pain as he helped the younger man back into the chopper allowing him to grab onto the benches inside.
Another RPG shot past forcing the Blackhawk to pitch to the side again. With nothing to grab onto, Alex suddenly slid out of the compartment and fell out. He was vaguely aware of the others screaming his name as he tumbled through open air. The pain from his wounds long forgotten as the ground quickly rose up to meet him.
X
Alex Drake's life had been an easy going, yet adventurous one. His mother was a nurse at the local hospital in their hometown in North Carolina. His father, a retired Vietnam veteran, worked as a drill Sargeant at Fort Lejeune.
The military had been apart of Alex' life since before he could walk. And his dad had been proud when Alex had pitched the idea of joining the army once he was out of high school.
As a teenager, he had a huge like of video games, especially those that were war related. His mom thought it a little impractical, but his dad thought it was interesting. In his time off he would sit down with Alex and play a few. On some saturdays the two would go against each other, where Alex discovered that his dad was a quick learner and used his past combat experience in tactics to give his son a real fight.
Out of everything the young man played, he had become a fan of the Halo, and Mass Effect series'. The future based combat had made Alex wonder about what the military in the future could be capable of.
Other than school, friends and gaming. Alex' dad had begun training his son for when he got out of high school and joined up. Exercise regiments, CQC training, and being taken to the shooting range at the base twice a week. He'd been on the base so frequently that a lot of people knew him. And because of all the training his dad did with him, he was a lot bigger and stronger than a lot of people in his graduating class.
Then disaster struck.
Two weeks after Alex graduated from high school, his parents had been killed in a robbery gone wrong. Leaving the teen orphaned.
When the funeral service for his parents was over, Alex was approached by his father's CO who had asked him what his plans were. Looking up from his parents' headstone with a look the higher up had seen on his father's face many times he said, 'I told my dad I was joining up...I'm going to honor that, sir.'
Once everything was taken care of, Alex joined the Marines. He went through basic training getting high marks in marksmanship and close quarters combat. His skills in leadership had impressed his superiors and was on the fast track up the ranks.
He spent the last few years being deployed to various locations throughout the Middle East. Each time showing that he went above and beyond the call of duty. Not just for the mission, but for the people that were serving with him. In one incident, Alex ran out into an open battlefield and picked up a fellow soldier who had been wounded. Dodging bullets and explosions to get the man back behind cover and safety.
His actions caused many to respect him. His superiors were proud and saw much potential in the young man.
When not on duty, Alex had himself a small one bedroom apartment in his hometown where he could relax on his down time. It didn't have much, but he did have an Xbox 360 set up with the latest war-based games, of which he was still a fan of.
He had managed to beat Mass Effect 3 (of which he was really disappointed in the ending), Crysis 2 and 3, and Halo 4 before he was redeployed to the Middle East for the third time. Despite everything, being a soldier was the only thing that Alex had in his life anymore..
The newly appointed Sargeant had been in Pakistan a whole two weeks before his last mission went wrong. And he was added to the list of KIAs, honored for his sacrifice to his men all the way to the end.
But many have wondered...is a great warrior truly dead? Or are they selected for a much higher purpose?
X
The first thing he noticed was that there was no pain. The second was that he was laying on a smooth warm surface. And the last...was the loud hum of some kind of machinery.
Alex cracked his eyes open slowly, blurred vision slowly coming into focus as he looked around his environment.
At first he had to blink a few times. He was in what looked like a room made entirely of metal with long beacons of light running through the walls, ceiling and floor. Sitting up, he looked around more closely at the room. The humming sound he had been hearing was coming from all around the room.
"What the hell..." he wondered as he slowly got to his feet. He was still wearing his uniform and vest, both damaged from combat, but his wounds were completely healed.
With his mind weighed down with confusion, Alex ran a hand over his clean shaved head as his cobalt-blue eyes locked on a door...or what looked like a door. Checking his pockets and holster he found that all of his weapons and ammo were gone. Even his combat knife was missing. "Dammit." he muttered as he treaded slowly to the door.
The section of wall seemed to sense his approach and split apart on it's own, sliding into the rest of the wall to reveal a long hallway beyond.
Stepping out cautiously, Alex saw strange machinery lining the walls of the corridor. Some blinking with light. Others went up and down on their own as though some invisible force was lifting them. "Why does all of this seem familiar?" he thought to himself as he slowly began to walk down the hall. The humming of the machinery blocking the sounds of his footsteps.
He stopped a moment to look at a machine that had a large glowing blue crystal inside of it. "What is this place?" he asked outloud.
"All will be answered soon young one."
Alex whipped around hearing the faint voice that seemed to echo through the long hallway and his mind at the same time. "What?..." he looked left and right but didn't see anyone. "This way. And all will be explained." the voice echoed again, this time seeming to come from the end of the long corridor.
He felt hesitant for a few moments before his feet started to lead him toward where the voice was coming from. His mind in a slight fog as he walked all the way to the end where a second door slid apart. The room beyond was twice the size of the one he woke up in, but the center was divided by a large crevice that lead downward into pitch darkness.
Looking around, Alex saw a palm sized device hovering in the air at the edge of the drop. A glowing green button in the center of the device seemed to call to him. Reaching out, the soldier pressed the button.
The device closed up before vanishing in a burst of light. When it faded, a bridge made of pure light connected the two sides of the room over the dark abyss below.
Shocked, Alex looked down before looking at the bridge. "Oooookay...this is starting to get really familiar." he muttered as he leaned out with his right foot and pressed experimentally down onto the light-bridge.
His combat boot met a solid surface. Pressing a little harder, he moved his other foot out onto the bridge just to be sure.
Sure that the thing wasn't going to drop him into the darkness below. The Sargeant made his way across to another door. When he stood in front of it, it parted letting blinding light into the room making Alex cover his eyes.
When the light faded a little, Alex looked up and felt his breath hitch.
The doorway lead to a large balcony that overlooked a massive expanse of open air. Crystal clear blue skies and white clouds were everywhere, but the thing that really got his attention where the large buildings that floated in the air beyond.
Each structure had several parts that shifted on their own accord giving the hint that the buildings themselves were alive in some way.
"...I'm dead...there isn't any other explination...I died and this is where I'm gonna be for eternity." Alex said in complete awe.
"You have died young one, but you are not completely gone from the land of the living." Alex's focus snapped to a bright light coming from the clouds above. When the light reached the edge of the balcony it faded to reveal a being the likes of which he had never seen before.
The being was clearly female. She stood at 7 feet easy wearing an elegant blue and white dress with an odd crown on her head. The only thing that made her really different despite her height was her nose which looked more serpent-like, and her eyes which seemed to glow as she gazed at the shocked Sargeant.
She smiled at Alex, "Where one journey has ended, another has revealed itself to you. Alexander Drake."
That had snapped him out of his light trans. "How do you know my name? Who are you? And where the hell are we?" he asked not taking his eyes off the woman.
"I am a being that has seen many things, in this universe and several others. I go by many names, but the one you should be familiar with, is The Librarian." said the being.
Alex's brain came to a halt. He did know that name, heard it before, but believing it was something else entirely. "W-What? T-The Librarian? How is this possible?" he stuttered out while stumbling back a step.
How could it be possible. An all knowing entity that only existed in a video game was before him, speaking to him. Alex was questioning his sanity, if any of this was even real or some kind of limbo that exists between life and death.
The Librarian raised her hands gently sensing his distress, "Calm yourself child. I assure you that this is no illusion. I truly exist, as does many other things you are not aware of."
Once he got his breathing under control, he looked at the Forerunner in understanding. "So I really did die." The Librarian nodded sadly, "I'm afraid so young one. But it was to be, just like the path that now opens itself to you."
Alex tilted his head confused, "You've mentioned that twice now. What are you talking about?"
"You are a part of something far greater than anything ever asked of any being in this universe or any other. A destiny that has been mapped out since before you were born." said The Librarian.
"Destiny? What kind of destiny?" asked Alex. The Librarian waved her hand motioning to the sky behind her. "Your universe is only one of millions. Each one very different than the last. That which you think is mere fiction in your world, is very much real in another. Which is why I am before you now."
She looked back down at the young Sargeant, "After my time in my universe, I have been watching several others for specific signs. Signs that proved my belief."
Alex mulled over her words when he remembered what she had said to the Master Chief in the fourth game, "You mean watching Humanity. You believed that we could inherit the mantle of responsibility that you and the other Forerunners left behind."
The Librarian smiled, "Indeed. You truly do have knowledge of the universe I came from. And it is that knowledge and experience that will prove invaluable for what lies ahead."
"What is that exactly? And what has all of this have to do with me? I'm no one special. Just a soldier who gave his life." said Alex. "That is where you are wrong, Alexander. This has everything to do with you." said The Librarian. "You already know that when the Halo Rings fired, and I ensured that when Humanity was repopulated that specific seeds were left behind to ensure that they would be ready for what was to come."
Alex nodded, "Yes. You told the Chief that he was the culmination of thousands of lifetimes of planning."
"Precisely. However, his ultimate creation wasn't the only one I took great interest in. There were two others. Each from different universes, each with a destiny that would greatly change the course of many worlds."
Soaking in the information. Alex began to understand what The Librarian was telling him. It wasn't just the Halo universe that she had made sure was ready for what would happen, she had a hand in two others. But what did that have to do...with...him...
His eyes widened with revelation. "...No...you mean...one of those people..." The Librarian nodded slowly. "You now see the truth, Alexander. Much like the Spartan, I saw something in the Humanity from your universe. I planted the seeds, and ensured that everything was ready when the time was right."
Alex felt anger well up within him, "You mean to tell me, that my whole life has been lead to this point? That everything was 'planned' to happen?"
"Your anger is misplaced. I merely prepared you on a genetic level. The events taken place in your life were the result of your own choices and the choices of others." explained The Librarian calmly. "The so called 'games' in your universe were also my doing. I simply made sure that the ideas for such simulations were with the right people at the proper time."
Taking a deep breath, Alex calmed down, "Alright, you say my 'creation' was planned. But for what purpose exactly? My world wasn't facing anything nearly as destructive as your universe was, as far as I knew."
"That may be so. But your universe is not in danger, unlike the other two. That is your purpose. To assist in the security of one of those universes, and to ensure the survival of those who face destruction." said The Librarian.
"And how do I do that exactly? I have no knowledge of the universes that you have been talking about." said Alex crossing his arms. The Librarian smiled as she began to hover closer to the young man. "On the contrary, young one. You know this universe a lot more than you know."
She reached out and rested a six fingered hand on his head. His mind was suddenly bombarded with images, memories that were not his own.
"In order for you to be ready to face the tasks ahead, you must acquire the tools to assist you. I will help you acquire those tools, Alexander" said the Librarian as darkness began to creep up around his vision.
Through the darkness, he could hear the Librarian speaking again. "I have given you the first stepping stone in your journey young one. The rest is up to you, but be warned. Your mind, your body, your heart, and your skills as a warrior will be tested in more ways than you can fathom. You must overcome, thrive, and fight for what you believe. Or...all will be lost."
X
A bright light filled his vision and slowly swam back into focus. A spot light shined over the darkened area where Alex laid face down on the wet ground. The sound of water crashing against the shore behind him as he attempted to move.
Pain burned through him making his vision lose focus. The sound of gunfire erupted in the distance as someone approached, feet pressed the wet earth with each step as they drew closer.
Alex vaguely felt someone grabbing both his arms and start to drag him across the ground toward a small cluster of buildings not far away. The pain in his body increasing with each passing second as he heard the one dragging him grunt with exertion.
He heard a door being kicked open before being dragged across a concrete floor. After a moment everything stopped. The one dragging him gently rolled him onto his back where the soldier looked at his bloody reflection in a red visor. "Vitals...dropping. Have to work...fast." said a strained yet deep and grave voice.
Everything faded to black as Alex felt the unknown person removing his bloodied uniform.
X
Alex slowly awoke, feeling better than he had the last time he was conscious. But something felt off.
Raising a hand to his face, the soldier saw a black and silver gauntlet instead of his bare hand. Sitting up quickly, Alex looked down at his body and saw that he was encased in a suit of armor that he knew all too well.
"T-The Nano suit?" he wondered reaching up to touch his face. The feeling of a smooth helmet that covered his whole head. "What is all this? How did I get here?" he wondered outloud as he slowly stood up.
It was then he remembered his conversation with the Librarian, and the last words she left him with. "In order for you to be ready to face the tasks ahead, you must acquire the tools to assist you. I will help you acquire those tools, Alexander"Alex looked down at his hand again, fingers flexing into a fist. "The tools to assist me?"
Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. A body in a skin tight white suit laying behind a stack of crates. Walking over, Alex looked down at the dead man on the floor. His face was cut horribly in several places, but what stood out the most was the bullet wound to the side of his head, a large puddle of blood having already formed around the man's head from the exit wound.
"Prophet..." Alex said recognizing the dead man immediately. "Voice Recognition. System coming online." said a deep voice from within the helmet of the Nano Suit. The HUD of the visor flickered before showing his vitals, compass and energy levels for the suit. "Initializing Playback." a video screen appeared on the HUD revealing an alive, but extremely wounded Prophet looking back at him.
"Something tells me that this is only the beginning." Alex thought as Prophet began speaking.
X
Alexander 'Maverick' Drake
Location Unknown
Date and Time Unknown
Alex's vision slowly swam into focus as he let out a low groan coming back to conciousness. "Prophet...where the hell are we?" he asked trying to get to his feet. "Location...unknown. Suit System rebooting." Spoke the sentient AI in the suit.
The HUD shimmered slightly as everything came back online. Alex leaned his back against a metal wall has he tried to get his barrings. The room he woke up in was pitch black with glowing red light illuminating what little there was. The only thing in the room other than him were a few crates.
"Did we do it Prophet?" Alex asked leaning his helmeted head against the wall he was sitting against. "Did we stop the Ceph?" he asked hoping for the right answer.
"Ceph troops within New York City limits were terminated shortly after the destruction of the central pilon. Mission Successful." spoke the AI
Alex let out a breath of relief. Ever since he woke up in that place with the Nano suit it had been a non-stop fight to help the military fight back against not only the Ceph, but also CELL forces. Almost everyone in New York wanted him dead, and nearly succeeded more than once. The young man turned super-soldier had to rely on quick reflexes, every ounce of his military training, and a shit ton of luck to get as far as he did...but he accomplished his mission and saved the city.
"Now if I can only figure out where the hell I am now." he muttered getting to his feet and checking his supplies.
He had a pair of Hammer pistols on his waist, a Grendel assault rifle with an assault scope on his back, and a Jackal shotgun laying next to him on the metal floor. Alex also had a bandolier of frag grenades, EMP grenades and a full load out of ammo for each of his weapons.
For some odd reason, he had felt the urge to stock up on as much ammo as he could before heading to the central pilon to stop the Ceph once and for all.
"Alright, let's find out where the hell we are." he said racking the shotgun and chambering a new round before heading to the only door in the small room.
The door suddenly opened and the sight before him made him pause.
In the threshold, was a Krogan and three Vorcha. "Move it! Unless you want to face my wrath." said the Krogan glaring into Alex's red visor. The nano suit gave him quite a bit of height, he was nearly towering over the alien.
Without pause, Alex lashed out striking the Krogan on the side of the head with his shotgun sending him crashing into a crate and shattering. Before the Vorcha could react, Alex shot two in the head with quick shots and snapped the last one's neck all in the span of four seconds.
He looked over at the downed Krogan and saw him attempting to stand. Alex walked over and grabbed the alien by the front of it's armor and 'helped' him stand. "Now what were you saying about wrath?" Alex asked getting into his face. "Heh, tougher than I took you for." said the Krogan.
"Mind telling me where we are and what the date is?" Alex asked casually. The Krogan gave him a dumb expression. "Are you fucking stupid or something?" The knife Alex had used to kill dozens of Ceph came out and the tip was placed just under the Krogan's head plate. "How much could I get for a fresh head plate?" Alex asked venomously.
The Krogan pales and gulped loudly. "Your on Omega. And it's 2180." Alex gave a nod before quickly slashing his throat and tossed the body aside.
"Prophet, hack into and monitor all radio traffic and report anything important back to me. I don't want anyone of power learning about us just yet." Alex said leaving the room quietly while activating the suit's cloaking ability. Only one question weighing on his mind.
Why the hell was he brought here after surviving the Crysis universe?
A/N: This is the pilot chapter, if this thing is worth continuing than let me know. But all things considered I've never given up on something that I've started. Let me know what you think guys. | {
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@muszynskiBP
SOUTHINGTON - Police have arrested a local man after finding him with two assault rifles, a handgun without a permit and 29 high capacity magazines following a search of his apartment and a local storage unit - leading state prosecutors to believe he was assembling “ghost guns” and selling them on the Internet.
Quac Hao Lam, 24, of 35 Darling St., Apt. Q, was arrested after local police, state police, the area SWAT team and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms searched his apartment on Tuesday. Police were able to get a search warrant for the apartment after an anonymous tip led them to believe someone was trying to sell an assault rifle.
Lam was held in custody and arraigned Wednesday, in Bristol Superior Court, where Judge John Cronan said he was “really frightened” by the allegations.
State prosecutor Jeffrey Lee went a step further than Cronan, calling Lam’s matter “the most dangerous” he has dealt with since Cronan began presiding as the judge in Bristol last year. Lee asked that bail be set at $1 million, saying Lam is bringing in parts of guns from out of state and using them to assemble assault rifles with no serial numbers - also known as ghost guns - in his apartment and selling them over the Internet. A ghost gun, Lee continued, is “virtually untraceable.”
“His is the most dangerous case I’ve dealt with, with you,” Lee told the judge, before Cronan agreed to the prosecutor’s request and set Lam’s bail at $1 million.
Prior to the search Tuesday, police wrote in their report, Lam was patted down in the parking lot of his apartment and found in possession of a Sig Sauer handgun, three fully loaded magazines and $20,952 in his pocket. Lam, according to police, admitted that he owned six rifles and brought police to a storage unit on Spring Street, where he said they were located. Lam, the report said, told officers the cash he had was his life savings, as he doesn’t trust banks, and that he makes money by selling things online.
Police said the storage unit contained a short barreled “AR-15 type” weapon without a stock or a serial number and another gun that was later determined to fit the state’s criteria for an assault weapon. Inside the unit, police also found two 12 gauge shotguns, two .22 caliber rifles and a 7.62 mm rifle. These weapons were registered to Lam. Police said they also seized “assorted calibers of ammunition,” 11 high capacity magazines, two boxes and two belts of shotgun shells and four .22 caliber magazines.
Lam’s apartment also had four incomplete assault rifle lower receiver parts, five semi automatic handguns, two tasers, body armor, “assorted high capacity magazines” for handguns, over 1,000 rounds of ammunition, a drill press and tools that were used to build firearms.
Lam faces one count of possession of a handgun without a permit, two counts of possession of an assault weapon and 29 counts of possession of a high capacity magazine. He had originally been charged with only one count of possession of an assault weapon while investigators worked to determine if a gun seized during the investigation met the statute requirements. Lee added the additional count during Lam’s arraignment on Wednesday.
According to the police report, investigators received a tip on Sept. 12 that indicated someone in Southington was trying to sell an assault weapon on a website called Armslist.com. A post on the website said the gun had no serial number and would be sold for $650 with no paperwork required.
Investigators communicated with the seller via email, discussing “price, payment and the manufacturing of the firearm,” according to the report. Using grand jury subpoenas, investigators traced the email address back to Lam. They also found an associated Youtube account that showed a man displaying firearms - including one that appeared to be the gun that was for sale - ammunition and body armor.
“This is all really, really bad,” Lee said.
The state prosecutor added that Lam “violated just about every” law that was passed after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown.
Lam, who does not have a criminal history, is due back in court on Dec. 6. He will learn on that date whether his case will be prosecuted in Bristol or transferred to a higher court.
Justin Muszynski can be reached at 860-973-1809 or [email protected]. | {
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Londonderry: Paul Mahoney pleads guilty to film copyright breach charges Published duration 15 June 2015
A Londonderry man has admitted infringing copyright by facilitating streaming of illicit copies of films.
In the first prosecution of its kind in Northern Ireland, Paul Mahoney admitted four charges he originally denied.
The court was told that the financial cost to the film industry caused by the offending was several million pounds.
The court heard that Mahoney, 29, set up websites to provide links to other sites for people who wanted to view illegally downloaded films.
At Londonderry crown court on Monday, Mahoney, of Carnhill in the city, admitted a charge of conspiring with others to operate websites allowing illegal viewing of infringed films.
He also pleaded guilty to conspiring with the websites Hunter Grubbs and Adigitalorange to facilitate the viewing of infringed films.
He also admitted that he acquired income generated from his websites bedroommedia and fastpasstv.
A final charge of concealing criminal property, namely £82,390 that was found in cash in his home, from advertisers who paid to advertise on his websites was also admitted.
Deterrent
A barrister told the court that while the prosecution accepted that Mahoney did not lead an extravagant lifestyle as a result of his offending, he did spend a substantial amount of money in setting up and running his operation.
The barrister said there would be no application for compensation from the film industry.
The industry believed that the prosecution of Mahoney sent a deterrent message.
The barrister said millions of pounds of losses had been sustained as a result of the film piracy in the case.
And he added there was risk of further losses to the industry because of the widespread internet use of pirate films.
That figure, he said, could conceivably run into several millions of pounds. | {
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Topeka police say the woman killed early Sunday morning was pregnant.
Twenty-year-old Camrah Trotter was one of two people found suffering from multiple gunshot wounds at Fairlawn Green apartments. TPD says Trotter and Dominique Ray, 23, were taken to the hospital where they were pronounced dead.
A
has been set up to help pay for funeral expenses.
Police have not named a suspect or suspects, but the say there is no reason to believe that the public is in danger.
They continue to investigate the incident and ask anyone with information about the shooting is asked call the Topeka Police Dept/ at 785-368-9400 or Crime Stoppers at 785-234-0007. | {
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‘Teen Mom’ Star Arrested For Possession Of Meth During Double Homicide Investigation See the MTV star’s shocking mug shot!
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Chelsea Houska’s worst nightmare has come true. Her baby daddy Adam Lind’s good friend Justin Anderson, who was filmed in multiple scenes with their daughter Aubree, was arrested for possession of meth. RadarOnline.com can reveal exclusive details on the drug bust and how he has been linked to a double homicide.
The Sioux Falls police department in South Dakota arrested Anderson, 36, on January 10 at 4:21pm for possession of a controlled drug or substance and possession or use of drug paraphernalia.
Public Information Officer Sam Clemens for Sioux Falls PD exclusively told Radar, “Anderson had meth and a syringe in his pocket during the search.”
He explained how police searched a home for Manuel Frias in connection to a double homicide that occurred on January 5. Three people, including Anderson, were arrested during the search. Anderson was not arrested in connection to the double homicide.
A spokesperson for Minnehaha County Jail told Radar that Anderson’s parole officer placed a hold on him for violating his parole.
“He has no bond,” the spokesperson told Radar. “He has court today at 1:30.”
Anderson has made appearances on Teen Mom 2 multiple times throughout the seasons as bad dad Lind’s friend. In one scene, he is filmed driving Aubree, now 8, with Lind in the passenger seat.
Lind has also been linked to meth use. He tested positive for meth in 2017 during a court-ordered drug test in a custody case with ex Taylor Halbur for their daughter Paislee.
This isn’t Anderson’s first arrest. On March 20, 2012, Anderson was arrested and charged with two counts of simple assault. The charges were dismissed on August 17, 2012.
On May 19, 2007, Anderson was arrested for driving while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage two times in a ten-year period, court papers from the Yankton County Courthouse revealed.
He pled guilty to the count. He was sentenced to 30 days in the Yankton County Jail and his driver’s license was revoked for one year with a work permit. He was ordered to pay $612 in fines. The jail sentence was suspended.
On November 7, 2000, Anderson was charged with distribution of one pound or more of marijuana, aiding and abetting distribution of more than one ounce but less than one-half pound of marijuana, aiding and abetting distribution of more than one ounce but less than one-half pound of marijuana in a drug-free zone, aiding and abetting distribution of one pound or more of marijuana, aiding and abetting distribution of one pound or more of marijuana in a drug-free zone, and possession of one to ten pounds of marijuana.
He pled guilty to aiding and abetting distribution of more than one ounce but less than one-half pound of marijuana, and aiding and abetting distribution of one pound or more of marijuana. The state dismissed the other counts.
He was sentenced to five years in the South Dakota State Penitentiary. The sentence was suspended on the condition he have no drug offenses for five years.
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Vorig jaar stonden bewoners van de Mozartlaan in Drunen en de gemeente Heusden (waar Drunen onder valt) tegenover elkaar voor de Hoge Raad. De inzet was een stukje bos dat achter de huizen van de Mozartlaan ligt en dat de bewoners bij hun achtertuin hadden getrokken. Volgens de gemeente ten onrechte, omdat het gemeentegrond is.
Dat laatste was ontegenzeggelijk het geval, maar toch haalde de gemeente bakzeil. Volgens de Hoge Raad konden de bewoners aantonen dat zij al meer dan twintig jaar de grond in gebruik hadden. Daarmee waren zij rechtmatig eigenaar geworden.
Landjepik door burgers van gemeentegrond: het is herkenbaar. ‘En iedereen doet het’, zegt Björn Hoops van de faculteit Rechtsgeleerdheid van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Hij heeft er een studie naar gedaan die maandag is gepubliceerd. Hoops deed onderzoek in vijf Nederlandse gemeenten. In vier van de vijf stelde hij vast dat burgers op grote schaal grond in beslag nemen die publiek bezit is.
In één gemeente, een historisch stadje waarvan Hoops de naam niet mag noemen, was bij 80 procent van de onderzochte adressen in het centrum gemeentegrond door bewoners geconfisqueerd. Bij de andere gemeenten kwam hij uit op percentages tussen de 8 en 18 procent. Trek je zijn bevindingen door tot landelijk niveau, dan zouden minstens zeshonderdduizend Nederlandse huishoudens zich schuldig maken aan landjepik, becijfert Hoops.
Gemiddeld 20 tot 45 vierkante meter
Daarbij betreft het stoepen, stukjes openbaar plantsoen, paden of bermen die door burgers worden toegeëigend om de tuin of de oprit uit te breiden. Gemiddeld gaat het om 20 tot 45 vierkante meter per geval.
Een braak liggend stukje gemeentegrond bij je eigen tuin betrekken, het klinkt onschuldig genoeg, beaamt Hoops. Maar het kan wel degelijk moeilijkheden opleveren als de gemeente de stoep bijvoorbeeld nodig heeft om de weg te verbreden of om laadpalen te plaatsen.
‘En het kan natuurlijk ook niet zo zijn dat mensen grond inpikken die van iedereen is.’ Zou je de verkoopwaarde van de grond berekenen, dan lijdt de overheid door landjepik voor miljoenen schade.
Volgens Hoops hebben lokale overheden deze kwestie te weinig op het netvlies. De helft van de gemeenten is er helemaal niet mee bezig. Omdat het veel werk is alle gemeentegrond precies in kaart te brengen en ze daar de mensen niet voor hebben. ‘Je maakt je er als wethouder ook niet populair mee.’
De helft die er wel mee bezig is, pakt het vaak onhandig aan. ‘Meestal beginnen ze met een brief te sturen aan bewoners dat zij illegaal grond hebben ingepikt. Als dat al jaren gaande is, voelen die zich gepakt. Als je mensen als dief behandelt, is dat een recept voor ruzie.’
Rechtszaken
Ruzies leiden vaak tot rechtszaken, zegt Liesbeth van Leijen, die een adviesbureau runt dat particulieren en overheden bijstaat in conflicten om grond. Jaarlijks komen tachtig tot honderd van dit soort zaken voor de rechter. Vaak blijkt daarbij dat gemeenten hun kaarten en archieven niet op orde hebben. Zeshonderdduizend gevallen van landjepik in Nederland is volgens haar nog een conservatieve schatting. ‘Ik denk dat het er wel een miljoen zijn.’
In geschillen rond grond kent de Nederlandse wet een verjaringstermijn. Als gemeentegrond al twintig jaar of meer in gebruik is genomen door particulieren, dan vervallen de gemeentelijke aanspraken daarop. Voor de rechter is daarbij bepalend of er een hekje omheen is geplaatst.
Zo was de gemeente Boxmeer in 2014 in de slag met 23 huishoudens die illegaal een stuk berm bij hun voortuin hadden getrokken. De rechtbank in Den Bosch besliste dat achttien bewoners de grond moesten teruggeven aan de gemeente. Vijf niet, omdat ze een hek of een haag hadden geplaatst.
Dat was ook het geval bij de bewoners van de Mozartlaan, zegt Stefan van Hezewijk, jurist van de gemeente Heusden. Met foto’s en verklaringen van buren konden ze bovendien aannemelijk maken dat ze het stuk grond al meer dan twintig jaar in gebruik hadden genomen.
Voorbeelden van Landjepik Bunnik
In 2015 besluit de gemeente Bunnik om een deel van de grond rondom het Eikenpad te verkopen aan bewoners van de Gildenring zodat die daar hun tuin mee kunnen uitbreiden. De overburen maken daar bezwaar tegen omdat ze willen dat het groen openbaar blijft. Boxtel
In 2014 sleept de gemeente Boxtel 23 huishoudens voor de rechter omdat die zich een stuk gemeentegrond tussen de weg en hun voortuin hebben toegeëigend. De rechter in Den Bosch bepaalt dat achttien huishoudens de grond moeten teruggeven aan de gemeente. Vijf hoeven dat niet omdat ze een hek hebben geplaatst rond de grond die ze in bezit hebben genomen. Daarmee zijn ze volgens de rechter rechtmatig eigenaar geworden. Moerdijk
In juni dit jaar besluit de gemeente Moerdijk werk te maken van landjepik door burgers. Volgens een schatting zijn 450 stukjes gemeentegrond illegaal ingepikt. De gemeente gaat in gesprek met bewoners. Die kunnen als dat mogelijk is de grond kopen of huren. Alleen als de groenstructuur wordt aangetast of de veiligheid in het geding is, wordt de grond ontruimd. ‘Het wordt geen heksenjacht’, zegt wethouder Jaap Kamp.
Lap grond van 245 duizend euro
Voor gemeentes kan dat een aanzienlijke strop opleveren. Leijen kent uit haar eigen praktijk het geval van iemand die door de verjaringstermijn eigenaar werd van een lap grond met een geschatte waarde van 245 duizend euro.
Een optie zou zijn om de verjaringstermijn te verlengen of op te heffen. Maar of dat echt de beste oplossing is, vraagt onderzoeker Hoops zich af. ‘Het gevolg daarvan kan ook zijn dat gemeenten het dan helemaal laten lopen. Stel dat je een stukje grond al vijftig jaar in gebruik hebt en de gemeente treedt op, dan is dat de ruzie van de eeuw.’
Van Leijen heeft een beter advies. ‘Burgers schrikken als de gemeente ze beticht van illegaal gebruik en zetten dan de hakken in het zand. Wij raden gemeenten aan om open en eerlijk het gesprek aan te gaan met burgers.’ | {
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Age: 37
Role: Chef-owner, Taco Maria
Bio: Growing up, Salgado worked in his family’s restaurant, La Siesta, in Orange. Following a brief detour into the video game industry, he was pulled back into cuisine. After culinary school, he worked as a pastry chef for two Michelin-ranked restaurants, Coi in San Francisco and Commis in Oakland. Salgado moved back to Orange County to launch a taco truck, Taco Maria, and in 2013 transitioned to a brick-and-mortar restaurant at South Coast Collection.
Why he is an influencer: This year, Salgado was nominated for “Best Chef: West” by the James Beard Foundation, one of the restaurant industry’s highest accolades. In 2015, Food & Wine magazine named Salgado one of the 10 best new chefs in the country. Register restaurant critic Brad Johnson named him Chef of the Year for 2015, and Taco Maria is No. 5 on the Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list for 2016.
Biggest challenge: “I want to remain a student with an open, beginner’s mind.”
Thoughts on the state of Mexican Food in Southern California: “Mexican cuisine in SoCal is the best outside of Mexico. While we may cook in a different dialect here, we are accelerating the exchange of ideas across the border, connecting to our heritage, and also benefiting from Mexico’s own culinary revolution to define a cuisine that is uniquely Mexican-American.”
Inspiration: “I am inspired by people and their stories – by the exulted moments they share with friends, family, and lovers over good food and drink.”
Can’t live without: “If you told me today that I was allergic to tortillas, tomorrow I would be gone.”
What’s next: Salgado says he is “making progress on a very cool project to launch in early 2017.”
Contact the writer: 714-796-7979 or [email protected] | {
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Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended rapper Kanye West’s visit with President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE in the Oval Office on Thursday, saying West had some “genuinely interesting” things to say.
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“Believe it or not, Kanye West said some genuinely interesting things this afternoon — things we ought to be talking about in public but are not,” Carlson said during his Fox News show.
Topics discussed by the rapper during a 10-minute uninterrupted monologue that appeared to surprise President Trump included his mental health issues, the prison system and his past call for the abolishment of the 13th Amendment.
“He’ll probably destroy his career for saying them, he certainly will be despised by many of his former friends, but before any of that happens, let’s consider what he actually said," Carlson said.
During Thursday's meeting with Trump, West said that while he supported Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonDemocratic groups using Bloomberg money to launch M in Spanish language ads in Florida The Hill's Campaign Report: Presidential polls tighten weeks out from Election Day More than 50 Latino faith leaders endorse Biden MORE’s failed 2016 presidential campaign, he was put off by her “I’m with her" slogan.
The slogan “just didn’t make me feel, as a guy that didn’t get to see my dad all the time, like a guy that could play catch with his son,” West said.
Carlson said West was speaking out against Democrats, a party whose policies “have systematically destroyed the American family, especially in poor neighborhoods.”
West said he didn’t have a lot of “male energy” in his childhood home.
“The Democratic Party won’t acknowledge these kids or their loss,” Carlson claimed. “To party leaders, fathers in the home are at best irrelevant. At worst, they’re an impediment to political power.”
The rapper’s remarks during the bizarre Oval Office meeting were criticized by many on the left and in the media.
Late night host Jimmy Kimmel mocked the encounter, saying it was the type of crazy conversation “that would typically be held between people wearing hospital bracelets.”
CNN host Don Lemon called it a “minstrel show” and said that West’s mother would be rolling over in her grave.
Former interim Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile tweeted Thursday that West has "set us back 155 years.” | {
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The U.K.’s largest internet and telecoms provider has been awarded a patent for a proposed cybersecurity measure aimed at protecting blockchains.
In the patent, awarded on Oct. 31, British Telecommunications PLC (BT) outlined a method designed to prevent malicious attacks on blockchains – outlining a way to limit who can commit transactions to the system through user-specific profiles. The blockchain’s underlying code would then be able to automatically reject transactions which do not match the pre-described accounts.
One example use case outlined by the patent includes “majority control attacks” (also called “51 percent attacks”), where a hostile force with more than 50 percent of the total computing power tries to control a blockchain network.
According to the patent:
“Despite the architecture of blockchain systems, malicious attacks present a threat to the security and reliability of blockchains.”
When an attack is detected, the system will automatically stop conducting transactions, preventing even a majority attack from being effective, according to the patent.
The patent further cites include distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which are designed to completely overwhelm a miner with an excessive number of transaction requests.
BT does not address how it would deal with such attacks, however it does state that “it would be advantageous to provide a mechanism for detecting and mitigating threats to blockchain environments.”
While the patent discusses the method of verifying transactions through the energy-intensive mining process employed by digital currencies like bitcoin, BT notes that the process is unrelated to the patented system.
BT Tower image via Shutterstock | {
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Around 1000 Dublin based staff at one of the country's biggest tech multinationals have been told to stay away from their office to prevent possible exposure to coronavirus.
Recruitment firm Indeed has confirmed that it has asked all staff in its Dublin office to work from home amid concerns of possible exposure to the coronavirus.
Some family members of an Indeed employee in its Singapore office are currently being tested for the virus after they were hospitalised with pneumonia.
It is not yet known if the family have the virus, as it will take 48 hours for the results to become known.
Some staff who visited Singapore were also in the company’s Dublin and Sydney office recently.
The company confirmed the move in Dublin is being taken as a precaution.
“One of Indeed's employees in Singapore may have been exposed to coronavirus after their family members visited a facility caring for a coronavirus patient,” Indeed told the Irish Independent.
“While there are no confirmed cases of infection, out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our employees, we have asked all employees in Singapore, along with anyone who has recently visited our Singapore offices, to work from home until February 17.
"Since some employees who visited Singapore have recently visited our Sydney and Dublin offices, we are asking all employees in the Dublin and Sydney offices to work from home until we have received confirmation,” it added.
The company said it is “deeply concerned” about the employee's family in Singapore.
Indeed is “in close communication with this employee and are ensuring that they are getting the care and support they need,” it added in the email to staff seen by Independent.ie.
The Singapore employee in question is “still feeling fine.”
Any employees that are experiencing symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath or chest pains should seek medical attention, Indeed said.
It has also said it is reaching out to HSE and "will continue to keep local health organisations informed."
Read More
Online Editors | {
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Marijuana is the most prevalent illicit drug used by teenagers and adults around the world. Nearly a third of high school students in the United States report smoking it, and most high schoolers say they have access to the drug.
To many people, smoking pot is no big deal. They cite reasons such as: "it isn't dangerous or addictive" and "everybody is doing it."
Denise Walker, co-director of the University of Washington's Innovative Programs Research Group, disagrees.
"It's not a risk-free drug," she said. "Lots of people who use it do so without problems. But there are others who use it regularly -- almost daily -- and want to stop but aren't sure how."
Walker hopes to help these people, many of whom feel stigmatized by their drug use. She is lead author of a paper showing that a brief, voluntary conversation with an adult led to up to a 20 percent decrease in marijuana use for teenagers who frequently used the drug. The paper was published online May 30 in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.
Teenagers face greater risks from regular marijuana use compared with adults, said Walker, who is also a UW research assistant professor of social work.
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"Adolescence is a big developmental period for learning adult roles. Smoking marijuana regularly can impede development and school performance, and it sets kids up for other risky behaviors," she said.
Walker and her co-authors investigated how a two-session, "non-finger wagging" approach called Teen Marijuana Check-Up could encourage teens to reduce their marijuana use.
"The majority of people who need help aren't getting it and they don't think they need it," Walker said. Users are ambivalent about their drug use, Walker reported, and there are aspects of using marijuana they enjoy.
"However, many teens also have concerns about their use, even if they're not sharing them with family or friends," she said. If a convenient and easy opportunity to weigh the pros and cons of their drug use is offered that isn't "shaming or blaming," kids will participate in it voluntarily, she said.
The researchers went to high school classrooms and gave short presentations describing myths and facts about marijuana, common reasons why teens smoke it and its health and behavior consequences.
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The researchers told the students about the study, saying it was intended to give feedback on -- not treat -- each student's marijuana use. Students could volunteer privately. Of about 7,100 students who heard about the study, 619 volunteered and 310 met its criterion of smoking marijuana regularly.
The participants, ninth through 12th graders attending Seattle public schools, had two one-on-one meetings with health educators. During the meetings, which lasted 30-60 minutes each over two weeks, the health educators used one of two approaches:
Motivational interviewing, in which the health educator and student discussed the student's marijuana use and how it might be interfering with the student's life, goals and personal values, and the health educator told the student about social norms of how much others use the drug.
An educational approach in which a PowerPoint presentation described current marijuana research and health and psychological effects of marijuana use.
Participants in the motivational interviewing group started the study using marijuana 40 out of the previous 60 days. Three months after counseling they had decreased their use 20 percent, to 32 out of 60 days. After a year they still showed a 15 percent decrease, 34 days out of 60.
Participants in the educational treatment group had slower results, reporting an 8 percent decrease from 38 to 35 days out of 60 days three months after the treatment ended. A year later, they reported using marijuana 34 of 60 days, an 11 percent overall drop.
The researchers called the findings "encouraging in that apparently meaningful reductions in cannabis use resulting from the brief meetings were sustained over a relatively lengthy period of time."
Walker said that the low-burden, low-cost program could be disseminated to drug and alcohol counselors in schools. The program "is supposed to attract people who aren't ready for a full treatment, but are interested in having a conversation with a professional trained to discuss concerns with substance use," she said.
The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Co-authors are Robert Stephens, Josephine DeMarce, Brian Lozano and Sheri Towe at Virginia Tech University and Roger Roffman and Belinda Berg at the UW. | {
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Op politiebureau Hoefkade in de Haagse Schilderswijk is sprake van ernstige discriminatie, geweld, ongewenste omgangsvormen en groepscultuur onder politieagenten. Dit blijkt uit een intern onderzoek dat het team Veiligheid Integriteit en Klachten (VIK) van de Haagse politie heeft ingesteld naar incidenten bij het basisteam Hoefkade. Tot het onderzoek, dat acht maanden heeft geduurd, werd besloten na verscheidene „signalen en meldingen” van wanpraktijken.
Uit het onderzoek is gebleken dat er op het politiebureau sprake is van „een opeenstapeling van onwenselijke gedragingen”. Er is „een ongezonde cultuur” binnen het politieteam Hoefkade. Die conclusies trekken de leidinggevenden van het team, Janneke Bakker en Jeroen van Marle, in een brief die de leiding van de politie-eenheid vorige maand heeft opgesteld over het onderzoek. De vertrouwelijke brief is in handen van NRC.
In het onderzoek zijn twintig politieagenten gehoord. De Haagse politie heeft op grond van de bevindingen besloten dat tegen vier mannelijke agenten een disciplinair onderzoek wordt gestart. De teamleiding schrijft „geschrokken te zijn van de verklaringen en de schrijnende voorbeelden”.
‘Tere zieltjes’
In de brief worden de incidenten niet specifiek omschreven. Maar volgens bronnen bij de politie zou er een groep agenten op team Hoefkade opereren die zich bedienen van de naam ‘Marokkanenverdelgers’. In appgroepen noemen Haagse agenten klokkenluiders „tere zieltjes” en ze klagen over „soft links gedoe”. Allochtonen die worden bevorderd, worden ‘goudzoekers’ genoemd.
Lees ook dit nieuws over de strafzaak tegen liegende agenten in Den Haag
In juni van dit jaar schreef teamchef Fatima Aboulouafa van de Haagse politie op haar Instagramaccount al over „structurele problemen” op het gebied van discriminatie binnen de politie in Den Haag en Rotterdam. Ze vroeg zich af of „loyaliteit ten koste van alles moet gaan, ook als je ziet dat er grote misstanden binnen onze politieorganisatie en zelfs op managementniveau plaatsvinden?”
Na dit bericht nam een lid van de Haagse eenheidsleiding, Monique Mos, het voor Aboulouafa op. Zij schreef op 13 juni op het intranet van de politie dat „racisme, pesten en discriminatie nog te vaak voorkomt binnen de politie”. Mos zegt dat „het pijnlijk is dat ondanks de vele initiatieven die er zijn, dit probleem hardnekkig is en moeilijk uit te roeien”. Ze roept leidinggevenden op „alert te zijn op signalen en ze te bespreken met leidinggevenden’’.
Vorige maand is Mos plotseling uit de eenheidsleiding vertrokken. Ze gaat zich naar eigen zeggen bezighouden met de evaluatie van interne onderzoeken naar integriteitskwesties. Mos zegt dat er geen verband is tussen haar nieuwe functie en de problemen bij de Haagse politie. „Ik was na 3,5 jaar lid van de eenheidsleiding toe aan een nieuwe uitdaging”.
Volgens de voorzitter van de grootste politievakbond, Jan Struijs, is het dringend noodzakelijk dat de politie klokkenluiders beter in bescherming gaat nemen. „De ervaring leert dat agenten die wantoestanden aankaarten bestraft worden door overplaatsingen of gewoon worden weggepest. Dat is onaanvaardbaar”.
Oproep van korpschef
In juli schreef NRC dat Carel Boers, die dertien jaar lang honderden toptalenten van de politie heeft gecoacht, met onmiddellijke ingang stopte met zijn werk voor de Nationale Politie. De leiding negeert volgens hem signalen over wantoestanden. Boers zegt vooral het laatste half jaar diverse „grove misstanden in de top van de politie” te hebben gemeld bij de korpsleiding – van aanrandingen tot ernstige discriminatie. „Ik kan niet wegkijken als zo’n belangrijke partner in het functioneren van de rechtsstaat de belangen van burgers en haar eigen medewerkers veronachtzaamt”, schreef Boers.
Korpschef Erik Akerboom heeft de afgelopen weken alle leidinggevenden binnen de politie gevraagd discriminatie binnen de politie te bespreken. De reacties op die sessies worden nu verzameld.
De leiding van basisteam Hoefkade schrijft in haar brief zich „tot het uiterste te zullen inspannen” om incidenten in de toekomst te voorkomen. „Maar dat kunnen wij niet alleen. De basis hiervoor is een team waar een open cultuur heerst, waarin iedereen veilig is en respect heeft voor elkaar. Waar ruimte is om van mening te verschillen en waar diversiteit onze kracht is”.
De eenheidschef van de politie Den Haag Paul van Musscher laat weten dat de incidenten in dit geval zijn veroorzaakt door „een paar rotte appels”. „Om dan de suggestie te wekken dat een deel van het korps niet integer zou zijn, daar neem ik fors afstand van’’, zegt Musscher. „Ik hecht er aan te melden dat wij voortdurend alert moeten zijn op ongepast gedrag en de juiste toepassing van geweldsgebruik. Die alertheid die wordt nog eens benadrukt in een volgende week te lanceren campagne veilige werkomgeving, waar ook dit onderwerp deel van uitmaakt.”
Een versie van dit artikel verscheen ook in NRC Handelsblad van 14 september 2019 | {
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Just days after Turkey’s failed coup attempt on July 15, pro-government newspapers splashed front page “news” that CIA agents had orchestrated the bid to topple President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from a resort island near Istanbul.
The luxury Splendid Palace Hotel, an Ottoman-era landmark with two silvery rooftop domes, may seem like an unlikely and high profile staging post for regime change – and in fact it is.
But anti-Americanism has surged in Turkey, where Vice President Joe Biden arrives on Aug. 24 to reassure the NATO ally that the US and Turkey still stand together against terrorism. He’ll try to assure the country also that the US stands with President Erdoğan against the coup attempt, which has prompted a host of fresh conspiracy theories and new enemies in the popular imagination, from the island foreign policy conference to the White House.
Such rhetoric is not new: It has grown since 2013, prompted by Washington’s criticism of Erdoğan’s heavy-handed crackdown on Gezi Park protests that year. Later came disputes over the Syrian war, with the US critical of what it saw as Turkish encouragement of Islamic jihadist fighters. More recently, US military support to Syrian Kurds, whom Turkey considers terrorists, attracted Turkey’s ire in the fight against the self-declared Islamic State.
Washington nonetheless maintains its high-level ties to Ankara. Turkey allows US jet fighters to use its Incirlik airbase to launch attacks against IS in Syria and Iraq. And Washington has provided satellite intelligence in recent years to enable precision Turkish attacks on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq.
But even as Turkish politicians and pundits alike publicly suggest that such cooperation may be at risk, with Turkey hinting at a “strategic rebalancing” toward Russia and Iran, analysts say close financial and strategic ties will limit how far Turkey’s anti-Americanism can go.
Mr. Biden’s visit may be key to finding that limit. Turkey-US relations “are medium sugar now,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told journalists over the weekend, referring to a semi-sweet version of Turkish coffee. Noting that the US is a strategic ally and that “every family experiences problems,” he said Biden “is coming to Turkey to make the coffee sugary.”
Top of Turkey’s agenda will be demands for the extradition from Pennsylvania of Fethullah Gülen, a cleric and friend-turned-foe of Erdoğan whose return to Turkey to face charges has become a litmus test for improving US-Turkey ties.
During 16 years in exile in the Pocono Mountains, Mr. Gülen has marshaled a network of followers – accused of infiltrating all pillars of the Turkish state – who are widely blamed here for the coup attempt. Tens of thousands of Turks have been purged from the bureaucracy, judiciary, and military, with some 17,740 arrested at last count on suspicion of links to what Turks now call the “Fethullah Terrorist Organization,” or FETÖ.
“When the US asks us to extradite someone with an arrest warrant, we do not ask about evidence,” said Mr. Yildirim, noting frustration at US legal requirements to provide clear evidence in order to proceed with extradition. “We think the enemy of my friend is my enemy, too.”
Besides any evidence of Gülen’s role in the coup given by Turkey, US officials must by law weigh up the likelihood of a fair trial, and chances of mistreatment.
Charges of US involvement, analysts say, feed a broader conspiratorial mindset in Turkey that has crystallized since the attempted coup, which was foiled when Erdoğan called on loyalist supporters to take to the streets and disarm the would-be putschists.
Since then, as Erdoğan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) celebrated this “victory for democracy,” they have also let anti-Americanism run wild, fanned by politicians and media apparently bent on blaming outsiders.
At the highest levels, this may not make much difference. The AKP is adept at separating negative popular attitudes from elite-level cooperation. “They compartmentalize,” says Fadi Hakura, a Turkey expert at the Chatham House think tank in London, calling it a “dualist approach.”
Still notes Mr. Hakura, “Erdoğan has been … whipping up this anti-American feeling and the proclivity of Turkish society to [believe] conspiracy theories.” But there is also “a tendency among the ruling party … to attach credence to some of these conspiracies.”
That could have long-term consequences.
“Anti-Americanism in Turkey is at its peak and turning into hate,” Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said on Aug. 9. “It is up to the US to stop this by extraditing Gülen.”
Failure to return the aging cleric – who has lived in the US since 1999 and holds a green card – would mean “the US has chosen a terrorist over Turkey,” he said.
Gülen “delivered the coup into the hands of the CIA … there is more than enough evidence in the hands of Turkey,” the minister said on Aug. 19, NTV Haber reported. “The CIA knows even the gender of the black flies flying around [Gülen’s] mansion … to tell us [they] did not know [of this plot] ridicules the … Turkish nation.”
The street has got the message, and reflected it at post-coup rallies organized by the AKP every night for weeks after July 15. A common poster read: “America = out / People = in.”
“If anything this big happens, Turks believe someone else was behind it, like the CIA,” says an architect at one rally, who said he did not want to give his name because he was suspicious of a journalist who was American.
Indeed, the perception that Washington and Europe were slow to oppose the coup attempt because of their dislike of Turkey’s abrasive, democratically elected president, has created fertile ground for accusations.
“The US tried to kill Erdoğan,” proclaimed İbrahim Karagül, editor of the pro-AKP newspaper Yeni Şafak, in late July. “I repeat: The attack aimed at martyring Erdoğan was planned by the US, in the US, directly through Gülen’s terrorists.”
The pro-government Akşam joined others in taking up the CIA-team story at the Splendid Palace Hotel, turning a two-day conference to discuss the Middle East one year after the Iran nuclear deal into a lurid tale about a “highly secretive” meeting.
The conference coincided with the coup attempt but was organized last December by the Wilson Center, a well-known Washington think tank, and a Turkish university.
Scores of such conferences take place in Turkey every year, and the 15 or so participants at this one were seasoned foreign policy experts. But Akşam labeled each foreign participant a “CIA agent,” published photographs gleaned from the internet, and claimed – inaccurately, along with many other demonstrable falsehoods – that the delegates all took a private boat to the island “to avoid being recorded by security footage.”
The Wilson Center rejects “categorically” any link to the coup attempt, and said in a statement that the island meeting “was very much removed from the center of the crisis.”
“Perhaps the most suspicious name in the conference,” Akşam reported, was that of this reporter, who was confused with the American death row inmate of the same name who killed his pregnant wife, Laci, in 2002.
One front page showed that Scott Peterson wearing a suit and tie, in court; another wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and handcuffs, superimposed over San Quentin prison.
“How such a hardened criminal was removed from America’s most secure prison arouses big question marks in the mind,” the newspaper wrote. “Intelligence authorities … believe he escaped to Greece via a sea route.”
US Amb. John Bass has repeatedly rejected accusations of any US role, or of advance knowledge of the coup attempt. The US Embassy said a photo circulating of Ambassador Bass supposedly meeting a coup-plotting colonel the day before was fake. One report alleged that the CIA made payments to anti-Erdoğan putschists for six months from the Nigeria-based United Bank for Africa; another headlined, “Terrorists were entertained at the White House!”
Such allegations would be laughable if their ramifications weren’t so serious. Pro-government newspapers and politicians alike have suggested that the anti-Americanism may push Turkey’s foreign policy interests away from the US toward actors whose geopolitical goals differ sharply from those of the US.
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Still, says Hakura, military hardware from NATO’s second-largest army comes from the US and Europe, as does the bulk of foreign investment and most economic ties.
“Turkey has an umbilical cord to the West, and to the US, so it cannot afford to rupture relations with its US and European partners,” says Hakura. “And that limits any attempt by the ruling party to break off relations or limit ties with Washington.” | {
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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama promised Pope Benedict on Friday that he would do everything possible to reduce the number of abortions in the United States, the Vatican said.
Obama and Benedict held private talks for about 40 minutes in the pope’s frescoed study in the Vatican’s apostolic palace and the Vatican said bioethics and life issues were a central part of the discussion.
In a surprise move, the pontiff gave Obama a booklet explaining Vatican opposition to practices such as abortion and embryonic stem cell research, which Obama supports.
“Obama told the pope of his commitment to reduce the number of abortions and of his attention and respect for the positions of the Catholic Church,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters after he was briefed by the pope.
Obama supports abortion rights and says his policy is to change economic and social conditions so as to put more women in situations where they do not feel they have to have an abortion.
The pope gave Obama, who last March lifted restrictions of federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, a copy of a recent Vatican document on bio-ethics in which the Holy See explains its opposition to such practices.
“Dignitas Personae” (dignity of a person) condemns artificial fertilization and other techniques used by many couples and also says human cloning, “designer babies” and embryonic stem-cell research are immoral.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
The document defends life from conception to natural death and a Vatican statement issued after the meeting said the topics discussed included “the defense and promotion of life and the right to abide by one’s conscience.”
The pope’s private secretary told reporters after the meeting: “This reading can help the president better understand the Church’s position on these issues.”
“We know that this (abortion) is a crucial theme for the pope. There is no need to hide it. It (giving him the booklet) was an attempt to be clear, it was not polemical,” Lombardi said.
The White House said Obama wanted to work together on a range of issues with the Vatican.
“He is eager to find common ground on these issues and to work aggressively to do that,” said Denis McDonough, deputy national security adviser, adding that there may be some issues where they cannot come to agreement.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
POPE IMPRESSED BY OBAMA
Lombardi said the pope was “very impressed” by Obama and that the pontiff was “extremely satisfied” with the talks.
Obama told the pope during a picture-taking session after the private part of the audience: “We look forward to a very strong relationship between our two countries.”
The pope also gave the president a copy of his latest encyclical, “Charity in Truth,” which called for a “world political authority” to manage the global economy and for more government regulation of national economies to pull the world out of the current crisis and avoid a repeat.
Obama, who was going to the airport from the Vatican, joked to the pope when he gave him the two documents: “I’ll have something to read on the plane.”
Unlike his predecessor George Bush, Obama and the pope do not see eye-to-eye on abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research.
The Vatican condemns embryonic stem cell research, which scientists say can lead to cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, because it involves the destruction of embryos.
Before he arrived at the Vatican, Michelle Obama and their children Malia and Sasha were given a private tour of St Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. Michelle Obama joined her husband and the pope after the private talks ended. | {
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Story highlights The victim was an anti-government fighter who'd been wounded
He apparently made reference to two revered figures in Shiite Islam
From that, members of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group assumed he was an al-Assad soldier
Radical anti-government fighters in Syria mistakenly beheaded a wounded fellow rebel soldier after assuming he was a supporter of President Bashar al-Assad, according to an online statement from the radical fighters' group.
A separate online video showed a gruesome display of radical fighters holding what appeared to be the victim's head.
After the beheading earlier this week, the victim was determined to be Mohammed Fares, an anti-government fighter wounded in clashes against the Syrian Army earlier, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Thursday, an online statement from a spokesman for the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), whose fighters apparently carried out the beheading of Fares, called for forgiveness for the killers and asked for "restraint and piety" from anti-government supporters.
"We call on God to accept Mohammed Fares into his Kingdom and to forgive his brothers that sought to rid us of the enemies of God and our enemies," Omar Al-Qahatani said in Arabic in the ISIS statement.
Fares apparently shouted the names of two revered figures in Shiite Islam when he arrived wounded in a makeshift hospital, prompting the overwhelmingly Sunni opposition to assume he was a government fighter, Al-Qahatani added in the statement.
In the separate online video, two fighters from ISIS are seen displaying what appears to be the decapitated head of a bearded man to a crowd in Syria's commercial capital of Aleppo.
"He is an Iraqi Shiite volunteer fighter in Bashar al-Assad's army," a young man brandishing a knife in one hand and holding the decapitated head in another says in Arabic to a group of men all dressed in black.
"If they (al-Assad's army) enter they will not distinguish between supporters and opponents. I swear they will rape the men before the woman," another jihadi fighter continues in the amateur video.
The incident comes as deadly clashes and infighting continues between extremist opposition factions and more secular rebel brigades, potentially weakening the armed movement against al-Assad and further threatening the safety of civilians caught in the conflict.
Human rights groups and some member of the Syrian opposition have condemned what they deem barbaric actions by ISIS including the alleged execution of wounded government soldiers, the shooting of a 15-year-old boy for blasphemy, and public flogging of women for behavior deemed to violate Sharia law. | {
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Members of Congress
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “I thought my friends across the aisle would jump at this opportunity to fulfill what they say is their top priority. But they just could not take ‘yes’ for an answer. They turned away from a golden opportunity to solve this issue. They decided they’d rather come away empty handed, with no resolution whatsoever for the 1.8 million individuals they say they are championing, than accept a reasonable compromise with the president.”
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX): “On Tuesday the Majority Leader tried twice to open the debate and start voting, but both times there were objections heard by our Democratic colleagues. This despite their repeated promises over the years to address the DACA issue once and for all.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA): “Today is a sad day for many Americans and for many dreamers who would have had a rare pathway to citizenship. We had the opportunity to pass a bill that would have provided legal certainty for 1.8 million individuals. It would have secured the border and focused enforcement on the very worst criminals, like sex offenders, human rights violators and war criminals. And importantly, it had the President’s support and could have actually become law…. It’s unfortunate that so many of my colleagues, when given the chance to finally give citizenship to DACA kids, refused to do so.”
Sen. John Boozman (R-AR): “President Trump presented a thoughtful framework to accomplish these shared goals and Senator Grassley’s amendment, which I supported, turned that framework into legislation that could become law. Given our mutual goals, it should have passed the Senate in a bipartisan manner. I am disappointed that it did not.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR): “What this debate has shown is just how unserious the Democrats are about illegal immigration. If they were serious, they wouldn’t have shut down the government over DACA only to reject the one bill, endorsed by the president, that would’ve given DACA recipients the legal certainty they need. And they wouldn’t have introduced such a reckless proposal that had zero chance of becoming law. There’s broad agreement about how to solve this problem, but we won’t succeed unless the Democrats stop this incessant virtue-signaling and start negotiating in good faith.”
Sen. David Perdue (R-GA): “Senate Democrats have shown their true colors. First, they shut down the government over DACA. Today, they had an opportunity to vote to provide certainty for 1.8 million DACA recipients and they voted no. Senate Democrats said they wanted a bipartisan solution, but really they don’t. Senate Democrats said they want to secure our border, but really they don’t. Today, Senate Democrats crushed the dreams of many people who were counting on them to deliver and showed they are quite happy to have an immigration system that does not serve the American people or protect our national security.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “In case you didn’t think Congress was absurd before, Senate Democrats are now filibustering the open immigration debate they asked for, and are refusing to put their bill on the floor.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA): “I voted for Senator Grassley’s measure based on President Trump’s proposal. We must stop human trafficking, money laundering and drug trafficking. This amendment provided real border security and discouraged future human trafficking. As a compromise, it also addressed Democrats’ concerns. This was the only bill that could become law. If Democrats truly wished to solve immigration issues, they should have supported this bill.”
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT): “It is disappointing that a minority of the Senate blocked my bipartisan proposal to end sanctuary cities and protect the safety and security of America.”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND): “I voted against the proposal put forward by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer because the Department of Homeland Security said it would not secure the border, nor did it end the diversity lottery system or adequately address chain migration.”
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK): “Most of what was proposed by the President and Senate Republicans has passed the Senate multiple times over the past fifteen years, but not today. It’s disappointing that Democrats would not come to the table simply because President Trump supported it. Immigration reform is complicated and emotional, but it is essential that we keep working until we reach a good faith solution for the future of all Americans.”
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA): “I am disappointed that the Senate was unable to reach an agreement today on immigration policy…. It was also deeply troubling that a minority of Senators blocked consideration of my common-sense bipartisan amendment designed to end dangerous sanctuary city policies.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC): “I have said from the beginning that we must secure the border and keep our nation safer, reform our legal immigration system, and find a permanent, compassionate solution for DACA recipients. Today, I voted for measures that would accomplish these things, namely the Secure and Succeed Act and legislation to stop sanctuary cities, and against measures that do not. Democrats continue to try and use Dreamers as a political tool, and we continue working to find a solution.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN): “Trump has shown presidential leadership on immigration. Senate Democrats should take my fellow Tennessean – Howard Baker’s – advice that ‘the other fellow might be right,’ and the other fellow in this case might be named President Trump.”
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV): “I share the President’s commitment to border security. That’s why I voted for his plan. That’s why I fought to ensure the $25 billion he requested for border security was included in the bipartisan deal. That’s why I opposed the Democratic proposal that did not provide a single penny for border security.”
Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI): “Sad to see that the US Senate could not find any path forward on DACA and immigration reform today. Of interest, Sen Stabenow voted to defund ‘Sanctuary Cities’.”
Commentators
Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL): “Senate Democrats blocked a vote on #SanctuaryCities. Only further proving that they care more about illegals than actual Americans.”
Fox Business’ Trish Regan: “President [Trump] is extending a massive olive branch on immigration, but the Democrats don’t want to make a deal! Maybe they don’t want Republicans to get the credit for giving these dreamers a path to citizenship!” | {
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Russia’s biggest forex trader Alpari has launched Bitcoin trading and will provide courses educating users how to handle cryptocurrency.
As Finance Magnates reports Tuesday, Alpari, which has been eyeing crypto markets since at least last year, has added so-called contracts for difference (CFDs) for BTC/EUR and BTC/USD.
“The cryptocurrency market is still in its genesis stage,” a technical analysis piece released by the site following the launch reads.
The move is a firm statement of belief not just in Bitcoin’s outlook globally but in Russia itself, the country signaling a commitment to formal regulation of cryptocurrency markets by next year.
Previously, cryptocurrency languished in a gray area which more often than not resulted in authorities seeking to block consumer access to associated businesses such as exchanges and information portals.
As Finance Magnates notes, Alpari is considered something of a “trendsetter” in forex markets, having previously wheeled out now-popular technologies ahead of the pack. | {
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This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
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SAN DIEGO – The remains of a decorated war hero from North Park will soon return home.
Army Major Jack Griffiths was a decorated soldier who fought in World War I and II. In 1949, he left his family behind for the military conflict in the Pacific, where he was captured 66 years ago. According to his family, the Major never came home as he died in a war camp and was buried overseas.
Michael Draper is the neighbor of Major Griffiths' son Joe. He reached out to FOX 5 to tell the story on behalf of the family.
“I’ve known the Griffiths my entire life…Joe’s dad was the real deal,” said Michael Draper. “His father had gone missing, but that’s all anybody had really known.”
A month ago, Griffiths' story of 60 years changed.
“It was like a gut punch. Joe was visibly upset. He said his father’s remains were found,” said Draper. “He died of malnutrition and pneumonia. [He was] treated badly."
Griffiths died one year after his capture. He was buried in Camp 5 just like the family thought. In 1954, through “Operation Glory” an exchange between the United Nations and Communist forces remains of people who died in the war were recovered.
“Most of those bodies were returned to the US, but it was a jumble of bodies not identifiable,” said Draper.
The recovered remains known as X-14411 at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl, were exhumed in 2013. Three years later, a DNA analysis of the remains matched Griffiths' sisters and brother.
“They were able to say, 'we’re 99% sure,'” said Draper.
Draper said the Major's son, Joe Griffiths, was overwhelmed by the finding and asked him to tell their story.
“He said, 'I can’t do it, I just can’t do it,'” said Draper.
For almost his entire life, Joe only knew his father was missing.
“Joe had to become the person that he is without his father… without even knowing where his father was,” Draper said.
Over 60 years later, Major Griffiths will return to San Diego and be buried at Fort Rosecrans Ceremony. His burial is scheduled for January 11 at 1 p.m.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said more than 80,000 Americans remain unaccounted for and 7,764 are from the Korean War. The United States is the only country that works daily to identify the unknown. | {
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Search the Site Search Go Help Me Find... | {
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A teacher from Elk Island Catholic School Division, east of Edmonton, faces six sex charges in relation to a female student.
Brett Daniel Mittlesteadt, 32, is charged with sexual interference, sexual exploitation, invitation to sexual touching, child luring, committing a sexual offence against a child and sexual assault.
He was on the staff of Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Ardrossan.
The district says Middlesteadt is suspended from teaching and no longer has access to students.
Michael Haupman, superintendent of Elk Island Catholic Schools, said Middlesteadt has taught with the district since 2004.
Hauptman knows the accused and calls news of the charges deeply upsetting.
“As with all of our staff, it's gut wrenching," he said. "I mean these are people that are part of our family. I know the staff in this community and it doesn't matter who it would be, I would feel the same way."
RCMP say the offences are alleged to have occurred between March 2013 and September 2014. A complaint was laid against Middlesteadt on Monday after the complainant came forward to a female teacher.
Michael Haupman, superintendent of Elk Island Catholic Schools, said Middlesteadt has taught with the district since 2004. | {
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It is so cold that Disney on Ice has called off a performance in Chicago.
It is so cold that General Motors has suspended production at several plants in Michigan because of an emergency appeal by the local utility, overwhelmed with heating demand.
It is so cold that Republicans and Democrats are reaching across the aisle in Washington so they can huddle together for warmth. Just kidding.
Tech earnings are a mixed bag
Facebook had company from other tech firms when reporting its earnings yesterday.
Nokia, which now focuses on telecom equipment, warned that it would have a slow start to 2019, though it expects more business from companies building 5G mobile networks later in the year. Samsung, whose operating profit plunged 29 percent amid a decline in demand for memory chips, also said earnings this year might struggle. PayPal disappointed analysts, too, even as its revenue rose.
But Qualcomm beat Wall Street expectations and issued a forecast that assuaged some concerns about a weak smartphone market in China. Other companies also had good news.
Microsoft, often considered an indicator of the broader market, said that its commercial and consumer businesses were doing well, with revenue and profit increasing more than 10 percent from a year earlier. Its continued shift to cloud computing has placed it within striking distance of Amazon, which leads the field.
Alibaba, China’s largest e-commerce business, said that its earnings growth sank last quarter and that its revenue, which rose 41 percent, had increased at its slowest pace since early 2016. Executives said that, while “the slowdown of macro might cause concerns in the market,” the company had minimal exposure to the trade war with Washington and e-commerce was healthier than the overall Chinese economy.
Tesla, the electric carmaker, reported its second straight quarterly profit, but said that its $139 million in fourth quarter earnings was less than what it brought in during the third quarter. The company expects to deliver as many as 400,000 cars this year, up from 245,000 last year. And it said it had $3.7 billion in cash to carry it through a $920 million bond payment in March. | {
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“One of the top 10 cycling festivals in Europe”
Important Notice: Due to the current rapidly changing situation regarding the COVID-19 outbreak, ALL events as part of the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling 2020 are now on hold. We will update this website once we have more information.
The purpose of the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling (EdFoC) is to celebrate all aspects of cycling in and around the City of Edinburgh, including travel, leisure, adventure, transport, sport, personal development. Recognising cycling’s importance for encouraging social inclusion and economic development reducing ill health and pollution and for making places. EdFoC aims to challenge people’s perception of what cycling is and to put Edinburgh on the map as an international cycling destination.
Last years programme of events had a wide range of exciting events.
Here are a few things that people have said about The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling:
“Probably the best cycling festival I’ve come across. Wish I could have participated in more“
“Probably the best cycling festival I’ve come across. Wish I could have participated in more“ “Really felt like there was a cycling “buzz” around the city, I only participated in a couple of things but I saw other people doing stuff, and heard a lot about it on social media. Good stuff!“
“Really felt like there was a cycling “buzz” around the city, I only participated in a couple of things but I saw other people doing stuff, and heard a lot about it on social media. Good stuff!“ “Really enjoyed the festival. Look forward to next year!“
Unlike some other cycling festivals, The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling doesn’t just revolve around the sports side of cycling (although we aim to cater for sports cycling in all its forms as well). There are so many sides to cycling – from transport to sport, from leisure activity to cultural icon – all of which the festival sets out to celebrate, with a wide range of sporting, cultural and fun events for all age groups, across the city.
The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling was originally envisaged as a proper Edinburgh-style festival. A city-wide event, originally held over nine days, showcasing and celebrating all aspects of bicycle culture and the city itself. The Festival was expanded from nine days to ten in 2014, and then 11 days inclusive from 2015 onwards.
The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling Ltd is a not-for-profit social enterprise, run by a small group of people. Currently, the board of directors are Kim Harding (Founder and CEO), Caroline Brown, and Ulli Harding.
Edinburgh City of Festivals
Edinburgh prides itself on being the City of Festivals. There are festivals for The Arts (and their attendant Fringe), Books, Films, Science, and even Storytelling. Edinburgh also has ambitions to be a Cycling City. It was the first UK city to sign the Charter of Brussels and is currently committing 10% of the city’s transport budget to cycling. We feel this is a good time for Edinburgh to have a cycling festival and so the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling was born.
As a proper Edinburgh style festival, the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling runs for over a week (the first year for nine days, and from the second year onward for 10 days), it is a real showcase for all aspects of cycle culture and the City of Edinburgh. It aims to challenge people’s perceptions of what cycling is and to put Edinburgh on the international map as a cycling city.
Featuring a wide range of events: from rides (sporty and otherwise), to family activities, to a range of cultural events, the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling truly has something for everyone!. The festival was first run in 2013. In 2014, it offered over 80 individual events at 46 different venues, with around 5,000 people from around the world participating. In 2015, the festival got bigger and it had to extended so that we could fit in even more events. The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling has been listed as one of Active Traveller Magazine’s top 10 cycling festivals in Europe for 2017, as well as one of the UK’s best cycling festivals by The Guardian and Total Women’s Cycling 2016 (also 2015 and in 2014 too).
Cargo bike hire
We have an Urban Arrow family cargo bike which is available for hire. The Urban Arrow is an ideal way to move children or goods about the city, it’s fun, it’s green and clean. Find out more about hiring it here.
Supporters & Sponsors
We thank the following organisations who were supporters and sponsors of The Edinburgh Festival of Cycling in 2019:
Principal Supporters 2019
Gold Supporters 2019
Silver Supporters 2019
Bronze Supporters 2019
— — — — — — —
Partner organisations 2019
You can see more pictures from some of the Festival’s events over on our Flickr stream and you can add your own to the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling Flickr group … | {
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The National Security Agency (NSA) has no monopoly on the use of intrusive surveillance tools to keep us all under the watchful eye of government.
The Washington Post reports that an elite team of hackers employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have developed an application that turns on built-in laptop cameras. According to details provided in the story, the software can be turned on remotely by the g-men and perhaps most notably, the little green light that typically signals a “live” camera is not illuminated when this application is in use.
In documents describing tactics uses by the FBI to track an elusive suspected terrorist threat named “Mo,” a short history of the program is revealed.
The FBI has been able to covertly activate a computer’s camera — without triggering the light that lets users know it is recording — for several years, and has used that technique mainly in terrorism cases or the most serious criminal investigations, said Marcus Thomas, former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico, now on the advisory board of Subsentio, a firm that helps telecommunications carriers comply with federal wiretap statutes.
Virtual hideouts are becoming increasingly rare as the federal government’s hired hackers create increasingly sophisticated and surreptitious software, all with the aim of stretching the size of the surveillance net.
The FBI’s technology continues to advance as users move away from traditional computers and become more savvy about disguising their locations and identities. “Because of encryption and because targets are increasingly using mobile devices, law enforcement is realizing that more and more they’re going to have to be on the device — or in the cloud,” Thomas said, referring to remote storage services. “There’s the realization out there that they’re going to have to use these types of tools more and more.”
Once “Mo” signed on to his Yahoo mail account, the spyware would be immediately activated and the feds could see anything within the sight of his built-in webcam. Incidentally, in a statement made to the Washington Post, Yahoo claimed it knew nothing of the operation and did not participate with the government in targeting one of its users.
Although this “network investigative technique” is shockingly invasive, it’s not the first such furtive device used by the feds to watch and listen to citizens when they think they are safe from the prying eyes and eavesdropping ears of the federal government.
And, not only does the government have and use a variety of sophisticated surveillance techniques to watch us, but the courts continue to rubber stamp the legally suspect searches.
In the case of the FBI’s tracking of “Mo,” the Washington Post provides a summary of the agency’s recourses to the courts for approval of its operation.
First, a “federal magistrate in Denver approved sending surveillance software to Mo’s computer last year.”
Notably, the authors of the Post story report on a similar surveillance request made before a judge in Houston that was rejected for being “extremely intrusive” and a likely violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unwarranted searches and seizures.
Next:
Federal magistrate Judge Kathleen M. Tafoya approved the FBI’s search warrant request on Dec. 11, 2012, nearly five months after the first threatening call from Mo. The order gave the FBI two weeks to attempt to activate surveillance software sent to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. e-mail address. All investigators needed, it seemed, was for Mo to sign on to his account and, almost instantaneously, the software would start reporting information back to Quantico.
After obtaining judicial approval, the FBI’s hackers “would download the surveillance software to Mo’s computer when he signed on to his Yahoo account.”
Finally, the Post reports:
The surveillance software was sent across the Internet on Dec. 14, 2012 — three days after the warrant was issued — but the FBI’s program didn’t function properly, according to a court document submitted in February.
“The program hidden in the link sent to texan.slayer@yahoo.com never actually executed as designed,” a federal agent reported in a handwritten note to the court.
This isn’t the first time the federal bench has bowed to the wishes of the purveyors of the surveillance state. In fact, last year the court approved a petition by the federal government to deploy software that could be remotely downloaded to a cellphone, turning the device into a portable microphone without the user ever being the wiser.
In July 2012, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that agents of the federal government may use a cellphone as a microphone and record the conversations overheard even when the phone itself is not being used otherwise.
This frightening bit of judicial lawmaking came as part of the decision in the case of the United States v. Oliva, 2012 WL 2948542 (9th Cir. July 20, 2012).
For a bit of background, Oliva was convicted by a jury of drug-related crimes involving the distribution of methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana. He appealed a decision by a district court denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained from a series of electronic surveillance orders authorizing interception of communications over cellular phones associated with him and his alleged co-conspirators.
Oliva argued that the orders authorizing these wiretaps were not standard intercept orders and did not meet the “specificity” requirement of the applicable federal law.
In its decision, the Ninth Circuit upheld the lower court’s ruling, essentially allowing the federal government to convert cellphones into “roving bugs” so long as the government makes it clear that it will be using the target’s cellphone in that manner. Notice, the Ninth Circuit — a court created under the authority granted to Congress in Article III of the Constitution — did not throw out the matter as a violation of the defendant’s Fourth Amendment right against “unreasonable searches and seizures.” Instead, it simply informed the government that it needs to get permission before doing so.
There are, of course, far reaching implications of such a decision. As The New American reported last year, a person will not know, and perhaps will never know, if he has been the target of surveillance on the part of the federal government. Assuming, as many a savvy American would, that the federal government is liable to eventually want to monitor and record your personal electronic communication, is there not an expectation that when the cellphone is off the surveillance is suspended?
Not anymore. In the wake of the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in Oliva, and the revelations regarding the FBI’s ability to remotely control laptop cameras, “roving bugs” and secretly snooping webcams are likely to become a couple of the feds’ favorite weapons in the ever-more sophisticated attacks on personal privacy.
A person’s expectation of privacy when sitting at home talking to a friend is ridiculous in the face of the judicially upheld fact that government snoops may now use powerful surveillance technology to use your idle mobile phone as a very active mobile microphone.
At times such as this when the courts, Congress, and departments of the executive branch (the FBI, the NSA, and the Department of Homeland Security, among others) form an unholy alliance bent on obliterating the Constitution and establishing a country where every citizen is perpetually under the never-blinking eye of the government, it would be well to remember the words written by Alexander Hamilton in Federalist, No. 33.
In that letter, Hamilton explained that acts of the federal government exceeding its constitutional powers are not laws at all, but are “merely acts of usurpation, and will deserve to be treated as such.”
There’s no debate that the increasingly incredible intrusiveness of the federal government’s surveillance programs exceeds any authority granted to it in the Constitution. As the Washington Post article rightly says:
Online surveillance pushes the boundaries of the constitution's limits on searches and seizures by gathering a broad range of information, some of it without direct connection to any crime. Critics compare it to a physical search in which the entire contents of a home are seized, not just those items suspected to offer evidence of a particular offense.
The remedy is for state legislatures to uphold their obligation to stop all unconstitutional acts of the federal government at the state borders. They can accomplish this by enacting state statutes nullifying those acts, based on the 10th Amendment and their sovereign authority. On the other hand, should these states fail to fearlessly oppose federal overreach, the day may rapidly come when the Constitution and individual liberty will be nothing more than remarkable relics of a once-free Republic.
Joe A. Wolverton, II, J.D. is a correspondent for The New American and travels frequently nationwide speaking on topics of nullification, the NDAA, and the surveillance state. He is the host of The New American Review radio show that is simulcast on YouTube every Monday. Follow him on Twitter @TNAJoeWolverton and he can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | {
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Chapter 5 Page 271
Posted May 8, 2018 at 04:48 am
Okay, few items of business this time. Lemme do 'em as a list.1) If you didn't see already, I made a D&D shirt for Hiveworks which I think looks cool! Check that out! If that's your kinda thing!2)If you're in the area, come say hi! Taylor and I will be atI'll have lots of goodies for sale, including...3) A new comic! I wrote a short story comic that I'm gonna be debuting at TCAF! I'll be uploading it online some time before the convention, which I bring up because...4) Since I'm going to be away and busy this coming weekend, thereInstead,I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it for sale and pay-what-you-want, so that those of you who don't have a few bucks to spare can still read it. It's substantial and I'm really proud of it so far, so look forward to that!5) And lastly, theresince I'll be on a plane all day and con exhausted. Thanks for your patience!Okay, that's everything! Thanks for reading!! | {
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Ana is an Associate Editor who loves animals and food. A good taco and a snuggle with her dogs is all she needs.
Dogs are not given enough credit for their intelligence!
We teach them tricks, but dogs know how to do more than sit, roll over, and play dead — why is that even a trick we teach dogs?
Ginger is a 2-year-old German shepherd and she is already an escape artist! The dog was caught on camera breaking out of the Apple Valley Animal Shelter.
She went through three closed doors in order to get out of her confines in the shelter. She knocked papers over in the lobby and then made a break for the exit.
Sadly, Ginger was in the shelter because her original owner was homeless and he didn’t want her to continue living out of a car.
It seems that Ginger left the shelter in search of her owner, as she was found three days after her breakout, just a few houses down from her owner’s previous home.
Because she made the news, the Apple Valley Animal Shelter has gotten dozens of calls from people looking to give Ginger a proper home. Despite her sad arrival at the shelter, it seems this escape artist has finally caught a break!
If you think this dog is a genius, you’d also love this dog figuring out how to use a paddleboard to get his favorite toy out of the pool!
Don’t forget to SHARE this smart German shepherd with all of your friends and family! | {
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Bonsu Thompson was, by his own admission, an unlikely host for a fund-raiser for Cynthia Nixon’s campaign.
Mr. Thompson, a writer and producer, had never organized an event for a candidate before. Usually, he found politics distasteful. “Folks who know me know that I’m not exactly a political person,” Mr. Thompson told the crowd of roughly 150 people gathered on the Bowery Hotel’s rooftop for the Aug. 1 event.
But if Ms. Nixon is to have any chance of defeating Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the Democratic primary on Sept. 13 — as her campaign insists she does, despite poll after poll in which she trails him by gaping margins — it will be because voters like Mr. Thompson became political people.
“Polls are not capturing who the new electorate is,” Ms. Nixon said. “We have a younger, more progressive, more diverse electorate. Those are the people that are going to turn out for me.” | {
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Despite their inability to wrestle back supremacy on the field in the Premier League, Manchester United are still far ahead of their rivals in their social influence both domestically and internationally, it can be revealed.
A report provided exclusively to Telegraph Sport by Newton Insight ranks Premier League clubs according to eight performance indicators, including size of fanbase, growth of fanbase and engagement. The report shows United to have greater clout than any other club in England.
United's Facebook following is 26 million larger than Chelsea, their closest rival, while they are also adding more fans on Twitter and Instagram than any other team. For a club already as established as United, this is hugely impressive.
This success is not down to the club's prominence or success on the pitch over the last 30 years. Rather, their approach to building and expanding the global outreach is described as "relentless" in the report. They do not sit back and defend a lead, instead they keep pressing forward. (Perhaps Jose Mourinho should take note.)
United does have more resources than others to build their fanbase, but they are also more committed than most to continuing their rise in this regard. | {
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Special counsel investigating Russian meddling in 2016 US election says Trump’s former campaign aide lied to FBI.
US President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been accused of breaching a plea deal by lying to federal prosecutors, signalling a potential setback to the special counsel’s probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In a court filing on Monday, lawyers working on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the alleged Russian interference said Manafort had nullified their agreement to cooperate – charges denied by the 69-year-old.
In the latest filing, Mueller’s team said Manafort “committed federal crimes” by lying about “a variety of subject matters” even after he agreed to truthfully cooperate with the investigation, which has been ongoing since 2017.
Prosecutors said they will detail the “nature of the defendant’s crimes and lies” in writing at a later date to the judge.
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Manafort, who pleaded guilty in September, denied lying and breaching his plea agreement, saying he “believes he provided truthful information” during a series of sessions with Mueller’s investigators.
But both sides agreed the court should move ahead and sentence him for his crimes.
The surprise development comes at a critical time for Mueller, who is expected to finalise a report in the coming months on the findings of his 18-month probe into Russia’s election meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
While not a fatal blow, the dissolution of Manafort’s plea agreement means Mueller is losing the contributions of a witness with deep ties to Russia and who ran the Trump campaign as it took off in mid-2016.
“It’s bad for the overall Mueller investigation,” Patrick Cotter, a criminal defence lawyer in Chicago and former assistant US attorney in New York, told Reuters news agency. “He’s got one less witness today.”
Ethical line
Manafort, who remains jailed, had been meeting with the special counsel’s office since he pleaded guilty in September to a conspiracy against the United States – a charge that included a range of conduct from money laundering to unregistered lobbying. He also admitted that he tried to tamper with witnesses.
He cut that deal to head off a second trial after being convicted last summer of eight felony counts related to millions of dollars he hid from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in offshore accounts.
Manafort already faces up to five years in prison on the two charges in his plea agreement. In his separate Virginia case, Manafort’s potential sentencing under federal guidelines has not yet been calculated, but prosecutors have previously said he could face as much as 10 years in prison on those charges.
Manafort was a long-time Republican political consultant who made tens of millions of dollars working for pro-Kremlin politicians in Ukraine before joining the Trump campaign in March 2016, promising to work for free.
Manafort attended a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 with a group of Russians offering “dirt” on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who lost in an upset to Trump in the vote that November.
His long-standing relationship with an oligarch close to Russian President Vladimir Putin was another reason Manafort’s cooperation was seen as important to Mueller’s probe.
Manafort’s lawyers said he met the government on several occasions and made “an effort to live up to his cooperation obligations,” according to Monday’s joint filing, which was submitted to US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington.
Rudy Giuliani, who represents Trump in the Russia probe, said Mueller’s team had crossed an ethical line between the search for the truth and exerting too much pressure on Manafort.
“They are trying not to get a witness to sing, but to compose,” he said in an interview with Reuters on Monday night.
Mueller, a lawyer and the head of the FBI from 2001 to 2003, was appointed as special counsel to the US Justice Department to investigate possible Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election on May 17. | {
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Une cagnotte destinée à l'opération d'un enfant malade a été dérobée dans un commerce de Gonesse (Val-d'Oise). Les images, publiées samedi dernier par le "Casino Shop Gonesse", ont suscité une vive réaction des internautes.
Le commerçant a diffusé les images de vidéosurveillance du vol de la cagnotte destinée à Tylian, 6 ans, atteint d’une maladie invalidante. Postée sur Facebook, la vidéo est devenue virale. Elle a été vue plus d'un million de fois et partagée 60.000 fois.
Le commerçant précise en légende que la vidéo ne sera pas retirée tant que l'argent ne sera pas rendu. Il conclut en partageant le lien d'une cagnotte en ligne est disponible pour Tylian, destinée "à récolter les fonds pour ses opérations". | {
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I have a real thumb-sucker for you from today’s New York Times. That’s probably a dog-bites-man lede, but you might get a kick out of the sheer blatancy of this piece by Michael Shear and Peter Baker on the president’s big gun-control fail. Here’s how it opens:
Senator Mark Begich, Democrat of Alaska, asked President Obama’s administration for a little favor last month. Send your new interior secretary this spring to discuss a long-simmering dispute over construction of a road through a wildlife refuge, Mr. Begich asked in a letter. The administration said yes.
So the premise is, Begich asked the administration for a favor, and the administration obliged. But what did that nasty closet-Tea Party ingrate do? I won’t keep you in suspense:
Four weeks later, Mr. Begich, who faces re-election next year, ignored Mr. Obama’s pleas on a landmark bill intended to reduce gun violence and instead voted against a measure to expand background checks. Mr. Obama denounced the defeat of gun control steps on Wednesday as “a shameful day.”
Mr. Begich! Prisoner of the NRA! Shameful ingrate!
Thank goodness Shear and Baker are here to connect those dots for us, to smoosh those Venn circles together into one big blob of… evil.
See, the bill was intended to reduce gun violence, and who cares if it wouldn’t. Because of intentions, you see. But how did the bill play back home in Alaska? What were Begich’s constituents telling him? Does Begich have any strong convictions regarding expanded background checks? Let’s see what Shear and Baker reported on those questions:
[CRICKETS CHIRPING]
[SMALL CHILD COVERS EARS AND SHOUTS “NANANANANA I CAN’T HEAR YOU”]
[FULL-ON SERGEANT SCHULTZ SAYING HE KNOWSSS NOZHING!]
Everyone knows you never go full Sergeant Schultz. Anyway, let’s see what was in the story’s third graf:
But Mr. Begich’s defiance and that of other Democrats who voted against Mr. Obama appear to have come with little cost. Sally Jewell, the interior secretary, is still planning a trip to Alaska — to let Mr. Begich show his constituents that he is pushing the government to approve the road.
Golly-gee-gosh-darn it, that Obama is just too geewilickers nice to everybody. Why, sequester ungrateful vote or not, the president is probably going to get that road built. And maybe hand-paint smiley faces along the length of it.
See? The president is just too good, too sweet, too flawless to play the Washington game — and that’s the only reason he ever loses.
And if The One is just too driven-snow pure to twist Begich’s arm? Well, then the NYT is more than happy to do the job for him. | {
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A blog displaying the concept art and character designs from various films along with wildlife and animal paintings of Aaron Blaise. | {
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A hacker talking to The New York Post claims to have compromised the personal email account of CIA Director John Brennan.
According to the Post, the "teen" hacker operates with a classmate under the name "Crackas With Attitude." The two have apparently been tweeting under the accounts @phphax and @_CWA_, the latter of which has been suspended. But before it was shut down, the @_CWA_ account tweeted what it claimed was sensitive CIA information: one tweet showed what appeared to be a list of names, along with possibly matching social security numbers. The @phphax account has also been tweeting documents it claimed to obtain from the hack.
The Post reports that the hacker who gained access to the account did so through simple social engineering techniques, convincing AOL to reset the password on Brennan's account.
The situation could prove to be a hoax, but it appears authorities are taking it seriously. According to the Post, the CIA says it has "referred the matter to the appropriate authorities." | {
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Prospective taxi drivers will no longer have to pass an English language test after a vote by city councillors.
Brampton city council voted Nov. 23 to remove verbal and written tests after hearing from industry professionals who complained they are losing potential drivers to neighbouring municipalities like Toronto, where no such rule exists.
But not all city councillors were speaking the same language on the idea to scrap the licensing requirements, which sparked a heated discussion around the council table.
“I am here to debate on behalf of the public. I don’t expect another member of council to make derogatory comments about my views,” said regional Coun. Gael Miles, firing a verbal salvo at council colleague Martin Medeiros, who chastised some politicians for supporting the status quo.
Medeiros said the city “is forcing the industry to compete with one arm tied behind its back” by making the English test mandatory, and suggested the requirement discriminates against new immigrants “who have families to feed.”
“When I get into a taxicab I want the driver to be able to talk to me in English,” Miles responded. “You are giving instructions to the driver and if the driver can’t understand English then you are severely disadvantaged.”
Currently, the city administers a language test that includes a basic conservation between the tester and applicant who is expected to “demonstrate an ability to communicate with customers.”
However, taxi industry professionals have put pressure on the city to ease up on licensing regulations in the face of stiff competition from ride-share operations such as Uber and neighbouring municipalities.
Councillors heard from Milton Bangoo, of Kwik Kab, that he is increasingly losing potential drivers to Toronto where testing is not required.
Following a lengthy, and at times heated debate, council voted to amend the city’s licensing bylaw to eliminate the language test and include a provision “that taxicab drivers shall be able to communicate in English.” | {
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He's just not that into you.
An Australian couple encountered a strange sight when they spotted a dozen venomous cane toads appearing to hitch a ride on the back of an 11.5-foot python. But the pair soon found out they'd accidentally stumbled upon an Outback orgy — or, an attempted one.
Paul and Anne Mock were at their home in Kununurra, a town in Western Australia, when they spotted the toads on what they thought was a “python express” on Sunday. The couple told Guardian Australia the town had just experienced heavy rainfall that filled their dam and “the lake was so full it had filled the cane toad burrows around the bank and they were all sitting on top of the grass – thousands of them."
Paul Mock said he spotted Monty, the large python that lived on the residence, slithering toward him in an attempt to flee the water.
“He was in the middle of the lawn, making for higher ground,” Paul Mock said. “He was literally moving across the grass at full speed with the frogs hanging on.”
Paul Mock’s brother, Andrew, then snapped a photo of the 10 toads on the python and posted it on social media, prompting amusement followed by shock.
“68mm just fell in the last hour at Kununurra. Flushed all the cane toads out of my brothers dam. Some of them took the easy way out - hitching a ride on the back of a 3.5m python,” Andrew tweeted in a post that garnered more than 9,000 likes and hundreds of replies.
“A metaphor for the relationship between public transportation and the tech industry,” one person responded.
“Good idea: Riding public transit to eliminate carbon footprints. Better idea: Riding something that leaves behind no footprints,” another user wrote.
One person tweeted, “Bloody hell. Stuff of nightmares.”
However, Jodi Rowley, a senior lecturer in biological sciences at the University of New South Wales and amphibian expert, gave a more thorough explanation Monday of what exactly was occurring — and it was not "PG."
“This is one of the most amazing videos I've seen!! Lots of *very* horny Cane #Toads (Rhinella marina) trying to mate with a large Olive #Python (Liasis olivaceus), with Giant Burrowing Frogs (Cyclorana australis) & Red Tree #Frogs (Litoria rubella) calling in the background!” Rowley explained on Twitter.
Rowley also posted a picture of a past incident when another indiscriminate cane toad was “trying to mate with a rotting mango” in North Queensland.
Cane toads are pests in Australia — to humans, pythons and mangos, evidently — and known to damage ecosystems. Millions of the venomous amphibians have been invading communities, leading the government to ask residents to collect and dispose of them, according to the National Geographic. | {
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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Buys 1$ Sweet Tea At McDonald's Actually gets sweet Tea | {
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A leaderless world is sleepwalking towards a repeat of its near meltdown in late 2008 and early 2009 because it has failed to remedy the causes of the financial crash of a decade ago, former prime minister Gordon Brown has warned.
Britain’s leader during the period when the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers put every major bank at risk, said that after a decade of stagnation the global economy was now moving into a decade of vulnerability.
Speaking to the Guardian at his home in Scotland, Brown delivered a scathing analysis of how the big problems of 2009 remained unresolved and said that much tougher action was needed to prevent wrongdoing by bankers.
Brown was instrumental in creating the G20 – a body made of the world’s leading developed and developing nations – but said the cooperation that helped avoid a second Great Depression had been replaced by a world in which countries had retreated into nationalist silos.
“We are in danger of sleepwalking into a future crisis,” Brown said when asked to assess the risks of a repeat of 2008. “There is going to have to be a severe awakening to the escalation of risks, but we are in a leaderless world.”
The former prime minister, who lost the 2010 election following Britain’s longest and deepest recession of the post-war era, said there was less scope to reduce interest rates than was the case a decade ago, no evidence that finance ministries would be allowed to cut taxes or increase public spending, and no guarantee that China would be as active in providing stimulus.
“The cooperation that was seen in 2008 would not be possible in a post-2018 crisis both in terms of central banks and governments working together. We would have a blame-sharing exercise rather than solving the problem.
In the next crisis a breakdown of trust in the financial sector would be mirrored by breakdown in trust between governments
In the light of the trade war launched against Beijing by the US, Brown doubted that China would be as cooperative a second time. “Trump’s protectionism is the biggest barrier to building international cooperation,” he said.
After taking over from Tony Blair as prime minister in June 2007, Brown had only a short honeymoon before the first signs of trouble emerged later in the summer. He said the global economy still lacked an early warning system and a system for monitoring financial flows so that it was possible to tell what had been lent to whom and on what terms. “We have dealt with the small things but not the big things,” he said.
Brown admitted that Labour should have been tougher on the City in the boom years leading up to the crisis. “Yes, we did not know what was going on in some of the institutions, some of it illegal, and which was being covered up.”
But he insisted that the mood at the time was for even greater deregulation of the City. “I was being criticised for being too tough in terms of regulation and tax.”
Since the crisis, banks have been forced to hold more capital to protect them against possible losses, and a system of bonus clawbacks has been introduced to dissuade bankers from taking too many risks.
But Brown said action against financial malpractice had not been tough enough and that banks would expect to be bailed out again in the event of a future crisis.
“The penalties for wrong-doing have not been increased sufficiently. The fear that bankers will be imprisoned for bad behaviour is not there. There has not been a strong enough message sent out that government won’t rescue institutions that haven’t put their houses in order.”
The crisis of 2008 had its roots in the US housing market, with the losses sustained on subprime mortgages cascading through the global financial system in the months leading up to the collapse of Lehmans. Brown said there would be a different cause next time.
“It is very difficult to say what will trigger it [the next crisis] but we are at the latter end of the economic cycle where people take greater risks. There are problems in emerging markets.”
Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk
Brown said one area of concern should be heavy commercial and industrial lending by lightly or unregulated shadow banks at a time when US interest rates are rising. “It could arise in Asia because of the amount of lending through the shadow banking system.”
He added: “In an interconnected world there is an escalation of risks. We have had a decade of stagnation and we are now about to have a decade of vulnerability.”
Recalling the freezing up of the financial markets a decade ago, Brown said governments had sought to compensate for the lack of trust between banks by cooperating more closely.
“In the next crisis a breakdown of trust in the financial sector would be mirrored by breakdown in trust between governments. There wouldn’t be the same willingness to cooperate but rather a tendency to blame each other for what’s gone wrong.
“Countries have retreated into nationalist silos and that has brought us protectionism and populism. Problems that are global as well as national and local are not being addressed. Countries are at war with each other on trade, climate change and nuclear proliferation.”
Brown was scathing about the austerity policies pursued by the coalition government that came to power after he lost the 2010 election.
“Austerity was based on an analysis that what had caused the global recession was the high level of public debt rather than the reckless action of the financial sector. Nobody who has looked at it seriously would come to that conclusion but the Conservatives dined out on it for five years.”
The problem, Brown added, was not that governments borrowed more to boost growth but that the stimulus had not been big enough.
“We have underestimated the power of fiscal policy because of an aversion to deficits and debt. We got back to growth quickly but couldn’t sustain it because of over-rapid fiscal consolidation.
“We were out of recession in 2009 but back in it by 2011. Why? The withdrawal of government support cost us jobs and prosperity but also cost us our ability to cut the deficit in the long term.”
Asked if Theresa May agreed with Brown’s analysis, the prime minister’s spokeswoman said on Thursday: “No. Since 2008 we have built one of the most robust regulatory systems in the world, designed specifically to ensure financial stability, and protect taxpayers.”
Questioned on whether the UK would not suffer any adverse consequences even with a potential loosening of regulations in the US, the spokeswoman said: “In recent years we have reformed regulation of the city, and put in place an incredibly robust system, one of the most robust in the world, at the same time making sure it’s global competitive. We’ve taken action ourselves to make sure that our system is resilient and robust.” | {
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Napping Can Dramatically Increase Learning, Memory, Awareness, And More | {
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MADISON -- Governor Scott Walker issued an executive order on Tuesday, July 21st allowing Wisconsin National Guard members to carry weapons while on duty. The executive order comes after Mohammad Abdulazeez first shot up a military recruiting center at a Chattanooga strip mall last Thursday, July 16th -- before driving to a Chattanooga Navy operations support center and launched another attack, killing four Marines and a sailor. The gunman died in a gunfight with law enforcement.
Shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee
In a statement, Governor Walker said the following:
"Safety must be our top priority, especially in light of the horrific attack in Chattanooga. Allowing our National Guard members to carry weapons while on duty gives them the tools they need to serve and protect our citizens, as well as themselves. I am also directing Adjutant General Donald Dunbar to evaluate longer-term plans to ensure the safety of our service members."
Shootings in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Service members armed with weapons will now be the norm at four National Guard recruiting locations across the state -- including one in Milwaukee.
A Wisconsin National Guard spokesman says the Guard will do what's necessary to protect employees and visitors.
"The event was a tragedy. Anytime we hear that a military service member has lost their life, it affects those of us who serve. Following the executive order from the governor, our adjunct general ordered a review of our security measures at all of our facilities throughout the state. In addition, he ordered that we place security forces personnel at our four storefront recruiting locations throughout the state," Major Paul Rickert with the Wisconsin National Guard said.
Army National Guard
Major Rickert says the order allows the guard to make additional changes to its safety procedures.
National Guard recruiting center
"At this time, only security forces personnel are authorized to carry weapons, but that may change after the review of the procedures," Major Rickert said.
"It`s a huge step forward. Obviously Governor Walker only has jurisdiction with the Wisconsin National Guard. He doesn't really have a say with the federal military," Cole Sullivan, a veteran said.
Sullivan and three other Marines held semi-automatic rifles outside the Armed Forces Career Center on Tuesday.
Armed veterans outside Armed Forces Career Center
"I came here today to offer protection to the recruiters since they are not allowed to protect themselves yet," Sullivan said.
Sullivan and other veterans were rattled by last week's tragedy in Chattanooga.
"First thing thought was if our service members would have been armed, the tragedy may have been averted. I can't guarantee that, but at least they would have had a fighting chance. The way I see it, if it can happen in Chattanooga, it can happen here," Sullivan said.
As an added measure, visitors who come to these locations should be prepared to have their bags searched.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke issued this statement on Governor Walker's executive order:
"Thank you Governor Walker for doing what needed to be done. This decisive action will better protect Guard members and centers throughout Wisconsin. These centers are in commercial areas used by the public who are thus in harm’s way as well.
This will serve as a force multiplier to local law enforcement whose officers are now the first line of defense in protecting the homeland. Governor Walker displays a sense of urgency, which is lacking from our commander in chief, in response to the home-grown terror threat that has reached our shores. This is not the first attack, nor will it be the last, unfortunately, but sticking one’s head in the sand and thinking happy thoughts is not an effective counter-terrorism strategy. Terrorists, like other mass murderers, pick sites, in part, where vulnerable people cannot immediately counter the threat before mass carnage ensues."
CLICK HERE to read the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs' statement on this executive order.
CLICK HERE to read Governor Walker's executive order. | {
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Washington And The World What Obama Should Tell Americans About Ukraine The crisis is getting worse. It’s time for the president to rally the nation.
Zbigniew Brzezinski is a former U.S. national security adviser and the author, most recently, of Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power.
President Barack Obama needs to articulate clearly to the American people, and very soon, that the Ukraine crisis is the most important challenge to the international system since the end of the Cold War.
It is more than a month since the Russians annexed Crimea, and recent events have only exacerbated the crisis, with pro-Russian rebels reportedly shooting down two Ukrainian helicopters in separatist-held Slaviansk on Friday. Yet the president still hasn’t laid out a comprehensive statement of what is really at stake: why we are facing this problem; why it is in our common interest to resolve it, with the Russians if possible; and why, if negotiation does not work out, we have an obligation to help Ukraine. Above all, the president must clarify why we cannot tolerate an international system in which countries are invaded by thugs and destabilized from abroad. And why this is a common responsibility not just for us but for our allies and other friends like the Chinese, whose stake in stability should be as great as ours.
On the whole, I support the actions the president has taken so far. Considering the kind of democratic alliance we have, I think he generally did as well as is possible under present circumstances. He has had to tread carefully. What I do fault him for is not explicitly and calmly, but in a broad perspective, addressing the American people on this issue. He hasn’t made a single major statement to them on what potentially could be a major international crisis. He needs the support of the American people. Thus he has to convince them that this is important and that his stand deserves both national understanding and support.
Obama also has to generate some degree of conviction in the West that this is a joint responsibility, and he has to convince Moscow that we are serious. If we are to deter the Russians from moving in, we have to convince them that their aggression will entail a prolonged and costly effort. But it will be such only if the Ukrainians resist. Thus, we should be making an effort to negotiate with Russia even as at the same time we should be more open to helping the Ukrainians defend themselves if they’re attacked. The Ukrainians will fight only if they think they will eventually get some help from the West, particularly in supplies of the kind of weaponry that will be necessary to wage a successful urban defense. They’re not going to beat the Russians out in the open field were thousands of tanks to move in. They can beat them only through prolonged urban resistance. Then the war’s economic costs would escalate dramatically for the Russians, and it would become futile politically. But to be able to defend a city, you have to have hand-held antitank weaponry, hand-held rockets and some organization.
At the same time we also need to explore the possibility of a negotiated solution with Russia regarding Ukraine. It still might be possible to design it along the lines of the relationship that Russia has with Finland, which is not a member of NATO but enjoys full participation in Europe as best it can, even as it enjoys also a normal relationship with Russia. Obama should convey clearly to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States is prepared to use its influence to ensure that a truly independent and territorially undivided Ukraine pursues policies toward Russia similar to those so effectively practiced by Finland: mutually respectful neighbors, wide-ranging economic relations with both Russia and the European Union, but no participation in any military alliance viewed by Moscow as directed at itself — while also expanding its European connectivity. The Finnish model may be the ideal example for Ukraine, the European Union and Russia.
As far as Russian worries about Ukraine being absorbed into the EU, I would remind the Russians that to join it, a country has to pass 32 different examinations to get in. That takes time. The Turks were told they could join back in the 1960s, some 50 years ago. So the Russians need not fear a prompt integration of Ukraine into the EU.
A serious effort to explore such an outcome might be productive, although it will probably be difficult to bring the Ukrainians themselves on board. In any case, we are dealing with the very real threat that Russia is trying to alter the post-Cold War individual security arrangements by force. We are also facing the possibility that the net dynamic effect of such an accomplishment could be much-intensified pressure on some of the more vulnerable NATO countries. Hence, I think we have to be very clear in indicating to the Russians what the stakes are, what the possible high costs for them are likely to entail and what the parameters of a constructive solution might be.
Zbigniew Brzezinski is a former U.S. national security adviser and the author, most recently, of “Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power.” | {
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by ohthewhomanity
The concept of ancestors is introduced late in Act Five, as an interesting tidbit of troll society. It doesn’t take long for it to become more than that, though. That “destiny” that Vriska mentioned in the above quote shapes the trolls’ actions into a pattern that not only makes sense in hindsight but also might serve as a tool for predicting the future of the comic.
Between Mindfang’s journal entries and Doc Scratch’s narration, we get the story of the Beta Trolls’ ancestors, and it’s clear where Vriska, the troll most attached to her ancestor’s story, tried to make her life match the past: her blackrom relationship with Eridan, for instance, in direct parallel with Mindfang’s relationship with Dualscar, and her attempts to turn Tavros into a badass warrior like the Summoner. Since the relationship was short-lived and Tavros did not grow in the way she desired, one might think that the past is the past and has no bearing after all on present events.
One would be wrong.
The Beta Trolls’ lives do parallel the lives of their ancestors–but backwards. Every major event, and often a major relationship, is reversed.
The Summoner killed Mindfang. Vriska killed Tavros.
Dualscar killed the Dolorosa. Kanaya killed Eridan.
Mindfang was attracted to and raped the Dolorosa. Kanaya was attracted to Vriska but never acted on it.
The Handmaid lived for a long time and finally found freedom in death. Aradia was dead for a long time and finally found freedom in life.
The Sufferer was killed by the E%ecutor. Karkat sent Equius to his death.
The E%ecutor stood up to The Grand Highblood and spared the Disciple’s life. Equius knelt before Gamzee and Nepeta died as a result.
Mindfang outwitted an overconfident Redglare and got Redglare killed. Terezi outwitted an overconfident Vriska and killed Vriska.
Clever, huh?
The ancestor parallels complicate the issue of fate as discussed by Terezi and Vriska. Is destiny something that happens to us, or is it something that we make every day? Are the ancestor parallels written in the trolls’ blood, and unavoidable? I believe the implication is that yes, it is unavoidable, because this pattern still exists while all actions that would match history have so far backfired. In addition to Vriska’s efforts, which I mentioned before, we have Eridan trying to kill Kanaya but getting killed himself and Terezi maiming Vriska but getting blinded herself.
There is, however, a hitch in the pattern. As of A6A6I4, Vriska is no longer dead. Now, Terezi has not killed her. And who caused this deviance from the unavoidable pattern?
John Egbert, Heir of Breath, the living incarnation of independence and freedom.
Since John broke the pattern, are the parallels over? Or can we still use them to predict the future? Are Kanaya’s efforts to protect Karkat in A6A6I5 a parallel to the Dolorosa’s failure to protect the Sufferer? Also, remember how the Grand Highblood killed Dualscar? Does that mean that Eridan will rise to relevance once more and kill Gamzee?
Only time will tell. | {
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Evelyn Waugh, photograph by Carl Van Vechten.
The interview which follows is the result of two meetings on successive days at the Hyde Park Hotel, London, during April 1962.
I had written to Mr. Waugh earlier asking permission to interview him, and in this letter I had promised that I should not bring a tape recorder with me. I imagined, from what he had written in the early part of The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold, that he was particularly averse to them.
We met in the hall of the hotel at three in the afternoon. Mr. Waugh was dressed in a dark-blue suit with a heavy overcoat and a black homburg hat. Apart from a neatlytied, small, brown-paper parcel, he was unencumbered. After we had shaken hands and he had explained that the interview would take place in his own room, the first thing he said was, “Where is your machine?”
I explained that I hadn't brought one.
“Have you sold it?” he continued as we got into the lift. I was somewhat nonplussed. In fact, I had at one time owned a tape recorder, and I had indeed sold it three years earlier, before going to live abroad. None of this seemed very relevant. As we ascended slowly, Mr. Waugh continued his cross-questioning about the machine. How much had I bought it for? How much had I sold it for? Whom did I sell it to?
“Do you have shorthand, then?” he asked as we left the lift.
I explained that I did not.
“Then it was very foolhardy of you to sell your machine, wasn't it?”
He showed me into a comfortable, soberly furnished room, with a fine view over the trees across Hyde Park. As he moved about the room he repeated twice under his breath, “The horrors of London life! The horrors of London life!”
“I hope you won't mind if I go to bed,” he said, going into the bathroom. From there he gave me a number of comments and directions:
“Go and look out of the window. This is the only hotel with a civilized view left in London . . .. Do you see a brown-paper parcel? Open it, please.”
I did so.
“What do you find?”
“A box of cigars.”
“Do you smoke?”
“Yes. I am smoking a cigarette now.”
“I think cigarettes are rather squalid in the bedroom. Wouldn't you rather smoke a cigar?”
He reentered, wearing a pair of white pajamas and metal-rimmed spectacles. He took a cigar, lit it, and got into bed.
I sat down in an armchair at the foot of the bed, juggling notebook, pen, and enormous cigar between hands and knees.
“I shan't be able to hear you there. Bring up that chair.” He indicated one by the window, so I rearranged my paraphernalia as we talked of mutual friends. Quite soon he said, “When is the inquisition to begin?”
I had prepared a number of lengthy questions—the reader will no doubt detect the shadows of them in what follows—but I soon discovered that they did not, as I had hoped, elicit long or ruminative replies. Perhaps what was most striking about Mr. Waugh's conversation was his command of language: his spoken sentences were as graceful, precise, and rounded as his written sentences. He never faltered, nor once gave the impression of searching for a word. The answers he gave to my questions came without hesitation or qualification, and any attempt I made to induce him to expand a reply generally resulted in a rephrasing of what he had said before.
I am well aware that the result on the following pages is unlike the majority of Paris Review interviews; first it is very much shorter, and secondly, it is not “an interview in depth.” Personally, I believe that Mr. Waugh did not lend himself, either as a writer or as a man, to the form of delicate psychological probing and self-analysis which are characteristic of many of the other interviews. He would consider impertinent an attempt publicly to relate his life and his art, as was demonstrated conclusively when he appeared on an English television program, “Face to Face,” some time ago and parried all such probing with brief, flat, and, wherever possible, monosyllabic replies.
However, I should like to do something to dismiss the mythical image of Evelyn Waugh as an ogre of arrogance and reaction. Although he carefully avoided taking part in the marketplace of literary life, of conferences, prize giving, and reputation building, he was, nonetheless, both well informed and decided in his opinions about his contemporaries and juniors. Throughout the three hours I spent with him he was consistently helpful, attentive, and courteous, allowing himself only minor flights of ironic exasperation if he considered my questions irrelevant or ill-phrased.
INTERVIEWER
Were there attempts at other novels before Decline and Fall?
EVELYN WAUGH
I wrote my first piece of fiction at seven: The Curse of the Horse Race. It was vivid and full of action. Then, let's see, there was The World to Come, written in the meter of Hiawatha. When I was at school I wrote a five-thousand-word novel about modern school life. It was intolerably bad.
INTERVIEWER
Did you write a novel at Oxford?
WAUGH
No. I did sketches and that sort of thing for the Cherwell and for a paper Harold Acton edited—Broom, it was called. The Isis was the official undergraduate magazine: it was boring and hearty, written for beer drinkers and rugger players. The Cherwell was a little more frivolous.
INTERVIEWER
Did you write your life of Rossetti at that time?
WAUGH
No. I came down from Oxford without a degree, wanting to be a painter. My father settled my debts and I tried to become a painter. I failed as I had neither the talent nor the application—I didn't have the moral qualities.
INTERVIEWER
Then what?
WAUGH
I became a prep-school master. It was very jolly and I enjoyed it very much. I taught at two private schools for a period of nearly two years and during this I started an Oxford novel which was of no interest. After I had been expelled from the second school for drunkenness I returned penniless to my father. I went to see my friend Anthony Powell, who was working with Duckworth, the publishers, at the time, and said, “I'm starving.” (This wasn't true: my father fed me.) The director of the firm agreed to pay me fifty pounds for a brief life of Rossetti. I was delighted, as fifty pounds was quite a lot then. I dashed off and dashed it off. The result was hurried and bad. I haven't let them reprint it again. Then I wrote Decline and Fall. It was in a sense based on my experiences as a schoolmaster, yet I had a much nicer time than the hero.
INTERVIEWER
Did Vile Bodies follow on immediately?
WAUGH
I went through a form of marriage and traveled about Europe for some months with this consort. I wrote accounts of these travels which were bundled together into books and paid for the journeys, but left nothing over. I was in the middle of Vile Bodies when she left me. It was a bad book, I think, not so carefully constructed as the first. Separate scenes tended to go on for too long—the conversation in the train between those two women, the film shows of the dotty father.
INTERVIEWER
I think most of your readers would group these two novels closely together. I don't think that most of us would recognize that the second was the more weakly constructed.
WAUGH (briskly)
It was. It was secondhand, too. I cribbed much of the scene at the customs from Firbank. I popularized a fashionable language, like the beatnik writers today, and the book caught on.
INTERVIEWER
Have you found that the inspiration or starting point of each of your novels has been different? Do you sometimes start with a character, sometimes with an event or circumstance? Did you, for example, think of the ramifications of an aristocratic divorce as the center of A Handful of Dust, or was it the character of Tony and his ultimate fate which you started from?
WAUGH
I wrote a story called The Man Who Liked Dickens, which is identical to the final part of the book. About two years after I had written it, I became interested in the circumstances which might have produced this character; in his delirium there were hints of what he might have been like in his former life, so I followed them up.
INTERVIEWER
Did you return again and again to the story in the intervening two years?
WAUGH
I wasn't haunted by it, if that's what you mean. Just curious. You can find the original story in a collection got together by Alfred Hitchcock. | {
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Online class this weekend! We are diving into a commercial that was lit by Matt Stouppe and Key Grip Joe Heath. Take a look at the final spot that was created here:
https://bonfirelabs.com/work/shadow/
In this class we'll pick a few key shots and go over lighting diagrams, equipment lists, and everything else that was needed to make it happen. You'll see how they utilized standard tungsten fixtures alongside RGB LED's to create a colorful and gritty look.
There will be plenty of time to ask questions as well as explore any facet of lighting or camera movement you'd like to.
Can't wait for you to join us! | {
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Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. – Proverbs 22:6
The Christian Post reports that
A Christian foster care ministry in South Carolina has been told that it must either change a requirement that foster parents be Christian or shut down. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has come to the aid of the Greenville-based Miracle Hill Ministries and is seeking to protect the group from being forced to consider letting non-Christian foster parents join its network. “The licensing and participation of faith-based entities in the state foster care system is a constitutionally protected practice,” McMaster, a Republican, wrote in a letter sent this week to Miracle Hill leaders, according to The Greenville News. “It is important that religious organizations not be required to sacrifice the tenets of their faith in order to serve the children of South Carolina.” Miracle Hill serves foster kids across eight countries and is one of the largest private foster care providers within the state. Although Miracle Hill has served South Carolina for over 29 years with a Christ-centered approach, pressure began mounting in 2017 when the state Department of Social Services began interpreting federal regulations in a way that would deem Miracle Hill’s practice of only accepting Christian foster parents as discriminatory. “Based on this new interpretation, SCDSS has given Miracle Hill 30 days to either abandon its religious convictions or shut down its ministry as a foster child placing agency,” writes adoption attorney Betsy Tanner, a Miracle Hill foster parent, in an op-ed to the Greenville News Wednesday. “SCDSS’ new position is supposedly based on federal and state regulation written and interpreted by unelected bureaucrats,” she added. According to Tanner, at least 161 children are receiving care through Miracle Hill. A total of 31 have achieved permanency through Miracle Hill foster families that were caring for them in 2017. The demand placed on Miracle Hill comes as there are over 4,000 children in South Carolina’s foster care system. Over 1,500 families are needed to provide for those children, Tanner wrote.
Okay. Strap in. Here we go.
For 29 years, Miracle Hill has remained faithful to the mission given its founders by the God of Abraham: to place children with loving Christian Parents who would “train them in the way he (/she) should go”.
And, what’s wrong with that?
Evidently, a lot, according to the Liberals who are calling this decades-long practice “discriminatory”.
So, this got me thinking…
According to Modern American Liberals, like those at the SCDSS, who are apparently still in the throes of a National Temper Tantrum over Hillary Clinton’s loss, Bible-believing Christians are a discriminatory “Hate Group”
I beg to differ.
Christianity is the faith of the overwhelming majority of Americans.
That being said, Christianity, the faith of the overwhelming majority of Americans has played a part not only in the birth of our nation, but also the shaping of its Domestic and Foreign Policies.
There was a time when Family Historical Records, such as births and deaths, were recorded in the Family Bible
In fact, SCDSS, our Legal System was built on Judeo-Christian Principles.
To deny that fact is to attempt to rewrite history.
There is no such codicil in the Constitution of the United States of America as “The Separation of Church and State”.
Per the website, usconsitution.net,
One of the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, is directly responsible for giving us this phrase. In his 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association, then-President Jefferson used the phrase — it was probably not the first time, but it is the most memorable one. He said: Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his god, [the people, in the 1st Amendment,] declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state. Jefferson did not have a hand in the authoring of the Constitution, nor of the 1st Amendment, but he was an outspoken proponent of the separation of church and state, going back to his time as a legislator in Virginia. In 1785, Jefferson drafted a bill that was designed to quash an attempt by some to provide taxes for the purpose of furthering religious education. He wrote that such support for religion was counter to a natural right of man: … no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. Jefferson’s act was passed, though not without some difficulty, in Virginia. Eyler Robert Coates wrote that the act was copied in the acts or constitutions of several states, either in words or in concepts. Jefferson himself was in France by the time word of the act reached Europe, and he wrote back to America that his act was well-thought of and admired.
However, unlike the tyranny in England that our Founding Fathers escaped from, no one in this present free nation has ever been forced to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
And, that fact is extremely evident in some of the comments one sees on Facebook Political Pages and Political Websites.
But, I digress…
In recent times, especially under Former President, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), a concerted effort was made to marginalize Christian Americans, putting us in a box if you will. in fact, a lot of Liberals and “libertarians” continue to believe that Christianity Americans should only practice our faith on Sunday Mornings from 9 – 12, and be seen and not heard the rest of week.
But, that’s only if they cannot use us for their own political ends.
For decades, American churches, like the black congregations in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, have invited local politicians to speak from their pulpits. While Modern American Liberals have had conniption fits over white churches around the country doing the same thing, they have not said a mumblin’ word about the actions of a constituency which historically votes Democratic.
Imagine that.
The 45th President of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump, was exactly right in what he told a meeting of Evangelical Christians during the Presidential Campaign that:
They took away the voice of people that want to see good things happen. It’s not like they took away a bad voice, an evil voice. They took away a voice.
On November 8, 2016, that voice was heard loud and clear.
And now, just like the rest of their desperate Liberal Brethren and Sisters, the South Carolina Department of Social Services is ironically attempting to discriminate against Christian Americans by accusing those seeking to provide a home to children desperately in need of one, of “DISCRIMINATION” because attacking Christian Americans worked so well (/sarc) when they used it during the Presidential Campaign of Hillary Clinton.
One would have thought that the “Smartest People in the Room” would have learned from their defeat.
In closing, in deference to this being Sunday Morning… may I ask a faith-based question?
Is all this violence, such as the Parkland School Massacre and the political upheaval our nation is still dealing with, caused by those on the fringes of the Political Spectrum, who seek to regain control of our Sovereign Nation, due to some sort of Satanic Influence attempting to tip the scales in the fight between Good and Evil, across our land?
The reason that our nation is facing the difficulties we are is the belief by those who proclaim themselves to be the “smartest people in the room”, that they are above the old-fashioned, passe notions of morality and ethics, good and evil, and the Sovereignty of God.
Perhaps they were never “trained in the way in which they should go”.
Or, perhaps they were and decided that they were “smarter” than those who raised them.
They have made a grave mistake.
Evil exists and these fools opened the door to Satan in our society a long time ago.
When it all comes crashing down around them, what are they going to say?
The Devil made me do it?
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. – Ephesians 6:12
Until He Comes,
KJ | {
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I remember this one level in Yoshi's Island where the floor is lava and you have to ride Poochy, who can walk on it no problem. | {
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Prima facie, telecom sector incumbents Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone India Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd have done well to protect market share despite Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s relentless aggression. Subscription numbers released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) show that the Vodafone-Idea combine improved their share of active subscribers from 39% in March 2017 to 40.2% in January 2018. Airtel did even better, increasing its share by 470 basis points to 30.9%.
Reliance Jio increased its share by 580 basis points, which, of course, represents a much faster growth, given its low base. Its share in March stood at 7.8%. Each of these large companies gained at the expense of smaller firms.
One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
But holding on to subscriber market share, or even improving upon it, doesn’t count for much in a world where tariffs are declining. What really matters is the wallet share each telecom firm enjoys with customers who use more than one mobile connection.
From the looks of it, Reliance Jio is doing better than most incumbents on this count. It generates far more data traffic on its network than all of the other large telecom players combined. Pointing to this, analysts at JPMorgan India said in a 22 January note to clients, “Incumbents must do a lot more to become the data SIM of choice for a large mass of their sub-base; Jio may have well established this positioning."
According to an analyst with a domestic institutional brokerage firm, Reliance Jio is very likely to end up as the second largest telecom firm in terms of revenues in the March quarter. In the December quarter, it had already overtaken Idea’s revenues. Note that in terms of active subscribers, Reliance Jio was about 34-35% behind Vodafone and Idea at the end of December. This just goes to show that the active subscriber count has become less important in the current market environment.
In this backdrop, some analysts say it makes sense to look at trends in wireless broadband subscriptions more closely. The idea is that broadband customers generate higher ARPU (average revenue per user), besides which it is the segment which all telcos are looking to grow.
The data suggests Reliance Jio is leading the way here as well. So far this fiscal year, it has added 59.7 million customers, higher than what the other three large telcos have added cumulatively. Its share in the wireless broadband segment reached a high of 46.8% in January, up from 42.2% in March.
Analysts point out that over a third of Reliance Jio’s additions in January were likely on account of sales of its feature phone, where ARPU is lower than the company average. A clear picture of how market share battles have turned out will only come out when the telcos announce March quarter results.
For now, it is clear that the Reliance Jio juggernaut continues to roll on. The worrying bit is that the company is still miles away from its aspirational goal of a 50% revenue share of the market. As such, price competition can be expected to remain intense for some time to come.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sent a senior diplomat to Moscow on Wednesday to discuss proposals to end the conflict convulsing his country made by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.
Brahimi, who saw Assad on Monday and is planning to hold a series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents in Damascus this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power, but has disclosed little about how this might be done.
More than 44,000 Syrians have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule, a conflict that began with peaceful protests in March last year, but has since descended into civil war.
A video posted by rebels on Wednesday showed the bodies of dozens of soldiers executed by a roadside. At least one of them appeared to have been beaten to death. The United Nations and rights group say the military and rebels have both committed war crimes, but have so far placed most of the blame on the army.
Past peace efforts have floundered, with world powers divided over what has become an increasingly sectarian struggle between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad's security forces, drawn primarily from his Shiite-rooted Alawite minority.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad flew to Moscow to discuss the details of the talks with Brahimi, said a Syrian security source, who would not say if a deal was in the works.
However, a Lebanese official close to Damascus said Makdad had been sent to seek Russian advice on a possible agreement.
He said Syrian officials were upbeat after talks with Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, who met Foreign Minister Walid Moualem on Tuesday a day after his session with Assad, but who has not outlined his ideas in public.
"There is a new mood now and something good is happening," the official said, asking not to be named. He gave no details.
Russia, which has given Assad diplomatic and military aid to help him weather the 21-month-old uprising, has said it is not protecting him, but has fiercely criticized any foreign backing for rebels and, with China, has blocked U.N. Security Council action on Syria.
Seeking A Settlement
A Russian Foreign Ministry source said Makdad and an aide would meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Bogdanov, the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, on Thursday, but did not disclose the nature of the talks.
On Saturday, Lavrov said Syria's civil war had reached a stalemate, saying international efforts to get Assad to quit would fail. Bogdanov had earlier acknowledged that Syrian rebels were gaining ground and might win.
Given the scale of the bloodshed and destruction, Assad's opponents insist the Syrian president must go.
Moaz Alkhatib, head of the internationally-recognized Syrian National Coalition opposition, has criticized any notion of a transitional government in which Assad would stay on as a figurehead president stripped of real powers.
Comments on Alkhatib's Facebook page on Monday suggested that the opposition believed this was one of Brahimi's ideas.
"The government and its president cannot stay in power, with or without their powers," Alkhatib wrote, saying his Coalition had told Brahimi it rejected any such solution.
While Brahimi was working to bridge the vast gaps between Assad and his foes, fighting raged across the country and a senior Syrian military officer defected to the rebels.
In the northern province of al-Raqqa, Syrian army shelling killed about 20 people, at least eight of them children, a video posted by opposition campaigners showed.
The video, uploaded by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, showed rows of blood-stained bodies laid out on blankets. Sobbing relatives could be heard in the background.
The shelling hit the province's al-Qahtania village early on Wednesday. The British-based Observatory, which has a network of activists across Syria, said there was no rebel presence in the town, and the motives of the attack were unclear.
"This Is The Fate Of Swine"
As the violence grows, so does sectarian hatred between the Sunni Muslim majority and minorities such as Assad's Alawite sect, which has largely supported the president.
Several Islamist units, among them the US-blacklisted Jabhat al-Nusra, released a video showing the bodies of dozens of Assad's fighters along a highway near an Alawite town in the central province of Hama, where rebels launched a new offensive.
The unseen speaker in the video dated the scene to Dec. 21 and said 50 men were ambushed in a convoy and killed. Piles of bodies lined the road with many more scattered further away. One of the men appeared to have been beaten to death, with parts of his face smashed in and some of the skull protruding.
"Let this be a lesson," the cameraman says. "These are Assad's apostate dogs on the road ... this is the fate of all swine."
On the back of the Hama offensive, rebels relaunched their assault on the Wadi Deif military base in the northwestern province of Idlib, in a battle for a major army compound and fuel storage and distribution point.
The military used artillery and air strikes to try to hold back rebels assaulting Wadi Deif and the town of Morek in Hama province further south, where they have cut its supply routes. In one air raid, rockets fell near a field hospital in Idlib's town of Saraqeb, wounding several people, the Observatory said.
As violence has intensified in recent weeks, the death toll has climbed. The Observatory reported at least 120 killed across the country on Wednesday, a number likely to rise overnight.
The head of Syria's military police changed sides and declared allegiance to the anti-Assad revolt.
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"I am General Abdelaziz Jassim al-Shalal, head of the military police. I have defected because of the deviation of the army from its primary duty of protecting the country and its transformation into gangs of killing and destruction," the officer said in a video published on YouTube.
A Syrian security source confirmed the defection, but said Shalal was near retirement and had only defected to "play hero". | {
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A few months ago I created this twitter bot that retweets anything from a specified list of users. And guess what? It was only 17 lines of code. The reason I’m sharing this is because I think it’s crazy how online services charge at least $15 for a simple tool to create bots when you can just build your own. So are you ready?
Here’s what we’re going to use to build the bot:
Node.js — install at https://nodejs.org/en/
twit — Twitter API Client for node (believe me, it’s twit). https://github.com/ttezel/twit
Aaaand that’s basically it.
Creating an application
Before we get into writing code, we have to setup our Twitter application. You can do that at https://apps.twitter.com/. Press the “Create New App” button and this is what you’ll see:
Fill in the information. If you don’t have a website to put in the “Website” field, you can just write https://www.example.com.
Once you create the application, there are 4 important things to note down over at the “Keys and Access Tokens” tab:
Consumer Key
Consumer Secret
Access Token Key
Access Token Secret
If you don’t see your “Access Token Key” and “Access Token Secret” just click the “Create my access token” button and you’ll be set.
Initializing the project
Open up CMD or Terminal and cd to a new directory for your twitter bot and execute the command:
npm init
and fill in the information. Next, we need to install the proper dependencies, in this case it’s only one:
npm install twit --save
Now create a file in that directory called index.js .
NOTE: If you changed the entry point when you ran npm init then make sure that the file name matches what you put in package.json . If you didn’t change anything, then don’t worry just call it index.js .
The fun part
Open up a blank text editor of your choice and create a Twit instance that can be used to make requests to Twitter's APIs. The config should be an object of the form:
var Twit = require ( ' twit ' ) var T = new Twit ({ consumer_key : ' ... ' , consumer_secret : ' ... ' , access_token : ' ... ' , access_token_secret : ' ... ' , })
Replace the ' ... ' with your consumer and access keys.
Now create an array which holds the string IDs of the users you want to retweet (you can change the IDs I put in the code snippet below):
var users = [ " 10228272 " , " 155659213 " , " 783214 " ];
Now we’re going to create a stream which is in the form T.stream(path, [params]) :
var stream = T . stream ( ' statuses/filter ' , { follow : users });
Notice that in the second parameter, for the key follow we set the value as the variable users .
Now we’re going to listen to that stream when the event tweet is fired:
stream . on ( ' tweet ' , function ( tweet ) { if ( users . indexOf ( tweet . user . id_str ) > - 1 ) { console . log ( tweet . user . name + " : " + tweet . text ); T . post ( ' statuses/retweet/:id ' , { id : tweet . id_str }, function ( err , data , response ) { console . log ( data ) }) } })
This function is emitted each time a status (tweet) comes into the stream. Line 2 is necessary to ensure that the ID of the user who just tweeted is present in the array users .
Line 4 is basically using twit to retweet that tweet with an id of tweet.id_str . If you want to check out what other properties the tweet object has, you can head over to: https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/tweets/data-dictionary/overview/tweet-object
Lets run the bot!
That’s basically it, You just created your first twitter bot in 17 lines of code! To run it, just execute this command in CMD or Terminal:
node index.js
Future updates
I’ll be writing another post later on which explains how to deploy your bot to Heroku so that you don’t have to run it on your local system 24/7.
Final code | {
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Post by Moonchild » 2017-08-22, 11:57
Fixed a number of crashes.
Enabled the opt-in debugging feature to log SSL keys to a file in all builds.
Added a fix for TLS 1.3 handshakes causing a browser hangup.
Handshakes should be considerably faster now and no longer stall in the wrong circumstances.
Updated NSPR to 4.15.
Updated NSS to 3.31.1.
Fixed a DoS issue using overly long Username in URL scheme (CVE-2017-7783)
Fixed an issue where (cross domain) iframes could break scope (CVE-2017-7787)
Fixed an issue in WindowsDllDetourPatcher (CVE-2017-7804)
Fixed an issue with elliptic curve addition in mixed Jacobian-affine coordinates (CVE-2017-7781)
Fixed a UAF in nsImageLoadingContent (CVE-2017-7784)
Fixed a UAF in WebSockets (CVE-2017-7800)
Fixed a heap-UAF in RelocateARIAOwnedIfNeeded (CVE-2017-7809) DiD (accessibility is disabled)
DiD
This is a small update to address some security and stability issues.This means that the fix is "Defense-in-Depth": It is a fix that does not apply to a (potentially) actively exploitable vulnerability in Pale Moon, but prevents future vulnerabilities caused by the same code when surrounding code changes, exposing the problem. | {
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What is the Tax March?
The Tax March isn't an organization – it's a movement – gaining momentum around the country. Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump told the American people he would release his tax returns and come clean about his business dealings, as presidential candidates and presidents have done for decades. Despite intense public pressure, President Donald Trump has not yet done so. In refusing to release these tax returns, he is able to hide his business dealings, financial ties, and conflicts of interest.
Within days of his inauguration, the White House petition calling on Trump to release his tax returns garnered the most signatures on a White House petition, ever. The Trump administration's response? "People don't care."
On April 15th, we’re marching on Washington, D.C., and in communities across the country to show that we do care. And that we’re not going away. Tens of thousands of Americans will send a clear message to Donald Trump: The president is accountable to the American people, and he must answer to us.
taxmarch.org | {
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Gina Haspel, the CIA's second in command, reportedly the White House she wanted to withdraw her nomination to lead the spy agency, unnamed senior U.S. officials told the Washington Post and NBC News, as her past support for enhanced interrogation techniques threatens to sink her approval in Congress.
Both NBC and The Post reported that Haspel told Trump administration officials that she would be willing to rescind her nomination if it resulted in an embarrassing Senate confirmation hearing, which is scheduled to take place this week.
She also told the White House she didn't want a messy nomination process to damage the CIA, the publications reported. News of Haspel's potential withdrawal was first reported by The Washington Post.
Alarmed by the prospect that Haspel might withdraw, White House aides, including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and legislative affairs director Marc Short, traveled to Haspel's office at CIA headquarters on Friday evening to convince her not to withdraw, sources told NBC.
A 33-year veteran of the CIA, Haspel's past oversight and approval of waterboarding during interrogations has garnered intense criticism from some lawmakers. Haspel was reportedly an enthusiastic supporter of the CIA's interrogation practices, which were often used in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on prisoners with suspected links to groups such as al-qaeda.
She also expressed concern for her own reputation, reportedly telling Trump administration officials that she didn't want to be "the next Ronny Jackson," according to The Post. Jackson, Trump's physician, was nominated to be Veterans Affairs Secretary, but unfavorable reports of his behavior prompted him to rescind.
"She has always been somebody willing to step aside if it creates a problem...[but] she is committed to doing it," a source told NBC. Sources say the president and Haspel have spoken this weekend and that Mr. Trump "is not looking to replace her."
Sanders told the Post that she still has the president's full support.
The Washington Post's full report can be found on its website. | {
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Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a frequent opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. Follow her on Twitter @fridaghitis . The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author. Read more opinion on CNN.
(CNN) For just a moment Wednesday night you might have thought President Donald Trump was at long last grasping the gravity of the coronavirus situation and taking the necessary steps to confront what may be the most serious crisis the country has faced since he took office -- one that could lead to the deaths of vast numbers of people.
Trump tried to give a serious address to the nation from the Oval Office, laying out a plan to tackle the pandemic. But it quickly became apparent that this was one more error-filled display in what has been a grotesque carnival of incompetence.
The Europe travel and cargo ban started making headlines around the world while the President was still on the air. Anxious families wondered how they'd get traveling children home. Importers were in shock.
But just moments after the speech ended, the Department of Homeland Security issued a " clarification ." Turns out Trump got much of it wrong , even though he was reading from a teleprompter.
DHS said the restriction would not apply to Americans or US residents and their families, and would cover only foreigners who over the past 14 days spent time in certain European countries. It doesn't cover cargo. In short, it's nothing like Trump's dramatic announcement. Instead, it's a partial ban on flights from the area known as Schengen, a 26-country European travel bloc. The White House issued the proclamation , confirming DHS's version. There was also no mention of 30 days.
JUST WATCHED Stocks tank after Trump's coronavirus speech Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Stocks tank after Trump's coronavirus speech 01:14
It gets worse. Trump also announced what would have been a milestone in fighting the fast-spreading contagion. Leaders of the health insurance industry, he said, "have agreed to waive all co-payments for coronavirus treatments." That would have broken through one of the most dangerous obstacles to containment, allowing more Americans to seek the care they need without fear of bankruptcy. But that too was wrong.
The insurance industry corrected him, saying they have agreed to waive co-payments " for testing, not for treatment ," a colossal difference from what Trump indicated.
How is it possible that the President of the United States gets so much wrong about something so important in a speech from the Oval Office? We don't know if his speechwriters got it wrong or if he somehow improvised. Either way, it's disastrous and unacceptable.
The frontrunner in the Democratic primary, former Vice President Joe Biden, by contrast, modeled a statesmanlike approach in remarks on Thursday, when he offered his own plans for addressing the virus and its associated economic perils. Taking aim at Trump's words from the night before, Biden urged Americans not to "panic or fall back on xenophobia"; "labeling Covid-19 a 'foreign virus' does not displace accountability for the misjudgments thus far" of the Trump administration, Biden said.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has magnified the danger of everything we have seen from this president from the day he took office.
From the start of the epidemic, Trump did nothing but ignore, minimize and mislead the public, while draping himself in cringeworthy, unctuous praise from officials who diminished themselves to avoid upsetting him, after seeing how those who spoke the truth incurred his wrath.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Nancy Messonnier warned that the virus would inevitably spread and we should prepare, Trump was reportedly furious according to the Washington Post.
Trump called the response and news coverage about the gravity of the virus a " hoax ," and his enablers at Fox News and elsewhere irresponsibly followed suit
When the US had two dozen cases and experts said more would come, he contradicted them, saying it was not inevitable
As the number of cases and deaths grew exponentially at home and abroad -- Italy has gone from three cases three weeks ago to more than 12,000 now -- Trump incessantly tweeted and repeatedly declared that the seasonal flu kills thousands, and we don't make such a fuss.
JUST WATCHED Biden lambasts Trump over coronavirus response Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Biden lambasts Trump over coronavirus response 00:32
He kept that line in what was a downright bizarre press conference at CDC headquarters last week. "The [virus] tests are all perfect," he gushed, adding outlandishly "like the letter was perfect," a reference to his Ukraine impeachment case. "It's all performing perfectly, now it's performing perfectly in all places. And how was the show last night? Did it get good ratings?" He had been on Fox the night before. Amid the random topics, he managed to include multiple falsehoods about the virus, adding to the confusion in the official message to the public.
A reporter who was there said he found Trump's statements " terrifying ."
The most troubling statement , in my view, came when he was asked whether people on a cruise ship should be brought ashore. "I like the numbers being where they are. I don't need to have the numbers double because of one ship." That adds to concerns about why the US is not testing more people, a concern made worse by Trump's Tuesday address, when he boasted that US numbers are better than Europe's. (Few US tests are the likely reason.)
JUST WATCHED Sanders calls for Trump to declare national emergency Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Sanders calls for Trump to declare national emergency 01:50
It apparently took a collapse in stock prices to persuade the president that this is not a public relations and marketing problem that can be solved with "alternative facts." So, he wore his stern face to the Oval Office and addressed the nation.
America's European allies were not only baffled by what they heard, they were livid . In a rare statement criticizing the US, they strongly condemned Trump's decision, which many viewed as motivated by politics rather than science. "The coronavirus is a global crisis," they said, "it requires cooperation, rather than unilateral action." Contrary to what Trump indicated in the speech, they said the travel ban was "taken unilaterally and without consultation."
This is but a small sliver of the mistakes and misguided moves by the President and an administration where the principal requirement for a top job is obsequious loyalty to the President.
On the whole, the Trump administration has been incompetent and ineffectual. According to Ashish Jha, head of Harvard's Global Health Institute, "Our response is much, much worse than almost any other country that has been affected."
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The number of infections and deaths will continue climbing, and the top man in the government has undercut the efforts of the professionals and insulted US allies, showing himself incapable of handling the crisis. With the virus raging, countless lives will be lost. The President's inattention arguably delayed a stronger response, and his misrepresentations, self-serving messages, and incompetent actions have only added to the problem. It's time for Trump to stand aside and let qualified professionals do their jobs. | {
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The American sports media got a D+ on a diversity report card, which grades their hiring practices when it comes to race and gender.
The 2018 Associated Press Sports Editors Racial and Gender Report Card, gave the sports media a B, when it came to racial diversity. However, the report card issued them an F, when it came to gender diversity.
The overall grade of D+ was the lowest of all grades issued by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (TIDES). This finding stands in stark contrast to the public perception that the sports media is overwhelmingly tolerant and inclusive. When in fact, according to the report, they’re clearly struggling.
As to how ESPN scored on the report card:
Of the 70 people of color who are assistant sports editors, 51 work for ESPN. If the ESPN assistant sports editors of color were removed, the overall percentage of assistant sports editors of color would drop from 24 percent to 8 percent. Of the 89 women who were assistant sports editors, 75 worked for ESPN. If the ESPN assistant sports editors who are women were removed, the overall percentage of female assistant sports editors would drop from 30 percent to 6 percent. ESPN also had a significant effect on the percentage of female columnists at the largest newspapers and websites. Of the 44 women who were columnists at this level, 38 worked for ESPN. Of the 44 women, four were African-American, one was Latina and two were Asian. All 11 women of color were employed by ESPN. If the ESPN columnists who are women were removed, the overall percentage of female columnists would drop from 19 percent to 3 percent.
While these numbers show an upward trend in race and gender hiring practices, the sports media is clearly in no position to lecture anyone when it comes to diversity.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn | {
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Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speak at a March news conference. The two have found their party fortified by the GOP’s increasing openness to Democratic help in avoiding a government shutdown. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Democrats in Congress have a new and surprising tool at their disposal in the era of one-party Republican rule in President Trump’s Washington: power.
It turns out that Republicans need the minority party to help them avoid a government shutdown at the end of April, when the current spending deal to fund the government expires. And Democrats have decided, for now at least, that they will use their leverage to reassert themselves and ensure the continued funding of their top priorities — by negotiating with Republicans.
“I think we have a lot of leverage here,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). Republicans “are going to need our help putting together the budget, and that help means we can avoid some of the outrageous Trump proposals and advance some of our own proposals.”
The fact that Republicans need Democrats to vote for a temporary spending measure to avoid a shutdown gives Democrats leverage to force the GOP to abandon plans to attack funding for environmental programs and Planned Parenthood. And it also allows Democrats to block Trump’s top priority — the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border — which the president seeks to factor in to this latest round of budget negotiations.
[Hill Republicans trying to avert a shutdown need Democrats — and Trump]
(The Washington Post)
It comes at a time when Republicans on Capitol Hill are badly divided and President Trump’s ambitious agenda — a health-care overhaul, his 2018 budget blueprint, a tax proposal and an infrastructure program — has yet to get off the ground.
Since the failure of the House GOP’s health-care plan, Trump has signaled he may work with Democrats to achieve major goals. Coupled with the negotiations over the spending measure, such a statement could foreshadow a major and unexpected power shift in Washington in which the minority party has far more influence in upcoming legislative fights than was initially expected.
“I think most of our caucus wants to work with them,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a recent interview, referring to the GOP. “But it requires working in a compromise way.”
But cooperation with their GOP counterparts — and possibly even with Trump — is a risky move for congressional Democrats, who are being pressured by the more liberal wing of their party to obstruct the GOP and Trump at all costs. Part of that energy is playing out in the Senate over the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, as Democrats have vowed to block his confirmation, potentially leading to an explosive fight next week to change Senate rules.
Hill Democrats are betting voters will view any attempt to compromise on spending as further evidence that the fractured GOP is unable to govern. If the talks fail and a shutdown approaches, voters might then blame Republicans for failing to keep the government open despite their control of the House, Senate and White House, several Democratic aides reasoned.
There is a sense among many Democrats that bipartisanship isn’t necessarily toxic, even in an environment in which ardent liberals continue to protest at town hall meetings. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats think voters see Democrats taking steps to defend existing policies — such as battling the American Health Care Act or blocking funding for a border wall — and understand the big picture.
“It’s an interesting time,” Pelosi said “Let’s understand and let the public understand what the debate is.”
(Reuters)
Without Democratic help, Republicans are unlikely to unite behind a temporary spending plan to keep the government open past April 28. That does not even address the larger battle expected to take place over the fiscal 2018 budget in which Trump has proposed a $54 billion increase in defense spending to be compensated for by cuts to 18 domestic agencies and programs.
Democrats have already flexed their muscle by refusing to support the funding of Trump’s border wall as part of the temporary measure. They also rejected a proposal by the Trump administration to include in that measure a $30 billion spike in defense spending and $18 billion in cuts to domestic programs.
“I think it’s clear that putting border money into this without a plan for how it’s spent is unacceptable,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).
[Trump wants to add wall spending to stopgap budget bill, potentially forcing shutdown showdown]
But that doesn’t mean Democrats won’t support some minor compromise on defense spending and border security. Some Democrats have privately floated the idea that they might be willing to tap an off-budget war fund to help pay for some increases in defense and border spending, an idea neither Pelosi nor Schumer would rule out.
“We would not be opposed to any border security measures that are not the wall — increasing technology,” Pelosi said at a Thursday news conference. “There are better things that we can be doing.”
Schumer was similarly supportive.
“If they asked for $200 million for more electronic surveillance and drones on the border, I don’t think that would cause many hackles in our caucus,” he said.
Republican leaders appeared in recent days to be open to that kind of compromise. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said leaving defense spending increases and money for the border wall out of the short-term spending negotiations wouldn’t be a dealbreaking problem.
“It doesn’t mean that you can’t come back to that smaller package and see if there’s not some future way to do it,” Blunt said.
But any appetite for compromise could end next week, when the two sides are expected to clash over Gorsuch’s nomination.
Democrats are planning to exploit Republicans’ narrow 52-48 advantage in the Senate to slow a vote on Gorsuch. Schumer said he will force Republicans to get 60 votes on a procedural motion before the Senate can vote on the nomination.
Fallout from the very public battle over Gorsuch could play a critical role in whether spending talks stay on track. Democrats privately fear Trump will grow angry over the spectacle and demand funding for the wall, aides said.
There is also a chance GOP members and Trump will cool off during a two-week Easter recess just before a final spending deal is expected. Members of the Appropriations Committee hope to spend that time negotiating roughly 200 remaining issues, including Republican attempts to roll back some Obama-era financial regulations.
Clashes over similarly tacked-on provisions, typically known as “riders,” have for years prevented Congress from completing the regular appropriations process. Democrats have uniformly rejected Republican attempts to attach to spending bills riders that attack Planned Parenthood, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulation legislation.
“We want legislation that meets the needs of the American people and does not have the poisonous riders in it,” Pelosi said Thursday. “We have to see the substance of what is in the bill.”
Those fights have been somewhat muted this year as Republicans have used other means to begin chipping away at regulations implemented under President Obama. Congress has already taken steps to roll back Obama’s Clean Power Plan and regulation of streams, two issues Republicans previously tried to address through riders.
“A good handful of the measures . . . have been addressed,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “It doesn’t mean that there are not still issues that present themselves in the subcommittee budget, but I think it’s going to be a little bit easier.”
Republicans have also hinted that they will not attempt a fight on Planned Parenthood. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters last week he did not think a spending bill was the right place for the abortion fight and suggested conservatives take up the fight under special budget rules known as “reconciliation.”
“We think reconciliation is the tool, because that gets it into law,” Ryan said. “Reconciliation is the way to go.”
It is unclear whether Republicans who oppose abortion rights will be satisfied with that path. A group of 77 antiabortion organizations wrote to lawmakers Friday demanding that they continue to try to end federal support for Planned Parenthood. But they, too, focused on using reconciliation.
Democrats bet Republicans will be willing to ignore demands from their most conservative members, many of whom routinely vote against spending bills over objections to all government spending. They also are convinced Republicans are quickly growing tired of being bullied by Trump.
Schumer said Trump’s idea of compromise is to propose something and give Congress no chance for input. That approach may work for now, but Democrats hope Republicans will eventually grow tired of Trump’s dictating their path and instead turn to Democrats to begin legislating.
“Our Republican colleagues are going along with that right now,” Schumer said. “But that’s not how many of them feel. I think many of them want to work in a bipartisan way.”
Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report.
Read more at PowerPost | {
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Story highlights Lawyer warns it could be "biggest mass deportation" in history of US
Garcia de Rayos' husband says their children are heartbroken
(CNN) The lawyer for an Arizona woman who was deported last week says President Donald Trump's recent executive orders are "a declaration of war" on the immigrant community.
Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos was deported to Mexico Thursday following a routine check-in with a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix. She was required to check in yearly after being convicted in 2009 of using a false Social Security number and had done so with no repercussions until now.
"This is a declaration of war, these executive orders, are a declaration of war on the immigrant community," Ray Maldonado, Garcia de Rayos' attorney, told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day" Monday.
"Our community could possibly be facing one of the biggest mass deportations in the history of the United States, if President Trump follows through on what he's written in his executive orders."
JUST WATCHED Deported mother leaves behind family in US Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Deported mother leaves behind family in US 03:00
Read More | {
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There's only one ubifeel.com domain. Once purchased, it may never become available again. | {
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Let's say, you are not a big fan of Apple but after seeing these pictures of Mac workspace setups, many of you will change your mind for sure. No doubt Apple have got its own style in everything from an iPhone to iMac. Here are some of the beautiful collection of Mac workspace setups i have collected through out the globe.
Click on the individual thumbnail to view full size image.
Also Check Out: | {
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Absorbing the Norman Rockwell exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery over the past four weeks, it’s extraordinary to witness one artist chronicling one nation over seven decades, from 1916 to 1978.
For more than half of his career, Rockwell was constrained by racism that dominated the nation, forcing him to depict people of colour in subservient roles, if he wanted to publish in most circles. This is the timeframe and the images that many people think of when they think Rockwell. And it’s the majority of his body of work.
It’s liberating to watch him later tackle hard issues of desegregation and hate crimes, once society permitted meaningful dialogue. During the years of his constraints, Rockwell looks for the good in people, and celebrates what is working: family, connections, community, and humor.
Leading a challenging life himself, he says, “I paint life as I’d like it to be.” Somehow, in his constant looking for the good, he steers people toward hope. He reiterates and reinforces what is working. And eventually has the freedom to mourn what isn’t.
The Globe and Mail review of the Winnipeg show applauds a feel-good master’s complex message that still resonates in our age of anxiety. Being raised in Alabama, these images stick with me on a number of levels. The show is on until May 20, and I’ll be back to keep looking.
Reinforcing What Works
If you’re wondering what this has to do with placemaking, I’m getting to that. Within all challenging timeframes, there are certain ideals we quietly reinforce as a society, even when bigger issues lurk that we’re not addressing. During the times when there’s a lack of meaningful discussion on how to move forward, many people still resonate with these ideals, and reinforce them in some way or another.
Whether it’s the African-American waiter’s fatherly smile toward the young white boy trying to figure out the appropriate amount of his first tip, in Boy in Dining Car. Or people lovingly caring for neighborhoods that are no longer legal to build. If most of our walkable, character-rich neighbourhoods burnt to the ground today, they’d have to be built back with wide, suburban streets and a separation of uses, thanks to the fact that we’ve legalized our love affairs with the automobile and suburbia.
The redeeming factor is, because people do love the character-rich places, many of them have been preserved, quietly celebrated, and fiercely protected by their residents. Not in a dissimilar way to how Rockwell reinforces family, community, and connections at a time when it was hard to address the elephant in the room.
Our Elephant
When society became more open to discussing and positively responding to issues of race in the ‘60’s, it was a decade or so after we began actively insulating ourselves from people different than us by white flight to the suburbs of the ‘50’s. Then later locking ourselves into gated communities in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. A recent sorrowful event in a Florida gated community points to failures in this system.
While we’ve made great advances in the civil rights discussion, our very suburban development bylaws continue to make it harder for people to connect in a constructive way, and continue to make for mistrust that comes with not getting to know each other. Whether it’s people of different races, ages, backgrounds, or income brackets. Suburbia segregates by all of these.
We’ve discussed that here at length, in terms of charity, connectivity, social networks, resilience, and parenting.
The Idyllic Landscape
Despite demonstrating significant returns, historic urbanism is a frequent recipient of critiques about sentimentalism, similar to the art criticism of Rockwell in past decades. Just as Rockwell’s retrospective at the Guggenheim, the “temple of modernist art,” signaled a shift in viewpoint of the artistic community, the recent embrace of walkability signals a shift in the definition of livability.
While the average person on North America still spends 6.25 weeks every year in their car, we’re starting to resist what that means to our wallet with rising fuel prices, and to our lifespans with rising obesity. We’re starting to redefine livability in terms of quality of life (community amenities, active transportation, family time, social capital) instead of standard of living (size of house, number of cars, size of lot, earnings).
Similar to Rockwell’s “life as I’d like it to be,” Voltaire’s Candide struggles in his yearning for “the best of all possible worlds,” but lives through a satire riddled with caricatures and clichés. In the end, he settles for the conclusion that “we must cultivate our garden.”
It isn’t the architecture, or the urbanism, or inclusiveness, or the economy that will make the world right, but when all of those things are working together. It’s the patterns and connections that we’ve quietly reinforced as a society over time that hold both the meaning and the healing.
Both autonomy and connectivity are fostered in large part by the form of the built environment. And that lets us cultivate our garden.
–Hazel Borys
Endnotes
Boy in Dining Car, Norman Rockwell, 1946
Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, December 7, 1946.
©1946 SEPS: Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL.
From the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum
The Problem We All Live With, Norman Rockwell, 1963
Illustration for Look, January 14, 1964
Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL.
From the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum
Lincoln for the Defense, Norman Rockwell, 1961
Painting for The Saturday Evening Post story “Lincoln for the Defense” by Elisa Bialk, February 10, 1962.
©1961 SEPS: Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL.
Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust
Murder in Mississippi, Norman Rockwell, 1965
Painting intended as the final illustration for Southern Justice by Charles Morgan, Jr., Look, June 29, 1965, unpublished
Licensed by Norman Rockwell Licensing, Niles, IL.
From the permanent collection of Norman Rockwell Museum
If PlaceShakers is our soapbox, our Facebook page is where we step down, grab a drink and enjoy a little conversation. Looking for a heads-up on the latest community-building news and perspective from around the web? Click through and “Like” us and we’ll keep you in the loop. | {
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Charitable Use
We want to give back to the community. We’re offering up our Chalk-Stream to any chef or restaurant that participates in charity auctions and is looking for a creative angle to get those bids to skyrocket. We up the ante on the “bring the restaurant to you” option. We’ll outfit the ChalkStream with your equipment needs, gas it up, and deliver it on the requested date. As a chef, you’ll not only get an edge in the bidding but also the reliability of a commercial kitchen for your meal execution.
This is a first come, first served contest. The first 2 restaurants to take the offer get 45% off our rental. We will donate the art, the gas and the transportation. Email us at [email protected] to take advantage of this offer. | {
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"Snyder jumps a call at 5 in the morning at the end of his shift and goes, 'Hey Bud,'" as he walked up to the driver's side of Forster's car, Key said.
"That's the kind of guy he was. There to defuse the situation, be nice, be polite. And it cost him his life."
Reynolds told jurors that the question they had to answer was whether Forster's mental illness left him unable to deliberate.
He detailed the problems in Forster's childhood, calling the parenting Forster received "disastrous."
Forster's best chance for help came when he was admitted to a mental health facility, but his father got him out early because Forster didn't like it there, Reynolds said.
"Did his bipolar manic phase of his illness impact his behavior, impact his cognition, awareness of his surroundings, so that he could deliberate?" Reynolds asked.
The night of the shooting, he said, Forster wasn't aware of anything going on after he was told he couldn't come inside his friend's house. “Trenton was is in such a state that he wasn’t aware of anything until ‘Hey bud,’ and he reacted,” Reynolds said. | {
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Lennart Nilsson’s groundbreaking photography was featured in Life magazine in the 1965 cover story “Drama of Life Before Birth.” (Lennart Nilsson)
Lennart Nilsson, a Swedish photographer who unveiled unborn life in electrifying images that were splashed across Life magazine, filled hours of acclaimed documentary films and decades later still brim with scientific, artistic and moral significance, died Jan. 28 at a nursing home in Stockholm. He was 94.
His stepdaughter, Anne Fjellstrom, confirmed his death but did not cite a specific cause.
Mr. Nilsson was celebrated around the globe as a photographer of nearly singular genius. Drawing upon a primal sense of curiosity, he harnessed cutting-edge technology to capture on film such drama as human conception and the infection of a cell by the AIDS virus.
He was best known for his images of embryos and fetuses, which embryos become about eight weeks after a sperm fertilizes an egg. Life magazine sparked a sensation when it featured his work in the 1965 story “Drama of Life Before Birth.” Eight million copies of the edition — with a cover image of an 18-week-old fetus cocooned in the amniotic sac, immediately recognizable as an incipient person — were sold.
Inside the magazine were portraits of the most ethereal quality, depicting beings never before seen by most eyes, and yet intimately familiar. At 61/2 weeks of gestation, an embryo displayed clearly visible hands. By the eight-week mark, a viewer gazing upon Mr. Nilsson’s photography could perform that cherished rite of delivery rooms and count 10 tiny toes. At 18 weeks, a fetus was captured sucking its thumb.
Mr. Nilsson poses for a photograph in 2015. (Nicho Södling)
Mr. Nilsson used custom-designed equipment described by Life as “a specially built super wide-angle lens and a tiny flash beam at the end of a surgical scope.” But his photographs elicited amazement not at human technological achievement, but rather at the very fact — some said miracle — of human existence.
“This is like the first look at the back side of the moon,” a Swedish gynecologist remarked upon seeing the images, according to Life.
Mr. Nilsson’s embryonic and in utero photography later appeared in “A Child Is Born,” a best-selling volume translated into an array of languages and reprinted in numerous editions over the years. On television, it was featured in documentaries including “The Miracle of Life” (1983) and “Odyssey of Life” (1996), both of which aired on the PBS program “NOVA,” garnering Emmy and Peabody awards.
In the 1970s, his photos were sent into space aboard the Voyager space probes — a calling card from mankind for any being that might happen upon it.
On Earth, Mr. Nilsson’s images held profound meaning for antiabortion advocates, who pointed to the photography to demonstrate how quickly cells combine and divide to form recognizable human life. Mr. Nilsson, whose subjects included dead embryos as well as live ones, did not venture into discussions of when life begins.
“If you are religious, you may believe that life starts 24 hours after fertilization,” he remarked. “Some scientists think it’s when the heart starts beating, 16 to 18 days after fertilization. It depends on yourself. I’m just a journalist telling you things. It’s my mission in life.”
He once told the Sunday Times of London that it was his “dream” to make the “invisible visible.” In that pursuit, he photographed blood vessels, the interior of the heart and ventricles of the brain.
Mr. Nilsson captures on camera a fetus in utero. (Lennart Nilsson /TT )
“Hairs of the head are seen as a grove of trees amid mossy stones; glands of the stomach as volcanic terrain; mucosal folds within the Fallopian tube as beautiful silken veils; calcium crystals of the inner ear . . . as monumental boulders, like some moonlit primitive Stonehenge,” Irving Geis, a biological artist, wrote in a New York Times book review of “Behold Man: A Photographic Journey of Discovery Inside the Body,” a collaboration by Mr. Nilsson and Jan Lindberg.
Lars Olof Lennart Nilsson was born in Strangnas, Sweden, on Aug. 24, 1922. He was 11 when he received his first camera. He once told the publication Technology Review that he “wanted to get close to everything, to see the miracle of life.”
“I clearly recall the first pictures I took of laburnum,” his website quoted him as saying, referring to the tree with its distinctive hanging chains of golden flowers. “Even then, I remember thinking it would be exciting to see what laburnum looked like inside.”
At the start of his career, Mr. Nilsson worked as a freelance photographer, documenting a midwife in the Swedish highlands and Norwegian hunters on the trail of polar bears. He photographed celebrities, including the actress Ingrid Bergman, the director Ingmar Bergman and the painter Henri Matisse. But Mr. Nilsson appeared equally enamored of ants and underwater creatures, also among his early subjects.
His marriage to Birgit Svensson ended in divorce. Their son, Kjell Nilsson, died in 2013.
In 1989, he married Catharina Tjornedal. Besides his wife, survivors include two stepchildren, Anne Fjellstrom and Thomas Fjellstrom, all of Stockholm; a sister; and three grandchildren.
There seemed to be no end to Mr. Nilsson’s fascination with the world and its wonders. He photographed the vocal cords of the great Swedish operatic soprano Birgit Nilsson (not a relative). He buried a camera inside the petals of a flower to capture the alighting of a bee and installed a lens inside a man’s mouth to capture a kiss.
In an incident memorable to many of his countrymen, a Swedish television station once aired Mr. Nilsson’s all-too-revealing close-ups of human teeth.
“When the TV news showed pictures of what we have on our teeth — enlarged to 100,000 times the actual size — the Swedish people choked on their evening coffee,” Per Lindstrom, a professor of photography, recalled in a tribute on Mr. Nilsson’s 90th birthday. “All the toothbrushes in the stores sold out the next day.” | {
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What’s the most common type your Perl 6 code uses? I’ll bet you that in most programs you write, it’ll be Scalar . That might come as a surprise, because you pretty much never write Scalar in your code. But in:
my $a = 41; my $b = $a + 1;
Then both $a and $b point to Scalar containers. These in turn hold the Int objects. Contrast it with:
my $a := 42; my $b := $a + 1;
Where there are no Scalar containers. Assignment in Perl 6 is an operation on a container. Exactly what it does depending on the type of the container. With an Array , for example, it iterates the data source being assigned, and stores each value into the target Array . Assignment is therefore a copying operation, unlike binding which is a referencing operation. Making assignment the shorter thing to type makes it more attractive, and having the more attractive thing decrease the risk of action at a distance is generally a good thing.
Having Scalar be first-class is used in a number of features:
Lazy vivification, so if %a{$x} { ... } will not initialize the hash slot in question, but %a{$x} = 42 will do so (this also works many levels deep)
will not initialize the hash slot in question, but will do so (this also works many levels deep) The is rw trait on parameters being able to work together with late-bound dispatch
trait on parameters being able to work together with late-bound dispatch Making l-value routines possible, including every is rw accessor
accessor List assignment
Using meta-ops on assignment, for example Z=
And probably some more that I forgot. It’s powerful. It’s also torture for those of us building Perl 6 implementations and trying to make them run fast. The frustration isn’t so much the immediate cost of the allocating all of those Scalar objects – that of course costs something, but modern GC algorithms can throw away short-lived objects pretty quickly – but also because of the difficulties it introduces for program analysis.
Despite all the nice SSA-based analysis we do, tracking the contents of Scalar containers is currently beyond that. Rather than any kind of reasoning to prove properties about what a Scalar holds, we instead handle it through statistics, guards, and deoptimization at the point that we fetch a value from a Scalar . This still lets us do quite a lot, but it’s certainly not ideal. Guards are cheap, but not free.
Looking ahead
Over the course of my current grant from The Perl Foundation, I’ve been working out a roadmap for doing better with optimization in the presence of Scalar containers. Their presence is one of the major differences between full Perl 6 and the restricted NQP (Not Quite Perl), and plays a notable part in the performance difference between the two.
I’ve taken the first big step towards improving this situation by significantly re-working the way Scalar containers are handled. I’ll talk about that in this post, but first I’d like to provide an idea of the overall direction.
In the early days of MoarVM, when we didn’t have specialization or compilation to machine code, it made sense to do various bits of special-casing of Scalar . As part of that, we wrote code handling common container operations in C. We’ve by now reached a point where the C code that used to be a nice win is preventing us from performing the analyses we need in order to do better optimizations. At the end of the day, a Scalar container is just a normal object with an attribute $!value that holds its value. Making all operations dealing with Scalar container really be nothing more than some attribute lookups and binds would allow us to solve the problem in terms of more general analyses, which stand to benefit many other cases where programs use short-lived objects.
The significant new piece of analysis we’ll want to do is escape analysis, which tells us which objects have a lifetime bounded to the current routine. We understand “current routine” to incorporate those that we have inlined.
If we know that an object’s usage lies entirely within the current routine, we can then perform an optimization known as scalar replacement, which funnily enough has nothing much to do with Scalar in the Perl 6 sense, even if it solves the problems we’re aiming to solve with Scalar ! The idea is that we allocate a local variable inside of the current frame for each attribute of the object. This means that we can then analyze them like we analyze other local variables, subject them to SSA, and so forth. This for one gets rid of the allocation of the object, but also lets us replace attribute lookups and binds with a level of indirection less. It will also let us reason about the contents of the once-attributes, so that we can eliminate guards that we previously inserted because we only had statistics, not proofs.
So, that’s the direction of travel, but first, Scalar and various operations around it needed to change.
Data structure redesign
Prior to my recent work, a Scalar looked something like:
class Scalar { has $!value; # The value in the Scalar has $!descriptor; # rw-ness, type constraint, name has $!whence; # Auto-vivification closure }
The $!descriptor held the static information about the Scalar container, so we didn’t have to hold it in every Scalar (we usually have many instances of the same “variable” over a programs lifetime).
The $!whence was used when we wanted to do some kind of auto-vivification. The closure attached to it was invoked when the Scalar was assigned to, and then cleared afterwards. In an array, for example, the callback would bind the Scalar into the array storage, so that element – if assigned to – would start to exist in the array. There are various other forms of auto-vivification, but they all work in roughly the same way.
This works, but closures aren’t so easy for the optimizer to deal with (in short, a closure has to have an outer frame to point to, and so we can’t inline a frame that takes a closure). Probably some day we’ll find a clever solution to that, but since auto-vivification is an internal mechanism, we may as well make it one that we can see a path to making efficient in the near term future.
So, I set about considering alternatives. I realized that I wanted to replace the $!whence closure with some kind of object. Different types of object would do different kinds of vivification. This would work very well with the new spesh plugin mechanism, where we can build up a set of guards on objects. It also will work very well when we get escape analysis in place, since we can then potentially remove those guards after performing scalar replacement. Thus after inlining, we might be able to remove the “what kind of vivification does this assignment cause” checking too.
So this seemed workable, but then I also realized that it would be possible to make Scalar smaller by:
Placing the new auto-vivification objects in the $!descriptor slot instead
slot instead Having the vivification objects point to the original descriptor carrying the name, type, etc.
Upon first assignment, running the vivification logic and then replacing the Scalar ‘s $!descriptor with the simple one carrying the name and value, thus achieving the run-once semantics
This not only makes Scalar smaller, but it means that we can use a single guard check to indicate the course of action we should take with the container: a normal assignment, or a vivification.
The net result: vivification closures go away giving more possibility to inline, assignment gets easier to specialize, and we get a memory saving on every Scalar container. Nice!
C you later
For this to be really worth it from an optimization perspective, I needed to eliminate various bits of C special-case code around Scalar and replace it with standard MoarVM ops. This implicated:
Assignment
Atomic compare and swap
Atomic store
Handling of return values, including decontainerization
Creation of new Scalar containers from a given descriptor
The first 3 became calls to code registered to perform the operations, using the 6model container API. The second two cases were handled by replacing the calls to C extops with desugars, which is a mechanism that takes something that is used as an nqp::op and rewrites it, as it is compiled, into a more interesting AST, which is then in turn compiled. Happily, this meant I could make all of the changes I needed to without having to go and do a refactor across the CORE.setting. That was nice.
So, now those operations were compiled into bytecode operations instead of ops that were really just calls to C code. Everything was far more explicit. Good! Alas, the downside is that the code we generate gets larger in size.
Optimization with spesh plugins
I talked about specializer plugins in a recent post, where I used them to greatly speed up various forms of method dispatch. However, they are also applicable to optimizing operations on Scalar containers.
The change to decontainerizing return values was especially bad at making the code larger, since it had to do quite a few checks. However, with a spesh plugin, we could just emit a use of the plugin, followed by calling whatever the plugin produces.
Here’s a slightly simplified version of the the plugin I wrote, annotated with some comments about what it is doing. The key thing to remember about a spesh plugin is that it is not doing an operation, but rather it’s setting up a set of conditions under which a particular implementation of the operation applies, and then returning that implementation.
nqp::speshreg('perl6', 'decontrv', sub ($rv) { # Guard against the type being returned; if it's a Scalar then that # is what we guard against here (nqp::what would normally look at # the type inside such a container; nqp::what_nd does not do that). nqp::speshguardtype($rv, nqp::what_nd($rv)); # Check if it's an instance of a container. if nqp::isconcrete_nd($rv) && nqp::iscont($rv) { # Guard that it's concrete, so this plugin result only applies # for container instances, not the Scalar type object. nqp::speshguardconcrete($rv); # If it's a Scalar container then we can optimize further. if nqp::eqaddr(nqp::what_nd($rv), Scalar) { # Grab the descriptor. my $desc := nqp::speshguardgetattr($rv, Scalar, '$!descriptor'); if nqp::isconcrete($desc) { # Has a descriptor, so `rw`. Guard on type of value. If it's # Iterable, re-containerize. If not, just decont. nqp::speshguardconcrete($desc); my $value := nqp::speshguardgetattr($rv, Scalar, '$!value'); nqp::speshguardtype($value, nqp::what_nd($value)); return nqp::istype($value, $Iterable) ?? &recont !! &decont; } else { # No descriptor, so it's already readonly. Return as is. nqp::speshguardtypeobj($desc); return &identity; } } # Otherwise, full slow-path decont. return &decontrv; } else { # No decontainerization to do, so just produce identity. return &identity; } });
Where &identity is the identity function, &decont removes the value from its container, &recont wraps the value in a new container (so an Iterable in a Scalar stays as a single item), and &decontrv is the slow-path for cases that we do not know how to optimize.
The same principle is also used for assignment, however there are more cases to analyze there. They include:
When the type constraint is Mu , and there is a normal (non-vivify) descriptor, then we do a specialization based on the value being the Nil object (in which case we produce the operation that set $!value back to the default value from the descriptor) or non- Nil (just assign a value, with no need to type check)
, and there is a normal (non-vivify) descriptor, then we do a specialization based on the value being the object (in which case we produce the operation that set back to the default value from the descriptor) or non- (just assign a value, with no need to type check) When the type constraint is something else, and there is a normal (non-vivify) descriptor, then we do a specialization based on the type of the descriptor being assigned. Since the optimizer will often know this already, then we can optimize out the type check
When it is an array auto-viv, we produce the exact sequence of binds needed to effect the operation, again taking into account a Mu type constraint and a type constraint that needs to be checked
Vivifying hash assignments are not yet optimized by the spesh plugin, but will be in the near future.
The code selected by the plugin is then executed to perform the operation. In most cases, there will only be a single specialization selected. In that case, the optimizer will inline that specialization result, meaning that the code after optimization is just doing the required set of steps needed to do the work.
Next steps
Most immediately, a change to such a foundational part of the the Rakudo Perl 6 implementation has had some fallout. I’m most of the way through dealing with the feedback from toaster (which runs all the ecosystem module tests), being left with a single issue directly related to this work to get to the bottom of. Beyond that, I need to spend some time re-tuning array and hash access to better work with these changes.
Then will come the step that this change was largely in aid of: implementing escape analysis and scalar replacement, which for much Perl 6 code will hopefully give a quite notable performance improvement.
This brings me to the end of my current 200 hours on my Perl 6 Performance and Reliability Grant. Soon I will submit a report to The Perl Foundation, along with an application to continue this work. So, all being well, there will be more to share soon. In the meantime, I’m off to enjoy a week’s much needed vacation. | {
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Veivesenet avdekker omfattende lovbrudd i veidriften
– Vi har ikke klart å gjøre en eneste kontroll uten å finne omfattende lovbrudd. Det sier lederen for Veivesenets krimenhet.
Det jukses med strøing av salt og sand, konstaterer Veivesenets krimseksjon. Tom A. Kolstad
15. jan. 2019 09:30 Sist oppdatert 15. januar 2019
Krimseksjonen rapporterer nå om systematiske lovbrudd innenfor drift og vedlikehold av vei.
Jon Molnes (49) har selv bakgrunn fra politiet. Andre i krimseksjonen kommer fra Tollvesenet. Flere har etterretnings- og analysekompetanse.
Tidligere har krimseksjonen, som er ukjent for mange utenfor Veivesenet, sett på lovbrudd innenfor trafikant- og kjøretøyområdet. For ett år siden fikk de mandat til også å se på drift og vedlikehold av vei.
Fredag rapporterte Molnes fra omfattende funn under en konferanse i Oslo i regi av Veivesenet, omtalt på vegvesen.no.
Det dreier seg om fiktive fakturaer, bedrageri, juks med arbeidsdokumenter og ikke minst lovbrudd innenfor lønns – og arbeidsbetingelser.
Les også Nye Veier «rapper» enda to store veiprosjekter fra Statens vegvesen
Noen utnytter mulighetene til ekstra fortjeneste, andre har ingen intensjoner om å etterleve reglene, mener Molnes.
Strøing av vei er ett område der det er oppdaget lovbrudd.
«Da vi betalte for mengdene sand og salt, viste våre beregninger at det måtte ligge så mye strø på veiene at bilene knapt kunne komme frem», beskriver Veivesenet.
Lovbruddene er så omfattende at veidirektør Terje Moe Gustavsen lufter å stille hovedentreprenører til ansvar for lovbrudd som begås av underleverandører. Det krever i så fall regelendringer.
Samtlige kontroller har avdekket kriminalitet
Jon Molnes opplyser til Aftenposten at Statens vegvesens «førstelinje» har utført 170 kontroller av lønns- og arbeidsvilkår i anleggsbransjen. I halvparten av tilfellene ble det oppdaget lovbrudd.
Deretter gjennomførte krimseksjonen mer målrettede kontroller, med følgende resultat:
– Vi har ikke klart å gjøre én eneste kontroll uten å finne omfattende lovbrudd, sier Molnes.
– Vi startet med å arbeide med ulovligheter på verksteder og i transportbransjen. Nå leter vi etter modus hos dem som bryter reglene, vi driver etterretning og analyserer, leter etter mønstrene, sier Jon Molnes fra Veivesenets krimenhet (t.h.). Her med veidirektør Terje Moe Gustavsen. Statens vegvesen
Ifølge Molnes begås lovbrudd av både hovedentreprenører og underleverandører, norske som utenlandske.
– Vi opererer landsdekkende. Det har medført at vi har avdekket systematiske lovbrudd som tidligere har vært ansett som enkeltforhold, sier han.
Les også Spesialtransport hadde 16 sommerdekk og overlast
Plutselig ble det strødd for lite
Ett eksempel på kriminalitet som ble oppdaget var altså overdreven strøing med sand og salt. Så, plutselig, ble det strødd for lite.
– Da vi endret kontraktene og betalte for antall minutter målt på strøapparatet, skjedde det motsatte. Entreprenøren la 60 gram pr. kvadratmeter, mens det faglige anbefalte nivået ligger på 200 gram, sier Molnes.
Og videre:
En entreprenør sendte ifølge Veivesenet en strøm av det som kalles endringskrav, altså forhold som gjør byggeoppdraget vanskeligere enn antatt, med fakturaer på rundt 50.000 kroner.
– Da denne entreprenøren fikk høre at Krimenheten så på saken, ble det bråstopp, ingen nye småkrav på flere uker, opplyser Molnes.
Fakta Deler kriminelle i egne soner Slik fordeler Statens vegvesen nå dem som begår lovbrudd innenfor drift og vedlikehold av vei: Grønn sone: De som i stor grad etterlever reglene. Oransje sone: De som utnytter mulighetene til å ta en fortjeneste. Her er det kontroll, oppdagelsesrisiko og konsekvens som gjelder. Det finnes en kultur for urettmessig å hente ut penger fra oppdragsgiveren. Rød sone: De som ikke har intensjon om å etterleve reglene. Kontroll og veiledning hjelper ikke. Når de blir tatt legger de ned og starter på nytt. Disse må tas ut, nektes oppdrag i hele etaten. Vis mer
Bransjen betviler ikke realitetene
- Dette tar vi på alvor, sier sjeføkonom Stein Gunnes i Maskinentreprenørenes forbund (MEF). De organiserer flere hundre små og mellomstore bedrifter innenfor anleggsbransjen.
Gunnes var selv til stede på konferansen fredag.
– Dere betviler ikke rapportgrunnlaget?
– Nei. Dette er realiteter som vi må forholde oss til. Molnes understreker nok problemene litt voldsomt, men det gjør han også for å få oppmerksomheten som trengs.
– Veivesenet tegner et bilde der omfanget av ulovligheter er stort?
– Ja. Men vi mener selv at de aller fleste bedriftene befinner seg i det Molnes kaller grønn eller gul sone. Så finnes det noen kriminelle som vil være der uansett, og som vi heller ikke ønsker som medlem av MEF.
Slik beksriver Gunnes bedrifter som havner i et uføre:
– Ofte er dette folk som har en travel hverdag, som ikke klarer å holde styr på arbeidslister, og med ange unge ansatte som ønsker å jobbe mye.
– Dette er en hektisk bransje med tøff konkurranse, der det er små marginer og der man ønsker å vinne anbud. Lederne forstår at de må oppføre seg ordentlig, for at konkurransen skal bli lik, og ettersom det er de som får smellen når det gjøres tilsyn, sier Gunnes. | {
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Growing Pains in America’s Fastest-Growing City of San Marcos By Holly Heinrich Email
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Holly Heinrich / StateImpact Texas
Development May Have Already Damaged Fragile Habitats
San Marcos, Texas is the fastest-growing city in the nation, in a rapidly-growing state, and with that growth comes concerns over balancing development with environmental and ecological needs.
Tensions over development exist in communities across the country, but they are amplified in San Marcos, which is home to approximately 50,000 people, and a number of endangered species, including rare salamanders and golden-cheeked warblers. The growth in San Marcos has been a source of conflict among residents, as well as a source of pride.
Some residents see the city’s real estate development as an economic opportunity, and necessary to house the growing student population of Texas State University. Others say that new student housing developments are eroding the character of the town they love, and damaging the area’s fragile natural environment.
San Marcos is a unique community for additional reasons. Some Texas State professors are seeking UNESCO World Heritage status for the town, on the basis that it is believed to be the oldest continuously habited place in North America.
Then there are the geologic factors. The area is home to Edwards Aquifer, a natural groundwater system that supplies drinking and other water to approximately two million people, including the residents of San Antonio and San Marcos. In an area known as the recharge zone, rain refills the aquifer by percolating through interconnected holes and fractures in its porous limestone karst. Pollutants can also enter the aquifer through the same process. According to the Texas State Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center, the Edwards Aquifer is home to the most diverse known groundwater ecosystem in the world, and numerous endangered species.
Two sites that have been slated for private student housing development here — one where development has been postponed for three years, and another where plans are moving forward — illustrate the tug-of-war over development that has been occurring in San Marcos.
A Tale of Two Neighborhoods
The first is Sessom Creek, a leafy neighborhood in a sloping ravine. There, residents collected a petition with over 2,000 signatures to oppose rezoning plans, which would have allowed a local developer to build an 800-bedroom apartment complex. (The San Marcos City Council rejected the developer’s proposal, and set a three-year waiting period before new rezoning proposals can be submitted for the area.)
The second is the Buie Tract, a property located at 1400 Craddock Avenue, where Capstone Collegiate Properties has received city approval to build an 899-bedroom student apartment complex.
Like Sessom Creek, local residents and activists have contested development plans for the Buie Tract, both out of environmental concerns, and because many feel that college students do not make good neighbors. Some residents who live near the complexes say that their college-age neighbors have vomited on their front lawns, filled up residential street parking on weekend nights, and even driven pickup trucks into apartment complex swimming pools. As a result, new proposals for student housing developments are frequently unpopular among nearby homeowners.
Melissa Derrick
San Marcos activists Jay Hiebert and Melissa Derrick shared these stories with StateImpact Texas. But they also say that land clearing on the Buie Tract has likely damaged the property’s fragile environment.
According to Hiebert, a Texas State adjunct instructor*, and Derrick, a life coach and Texas State employee, the Buie Tract is (or once was) home to endangered golden-cheeked warblers, as well as caves and karst features that allow rain to recharge the Edwards Aquifer. Derrick and Hiebert say that development threatens the warblers’ habitat, and bulldozing on the property has filled in caves and karst features.
The Case of the Missing Caves
Their concerns about the caves were echoed by the testimony of a professional geologist, Andy Grubbs, who has been familiar with caves on the property since 1984. In a letter submitted at a San Marcos city council meeting this June, Grubbs wrote that some geological assessments of the Buie Tract—including one that was submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) —had omitted certain caves and karst features.
In 2009, Grubbs surveyed the Buie Tract for the engineering firm Baker-Aicklen, which had been hired by Craddock Avenue Partners, the property’s owner.
“The owners were not happy with a number of caves and sensitive features that I found and decided to shop for a geologist that would give them a report that was not nearly as thorough,” Grubbs wrote in his letter to the city.
“They said, ‘We didn’t pay you to find all these caves,’” Grubbs later told StateImpact Texas. “They actually said that to me. Sitting at a table in the engineer’s office.”
Baker-Aicklen says they feel Grubbs’ statements are “mischaracterizations.” Since the firm is no longer the engineer of record for the project, the company declined to comment further.
After obtaining a survey from another geologist, Baker-Aicklen requested the TCEQ grant the property an exception under state administrative code governing the Edwards Aquifer. A TCEQ environmental investigator declined to approve the request in 2009, after he visited the Buie Tract himself and found that one karst feature on the property was incorrectly labeled as a cave. That cave, and another cave known to be on the property, were not identified in the survey. Additionally, the investigator found mulch and boulder piles that “may be covering up known features not identified on the application,” and observed that heavy machinery had “destroyed natural surface features on the property.” Baker-Aicklen subsequently withdrew that request on behalf of its client.
Another geologist, J. Jackson Harper, told the San Marcos Mercury in 2009 that a cave on the property had been reduced to half the size it appeared to be in previous aerial photos, and had become surrounded by rock and mulch piles.
Grubbs prefers not to have a high profile in community affairs—but he feels morally obligated to be open about what is happening on the Buie Tract.
“Trying to hide a cave I saw in 1984 so you can build a sewer line eight feet from it, professionally, my ethics don’t allow that,” Grubbs said.
What happens when construction starts on a property where not all caves and karst features have been taken into account?
Encountering unexpected caves while sewer lines are being trenched can be problematic. The problem can be dealt with—the lines are encased in concrete, in case they break, and concrete can also be used to fill in the void around the pipe.
However, cutting through bedrock to put in a sewer line creates a utility trench that can allow water to flow into parts of a cave where rainfall did not previously enter. The trench is filled with loose, sandy soil to accommodate that recharge—but if the sewer pipe is not properly stabilized, water can wash the supporting soil away.
“Typically, the streets and the runoff will get into those utility trenches, and if there’s a cave that was full of soil and some rocks, that percolated water would wash it away, and you may have an unsupported pipe, which would then break or sag and leak,” Grubbs explained.
According to the TCEQ, protection measures for sensitive features on the Buie Tract were approved in April 2010. In March 2013, TCEQ approved development plans for a 36-acre apartment complex to be built on the tract.
“TCEQ reviewed the plan to ensure that all required water quality protection measures, including those for sensitive geologic features, will be in place for the project,” said TCEQ spokesperson Lisa Wheeler.
The Golden-Cheeked Warblers
It is not clear whether golden-cheeked warblers inhabit the property, although a San Marcos resident told the TCEQ in a letter that warblers had been sighted there. According to a biological opinion from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the extension of Wonder World Drive, a road near the Buie Tract, would likely have an adverse effect on the habitat of the endangered warblers.
(Before construction, the city of San Marcos committed to contribute $149,969 to purchase a conservation easement for the warblers, and upon the road’s completion, city officials told the Austin-American Statesman that pains had been taken to preserve the surrounding vegetation.)
The Neighborhood Association
Holly Heinrich / StateImpact Texas
Why were efforts to prevent development successful in Sessom Creek, while those related to the Buie Tract failed?
“Everybody knows that anything you do on Sessom Creek is going to go pouring right down to the start of the San Marcos River in the heart of town,” Grubbs explained. “The Buie Tract is out on the edge of town, and except for the people whose neighborhood was impacted, people don’t get the connection that if a sewer line breaks there, you won’t be able to swim in the river. It’s less obvious.”
Dye tracing tests have shown that once water or other fluids enter recharge features on the Buie Tract, they reemerge 24 to 36 hours later in the San Marcos Springs, he said.
The San Marcos Springs is critical habitat for most of San Marcos’ endangered species, according to Dianne Wassenich, the director of the San Marcos River Foundation.
Holly Heinrich / StateImpact Texas
According to Hiebert, the neighborhood’s protest also contributed to the city council’s decision.
“The concerted and persistent activism demonstrated by the residents of the Sessom Creek Neighborhood Association definitely is what stopped the City Council from approving the Sessom complex,” Hiebert said. “For a period of two years, every Tuesday, residents of that neighborhood were at City Council to testify their opposition, continuously bringing up serious obstacles such as suspended solids in the river, building in a floodplain, being against the law to build within the floodplain, within a hundred feet of tributaries to the San Marcos River, [and] parking issues.”
A Growing City Gets More Attention
“I’m hoping this is going to turn out to be a positive story,” Matthew Lewis, San Marcos’ director of Planning & Development Services, told StateImpact Texas. “San Marcos doesn’t need any more negative press.”
Lewis feels that the attention given to community protests over the Buie Tract and Sessom Creek obscures positive efforts to develop San Marcos. He points to Vision San Marcos, a recently released city development plan, as an example.
Part of the plan involves encouraging growth in San Marcos’ revitalized downtown, and other areas identified as “buildable,” rather than environmentally sensitive areas like Sessom Creek. The city has a streamlined permitting process for developers who plan to construct vertical, mixed-use buildings up to five stories high in the downtown area—which would be not unlike a plan for a multi-story apartment complex with businesses underneath.
“What was great about the community is that they looked at [the environmental analyses] and decided to put the growth there,” said John Foreman, the planning manager for the city’s Planning & Development Department. “It’s a really environmentally conscious plan, and we’re excited to be implementing it.”
A View of the River
What are the options for constructing new housing and businesses, while still protecting the watershed? According to Wassenich, one good option is building new developments away from the river.
“Building on the recharge zone and on the banks of the river just buries us deeper in the hole we’ve already dug for ourselves by past building too close the river and also on the recharge zone, and especially building on the watershed that drains into Spring Lake,” Wassenich said. “There are many apartments along [North] LBJ, and their bacteria load really showed up on the water quality studies done of the Spring Lake watershed last year.”
San Marcos residents can protect the river by cleaning up pet waste in their yards, fixing automobile leaks, and leaving buffers of tall grass on the edges of their property to filter pollutants, according to Mary Van Zant, a communications and research specialist at Texas State’s Meadows Center for Water and the Environment.
“I feel like even though there’s always processes going on at the local level and the government level, there’s always something that people can do in their homes and their yards to improve the water quality,” Van Zant said.
The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment has partnered with the TCEQ to develop a watershed protection plan for the San Marcos River. Researchers are currently collecting data to inform the plan, but in subsequent years, that environmental data will be used to develop and implement watershed protection plans.
As San Marcos and other Texas cities continue to grow, are more conflicts over growth and environmental protection likely to arise?
“Development will inevitably increase, [and with that], the potential conflicts between the development and the environment will increase,” said Andrew Sansom, the Meadows Center’s executive director and the founder of the Parks & Wildlife Foundation of Texas. “But I’m also optimistic that the community has come together to create a watershed protection system which will give us the best chances of preserving the resources of the community.”
He expects to see more and more efforts to protect important pieces of land, especially recharge areas for the springs and critical watershed zones. In the last few years, he added, Hays County has spent over $30 million to acquire land in watershed and recharge areas.
The river has both environmental and economic value for the city of San Marcos—every year, visitors and locals alike come to swim and tube in its waters. For people who have spent time there, the San Marcos River often takes on an emotional significance as well.
“San Marcos is a city that is, in my mind, uniquely sensitive to the river, which is its core,” Sansom said. “The clear, flowing San Marcos River is a core value and a part of the city’s identity.”
Correction: This article originally identified Jay Hiebert as a professor at Texas State University, which is incorrect. He is an adjunct instructor at Texas State. | {
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A fallen Pacific Gas & Electric Co. power line caused the 152-acre Irving Fire that ignited in Samuel P. Taylor State Park west of Fairfax on Monday night, Marin County officials said Wednesday.
Marin County spokeswoman Laine Hendricks said the power line fell into the grasslands around the Ridge Trail, on the south side base of Mount Barnabe.
A PG&E spokesman said the company is working with state and Marin County fire officials “to understand more about the circumstances of this preliminary finding.”
“We are monitoring fire conditions from our Wildfire Safety Operations Center in San Francisco 24/7, to determine what, if any additional threats the fire may pose to our lines and facilities,” Matt Nauman, a spokesman for PG&E, said in a statement.
At least 19 customers in the area were still without power Wednesday, according to a PG&E outage map. The company estimates that power would be fully restored by evening.
As of Wednesday night, containment was 80 percent, according to the Marin County Fire Department. No homes have been burned.
Residents evacuated from the blaze were allowed to go home Tuesday night, authorities said.
Parts of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Arroyo Road that had been closed by the fire are now open.
Gwendolyn Wu is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @gwendolynawu | {
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Thought I would upload it for people to see. I kind of liked it. No need to ask me why it was rejected. That's just the way it goes.Final accepted version:Other Rejected designs for your viewing pleasure ^^: | {
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It was a bloody eventful morning in Pittsburgh.
Just moments before the team announced the acquisition of David Perron, two long-standing Penguins soaked their pads with more than just sweat in preparation for Friday's clash versus the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Evgeni Malkin reportedly caught Craig Adams in the mouth during a battle drill, which resulted in the pair exchanging blows, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Josh Yohe.
Here's a photo taken of the aftermath by a local photographer:
Malkin, seen in the bottom right corner, appears to have lost his helmet and shoulder pads, but Adams is certainly the one who looks worse for wear. | {
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White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that presidential aides had been granted a blanket waiver from the President Donald Trump’s ethics pledge in order to speak to news organizations “to continue having those discussions and advancing the President’s agenda and priorities.”
At a press briefing Friday, Spicer was asked about one aide specifically, Steve Bannon, and the news outlet he led before working for Trump, Breitbart News. Spicer answered without mentioning either specifically.
“Did White House have Steve Bannon’s communications with Breitbart News in mind?” one reporter asked of the ethics waiver. “Was that applied retroactively to address those communications?”
The reporter added: “And any response to Director [of the Office of Government Ethics Walter] Shaub’s claim that if you need a retroactive waiver, you have violated a rule?”
“There’s two pieces to that that are important,” Spicer responded. “One is, remember, this didn’t have to do with the law or regulations. This had to do with the President’s pledge. His ethics pledge. He is the ultimate decider on that. This isn’t with respect to a law or regulation.”
He didn’t directly address Shaub’s criticism that the waiver had been retroactive. The White House’s disclosure did not say when it was granted.
Spicer continued: “What we discovered was that several individuals on staff had previously worked for media organizations, and in order to continue having those discussions and advancing the President’s agenda and priorities, it was important to make sure that all individuals had the opportunity to be able to speak to the media about what the President was doing to make the country stronger.”
In March, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), an transparency group, argued that Bannon was violating the pledge by “repeatedly communicating about official matters with Breitbart News.”
The White House’s disclosure shows presidential appointees were granted a waiver from Paragraph 6 of Executive Order 13770, signed in Trump’s first week, which read: “I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.” | {
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The British military is setting up a specialist force modelled on the Chindits, the commandos who gained renown through their daring missions behind enemy lines in Burma during the Second World War.
They will specialise in "non-lethal" forms of psychological warfare, using social media including Facebook and Twitter to "fight in the information age".
The Chief of the Army, General Sir Nick Carter, believes that the radical new plan is essential to face the “asymmetric” battlefields of the 21st century, where tactics and strategies differ significantly between enemies, such as with Isis. Key lessons, he says, can be learned from the campaign carried out against the Japanese by Allied troops using unconventional tactics seven decades ago.
The 2,000-strong brigade will have the same number, 77, and the same emblem – of a Chindit, a mythical Burmese beast – as the one under Brigadier Orde Wingate. But, as well as being ready for combat, the troops will be armed with modern skill sets including being adept in social media and new technology.
The new brigade will have the same number as the WWII version (PA)
One of the key reasons behind the successful operations of the Chindits was the support they received from the local population against the Japanese forces. General Carter holds believes the winning of “hearts and minds” has never been more important.
Senior officers hold that a range of current conflicts, from Iraq to Ukraine, have shown how the information war is as vital as the ones fought with weapons. The brigade, which will be formally unveiled in April with headquarters at Hermitage, near Newbury in Berkshire, will be responsible for all “non-lethal deployment” of the UK military abroad.
The troops are supposed to deliver “means of shaping behaviour through the use of dynamic narratives” with teams focusing on psychological operations and interaction with the media. They will also take the lead in providing reconstruction and humanitarian assistance and help with strengthening civic society and local security forces.
In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary Show all 41 1 /41 In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary British World War II veteran Frederick Glover stands as soldiers parachute down during a D-Day commemoration paratroopers launch event in Ranville, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary D-Day veterans (L-R) Wally Beale (90), Doug Lakey (94), Bernie Howell (89), Bob Conway (88), George French (88), Gordon Smith (90), and Albert Williams (96), from the Royal Wootton Bassett Normandy Veterans Association share a joke during a group photograph on sword Beach after the Royal Artillery Commemoration Parade and service in Hermanville, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary French Prime minister Manuel Valls (L), British Prime Minister David Cameron (C) and his wife Samantha Cameron (R) at the D-Day commemoration ceremony at the Cathedral in Bayeux, Normandy In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Prince Charles reacts as he watches teams of French, US, Canadian and British paratroopers jumping from aeroplanes during a D-Day commemoration in Ranville, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary D-Day veteran Bill Price (99) who celebrates his 100th birthday on 24 July stands on Gold Beach for well wishers after the last ever flag raising ceremony by the Surrey Normandy Veterans Association in Arromanches Les Bains, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Veteran Frederick Carrier (89) who served in the 1st Engineer Special Brigade of the U.S. Army and landed at Utah Beach on D-Day, prays for the 171 men of his unit who died at a monument to them at Utah Beach, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary D-Day veteran Jack Hamlin (93) who served in Rescue Flotilla Number One of the U.S. Coast Guard, took part in the invasion landing at Omaha Beach and is from Springfield, Missouri, attends the U.S. D-Day Ceremony at Utah Beach, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary A D-Day re-enactment enthusiast wears the American flag at a re-enactment camp near Utah Beach in Sainte Marie du Mont, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary British World War II veteran Jock Hutton (89), poses following his landing after he and teams of French, US, Canadian and British paratroopers jumped from aeroplanes during a D-Day commemoration in Ranville, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary The Red Arrows display team perform over Southsea Common at the end of a commemoration service of the D-Day landings in Portsmouth, England In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Queen Elizabeth II (L) and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (3L) are welcomed by French President Francois Hollande (2L) and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius (R) at the Elysee Presidential Palace as part of a bilateral meeting during an Official visit in Paris ahead of the 70th Anniversary Of The D-Day in Paris, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary The RAF's Red Arrows perform over Southsea Common in Hampshire, to mark the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day landings In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary A French man dressed in vintage military clothing drives an old American military jeep on the beachside in Arromanches-les-Bains, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Czech citizens Gallomichal Seznam and Zdznek Barchaler, dressed in old vintage military uniforms, walk on the beach in Arromanches-les-Bains, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary British Marines and their Dutch counterparts demonstrate a beach assault near Southsea Common in Hampshire to mark the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day landings In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary WW2 veteran Fred Holborn, from the Fleet Air Arm, salutes as he looks at British Legion Union flags carrying thank you messages planted in the sand on Gold beach near Asnelles, France. 20,000 paper flags are being planted. Each one carries a personal message of Remembrance submitted by Royal British Legion supporters In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary A paratrooper lands on Sword Beach near international flags during a D-Day celebration rehearsal in Ouistreham, on the Normandy coast In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Helen Patton, granddaughter of General Patton, is parachuted during a US-German D-Day commemoration ceremony in honour of airborne soldiers in Picauville, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary French 1st RCP paratrooper carrying US flag is seen over Sword beach in Ouistreham, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary A Spitfire (R) and an "Eurfighter" both painted with invasion stripes fly over Sword beach in Ouistreham, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Queen Elizabeth II arrives at the Gare du Nord during an Official visit in Paris ahead of the 70th Anniversary Of The D-Day in Paris, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary The Prince of Wales meets veterans near Pegasus Bridge during D-Day Commemorations in Ranville, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall meets veterans near Pegasus Bridge (Also known as the Benouville Bridge - The taking of the Bridge was an important strategic victory) during D-Day Commemorations in Ranville, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary A US WWII veteran stands in front of US flags during a US-German D-Day commemoration ceremony in honour of airborne soldiers in Picauville, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary US veteran Edward Oleksak looks on during a US-German D-Day commemoration ceremony in honour of airborne soldiers in Picauville, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary World War II Allied members Canada's, United States', France's, and United Kingdom's flag hanging in Ouistreham, western France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary British and Canadian flags laid at a military cemetery in Ranville, northwestern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary A British soldier pays his respects as he visits a military cemetery in Ranville, northwestern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary A visitor examines a gravestone at the German Cemetery where approximately 21,000 German World War II soldiers are buried at La Cambe, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Normany veteran 90-year-old Geoff Pattinson sits at his home in London, England. On D-Day he set out in one of three gliders that were meant to crash land at the Merville battery and the troops were tasked with taking out the long range guns. However during the flight to France the tow rope snapped and the glider was forced to land in England. He flew again later that day and was a few weeks later was wounded in Normandy by a German machine gun. Asked what his most vivid memory of D-Day was he replied: 'Most of us thought we had landed in France. When we got out though, low and behold we were still in England and that was the anti-climax of my life. I couldn't believe we had missed our target and I couldn't believe we had landed in England' In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Normandy veteran 92-year-old Vera Hay stands outside the Grange Hotel in Grange over Sands in Cumbria, England. Vera, who was in the Queen Alexandras Royal Army Nursing Corps one of the first nurses to land at Normandy shortly after D-Day. Vera, who was a Junior Sister, then travelled 10 miles to the Chateau de Beaussy and took care of up to 200 injured soldiers a day. Asked what her most vivid memory of D-Day was she replied: 'The need of the casualties both our own troops and the German prisoners of war. They all were patients to us. They needed rehydration, rest, morphine to keep the comfortable and we were using the new penicillin' In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary British World War II veteran Harry Humphreys (92) from the 4th Royal Dragoon Guard, reacts after his visit at Bayeux's war cemetery, while an old allied military vehicle passes by, in northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Lewis Trinder formerly of the Royal Navy poses for photographs as he walks through Arromanches in Normandy, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Soldiers travelling on a vintage jeep cross Pegasus Bridge (also known as the Benouville Bridge) during D-Day Commemoration in Ranville, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Pipers march past Cafe Gondree, the Pegasus Bridge Cafe, the first house in France to be liberated during the last hour of 5 June 1944, during D-Day Commemorations in Ranville, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary British soldiers stand next to their weapons placed on the ground, in front of Bayeux's war cemetery, northern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Italian and British military enthusiasts watch from Utah beach as Dakota aircraft flypast near Saint Marie du Mont, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary World War II veteran Charles Alford of the 6th Armor Division, from Waco, Texas, climbs the stairs with his son David on Omaha Beach where he landed as part of the invasion of Normandy in Vierville-Sur-Mer, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary British World War II veteran reacts as he visits the war cemetery of Ranville, northwestern France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Paul Clifford (70) from Boston stands after placing flowers on the grave of Walter J. Gunther Jr, the uncle of his best friend, in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, in Colleville sur Mer, France In pictures: D-Day 70th anniversary D-Day anniversary Harry Grew (92) who was in the Royal Navy, gets fussed by the Candy Girls, (R) Elkie Jeffery (L) Freyja Sculpher and Debbie Watt on board the Brittany cross channel ferry Normandie, travelliing from Portsmouth to Caen in Portsmouth, England
The make-up of the brigade also reveals the shrinking size of the Army, with no less than 42 per cent of the recruits coming from the reserves. Increasing numbers of them are replacing regular troops amid cutbacks.
But General Carter insisted the large contingent of part-time soldiers is actually a major advantage. “The brigade consists of more than just traditional capabilities. It is an organisation that sits at the heart of trying to operate ‘smarter’. It comprises a blend of regular troops from all three services as well as reserves and civilians. It will be seeking to draw the very best talent from the regulars and reserve as well as finding new ways of allowing civilians with bespoke skills to serve alongside their military counterparts.”
“The brigade,” said the Ministry of Defence, “has been formed to respond to ever changing character of modern conflict and to be able to compete with agile and complex adversaries.” The Chindits “fought in such difficult conditions adopting a new type of warfare, using a mixture of original creative thinkers who integrated with local indigenous forces to multiply effects, the exact requirement for the modern age”.
'Chindits' are the statues that guard Buddhist temples (Getty) (Hulton Archive/Getty)
The 77th Infantry Brigade of the Indian army was formed in 1942 from British, Indian and Burmese troops commanded by Wingate, who had led an irregular force of Sudanese and Ethiopians against the Italians in Africa. The name Chindits, after those of statues of animal spirits guarding Buddhist temples, was suggested by Captain Aung Thin of the Burmese army.
“Long-range penetration units” were sent to Burma to sabotage Japanese supply and communications lines. The operations received widespread publicity but there was also criticism, some of it directed personally at Wingate who was accused of producing self-aggrandising reports and unfairly blaming other officers. There was also deep suspicion among the military hierarchy to the concept of elite specialist forces, with some senior officers charging that they syphon off the best troops and create divisions within the force.
Field Marshal William Slim pronounced at the time: “Anything, whatever the short cuts to victory it may promise, which weakens the army spirit is dangerous.” He also held that while “the Chindits gave a splendid example of courage and hardihood”, their achievements were inadequate returns for the resources bestowed on them.
Winston Churchill, however, regarded the force as highly valuable, not least for the way the accounts of its exploits boosted morale during some of the darkest days of the war. He took Wingate to conferences across the Atlantic, and the Americans were sufficiently impressed by the brigadier’s presentations to launch their own irregular forces in the Far East.
The Chindits: Guerrilla force
At a time during the Second World War when the Japanese seemed unbeatable, the Chindits – an elite British Army unit which resorted to guerrilla warfare – was formed to give the enemy a bloody nose.
They were the idea of the unconventional army officer, Lieutenant-Colonel – later Brigadier – Orde Wingate, who believed Long Range Penetration (LRP) groups operating behind enemy lines could inflict severe damage on the Japanese.
In February 1943 the Chindits, taking their name from a mythical Burmese half-lion half-eagle beast, launched their first operation, crossing the River Chindwin and into enemy territory in Burma.
Wingate’s men were, crucially, supplied by air which made them independent of ground-based supply lines. Air drops included food for the mules which carried the equipment.
The Chindits were the idea of Lieutenant-Colonel Orde Wingate (PA)
The innovation worked: the Japanese spent crucial days directing troops to find and cut the non-existent land-based supply lines before realising their mistake.
In its first operation, the Chindits split up into several columns to attack and disrupt Japanese positions. Bridges were blown, rail lines were cut and military positions were attacked before a retreat was ordered in the face of massive Japanese force.
Of the 3,200 men who set out, only 2,182 came back after walking up to 1,500 miles through enemy territory. Only 600 were fit enough to go back into active service.
Strategically the merits of the Chindits are still debated. They didn’t hold any ground and the fright they gave the Japanese prompted later attacks intended to destroy the British hold on India.
However, as a morale booster, the Chindits were invaluable. They proved the British, who had suffered a succession of defeats in the east in 1942, were capable of matching the supposedly superhuman Japanese soldiers in the jungle. | {
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Neue deutsche Härte: Uwe Tellkamps Wutausbruch war kein Ausrutscher Der konservative Teil des deutschen Bürgertums begehrt auf. Gibt es einen neuen intellektuellen Riss zwischen Ost und West?
Gibt es einen neuen intellektuellen Riss zwischen Ost und West? Nicht nur in Dresden stehen die Zeichen auf Sturm. (Bild: Filip Singer / EPA)
«Wollen Sie die bösen Bücher sehen?» Michael Bormann lächelt und führt in den hinteren Bereich der Buchhandlung, die er im Dresdner Ortsteil Loschwitz mit seiner Frau Susanne Dagen betreibt. Es sind helle, einladende Räume hinter einer efeuumrankten Fassade. Mit seinen langen Locken wirkt der schlaksige Gastgeber eher wie der Sänger einer Folk-Band oder der Pächter des örtlichen Biosupermarkts als wie ein Händler böser Bücher. Vor einem Regal hält er an. In der Mitte stehen, auf vielleicht zwanzig Regalzentimetern, ein paar kleine, unscheinbare Bändchen. Sie stammen aus der Reihe «Kaplaken» des rechten Verlegers Götz Kubitschek.
«Finis Germania» heisst das bekannteste Werk. Die Textsammlung aus dem Nachlass des Kulturhistorikers Rolf Peter Sieferle hielt im vergangenen Sommer die Spitze der deutschen Sachbuch-Charts. Sieferle beschreibt die Deutschen darin als Volk, das zwischen Selbsthass und Fremdenliebe dem Abgrund entgegentaumelt. Die Feuilletons waren von den düsteren Texten entsetzt. Dem toten Autor konnte man nichts mehr anhaben, aber sein Name wurde postum ausgebürgert. Nicht juristisch, aber geistig. Den lesen wir nicht mehr, lautete die Übereinkunft.
Deutsches Bürgertum. Was ist das heute noch? Wer gehört dazu? Es gibt zurzeit wohl keinen besseren Ort, um diesen Fragen nachzugehen, als die Buchhandlung Loschwitz am Fusse des berühmten Dresdner Villenviertels Weisser Hirsch. Wenn es den viel beschriebenen Riss in der deutschen Gesellschaft gibt, dann läuft er hier entlang, bis vor die Haustür. Fast zwei Jahrzehnte lang haben die Bürger der grossen, alten Stadt bei Bormann und Dagen ihre Bücher gekauft. Die Liste der Autoren, die im Nebengebäude des Geschäfts aus ihren Werken gelesen haben, ist lang und eindrucksvoll. 2015 und 2016 erhielt das Paar den Deutschen Buchhandlungspreis. Dann kam der Bruch.
Susanne Dagen und Michael Bormann, Buchhändler aus Deutschland, im Hotel Florhof in Zürich am 16.April 2009. (Bild: Adrian Baer)
«Das war wie eine Reinigung»
Erst wurde bekannt, dass das Paar Verständnis für die Pegida-Demonstranten der Stadt hat. Wenig später initiierte Susanne Dagen eine «Charta», in der sie den Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels für seinen Umgang mit Deutschlands rechten Verlagen kritisierte. Dieser dürfe nicht einfach festlegen, «was als Meinung innerhalb des Gesinnungskorridors akzeptiert wird», schrieb sie. Der Verein hatte vor der Frankfurter Buchmesse zu einer «aktiven Auseinandersetzung» mit den strittigen Verlagen aufgerufen. Kurz darauf wurden die Stände der Zeitschrift «Tumult» und des Verlags Manuscriptum leer geräumt; es kam zu Gebrüll und Handgreiflichkeiten. Dagens Charta haben bis heute fast 8000 Leute unterschrieben. Doch zu Hause in Dresden blieben plötzlich viele Kunden weg.
Einer von ihnen ist der Strafverteidiger Stefan Heinemann. Der Rheinländer lebt seit einem Vierteljahrhundert in Dresden und ist einer der einflussreichsten Bürger der Stadt. Erster Vorsitzender der «Freunde des Kupferstichkabinetts» der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen. Erster Vorsitzender des Fördervereins des Festspielhauses Hellerau. Bei Heinemanns privaten Salons und Konzerten trifft sich, was den Namen Elite verdient hat. «Ich habe die Buchhandlung Loschwitz wirklich geliebt», sagt der 66-Jährige am Telefon. «Aber mit Pegida will ich nichts zu tun haben.» Das gelte für alle, die er kenne. «Keiner, auf den es in Dresden ankommt, will mit diesen Schreihälsen etwas zu tun haben.» Heinemanns Stimme ist tiefer als gewöhnlich. Der Anwalt hat die Grippe. Aber das wollte er loswerden.
Der Verlust von Kunden sei schmerzhaft gewesen, sagt Susanne Dagen beim Mittagessen in einem Lokal um die Ecke ihres Geschäfts. Zu vielen habe es einen freundschaftlichen Draht gegeben. Doch das Paar hat auch Glück. Es muss keine hohen Fixkosten stemmen; Buchhandlung und Nebengebäude hat die frühere Vermieterin den beiden aus Sympathie vererbt. Und statt der verlorenen Kunden kämen nun neue. Nicht ganz so viele, aber immerhin. «Das war wie eine Reinigung», sagt die Buchhändlerin. Der typische Dresdner sei zum Glück ein Dickkopf.
Wutbürger Tellkamp, heisst es jetzt überall
Der derzeit bekannteste Dickkopf der Stadt ist Dagen und Bormann auch treu geblieben. Er heisst Uwe Tellkamp. Ein Dreivierteljahr nach der Aufregung um Sieferle ist er nun derjenige, der unter das Brennglas der Meinungsschaffenden geraten ist. In einem kuriosen Showkampf hat er sich vergangene Woche im Dresdner Kulturpalast mit einem anderen bekannten Sohn der Stadt gezofft. Die Meinungsfreiheit in Deutschland werde vom linken Mainstream bedroht, sagte Tellkamp bei seinem Auftritt. Er blende die Gefahren der Massenzuwanderung aus und überziehe Menschen, die den geltenden Sprachregelungen widersprechen, mit Schmähkritik. Sein Kontrahent – der sechs Jahre ältere, deutlich medienaffinere Durs Grünbein – hielt dagegen, erst auf der Bühne, später mit einer Art selbstgeschriebenen Rezension des Abends für die «Süddeutsche Zeitung».
Die Sympathien der Leitmedien waren schnell und klar verteilt. Die mildeste Schmähung für Tellkamp war die des «Wutbürgers». Der Begriff stellt eine Vorstufe der intellektuellen Ausbürgerung dar. Seine Bestandteile – Wut und Bürger – passen nicht zusammen. Wut steht für Kontrollverlust, Bürgerlichkeit für Selbstkontrolle und die Sublimierung der Triebe. Wutbürger gehören nur halb dazu. Ernst nehmen muss man sie nicht.
Tellkamps Behauptung, die Meinungsfreiheit im Land sei gefährdet, wird von vielen Kommentatoren zurückgewiesen. Der Mann könne doch schreiben und sagen, was er wolle. Er habe seine Sicht auf die Dinge eben erst vor 800 Leuten kundgetan. Bitte, was sei das denn, wenn keine Freiheit? Was auffällt, ist die Gereiztheit im Ton.
Die Ausgrenzung geschieht im Stillen
Der, um den es geht, schweigt fürs Erste. Eine Lesereise in den Norden Deutschlands hat Tellkamp am Donnerstag abgesagt. Er fürchte, dass seine Auftritte «von Kräften gekapert werden, die mit Literatur wenig oder nichts zu tun haben», liess er den Veranstalter mitteilen. Auch für ein Gespräch steht er nicht zur Verfügung. Per Mail bittet er sehr freundlich um Verständnis. Dafür reden andere, ihm Wohlgesinnte. Was sie sagen, klingt unversöhnlich.
Der Schriftsteller und Lyriker Jörg Bernig, zum Beispiel. Im Dezember 2015 hat der 54-Jährige in der «Sächsischen Zeitung» in einem Gastbeitrag die Flüchtlingspolitik der Regierung scharf kritisiert. «Zorn allenthalben» war der Titel. Der deutsche Staat sei dabei, seine Souveränität aufzugeben, schrieb Bernig. Mit den fremden Kulturen hole er sich auch deren Konflikte ins Land. Heute schreiben so etwas viele, auch Leitartikler und ehemalige Verfassungsrichter. Aber damals, vor den Übergriffen des Kölner Silvesters, wagte das kaum jemand. Er habe schnell gespürt, was ein Bannkreis sei, sagt Bernig. Natürlich habe er weiterschreiben können. So eine Ausgrenzung laufe anders ab. Die Veranstalter von Lesungen hätten wegen seiner Haltung Denunziationsbriefe erhalten, die Sächsische Akademie, in der er Mitglied ist, ebenfalls. Der damalige Präsident der Kunst-Akademie habe sich öffentlich von ihm distanziert.
Zusammen mit Jörg Bernig ist noch ein anderer Autor gekommen, Frank Böckelmann. Der 76-jährige ehemalige Aktivist der linksradikalen «Subversiven Aktion» ist heute Herausgeber der häufig neurechts genannten Vierteljahresschrift «Tumult». Die Männer kennen sich. Beide sind gebürtige Sachsen. Zwei Stunden lang geht es am Esstisch der Buchhändler um die Freiheit der Rede und den Riss durch das geistige Leben des Landes. Böckelmann führt das Wort. Der schwarz gekleidete alte Herr spricht druckreif.
Ausgrenzung beginne bei der Sprache, sagt er. Er redet von einem entleerten Jargon der Weltoffenheit und von «Nenn-Nazis», die angeblich den halben Ostteil des Landes bevölkerten. Vor jeder Auseinandersetzung komme die Sprache. Sie definiere das Gelände, auf dem Auseinandersetzungen erlaubt seien. Begriffe wie Toleranz und Vielfalt würden als Politik-Ersatz gebraucht. Böckelmann macht eine Kunstpause. «Die Leute fragen sich: Warum eigentlich? Warum muss Dresden offen sein? Warum muss alles Fremde begrüsst werden? Wer hat das entschieden?»
Gegenfrage: Was ist mit den echten Neonazis, die sich unter die Pegida-Spaziergänger gemischt haben? Was ist mit Leuten, die Flüchtlingsheime anzünden? Müssen sich Rechtsintellektuelle wie er und Bernig von denen nicht distanzieren? Böckelmann lächelt kühl. Wer anfange, sich zu entschuldigen und abzugrenzen, betreibe das Spiel der Gegenseite und komme aus dem Erklären nicht mehr heraus.
Gegenseite. Das Wort fasst die neue deutsche Lage gut zusammen. | {
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Kunos Simulazioni has released an update for the beta version of their Assetto Corsa simulation.
**Update** The new version has not been released as the changelog was leaked. The new version + the new content will be available tomorrow. Apologies for the inconvenience.
Kunos Simulazioni has released an update for the beta version of their Assetto Corsa simulation.
The 300 mb update is now available on Steam, containing the following changes:
Changelog
G: x360 rumble intensity multiplier
G: new drift mode, it is based on score and time not laps
G: sectors status in time transponder is reset after each lap
G: Driver Eyes Positioner is Default app (localization added)
G: Fixed replay loading with cars (wing problem)
G: Fixed replay GUI (slider)
–
S: Fixed turbo still producing boost even after fuel went zero
S: Better engine coast at near minimum rpm, no need half gas to move the needle anymore
S: Implemented “FF Enhancements”
S: Improved AA algorithm selection
–
LS: Reverb effect removed
LS: New default volumes preset
LS: Engine volume tweaked for all cars
LS: Backfires volume tweaked for all cars that have them
LS: Rumble strip, tyre rolling, tyre scrubs and wind volume/pitch variation tweaked
LS: BMW M3 e30 interior sounds improved
LS: BMW M3 e30 fixed missing gearshift sounds
LS: BMW M3 GT2 interior sounds improved
LS: Tatuus FA01 interior sounds improved
LS: KTM X-Bow interior sounds improved
LS: Ferrari 458 Italia overall engine pitch tweaked
LS: Lotus 49 interior sounds improved
LS: Lotus Elise SC and Scura engine and compressor volume levels tweaked
This update does not include the new content which will be released tomorrow as announced earlier this week.
For more info on Assetto Corsa’s Early Access Beta, please check out this story. | {
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It was in the 1890s when accountant Frank Lenz of Pittsburgh decided to become a daunting long-distance cyclist.
His first trip was from Pittsburgh to St. Louis. That was followed by a jaunt from St. Louis to New Orleans. He then decided he was ready for his greatest challenge: An around-the-world journey on his bicycle.
Embarking on his trip, Lenz became an instant celebrity. He crossed North America, took a ship to Japan, and moved over into China, taking six months to cross into Burma.
The jungles of Burma were almost impassible on his bicycle, but Lenz eventually made it into Rangoon, then to Calcutta. He continued on to his next destination, Istanbul. However, it was on this leg of the trip that Lenz disappeared without a trace, almost two years after his adventure began.
Recently, author David V. Herlihy published a book about Lenz, “The Unsolved Case of the Lost Cyclist.” In it, he focuses on the probability that Lenz was killed by the Kurds, who had a reputation for attacking foreigners on caravan roads.
Pieces of Lenz’s camera and gear were found in that area, but no evidence of his bicycle or a body was ever found. Another famous cyclist, William Sachtleben, traveled to Turkey in search of Lenz. He learned that Lenz had somehow insulted a notorious Kurdish chief and was murdered.
Eventually, eight years after his death, under pressure from the United States, the Turkish government sent compensation of $7,500 to Lenz’ mother.
• Professor James Pinkerton is a retired educator who loves to share the mystery in our history. He can be reached at [email protected]. | {
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Map created by Reddit user Kamil1707
The map above shows the very approximate GDP per capita for various European states in 1890. Below we look at how these have changed over the past 127 years.
The table below lists most entities for which data are shown on the map. However, not all these entities were sovereign states in 1890 and the list includes some that were dependencies of other states at the time.
The table compares GDP (PPP) per capita in thousands of 2017 US dollars in 1890 and 2017. However, it should be noted that the boundaries of some states have shifted between the two dates, so that comparisons in such cases are approximate at best.
COUNTRY GDP PER CAPITA 1890 ($,000s) RANK 1890 GDP PER CAPITA 2017 ($,000s) RANK 2017 GAIN IN GDP PER CAPITA ($,000s) % GAIN UK 7.0 1 43.6 10 36.6 523 Belgium 5.9 2 46.3 8 40.4 685 Switzerland 5.5 3 61.4 2 55.9 1016 Netherlands 4.8 4 53.6 3 48.8 1017 Germany 4.5 5 50.2 5 45.7 1016 Denmark 4.2 6 49.6 6 45.4 1081 France 3.8 7 43.6 11 39.8 1047 Italy 3.5 8 38 13 34.5 986 Austria** 3.4 9 49.2 7 45.8 1347 Norway 2.9 10 70.6 1 67.7 2334 Czech lands* 2.8 11 35.2 14 32.4 1157 Spain 2.8 12 38.2 12 35.4 1264 Finland* 2.6 13 44.1 9 41.5 1596 Sweden 2.6 14 51.3 4 48.7 1873 Hungary** 2.2 15 28.9 18 26.7 1214 Poland* 2.2 16 29.3 17 27.1 1232 Slovakia* 2.2 17 32.9 15 30.7 1395 Romania 2.1 18 24 22 21.9 1043 Croatia* 2.1 19 24.1 21 22 1048 Portugal 2.0 20 30.3 16 28.3 1415 Bulgaria 1.9 21 21.6 23 19.7 1037 Greece 1.7 22 27.8 20 26.1 1535 Russia 1.6 23 27.9 19 26.3 1644 Montenegro 1.5 24 17.4 24 15.9 1060 Bosnia & Herzegovina* 1.5 25 11.4 26 9.9 619 Serbia 1.5 26 15.2 25 13.7 913
*In 1890 these were dependencies of other states.
**In 1890 these were parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The 1890 data are as shown on the map, as derived from Wikipedia, while the source for 2017 data is the IMF World Economic Outlook.
Caveats:
The numbers for 1890 are based on very rough estimates. While the map does give a general idea of the relative prosperity of different countries in 1890, the actual numbers should not be taken too literally.
Moreover, purchasing power parity is notoriously difficult to measure, while GDP itself is an imprecise measure of national prosperity. For example, it does not include the value of many non-market transactions.
For a discussion of the limitations of GDP see: The trouble with GDP
Observations:
All the countries listed have experienced significant growth in GDP (PPP) per capita since 1890, most by a factor of 10 or more. However, there is a wide variation in the amount of growth, ranging from around $10,000 to $68,000.
The largest such gains were experienced by Norway ($67.7K), Switzerland ($55.9K), Netherlands ($48.8K), Sweden ($48.7K), Germany ($45.7K) and Denmark ($45.4K).
Those gaining the least were Bosnia & Herzegovina ($9.9K), Serbia ($13.7K), Montenegro ($15.9K), Bulgaria ($19.7K), Romania ($21.9K) and Croatia ($22.0K).
One of the most striking changes between 1890 and the present is the decline in the relative position of the UK (which at that time included the whole of Ireland) and, to a lesser extent, Belgium.
Italy, France and Romania also lost some ground in the rankings.
In 1890 the UK was a leading industrial power, while Belgium was the first country on the European continent to industrialise.
Another significant change is the rise in the relative position of the Nordic countries (especially Norway, Sweden and Finland) since 1890.
These countries had been slower to industrialize, but advanced rapidly in the ensuing decades. Portugal and Russia also moved up noticeably in the rankings since 1890, although from a lower base.
If you’d like to learn more about this topic, have a look at the following books:
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If you find yourself freaking the fuck out about the Coronavirus, I don’t blame you.
There’s a situation out there and it’s much bigger than you.
You have access to endless,speculating information about the Coronavirus. You can find out the death rates, how many people have died, the number of infected in your area as well as worldwide, theories from scientists about how this will play out (ranging from promising to nightmarish).
All this information with no means whatsoever to do anything about it.
This is the curse of the digital age.
You have endless exposure to all of the bad things ( or potential bad things) happening in the world. But you have very little power to take any actions to remedy the situation.
This is a surefire recipe for maddening anxiety.
700 new cases in California today. Young people not safe from the virus. Economy heading for inevitable recession. Africa sees 50 new cases today.
All of this horrific information, but what can you personally do about it?
You. Sitting in your bedroom. Absorbing headline after headline. What actions can you possibly take to have any affect whatsoever on the Coronavirus situation?
The answer? Nothing.
If you have no power whatsoever to change the situation, why are you checking the news 15 times a day?
It doesn’t matter how many cases there are in your area. Every new number: 100, 1000, 10000. None of these numbers (all of which are probably wildly inaccurate) make any difference to your personal situation.
Knowing each and every detail about the virus. How many strains it has. Where it came from. None of this information makes any difference to your personal situation.
Headlines are powerful.
The mere sight of a headline suggesting an imminent threat can produce a fearful response in many of those who read it. (Especially those prone to anxiety).
The accumulation of seeing headline after headline threatening at the death of your and your loved ones can take a real toll on your psyche. And for what?
Every time you expose yourself to an anxiety inducing stimulus you are only lessening your ability to deal with the virus.
Stress lowers the immune system. With each and every disturbing headline that you read, your immune system is getting weaker and weaker. And stress ia contagious. If you’re stressed, you’ll make those around you stressed too.
Stressing out over each and every headline makes it more likely that you’d experience severe symptoms if you were to catch the virus. And it also makes it more likely that you’ll get sick in some other way at a time when hospitals are struggling.
“Those who do not know how to fight worry die young” - Dr Alexis Carrel
We may be in the midst of a pandemic, but there is still an entire news industry desperately trying to get your clicks. Fear sells. And the dramatic stories about the Coronavirus is sure to bring in clicks (And Ad Revenue).
The news industry will continue to bombard you with headlines that fill you with fear and dread in order to lure in your click.
So do yourself and your immune system a favour: Check the news once a day.
ONCE. Not randomly and sporadically throughout the day. ONCE.
Pick a time. 10:00am. 3:00pm. It doesn’t matter. This will be your news-checking time. Stick to it. Check the news for updates. Get in and get out.
Remember, the impulse you have to constantly check the latest updates and developments is lying to you. You don’t need to see the latest updates. In fact, doing so may even be to your physical detriment. As well as to the detriment to your family and friends around you.
2. Choose Healthy Media. Not Junk Media | {
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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i think 95% of indie games are shit | {
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As U.S.-led airstrikes continue Friday near the Syrian border with Iraq, it's hard to imagine what would make the situation worse than the military suddenly losing all its generals.
But that is exactly what Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) told a group of voters he wants to see happen, the Colorado Independent reported.
"A lot of us are talking to the generals behind the scenes, saying, 'Hey, if you disagree with the policy that the White House has given you, let's have a resignation,'" Lamborn said Tuesday, adding that if generals resigned en masse in protest of President Barack Obama's Middle East policy, they would "go out in a blaze of glory."
Since Obama launched military operations against the Islamic State in mid-September, several reports have suggested that he may have a less than perfect relationship with his generals. Several high-ranking military officers and Pentagon officials have publicly voiced their disagreement with Obama's airstrikes-only approach in Syria. Former defense secretary Robert Gates said, "There will be boots on the ground if there's to be any hope of success."
Lamborn, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, has been an outspoken critic of Obama's military actions and his foreign policy as a whole. "After watching President Obama's rudderless foreign policy for the past five years, I have lost confidence in the president's ability to lead," Lamborn said in a statement earlier this month.
But military generals are unlikely to heed Lamborn's call to resign. When Gen. David Petraeus, then the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, openly criticized the administration's policies there, the White House reacted strongly, and some suggested Petraeus should resign. Petraeus decided against it, saying a resignation would hurt American interests. "Our troopers don't get to quit, and I don't think commanders should contemplate that, again, as any kind of idle action," Petraeus said.
Irv Halter, Lamborn's Democratic opponent, is himself a retired Air Force general. Halter objected to Lamborn's stance in an email to the Colorado Independent.
“It is inappropriate for Congressman Lamborn to politicize our military for his own gain," he said. “Our elected officials should not be encouraging our military leaders to resign when they have a disagreement over policy. Congressman Lamborn’s statement shows his immaturity and lack of understanding of the American armed forces. Someone who serves on the House Armed Services Committee should know better.” | {
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Editor’s Note: Nir Eyal is a Lecturer in Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and blogs about the intersection of psychology, technology, and business at NirAndFar.com. Follow him on Twitter @nireyal and see his previous Techcrunch posts here.
Right now, someone is tinkering with a billion dollar secret — they just don’t know it yet. “What people aren’t telling you,” Peter Thiel taught his class at Stanford, “can very often give you great insight as to where you should be directing your attention.”
Secrets people can’t or don’t want to divulge are a common thread behind Thiel’s most lucrative investments such as Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as several other breakout companies of the past decade. The kinds of truths Thiel discusses — the kinds that create billion dollar businesses in just a few years — are not held exclusively by those with deep corporate pockets. In fact, the person most likely to build the next great tech business will likely be a scrappy entrepreneur with a big dream, a sharp mind, and a valuable secret.
Where are the Secrets?
According to Thiel, there are two types of secrets: those about nature and those about people. Thiel dismisses the former as less interesting because they are less practical. “No one really cares about superstring theory. It wouldn’t really change our daily lives if it turned out to be true.”
But secrets about people have immediately practical applications. I believe secrets about human behavior, which provide insights into the way people act even though they can’t tell you why, are levers for creating user habits and competitive advantage. These kinds of secrets are also relatively cheap to uncover but can be the basis of massive enterprises.
Once, only large companies had the resources to discover monetizable secrets. Throughout the twentieth century, companies like GE, Dupont, Chrysler, and IBM specialized in discovering the optimal form of physical goods and their insights lay largely hidden in the discipline of industrial design. For these companies, uncovering secrets required massive R&D investment to find the best way to create a better, cheaper, or faster product.
But today, as software continues to eat the world, service industries are being upended by upstarts. A new crop of companies like AirBnB, DropBox, and Square exploits secrets gleaned not from industrial design, but from interaction and systems design. These companies remedy old problems by designing interfaces to create new user behaviors.
Change the Interface, Change the World
Whenever a massive change occurs in the way people interact with technology, expect to find plenty of secrets ripe for harvesting. Changes in interface suddenly make all sorts of behaviors easier. Subsequently, when the effort required to accomplish an action decreases, usage tends to explode.
A long history of technology businesses made their fortunes discovering behavioral secrets made visible because of a change in the interface. Apple and Microsoft succeeded by turning DOS terminals into graphical user interfaces accessible by mainstream consumers. Google simplified the search interface, as compared to those of ad-heavy and difficult-to-use competitors like Yahoo. Facebook and Twitter turned new behavioral insights into interfaces that simplified social interactions online. In each case, a new interface made an action easier and uncovered surprising truths about the way users behave.
More recently, Instagram and Pinterest offer examples of companies which capitalized upon behavioral insights brought about from changes in interface. Pinterest’s ability to create a rich canvas of images — utilizing what was then cutting-edge interface changes — revealed new insights about the addictive nature of an online catalog. For Instagram, the interface change was cameras integrated into smart phones. Instagram discovered that its low-tech filters made relatively poor quality photos taken on phones look great. Suddenly taking good pictures on your phone was easier and Instagram used its newly discovered insights to recruit an army of rabidly snapping users. With both Pinterest and Instagram, tiny teams generated huge value, not by cracking hard technical challenges, but by solving interaction problems.
From Discovery to Domination
Along with capitalizing on behavioral insights discovered from a change in interface, Instagram and Pinterest also shared another key attribute. They both grew to stratospheric valuations because they came to dominate their respective markets through a network effect. Defined as a system where each additional user on the network increases the value to all the other users, the network effect is a common trait among record breaking tech business of the past decade.
But where the titans of twentieth century industry could build competitive advantage in a number of ways — owning intellectual property, building a brand, deriving scale cost advantages, and the network effect, for example — most young companies today can only afford the last option. The nature of interface-driven innovation is that many of the old competitive advantages don’t work. The byproduct of the massive investment required to building cars and turbines was an increasing market dominance with each sale. Each closed deal spread the fixed costs of protecting patents, building a brand, and manufacturing equipment, thereby making it harder for new entrants to compete.
But today, consumer web startups have no such advantages. They must quickly create habitual users and build a network effect before their competitors do; it’s their only hope. Software production doesn’t offer scale cost advantages, the patent system is a mess startups can’t afford to navigate, and spending on branding prematurely is foolish. Only after a network effect business has secured its place in users’ everyday lives does it make sense to build its brand through advertising. Twitter’s recent foray into television commercials promoting its NASCAR partnership is a good example.
Though we’re living through an age when new insights about user behavior abound, the methods for building a long-term business advantage has narrowed. The kind of secrets that build big businesses today must support a plan to build a network effect business. Without a network effect strategy, secrets don’t stay valuable for long.
Thank you to Jules Maltz, Jess Bachman, Max Ogles for reading early versions of this article
Photo Credit: byJess.net and NirAndFar.com | {
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PS4 Titanfall won’t happen, much to Sony gamers’ disappointment. Electronic Arts has explained why Xbox One and PC are the only platforms the mech fighter is arriving on.
It has nothing to do with any rivalries, just to clarify. It’s all about marketing and loyalty.
The Microsoft exclusive status of Titanfall was only one of a handful of bold decisions made about Respawn’s upcoming title.
It was decided early in production that there would be no single player mode in the game after Respawn noticed an important trend in how most games are usually played.
The majority of a game’s lifespan is spent online fighting against or alongside other players, while single player mode is usually played through once to unlock weapons and other items for multiplayer mode. Instead of putting effort into a single player mode, they decided it made more sense to scrap it and focus entirely on multiplayer.
That said, PS4 Titanfall was a victim of Electronic Arts deciding to remain loyal to Microsoft, for now. It’s really nothing against Sony. Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen commented on the deal:
“That’s a process that’s been done through the industry for many years. There are lots of single-platform titles. Obviously, you work with the first-parties to make sure the economics make sense for all sides, and we made that decision on Titanfall. We’re trying to make sure that we’ve developed a great relationship with them. We helped them on marketing, we helped them on development where they need it. And we try to maintain a strong partnership with them over time.”
It has been pointed out that Microsoft does not own the rights to Titanfall. EA has stated that there is still a very real possibility of a PS4 Titanfall sequel.
With Electronic Arts in charge of production, you can bet that the sequel will be just as good, if not better. Look at Need for Speed for example. That franchise always seems to be top-notch with every release, with consumer opinion being the biggest difference.
Much like Watch Dogs, Titanfall isn’t a launch title on either console. The game is slated for a March 11, 2014 North American release on Xbox One and Europe / Australia will see their release of the game two days later. No matter which console you buy, or even if you are getting both, you’ll still be waiting a while to play EA’s mech brawler.
Just be aware there is a reason behind the absence of Titanfall on PS4, and it has nothing to do with Sony. | {
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Over the course of a few weeks, [Adam] trained his betta fish, [Jose], to jump out of the water to snatch food off his finger. An impressive display for a fish, but being able to train his small aquatic friend got [Adam] thinking. What’s stopping [Jose] from interacting his environment even more? The abovemarine was born.
The abovemarine is a robotic platform specifically built for [Jose]’s aquarium. Below, three omni wheels drive the entire aquarium in any direction. A computer running OpenCV, a webcam, and a few motors directs the abovemarine in whatever direction [Jose] wants to go. Yes, it’s a vehicle for a fish, and that’s awesome.
[Adam] put a lot of work into the creation of the abovemarine, and was eventually able to teach [Jose] how to control his new home. In the videos below, you can see [Jose] roaming the studio and rolling towards the prospect of food.
Because [Jose] is a Siamese fighting fish and extremely territorial when he sees other males of his species, this brings up the idea of a version of Battlebots with several abovemarines. They’re in different tanks, so we don’t know what PETA would think of that, but we do expect it to show up in the Hackaday tip line eventually. | {
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Italy’s right-wing populist government, elected on a eurosceptic, anti-establishment, anti-immigration platform, has put forward a number of “tough on migrants” policies since coming to power in early June. But one idea in particular, shared this week in the announcement of a new task force, shifts the whole debate a few notches.
On Monday (Aug. 20), the economic-development ministry announced Task Force China (link in Italian), which will promote Chinese investment and partnerships in Italy. The announcement details how Italy plans to ensure that more Chinese investment flows into the country through tax rebates and other incentives, and that Italian companies are included in infrastructure projects linked to China’s “Belt and Road” initiative.
Most striking is the announcement’s last bullet point, which reads: “Strengthen the cooperation with China in Africa. China can help Italy solve the immigration problem by helping Africa.” The reasoning is that Chinese investments foster African growth, and hence stop the need for emigration. This echoes the “let’s help them in their own homes” (link in Italian) slogan long adopted by Italian politicians confronted with populist anti-migrant sentiment, but it introduces a novel twist: Let’s help China help them. No specifics on how to do this are offered in the announcement.
Heading the new task force is Michele Geraci, the undersecretary of economic development. Known for his uncritical stance toward the Asian giant, Geraci once presented China, in a now-infamous blog post (link in Italian), as an example to follow on everything from public security to economics to migration (which in China’s case has been mostly internal). The post sparked an outraged response from Italian scholars of China, who argued against the idea of a Chinese panacea.
Criticism not withstanding, Geraci has now put forward, as government policy, the fairly untested idea of helping a foreign country invest in a whole continent. In the announcement, no mention is made of consultations with African heads of state on the idea. Also left out are the controversies surrounding Chinese investments overseas, which many believe are leading countries into debt traps, including in Africa.
Meanwhile the coalition government formed by the League and the Five Star Movement has continued with other anti-immigrant measures. Interior minister Matteo Salvini, riding his “Italians first” slogan, has not only refused to condemn the growing number of racially motivated attacks in Italy, but also blocked African migrants from disembarking at Italian ports. That’s earned him a reputation as “Europe’s Donald Trump” among critics.
But Trump, of course, isn’t promoting Chinese investment in Latin America as a way to slow immigration into the United States. | {
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When the decisive blows arrived the entire squad piled on top of one another in the victory scrum. Hugo Lloris, the goalkeeper, had run the entire length of the pitch to join in the celebrations. All the substitutes were throwing themselves into this heap of arms and legs. There were even members of the backroom staff contemplating joining in, and who could blame them? France were on their way to winning the World Cup and a party was under way behind the goal where the tricolours were fluttering.
France players invade Deschamps press conference and soak him in champagne Read more
Those were the moments when everybody knew that no side – not even one with Croatia’s resilience and powers of durability – would find a way back. Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappé had scored in quick succession and the next edition of the France national shirt will have two stars, rather than one, above the cockerel.
Didier Deschamps has become only the third man in history to win the World Cup as a player and manager, standing alongside two giants of the game in Mário Zagallo and Franz Beckenbauer. Mbappé is a world champion at the age of 19, the first teenager to score in a final since Pelé in 1958, and there were jubilant scenes after the final whistle as the players gave their manager the bumps as the rain turned biblical and the trophy was lifted to a backdrop of thunder and slate skies.
The mistake from Lloris that allowed Mario Mandzukic to pull a goal back for Croatia did not matter greatly in the end and France are deserving champions bearing in mind their assured performances throughout the tournament. Any team that score four times in a final are entitled to feel they have won in style and nobody seemed to mind too much, in the long wait for the trophy presentation, that the only person being sheltered from the rain was Vladimir Putin. Kudos to the chap in the suit who suddenly appeared with an umbrella to keep the president dry while Gianni Infantino and the other assorted Fifa dignitaries took a soaking.
Play Video 2:10 Macron dabbing and crowds roaring: France crowned World Cup champions – video
This was the highest-scoring final since 1966 and it was laced with drama and incident, not least a second-half pitch invasion apparently from members of Pussy Riot, and featuring a fair amount of controversy, too, bearing in mind that France’s second goal, a penalty scored by Antoine Griezmann, came from a borderline VAR decision that will always polarise opinion.
Even before that point it was difficult not to sympathise with Croatia given they had suffered the grievous setback of an own goal from Mandzukic. Zlatko Dalic, the Croatia manager, had promised that, if necessary, his team would take defeat with dignity and at least his players did not veer from that line, in trying circumstances. They will leave Russia, however, feeling that key moments of luck went against them, right down to the smaller details. Marcelo Brozovic’s alleged foul on Griezmann for the free-kick that led to Mandzukic’s own goal was a case in point: a generous decision, to say the least.
That was the 53rd own goal in the history of the World Cup, going all the way back to a Mexican player, Manuel Rosas, doing the same against Chile in 1930. Nobody, however, had ever done it before in a final and presumably Rosas did not have to suffer the indignity, as Mandzukic did here, of the public announcer making sure everyone knew who had applied the decisive touch. Mandzukic’s attempt to help out in defence had gone horribly wrong. The ball had skimmed off his head from Griezmann’s free-kick and France were ahead before any of their own players had managed an attempt at goal.
By now everyone should know enough about Croatia not to be taken aback by the strength of their response, culminating in a beautifully taken equaliser from Ivan Perisic 10 minutes later, using that precious left foot to fire a low, diagonal shot through a congested penalty area.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paul Pogba celebrates after scoring his side’s third goal. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP
All this was rather unexpected bearing in mind the previous seven finals had yielded only four first-half goals between them. Yet it had quickly become clear that a thrilling tournament was not going to be let down by a cagey, prosaic final and the only pity, perhaps, went back to the first-half incident that led Croatia’s fans to whistle noisily when the match officials collected their medals.
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It certainly was not a straightforward decision for the Argentinian referee, Néstor Pitana, and the length of time he spent analysing the replays told its own story. Eventually the handball decision was given against Perisic because it could be argued his arm was sticking out at an unnatural angle as he stooped behind Blaise Matuidi to defend a corner.
Was Matuidi’s flick-on on target or heading towards a teammate? The answer is no to both questions. But maybe that was deemed irrelevant. The ball did strike Perisic’s hand, however little he knew about it, and that was enough for the penalty to be awarded, no matter how tough that might seem. Griezmann held his nerve to guide the penalty past Danijel Subasic, the Croatia goalkeeper, and after nearly four minutes of arguments and counter-arguments France were back in front.
The game was still finely poised until Mbappé and Griezmann combined to set up Pogba to make it 3-1 just before the hour. Pogba’s first effort came back to him off a defender. The second was a more controlled finish with his left foot to wrong-foot Subasic and, when Mbappé fired in a low 25-yard effort for France’s fourth goal six minutes later, it was starting to feel as if it could be a rout.
Play Video 0:54 Pussy Riot claim responsibility for World Cup final pitch invasion - video
Instead Lloris tried to dribble past Mandzukic in his own six-yard area, made a pig’s ear of it and at least that gave the score a bit more respectability from a Croatian perspective. There were 20 minutes to play and the losing players kept pushing forward, trying to pull off an improbable feat of escapology. Luka Modric demonstrated why he would later be announced as the Golden Ball winner, as the tournament’s outstanding player, and an argument could legitimately be made that Croatia matched their opponents in everything but goals. Dalic’s team had set off as though affronted that France were viewed as favourites.
Deschamps had substituted N’Golo Kanté, France’s midfield shield, early in the second half, mindful that the Chelsea player had been booked, but there were only fleeting moments when their opponents threatened to examine whether Lloris might be vulnerable again. France had joined Uruguay and Argentina as two-times winners and the World Cup had been given a fitting finale. | {
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Subsets and Splits