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The discovery of brain impairment in mice may eventually lead to better therapies for people with schizophrenia and major depression.
Studying rodents that have a gene associated with mental illness, Michigan State University neuroscientist Alexander Johnson and colleagues found a link between a specific area of the prefrontal cortex, and learning and behavioral deficits.
While much work needs to be done, the discovery is a major step toward better understanding mental illness. While antipsychotic drugs can treat hallucinations related to schizophrenia, there essentially is no treatment for other symptoms such as lack of motivation or anhedonia, the inability to experience pleasure.
"This study may well suggest that if we start targeting these brain-behavior mechanisms in people with mental illness, it may help to alleviate some of the cognitive and motivational symptoms, which to date remain largely untreated with current drug therapies," said Johnson, MSU assistant professor of psychology.
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Schizophrenia, a disabling brain disorder marked by paranoia and hearing voices that aren't there, affects some 2.4 million Americans and runs in families, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
The researchers conducted a series of experiments with two groups of mice - those with the gene associated with mental illness and those without the gene (or the control group).
In one experiment, related to cognition, the mice were presented with tasty food when they responded on one side of a conditioning box. After repeated feedings, the food was switched to the other side of the box. The mice with the mental illness gene had a much more difficult time learning to adapt to the new side.
In another experiment, related to motivation, the mice had to respond an increasing number of times each time they wanted food. By the end of the three-hour session, all mice with the mental illness gene stopped responding for food, while half of the control group continued on.
Johnson said the deficiencies may suggest a problem in the prefrontal cortex area known as the orbitofrontal cortex, and that further research should target this area.
His co-investigators include Hanna Jaaro-Peled, Akira Sawa and Michela Gallagher from Johns Hopkins University. | {
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It took a rare Sunday off for the Carolina Panthers to finally win something big this season -- the No. 1 overall draft pick.
The Panthers are on the clock for April's draft and potentially in position to take Stanford star quarterback Andrew Luck after wins by Cincinnati and Denver allowed Carolina to clinch the league's worst record.
The Broncos (4-11) rallied with 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to beat Houston 24-23, while the Bengals (4-11) got four touchdown passes from Carson Palmer to beat San Diego 34-20 in the snow for their second straight win.
That meant with one week left in the season, nobody can match Carolina (2-13) for futility in the NFL this season.
The only other time the Panthers have had the No. 1 pick -- before their inaugural season in 1995 -- they traded it away for more picks.
Now the question is: Will Luck leave school early?
Most draft analysts say the 6-foot-4 junior is the best prospect in the potential draft pool. He's completed 70.2 percent of his passes this season for 3,051 yards, 28 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Luck, who will lead the Cardinal (11-1) against Virginia Tech (11-2) in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 3, has not revealed his intentions. | {
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1Fox is closed
1Fox was active between February 12th, 2018 and October 18th, 2018. It was a leveraged trading platform that offered the BTC/USD and BCH/USD trading pairs.
Decision to close 1Fox
1Fox was the sister platform of 1Broker, which was involved in two civil lawsuits that eventually lead to the shutdown of both projects. Customers were able to withdraw their funds until the end of 2019.
The Future
We want to thank you for all the encouraging messages we received over the past months. Rest assured that - in one way or another - we will be back operating services for the cryptocurrency community. Once we have specific news, we will let you know on this page.
Contact
You can continue to contact us by email until the end of 2020: [email protected]
Final Statistics | {
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When most people go on vacation, they take pictures of their friends and family. Beautiful vistas. Old buildings. I like all that stuff as much as the next guy, but for some reason when I get out my camera, I take pictures of strangers. Strangers don't pose. They do funny things without realizing they're being watched. And when you get the pictures back, they're never around to complain about how they look.
During a semester abroad in Ireland, I began spending free afternoons on the streets, camera in hand, taking pictures of people I didn't know. (I tried to be as discreet as possible, eventually developing a from-the-hip technique where I could shoot without looking through the viewfinder; since I was never beaten or chased, I have to assume it worked.) Eventually I realized that there was a whole movement devoted to doing what I was doing, called street photography, and that I probably wasn't some voyeuristic maniac after all (or at least, not the socially unacceptable kind). Below: kid in a piazza, Florence.
Since then, I've stopped hitting the streets with my camera (L.A. isn't a walking town, they keep telling me) but have fallen in love with the great street photographers: Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Elliot Erwitt, and many more. In this series of blogs, I want to post and talk about my favorites, but I figured the best way to start was to post some of my own first (may as well put 'em to use; they're just moldering away in my Flickr account), which also saves me the embarrassment of trying to follow Arbus or Winogrand! So here goes. (To see larger versions of these, by the way, just click on them.)
Digg it!
On the street outside Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland:
Bemused and be-wigged ladies outside a club in Dublin. (I didn't stick around long enough to find out whether the bouncer let them in or not.)
A stolen kiss, Dublin.
Dogs for sale: one morning I found an impromptu pet market going on outside my hotel room in Seville, Spain. (Don't worry, dude. Those dogs aren't going anywhere.)
French tourists eating a picnic lunch near Mont St. Michel. I like how daintily the guy facing camera is holding that French fry.
A newspaper hawker on O'Connell Street, Dublin.
I noticed this tired old shopkeeper across the street in Granada, Spain:
This Irish kid said he hadn't caught anything all day.
A chapel in Normandie:
This silverback at the San Diego Zoo was anything but camera-shy:
A tourist in Paris stares me down.
Kids waiting to get into a club in Dublin.
| {
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La marche pour le climat a attiré près d’un demi-million de personnes à Montréal, selon une estimation des organisateurs.
Dans la vidéo ci-dessus, voyez en accéléré la marche du début à la fin alors qu’une file longue de 4 km dévalait l’avenue du Parc. | {
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In Nebraska, which has had a lottery since 1993, hospitality executives and critics of sports betting had accepted that the state would cede some hoops-related dollars to Iowa. But some of them were still hesitant about bringing gambling across the Missouri River.
“It’s certainly very attractive to state legislatures to say, ‘We can tax this and we can get some money,’ but sometimes they don’t always count the bankruptcies and the social costs of gambling,” said Tom Osborne, the Republican former congressman who led Nebraska’s football team for 25 seasons and who has long opposed gambling in his home state.
Osborne also suggested that sports betting would undercut the culture of college athletics.
“It really detracts from the overall appreciation of the game, for the game itself,” he said.
Now, there are no games to appreciate at all. Along with losing the tournament, Omaha also lost the College World Series, which the city was again poised to host this year.
A spokeswoman declined to make Mowad available for an interview in the wake of the N.C.A.A.’s decision and the shutdowns of casinos. In a statement on its website, Caesars said it would “work with local officials to establish a reopening date as soon as it is appropriate to do so.”
And the N.C.A.A., which has long resisted gambling and continues to bar many people connected to college athletics from sports wagering, will have to wait another year to see how an expansion of betting will affect its signature event.
N.C.A.A. officials expected many states to pursue legalized sports gambling after the Supreme Court’s ruling, but some officials were surprised by the speed with which governments approved new laws and regulations. Fourteen states allow some form of sports betting, while another six are setting it up, according to Legal Sports Report. | {
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If the CSI family of television shows has blunted your appetite for impossibly omniscient crime scene analysis, consider the real, and very serious, science of nuclear forensics. If someone flouts the ban on nuclear weapons testing, we want to know as much about it as possible. And the resources backing that effort are substantial.
Seismic waves betray the occurrence of underground tests, and air samples grabbed soon afterward can contain the radioactive proof. But both are transient, and even radioactivity at the site of the explosion can fade too quickly to be of much use. A group of researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have demonstrated a new technique than can reveal the potency of the bomb from the debris—even decades after the fact.
To test the technique, they tried it out on the famous 1945 Trinity test site in New Mexico, where the very first atomic bomb was detonated less than a month before nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The heat of the blast fused the sandy surface into glassy rock that took on the name “trinitite.” Immediately after the explosion, that trinitite would have been loaded with short-lived radioactive isotopes that could tell you about how the bomb functioned, but the most important indicators dissipate within months.
Analyzing several pieces of trinitite, the researchers sought to measure isotopes produced by the atomic chain reaction that were not radioactive, and therefore still present 70 years on. This requires laboratory precision far beyond what was possible in the 1940s.
In the fission chain reaction of the Trinity bomb, radioactive plutonium atoms split into predictable pairs of elements. The isotopes that are also highly radioactive will split again, continuing along a cascade of well-defined pathways until they end up at isotopes that are more stable. Zirconium-95 and zirconium-97 are part of that cascade and, critically, none of their nuclear “ancestors” are gases, so their abundance in the glassy trinitite is tied to the strength of the chain reaction in a straight-forward way.
Unfortunately, they have radioactive half-lives of about 17 hours and 64 days, respectively. Since those isotopes have had plenty of time to decay away since 1945, we would now need to analyze the things they turned into, instead. As it happens, they produce non-radioactive molybdenum-95 and molybdenum-97. So there’s your forensic clue—measure the higher-than-normal amount of those molybdenum isotopes in the glassy trinitite today, and you can basically figure out how many atoms of plutonium spit apart in the 1945 blast.
With careful lab work, several isotopes of molybdenum were measured and used to calculate how much radioactive zirconium produced by the bomb was originally in each gram of the trinitite. There is also some plutonium-239 in the trinitite, which is the portion of the bomb that failed to join in the chain reaction. By measuring this remnant plutonium, and by knowing how much of the plutonium in the chain reaction cascade ends up as zirconium, you can now work back to both the percentage of plutonium atoms in the bomb that were split and the percentage that failed to contribute to the blast.
In this case, the calculated “efficiency” of the Trinity device was just over 20 percent—meaning only 20 percent of the plutonium in the bomb split in the fission chain reaction. Because we do know the actual mass of plutonium that was inside the Trinity device, that efficiency can tell you the explosive yield of the blast. Estimates of the Trinity bomb’s yield have ranged from 8 to 61 kilotons, with the official estimate coming in at 21 kilotons. This new estimate based on molybdenum isotopes is actually pretty close to that at just a shade over 22 kilotons.
In this case, the interest is historical, but this adds another tool to the kit for monitoring nuclear weapons tests—whenever they may have occurred.
PNAS, 2016. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1602792113 (About DOIs). | {
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Consumption of child pornography content in India has spiked by 95 per cent amid lockdown, according to a recent report by an NGO India Child Protection Fund (ICPF).
The consumption of child pornography has increased 95 per cent between March 24 and 26. According to data provided by online data monitoring websites, there has been an increase in searches for terms like “child porn,” “sexy child” and “teen sex videos,” the report said citing data from pornography website Pornhub.
The spike in consumption indicates that a number of paedophiles, child rapists and child pornography addicts have migrated online. This had made the internet an unsafe place for children and it could also result in a “drastic rise” in sexual crimes targeting children said Nivedita Ahuja, spokesperson for ICPF as quoted by The Hindu.
International agencies such as Europol, the United Nations and ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) have also reported increased online activity from paedophiles and child pornography addicts amid lockdown. They have taken to targeting children by befriending them online on social media to ‘groom’ them and later lure them to perform sexual activities through photos and videos, the report said.
ICPF has demanded an urgent crackdown on child pornography pan-India, using AI to monitor such activities. It suggests the use of AI to monitor hosting, sharing, viewing and downloading of material that includes child sexual abuse which can then be reported to government agencies, The Hindu reported.
The ICPF, which is managed by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi’s son Bhuwan Ribhu, was started in January 2020 to support NGOs with funding resources for preventing exploitation of children. | {
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FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 7, 2016, before the House Oversight Committee to explain his agency's recommendation to not prosecute Hillary Clinton, now the Democratic presidential candidate, over her private email setup during her time as secretary of state. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
(CNSNews.com) - FBI Director James Comey told Congress on Thursday that there is a law, passed in 1917, criminalizing gross negligence in handling classified material, but "nobody" ever invokes it, and he insisted that Justice Department prosecutors wouldn't, either.
He said the Justice Department has applied that 1917 law only once over the years; and knowing the Justice Department as he does, "No reasonable prosecutor would bring the second case in 100 years focused on gross negligence," Comey said.
"I know the Department of Justice, I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case. I know a lot of my former friends are out there saying they would. I wonder where they were in the last 40 years, because I'd like to see the cases they brought on gross negligence. Nobody would, nobody did."
In his opening statement to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Comey said he welcomed the opportunity to explain why the FBI reached the conclusion it did regarding Hillary Clinton's careless use of a personal email server.
He said the FBI was guided by the facts, the law, and how people have been treated in the past:
"There are two things that matter in a criminal investigation of a subject -- what did the person do, and when they did that thing, what were they thinking? When you look at the hundred-years plus of the Justice Department investigation and prosecution of the mishandling of classified information, those two questions are obviously present," Comey said.
Comey said it's important to know what people were thinking: "We don't want to put people in jail unless we prove that they knew they were doing something they shouldn't do. That is the characteristic of all the prosecutions involving the mishandling of classified information."
He pointed to the 1917 statute "that on its face, makes it a crime, a felony, for someone to engage in gross negligence. So that would appear to say, well maybe in that circumstance you don't need to prove they knew they were doing something that was unlawful. Maybe it's enough to prove that they were just really, really careless, beyond a resonable doubt."
But Comey noted that at the time Congress passed the law in 1917, "there was a lot of concern in the House and the Senate about whether that was going to violate the American tradition of requiring that before you're going to lock somebody up, you prove they knew they were doing something wrong. And so there was a lot of concern when the statute was passed.
"As best I can tell, the Department of Justice has used it once in the 99 years since, reflecting that same concern," he said.
"I know from 30 years with the Department of Justice, they have grave concerns about whether it's appropriate to prosecute somebody for gross negligence, which is why they've done it once that I know of, in a case involving espionage.
"And so when I look at the facts we gathered here, as I said, I see evidence of great carelessness, but I do not see evidence that's sufficient to establish that Secretary Clinton or those with whom she was corresponding both talked about classified information on email and knew when they did it that they were doing something that was against the law.
"So given that assessment of the facts, and my understanding of the law, my conclusion was and remains, no reasonable proseuctor would bring this case. No reasonable prosecutor would bring the second case in 100 years focused on gross negligence."
Comey told the committee, "That's just the way it is."
"I know the Department of Justice, I know no reasonable prosecutor would bring this case. I know a lot of my former friends are out there saying they would. I wonder where they were in the last 40 years, because I'd like to see the cases they brought on gross negligence. Nobody would, nobody did."
Comey said people can disagree, but he stands by his and his team's decision that the "appropriate resolution was not with a criminal prosecution." | {
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Anatomy
A bunion (hallux valgus) is an abnormal angulation of the big toe relative to the foot that is caused by several factors. We don’t know exactly what causes bunions, but we suspect that genetics, shoe choices, and other factors all contribute. Shoes with a small toe box result in an abnormal stress on the metatarsophalangeal joint. If left untreated, this stress can result in a permanent osseous (bony) deformity.
What exactly is a Bunion? And why is it called that?
When the bone or tissue at the big toe joint moves out of place it forces your big toe to bend toward your other toes, causing a large, often painful lump of bone on the outside of your foot. This lump is called a bunion from the Latin word “bunio” meaning enlargement.
What are common symptoms?
Bunions typically have a gradual onset and initially do not cause pain or discomfort. Over time, they may become painful, swollen, and red. A significant bump will often develop on the
side of the big toe and result in increased irritation.
How is a Bunion diagnosed?
In order to determine the severity of your bunion, your specialist may take X-rays, ask you questions, and conduct a physical examination. X-ray is useful in viewing the bony anatomy of the foot and can help diagnose the type of bunion deformity.
Nonsurgical treatment
Recognition of a bunion early may allow for footwear modifications and counseling that adequately address the symptoms. Your specialist may prescribe a special type of pad and show you how to tape your toe in the correct position. Proper footwear is also essential to managing the problem. Continuing to wear poorly fitting shoes, high heels, or shoes with a narrow toe box may exacerbate the problem. These simple changes may be enough to manage the symptoms from the bunion deformity. But in certain cases, surgery is required.
Surgical treatment
The type of surgery performed is dependent on the underlying cause of the bunion. Even though bunions look similar in nature, there are actually various types of bunions with multiple surgical corrections and recovery instructions.
When appropriate, your specialist will describe the details of the procedure with you and discuss his or her expectations for your recovery. The recovery process can vary significantly based on the severity of the bunion and the type of surgery required to correct it. | {
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The Ottawa Senators may have a full slate of skaters signed and prepared to compete in training camp, but there are still some important ongoing negotiations.
Team brass remains hard at work on a deal to bring longtime captain Daniel Alfredsson back to the organization in a front-office capacity. The Senators are hoping to announce his hiring before camp wraps up early next month, the Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch reports.
His role has yet to be determined, but general manager Bryan Murray told the Ottawa Sun last weekend that he'll likely be involved in the organization's hockey operations department. | {
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Story highlights The error affected the Holiday Cash-Add-A-Play game
Lottery: Hold on to your tickets till review is done
(CNN) For some unlucky South Carolina residents, what seemed to be a winning Christmas lottery ticket turned out to be a lump of coal.
A programming error in a lottery game that lasted for more than two hours generated an overabundance of winning tickets, prompting the game's suspension and an investigation, officials said Wednesday.
The snafu affected the Holiday Cash Add-A-Play tickets, a $1 terminal-generated instant game offered on Christmas Day. South Carolina Education Lottery officials have not said how many tickets were affected, or whether false payouts were made before the error was caught.
"From 5:51 p.m. to 7:53 p.m., the same play symbol was repeated in all nine available play areas on tickets which would result in a top prize of $500. No more than five identical play symbols should appear for a single play," the lottery said. "As soon as the issue was identified, the Add-A-Play game was suspended immediately to conduct a thorough investigation."
CNN affiliate WYFF cited a store manager describing a "frenzy," saying dozens of people "rushed in" to purchase winning tickets after word spread. But people soon learned they couldn't cash in.
Holiday Cash Add-A-Play game sales and validations have been suspended until further notice. Players with tickets affected are advised to hold on to their tickets(s) until a review is completed. Updates will be provided. — SC Education Lottery (@sclottery) December 27, 2017
Read More | {
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The Grand Tour premiered nearly a week ago and the hype for the show is still very real and very well deserved. In a recent interview with CNN’s “Quest Means Business,” Jeremy Clarkson discussed the massive success of the show, how surprised he was by the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB, and what makes the show different from Top Gear.
Many people made assumptions about what The Grand Tour would be like when it finally debuted and a very select few, like Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, even questioned whether or not the boys would be able to recreate what we all loved about Top Gear like you read in our article here. Luckily the show was, for the most part, what we all had hoped it would be.
In the interview, Clarkson described it himself saying that The Grand Tour was
“Top Gear’ in Witness Protection. That’s what a friend of mine said the other day, a reviewer. [This show] is different because it moves around the world, that’s really it But it’s still James, Richard, and I. So it’s like if you have a glass of champagne and you have it in a bucket or in a glass, it’s still champagne, and that’s really what it is. It’s a different vessel, but the show is, with different elements, basically about the same.” It’s three old men who fall over and catch fire… it’s a car show… It’s really hard to explain what it is.”
How would you describe The Grand Tour to someone who has never heard of it in order to get them to watch the show? We’re not exactly sure ourselves, but we do know one thing and that is if you watch it you will love it!
Let us know what you would say in the comments below. | {
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Von Zeit zu Zeit möchte ich mich hier auf meinem Blog auch mit der trockenen Theorie der Fotografie beschäftigen. In meinem Beitrag Hilfe! Mein Foto rauscht! habe ich mit der übertriebenen Angstmacherei rund um Bildrauschen und Pixelpeepen aufgeräumt. Aber gehen wir doch gemeinsam einen Schritt weiter und betrachten wir das Thema Bildrauschen im Detail.
Definition “Rauschen”
Unter Rauschen versteht man eine Verschlechterung der Bildqualität bei digital aufgenommenen Bildern. Oftmals handelt es sich um Störungen, welche Bildinformationen in Farbe und Helligkeit verändern, oder Bildinformationen gänzlich entfernen. Je höher der Anteil an nicht vorhandenen oder veränderten Bildinformationen im Gesamtbild, umso höher ist das Bildrauschen.
Einflüsse auf das Bildrauschen
Es gibt unterschiedliche Arten von Rauschen, die auch unterschiedliche Ursachen haben. Bei elektronischen Rauschen entsteht großteils Dunkelrauschen. Dieses tritt ohne Beteiligung von Licht auf. Dafür verantwortlich ist Dunkelstrom. Darunter versteht man die spontane Entstehung von geladenen Teilchen durch Wärme in lichtempfindlichen Halbleitern. Zu beachten ist, dass sich das Dunkelrauschen von Pixel zu Pixel unterscheidet.
Allerdings gibt es auch Rauschen, das von der aufgenommenen Lichtmenge abhängt. Das sogenannte Photonenrauschen entsteht durch die zufällige Verteilung der Anzahl der Photonen, die auf einem Pixel auftreffen und durch zufällige Schwankungen der Lichtempfindlichkeit der einzelnen Pixel.
Einen großen Einfluss auf das Bildrauschen hat die Qualität der Kamera. Zum Tragen kommen hier sowohl die Pixeldichte/-größe, sowie die analoge Signalverarbeitung und die Wandlung von analogen auf digitale Signale.
Warum ist die Pixelgröße wichtig? Je größer nun der einzelne Pixel ist, umso mehr Licht kann er aufnehmen. Die Sensorgröße allein bestimmt allerdings noch nicht die Pixelgröße. Erst gemeinsam mit der Auflösung ergibt sich die Größe eines einzelnen Pixels.
Auflösung Sensorgröße Pixelgröße 100 MP Medium Format 4,6 Mikrometer 50 MP Medium Format 5,3 Mikrometer 50 MP KB 4,1 Mikrometer 36 MP KB 4,9 Mikrometer 24 MP APS-C 3,9 Mikrometer 20 MP KB 6,56 Mikrometer 20 MP APS-C 4,3 Mikrometer 20 MP MFT 3,3 Mikrometer 16 MP APS-C 4,7 Mikrometer 16 MP MFT 3, 75 Mikrometer
Mit Blick auf die obige Tabelle lässt sich schnell erkennen, dass die Pixel bei einem Kleinbild-Sensor (“Vollformat”) doppelt so groß wie bei einem Micro-Four-Thirds-Sensor sind. Dementsprechend kann jeder einzelne Pixel in der gleichen Zeit die doppelte Menge Licht aufnehmen.
Ich empfehle einen Blick in den Artikel Complete Guide To Image Sensor Pixel Size, wer noch tiefer in die Materie eintauchen möchte.
Natürlich spielt auch der Sensor-Typ eine Rolle. So haben beispielsweise BSI-CMOS Sensoren (Back Side Illuminated) im Vergleich zu normalen CMOS-Sensoren oder CCD-Sensoren, keine Verdrahtung, wodurch mehr Platz für Pixel bleibt, welche dadurch mehr Licht erhalten.
Eine weitere wichtige Rolle spielt die Sensor-Temperatur. Je wärmer der Sensor ist, desto höher ist das Rauschen.
Schlussendlich erhöht sich Rauschen durch eine längere Belichtungszeit.
Klassifizierung des Rauschens
Beim Farbrauschen verteilen sich viele bunte Pixel auf dunklen, gleichmäßigen Flächen. Das Luminanzrauschen stellt den farbneutralen Anteil des Rauschens dar. Erkennbar wird es, wenn eine Umwandlung in Graustufen erfolgt. Dabei sind hellere oder dunklere Bildpunkte in Flächen gleicher Helligkeit sichtbar.
Rauschen reduzieren
Das oben beschriebene Dunkelrauschen lässt sich mit Hilfe eines Dunkelbildes (Darkframe) entfernen. Dabei wird ein Foto mit abgedecktem Sensor bei gleicher Belichtungszeit und Betriebstemperatur wie das RAW-Foto aufgenommen. Das darauf erkennbare Bildrauschen durch Dunkelstrom kann mit diesen Informationen aus dem RAW-Foto herausgerechnet werden. Hauptsächlich wird dies bei Langzeitaufnahmen durchgeführt und wird von vielen Kameras angeboten (“Rauschreduzierung bei Langzeitbelichtung”).
Farbrauschen und Luminanzrauschen können hingegen mit gängigen RAW-Konvertern verringert werden.
Eine weitere Möglichkeit sind Mehrfachbelichtungen und dem anschließenden verrechnen. Damit kann eine wesentliche Verbesserung herbeigeführt werden.
Zum Thema Rauschreduzierung folgt ein weiterer Artikel, der die Möglichkeiten und Umsetzung detailliert erklärt. Dran bleiben lohnt sich also 🙂
Sichtbeispiel
Nachfolgend siehst du eine 300%-Vergrößerung einer ISO-Reihe (in der Vergößerung stehen auch die entsprechenden ISO-Werte):
Sehen wir uns nun im Vergleich dazu dieselben Fotos mit einer Auflösung von 1600×1067 an:
Hier ist schön zu sehen, dass bei übermäßiger Vergrößerung bei ISO 12800 sehr viele Details fehlen, in einer gerade auch für soziale Medien üblichen Größe fällt dies bei weitem nicht mehr in diesem Ausmaße ins Gewicht.
In diesem Sinne: Gut Licht und hab keine Angst vor Bildrauschen. | {
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"Clearly this is an effort by the president to try to distract attention from our hearings today and tomorrow," @MarkWarner says. pic.twitter.com/AMAB5muM7C
In an appearance Wednesday on “CBS This Morning,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) accused President Donald Trump of attempting to distract from the upcoming Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that will include testimony from former FBI Director James Comey by nominating Christopher Wray as his choice to be the next director of the FBI.
Despite having said Wray had a good reputation, Warner still maintained there was the possibility of wrongdoing that deserved focus.
“[B]ut clearly this is an effort by the president to try to distract attention from our hearings today and our hearings tomorrow,” Warner said. “I think we’re going to see some pretty interesting things this morning. Because not only do we have reports that the president tried to intervene with FBI Director Comey and ask him to back off the investigation of General [Michael] Flynn, which would be totally inappropriate, but we also have reports that he also asked the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and the head of the NSA Adm. Mike Rogers to also back off or try to downplay the FBI investigation into Mr. Trump and his affiliates.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor | {
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Nepal devotees sacrifice thousands of animals in Hindu ritual
KATHMANDU: Over 5,000 buffaloes have been slaughtered in a mass animal sacrifice festival in Nepal, believed to be the world's largest such ritual, despite efforts by animal rights activists to end the "barbaric" practice.Tens of thousands of devotees, including from India, flocked to the festival, which is held every five years at the Gadhimai temple at Bariyarpur village in Bara district of southern Nepal.Worshippers believe the animal sacrifice, meant to appease Hindu goddess Gadhimai, brings them luck and prosperity.5,000 buffaloes were slaughtered by some 400 slaughterers on Friday, the first day of animal sacrifice, according to police.Thousands of goats, pigs and chickens will also be sacrificed before the festival ends on Saturday.Organisers and the authorities defend the festival as a generations-old tradition, though animal rights activists decry it as barbaric.However, in a sign that the campaign to end the practice may have had some impact, the number of buffaloes killed dropped to about 5,000, half the number slaughtered when the festival was last held five years ago.India's Supreme Court had recently ordered the government to stop the export of cattle to Nepal during the Gadhimai festival.The organising committee of the festival has banned journalists and photographers from taking pictures of slaughtering.Meanwhile, a one-year-old child and an elderly woman from Bihar in India died during the festival on Friday.The child died of cold while the 65-year-old woman died after she was trapped in a huge crowd. | {
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The priest who ignited controversy last week by burning an LGBTQ-friendly flag on church grounds against the orders of Cardinal Blase Cupich has been removed from his Avondale parish.
Cupich sent two of his top deputies to Resurrection Catholic Church on Friday to notify the Rev. Paul Kalchik that he was being removed as pastor, according to two sources close to the priest.
In a letter to parishioners and staff released Saturday evening by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cupich wrote that he has “become increasingly concerned about a number of issues at Resurrection Parish.
“It has become clear to me that Fr. Kalchik must take time away from the parish to receive pastoral support so his needs can be assessed,” Cupich wrote.
Kalchik could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to the sources, Kalchik and his elderly parents have received death threats since he defied Cupich on Sept. 14 by burning the banner, which featured a cross superimposed over a rainbow. There also have been threats of vandalism to the church, the sources said.
Kalchik told the Sun-Times during an interview in his office on Tuesday that at least one person had forced their way into the church at 3043 N. Francisco Ave. last weekend, leaving a door open but not causing any damage.
MORE: Pfleger hot under the collar over burning of gay-friendly flag
The 56-year-old priest first announced in a Sept. 2 church bulletin that he planned to burn the flag, after he found it in storage where it apparently sat for more than a decade.
Cupich, who has shared Pope Francis’ more welcoming attitude toward gays in the church, told Kalchik not to burn the flag, but the priest said he did it anyway “in a quiet way” during a closed ceremony with seven parishioners, featuring a prayer of exorcism over the torched banner.
The flag-burning drew the ire of LGBTQ-equality activists, including Ald. Deb Mell (33rd), who led a small demonstration across the street from the church on Wednesday, calling on Pope Francis and Cupich “to send this hateful bigot packing.”
Kalchik — who has said he was sexually abused by a neighbor as a child, and again by a priest when he began working for the church at 19 — previously said the sex-abuse crisis plaguing the church is “definitely a gay thing.”
“What have we done wrong other than destroy a piece of propaganda that was used to put out a message other than what the church is about?” Kalchik said Tuesday.
Archdiocese spokeswoman Anne Maselli noted that “this decision has been in motion for some time and is not directly due to the flag-burning.”
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Priest in sex-abuse probe to move away from Catholic grade school amid furor
Cupich wrote that he removed Kalchik “out of concern for Fr. Kalchik’s welfare and that of the people of Resurrection Parish.
“I have a responsibility to be supportive of our priests when they have difficulties, but I also have a duty to ensure that those who serve our faithful are fully able to minister to them in the way the Church expects,” Cupich wrote.
The Rev. James Kaczorowski, pastor of Queen of Angels Parish, was appointed administrator of Resurrection.
Read the letter Cardinal Cupich sent to Resurrection parishioners and staff on Saturday:
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Greenville, SC — The Free Thought Project has provided in-depth coverage of numerous accounts in which police officers have shot and killed dogs—sometimes those dogs were stray animals, and other times they lived at the homes where police were called. But the following story is about a family whose puppy was killed by police because it was in the yard next to the house they were searching.
Greenville County Sheriff’s Deputies were serving a search warrant at the home next to the residence of Marissa Gilliland. But instead of focusing on their targeted address, deputies entered Gilliland’s yard.
According to family friend Heather-Perez Escobar, the family’s 10-month-old dog “was outside and started barking at them.” The officer who entered the yard responded by opening fire and killing the dog.
“Chico” as he is known, was hit by the first bullet. Escobar said that even though “the dog then turned around and ran towards the house,” the officer then “shot him two more times for NO REASON. This dog was on NO WAY aggressive, he was barking to protect his home.”
Showing no signs of remorse, police left the dog in Gilliland’s front yard. She witnessed the encounter and is now devastated by the cruel and inhumane treatment that led to the loss of her pet.
Gilliland told WYFF 4 News that their dog was friendly and the only thing it would have done to the deputy when it ran toward him was lick him or play “paw” with him. She said he was in no way aggressive with the officers and would never hurt anyone. Describing what happened when he was hit, Gilliland said the first shot the deputy fired broke his leg, and then the next few killed him.
The family has organized a GoFundMe page to pay for legal counsel in a lawsuit against the city, the sheriff’s department, and the officers. The fund raising page’s description reads:
“On July 24th 2017 my precious baby Chico was murdered by a Greenville County Sheriffs officer. We will not stop until we get justice for Chico. We have found legal counsel and we are trying to raise the funds necessary to have this killer fired and prosecuted as well as file a lawsuit for the wrongful death of my Chico and pain and suffering. We know this will not bring Chico back but if this will save other familes from going through this kind of pain and suffering then Chico will have some kind of justice. Greenville County needs to know that this kind of behavior is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. Thank you to all my friends and supporters. Please keep me and my family in your thoughts and prayers.”
In a statement from the Sheriff’s Office, Master Deputy Drew Pinciaro said, “It is not our intent or practice to use deadly force on animals. In this situation, the dog came at the deputy in an aggressive manner while he was serving a search warrant and that is why he shot the dog. Due to the dog being aggressive and unrestrained, that is why he used the level of force he did.”
Heartbroken and choking back tears Gilliland said, “I have never been this hurt in my life…Other people say, ‘He is just a dog,’ but he wasn’t. He was my best friend. My everything. He was family.”
She and her husband do not have any kids and she said she treated “Chico” like he was her own son. Distraught, she told reporters, “I can’t take this pain anymore…I am hurting so bad. My heart is broken.”
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Lapierre Scottish Cyclocross Series
Round Three, Fife College 22.10.17
The Kingdom Of Fife is our destination today. Load the two bikes, new power washer and pick up a nervous but very excited Gary Dougan. He’s breaking his racing virginity today and hopes that’s all he breaks today.
We arrive into a full carpark under a welcoming blue sky. Head on down to heckle the V50 as we make our way to sign on and receive our timing chips. A brief walk of the course while the V40 get ready to race the mud, shows Gary is in store for him at half-past two. Just as we leave the car for a warm-up ride along the road, the darkness rollovers and a wall of rain moves in. You couldn’t script this any better. Blue skies all the way through from Glasgow, park the car under golden sunshine and then it starts to drizzle down half an hour before our race. Gladly it’s just a passing shower, and just as the last lap bell sounds for the V40, the blue sky’s are back again.
Once the Bryan Donnelly has just finished rolling in the mud, it’s time for me to head up and settle into the start area. I pick my usual spot at the back, look around for Gary. Can’t see him anywhere, then spot his mug up within the top twenty. Good skills in sneaking up there mate. Set Garmin, clip one foot in and get ready to race.
A blast of the whistle and we are let loose. Fife College has a broad grass start area, pan flat but somewhat soft under the wheels (A Scottish record of 689 signing up to ride through this area so it’s no surprise it doesn’t stay very grassy or flat of for long.) Just as I was hitting top speed, a rider goes down, luckily there is plenty of room and doesn’t become a new hurdle for the riders on his rear wheel. Back on the power and bang! The chain drops, manage to freewheel to the barrier tape without incident. A quick scramble and the chain is in place, but where I stopped it is mud central, I have to leg it to dry land. I get to the first corner in dead last position and up to my ankles in mud. The only way is up from here I suppose.
By the second corner, I have taken a few position back, and when I hit the hurdle, I take a few more places as me and a few riders hop over the single barrier. Flying remount back into the saddle and get back to turning the single gear. The bike isn’t happy at all. The chain is skipping with every few turns of the cranks. The inevitable happens as I apply to much pressure and the chain jumps off again as I exit the singletrack and out to Burrito Boulevard. More oily/muddy fingers as I get it back on. The plan is now to nurse the bike around the course and make it to the pits in one piece.
The chain is skipping and clicking as I ride past HTCC Encouragement Corner. Then a few more gingerly passes around the grass turns and straights. Ride out onto the tarmac home straight, most riders can get some speed up, not me, as this bike is slowly breaking under me. Cross over the timing mat for lap one. Next to come is the run-up, get to the end of the tarmac swing off the bike and run the hill. With my bike firmly placed on my shoulder, I start to run through the mud aiming for the pits. There is no hope in hell I could ride through this slop to the pits with very limited power.
Dump the Cross bike and Lift the MTB in a race daze. Just as I am about to leave Gary comes running in. He has just punctured and was hoping to lift my pit bike. Unfortunately, I beat him to it. Tell him to grab my Felt, let him know he will have to nurse it through the race, as the chain is jumping like a kangaroo and dropping off. He’s back racing again, not for long though! His race brain takes over, as he tries to overtake me on the soft grass, he whacks too much pressure through pedals and snap, crack, and some weird noise! My mech hanger is snapped! Can you guess the bike mechanic who is now fixing my bike?
A DNF for Dougan. I feel bad as I carried on and he couldn’t complete his first race. That feeling lasted for all of three seconds, as I remember I have now gained another place. Silver linings and all that.
Complete a full lap without incident, Hated the stone and rocky barrier switchback turns after the pit, just because I am crap at turning but also seemed to get caught by the lead riders here on a lot of laps, so slowed down to give the fast boys extra room. Ramp up the speed and back onto the slush of the start area, power down the left side as close to the outer fenceline as I could get. There is still some grass here that offers up some decent grip. Turn and hug the course tape riding as much of the mud as possible heading for the notorious “Clay Corner” half a foot of mud awaits to steal your shoes if you haven’t strapped them up to the max. Off the bike and plod through the sticky mud until I find the harder ground of the off camber section, back in the saddle and shoot down the road and turn into the big field and ride along and eye up the lonely barrier.
I am getting into a rhythm now, only a few laps to go. I feel can get some decent speed through the straights of Burrito Boulevard. Then comes the joy of trying to ride Encouragement corner but could never master it, so I resort to running it the last few times and save some face. Into the last lap, my energy levels are at an all time low and the last lap bell is a joy to hear. Get into the last singletrack section, I try and chase down the riders in the distance as my little lads and Victoria shout some much-needed encouragement. Ride into the last segment of the Boulevard turns and crack! Chain drop! I can’t believe this! Try to get it back into place but its jammed tight. Out of options and out of time, lift the bike and run for the line.
Cross the line with a second broken bike and finish in 71st place.
After gathering my breath I annalise my broken bikes, Cross bike has snapped mech hanger, but also a new chain tensioner might be on the fix list. The Dirty Harry MTB has lost all the inner chainring bolts, wedging the chain in between the chainrings. How that has happened, I haven’t a clue? Just as strange as a pedal being unscrewed by the course tape! Monsters are at work in Fife College.
Thanks to Paul Davies and Dunfermline CC for hosting round three.
Thanks to all photographers for their images I have used in this blog. | {
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TORONTO -- The TTC is shutting a portion of Line 1 this weekend for scheduled track work.
On Saturday and Sunday, there will be no service between Sheppard-Yonge and Eglinton stations.
The TTC says shuttle buses will be running along Yonge Street and TTC staff will be at stations directing customers.
“In addition to the shuttles, the 97 Yonge bus and the University side of Line 1 will be available as alternatives during the closure,” the TTC said.
Stations will stay open for fare sales and access to surface routes.
The Old York Mills Road entrance at York Mills Station will be closed along with the automatic entrances at Ranleigh Ave. and Bedford Park Ave. at Lawrence Station. | {
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A poll shows Bernie Sanders drawing more support than Hillary Clinton for the first time in New Hampshire–and his lead is outside the poll’s margin of error.
From the Boston Herald:
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has rocketed past longtime front-runner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, a stunning turn in a race once considered a lock for the former secretary of state, a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll shows.
Sanders leads Clinton 44-37 percent among likely Democratic primary voters, the first time the heavily favored Clinton has trailed in the 2016 primary campaign, according to the poll of 442 Granite-Staters.
Vice President Joe Biden got 9 percent support in the test primary match-up. The other announced Democrats in the race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and former Virginia Gov. Jim Webb, barely register at 1 percent or below.
The live interview phone poll was conducted Aug. 7-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.
Read the rest of the story here. | {
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I always knew Santa was make-believe. My parents taught me Jesus was the reason for the season, God’s free gift to all who believe in him. They never lied to me about anything, including Santa Claus.
A few years ago, I watched a little boy after a funeral. He seemed oblivious to the conversation occurring over his head until one grownup exclaimed: “I still believed in Santa Claus then!”
Beneath them, the child’s eyes and mouth popped open. Laughter riffled the air. He searched upward for his parents. But they were laughing and never met his startled gaze.
I recalled that boy’s alarm when my husband, Phil, and I tried to tell friends that our beliefs had changed.
“What beliefs?”
“God.” Startled silence. Jaws dropped, eyes wide.
“You can’t mean that,” one said.
Phil and I were ordained ministers. I had accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was four at the altar of a revival tent in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Growing up in those woods, I talked to Jesus—not an audible conversation so much as my heart’s constant refrain of love and gratitude. When we married in 1965, I called Phil my “second best friend.”
Even after I became a feminist, I seldom questioned familiar creeds. The idea of domination no longer fit my worldview. So, I asked Jesus, “Is there a name I can call you instead of Lord?”
“Sure,” came the lighthearted reply: “Call me Cramps.” I laughed at this divine nod to women’s bleeding and birth pangs. That was the sort of conversation God and I had: a relaxed, confident projection of my own evolving beliefs.
I could not account for other people’s beliefs about God. In 2003, when President George W. Bush grew impatient with the search for weapons of mass destruction and launched his tragic invasion of Iraq, I suspected he thought he was hearing from God, like Joshua at Jericho. He seemed to think Iraqis would eagerly lay down their arms before our triumphant Lord.
On public radio, I heard a teenage brother and sister describe their reasons for enlisting, beginning with their mistaken belief that Iraq had attacked us on 9/11. She was 17 and eager to leave school. He was 19, heading for boot camp. Was he afraid to die? No, he said: “I’m a Christian. So, I know where I’m going.”
Islamic fundamentalists likewise promised teen recruits eternal glory of martyrdom and paradise. Allahu Akbar! God bless America! Religious slogans in these contexts made me sick.
Bush declared that he had to invade Iraq because God wanted to set people free. I paced our empty church and told the President: “You just cut my umbilical cord to Christianity.”
I had no idea what that meant. If President Bush was like a midwife, cutting my connection to those lifelong beliefs, then what new life was being born? Years later, Phil reminded me that someone else had freed us from our theological assumptions in a far more generous and life-giving way.
In the year after Phil’s cancer diagnosis in 2005, we had begun to take comfort in the BBC documentaries of Sir David Attenborough, who thrilled us with the wonders of nature and never mentioned God. We snuggled in bed and watched the lumbering scholar describe the marvels of planet Earth. His diction remained precise whether he knelt in mud or dangled from a giant redwood. His self-deprecating humor and matter-of-fact summaries of evolution soothed us. Breathtaking photography of animals and plants on far-flung continents filled us with awe.
Phil and I felt no crisis of faith when we told each other we no longer believed in a supernatural being. The bad midwife had freed us from magical thinking of religious ideologues. The good midwife had welcomed us into a vibrant world of natural wonder that had been here all along.
I think God happens between people
Aerialist Nik Wallenda balanced himself differently above this world of natural wonder. When he crossed the Grand Canyon in 2013, he walked one-quarter-mile on a half-inch cable 1500 feet in the air with no safety net. “Thank you, Jesus,” he said, his words recorded. “Lord, help this cable to calm down. I command it in your name. Praise you, praise you, Jesus.”
I grew up talking to Jesus like that. Nik grew up walking on high wires since he was two like his mother, father, and extended family. Despite his strong belief, I knew Nik could not walk on water across the Colorado River. He would sink like a stone. Faith often works when you believe, but gravity always works, whether or not you believe.
When Phil and I told each other our thinking about God had changed, we felt a sense of relief. But when we tried to tell others, they gasped. No matter how gently we introduced the subject, it seemed like too much for some people we loved.
Later we understood how evolution had changed us in imperceptible increments over a long stretch of time. We were like fish that crawled onto land and, over eons, evolved into air-breathing, live-bearing, warm-blooded beings without knowing how that happened.
During millions more years, some returned to the sea, where legs morphed into flippers instead of fins. They became dolphins, whales, and manatees. But they remained warm-blooded and still breathed air. Their tails lay horizontally and moved up and down, the way legs had propelled their ancestors on land. They would never again be fish. Never again hold their tail fins vertically and swish them side-to-side. The change was irreversible.
We had become secular Christians. Though deeply rooted in Christianity, Phil and I discovered that our growing edge was secular, not bound by old familiar creeds. We still value our kinship with many Christians, but we no longer believe that a self-aware supernatural being sent his only begotten son to die for us. We no longer believe a blood sacrifice will bring us everlasting life.
That gospel message saved my paternal grandfather around 1898. His own father succumbed to alcoholism and abandoned the family, leaving his teenage son to suffer a nervous breakdown. I still have the tract that brought my grandfather hope and healing. The same hope became a refuge for my mother at the age of five, because her mother had taught her how to talk to Jesus before she died, in 1914, giving birth to her fourth baby.
Neuroscience shows how our brains feed on messages of hope. Today, opioid addicts achieve sobriety with help from a Higher Power. Those liberating beliefs can atrophy into walls that separate people. Or they can evolve into bridges that connect them. Months into our marriage, Phil stretched my fundamentalism when he said: “I think God happens between people.”
Atheists can sound as smug and superior as fundamentalists. Creeds—or their adamant absence—can turn to concrete, crush our humanity, and sink this lifeboat we all share.
As much as Phil and I wish we could be together forever, we accept the scientific evidence. We belong to a species that dies. When our brain cells disintegrate, our unique identities will disappear.
This truth makes our fleeting lives on planet Earth more precious than ever. | {
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You have spent too much time waiting for Mr Right to come by and sweep you off your feet! Time is ticking away and all you wish to do is settle down and start a new chapter in life. So after giving in to your parents’ demands, you finally decide to opt for an arranged marriage. In a country like India, where this kind of marriage is more like a norm by societal standards, it is not surprising to see today’s men and women giving it a shot. Though it has both pros and cons, here’s is the plus side of an arranged marriage! | {
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A review of documents seized from U.S. President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen has so far turned up only a handful of communications between Cohen and his clients, a federal judge said in a written order on Friday.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen arrives at his hotel in New York City, U.S., June 20, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Cohen’s home and office were raided in April as part of a criminal investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors. He has not been charged with any crime.
Out of nearly 300,000 items reviewed so far, 161 are privileged and seven of them are communications between Cohen and a client containing legal advice, according to an order from U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood on Friday confirming findings by the special master. The order said most of the documents were communications between Cohen and his lawyers.
Lawyers for Cohen and Trump could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wood appointed a special master to review the documents before turning them over to prosecutors after lawyers for Cohen and Trump said they might include privileged attorney-client communications, which prosecutors are normally not allowed to see.
Prosecutors said in an April court filing that they believed Cohen was “performing little to no legal work” and that they were primarily investigating his personal business dealings.
Most of the roughly 3.7 million items seized from Cohen are still under review.
On Friday, Wood ordered Cohen’s lawyers to identify for the special master, former federal judge Barbara Jones, by June 27 any remaining items they believe are privileged.
The probe into Cohen’s dealings stems in part from a referral by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Trump has denied that there was any collusion, and Russia has denied meddling in the election. | {
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New high-resolution still of Gandalf and Thranduil from The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
at 4:36 pm by - July 22, 20144:36 pm by Demosthenes
So, it seems that we’re going to be drip-fed a photo a day until the San Diego Comic-Con Hall H presentation.
Today, it’s one of Gandalf meeting Thranduil in what seems to be a wintry and ruined Dale. Those following the Gandagast staff kerfuffle will note that Gandy has his old staff in this one. The one he lost in Dol Guldur just recently.
To me, that suggests either, this is a flashback to some past event, or that a bunch of folks really forgot about continuity. Or that they’re just messing with us.
I’ll leave it to you to decide which theory you prefer — or suggest your own below that makes sense of the conflicting evidence!
UPDATE: we now have a high-resolution still courtesy of our friends over at El Anillo Único.
Aforesaid photo comes with a few words from Philippa Boyens, who says:
“People tend to forget what happens at the end of The Hobbit,” says screenwriter/producer Philippa Boyens. “They think of this little children’s book. The rest of the story needs to be told, and it’s pretty intense stuff.”
Thanks to everyone who wrote in to let us know about this one!
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SCOTLAND’S FIRST MINISTER has said that its regional parliament may be able to stop Britain’s exit from the European Union.
In an interview with the BBC, Nicola Sturgeon has argued that Holyrood may still hold veto power over the vote.
Speaking to BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme, Sturgeon said that it was her belief that the Scottish Parliament would have to provide legislative consent for the referendum to be enacted.
“Looking at it from a logical perspective I find it hard to believe that there wouldn’t be that requirement,” she said.
I expect the UK government would take a very different view on that and we’ll have to see where that discussion ends up.
She was then asked by host Gordon Brewer whether this would mean Holyrood voting against the result, even at the risk of infuriating voters in the rest of the UK who voted to leave.
Sturgeon said that this fury would be, “similar to the fury of many people in Scotland right now as we face the prospect of being taken out of the European Union against our will”.
In the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s vote Sturgeon called for a second referendum on Scottish independence.
Scotland voted by 62% to 38% to remain in the EU, joining London and Northern Ireland as the three regions of the UK who voted to remain in. | {
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KIEV, Ukraine—Momentum gathered in the West to censure Russia and shore up Ukraine's moribund economy, as the International Monetary Fund readied as much as $18 billion in rescue loans to help avert a financial collapse.
The IMF agreement—which calls for what Ukrainian officials described as painful budget cuts and other measures that will strain the country's fragile economy—will unlock additional aid from other donors. IMF official Nikolay Gueorguiev told a news conference at Ukraine's central bank in Kiev on Thursday. In... | {
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Posts reporting a fire near Tiananmen Square this afternoon are emerging and being quickly deleted off of Weibo, with users speculating that the flames are the result of a self-immolation incident
These photos were posted to Weibo by user @Jing_oppa, who wrote that the images appear to show a car on fire with a person still inside (h/t @hancocktom).
Another user posted this photo of the flame’s smoke rising from the distance.
The last self-immolation incident at Tiananmen Square took place in 2011 but went unreported by Chinese media.
Fire extinguishers are routinely dotted around Tiananmen Sq in case of self-immolations. Took this last month: pic.twitter.com/IQxtpRHaSS — Mark Stone (@Stone_SkyNews) October 28, 2013
Update (2:00 pm):
Reuters has reported that the area of the fire is being evacuated, but still no details about the source have been confirmed.
The Communist Party’s official People’s Daily said on its website that a car had caught fire. Xinhua news agency, in a brief dispatch in English said that “a motor vehicle went into the crowd”.
Neither gave details.
Beijing police, reached by telephone, said they had no information. The Beijing government, also reached by telephone, said it did not know what had happened.
The Reuters witness said he saw fire engines, an ambulance and numerous police cars heading in the direction of the fire, which sent a plume of black smoke into the sky. The main road through the square was closed.
A foreign tourist near the scene who asked not to be identified told the report that she heard an explosion followed by a fire.
Update (2:13 pm):
Xinhua News Agency is now reporting that it was a jeep which crashed into railings, and all three passengers (including the driver) are now confirmed dead. Multiple bystanders were also injured. Police were able to extinguish the fire immediately.
A driver, 2 passengers confirmed dead after a jeep went into crowd and caught fire in front of Tian'anmen Rostrum Beijing Monday noon — Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) October 28, 2013
Update (4:01 pm):
From the Daily Telegraph’s Beijing correspondent Malcolm Moore:
Just did a drive-by, police swat teams lining the scene, one officer every ten feet below Mao's portrait. — malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore) October 28, 2013
BJ govn't says six ambulances were sent to Tiananmen Sq after the jeep crash — malcolmmoore (@MalcolmMoore) October 28, 2013
Update (7:00 pm):
Xinhua updates death toll to five, 38 others injured.
Five people died and 38 were injured after a jeep crashed into crowds and caught fire outside Tian'anmen rostrum in Beijing on Monday. — Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) October 28, 2013
Update (8:01 pm):
Details of foreign casualties just in from SouthCN.com: 1 female Filipino tourist dead, another 3 Filipino tourists (2 female, 1 male) injured, 1 male Japanese tourist injured. All other casualties from the current toll (5 dead, 38 injured) Chinese nationals.
Update (9:11 pm):
Watch this report from CCTV International:
Update (23:58 pm):
Raw video from AFP shortly after the car crash:
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As we bring 2016 to a close, Esquire.com looks back at the films, albums, and television shows that have shaped our year and will have a lasting influence on the culture at large. Read the complete series of essays here.
In May, I flew to Australia for a festival tour. My time in Sydney was glamorous, if you're into books. The festival, which was set on the dramatically beautiful waterfront, was packed, and the weather was crisp and sunny. Melbourne, on the other hand, was more intense: It rained, I had exhausting back-to-back appearances, and people had lots of questions. I gave a speech one night about Donald Trump—then just the recent presumptive Republican nominee—and everyone in the audience laughed and laughed, but I wasn't trying to be funny. The next day I had a conversation with one festival affiliate who said, urgently, "It's extremely important Clinton win because it will send a signal to the rest of the world." Signal sent, I guess.
I never recovered from the jet lag the entire time I was there; after seven appearances in nine days, I was spent. I checked into an enormous, drafty, damp airbnb in the Northcote neighborhood, where I was delighted to learn Netflix worked internationally. I channeled Patti Smith in M Train, specifically the chapter where she locks herself in a hotel room in London, shuts out the city, and consumes British crime procedurals for several days. There is safety in binge-watching. I dragged in a space heater from another room and got under the covers. It was the week Lady Dynamite premiered, and lucky me: it was one of the most inventive and exhilarating comedies of 2016.
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Briefly, the show is a loosely autobiographical sitcom about Maria Bamford and her life as a comedian and actress in Los Angeles, surrounded by her bitchy friends, her sycophantic agent, and her two loyal pugs, one of whom talks in the voice of Werner Herzog. She's bi-polar, had a recent breakdown, and is now struggling to recover her sense of self and her career. The show has a complicated structure—we see her in her way past in Los Angeles, when her career is on the rise and she's in the throes of mania; a more recent past in Duluth, Minnesota, where she is recovering from her breakdown; and the present day—her life with her friends and her pugs and lots of terrible dates and acting jobs.
Hijinks are myriad, and weird. She shows up at the wrong audition, and ends up trying out to be a young, black male character on Empire. She trains her dog to competitively herd sheep. She lies on her OK Cupid profile about enjoying outdoor activities and is forced to action-date. "I don't know what I'm doing, more than half of the time," sings Dean Martin at each episode's close.
Lady Dynamite is wickedly funny and brutally frank and also cotton-candy colored in its aesthetic—bright, and loud, and bold.
If Lady Dynamite sounds chockfull of action, it is. Plot points are sometimes not resolved within an episode, but it doesn't affect the pleasure of the story. (The pilot tells us Sugar Ray singer Mark McGrath hates her, but we have to wait all the way until Episode 13 to find out why, making us actually care for the first time in our lives about what happened to Mark McGrath.) The push and pull of the boundaries and the shifting timelines is incredibly clever and makes it all the more fun. Lady Dynamite is wickedly funny and brutally frank and also cotton-candy colored in its aesthetic—bright, and loud, and bold.
Netflix
I adored the characters, in particular Maria's two best friends, Dagmar (Bridget Everett) and Larissa (Lennon Parham), both of whom hate each other. In many of their scenes together, they sit in a cafe and talk shit about basically everyone and each other. They are bawdy and crass and like to discuss fucking, and they're Maria's support network, for better or worse, even when they're being total bitches. What a relief it is when characters are allowed to be flawed.
What a relief it is when characters are allowed to be flawed.
I also loved the frank focus on mental illness, self-care, and recovery, with different plotlines dealing with Maria's people-pleasing and boundary issues. One episode Maria learns to accept herself while in the midst of filming a herpes commercial, a brutal-looking fake sore applied to her lip. "Oh my god, she gets better," I thought while I was watching the series. "There's hope for all of us."
After watching Episode Eight, "A Vaginismus Miracle," in which Maria races around town to see if she can find someone to sleep with before her vagina closes up because it's been so long since she's had sex (the realest), it occurred to me my body had collapsed. In fact, I was sick as a dog. Soup, I thought. If I could just have soup.
Netflix
I dragged my sorry ass down the street through the gloomy weather to an Indonesian restaurant called Yuni's Kitchen. "I'm sick," I told him. I must have looked pathetic: baggy-eyed, pale, and drowned. He steered me towards a big bowl of Laksa, a spicy curry soup, with noodles and cabbage and bean sprouts. I dug into it and I could feel it in my cheeks, and nose, and eyes, and soul. It was one of the greatest fucking bowls of soup I have ever eaten. I asked for a carry-out container for the leftovers, and the man behind the counter, gentle as could be, filled up the container to the top with extra broth, and I thought: I am not alone after all.
Back to Maria: she falls in love with the man she has sex with in a closet on Vaginismus Day, and spends the rest of the season trying to talk herself out of that love. I reheated the soup for the last episode, and ate it in bed, as rain fell all around me in Melbourne. There is a happy ending, a beautiful speech about loving yourself, with pugs as a metaphor for self-acceptance. I did not cry. Rather, I licked my lips, deeply satisfied by the meal Maria Bamford fed me.
If I had checked the news at that exact moment, I would have been disheartened. The rallies, the trolls, the dramatic dissent in all directions. What I know now to be the beginning of the end. Instead I allowed myself to take comfort in someone else's artistic creation, offered to me so graciously. Art and soup and each other: These are some of the things we have in life.
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Smart phones have taken over the mobile phone industry. This is mainly because of the ease of communication and the various ways of doing so like calls, messages and emails. Smart phones also offer other services in the form of applications. Applications such as maps give the user directions on how to get somewhere. Social media applications have made it easier to reach a multitude of people in real time. Smart phones run with help from operating systems. Android and iOS are just two examples of OS.Android was developed in 2003 by Android Inc. which was later bought by Google in 2005. The operating system has various versions, and 7.1.2 “Nougat” is the current one released in April 2017. It is written in Java, C, C++ and is similar to Unix-like. Android initial versions are named after desserts, like the “cupcake””Donut”, “Éclair” and “Kitkat”Android’s interface is largely direct manipulation, meaning it uses touch inputs like swiping from one screen to the next, reverse pinching when zooming in, pinching to zoom out. It has a virtual QWERTY keyboard that makes it easier to type. With this OS, a USB or Bluetooth can support physical keyboards and game consoles. A phone running on android has a home screen containing widgets, which show live updates on notifications on weather or current music playlist, and icons open the associated application. Its screen has a status bar which is swiped down to show other notifications and short cuts. Android OS is open source, meaning it is open to mgenerate applications by other developers. It can also support applications that are not a product of Google. Android has various locking options like swiping, password, pattern and pin. It also offers alternatives to what a user wants to keep unlocked for ease of access. It allows multitasking, and when an app is not in use, it is merely suspended for later use rather than closed. This assists in battery saving. When the phone memory has become full, the system offers options to “freeze” inactive applications to help in the smooth running of other apps. Android OS is available in over 100 languages.Google drives most of its attention towards the cloud; this makes it hard to connect with other devices within your range. Android is more of an application launcher; most of the apps have to be downloaded from Google App store.The iOS was created by Apple Inc and unveiled in 2007. Its latest version is iOS 10.3.3, released in 2017. It is written in C, C++, Objective-C, and Swift. It is related to other OS like Unix-like and macOS. The iOS interface is also direct manipulation but it also offers the button and switch option.One notable advantage of the iOS is its ability to connect with other devices like the iPod Touch. The OS is notable for home grown’ apps like Safari, Notes and Maps. iOS is known to be strong and secure, which is why folks buy it despite the sky high price tags.Unlike the Android OS, iOS is a closed source software; it only supports applications certified by Apple. An iOS home screen cannot be customized to the user’s preference. This may not however not be an issue to musers of the iOS. No applications can be added to the iOS phone so the user sticks to what the developers put out. On the lock screen,you have to input the pass code; it’s the only locking option. iOS does not support flash or flash applications. It is only available in 40 languages.This still remains the user’s preference. However, Android operating system beats iOS in terms of options. In Android OS, the user is not limited; the applications offered range from games, to camera enhancers and social media applications. Whatever the user requires, they have a high chance of getting in on the Google App store and is compatible to with their Android OS. However, since Android is open source, it has been criticized for flooding the market with watered down applications whose use cases are neither deep nor extensive.Proponents of the technology have in return argued that the presence of diverse apps gives users a wider field of choices.The iOS is the better option if the user has other Apple products that may work in sync with each other. It is also a great option for users who prefer their applications straight-up.iOS is notoriously hard to hack and hence more secure from malicious attacks than Android. | {
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Mbappe: The amount of money in football is obscene Ligue 1 - PSG Speaking to RTS
In an interview with Swiss television channel RTS, Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe admitted that the amount of money that modern-day footballers earn is 'obscene'.?
The World Cup winner is currently on international duty with France, ahead of their clashes with Holland and Uruguay.
"It's really obscene for me as I come from quite a modest family," he said.
"It's true that it's obscene, but that's how the market is and how the world of football works.
"I'm not going to revolutionise football.
"You have to know how to respect the system and stay in your place too."
The 19-year-old also admitted that he wants to be remembered for being his own man and doesn't wish to be a clone of any other player.
"I don't want to be a copy [of any other player]," he continued.
"Just like the most experienced [of players], you have to make your own story for yourself and not be a copy of anyone.
"I think it's natural to have high self-esteem.
"I keep a childish side, being a little immature is not bad, there is so much pressure in football that happiness and having a bit of fun can help a little."
The former Monaco star finished by speaking about his positive relationship with French president Emmanuel Macron.
"He was really respectful and charming with us," he explained.
"He's a great man. I didn't get nervous when I entered the Elysee Palace.
"I never get nervous.
"I never get scared.
"I have a dream life and when you have that, you don't get scared." | {
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TORONTO -- The City of Toronto is poised to ensure homeless women and girls have greater access to feminine hygiene products.
The city council's executive committee voted on Monday to boost this year's shelter, support and housing administration budget by more than $222,000.
The money will be used to buy menstrual products and dispensers for city-run homeless shelters, drop-in and respite centres, as well as some neighbourhood community centres.
The funding will become official if city council approves the new budget at a meeting scheduled for Thursday.
Kristyn Wong-Tam, a city councillor leading the call for designated funding for menstrual products, says she's proud to see the city follow through.
She says the move is an important step to ensure equity for low-income women and girls.
"Menstrual equity is an important part of a larger goal -- to bring a gender equity lens to governmental budget processes," she said in a statement released on Twitter. "We must analyze and address the hidden financial inequities that are causing women and their families to be left behind."
Developments in Toronto come a week after a British Columbia school board opted to make feminine hygiene products available for free in school washrooms.
Starting in September, tampons and pads will be available in women's and universal washrooms in elementary, middle and high schools operated by the New Westminster School Board.
Douglas College professor Selina Tribe proposed the motion, which received unanimous support last Tuesday.
Tribe described the issue as one of equality noting access to tampons and pads "is as essential as toilet paper for a normal bodily function that affects half the population."
The cost of installing the free dispensers is estimated at $10,000, while district staff said stocking them will cost about $7000 annually. Tribe has pegged the overall cost at less than $1 per student by the second year of the program.
B.C.'s health minister has said the government will observe the results of the program in New Westminster before deciding whether to heed calls to roll out a similar initiative province-wide. | {
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Sports 9 hours ago Stephen Jones not "making excuses" but says Cowboys didn't have enough time to work on new defense Sports 9 hours ago | {
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It was ten days ago when on the heels of Russia's 30-minute detailed presentation of what it believes happened to MH-17, the US government released a satellite trajectory map of what it says was the flight's path and the site from which the missile was shot as well as various other satellite images "proving" the missile that took down the Boeing 777 was fired by the pro-Russian separatists. Yesterday the Russian defense ministry finally responded to the US release stating that the "satellite images Kiev published as ‘proof’ it didn’t deploy anti-aircraft batteries around the MH17 crash site carry altered time-stamps and are from days after the MH17 tragedy." In other words, the evidence the US has present to form public opinion was in the form of "altered images carrying wrong time-stamps."
The satellite image on the left was provided by the Russian Defense Ministry on 14 July, 2014. On the right is the image that Kiev claims were taken by its satellites on July 16, 2014. Image from mil.ru
RT reports that the images, which Kiev claims were taken by its satellites at the same time as those taken by Russian satellites, are neither Ukrainian nor authentic, according to Moscow's statement. The Defense Ministry said the images were apparently made by an American KeyHole reconnaissance satellite, because the two Ukrainian satellites currently in orbit, Sich-1 and Sich-2, were not positioned over the part of Ukraine’s Donetsk Region shown in the pictures. The Defense ministry further alleges weather and lighting conditions in the images were not possible at the dates and times Ukraine claims they were made, the Russian ministry said.
More:
At least one of the images published by Ukraine shows signs of being altered by an image editor, the statement added. “It’s the latest ‘masterpiece’ in the Ukrainian exercise in conspiracy theories, an attempt to divert responsibility,” the ministry said. “It can take a deserved place next to other allegations against Russia voiced by Kiev that claimed that Russia was responsible for masterminding the Maidan protest and the tragedy in Odessa.” “Apparently that’s why the real owners of those photos are hesitating to publish them under their own name, since it would derail the myth of the omniscience of their space reconnaissance,” the Russian ministry said. The ministry also criticized images published by Kiev to back its allegations that Russia smuggled heavy weapons over the border and shelled Ukrainian army positions. The images lack proper time stamps and coordinates, while Kiev didn’t bother to explain why it believes that whatever vehicles are shown in them are Russian, the statement said.
* * *
Among the photos released is the following comparison of satellite images published by Russia and Ukraine as presented by Kiev in an attempt to dispute the authenticity of Moscow’s photos. The shadows are cast in different directions in the two images, proving that they could not have been almost at the same time two days apart, as indicated by the time stamps.
The weather is also clearly different, with the Russian image showing a cloudy day, while the image presented by Kiev shows a clear day - showing that the images could not have been taken less than an hour apart, as claimed by the time stamps. The Russian military say the actual weather conditions at the time can be easily double-checked by independent sources.
In another comparison with the images used by Ukraine, it was purposely degraded in quality in order to point out some irregularities. No such irregularities are present in the original image, the Russian military said.
The complete photo series released by the Russian Ministry of Defense can be found at this link.
Furthermore, as we reported last week, the propaganda war is not only about "who shot MH17?" but just how far the US is portraying Russia as escalating in order to frame its own escalation as an appropriate and measured response. It is here that ?Moscow again retaliated to Washington after releasing an incendiary statement, accusing the US of spinning and distorting facts to allege that Russia is testing a new cruise missile, banned by a landmark Cold War treaty. RT reports on the statement by the Russian foreign ministry:
“Once again the US is trying (and again rather clumsily) to act as a mentor, for some reason pretending to possesses the truth in the last instance and have the right to judge others. Claims are made with little to no evidence and based on warped logic, in other words presented not with further experts’ analyses in mind.”
“The purpose seems to be to create a wall of information noise to incite other countries, and to boil up a propagandist brew for the media. Or does the US administration still sincerely deceive itself that the world can take Washington’s word?”
The US report never specified how exactly Russia violated the treaty, instead offering a vague finding that: “The United States has determined that the Russian Federation is in violation of its obligations under the INF Treaty not to possess, produce, or flight-test a ground-launched cruise missile (GLCM) with a range capability of 500 km to 5,500 km, or to possess or produce launchers of such missiles.”
This would be a direct violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1987, which banned missiles that could carry nuclear warheads in the range of 500-5,500 km. The White House described the supposed transgression as a “very serious matter” of which it has been aware since 2008, again not naming the suspect.
The media in the meantime were quick to allege the missile in question was the R-500 cruise missile with an officially stated range of 500km, which some believe can be easily modified for greater ranges.
Russia previously issued a brief response to the allegations that was dismissive, but called for further dialogue. The latest diatribe, however, makes no attempt to seek common ground, and takes pot shots at the entirety of the US approach to international treaties – repeatedly accusing Washington of duplicity and bad faith.
“American officials cite classified intelligence, when questioned about their findings. The value of such intelligence has been amply proven by the ‘Iraqi weapons of mass destruction’ myth. Such undercover research becomes even less trustworthy, with regular leaks of obviously untrue and provocative pieces of information about the conflict in eastern Ukraine, while data coming from sources beyond US control gets ignored. Years pass, but the Americans have learned nothing.”
Of course, it wouldn't be tried and true game theory retaliation without re-escalation which is precisely what Russia did when it said it exposed US hypocrisy, who themselves are developing “target practice missiles” similar to missiles in question, as well as drones, which violate the spirit of the INF Treaty.
The American report claims that “all US activities during the reporting period were consistent with the obligations set forth in the INF Treaty. Russia did not raise any new INF Treaty compliance issues during the reporting period.”
The full statement can be read here.
And while at this point Russia is correct that the "wall of information noise" has hit a level that will make any factual findings over either the events surrounding the downing of MH17 impossible, what is also quite clear is that as we forecast two weeks ago, the propaganda war between Russia and the US, up until now largely contained by the "Cold" adjective, has now escalated well into lukewarm status, and is resulting in both financial and trade victims, both on the Russian side as well as in the "West". One can hope that the ongoing escalation, which is a miniature, very concentrated replica of what happened with the arms build up during the cold war, does not also lead to a conventional or, worse, nuclear standoff, because in the new normal, the war is no longer over ideology (one would certainly have trouble identifying which is the more socialist country) but over reserve currency status. It is here that the US has the most to lose. | {
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Top Three - Custom forum avatars made from their submitted art.
Top Five - Signed Path of Exile Comic, Choice of Weapon Effect from the prize list.
Top Ten - Chaos Orb T-shirts, Choice of Helmet Effect from the prize list.
Top Twenty - Choice of an Armour Set from the prize list.
The new content introduced in The Fall of Oriath has inspired some of our players to create amazing artwork. We'd love to see more of your talented fan art, so we've decided to launch a fan art competition themed around The Fall of Oriath expansion. The competition will run for four weeks. The winners will receive lots of great prizes including microtransactions, signed Path of Exile comics and Chaos Orb T-shirts . The top three winners will be rewarded with the opportunity to have their fan art as a custom forum avatar!This means that the top three winners would receive the custom forum avatar, a signed Path of Exile comic, the Chaos Orb T-shirt and choice of weapon effect, helmet effect and armour set. The 6th place would receive the Chaos Orb T-shirt, a choice of helmet effect and an armour set, and 11th place would receive a choice of an armour set.Players who win a Weapon Effect will be able to choose from the following list:Players who win a Helmet Effect will be able to choose from the following list:Players who win an Armour Set will be able to choose from the following list:Create still art that is inspired by anything introduced in The Fall of Oriath update. This excludes video submissions but does include any painting, drawing or model creation. Then just submit your work in this thread.Multiple submissions are welcome and encouraged. Please note that the submission needs to be your own work and needs to have been created after the launch of the competition.The competition starts at the time of this post and will end on Tuesday the 17th of October (NZT). We'll announce the winners sometime in the following days.Best of luck to everyone! We can't wait to see what you create. | {
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WASHINGTON — City lawmakers in Washington have voted to legalize sports betting, making the nation's capital the first U.S. jurisdiction without casinos to authorize sports books.
The D.C. Council voted 11-2 on Tuesday to authorize betting on professional sports at the city's stadiums and arenas, private businesses like restaurants and liquor stores, and within the city limits on a mobile app.
Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser supports the bill, which needs her signature to become law. It would also need to survive a review by Congress, but with Democrats taking over the House in January, the law from the Democratic-dominated city is almost certainly safe. Supporters hope bets could be taken in the city within months, although there is no firm timetable.
In May, the Supreme Court struck down a law that banned sports betting in most U.S. states. Since then, several states have authorized betting on sports. The closest place to Washington with legal sports betting is a casino in Charles Town, West Virginia. Sports gambling is also legal in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Because Washington lacks casinos, the D.C. Lottery would oversee sports betting, an arrangement that makes the nation's capital an outlier. Athens, Greece-based Intralot is the city's current lottery vendor. The lottery would sell licenses to sports books at arenas and stadiums for $250,000 over five years, and retailers would be able to purchase a two-year license for $5,000. There is no cap on the number of licenses.
Casino industry groups had a measured reaction to the bill's passage, saying that handing over control of sports gambling to the lottery could stifle competition.
"While the vote today is progress, we remain deeply concerned about giving the lottery a virtual monopoly in the mobile market," Sara Slane, a vice president at the American Gaming Association, said in a statement. "Predictably, this will result in less investment and innovation, to the detriment of consumers and the ability of a nascent legal marketplace to compete with the accessibility and convenience offered by many established illegal wagering operations."
Operators would be taxed at 10 percent of revenue, and city officials have estimated that legal sports gambling will bring in $92 million over four years. Critics said that figure was overly optimistic, particularly if neighboring Maryland, which has several casinos including the massive MGM National Harbor just over the city line, legalizes sports betting. | {
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When police kill people, they rarely face charges — and when they do, it can take weeks or even months for those charges to come down.
But in Prince George’s County, Maryland, that wasn’t the case. On Tuesday evening, police Cpl. Michael Owen was taken into custody and charged with murder — less than 24 hours after he shot and killed William Green, a 49-year-old black man who was handcuffed inside a police cruiser.
“What happened last night is a crime,” said Police Chief Henry Stawinski. “There are no circumstances under which this outcome is acceptable.”
Prosecutions and convictions of police officers who kill civilians have increased in recent years, in part thanks to the growing ubiquity of body-worn camera footage that can help investigators determine whether a crime has been committed. But charges are still the exception, not the rule.
Police in America kill between 900 and 1,000 people every year. Since 2005, 109 non-federal law enforcement officers have been charged with murder or manslaughter resulting from an on-duty shooting, and of those, just 41 have been convicted of a crime, according to Phil Stinson, a national expert in police misconduct who teaches criminology at Bowling Green State University.
Police officers are held to a different legal standard than civilians when they kill people, which means it’s easier for them to argue that using deadly force was justified. That alone can present a challenge to investigators who are compiling evidence to build a case against a particular officer.
“Either the facts are so bizarre that it is obvious to investigators that the shooting was likely unjustified, and/or other officers at the scene immediately report to investigators that they witnessed the incident and they did not perceive an imminent threat that would justify the use of deadly force,” Stinson said.
A police officer needs to show that they reasonably feared for their life or someone else’s when they opened fire. It’s a legal standard that takes the immediate threat into account as well as the generally dangerous nature of police work. That can leave investigators in a position where they have to pore over the tiniest details of a shooting, like where a suspect’s hands were at each second leading up to their death or how they were standing.
Investigators may also have to interview witnesses and other officers, which pose even more delays because of the so-called “code of silence,” a widespread culture in police departments where officers withhold information or even lie to cover up their colleagues’ misconduct.
Although Cpl. Owen was not wearing a body camera when he shot Green, the known details of the case are particularly shocking.
Police had responded to reports of a driver ramming his car into other vehicles at around 8 p.m. on Monday night. When they arrived at the scene, they encountered Green and suspected he was intoxicated. Green was arrested, handcuffed with his arms behind his back, and strapped into a police cruiser. About 20 minutes later, Owen, who’s also black, sat down in the driver’s seat and, not long after, shot Green seven times.
Owen also already had a record. According to a local CBS affiliate, Owen shot and killed a 35-year-old man in 2011. He said he encountered the victim lying on the side of the road, and as he approached, the man pointed a gun at him, which forced him to open fire. He was also involved in a 2009 non-fatal shooting when someone tried to rob him outside his home while he was off-duty. He wasn’t charged in either instance.
Police Chief Stawinski said Tuesday that the department called in forensic scientists, use-of-force experts, and special investigators to work through the night to determine whether Owen had committed a crime by shooting Green.
The swiftness of the initial investigation could also have something to do with the sea change in policing that’s happened in recent years, according to Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“Some police chiefs will take their time, for a variety of reasons,” said Haberfeld. “Others are more progressive. Because of high-profile cases that generated public unrest, they want to be proactive and prevent public dissent that can damage police-community relations for years to come.”
Five years ago, a string of high-profile killings of black men by police officers led to the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement. Since then, activists have regularly taken to the streets to demand accountability and generate new national awareness about police brutality.
In some cases, however, an investigation into a police shooting drags on for years, and becomes an open wound on the face of police-community relations. In Chicago in 2014, for example, a white police officer shot Laquan MacDonald, an unarmed black teen, 16 times. The case took four years and eventually resulted in a murder conviction for the officer. Three of his former colleagues were charged with covering up the murder but were ultimately found not guilty.
“There’s more and more discussion among law enforcement about the importance of acting as swiftly as possible to give the appearance of accountability and transparency,” Haberfeld said. | {
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Facebook has a new patent that could help lenders decide whether to give you a loan or not. Thomson Reuters Your Facebook friends could play a part in determining your credit score one day.
On Tuesday, Facebook secured a patent that could be used to filter spam as well as improve searches. But part of the patent could also be used to help lenders determine your credit risk by looking at who is in your social network.
The patent states: “In a fourth embodiment of the invention, the service provider is a lender. When an individual applies for a loan, the lender examines the credit ratings of members of the individual's social network who are connected to the individual through authorized nodes. If the average credit rating of these members is at least a minimum credit score, the lender continues to process the loan application. Otherwise, the loan application is rejected.”
While using this data to help someone’s credit score could benefit some, like those who are just beginning to establish credit, it could also potentially weigh down those with good credit.
The patent, which was first discovered by the legal tech start-up SmartUp, was part of a bundle of patents Facebook acquired when it purchased the social network Friendster five years ago.
Even though Facebook has secured the patent, that doesn’t mean they will use it.
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act protects people from credit discrimination based on things like race, color, religion, age and marital status. For example, if you are applying for credit, a creditor may not ask you about your spouse unless they are applying with you or are going to be using the account. The federal law requires creditors to tell applicants why they have been denied, so using social data to determine someone’s risk could walk a fine line.
But some financial institutions are already using applicant’s social data to help verify their identity.
For example, Lending Club, which is a peer-to-peer lending network, uses online data for verification purposes. | {
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8/19（水）19時 台風による高波に注意 関東～九州北部は雨
配信日時：2015年8月19日 18時04分
2つの台風による影響は、波から出てきています。また、台風の北上によって雨の範囲は北へと広がりそうです。（気象予報士・岡田沙也加） | {
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Study Finds 80 Percent of Female Directors Made Only One Movie in 10 Years (Exclusive)
The latest USC research also reports that just 8.1 percent of Hollywood's helmers over the past decade were black or Asian.
Adding age to its latest study on Hollywood representation, USC Annenberg's Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative has uncovered sobering evidence that the lifespan of a female director's career is a lot shorter than that of her male counterpart's.
Analyzing the gender, race and age of the directors of the 1,000 top-grossing films from the past 10 years, the researchers found that 80 percent of the female helmers were "one and done" — that is, they made just one movie from 2007 to 2016. This percentage rose to 83.3 percent for women of color. By contrast, 54.8 percent of the men directed just one film during that span (with Asian and black male directors faring slightly worse, at 60 and 62.5 percent, respectively).
"If you're trying to feed a family or make your way in Hollywood, having one opportunity a decade is simply not going to get the job done," Dr. Katherine Pieper, who co-authored the study with Dr. Stacy L. Smith and Marc Choueiti, tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Although the average age of male and female directors was similar (46.2 and 47.4 years, respectively), the age range for each gender differed. All of the women who worked in the past 10 years were in their 30s to 60s, while eight twentysomething men and six octogenarians released at least one movie during that span, including Clint Eastwood, whose eight titles make him the second-most prolific director of the past decade. Tyler Perry is first, with 14, while the highest-ranking woman, The Proposal's Anne Fletcher, shares 24th place with 31 male directors, with four films each.
In assessing the race and gender of directors of the annual 100 highest-grossing movies, the researchers found that over the past 10 years, the share of films directed by women, black or Asian filmmakers (4, 5.1 and 3 percent, respectively) has experienced no significant statistical shift. These proportions represent movies, not individuals; Perry, for example, is singlehandedly responsible for nearly a quarter of the movies helmed by black helmers over the past decade, while James Wan, Justin Lin and Jon M. Chu held more than 40 percent of Asian directors' credits, thanks to their franchise work.
In terms of unique individuals, 27 black and 17 Asian helmers sat in the director's chair. Five were women: Ava DuVernay, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Sanaa Hamri, Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Loveleen Tandan, who was credited as "Co-director (India)" on Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire. Although the study did not evaluate ethnicity, its authors noted that Miracles From Heaven's Patricia Riggen was the only Latina director among the 1,000-film sample of the last decade.
Going forward, the USC researchers intend to continue their qualitative and quantitative examination of the entire pipeline to further pinpoint where and why women and people of color are losing opportunities to work. Although the majority of those included in this study had agency representation, "there's a breakdown in the process of getting women and people of color these top jobs," Smith says. "More inquiry needs to be conducted to find out where are they falling out, and what can be done to shore up those leaks or cracks in the consideration process."
To that end, the authors have included a number of proposed solutions tailored for various sectors of the industry, from buyers and sellers, who can set specific proportions (i.e., 30 percent female/underrepresented race) for people they consider for a job, to A-list talent, who can add "equity riders" to their contracts.
Says Smith: "It's about asking, what are all the levers that need to be pushed to open up the gates for more storytellers interested in developing their talent so that they can have opportunities over time?" | {
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The War Drums Are Beating
Last year, lots of powerful groups tried to get a war going in Syria. It seemed to me that the necessary ground work hadn’t been done and that they might not be able to pull it off. Thankfully, that’s how it happened.
And by “necessary ground work,” I’m not referring to the military operators the US government had in Syria for a year or two prior; I’m talking about making the American populace eager for a new war. That’s a crucial and often ignored factor.
What has been catching my eye the past week or so is a new series of efforts to stir up war fever in the US, and I’d like to give them some coverage. Since the mainstream ‘news’ in the US has become almost completely trivialized and neutered, I think it’s important for the rest of us to fill the gap as best we can.
First Points
Before I get to what I see as the new war propaganda, I want to point out what all the ‘respectable’ voices are ignoring:
This leaked recording (embedded in video) is from February 6 – before the deposing of the Ukrainian boss that started the current mess. In it, you’ll hear US State Department officials deciding who should be the new boss of the country, once they’ve had their way. This is clear, uncontested proof that it was the State Department who got things going in the Ukraine. Whatever we think of Putin, it must be acknowledged that these guys stirred it up.
This leaked recording (embedded in video) features an Estonian foreign minister talking to an EU official. In it, he says that the snipers who were said to be killing on Putin’s orders were actually working for the people the US was putting into power.
This video contains conversations of high Turkish officials planning a fake attack to start a war with Syria.
Leaked documents have shown that the Saudis are pushing very hard for a war in Syria (intended, presumably, to weaken Iran). They go so far as to tell Putin that they control terrorist groups, including those who could attack in both Russia and in Syria. (Think about that!) Here’s a direct quote from what they said to Putin:
The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the [Olympic] games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us.
Any coverage of Ukraine or Syria that ignores these facts disgraces itself.
The New Message
The new message I’ve been seeing lately is this:
Obama is screwing up and making us look like wimps! We need to be powerful, not wimps!
What that actually means is, “We should confront Putin and show him who’s tough! We’re still the biggest badass!” That kind of emotion, of course, leads toward war.
Along with this emotionalism travels a peculiar fear found in empires: If we don’t rule the world, everything will break down into death and darkness. The Brits believed this not too long ago, as did many others, going back to the Romans and beyond.
Here are a few passages from mainstream media that have caught my eye:
“The collapse of the Pax Americana under Obama has freed up Russia and China to begin their campaigns of territorial expansionism.”
“Instead of a post-American world ushering in a stable multilateral order, it will revert back to a chaotic Lord of the Flies situation.”
“Russia has taken over Crimea and threatens further aggression. Now is the time to act…”
“Putin has given speeches almost identical to Hitler’s 1938 Berlin address.”
“Fear That Obama Will Let Russia Seize Control Of Internet.”
To this I’ll add one more thing: Millions of people currently believe that Russian troops have invaded the Crimea, which is completely false.
Honestly, I’m not sure that this will work. However hungry the military-industrial complex may be, Joe and Jane Average are just not eager for another war. And I think Putin’s smart enough to withhold any Pearl Harbor-like attacks.
Even a big terrorist attack might only prove that the intel state has failed again. I’m not sure that people can maintain an endless blind faith in Jack Bauer; at some point, they will say, “That was only a TV show.”
That said…
That said, “Washington Worship TV” continues and they’re still working toward war.
Obama just paid a call on the Saudis, who remain desperate for their war in Syria. They’re so desperate, in fact, that they’re working with the Israelis on it. (War makes for strange bedfellows.)
And on his way to Arabia, Obama called on the Pope. What these meetings were really about, who knows.
Backroom deals between intel agencies take place all the time. No one’s going to admit what the conversations are about, but one can certainly imagine that a deal was underway to give Putin the Crimea in return for the war in Syria that NATO and its friends wanted.
The leaks mentioned above (especially the Turkish leak) may have delayed matters, but since it has never appeared on “the news,” most people have never heard about it. Perhaps the push for war in Syria will continue.
But, it may be that NATO and their allies have given up on their war in Syria and are trying to punish Putin for standing in their way. (It’s likely that Russia was the source of those leaks.) That would involve bloodshed in the Ukraine… as if the Ukrainians haven’t suffered enough in the past eighty years.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that several groups are very eager for a new war. Toward that end, they’re working to stir up emotions. Rationally convincing people to kill and be killed, of course, isn’t terribly effective.
What we have to do now is to keep our heads and be a voice of reason for our friends and neighbors, even if they don’t like it.
War is not salvation; it’s hell.
Paul Rosenberg
FreemansPerspective.com | {
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Bioware—the studio behind the likes of Mass Effect and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic—has a new sci-fi game in the works. Dubbed Anthem, the game is a third-person MMO shooter featuring exo-suit combat, a lush open world, and four-player co-op. Also, jetpacks.
Following a brief reveal at EA's E3 2017 showcase, Anthem got a much more detailed outing at the Microsoft press conference (the full video is embedded below). Running on EA's Frostbite engine, the Anthem demo showcased giant AT-AT-like robotic walkers alongside what appeared to be a vast open-world filled with nasty creatures and alien enemies called "Scars."
Like Destiny, Anthem appears to be based around four-player co-op, with players taking on the role of "freelancers" that take on jobs outside the safety of the city on behalf of citizens. As well as some slick jetpack action—which involved flying through a tunnel, a forest, and diving underwater—the demo also showed some slick combat with a mean-looking shotgun.
Introducing Anthem, EA's Patrick Soderlund said that "New IP is the lifeblood of our industry. It's also risky. At EA we have a lot of teams working on a lot of projects, and only the greatest will make their way to you. That's OK, it's all part of the creative process"
Anthem is the official name for "Dylan," a Bioware project that has been in development for several years. In an earnings call in May, EA CEO Andrew Wilson described the then unnamed project as "stunning."
"Gameplay mechanics are excellent," said Wilson, "and the action will be exhilarating. The game is built around a live service, and through our creative process, we've decided to add more to the disruptive new social designs for our players. To accommodate that, we are moving the launch date for this project into fiscal year '19." | {
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Carrollton/Farmers Branch Residential Report for April
Sales were up sharply in April. A 22% jump as compared to last April. The average sales price rose 9% as did the median sales price. With a 12% increase in the pending sales number, we can look forward to Mays sales being positive. The number of new listings increased 22% while the active listings increases 8%. This caused an increase in the months of inventory to 1 months. With 6 months being a balanced market you can readily see how tilted we are to the sellers side. It does not look that this situation is going to change anytime soon.
Sales: 198
Average Sales Price: $308,574
Median Sales Price: $276,750
Pending Sales: 199
New Listings: 230
Active Listings: 159
Months of Inventory: 1
Information provided by the Real Estate Center | {
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DAY 2 | Wildlife Sanctuary, Phnom Kulen Waterfall & Camping
Meal: Breakfast, Dinner
Breakfast is at hotel. Set off at 7.40am, beyond Angkor complex to observe wildlife at Angkor Conservation Center Biodiversity (ACCB) at the foot of Kbal Spean hill. It’s where you have a guided tour around the center to discover endangered wildlife. Continuously, we head to Phnom Kulen; one of Cambodia’s national parks that provides wonderful holiday and a great place to cool off. Phnom Kulen used to be the ancient capital city in 802AD – after King Jayavarman II was initiated as the royal “God of the King”. Enjoy the guided walking tour to visit Preah Ang Thom – the reclining giant Buddha statue. Continue to witness historical site of 1000 linga carvings under the riverbed, you also have a chance to see the sacred pool where the white clear water coming out of the ground all year round. Resume the walking to the beautiful waterfall where we can refresh, bathe and swim. Near the waterfall there are some local huts where we enjoy local lunch & fresh coconut (meal, drinks are at your own account).
We continue to an active pagoda where you have an overnight in the camp. Dinner is arranged by the locals near our camp.
Overnight in the camp
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The Amish might be the most quiescent religious group in America. They don’t proselytize, they don’t lobby or run for office, and most don’t even vote. Yet a little-known, almost 50-year-old Supreme Court decision involving them could be the next front in the battle for religious liberty.
In 1972, the Supreme Court handed down the decision Wisconsin v. Yoder, holding that the Amish community’s right to the free exercise of religion — specifically, eschewing formal education past eighth grade — trumped state laws mandating school attendance.
Enter Torah Bontrager. She left an Amish community in Iowa at age 15, later earned an Ivy League degree, and established the Amish Heritage Foundation to alter Amish communities. To her, this starts with overturning Yoder, the focus of a conference the foundation held last week at Bontrager’s alma mater, Columbia University. The foundation has planned a 30-state media tour but has not yet set its dates.
This movement is not limited to the Amish or even Christianity. Speakers at the conference decried a lack of preparation for the secular world in Islamic and Jewish schools, and the foundation has ties to the “ex-vangelical” movement. The biggest news from the conference was that the foundation has found three plaintiffs to sue to overturn Yoder. It didn’t give any names, but it described one as a minor who had left the Amish faith, began working in construction, and wanted to attend high school.
The State’s Interest and Power in Education
Education has traditionally been considered a state power, and the word “education” does not appear in the U.S. Constitution or any of its amendments. On what grounds, then, does the Amish Heritage Foundation claim “education [as] a federal right for all children”?
As a precedent, it cites a lawsuit filed against the state of Rhode Island by Michael Rebell, a Columbia professor, alleging that the rights to vote, speak freely, and serve on a jury imply that the government has a duty to provide adequate civic education and that by not having a civics education requirement, Rhode Island is violating students’ rights. By extension, according to the Amish Heritage Foundation, the rights of those raised in the Amish church to vote and speak freely imply that the government has a responsibility to make sure they attend high school.
The implications of imposing mainstream education requirements on the Amish would be profound. In most states, teachers are required to hold at least a bachelor’s degree, so the Amish would not be able to recruit teachers from their own ranks. They would have to rely on the local public schools or other denominations’ private schools.
Nor is civics the only aspect of secular education the Amish Heritage Foundation thinks Amish schoolchildren should be exposed to. One of the speakers at Columbia detailed horrific cases of sexual abuse within the Amish community, which the foundation linked to its cause, claiming secular sex education could prevent such abuse.
The Amish Heritage Foundation has some legitimate concerns, such as education conducted in languages (such as Yiddish or Pennsylvania German) that leaves students unprepared to deal with the English-speaking world, and a lack of instruction in subjects such as math or geography that no religion would find objectionable. The moral case for holding sexual abusers accountable should be obvious, especially to religious leaders, and by now, it should be obvious that trying to cover up such abuse, or attempting to deal with it internally, doesn’t work in the long run. The movement to overturn Wisconsin v. Yoder should remind leaders in religious education that if they don’t reform themselves, others will be only too happy to impose reforms on them.
Overturning Yoder Would Have Serious Consequences
Far from being an imposition of a right-wing, traditionalist court, Wisconsin v. Yoder came near the high tide of Supreme Court liberalism. Yoder was decided in May 1972. The court imposed a national moratorium on the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia the next month and handed down the Roe v. Wade decision less than a year later. The court may have seen itself as sticking up for minority rights against overweening local government then, but a more aggressively individualistic and secular left, concerned with rooting out religion, especially Christianity, might be more open to overturning it.
So how much danger is Wisconsin v. Yoder in? Although the Amish Heritage Foundation is obscure, with fewer than 200 Twitter followers and just over 1,000 likes and followers on Facebook, Bontrager has attracted press attention. If the case made it to the Supreme Court today, it’s likely the five conservative justices would uphold Yoder.
Among the court’s liberals, Justice Elena Kagan, who has shown a reluctance to overturn precedent, and Justice Stephen Breyer, who has been sympathetic to some religious liberty claims, might join them. In the longer term, however, if the activists can persuade public and legal opinion that Yoder is an unjustified privilege instead of a natural application of the First Amendment, a more left-wing court might someday overturn it.
Overturning Wisconsin v. Yoder would have ramifications far beyond Amish schoolhouses, opening the door to increased regulation and scrutiny of homeschooling and even government oversight of religious schools’ curricula. Overturning Yoder would make it harder for religious parents to control what ideas schools teach their children, as the explicit right to free exercise of religion becomes subordinate to a nebulous right to an “adequate education,” as defined by the government under activist influence.
Whatever you think of the Amish Heritage Foundation’s cause, it is absolutely right that the Yoder decision affects all Americans, not just the Amish. | {
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Scott Pendlebury says a selfless attitude will be crucial if Collingwood’s star-studded midfield is to work as a cohesive unit this season.
Magpies coach Nathan Buckley will have an embarrassment of riches to choose from with the likes of Pendlebury himself, Adam Treloar, Dayne Beams, Taylor Adams and Steele Sidebottom just some of the names that make up the club’s midfield engine room.
The Pies skipper says there will be times where some of those aforementioned names will have to play in other positions, depending on what the situation calls for.
“With some many guys that can through there, there will all of a sudden be stints on the wing and probably little stings at half-forward as well to balance it out,” Pendlebury told SEN’s KB and The Doc.
“It will give us different looks, if a certain midfield group is getting on top, then why change it? Let them go to work.
Pre-order your AFL Record 2019 Season Guide here. Every team, every stat. The footy lover’s bible for $39.95 (+ postage and handling). Buy it now!
“We’re looking forward to the year ahead. We’ve got a deep midfield, but we’ve got to be selfless, play for the team, and play what’s best for each other.”
Pendlebury, 31, is embarking on his 14th season with the Pies as they look to go one better in 2019 in the wake of their heart-breaking Grand Final loss to West Coast last year.
Listen to Scott Pendlebury’s chat on SEN’s KB and The Doc with Kevin Bartlett and Dr Turf in the player below | {
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With the clock ticking on tomorrow's unveiling of the Nexus One, it seems most of the focus has been on the hardware and plan details (see below). But looking at the Nexus One as just another Android phone that Google happens to sell is to miss its potential significance as a hardware platform for Google's increasingly popular software offerings. Specifically, the Nexus One could have big implications for Google Voice and Google Apps.
One of the ways that a Google-branded phone makes the most sense is as a platform for the company to expand the functionality and user base of Google Voice. With the Nexus One launch, we may see Google Voice open up to more users, and we might also see the introduction of long-awaited number portability to the service.
Right now, Google Voice is invitation-only, but that could change after the launch of the Nexus One. Google will likely want Voice to be the primary way for Nexus One users to place calls on the handset, and that would mean giving out a Google Voice number to everyone who buys a Nexus One and who doesn't already have a Google Voice account. Such a move would lay the groundwork for a future Google Voice transition from regular voice connections (where the Google Voice app makes the connection in the background using the network's voice side) to SIP over the network's data side, enabling Google to bill customers directly for VoIP services. But given network bandwidth issues, such a combination of the newly acquired Gizmo5 SIP network and Google Voice will probably either not launch with the Nexus One, or it will be available only via Wi-Fi.
Once Google is finished rolling Gizmo5 into Google Voice, the resulting product on Nexus One will raise Google's profile as a carrier- and network-independent provider of IP-based telephony services (voice, voicemail, SMS, directory services, etc.).
With rumored support for up to five phones per Google Account, it's not clear how Google Voice will handle multiple phones per user—will we get multiple Google Voice numbers that point to the same account (sort of like having multiple e-mail aliases pointing to one inbox), or will we get multiple Google Voice accounts? Or will we get to choose between the two options on a phone-by-phone basis?
The other question raised by Google Voice on Nexus One concerns number porting. Google hasn't enabled the public to port their existing numbers to Google Voice yet, but letting Nexus One buyers port numbers to Voice (as opposed to just porting them to T-Mobile) would seem logical. We'll find out tomorrow morning if Google will let us port existing numbers to Google Voice for use on the Nexus One.
Nexus One for My Domain?
The other issue that's worth thinking about is the Nexus One's possible relationship to Google's business offerings—specifically Google Apps for My Domain. It seems likely that businesses that use Google Apps will at some point be able to purchase and administer the new phones centrally, with the phones and plans tied to the domain owner's account. In other words, as a Google Apps customer, I should be able to buy a Nexus One for each employee account on my domain, complete with a Google Voice number. That way, I can cheaply and easily equip a workforce with centrally billed and managed mobile calendaring, IP telephony, messaging, contacts, etc.
I'd be surprised if Google launches the Nexus One with this kind of Apps-based enterprise focus, but it does seem like the kind of thing it would add eventually. And when it launches, it would be a low-cost alternative to RIM's Enterprise offerings. | {
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Gosport hospital deaths: Doctor 'did best for patients' Published duration 27 June 2018 Related Topics Gosport hospital deaths
media caption Former Gosport hospital doctor Jane Barton did her "best for her patients", her husband says.
The doctor who oversaw the practice of prescribing powerful painkillers at Gosport War Memorial Hospital was working in a "very inadequately resourced part of the health service".
More than 450 patients died after being given the drugs inappropriately, a report concluded last week
A statement read out on behalf of Dr Jane Barton said she was a "doctor doing the best for her patients".
Relatives described the statement as "worthless" and a "waste of time".
Dr Barton appeared outside her Gosport home where the statement was read by her husband, Tim Barton.
He said: "Jane would like to thank her family, friends, colleagues, former patients and the many others for their continued support and loyalty through this protracted inquiry.
"She has always maintained she was a hardworking, dedicated doctor - doing the best for her patients in a very inadequately resourced part of the health service.
"We ask that our privacy is respected at this difficult time and she will be making no further comments."
Mr Barton told reporters to direct further inquiries to the Medical Defence Union , which is representing Dr Barton.
image copyright BBC/PA/Reeves family image caption Inquests into the deaths of 10 patients, six of whom are pictured, were held in 2009
Bridget Devine-Reeves, whose grandmother Elsie Reeves died at the hospital, told the BBC: "The panel found there was a disregard for human life and it is extraordinary that she should have the audacity to say she was doing the best for patients - the statement given is worthless."
Anne Farthing's stepfather-in-law, Arthur 'Brian' Cunningham, also died at the hospital. He had been admitted with bed sores but died after being given powerful opiates and sedatives.
She said: "They have to make some statement so obviously they're going to come up with something that's just a front, quite frankly.
"It's just a waste of space and a waste of time."
The independent panel's report found there was an "institutionalised regime" of prescribing and administering "dangerous" amounts of a medication not clinically justified at the hospital from 1989 to 2000.
It said taking into account missing records, a further 200 patients may have also had their lives shortened.
'Sorry for distress'
The findings have led to calls for an inquiry from families.
Hampshire Constabulary, which was criticised in the report for the way it handled three previous investigations into the deaths of 92 patients which failed to lead to any prosecutions, is to hand over any new inquiry to another force.
Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney apologised for the force's "part in the distress caused to families for so many years".
So far, the only person to face disciplinary action has been Dr Barton, who was found guilty of failings in her care of 12 patients at Gosport between 1996 and 1999.
But no prosecutions were brought and she was not struck off the medical register, choosing to retire after the findings.
media caption Gosport hospital: Families 'grossly let down' by authorities
The Gosport Independent Panel's report found whistleblowers and families were ignored as they attempted to raise concerns about the administration of medication on the wards, which was overseen by Dr Barton.
The report said an "awareness" that the deaths "might be due to 'another Shipman'" had "cast a shadow over how concerns at the hospital were viewed".
GP Harold Shipman was jailed for life in 2000 for murdering 15 patients between 1995 and 1998.
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Following the release of the report, Prime Minister Theresa May described events at Gosport as "deeply troubling" and apologised to families over the time it took to get answers from the NHS.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told MPs that police and the Crown Prosecution Service would examine material in the report to consider their next steps and "whether criminal charges should now be brought". | {
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Piekło kobiet to zbiór felietonów Tadeusza Boya-Żeleńskiego, powstałych w 1929 roku. Publicysta wypowiada się na temat kontrowersyjnego i głośnego tematu aborcji i praw reprodukcyjnych, przysługujących kobietom.
Boy-Żeleński występuje z pozycji obrońcy praw kobiet i wskazuje na okrucieństwo regulacji prawnych, które zakładają brak możliwości terminacji ciąży i surowe karanie kobiet, które się tego czynu dopuszczą. Zwraca uwagę na sytuacje życiowe, które nie zawsze wiążą się z radością związaną z macierzyńswem oraz możliwościami zapewnienia matce i dziecku godnego życia. Przeciwnikom aborcji zarzuca zainteresowanie życiem tylko dopóty, dopóki odbywa się ono w okresie prenatalnym, późniejsze ignorowanie potrzeb i pozostawienie na pastwę losu. Felietony Boya-Żeleńskiego, głośne i niekiedy ostre, pozostają ważnym głosem w dyskusji o prawo do aborcji przez kolejne lata, aż do czasów nam współczesnych. | {
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(Video: Noticieros Televisa)
Un lugar desolado e inundado es lo que queda de los terrenos donde estaría el Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de México (NAIM) en Texcoco. Las condiciones son deplorables.
Las lluvias ocasionaron inundaciones en algunas zonas del NAIM, como el sitio en donde estaría un estacionamiento o el lugar por donde pasaría un tren de pasajeros.
“Este proyecto, estaba planeado que tuviera asentamientos controlados; sin embargo, a la hora de estar ya abandonado, el agua que iba a estar presente durante toda la obra, iba a ser bombeada, pero ahorita al estar completamente solo el sitio pues se está acumulando, dijo la gerente de una de las compañías constructoras de Texcoco para noticieros Televisa.
Informó que las bombas y el drenaje que fue diseñado para ese proyecto dejaron de funcionar.
“Esa agua es estancada, no sabemos qué va a pasar porque pues no tiene para donde salir”, recalcó la gerente.
Las condiciones en ese aeropuerto de Texcoco son deplorables. (Foto: Archivo/ Cuartoscuro)
Según las investigaciones, hay maleza y humedad en las pistas de aterrizaje, torre de control y otras zonas.
El presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador informó el pasado 27 de julio, que la deuda con el sector privado a raíz de la cancelación de las obras por el aeropuerto de Texcoco se finiquitó.
Por medio de un comunicado, la Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT) anunció que ya prácticamente terminó de liquidar lo que se le debía a las empresas que se contrataron para hacer el aeropuerto en Texcoco.
“Ya se pagó esa deuda y nos liberamos de un problema. Nos vamos a ahorrar 100 mil millones de pesos”, dijo el mandatario ese día.
AMLO reiteró también que hay muchos amparos para que no se construya el aeropuerto de Santa Lucía.
“El nuevo aeropuerto se va a construir en tierra firme y no vamos a tener ningún problema. No fue fácil, porque, ¿se imaginan? si ya tenían armado el negocio, las presiones que ha habido, y de todo tipo; han llovido amparos como nunca para que no se lleve a cabo el aeropuerto de Santa Lucía, pero ya va caminando esa obra.”, señaló.
Hace poco se dio a conocer que crearán un parque generador de energía en el NAIM. (Foto: ArchIvo/ Cuartoscuro)
Aún no se sabe con exactitud qué harán con las más de cinco mil hectáreas de terreno que hay en Texcoco.
Sin embargo, hace poco se dio a conocer que el NAIM podría convertirse en un parque fotovoltaico, es decir, un lugar generador de energía.
La Comisión Nacional del Agua (Conagua) contratará el estudio de factibilidad técnica para desarrollar ese proyecto en el Parque Ecológico Lago de Texcoco (PELT), según informó el periódico Reforma.
Las bases del concurso para contratar el estudio explican que el PELT incorpore un proyecto fotovoltaico económicamente rentable, el cual podrá definirse una vez que se cuente con parámetros como capacidad instalada, generación media anual, costo de inversión, operación y mantenimiento, flujo de ingresos y costo del financiamiento.
Así luce el terreno donde estaría en NAICM. (Foto: Cuartoscuro)
Para desarrollar dicho proyecto, se prevé que el tribunal que dará resolución a la obra del Aeropuerto Internacional de Santa Lucía (AISL), también permita la construcción de ese parque.
El objetivo del lugar de su edificación es rescatar lo que ya se había construido en Texcoco, sitio donde estaría el Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de México (NAIM).
Los parques fotovoltaicos son grupos de paneles solares, conectados generalmente a la red de distribución eléctrica.
Estos parques suelen construirse en zonas rurales y así permiten una alta producción de energía que puede ser utilizada para una gran cantidad de residencias o para fines industriales.
MÁS SOBRE ESTE TEMA
El plan de construcción del Aeropuerto de Santa Lucía fue clasificado como secreto: AMLO justificó la decisión
Con los 172,000 millones que el SAT condonó a empresas, magnates y celebridades, se podría pagar el nuevo Aeropuerto de Santa Lucía
El NAIM cancelado por López Obrador podría convertirse en un parque generador de energía
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A growing number of consumers are moving toward online shopping, pollster Mallory Newall said Friday.
"There is certainly a trend toward online shopping," Newall, research director at Ipsos Public Affairs, told Hill.TV's Krystal Ball on "What America's Thinking."
"When you ask people what the benefits or the perks that they're most excited about for their holiday shopping [are] this season, the number one thing is free delivery," she continued. "What that tells me is that people are focused on online."
Newall was referring to a recent Reuters survey, which found that 61 percent of shoppers polled said free delivery was the most appealing incentive when shopping for the holidays.
Her comments come as American consumers wrap up the last of their holiday shopping.
Other polling suggests a larger trend toward online retail.
A new American Barometer survey, conducted by Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling company, found that 58 percent of Americans prefer online shopping to making in-store purchases.
— Julia Manchester | {
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Kiistely hallituksen sote- ja maakuntauudistuksesta kiihtyy. Kokoomuksen kansanedustaja Ben Zyskowicz ei ole tällä kertaa opposition kimpussa vaan kyseenalaistamassa perustuslakiasiantuntijoiden toimia.
DEMOKRAATTI Demokraatti
– Toinen ihan vakava kysymys on, että kuinka korrektia on se, että pari perustuslakivaliokunnan asiantuntijaa pyrkivät julkisuuden kautta painostamaan perustuslakivaliokuntaa, Zyskowicz laukoo Verkkouutisissa.
Syytös, vaikkakin hieman vihjaileva sellainen, on poikkeuksellisen kova.
Lisäksi Zyskowiczin mukaan sote-asiantuntijat ovat täysin eri linjoilla uudistuksen vaikutuksista kuin perustuslakivaliokunnan kuultavana olevat valtiosääntöoikeuden professorit.
Paine sote-uudistuksen viemisessä eteenpäin on nyt todella kova. Entinen sosiaali- ja terveysministeri ja entinen Kelan pääjohtaja Liisa Hyssälä on jo aiemmin ollut liikkeellä samansuuntaisella viestillä Twitterissä.
– Perustuslakivaliokunnan käyttämät asiantuntijat Lavapuroja Ojanen ovat kesken perustuslakivaliokunnan sote käsittelyn lausuneet medialle negatiivisen mielipiteensä laista. Painostetaanko tällä valiokuntaa keskeneräisessä tilanteessa? Hyssälä kysyi.
Perustuslakivaliokunnan käyttämät asiantuntijat Lavapuro ja Ojanen ovat kesken perustuslakivaliokunnan sote käsittelyn lausuneet medialle negatiivisen mielipiteensä laista. Painostetaanko tällä valiokuntaa keskeneräisessä tilanteessa? #sote #laki — Liisa Hyssälä (@LHyssala) January 23, 2019
Perustuslakiasiantuntijoita moiset argumentit ihmetyttävät.
Zyskowiczin ja Hyssälän mietteillä on taustansa professorien ja perustuslakiasiantuntijoiden Juha Lavapuron ja Tuomas Ojasen STT:lle antamassa haastattelussa, jossa he kertoivat, millaisia ongelmia soteen liittyy.
Ojanen kertoi pitävänsä ongelmallisena perustuslain näkökulmasta sitä, että lainsäätäjä omaksuisi tieten tahtoen sellaisia sosiaali- ja terveyspalvelujärjestelmän perusrakenneratkaisuja, joissa on suuri riski epäonnistua riittävien palvelujen yhdenvertaisessa takaamisessa ihmisille.
– Sama kuin merikapteeni valitsisi sellaisen väylän, jolla varmasti ajetaan karille, hän sanoi.
Aivan ensimmäisenä Lavapuron ja Ojasen edesottamuksista kertoi aikanaan Uusi Suomi.
Juha Lavapuro on ihmeissään Ben Zyskowiczin väitteistä. Hän päivittää asiasta kolmen kohdan tviittiketjulla:
– Perustuslakivaliokunnan kuulemiskutsussa muuten nimenomaisesti pyydettiin ”ottamaan huomioon myös aikaisemmin toimitetut sote-substanssiasiantuntijoiden lausunnot, siltä osin kuin niillä on valtiosääntöoikeudellista merkitystä”. 1/3
– Perustuslain mukaan julkisen vallan on turvattava riittävät sosiaali- ja terveyspalvelut yhdenvertaisesti (PL 6 § + 19.3 §). Kun sote-asiantuntijat samaan aikaan sanovat, että paljon palveluja tarvitsevien asema heikkenee uudistuksessa, ei sitä oikein voi jättää huomiotta. 2/3
– Vähän muuten outoa draamaa yhdestä STT:n haastattelusta. On ollut tähän asti aivan tavanomaista, että PeV:n kuulemat asiantuntijat selostavat omia kantojaan toimittajille, jos niitä kysytään. Ei se mitään painostamista ole vaan avoimeen yhteiskuntaan kuuluvaa sananvapautta. 3/3, Ojanen päättää.
Perustuslakivaliokunnan kuulemiskutsussa muuten nimenomaisesti pyydettiin "ottamaan huomioon myös aikaisemmin toimitetut sote-substanssiasiantuntijoiden lausunnot, siltä osin kuin niillä on valtiosääntöoikeudellista merkitystä". 1/3 https://t.co/JGyjdDFPUV — Juha Lavapuro (@JuhaLavapuro) January 26, 2019
Vähän muuten outoa draamaa yhdestä STT:n haastattelusta. On ollut tähän asti aivan tavanomaista, että PeV:n kuulemat asiantuntijat selostavat omia kantojaan toimittajille, jos niitä kysytään. Ei se mitään painostamista ole vaan avoimeen yhteiskuntaan kuuluvaa sananvapautta. 3/3. — Juha Lavapuro (@JuhaLavapuro) January 26, 2019
Tuomas Ojanen ja Juha Lavapuro ovat päivittäneet asiasta myös Perustuslakitweet-tilillä:
– Vai ovat sote-asiantuntijat ”aivan eri mieltä” kuin me siitä, että # sote-uudistus heikentäisi paljon palveluja tarvitsevien asemaa? Laitetaanpa Zyskowiczin väite muistiin ja tarkistetaan asia, kun sote-asiantuntijoiden lausunnot tulevat julkisiksi. JL & TO
Vai ovat sote-asiantuntijat "aivan eri mieltä" kuin me siitä, että #sote-uudistus heikentäisi paljon palveluja tarvitsevien asemaa? Laitetaanpa Zyskowiczin väite muistiin ja tarkistetaan asia, kun sote-asiantuntijoiden lausunnot tulevat julkisiksi. JL & TO https://t.co/Hhxa1hiSdv — perustuslakitweet (@plblogi) January 26, 2019
Ihmisoikeusjuristi, professori Martin Scheinin muistuttaa myös omalla Twitter-tilillään perustuslakiasiantuntijoiden oikeudesta osallistua julkiseen keskusteluun ja kertoa näkemyksensä kuten Ojanen ja Lavapuro ovat tehneet.
– Yhteiskunnallisesti tärkeä kysymys: saavatko PeV:n kuulemat asiantuntijat osallistua julkiseen keskusteluun? Minun mielestäni saavat, kahdella ehdolla: 1) Jos PeV on pyytänyt lausuntoa, sen tulee olla ’first recipient’ eli julkinen kommentointi taukoaa 1/2, Scheinin kirjoittaa.
– 2/2 Ja kun on lausunut PeV:lle, mitään siinä yhteydessä saatua tietoa ei tule hyödyntää julkisessa keskustelussa – siis esim luottamuksellisia asiakirjoja, toisten asiantuntijoiden kantoja tai kansanedustajien kysymyksiä. Oma työ, omat kannat, julkiset lähteet ovat kaikki okei, hän jatkaa. | {
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"We're really excited to be a part of FestivalSouth this year," said Emily Curry, outside sales representative for Southern Prohibition Brewing Company of Hattiesburg. "We're located in downtown Hattiesburg and it's such a big thing in the community. It brings a lot of people, it brings a lot of tourism, which we hope our brewery does do for downtown hattiesburg," she said. | {
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2 Russian Agents Carried Out Skripal Poison Attack, U.K. Says; Arrest Warrants Issued
Enlarge this image toggle caption U.K. Metropolitan Police U.K. Metropolitan Police
British authorities have charged two Russian men with using a Novichok nerve agent to poison former KGB spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. Scotland Yard now wants help to find the two men, who flew from the U.K. to Moscow on the same day the Skripals fell ill.
Calling it "the most significant moment so far" in the investigation into the Skripals' near-fatal encounter with the exotic poison, counterterrorism police said the attack was carried out by Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — names that investigators say are likely aliases used for the operation.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain's security and intelligence agencies have concluded "that the two individuals named by the police and CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] are officers from the Russian military intelligence service, also known as the GRU."
Citing the GRU's reputation for strict discipline and hierarchy, May added, "this was not a rogue operation."
"It was almost certainly also approved outside the GRU, at a senior level of the Russian state," May said, suggesting that President Vladimir Putin's government was deeply involved in the attack.
May has previously accused Russia of being behind the attempt to kill the former spy and his daughter. On Tuesday, she said that after the U.K. asked Moscow for information related to the case, Russia "replied with obfuscation and lies."
In Moscow's reply Wednesday, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told the media that Britain has fabricated the names of the suspects, saying that the names "mean nothing" and that it "is difficult to comprehend" the U.K.'s motives, according to state-run Tass media.
The new details from police outline a brief international trip by the two suspects, who landed at the Gatwick airport from Moscow on March 2.
Over the course of two days, the men traveled from London to Salisbury, England, twice — once to perform reconnaissance around the Skripals' home, and again to put lethal poison on their front door, police say. The men were spotted on numerous security and surveillance cameras as they moved between the two cities. Hours after their final visit to Salisbury, they took a late-night flight back to Moscow on March 4 — the same day the Skripals were sickened.
"We have no evidence that they re-entered the U.K. after that date," said Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, of the counterterrorism force.
There are no plans to try to extradite the two men from Russia, said Sue Hemming of the Crown Prosecution Service, because "the Russian constitution does not permit extradition of its own nationals."
Hemming added, "We have, however, obtained a European Arrest Warrant which means that if either man travels to a country where an EAW is valid, they will be arrested and face extradition on these charges for which there is no statute of limitations."
Both of the Skripals survived the attempt on their lives, but in what police call a tragic consequence of the attack, Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three, died on July 8 after being exposed to the same nerve agent.
In Salisbury — the town where the Skripals were found incapacitated on a bench on March 4 — police officer Nick Bailey was left seriously ill after being exposed to the deadly material. The current charges relate to his and the Skripals' case.
Sturgess and her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley, fell ill in Amesbury, England. Providing new information about the Sturgess case, police say that while they're not certain how the suspects disposed of the poisonous material before leaving the U.K., "a significant amount of Novichok" was found in a bottle in Rowley's home. It had been held in a pink box, falsely labeled as Nina Ricci Premier Jour perfume.
"Charlie told police he found a box he thought contained perfume in a charity bin on Wednesday, 27 June," Assistant Commissioner Basu said. "Inside the box was a bottle and applicator. He tried to put the two parts together at his home address on Saturday, 30 June, and in doing so got some of the contents on himself. He said Dawn had applied some of the substance to her wrists before feeling unwell."
Enlarge this image toggle caption U.K. Metropolitan Police U.K. Metropolitan Police
The perfume packaging was bogus — and the bottle and nozzle had been "especially adapted," Basu said. The result, he said, was "a perfect cover for smuggling the weapon into the country, and a perfect delivery method for the attack against the Skripals' front door."
British police are publicly naming the two suspects one day after the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it had corroborated the U.K. investigation's findings that "the same toxic chemical" was responsible for the attack in Salisbury and for Sturgess' death in Amesbury.
In May, two months after the attack, Yulia Skripal said that she and her father are "so lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination," despite ongoing health concerns and medical complications from the attack.
Prosecutors are charging the two alleged Russian agents with conspiracy to murder Sergei Skripal, along with the attempted murder of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and Nick Bailey, along with the use and possession of Novichok contrary to the Chemical Weapons Act, among other crimes.
Sergei Skripal had been a double-agent for Britain's MI6 intelligence service. He was eventually arrested in Russia, but he was freed in a prisoner swap in 2010, and he has become a U.K. citizen.
The attempt on Skripal's life is seen as part of a string of suspicious attacks or deaths of high-profile Russians living in the U.K. and abroad. The most famous of those cases centers on the poisoning death of Kremlin critic and former spy Alexander Litvinenko. But the list also includes Nikolai Glushkov, a 68-year-old Russian businessman who was murdered in March, and oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who died by hanging in London 2013.
Moscow has denied accusations that the Russian government is linked to those incidents.
The U.S. and other U.K. allies have imposed sanctions on Russia in retaliation for the poisoning. | {
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By Activist Post
Whistleblower Reveals Military Mind Control Project At Major University
What if the government could change people’s moral beliefs or stop political dissent through remote control of people’s brains?
Sounds like science fiction, right? Well, a leaked document reveals that the US government, through DARPA research, is very close to accomplishing this.
Activist Post was recently contacted by an anonymous whistleblower who worked on a secret ongoing mind-control project for DARPA. The aim of the program is to remotely disrupt political dissent and extremism by employing “Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation” (TMS) in tandem with sophisticated propaganda based on this technology. TMS stimulates the temporal lobe of the brain with electromagnetic fields.
The program, conducted by The Center for Strategic Communication, is based at Arizona State University. The DARPA funding for this project can be confirmed on the ASU website here. The head of the project, Steve Corman, has worked extensively in the area of strategic communication as it applies to terrorism and “extremism” – or what could be called “the war of ideas.”
Corman’s latest project Narrating The Exit From Afghanistan and his many presentations make it quite obvious that the mission is to shape the narrative and literally change people’s minds. Lest one believe it will be contained to overseas extremists, we should keep in mind that the word extremist is increasingly used domestically. The dissenters of yesterday could easily become the terrorist sympathizers and supporters of political violence tomorrow.This DARPA research brings about many ethical questions and dilemmas. Mainly, this research aims to literally induce or disrupt the operation of narratives within the brain. In other words, this research aims to stop individuals from thinking certain thoughts and make others believe things they normally would not believe. This research has tremendous interrogation possibilities and could potentially be used to more successfully spread propaganda or stop political upheaval to an unsuspecting public.
This research is being conducted by The Center for Strategic Communication at ASU and is entitled “Toward Narrative Disruptors and Inductors: Mapping the Narrative Comprehension Network and its Persuasive Effects” A detailed overview of the project can be found in the document below. Highlights include:
In phase 3 of the research, the research group will “selectively alter aspects of narrative structure and brain functions via Transcranial Magnetic Simulation (TMS) to induce or disrupt selected features of narrative processing.” (Page 16, emphasis added)
TMS is a very powerful tool used to impair the brain functioning of individuals. See the videos below for a brief demonstration of the effects of TMS.
Once the research group determines which parts of the brain are associated with cognitive reasoning and narrative comprehension, they will be attempt to impair those sections in order to “create a fundamental basis for understanding how to disrupt or enhance aspects of narrative structure and/or brain functioning to minimize or maximize persuasive effects on subject proclivity to engage in political violence.” (Page 23)
Once it is determined that disruption of certain portions of the brain can enhance persuasive messaging, individuals can be persuaded to do things they normally would not do and believe things they normally would not believe. This could include something as simple as telling a closely guarded secret, to believing in government propaganda, or even committing a violent act. The group writes on page 26, “once we have produced a narrative comprehension model [i.e., how individuals comprehend stories and persuasive messages], end users [aka the government] will understand how to activate known neural networks (e.g., working memory or attention) and positive behavioral outcome (e.g., nonviolent actions) nodes with strategic communication messages as a means to reduce incidences of political violence in contested populations.” The group will investigate “possibilities for literally disrupting the activity of the NCN [narrative comprehension network] through Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.” (page 30) [text added]
The group is so confident that they will be able to induce or disrupt the operations of narratives in the brain, that they say on page 26 that the research “offers the capability to induce or disrupt the operation of narratives in the brain, and develops the capability to induce narrative validity [i.e., the believability of a particular narrative/message], transportation [i.e., the ability to be engaged by a narrative], and integration [i.e., associating a particular narrative with a larger, more culturally specific narrative] with certainty.” [text added]
The group gives the following example of this projects usefulness: “If it is the case that activation in one particular neural network enables people to connect personal narrative to master narratives [i.e., cultural narratives], by disrupting activity in that brain area, we should be able to selectively impair that specific aspect of narrative processing while holding other meaning making processes constant, effectively creating a ‘narrative disruptor.’ Not only would this be an important finding in the science of neural networks and narrative persuasion, but would also have considerably practical and strategic importance.” (page 40) [text added]
Essentially, the research aims to literally disrupt how people think and comprehend ideas and messages.
Further, and perhaps even more terrifying, on page 40, the group writes, “Mechanical disruptions of narrative processing may be, ultimately, replicated in through targeted strategic communication campaigns that approximate the narrative disruptions induced via magnetic stimulation.” So, after figuring out which parts of the brain are activated by particular persuasive messages and propaganda, the government can test out messages that only activate particular portions of the brain and not others, in order to persuade individuals to believe or not believe something. Essentially, they are attempting to modify brain functioning without TMS, and only words. One can only imagine the strategies the government could use with this technology. They could make the public believe almost anything that suits their needs. It could literally lead to mass brainwashing.
But what does this mean, practically? It means that if this research succeeds, the government will be able to modify how one personally thinks. They could strap you in a chair, put a machine to your head, turn off parts of your brain, introduce a persuasive message, and make you believe it.
Further, through extensive research, they may be able to replicate the machine’s brain disrupting functioning simply through carefully crafted and researched persuasive messages and propaganda. They can use brain imaging to determine which portions of the brain are activated when a particular message is presented to an individual, and if the “right” portions are activated, they know the message will circumvent one’s mental reasoning and lead to almost automatic acceptance. With enough data, the government could spread propaganda through the media that people will almost automatically believe, whether it is true or not.
In terms of interrogation possibilities, Transcranical Magnetic Stimulation can be forced upon individuals to make them believe certain things, say certain things, and perhaps admit to acts they did not actually commit (as the TMS can induce narrative validity), or commit acts they normally would not commit.
The government is literally trying to brainwash the public. This is not science fiction. Technology has made it possible to induce and disrupt cognitive functioning in individuals. In the future, your thoughts may not be your own, but ones that have been implanted into your brain through exceedingly successful and validated propaganda.
Meeting notes indicate concern about how the project will be perceived, particularly the focus on the Christian/Muslim element.
We encourage you to embed these documents on your own website or blog and share them with everyone you know. Page numbers listed above are based on Scribd conversion below; enter the page number you wish to view in the Scribd search box. Note: As you can see, Scribd has taken down the documents. While we attempt to get them restored, here are the mirror links:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/oy4uu85ctkd70bd/156562352-Toward-Narrative-Disruptors-and-Inductors-Mapping-the-Narrative-Comprehension-Network-and-its-Persuasive-Effects.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/zy9i9677coinbv8/156566740-Center-For-Strategic-Studies-Meeting-Notes-3-10-12.pdf
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Additional information about mind control and DARPA
In 2002 The Economist noted that neuroscience would be the future of mind control. Well, now we’re evidently here. This area of study has received $100 million in funding via Obama’s ten-year BRAIN Project, as well as a $1.3 billion commitment from Europe. The human brain is seen as the final frontier, and is being explored from every angle conceivable.
The above investments are openly discussed. The same is true for the National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 Strategic Plan . This 60-page document lays out a projected future “to understand and control matter” for the management of every facet of human life in the areas of environment, health and safety. Twenty-five U.S. Federal agencies are participating.
Concurrently, there is heavy military funding through agencies such as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This raises the question of transparency when a “black budget” often justifies total secrecy in the name of national security.
Advancements in neuroscience are coming at an exponential rate, as each day seems to headline a new breakthrough. For example, it recently has been announced that:
RELATED:
DARPA to Genetically Engineer Humans by Adding a 47th Chromosome
Read other articles by Activist Post Here | {
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Sarah Palin Is Not Running For President
Sarah Palin is out for 2012
Doug Mataconis · · 88 comments
As many have long suspected, Sarah Palin officially announced today that she is not running for President in 2012. The news was first reported by talk show host Mark Levin, who apparently received the news first, but it’s now spreading out to the rest of the media.
Via ABC News, here’s a letter that Palin has sent out this afternoon:
October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order. My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law. From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it. I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs. Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation. In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House. Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country! God bless America. – Sarah Palin
As I said, this doesn’t really come as a surprise. Palin has done little to form a campaign organization, and has fallen back in the polls as Republican voters have paid attention to the candidates who are actually running.
Palin’s endorsement will be sought after, no doubt, if only because of the loyal following she still seems to maintain among a certain segment of the Republican Party. In the end, though, this pretty much means the end of any idea that Sarah Palin as a major force in American politics. More importantly, though, this confirms once and for all that the 2012 GOP field is set in stone. There may be subtractions to come, in fact there inevitably will be, but there will be no more additions.
From Politico: “Sarah Palin Won’t Run”:
The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee announced the news to conservative radio talk show host Mark Levin on Wednesday evening, “I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.” Palin did not explicitly rule out a third-party run for the White House, though she said, “I would assume that a third party would guarantee” President Barack Obama’s re-election. Asked if she will support the GOP nominee, Palin told Levin: “I have confidence in that. I look forward to supporting our nominee. … The right candidate will be elevated that will be our nominee. We’ll be able to get behind that person and make sure that Barack Obama is replaced.”
The idea of Palin running as an independent was recently floated by a pro-Palin blogger and by Christian Heinze at The Hill. As Ed Morrissey said earlier today before Palin’s announcement, the idea is silly:
The Tea Party didn’t come into existence to back Palin; its main purpose was to defeat Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, and their disastrous policies. Palin is an important leader in that movement, but it’s not a Palin movement. If Palin launches an independent bid, the most likely outcome would be either having no impact at all, or to hand the election to Obama by splitting the vote on the Right. How many Tea Party activists will want that outcome, or would be willing to risk it just to make a point about being anti-establishment? Some might, and the degree to which those activists might be tempted to do so would depend on the outcome of the Republican primary, too. However, when the dust settles next summer, Republicans and conservatives who want to see ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank repealed will know that the only path to that end will be to defeat Obama. If Palin interferes with that, the damage to her standing will be significantly higher than she will suffer by not running at all. She needs to either get into the GOP primary or dedicate herself to activism over the next four years.
Of course, there is another point to think about. Let’s say a Republican wins in 2012. Unless Palin is made part of the Administration, which seems ridiculously improbable, she’s going to be on the outside, constantly criticizing, constantly being a thorn in the side of President Romney, or Perry. That could be interesting. | {
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The Nexus program has slowly gained traction. When Google first partnered with HTC to bring us the Nexus One, it wasn't all that popular – nor was it cheap. Android itself also wasn't all that popular at that time. Since then, the Nexus program has become very popular and has helped LG, ASUS and Samsung with their mobile business. Now HTC didn't get two Nexus devices, but they did build the very first Android smartphone, the T-Mobile G1, or the HTC Dream for those of you outside the US. HTC was a very successful OEM during those days, it all began to fall apart in 2011 for HTC. They put out over 80 devices worldwide, and they just couldn't keep up with them. They also were just iterations of each other. Not really new devices.
Fast forward to 2012 and ASUS showed off a cheap 7-inch tablet with NVIDIA's Tegra 3 processor inside at CES, which Google saw and basically said we want that. However it was reported earlier this week that Google had approached HTC about building the Nexus 7. HTC reportedly told Google No, because they wanted to focus on their troubled smartphone business. And well that didn't really help them that much. Now it's 2014, and plenty of rumors floating around about HTC building the Nexus 8 for Google this year, with it being released in the second quarter. So why do we want an HTC Nexus 8 so bad? I'll explain.
The biggest reason why we want an HTC Nexus 8, is because HTC's build quality is probably one of the best, second to Apple. If you've used the HTC One X, HTC One (M7) or the One (M8), you'll know exactly what I mean. But more than just their build quality, is their front-facing speakers. Most tablet makers are getting rid of their front-facing speakers and either leaving them on the back or putting them on the sides like Samsung did with the Galaxy TabPRO and the Galaxy NotePRO tablets. Just imagine the HTC One (M8) made into a 8-inch tablet, minus Sense 6 – which I actually like. It's definitely going to sell well, especially at around $300 or less.
It's becoming more and more clear that OEMs need to get into the tablet game if they are really wanting to make some serious money. Just look at Samsung. Not only do they push out a ton of smartphones in every shape and size, but they have a tablet in every size from 7 to 12.2-inches. Also in every single price range as well. They are really the only smartphone maker that's making money these days – aside from Apple – and that's due to their tablet game as well as their marketing. If HTC really wants to make some money and get out of the red, they need to not only jump into the mid-range and low-end game but also the tablet game. And let's face it, most of the 8-inch tablets, aside from the LG G Pad 8.3 which our own Tom Dawson loves, basically suck. And there's one thing we love about Android and that's choice. When it comes to tablets, there's not much of a choice. Basically, Nexus, ASUS or Samsung, and that's about it.
How many of you would love to see a Nexus 8 built by HTC announced at Google I/O and available for under $300? Let us know in the comments below. | {
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Damaging storms possible Monday night, into Tuesday
Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Damaging storms possible Monday night, into Tuesday 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
SAN ANTONIO — The Northern Hill Country now is under a severe thunderstorm watch until 10 p.m., with a threat of large, damaging hail and wind, the National Weather Service reported in a tweet shortly after 3 p.m. Monday.
Severe storms are possible Monday before midnight, then a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after midnight. Some of these storms may be severe across the Hill Country, Edwards Plateau and Interstate 35 corridor, the weather service said.
The storms could bring large hail and damaging winds stronger than 58 miles per hour, according to Jon Zeitler, science and operations officer for the agency's office serving San Antonio and Austin.
“Some storms could also move slowly and produce minor flash flooding,” Zeitler wrote in a 5:30 a.m. advisory.
The afternoon storms could occur along and west of Interstate 35 and north of U.S. 90, an area that includes San Antonio and Austin. Zeitler predicted they will develop over the Hill Country late in the afternoon before slowly moving east and southeast.
Moist, unstable, windy air will converge with a cold front to cause the storms to develop quickly and powerfully, Zeitler wrote.
“While there is some uncertainty on timing and location, we see consistent signals from the models for the storms to occur,” he wrote.
High temperatures are predicted to reach the upper 80s in Bexar County and about 80 degrees in the Hill Country. Low temperatures will drop to the mid-60s in Bexar County and the lower 60s in the Hill Country.
The NWS also is predicting elevated fire weather conditions Thursday and Saturday along the Rio Grande Plains and Edwards Plateau. Low humidity and gusty winds will increase the potential for wildfires on those days.
[email protected]
Twitter: @AliaAtSAEN | {
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May 28: On This Day in World History … briefly
1987: Teenage prank causes Soviet embarrassment
A West German teenager’s prank caused worldwide mirth and seriously embarrassed the Soviet Union.
Mathias Rust (19) flew his light Cessna plane from Helsinki to Moscow, buzzed the Kremlin and landed in Red Square – evading the entire Soviet air defence system. He alighted to sign autographs for astonished Moscow passersby before being taken away by bemused policemen. It was rumoured that the hard men in the Kremlin were ‘extremely unamused’ – and the prankster was in a lot of trouble.
Rust’s trial began in Moscow on 2 September 1987. He was sentenced to four years in a general-regime labour camp for hooliganism, for disregard of aviation laws, and for breaching the Soviet border. He was never transferred to a labour camp and instead served his time at the high security Lefortovo temporary detention facility in Moscow.
Two months later, Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to sign a treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe, and the Supreme Soviet ordered Rust to be released in August 1988 as a goodwill gesture to the West.
Rust’s rented Reims Cessna F172P registered D-ECJB, was sold to Japan where it was exhibited for several years. In 2008 it was returned to Germany and placed in the Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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Not only are the black bears on Haida Gwaii larger than anywhere else in the province, but they are also bigger than any other black bears in the world.
British Columbia is considered "bear country" for a good reason: the province teems with bruins in a variety of shapes and sizes.
With this in mind, not every British Columbian has encountered a bear. In fact, many locals haven't even observed one from a distance. However, if they have seen one, there's a good chance that it was a black bear (even if it wasn't black).
That's right - the black bear, the most common of the three bears found in Canada, comes in a variety of colours and shades. Wild Safe B.C. notes that these bears come in, "everything from the white Kermode bear through to their namesake black and most shades of brown in between."
And while the black bears on Vancouver Island are considerably larger than their mainland cousins, they aren't the largest in the province. That title goes to their neighbours to the north on Haida Gwaii.
Not only are the black bears on Haida Gwaii larger than anywhere else in the province, but they are also bigger than any other black bears in the world.
Often seen foraging in the intertidal zone, these omnivorous animals play a vital role on the Islands. While they enjoy a variety of seafood, such as crabs, sea-urchins, and salmon, they also snack on green vegetation like cabbage, ferns, and nestles. In addition, the bears snack on berries in the spring and summer months. As apex predators, these bruins have few predators, except grizzlies, wolves, and each other.
Parks Canada notes that the Haida have long respected this animal, calling bears Taan, or “Brother of Man”. It notes that, "At Gwaii Haanas, it is our policy that if a bear becomes habituated to people, the area will be closed to people—we will remove the people, not the bears." As such, Parks Canada asks visitors to act responsibly in the wilderness.
According to iNaturalist, the black bears of Haida Gwaii are also considered a "keystone" species because of the, "bears' transportation of salmon remains into the surrounding forests of the Haida Gwaii."
For more information about black bears, and how to stay safe around them or to avoid an encounter, visit Wild Safe B.C. online. | {
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The REINS Act
OUR POSITION: CSS opposes the bill and urges members of Congress to vote against it.
The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act would require require all new economically significant regulations – in other words, the big-ticket public protections that provide the most health, safety, environmental and economic benefits – to be approved by both chambers of Congress before taking effect.
If both chambers were unable to approve a major rule within a 70-day window, the rule would not take effect and would be tabled until the next congressional session. In effect, the reigning dysfunction in Congress would endanger any important new regulation, no matter how uncontroversial it might be.
REINS is nothing more than a back-door way to gut enforcement of existing legislation and future safeguards that big-money interests do not want. It would force Congress to refight its previous debates, wasting time and money, and paralyzing vital agency work.
CSS Resources
CSS Opposes the REINS Act of 2017 (S. 21)
Letter to Members: May 16, 2017
Damaging Regulatory Legislation in HSGAC Mark-Up
Fact Sheet: May 16: 2017
House Republicans Poised to Gut Our System of Public Protections
Press Release: January 4, 2017
CSS Opposes the REINS Act of 2017
Letter to Members: January 3, 2017
REINS Would Let Members of Congress Block Public Protections – By Doing Nothing
Press Release: July 28, 2015
CSS Opposes H.R. 427, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2015
Letter to Members: July 28, 2015
Groups Oppose H.R. 427, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2015
Letter to Members: July 28, 2015
Legal Experts Call on Congress to Oppose the REINS Act, H.R. 427
Letter to Members: April 14, 2015
CSS Opposes the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2015, H.R. 427: House Judiciary Markup
Letter to Members: April 13, 2015
Corporate Congress Trying to Kill Public Safeguards
Editorial Board Alert: March 4, 2015
REINS Act Would Decimate Public Protections, But It’s a Messaging Stunt That Won’t Become Law
Press Release: August 2, 2013
CSS Opposes the REINS Act of 2013
Letter to Congress: July 26, 2013
Radical REINS Act — Distraction from Other Anti-Regulatory Bills
Press Release: March 8, 2013
House Completes Its Terrible Trifecta by Passing the REINS Act
Press Release: December 7, 2011
House Judiciary Committee’s Approval of REINS Act is Deplorable; Bill Would Destroy a Century of Progress on Public Protections
Press Release: October 25, 2011
REINS Act: A Radical Threat to Health, Safety and Other Public Protections
Press Release: October 13, 2011
REINS Act Would Undermine Crucial Public Protections
Press Release: March 8, 2011
Resources from Members and Allies
CFA Urges Senate Committee Leaders to Oppose REINS Act
Consumer Federation of America: May 16, 2017
Oppose S. 951, S.34, S.21 – Radical Attacks on New Public Health and Environmental Safeguards in the Guise of “Regulatory Reform”
League of Conservation Voters: May 16, 2017
Meanwhile, in Reality … Congress Works on Legislation to Inhibit Federal Safety Standards
Former U.S. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.): March 15, 2017
The REINS Act: A Threat to Good Government and Clean Water
Clean Water Action: March 13, 2017
Why the REINS Act Is Unconstitutional
Center for Progressive Reform: February 14, 2017
CR-CU Letter to the U.S. House Opposing H.R. 26, the REINS Act
Consumer Reports and Consumers Union: January 4, 2017
Oppose H.R 21 & 26 – Radical Attacks on Public Protections
League of Conservation Voters: January 4, 2017
Center for American Progress Opposes the REINS Act
Center for American Progress: January 4, 2017
Public Citizen Opposes the REINS Act
Public Citizen: January 4, 2017
Americans for Financial Reform Opposes the REINS Act
Americans for Financial Reform: January 4, 2017
Fact Sheet on the REINS Act
Public Citizen: January 3, 2017
APHA Opposes REINS Act and Midnight Rules Relief Act
American Public Health Association: January 3, 2017
Public Citizen Opposes H.R. 427, the REINS Act
Public Citizen: July 28, 2015
Letter to the House urging a NO vote on the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2015
Consumers Union: July 28, 2015
AFL-CIO Opposes H.R. 427, the REINS Act
AFL-CIO: July 28, 2015
ASBC Opposes H.R. 427, the REINS Act
American Sustainable Business Council: July 28, 2015
CFA Opposes H.R. 427, the REINS Act
Consumer Federation of America: July 28, 2015
UCS Opposes H.R. 427, the REINS Act
Union of Concerned Scientists: July 28, 2015
Sierra Club Opposes H.R. 427, the REINS Act
Sierra Club: July 28, 2015
Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 427
White House Veto Threat: July 27, 2015
NRDC Opposes H.R. 427, the REINS Act
Natural Resources Defense Council: July 27: 2015
Your Up-to-Date 10-Day Forecast for Capitol Hill: A Blizzard of Anti-Regulatory Bills
Center for Progressive Reform: January 28, 2015
Three Reasons the REINS Act Must be Stopped (Again)
Center for Effective Government: January 23, 2015
14 Ways the 114th Congress Plans to Attack the Environment and Undermine Public Health
Natural Resources Defense Council: January 17, 2015
The REINS Act: Unbridled Impediment to Regulation
Ronald M. Levin, Washington University in Saint Louis School of Law: January 9, 2015
Decoding the Bill: Lobbying Records Show That Electric Utility Industry Dominates Push for Deregulatory ‘REINS’ Legislation
Public Citizen: August 2011
Press Coverage
Regulatory ‘Reform’ That Is Anything But
The New York Times: June 15, 2017
What Is the REINS Act? Health & Safety Regulations Could Be Affected
Bustle: January 27, 2017
Chemical Rules Could Be Foiled by Regulatory Oversight Bill
Bloomberg BNA: January 24, 2017
The End of Government Oversight?
The Atlantic: January 13, 2017
Suspending the Rules: How Congress Plans to Undermine Public Safety
The New Yorker: January 9, 2017
Pass a Regulation, Repeal Another: House Approves Provision Tied to Koch Industries
DeSmog Blog: January 6, 2017
The REINS Act: Handing the Reins of Public Health and Safety Over to Big Corporations
Medium: January 4, 2017
Sorry, Mr. Speaker, This Isn’t a ‘Better Way’
The Hill: June 15, 2016
Industry-Funded Lawmakers Target Public Health and Environmental Protections
The Huffington Post: June 11, 2016
A Lesson From Scalia: Regulatory Reform Is Obstruction
The Hill: February 25, 2016
The Little-Noticed Conservative Plan to Permanently Lock Democrats Out of Policymaking
ThinkProgress: November 16, 2015
House Votes to End All Major New Rules, Again
The Huffington Post: June 28, 2015
Fossil Fuel-Funded Lawmakers Want to Weaken Human and Environmental Health Protections
EcoWatch: June 16, 2015
Industry-Funded Lawmakers Target Public Health and Environmental Protections
The Huffington Post: June 11, 2015
Rand Paul and the Big-Polluter Agenda
The Huffington Post: April 30, 2015
New Life for ‘Zombie’ Regs Bills in Congress
The Hill: February 17, 2015
Senate GOP Building Momentum for Regulatory Reform
The Hill: January 23, 2015
Republicans Introduce Bill to Rein in Regulators
The Hill: January 22, 2015
Republican Statehouse Gains Load the Dice for Anti-EPA Bills
E&E Publishing: January 12, 2015
When It REINS, It Pours: The GOP’s Terrible Plan to Wield Congressional Power Over Agencies
The New Republic: February 10, 2011 | {
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It is pretty disheartening to see the SMT side just become overshadowed by the sheer popularity of Persona. I started with Persona 3, and worked my way into Persona 4 and bought SMTIV on a whim. Ended up enjoying SMTIV way more than Persona 3 and 4.
I played through SMT IV 3 times, fought all the fiends, did all the routes. I tried to go back to Nocturne from there, and while I praise the game a lot, I only made it halfway through. SMT IV had its issues, but the battles were extremely fast paced and fluid, and it made Nocturne feel dated for me. DDS1 has a terrible PS3 port that continually stutters during cutscenes and I could not play it for that reason, and I was genuinely interested in it, and I also can't play its sequel for that reason. Raidou and Strange Journeys battle systems weren't Press Turn and it was hard for me to get into those as well. I'm getting Redux for sure, but it's battle system doesn't hold a candle to Press Turn.
I've been itching to give Nocturne another go, and I probably will when I return home. I'll have SJ Redux to play next year, but Persona keeps getting all the praise and while its not a bad thing, the average fan of P3, P4 and 5 aren't even aware of its roots. It's kinda crazy how unique and groundbreaking this series is, and how much of a foundation it paved for games like Persona to be as unrecognized as it is.
Persona 5 ironically does a great job at showcasing its roots. What complete rando who has only touched the Persona games would recognize and appreciate SMT: if costumes? What's an SMT?? The dungeon design is so reminiscent of Nocturne and DDS, the puzzles (the concepts), some of the music (Futuba's and the final dungeon) feel so similar to areas in those games. The whole final segment Persona 5 is literally a SMT game.
So yeah, I'm extremely excited for the next SMT. And I hope it manages to catch people's attention somehow. | {
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– I en stad som Stockholm som är byggd på öar har broar en avgörande betydelse för hur rörelsemönstren fungerar. Den nya bron är ett fint exempel på hur staden fortsätter koppla samman områden och gör dem mer tillgängliga. Bron är utformad utifrån en Stockholmstradition, i en samtida tolkning, och därför ett bra exempel på hur Stockholm utvecklas framåt, säger juryns ordförande stadsbyggnadsborgarrådet Joakim Larsson.
Sammanlagt kom det i år in drygt 7 000 röster. Vinnaren Folke Bernadottes bro fick nästan 1 700 röster.
Det är elfte året i rad som Stockholms stad arrangerar tävlingen Årets Stockholmsbyggnad. De tio finalisterna gallrades fram av en jury.
Juryns kommentar
Bron ger med sin strategiska placering en helt ny koppling som skapar ett nytt flöde i staden. Med sin fackverkskonstruktion blir den ett nytt inslag men samtidigt en naturlig del av Djurgårdens landskap. En gestaltning med kvaliteter som behållits från den första presenterade idén till sitt slutgiltiga utförande.
Arkitekt bakom projektet är &Rundquist och byggherre är Kungl. Djurgårdens förvaltning.
– ”Folkets kärlek, vår belöning”, kan vi säga och travestera Karl XIV Johan som byggde den första bron på platsen. Så roligt att vinna stockholmarnas hjärtan, säger slottsfogde Magnus Anderson, chef för Kungl. Djurgårdens förvaltning.
– Att få tillföra Djurgården både nya skönhetsvärden och nya samband är fantastiskt roligt. Det är den fjärde bron vi ritar på Djurgården och det är alltid lika spännande, säger arkitekt Henrik Rundquist vid arkitektkontoret &Rundquist.
Graverad bronsplakett
Folke Bernadottes bro fick idag sitt pris i form av en graverad bronsplakett. Priset delades ut av juryns ordförande stadsbyggnadsborgarrådet Joakim Larsson.
Gunnar Björkman, Kungl. Djurgårdens förvaltning, stadsbyggnadsborgarråd Joakim Larsson, Henrik Rundquist, &Rundquist, och Magnus Andersson, Kungl. Djurgårdens förvaltning.
Finalister 2020
De tio finalisterna fick tillsammans 7 059 röster. Rösterna fördelades enligt följande:
Folke Bernadottes bro. 1 674 röster. Trikåfabriken. 1 174 röster Balneum. 740 röster. Gasverket (hus 20). 724 röster. Bobergsskolan. 697 röster. Tegnérs torn. 541 röster. Stockholmshems plusenergihus. 445 röster. Brädstapeln. 401 röster. Baltic Sea Science Center. 399 röster. Snabba hus Råcksta. 264 röster.
Så valdes finalisterna
Tävlingen startade med en nomineringsperiod till och med den 10 februari där alla som ville kunde lämna förslag via mejl eller brev. De nominerade byggnaderna presenterades för en jury som utsåg tio finalister. Juryn utgick från byggnadens arkitektur, hållbarhet, innovation och betydelse för Stockholm. Den 15 april startade omröstningen som var öppen för alla och den pågick till och med den 24 maj. Vinnaren, Årets Stockholmsbyggnad 2020, presenterades den 17 juni.
Tävlingskriterier
Byggnaden ska ligga i Stockholms stad, inom kommungränsen. Det kan vara stora som små byggnationer exempelvis bostadshus, kontor, skolor, parker eller liknande. Det kan även vara en större renovering eller en ombyggnation som är av så stor betydelse. Byggnaden ska ha färdigställts under 2019. | {
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Adrian Docea and Elena Hurjui of Heraldist & Wondermarks, the agency that set up Transylvania Beyond. Heraldist & Wondermarks Two Romanians have launched a DIY immigration campaign to tempt British entrepreneurs who are unhappy with the EU referendum result to relocate to Transylvania.
"Transylvania Beyond" is pushing promoted ads on Facebook saying: "If you don't fancy the idea of being stuck on an island with Boris & Nigel for the rest of your life, we might have a plan."
The post then links to a website encouraging people to move to Transylvania, the Romanian region famous for its association with Dracula. The website, specifically tailored to British citizens, then lists reasons to move such as great scenery, healthcare, good airport connections, fast internet speeds, and a large number of tech specialists.
The website ends with this message: "If you're interested to build a company in Transylvania, let us know and we can introduce you to the startup & tech community in Cluj, Transylvania."
The outreach is tinged with a sad irony — much of the right wing press' campaign against EU immigration has focused around the number of Romanians who have come to the UK. It's heartening to find they still have a place for Brits in their home.
The Transylvania Beyond website is the handiwork of the Transylvania Tourist Board, but that organisation turns out to be a private creative agency, not a government body.
Adrian Docea, one of the two Romanian entrepreneurs behind the project, told Business Insider over email: "We realised Transylvania exists for a thousand years and never had a touristic brand. Or a campaign. Or any kind of marketing strategy. A screenshot of the Facebook ad for Transylvania Beyond. Screenshot/Facebook "We thought it might be the right time, as the Ministry of Tourism didn’t do anything about it for the last quarter of a century. So we did it ourselves. Transylvania is most probably the most famous region in the whole eastern half of the continent. It deserves to be known for more than just vampire stories."
Docea, 35, set up the campaign with his cofounder Elena Hurjui, also 35, through their creative agency Heraldist & Wondermarks, which he describes as "half-agency-half-startup-factory."
Docea says Transylvania Beyond began its Brexit-specific Facebook advertising last week to target "British entrepreneurs who are not happy about the whole Brexit story and consider moving abroad.
He says: "We want them in Transylvania. We’ve got a lot of great things waiting for them here — from excellent tech talents that cost 3 times less than in the UK, low taxes, great broadband connections, high quality of life; all in all, an excellent place to create a tech startup.
"What we don’t have here is a solid entrepreneurial culture. If we can get a few hundred British entrepreneurs to move here and start a business here, we might solve the problem and create the spark that this region needs, in order to become a major tech hub in Europe."
Docea says the campaign has already been "more successful than we could have expected", adding: "Every 9 minutes there’s a new email coming from a British entrepreneur impressed by the story and interested in relocating to Transylvania.
"If we keep going like this, we expect to reach a thousand British entrepreneurs interested in Transylvania in less than a month. If 5% of them will actually start a business here this year, it’s already an amazing achievement for our region."
As well as the Transylvania Beyond campaign, the Guardian reports that Bucharest newspaper Gandul has launched a "Romanians for Remainians" campaign calling for Brits to "leave the Brexiters, the quarrelling and the weather behind" and "start brand new life." | {
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The Detroit News
Rhonda Faehn's tenure as a consultant to the University of Michigan gymnastics program lasted just a matter of days, but the former USA Gymnastics official will be paid $15,000 under her since-terminated contract.
Faehn's hiring, announced Saturday, drew a torrent of criticism over her response to reports of sexual abuse by convicted predator Larry Nassar while at USAG. UM rescinded her hiring Sunday, but associate athletic director Kurt Svoboda said Monday she will be paid a month's salary under her contract.
"Rhonda Faehn's contract called for her to earn $15,000 per month. Per the agreement, UM maintained the right to end the consulting agreement on 30 days' notice," Svoboda said in an email. "As such, Ms. Faehn will be due her stated compensation for the month."
In a statement announcing Faehn's termination, UM Athletic Director Warde Manuel said the university should not have hired her.
"It was the wrong decision, and I apologize," Manuel wrote on the Athletic Department website, mgoblue.com. Our student-athletes are our highest priority and I want to do everything in my power to support them fully and put the focus back on their athletic performance."
The hiring had been heavily criticized by alumni and at least two regents.
"Much to my chagrin, I learned of this employment decision this past Saturday morning," Regent Denise Ilitch said in a statement. "I appreciate the wise observations made by many and share their disappointment. There will be further review of this matter."
Faehn started working as a consultant in a coaching capacity during the team’s trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Thursday and was to have continued with the team through 2019, the Athletic Department said in a news release Saturday afternoon.
Faehn joined UM's coaching staff three months after assistant gymnastics coach Scott Vetere resigned amid allegations of indecent public conduct.
"Following a comprehensive search process working closely with our administration, I am pleased to add Rhonda Faehn to our staff," head coach Bev Plocki said in the Saturday news release. "I have known and respected Rhonda Faehn for over two decades. Her accomplishments in our sport speak for themselves. Her technical knowledge and experience will greatly benefit our student-athletes."
Faehn, a former U.S. national team member in the 1980s who later won three titles as head coach at the University of Florida, joined USA Gymnastics in 2015 and oversaw the women’s elite program.
Shortly after taking over, she was alerted to potential abuse concerns about Nassar, a longtime team physician. Faehn passed along the concerns to then-USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny. Faehn was removed from USA Gymnastics in May.
The organization then conducted an internal investigation before removing Nassar and going to federal authorities. USA Gymnastics did not alert Michigan State, where Nassar was a faculty member, or a club in Michigan affiliated with Nassar.
Nassar, 54, pleaded guilty to molesting women and girls under the guise of treatment and was caught with child pornography. He is serving three prison sentences that will likely keep him locked up for life. | {
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Europeans might be getting used to politicians suggesting they have more sex.
The bloc is increasingly experiencing a developed-world malaise: Birth rates are dramatically falling as more women work and choose to have fewer children, and to have them later. Europeans across the continent are having so many fewer babies that national populations from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean are skewing towards the older end of the spectrum, with not enough young, productive people to keep economies thriving and to look after the rest of the aging population.
Spanish women have 1.3 children on average. In 2015, Spain’s death rate outstripped the birth rate, a situation that had previously only happened during wartime:
Edelmira Barreira Diz was appointed as “commissioner for the demographic challenge” last month. This week, she begins working with communities to understand the nature of the problem (link in Spanish). Changing work and gender dynamics are part of that—Spanish women have their first child on average at 32, which is older than the rest of Europe and older than in Japan, which has a well-known shrinking-population problem. But economics are also likely to be part of the mix, in a country that’s been through a grinding recession and where youth unemployment hit 48% in 2015, second only to Greece.
In a nutshell, Spain’s problem is that people aren’t having enough kids to replace themselves, or replenish the areas that lose young people to cities or opportunities abroad (Spanish.) It’s a vicious cycle: Poor economic prospects lead people to have fewer children, or move away; but the lack of young people then makes those problems ever worse.
Spain is the latest country to take action on the demographic issue, and is perhaps doing so more soberly than some of its neighbors. In 2016, Italy announced its first “Fertility Day” with a tone-deaf campaign that included a young woman holding up an hourglass to signify that time can run out to have children. Sweden and Denmark have both seen cheerful drives in the media and initiatives in politics designed to encourage more sex, and consequently more babies. | {
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The white supremacist gunman told his black victims “you rape our women and you’re taking over our country” as he massacred nine people inside a historic African-American church in the southern city of Charleston, according to news reports. The killer said he thought blacks were trying to take over America. Then he killed the pastor and eight other “invaders.”
( This April 2015 photo released by the Lexington County Detention Center shows Dylann Roof, 21. Photo / AFP)
The young suspect seems to have been steeped in white supremacist culture and the FBI said the killings were being treated as a hate crime. He posed in a jacket with the insignia of Apartheid South Africa and had the flag of the Confederacy on his car’s registration plate.
The white supremacist movement that fostered the killing of nine people by a young white man thrives on the lies told by “mainstream” Republican Party leaders, the same leaders who defend flying the slave flag. For instance when white idiots in Texas said that our black president was planning to use Army exercises to “invade Texas” the governor and Senator Cruz did not denounce the lying idiots but endorsed their views and said they understood them.
As many news reports (including Forbes) noted, Responding to conspiracy theorists jamming the Internet with their fears that the military exercise, dubbed “Jade Helm 15”, was nothing more than a ruse designed to hide the true intentions of the federal government—the invasion of Texas—Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas State Guard to carefully monitor the military training exercise—looking for signs that the military is planning to confiscate Texans’ guns or impose martial law.
Members of the public grew so upset by the suggestion that Obama was coming to take physical and legal control of Texas that more than two hundred people packed a meeting room in Bastrop County, Texas, where they grilled a U.S. Army commander over what his true intentions were with respect to the great State of Texas. Not only was the gathering concerned about a mass taking of their guns and the imposition of martial law, it is reported that there were concerns that the military was going to import actual ISIL fighters to the State of Texas. This is how an Army commander had to spend his day because our military officers have nothing better to do than deal with such ridiculous concerns on the part of a public who , apparently, have little concern for or understanding of what these military leaders really do to keep all Americans—including Texans—safe.
And…
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz told Bloomberg Politics’ David Weigel on Saturday that he understands why Texans are concerned that the 2-month-long joint military exercise known as Jade Helm 15 might signal the end of their state’s sovereignty.
“My office has reached out to the Pentagon to inquire about this exercise,” Cruz said. “We are assured it is a military training exercise. I have no reason to doubt those assurances, but I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty, because when the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration, the natural consequence is that many citizens don’t trust what it is saying.”
The Tea Party has lied for seven years about our black president saying he wasn’t born in America, hated the country is really a Muslim and so on. The Republican leadership has played this game. They too (like the alleged killer) have said that our black president is trying to “take over” the country. The “open carry” movement is part of this reaction to a black in the White House.
It is the anti-gun control, pro-lies about Obama, Republican leadership who are morally responsible for stirring up the hate and acute stupidity of the actual killer through a drumbeat of hate directed at a president they have tried to discredit, defame and verbally kill again and again. They have contributed to a climate of hate against not just President Obama but all black and brown people. The only surprise in the latest killing of black people is that the white murderer was not a cop—for once.
This violence has a long history. It is a history aided and abetted by a morally bankrupt lying Republican Party that has refused to take on American Right wing extremists, mostly because it is led by people just like them. Their overriding theme has been the “take over” of America by the “Other.” Their lies about President Obama and their words were echoed with gunfire today. The greatest threat to American security is not Islamic terror but American Right Wing lies.
Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book —WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD: How to give love, create beauty and find peace
Available now on Amazon | {
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Amy Schumer
Comedian Amy Schumer is traveling on a world tour, performing in cities that range from New Orleans to Sydney, Australia. (Amy Schumer Facebook photo)
Amy Schumer's Oct. 12 appearance in Birmingham has been canceled at the Legacy Arena at the BJCC. Scheduling conflicts are to blame, according to a statement from promoter Live Nation.
Refunds will be automatically issued to those who bought tickets online or by phone using credit cards via Ticketmaster/Live Nation, according to the company's usual policy. Others must return tickets to the place of purchase for refunds.
The comedian and actress, 35, was to make a stop here as part of her world tour. Ticket prices in Birmingham ranged from $39-$109, plus service charges. The local date was the only Alabama stop listed on her tour schedule.
Schumer, known for her freewheeling and often outrageous sense of humor, is the star of "Inside Amy Schumer," a series on Comedy Central. She starred in the 2015 hit movie "Trainwreck," and is the author of a best-selling book, "The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo." | {
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The Drew Reviews – ‘Krampus’ is a Christmas Horror Classic for the Kids
I miss horror movies that were aimed at a younger audience. Someone will point to something like Goosebumps or Monster House as proof that these sort of films still get made, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about movies like The Gate or Poltergeist; these kinds of flicks were well-made enough that the adults in the audience could get more than a kick out of them, but they were genuinely trying to give the young’uns some nightmare fuel. They weren’t pulling punches or trying to play things safe. We just don’t live in a culture that supports scaring the crap out of kids when it comes to their movies.
Thank God (or more appropriately, Satan) then for Krampus. Director Michael Dougherty’s second holiday horror outing is a worthy successor to his delightful Trick ‘r Treat, and in a lot of ways works better at playing to its intended audience. Die-hard horror junkies will probably bemoan the PG-13 rating Krampus is touting, but it’s clear that this was never meant to be a movie for that crowd. This is a rare horror movie for kids that’s not holding back or treating its audience with any gentleness. Krampus is as wicked as its titular character and makes no apologies for itself.
That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty for the grown-ups to glom onto. The solid ensemble cast play their parts with total conviction, allowing for humor and horror in equal measure. The script (co-written by Dougherty, Todd Casey, and Zach Shields) gives us a good amount of time with this dysfunctional family before the insanity hits, and it gives the whole movie a weight that’s lacking in a lot of horror outings.
And let me tell you, that insanity I mentioned is an understatement. Krampus goes nuts by the film’s climax. I think a lot of people will actually be turned off by how steadily paced the film is (everyone in my screening seemed to find the movie boring), but I found it a huge refreshment to most modern horror fare. There isn’t a bunch of false scares or empty tension in the film; everything is consciously escalating to an unavoidable and surprisingly twisted ending filled with stylized monsters and a playfully mean message.
I have to dork-gush about the monsters for a minute, because for any fan of ’80s horror, Krampus is a treasure trove. There’s obviously a Gremlins homage at play here, but what’s insanely surprising is that the inspiration doesn’t stop there. There’s a sly nod to Tremors with one of the beasties, but the best stuff comes from the presents Krampus leaves on the doorstep of our doomed family. It is a Full Moon fan’s dream come true. All of the baddies from Demonic Toys get stellar upgrades (a horrifying jack-in-the-box clown, a gnarly looking teddy bear, a killer robot, and a ghastly angel that stands in for Baby Oopsie-Daisy) and the maniacal gingerbread men in Krampus put The Gingerdead Man to shame. I don’t know how much of this was intentional, but all of it was an absolute blast for me.
Pathetic horror nerd stuff aside, Krampus is also a fantastic looking movie. Dougherty has a clean and simple directorial style that keeps things from ever feeling chaotic. The first time we see Krampus in this film is a perfect shot on a rooftop (you’ve seen it in the trailer), but then we see him leaping across roofs in pursuit of a child and it is awesome. The sound design sells the might of this beast so well and it makes his presence twice as intimidating. It doesn’t hurt that the creature design is so bizarrely nightmarish and almost theatrical. Some of the monsters in this look like they were sketched up by some Frankenstein creature made from parts of Julie Taymor, Tim Burton (the good version), and Hieronymous Bosch.
Dougherty also understands the importance of these kinds of stories as… well, stories. In Trick ‘r Treat, the movie’s tone and anthology format was setup beautifully through its comic book opening credits. In this film, when the time comes for the story of Krampus to be told, the entire tale is done in a faux stop motion sequence that gets across the Grimm’s fairy tale vibe the movie is going for. Where Trick ‘r Treat was a funnybook bit of gallows humor, Krampus is a dusty ol’ tome that wouldn’t look out of place next to an ornate and ancient Bible.
And like a lot of ancient tales, Krampus has a moral to its story. It’s one we’ve seen played out over countless cheeseball Christmas movies: the true spirit of Christmas is about family and giving and yadda yada. What makes Krampus so great is that it’s the Tales from the Crypt version of that tired moral. The opening credits are a sardonic bit of genius, showing a horde of violent shoppers tearing each other to pieces as Johnny Mathis’ “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” plays over the carnage. This sets up the entire film’s purpose: we’ve lost what Christmas is supposed to be about, and it’s time we were punished for it.
Krampus is an unbridled joy. It probably sounds weird to say this, but Krampus made me feel like a kid again. I can see myself finding this movie on TV late at night and being spooked by it so much that I would flip back and forth between the channels in order to alleviate my anxiety. I know most people reserve their inner child for Disney flicks or whatever intellectual property they loved as a wee one getting a big screen adaptation, but my inner child came out in full swing for Krampus. Take the kids to this one and show them that being scared can be a whole bunch of fun.
If you like how stupid I am, you can follow me on Twitter or listen to my podcast. | {
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America is facing a trucker crisis.
As it readies for the busy holiday delivery season, the industry is expecting to be short about 73,000 long-distance drivers, more than three times the shortage of 2005, and that could lead to delivery delays and higher shipping costs.
"It's at a point today where it is an operational hardship. It could soon be that at your store, not everything is there that you are accustomed to being there," said Bob Costello, chief economist and senior vice president of the American Trucking Associations.
"This is an industry that has problems finding drivers," he told the Washington Examiner.
While the country has more than enough big rigs to move America's commerce, the driver shortage is hitting every industry, not just FedEx or UPS. The incoming president of the National Pork Producers Council, for example, said his sprawling industry is being affected, and sometimes he is finding it difficult to get pork products to market or to ports to be shipped overseas.
"We can't get drivers," said Ken Maschhoff, whose Illinois company, the Maschhoffs Inc., is the nation's third-largest pork producer. "There is a severe shortage of truck transport drivers."
Costello explained that the shortage has led to a massive turnover rate, somewhat similar to the IT world where the demands of companies outstrip worker supply.
The American Trucking Associations has raised concerns that if some changes aren't made, the shortage could grow to 174,000 by 2024.
In a report, the group said the shortage is driven partly because of retirements, drivers trying to stay home more instead of being on the road for 10 straight days, low pay and the difficulty of trucking companies to find operators with clean driving records.
The shortage has prompted calls for driverless trucks and a lowering of the interstate driving age from 21.
"Autonomous commercial trucks could eventually have a positive impact on the driver shortage," said a report from the group. "Eventually, one could envision an environment when the longer, line-haul portion of truck freight movements are completed by autonomous trucks and local pick-up and delivery routes are completed by drivers."
As with drones, the federal government would have to approve robotic trucks on the roads.
Costello also said Washington could create a "pilot program" to give drivers younger than 21 a provisional license to haul big rigs across state lines. Currently, several states allow drivers 18-21 to drive tractor-trailers.
To explain the crisis, Costello pointed to truck-driving schools. Typically, students go through hours of classes before getting their commercial driver's license before applying for a job. But now, he said, "on day one they are getting recruited."
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at [email protected] | {
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Wellington Phoenix coach Ufuk Talay has urged Football Federation Australia to suspend the A-League immediately.
As it stands, the Phoenix will fly to Sydney on Tuesday ahead of games against Sydney FC and Newcastle Jets, which cannot go ahead because the players and staff must spend 14 days in self-isolation.
"It's not our decision," Talay said. "If the A-League has decided to continue on and we want to be a part of it then we need to continue on with it.
"I believe it needs a break. Let this all settle down so everyone knows where we stand and then everyone can go on with what they need to do moving forward."
READ MORE
* Phoenix win fourth straight match
* Phoenix season in jeopardy
* A-League faces empty stadiums
* Rojas has got his swagger back
The Phoenix beat Melbourne Victory 3-0 at Sky Stadium on Sunday night in what is expected to be their final game in front of their home supporters, even though another two are scheduled to take place in April.
MASANORI UDAGAWA/GETTY IMAGES Wellington Phoenix's next two games against Sydney and Newcastle next week will be unable to go ahead.
Because of the strict border control protocols enforced by both the New Zealand and Australian governments in an attempt to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, Talay conceded the Phoenix will have to cop 14 days in quarantine before seeing out their remaining games in Sydney.
It is unclear when their next game will be.
"It's a little bit up in the air at the moment. We will travel on Tuesday to Australia and then we'll have to isolate ourselves for the next couple of weeks," he said.
"I don't know [who we will be playing]. We will be flying into Sydney and going from there. There's a possibility that we might stay there and play the remaining games in Australia and might have to continue to play the finals series in Australia as well.
"We'll prepare and get ourselves ready like we're going to be there forever and prepare like we're going to come back the next day."
Talay also confirmed star player Ulises Davila has decided against returning to Mexico to be with his wife and newborn son. Davila, who scored his 11th goal of the season on Sunday, was due to fly home following next week's game against the Jets.
Talay said every member of the squad has agreed to travel to Australia.
"At this stage Uli has decided not to go home and see the season out. We're in discussions. It's very tough. We had a plan in place but we can't control what is happening around the world at the moment and we'll just have to adapt to what's in front of us.
"He wants to stay, he wants to see the season off and finish the best way possible. It was his decision solely.
"He's just worried that if he goes and he comes back in a few weeks time and he has to go into quarantine again. He's very comfortable with his wife being in Mexico with the baby because she's got family over there and he's got family over there as well."
Luke DeVere's wife is also due to give birth in Wellington in the coming days.
"Players are happy to go and play the games, there's no issues. We just have to give them the right information at the right time so they know where they stand."
In farcical scenes, Victory players only learned that they would be required to spend 14 days in self-isolation when they arrived at Sky Stadium two hours before kickoff on Sunday. But Victory manager Carlos Salvachua was still coming to terms with what that actually meant.
"What means isolation? I don't know what that means," he said. "Stay at home? I don't know what it means. I would like to explain but I don't have the information. It's too early to know what is going to happen. Somebody who knows more than me, explain to me please."
That same fate now awaits the Phoenix, unless the FFA steps in and suspends the A-League before Tuesday. Talay urged the federation to show some "common sense".
"I think common sense should prevail. The thing that should be at the forefront is player safety and staff safety. That's what I believe.
"If the environment that we're going into isn't going to be a safe environment, I don't know at the end of the day. We're still going to train and play games, players will still be in contact with other players. I don't know if it's a good environment that we're going into.
"Football is just a game, we enjoy it and play for the spectators but at the end of the day it's more about the health and safety of the people involved in it, and it's not just footballers, it's everybody around the world at the moment." | {
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NASA has reestablished contact with its STEREO-B spacecraft, nearly two years after losing communication with the vehicle. The space agency has been trying to get in contact with the spacecraft since October 1st, 2014, when the last signal from STEREO-B was received on Earth. Finally on Sunday, NASA was able to pick up a signal from the vehicle using the Deep Space Network, or DSN — an international network of large radio antennas used for communicating with spacecraft.
The space agency has been trying to get in contact with the spacecraft since October 1st, 2014
STEREO-B is one of two spacecraft that make up NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO). The goal of the program is to study the Sun and better understand its behavior. Specifically, STEREO aims to figure out the origins of coronal mass ejections — massive explosions of charged particles that sometimes shoot out from the Sun. These plasma bursts travel all the way to Earth and collide with our planet’s magnetic field, creating powerful geomagnetic storms that can damage communications satellites and mess with our planet’s power grid.
To study these solar outbursts, NASA launched STEREO-A and STEREO-B in 2006. Both spacecraft were inserted into heliocentric orbits; STEREO-A positioned itself "ahead" of Earth, while STEREO-B fell "behind" Earth. These positions allowed the spacecraft to get even more views of the Sun that we can’t get from Earth. The two vehicles have since drifted farther apart on their orbits, though, and will continue to do so while in space.
The current positions of STEREO-A (shown in red) and STEREO-B (shown in blue). (NASA)
But STEREO-B has been offline for the past two years, after NASA reset the spacecraft on purpose in 2014. Prior to the reset, both STEREO-A and STEREO-B had moved to the far side of the Sun, making communication with the vehicles difficult. In order to send signals to Earth, the spacecraft had to point their antennas a lot closer to the Sun, which increased the risk of the antennas getting overheated. So NASA had decided to angle the antennas away from the Sun and put the STEREO spacecraft into a year-long safe mode until they could safely communicate with Earth again. To prepare for this, NASA put the two vehicles through a series of tests and resets to see if they would be ready for the repositioning and hibernation. STEREO-A performed just fine, but STEREO-B failed to send signals back to Earth after one of the planned resets.
STEREO-B failed to send signals back to Earth after a planned reset
NASA has tried establishing communication with STEREO-B ever since. Recently, the space agency has tried using the DSN every month to pick up signals from the spacecraft, and the efforts finally proved fruitful this past weekend when contact with STEREO-B was established at 6:27PM ET on August 21st. The mission team plans to continue communicating with the spacecraft to figure out what kind of shape it's in and regain attitude control.
How NASA pulled off the Pluto flyby | {
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There's no arguing that every dog is absolutely incredible in their own special way. They have such unique personalities and characteristics that make us instantly fall head over heels for them. They're loyal to a fault and will love you tremendously. Of course, they never run away from a good belly rub, which, to be honest, is comforting for you and them. Dalmatians are no exception. They're adorable, and they're kind of awe-inspiring. I mean, just look at those beautiful spots!
There's something about seeing an adorable Dalmatian that gives us so much love. Here are a few things you ought to know about them:
1. THEY HAVE MANY NAMES.
Over the years, the breed has gone by other nicknames. These include the carriage dog and English Coach Dog, the Carriage Dog, and the Fire House Dog. Those make sense, but other British names include the Plum Pudding Dog and the Spotted Dick. Not hard to figure why that last one went out of fashion.
2. THEIR ORIGINS.
Like many other old breeds, the origins of the Dalmatian are hard to pin down. Some people believe the dogs come from Dalmatia, a region in modern day Croatia. The canines were dogs of war and used as sentinels. Others believe the dogs are as old as the ancient Egyptians—paintings of spotted dogs running by chariots can be found in the tombs.
3. THEY’RE BEST KNOWN AS FIREDOGS.
Dalmatians have many talents, but they’re possibly best known for their skills as coaching dogs. The canines get along famously with horses, making them the ideal dog to run alongside carriages. The helpful Dals warded off stray dogs, guarded the coach at stops, and most importantly, kept the horses calm.
This job eventually translated to the firehouse, where Dalmatians would run behind fire trucks. Horses were skittish around fire, but the Dals kept them composed. Their distinct features also make them a great mascot, so you can still find the dogs riding in modern fire trucks today. As a bonus, they’re also excellent ratters and keep firehouses pest-free.
4. BEST MATES WITH HORSES.
Because they were bred to follow coaches and spent a great deal of time in the stable, dals tend to get along very well with horses. If you trail ride, a well-trained dal can easily keep up with you and your horse.
5. BUDWEISER STILL USES THEM.
Keeping with the tradition of coach dogs, Budweiser keeps three Dalmatians to travel with the Clydesdale hitches. The breed has been associated with the brewery since 1950, when a Dal was introduced as the Budweiser Clydesdales' mascot. The current Budweiser dogs are named Chip, Brewer, and Clyde.
6. THEY WERE BORN SPOTLESS.
Despite being covered in spots in adulthood, puppies are born white, without spots. Pups generally don’t grow their trademark spots until about 10 to 14 days, and spots continue to appear on the dog's body as it grows. This news might come as a shock as it directly negates what the Disney movie 101 Dalmatians might have suggested.
7. SPOTS CAN BE FOUND EVERYWHERE.
No two dalmatians have the same number and pattern of spots. Your dal's coat is absolutely one-of-a-kind, just like a snowflake. Cruella DeVille probably didn't know this fact when she was plotting to make herself a dalmatian coat. If she'd succeeded, the pattern wouldn't have matched. While most dals are white with black spots, others are white with liver, or brown spots. These two colors are permitted in the breed standard. Dals with yellow spots or tri-colored dals, those with brown and black spots, can't be exhibited in the show ring. While the spotting process slows as the dog ages, even older dals continue to get new spots. Every Dal is different, but most have these marks all over their body. If you open up a Dal's mouth, you can even find spots in their mouth.
8. GENETIC PREDISPOSITION TO DEAFNESS.
According to the Dalmatian Club of America, up to 30 percent of Dalmatians are deaf as a result of their spotted markings. Breeding dogs with this coat can lead to a lack of mature melanocytes (melanin producing cells) in the inner ear. Without these, dogs can become hard of hearing. Dogs with larger patches of black are less likely to be deaf. Many other dals can hear in only one ear.
9. THE DISNEY MOVIE.
101 Dalmatians in any of its several screen versions might have been your introduction to the breed. The downside of those popular films is that some viewers decide the dal is the breed for them without doing the right research, and unscrupulous breeders start mass-producing poorly-bred puppies. That means many dals ended up in shelters when their owners realize what an energetic dog they bought. If you really want a dal, research the breed and only buy from a reputable breeder. | {
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Republicans love to teach their hate-filled Theocon brand of pseudo-Christianity disguised as education. They almost got away with doing just that, teaching hatred for Muslims, at a Lane Community College here in Oregon. The school learned of their deception and pulled the plug. Now Pat Robertson’s legal group is suing the school.
Barry Sommer was supposed to teach a non-credited class at Lane Community College in Oregon entitled "What is Islam?"
But that was before the Council on American-Islamic Relations alerted them to the fact that Sommer was the president of an Oregon chapter of the anti-Islam group "ACT! for America," started by Brigitte Gabriel to save [hate group delinked] Western Civilization from the "authoritarian values of radical Islam, such as the celebration of death, terror and tyranny" and that he had a history of making anti-Islam statements.
So Lane College dropped the class , for which not even one student had signed up, and Sommer was out the $160 he would have been paid for teaching it … and so, of course, Pat Robertson’s American Center for Law and Justice has taken up the case is the threatening to sue Lane College if it doesn’t let Sommer teach this course:
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) said today it is demanding that an Oregon community college rehire a teacher fired after the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) complained about a class he was scheduled to teach about the religion of Islam. The ACLJ, which represents the instructor, contends that Lane Community College (LCC) in Eugene, Oregon violated the contractual and constitutional rights of the teacher by firing him and canceling the class because of pressure from CAIR. | {
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Sony Corp said CEO Kazuo Hirai would be handing over the reins to finance chief Kenichiro Yoshida, while it also hiked its annual profit forecast further to a record that highlights the revival in fortune they have both engineered.
FILE PHOTO: Sony Corp's Chief Financial Officer Kenichiro Yoshida attends a news conference at its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, February 2, 2017. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
The change in helm, while a major surprise, is expected to go down well with investors who have been pleased with Yoshida’s no-nonsense approach to restructuring after he became CFO in 2014.
Once a market leader in consumer electronics, the maker of the Walkman and Trinitron TV fell behind the likes of Apple in innovation after the release of the iPod in 2001 and then the iPhone in 2007. It then also lost out to more nimble Asian rivals in price competition.
Hirai and Yoshida together streamlined Sony’s unprofitable electronics businesses and then capitalised on the spread of smartphones with image sensors.
People familiar with the 58-year old Yoshida describe him as a reserved foil to the more flamboyant “Kaz” Hirai, but also a forceful partner who pushed through many controversial changes, including the sale of its Vaio PC division and spinning off its TV business.
Vindicating those measures, Sony quadrupled its profits to mark its best-ever third quarter, helped by robust demand for image sensors as smartphone makers increasingly adopt dual-lens rear cameras, as well as strong sales of gaming software for the PlayStation 4 console.
That prompted the 72-year old company to lift its annual operating profit to 720 billion yen ($6.6 billion) for the year through March, versus a prior forecast of 630 billion yen that would have also been a record high.
Yoshida’s next challenge is to make sure Sony keeps up this momentum even after the impact of restructuring and demand for image sensors wear off, analysts said.
“The part where he’s still not tested, and we really have to see, is whether or not he can inspire the creative aspect of Sony,” said Macquarie’s Damian Thong.
“There’s a need to inspire a new generation of engineers who are meant to take Sony technology and Sony know-how to create breakthrough products in new markets, and this is the crucial test that he faces,” Thong added.
Yoshida told a news conference Sony needed to become more competitive globally as it is now dwarfed by rival tech companies in terms of market value. The Japanese firm is worth some $63 billion - less than a tenth of Apple’s market capitalisation.
“Market value is not everything but if we do use this yardstick, then the world’s biggest companies are all technology companies...As Sony is a tech company, I do feel a sense of urgency about this,” he said.
Known for imposing discipline and getting the job done, Yoshida had rattled some parts of the company, including its Hollywood studio business.
Leaked emails from a hack at Sony Pictures show the then CEO of Sony Entertainment, Michael Lynton, confiding to studio co-chair Amy Pascal that he was under “enormous pressure” after Yoshida sought a review of executives’ pay.
Yoshida will be taking on the top job at Sony on April 1, replacing Hirai who has been CEO since 2012. Hirai, 57, will stay on as chairman.
Sony’s stock rose nearly 2 percent on Friday while the broader market was down about a percent. | {
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Från 1960-talet och framåt har svenska myndigheter i reform efter reform bortsett från utbildningskvalitet och hävdat att jämlikhet är viktigare än kvalitet. För att stärka Sveriges position inför framtiden behöver vi genast göra upp med en ideologi som har skadat landet, utkräva ansvar och snabbt få igång grundskolor och lärarutbildning som fokuserar inlärning.
Jag har under några år studerat svenska skolreformer och läroplaner från 1960-, 70- och 80-talen. Ordet ”läroplaner” för tanken till planeringsdokument men det rör sig om lagar. Bevisen för att reformerna ledde till sjunkande kunskaper fanns tidigt.
Under 1950-talet fanns ett behov av att bygga ut utbildningen, eftersom barnkullarna var stora och man ville modernisera skolan. Reformatorerna "passade på” att samtidigt ta bort alternativ som realskola, flickskola och yrkesskola för yngre elever för att införa ”enhetsskola” senare kallad grundskola. Samstämmiga rapporter talade redan från början om disciplinproblem och låg kunskapsnivå.
Inför beslutet om införande av grundskola vädjade 11 000 lärare från realskola och gymnasium till politikerna att inte införa den nya skolformen, men de ignorerades. "Läroplan för grundskolan 1962" slog fast att den nioåriga skolan inte hade något specifikt slutmål och att elever skulle flyttas till högre årskurs oavsett hur de hade klarat studierna. Elevernas skiftande nivå skulle läraren hantera genom att ”individualisera inom klasens ram”. Lärarna påpekade att detta var omöjligt, eftersom det kunde skilja fem eller sex år i kunskap och mognad mellan eleverna.
Läroplanen tog bort alla valmöjligheter utom den att välja ett språk och mellan svårare eller lättare kurs i främmande språk och matematik. Det var lärarens skyldighet att motivera eleven med grupparbete och verklighetsanknytning, och eleverna skulle inte behöva studera samma sak utan bara samma ”huvudmoment”. Betyg i ordning och uppförande togs bort. Detta var Olof Palmes reform som utbildningsminister.
På 1970-talet visade många rapporter att både svaga och studiemotiverade elevers kunskaper sjönk. Specialundervisningen ”exploderade” och hade blivit dyr. Reformatorerna införde 1976 SIA-reformen, utläst ”skolans inre arbete”, som slog fast att eventuell stödundervisning skulle ges ”inom klassens ram”. Elever med studieproblem skulle arbeta i samma klassrum som andra elever. Klassrummen blev oroligare, och det var svårare att koncentrera sig på inlärning. Detta var Lena Hjelm-Walléns första reform som minister.
Nästa steg var "Läroplan för grundskolan 1980". Myndigheterna var medvetna om problemen och beslutade decentralisera resursanvändningen för att se om problemen kunde lösas lokalt. Temaarbete anbefalldes för att individualisera, men detta fick inte leda till olika meritering för eleverna. Hela grundskolan var nu i praktiken ”fritt valt arbete”. Reformen förbereddes av den socialdemokratiska regeringen men infördes under den moderata skolministern, Britt Mogård.
Grundskolereformerna avslutas med lärarutbildningsreformen LUT, som beslutades 1985. Lärarna skulle studera mer pedagogik och psykologi för att stödja eleverna socialt och emotionellt och lägga mindre vikt vid inlärning. Högstadielärarna skulle läsa fler ämnen men mer ytligt. Trots protester genomfördes reformen. Lärare med ett djupt ämnesintresse började undvika grundskolan. Detta var Lena Hjelm-Walléns andra skolreform.
Slutsats? Svenska myndigheter har avsiktligt använt skolan som verktyg för social förändring snarare än för inlärning, och den ideologin lever kvar trots de björklundska förändringarna. Vi vet sedan mer än ett halvt sekel att den ger dåliga resultat trots stora investeringar. För att vända utvecklingen till 2050 måste ämneskunskap prioriteras i lärarutbildning och på elevnivå. Vi måste bryta med idén att det är viktigare att det inte får finnas någon skillnad mellan elever än att eleverna går framåt i kunskaper. Vi måste våga säga att ingen elev har rätt att frånta andra elever deras rätt till utbildning. Det krävs mod att ompröva ideologier som slagit fel. Personer som påstår att det bara behövs mer pengar är okunniga om svensk skolhistoria.
Inger Enkvist
Professor vid Språk- och litteraturcentrum i Lund | {
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Update: An update to the TPCAST website claims the Vive system adds less than 2 milliseconds of latency, and HTC addressed skepticism surrounding the accessory.
Yesterday we brought you news that HTC and Vive X company TPCAST were planning to release a wireless upgrade kit for the HTC Vive, with pre-orders going live today. Clearly, a lot of you wanted one.
Alvin W. Graylin, China Regional President of Vive at HTC, told UploadVR that the kit had completely sold out of its initial stock, set to ship in Q1 2017, in 18 minutes. Pre-orders went live just over an hour ago at 7 a.m. Pacific. The device was only available to pre-order through Vive’s Chinese website, but Graylin previously confirmed that anyone across the globe could order one through there.
The upgrade kit has two SKUs, one of which has an extended battery. Only the standard model was available to pre-order. Graylin stated that the model with the larger battery should be available in Q1 too, though it won’t be a part of the first production run, meaning these sold out units will likely be shipped first. HTC is prioritizing existing Vive owners, and the purchase process asked for the serial number of your unit. Graylin said another wave of pre-orders may arrive next month, and that they might be more accessible to international customers.
TPCAST’s product is an accessory that attaches to the Vive and wirelessly connects to a PC, allowing you to play any Vive game without having to physically tether the headset to the machine. Graylin told us that there was “no noticeable difference” when using the kit compared to a regular Vive, though we haven’t been able to go hands-on yet to verify that for ourselves. A translation of TPCAST’s website notes that the kit has a “lowest latency” of 15ms, however.
We have plenty of other questions about the kit, and we can’t wait to try it for ourselves. | {
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This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — The LDS Church responded Wednesday to statements made to the Washington Post by a popular Brigham Young University professor.
Professor's statements
In a Feb. 28 Washington Post article, Randy Bott, an associate professor in BYU's Department of Church History, provided what he reportedly believed to be a possible explanation for the church's policy until 1978 of forbidding blacks from holding the priesthood.
"What is discrimination?" Bott told the Post. "I think that is keeping something from somebody that would be a benefit for them, right? But what if it wouldn't have been a benefit to them?"
Bott reportedly told the Post the ban protected blacks from what the newspaper described as "the lowest rungs of hell," where they would have been sent had they abused their priesthood powers.
"You couldn't fall off the top of the ladder, because you weren't on the top of the ladder," he reportedly told the Post. "So, in reality the blacks not having the priesthood was the greatest blessing God could give them."
Reaction from the LDS Church
In a statement issued Wednesday by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Spokesperson Michael Purdy said Bott's statements "absolutely do not represent the teachings and doctrines" of the LDS Church, adding that "it is unfortunate that the Church was not given a chance to respond to what others said."
"The Church's position is clear—we believe all people are God's children and are equal in His eyes and in the Church," Purdy said. "We do not tolerate racism in any form … We condemn racism, including any and all past racism by individuals both inside and outside the Church."
The Church's position is clear—we believe all people are God's children and are equal in His eyes and in the Church. –Michael Purdy
Bott reportedly told the Post that the Book of Abraham, a text found in LDS scripture, suggests descendants of Egyptus — herself a descendant of Cain, who according to Christian theology killed his brother — and Ham, himself cursed, were black-skinned because of the curse, and thus banned from holding the priesthood.
Purdy said it is not clear why the restriction on blacks holding the priesthood was put in place, or why it was lifted in 1978, but that attempts to explain the restriction should be "viewed as speculation and opinion, not doctrine."
"The Church is not bound by speculation or opinions given with limited understanding," Purdy said.
The Church also posted Wednesday on its newsroom blog a more detailed explanation of the history of the ban and an unequivocal condemnation of "any and all past racism by individuals both inside and outside the Church."
"The gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone," the post read. "The Book of Mormon states, ‘black and white, bond and free, male and female; … all are alike unto God.'"
LDS African American experts weigh in
Margaret Blair Young, a BYU professor who has written extensively about black pioneers in the LDS Church, said she's concerned about the impact Bott's statements will have.
BYU religion professor Randy Bott speaking to a class. (Photo by Stuart Johnson/Deseret News)
"Most people will not know that Randy Bott is an anomaly, and that's the problem," Young said. "I don't know if the Church statement will go as far as that Washington Post article went."
Don Harwell is the leader of the Genesis Group, a monthly gathering of black LDS members, and was also quoted in the Post article. While he admits he is bothered by the professor's comments, he believes a lot of good has already come from the article — in the form of the Church's statement — and hopes those both in and out of the Church will take it to heart.
"It's the first time I've heard the Church step up and say that much — that (racism is) not tolerated," Harwell said. "We don't believe it, we don't practice it, and we're not going to tolerate it. So, to me, it's a big deal."
University officials added Wednesday to Purdy's comments.
"The comments attributed to Professor Bott do not reflect the teachings in the classroom at Brigham Young University," said Terry Ball, dean of Religious Education at BYU.
The university told KSL News Bott was not available for comment Wednesday.
---
Contributing: Sam Penrod
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During the international conference in Occupied Jerusalem with the French Ambassador, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu described Muslims as “animals” who need to be defeated. According to Israel Hayom daily, Netanyahu made this statement during the foreign diplomats conference, tackling last week’s attacks on France.
Referring to Muslims as “dangerous animals,” Netanyahu also said that there were a lot of them in [Israel], adding that the world needs to understand the seriousness of the problem, indicating the need to “defeat these animals.”
“The beasts increasingly have a name — it is radical Islam. That is what is doing the killing, the murder, the rape, the burning, the beheading.
A day before, the Israeli minister of Education, MK Naftali Bennett said that “[Israel] should have killed more [Arabs] because anyone who lifts a hand against Israel must die.”
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Could you be an arbiter?
“Where am I? Who am I?” “You’re an arbiter, made to judge the souls of human beings. The game you will use? One known as life, capable of revealing the greatest darknesses and greatest glories of the human spirit.”
Allow me to suggest that we all possess, in varying degrees, a desire to be an arbiter of the people who surround us. That there is an inhuman, unsympathizing Decim within each of us who seeks to judge—fairly or not—on the basis of our unavoidably limited experiences with other individuals. Yet, fortunately, we all also possess the capacity to emulate Chiyuki and her desire to reach out and understand the humans who are at once laughably simple and impossibly complex.
In unpacking Death Parade [Madhouse, 2015], it’s critical not to get bogged down in the details of the show’s universe. While the anime certainly does discredit the arbiter system for the inherent injustice of compressing the entirety of a human person into a cluster of memories and one harsh situation, the system itself is not Death Parade‘s real target. There’s no point to that! Creating a fictional situation only to point out how unjust the fictitious system is would be an empty, pointless endeavor. Shouting into the void of fiction, if you will. No, Death Parade merely uses its created system to point to an even more fundamentally wrong element: judging human beings in the first place. That’s right, the only thing Death Parade truly condemns is judgment itself.
The temptation at this point is to distance oneself from that message, to keep “judgment is wrong” in the abstract or even to contradict it—”what about courts of law?”—but to do either of those things misses the point. Death Parade specifically and intentionally implicates the viewer in the judgments at Quindecim; we’re not allowed to simply stand by in watch like Decim’s dolls, nor are we free (as Decim is initially) to make judgments without consequences.
In the early episodes of the show, there was a big ruckus about the final decision of the judgments and over which character was sent to the void and which character was sent to be reincarnated. The commotion struck me as missing the larger point of the episodes, but it also demonstrated a certain level of audience engagement with the judgments. In other words, viewers were actively taking part in the judgment of the characters, carrying their concern into the question of “who went where? who was judged to be wrong?” Death Parade‘s deliberate ambiguity as to the answers for those questions in those episodes was an early clue to what the show was all about, and its second episode was critical in establishing a relationship critical not only of the arbiter system, but of the audience as well.
In episode 2, entitled “Death Reverse,” we’re introduced to the black-haired woman we’ll later come to know as Chiyuki and again watch the same judgment game as in the first episode, this time from Chiyuki’s perspective, rather than Decim’s. By the end of the episode, Chiyuki has suggested that the judgment made in the first episode could have been an error, that Machiko could have lied in order to save Takashi’s soul. No definitive answer is given by the show as to the accuracy of her suspicion, aside from Nona’s assertions of Takashi’s fault (which, incidentally, opposes the results of Decim’s verdict), calling into question not only the rightness of Decim’s judgment, but also the audience’s willingness to accept his judgment in the first episode as correct. Decim was not the only one possibly in the wrong, but we who tacitly agreed with his decision, as well.
As Chiyuki’s doubtful influence begins to permeate the show and the illegitimacy of the judgments is made more explicit, the show’s ability to implicate the audience through tricks like this fades. In their place comes the more uncomfortable existence of the arbiters, specifically Decim and Ginti. They may be dolls (albeit one with imbedded human emotions), but they are, for all we can visually tell, indistinguishable from other humans. Their inhumanity is not demonstrated through their outward appearances, but in the cold way they relate to the souls that come to them for judgment. Of course, the extremity of Decim and Ginti’s behavior provides the audience with a certain amount of distance from the two arbiters, but the point remains: their distinguishing characteristic, the thing that makes them most inhuman, is that they are arbiters, beings who judge.
Lest the conclusion I’m driving at be a bit ambiguous still, let’s take another example: the detective Tatsumi, who appears in episodes 8 and 9, “Death Rally” and “Death Counter.” In contrast to his competitor Shimada, Tatsumi is markedly calm and logical about their unknown state, calmly assessing the situation using his detective’s mind (invoking comparisons to Decim’s personality). However, as the game nears its conclusion, we watch Tatsumi degrade into a wild, terrifying, psychopathic beast—a monstrous portrait of a man who has lost his humanity (a condition that aligns him more closely with Ginti). Hung up by Decim’s wires like a doll, Tatsumi describes himself as “shockingly dispassionate” after getting over the emotional distress of his wife’s murder through revenge and, furthermore, labels himself as a judge over other humans, divinely called to dispense vengeance at the sake of allowing others to be victimized. It’s a profoundly disturbing and profoundly inhuman stance—and it clearly draws the line between judgment and a lack of humanity.
Those who judge…are inhuman.
1. Arbiters cannot quit making judgments, for that is the reason why they exist. 2. Arbiters cannot experience death, for that would bring them too close to being human. 3. Arbiters cannot feel emotions, for they are dummies. 4. Arbiters cannot work hand in hand with life, for that will ruin them.
The second and third laws or the arbiters make clear the necessary connection between inhumanity and judgment. If an arbiter takes on too many human qualities, their ability to judge is compromised.
Reverse this statement and we arrive at: those who are human cannot judge. But if not judgment, then what? How are we supposed to relate to the people around us—the good people, the bad people, the people who are both, as most are? The act of attempting to understand, Death Parade, suggests, is enough.
I write “act of attempting to understand” with purpose, for there is no real way for humans to ever truly understand each other. Why does it take Decim so long to understand Chiyuki and Chiyuki to understand herself and those around her?
At age 77, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the long-time advocate for women’s rights and the first president for the National American Woman Suffrage Association, resigned from her position as president of NAWSA and gave “The Solitude of Self” as her resignation speech, an intimate and solemn reflection on the self-contained nature of the human being. Born out of her personal experience as an isolated housewife in the days before her activism, the speech concludes with these lines:
And yet, there is a solitude which each and every one of us has always carried with him, more inaccessible than the ice-cold mountains, more profound than the midnight sea; the solitude of self. Our inner being which we call ourself, no eye nor touch of man or angel has ever pierced. It is more hidden than the caves of the gnome; the sacred adytum of the oracle; the hidden chamber of Eleusinian mystery, for to it only omniscience is permitted to enter. Such is individual life. Who, I ask you, can take, dare take on himself the rights, the duties, the responsibilities of another human soul? [1]
I have somewhat co-opted Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s words from their initial context, but the point she makes here is incredibly relevant to the reason it is so difficult for human beings to connect to each other and the reason judgment of them is ultimately impossible. Human beings do not even understand themselves; how can they possibly understand each other? There is no way, not even by sifting through the memories of someone, to fully reveal the essence of a single person. In the words of Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, “No one can tear down his own dungeon; no one knows who inhabits the next cell. Conjecture can grope its way from man to woman, from child to adult […] Beings are alien to one another, even if they do stand beautifully by one another […] Variegation pays the price of a bitter separation.” [2] Balthasar’s (and Stanton’s, as well) point here is that the individuality of human beings is the very thing that separates us from each other.
You cannot understand another person because you are not them.
Our experiences of others are but snapshots of a human being. They are fractured, fragmented visions of separate existence’s nature, inherently incomplete. Just as the arbiters only see pieces of the judged souls’ lives, we only know what we know about those around us. [3] The solitude that afflicts each of use similarly affects all those around us as we all live in our cells, out of which we glimpse only short impressions of the thousands of humans who surround us in cells of their own.
The final line of Stanton’s speech is an arresting challenge to the concept of judging another human being. Whenever judgment, whether by arbiters or by us, is imposed upon another, we are taking upon ourselves the significant responsibility of that verdict’s accuracy. In light of the extreme limitations on our knowledge of others, do we dare to take on their rights, duties, responsibilities, strengths, flaws, goodness, and badness? Likewise, do we dare the arrogance of attempting to understand an existence entirely separate from ourselves?
Death Parade and I agree on this point: yes, we ought to dare. As Chiyuki says, reneging on her earlier, self-centered assertion to the contrary, “I’m sure it’s not wrong for people to want to understand each other. And even if it is, I want us to understand each other.” [5] This is why Chiyuki cannot press the button. And this is what ultimately pushed the inhuman Decim into the realm of humanity. Unable to bear the sorrow of the pain he’s caused Chiyuki with the sham reality in an effort to understand her better, he truly does come to an understanding of what it means to have sorrow.
The touching reversal of Decim’s efforts comes as he desperately tries to apologize through his own tears—”I am an arbiter” (remember the first arbiter rule?)—and Chiyuki simply says, “I get it.” She doesn’t judge him, she doesn’t condemn him for making her suffer. She simply does her best to understand the fate of a being designed to judge, forgiving him and reaching into the inhuman to humanize him, giving him permission to try to understand despite the the pain he caused her.
If those who judge are inhuman, then those who seek to understand are human.
So, where does this all leave us? I wrote at the beginning of this piece that we ought to resist the temptation to distance ourselves from the messages of Death Parade. “Let he who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.” [4] We all have a piece of our soul that is filled with darkness. We all have a piece of our soul capable of producing the most incomparable light. If we judge others, we judge ourselves.
Let us put down the tools of judgment, conceding to the solitude our nature and our inability to ever fully know another. Instead, let us make all efforts to understand each other, even the worst of our species, knowing that we will never entirely succeed, but trusting that, in reaching out to the inhumanity of others and letting others reach out to the inhumanity in us, we may bring peace to each other’s lives.
It is indeed a supremely optimistic and, perhaps, naive quest However, I think Death Parade shows us the small moments of connection are more than worth the pain it takes to get there.
[1] “Solitude of Self.” Given by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1892. (Source – Library of Congress)
[2] Heart of the World by Hans Urs von Balthasar, p. 19-20. (Ignatius Press, 1979)
[3] Nyan.
[4] John 8:7
[5] One of the prominent visual motifs in Death Parade is the use of eyes. Close-ups, crying, and the unnatural crosses that mark the eyes of the arbiters all draw attention to the organs of the body often known as “the windows to the soul.” How appropriate, then, for the camera to focus on those reflectors of the human person’s inner self, the face’s most expressive way of revealing the truth of an individual’s internal soul. Such a focus prompts us to consider the depth of the person behind those eyes. | {
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EscapeSF is open and is offering Limited Services for our in-person games - see booking schedule
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The comparison in the title is one that has come up over the last couple of days. Vancouver Sun reporter Elliott Pap brought up one of the Canucks’ greatest trade victories in his take on the Kassian-for-Hodgson deal, and suggested that this time the Canucks might find themselves on the other end of things.
How do Kassian and Stojanov compare?
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Here is Pap’s comparison:
Stojanov, like Kassian, was huge (6-4, 230), had a mean streak and was considered more than pure cement. He had butted heads with Eric Lindros in junior and was expected to do that again in the NHL against not only Lindros, but all the large players of the day. He was also a first-round pick. In fact, he went nine spots ahead of Naslund in the 1991 entry draft.
What Pap writes here is true: Stojanov wasn’t drafted to be a goon, he was drafted to be a power forward. At first glance, the junior numbers of each player at the same age look remarkably similar too:
Stojanov
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Season GP G A PTS 82GP Pace Draft 62 25 20 45 60 Draft+1 33 12 15 27 67 Draft+2 49 36 35 71 119
Kassian
Season GP G A PTS 82GP Pace Draft 61 24 39 63 85 Draft+1 38 12 19 31 67 Draft+2 56 26 51 77 113
The number on the far right is each player’s projected point totals over an 82-game season. In their draft year, we see Kassian ahead of Stojanov, but in the two years following both players look remarkably similar.
Despite this apparent similarity, there is a huge gap in performance and it favours Kassian. The OHL of Stojanov’s era was a far higher-scoring place. Consider this draft year comparison: Stojanov played for the 1990-91 Hamilton Dukes, a team that scored 270 goals and was outscored by 12 of the other 15 OHL teams. Nine teams out of 16 that season scored 300+ goals. A team scoring 270 goals in 2008-09, Kassian’s draft year, would have outscored 17 of the OHL’s 20 teams. Just one of the 20 teams in Kassian’s draft year scored 300 goals.
How do we compensate for era effects? One way to do it is to calculate the total difference in goals scored/game as a percentage, and then adjust the player’s goal-scoring by that same percentage. What we’ll do now is adjust Stojanov’s scoring over his three OHL seasons to reflect how it likely would have looked had he played in the OHL at the same time as Kassian.
Stojanov, Adjusted For Era
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Season GP G A PTS 82GP Pace Draft 62 19 15 34 45 Draft+1 33 9 12 21 52 Draft+2 49 29 28 57 95
While Stojanov still comes across as more than pure cement, we can see daylight between his totals and those of Kassian; Kassian was clearly the superior player in junior.
When we get to the professional level, things get even more stark.
What should have been Stojanov’s first professional season, in 1993-94, turned out to be just four games. A serious shoulder injury required surgery, and it would be a mistake to understate the impact this injury had on his career. A year later – and again, keep in mind that thus is during an era where the average AHL team scored 22% more than do now – Stojanov would pick up just 30 points in a 73-game season. A year after that, in Stojanov’s third professional season, he played 58 games for Vancouver, recording a single assist. Only at this point did the Canucks trade Stojanov to Pittsburgh, after one professional season lost to injury and two more that showed a devastating lack of scoring touch.
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Zack Kassian is in his first professional season. Just 29 games into his NHL career, Kassian already has as many points as Stojanov would pick up over his 107 games at hockey’s highest level – and when Stojanov was the same age Kassian is now, he had yet to play an NHL game. There has been no career derailing injury. Kassian’s AHL results this season, as a rookie professional, are far superior to anything Stojanov accomplished at the minor league level over his entire career – and that’s before we account for the fact that Stojanov played in a higher-scoring era.
Zack Kassian may or may not rise to the heights some project him to attain. But there’s no chance that he’s the new Alek Stojanov.
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I've done a fair amount of tinkering with cloud programming during the past couple of years. With cloud programming, you can easily deploy a Web application to a cluster of servers that will be distributed and managed with the help of the cloud infrastructure. But one of the hard parts is developing the software on your local development machines and then testing it against the cloud servers.
Amazon recognized this difficulty and has created a plug-in for the Eclipse IDE called AWS (Amazon Web Services) Toolkit for Eclipse. But don't let the term "plug-in" fool you: I went into this evaluation expecting a single little dialog box with a few minimal features. I was pleasantly surprised to find full integration of AWS into Eclipse, providing complete control over managing remote instances, uploading code, running code remotely and even debugging remotely without leaving Eclipse.
The AWS Toolkit for Eclipse currently supports two aspects of AWS-EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) management and SimpleDB management. With the EC2 management, you can configure your servers and debug remotely. With the SimpleDB management, you can graphically define your SimpleDB domains, items and attributes.
To use the AWS Toolkit, you need to be set up with an account on Amazon AWS. Once you are, Eclipse includes a dialog box letting you enter your account information.
Once you have all the information entered, you're ready to go to work creating your project. You can do the whole thing locally, creating your servlets and testing them out against your own copy of Tomcat. When you're ready to try it out remotely, you can configure and manage your servers without ever leaving Eclipse. Then you can easily deploy your software to the AWS infrastructure, run it and even debug it locally.
According to Amazon, this is just a first step. But, from what I've seen, it's a huge first step.
Amazon officials say they're going to support more than just Tomcat in future releases. This is definitely a good thing, considering that Tomcat is technically a reference implementation of the Java servlet architecture and that many people might prefer to run their software on larger application servers hosted within the AWS infrastructure. Still, Tomcat is excellent, and running it under AWS shouldn't pose any real problems.
AWS isn't free, but it's not very expensive, and Eclipse, Tomcat and the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse are all free. So, if you're eager to build a system that will be hosted in the AWS cloud, it really won't cost you much to get it up and running. And once your cloud-based system is running, you'll enjoy the benefits of having a Website that's backed by an incredibly powerful cloud system. It's hard to beat that.
More information about AWS Toolkit for Eclipse can be found at aws.amazon.com/eclipse/. The project itself is hosted on SourceForge at sourceforge.net/projects/aws-eclipse/.
Jeff Cogswell can be reached at [email protected] | {
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A PEC (Proposta de Emenda à Constituição) 45 de 2019 que altera a legislação tributária e tramita na Câmara dos Deputados deve aumentar a carga dos impostos no setor de serviços, que representa cerca de 60% do PIB (Produto Interno Bruto). Simulações aplicando as regras do texto à categoria hoje tributada pelo lucro presumido mostram que a alta pode chegar a 211%, dificultando empreendimentos no setor.
Ao mesmo tempo, bancos terão redução na carga tributária. Como a proposta privilegia a cobrança de impostos sobre consumo, ela extingue a cobrança de Pis e Cofins, que incidem sobre a renda. De acordo com estimativa do economista Everardo Maciel, ex-secretário da Receita Federal, isso faria os bancos pagarem de R$ 25 bilhões a R$ 30 bilhões a menos à Receita Federal.
O texto da PEC unifica ao todo 5 impostos para criar o IBS (Imposto sobre Operações com Bens e Serviço), que incide sobre o consumo e deverá ter uma alíquota única de 25% para toda a economia.
Por exemplo: uma escola particular com 420 alunos e faturamento de R$ 6,05 milhões por ano hoje paga R$ 485.654 de impostos, referente a 0,65% , de PIS, 3% de Cofins, e 4,38%, em média, do ISS dos Estados. Pelo novo modelo, com o IBS, esse mesmo empreendimento passaria a pagar 25% e isso equivaleria a R$ 1,512 milhão. O aumento seria de 211%.
Os cálculos sobre o possível aumento da carga tributária provocado pela PEC 45 foram realizados pelo advogado Hamilton Dias de Souza e sua equipe. O escritório de Dias de Souza é 1 dos mais renomados do Brasil em assuntos tributários.
A proposta foi aprovada em maio na CCJ (Comissão de Constituição e Justiça) da Câmara. Ainda precisa ser apreciada na comissão especial da Casa, ir ao plenário e depois ser enviada ao Senado.
Entenda melhor abaixo como se dá esse aumento de impostos par ao setor de serviços:
Imposto sobre valor agregado
O IBS (Imposto sobre Operações com Bens e Serviço) é como os autores do projeto batizaram 1 tipo de imposto muito conhecido em outros países, o IVA (Imposto sobre Valor Agregado).
Pela proposta em tramitação na Câmara, o IBS que terá 10 anos de transição, até ser totalmente implementado. Mas mesmo com este período de adaptação, analistas tributários avaliam que o efeito será danoso à economia porque deve aumentar o custo de mensalidades escolares e procedimentos em clínicas de saúde, por exemplo. Caso o cenário se concretize, o impacto mais provável é o desaquecimento da atividade econômica e aumento da inflação.
O setor de serviços é o que tem maior impacto no PIB, com grande relevância na criação de empregos e renda no país. Os índices de atividade econômica mostram que, por conta da taxa de desocupação elevada e do baixo nível de consumo, a recuperação econômica ocorre de forma lenta.
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O IPCA (Índice Nacional de Preços ao Consumidor Amplo), que mede a inflação oficial do país está baixo, deve ser impactado pelo repasse nos preços. Com o aumento da carga tributária de 8% para 25% para serviços, os custos aos empresários serão repassados ao consumidor.
“A alíquota alta finda por onerar fortemente o custo do serviço. A tendência é ter 1 aumento brutal da sonegação e alta dos preços. Isso é preocupante, porque gera inflação e tem impacto imediato na economia. Mesmo com o tempo de transição, o efeito não será absorvido integralmente e algumas empresas sofrerão fortemente a repercussão da tributação e podem até desaparecer”, afirmou Heleno Taveira Torres, vice-presidente da IFA (International Fiscal Association) e professor de direito financeiro da USP.
Everardo Maciel, consultor tributário e ex-secretário da Receita Federal, afirmou que as empresas optantes do regime do lucro presumido serão as que “vão pagar a conta” da reforma. “Constituem, principalmente, pequenos e médios prestadores de serviços, como clínicas, escolas, escritórios de advocacia, de engenharia, de arquitetura e outros. E os créditos são pequenos nessas áreas“, destacou.
Uma das justificativas que dão base ao IBS com alíquota única é a classe econômica que utiliza tais serviços, que, segundo analistas e defensores da PEC 45, são os mais ricos. Maciel discorda do posicionamento e afirma que o aumento da tributação inviabilizará que o acesso aos serviços por parte da sociedade.
“Quem frequenta escola e quem vai é rico? Teria que pagar mais imposto? Isso não é verdade. A grande motivação que as pessoas têm para apoiar a reforma é a redução da carga tributária, mas ela aumenta com esta reforma. Outra vítimas são os pobres, que hoje têm isenção da cesta básica, que passará a ser tributada. Tem muita especificidades que não deveria estar nessa proposta”, destacou Everardo Maciel.
Se aprovada, a reforma também também deve estimular com que empresas e trabalhadores do setor tentem, mesmo que por via ilegais, ser tributados pelo Simples Nacional, que tem carga tributária diferenciada e ficou de fora das mudanças na legislação, assim como o MEI (Microempreendedor individual).
“As empresas vão utilizar de artifícios, quebrar vínculo de trabalho, quebrar a sociedade ou a estrutura organizacional, ou fazer qualquer comportamentos anômalos para escapar da alíquota de 25%. Todos vão tentar fugir, e a reforma vai ensinar aos empresários a fazerem truques”, afirmou o ex-secretário da Receita Federal.
Nos dados de setembro, os mais recentes do Fisco, havia 14 milhões empreendimentos optantes pelo Simples e 9 milhões, pelo MEI.
Bancos terão vantagem
O setor financeiro ganhará com a proposta de reforma da Câmara, se aprovada. A expectativa é de que os bancos, por exemplo, paguem de R$ 25 bilhões e R$ 30 bilhões a menos em tributos anualmente, segundo estimativa de Everardo Maciel. Isso porque não haveria mais o pagamento com o PIS-Cofins, que tributa a renda.
Pela lógica da PEC, de incidir as alíquotas apenas sobre o consumo, as instituições seriam desoneradas em cifras bilionárias. Em 2018, as entidades financeiras pagaram R$ 21,236 bilhões em PIS-Cofins e R$ 3,015 bilhões em atividades auxiliares, totalizando R$ 24,775 bilhões ao todo. Valor deixaria de ser pago.
De janeiro a agosto deste ano, a Receita Federal arrecadou R$ 114,279 bilhões com os bancos, excluindo as receitas previdenciárias. Deste valor, R$ 19,636 bilhões foram receitas com PIS-Cofins, ou 17% do total.
Reformas via Medida Provisória
Historicamente, as mudanças nas regras tributárias no Brasil são feitas por medidas provisórias, que têm força de lei e eficácia imediata, mas que ainda precisam do aval do Congresso. Entre 1995 e 2014, foram 280 alterações legais, sendo 237 ocorreram via MPs -ou 84% das vezes
A discussão atual, porém, tem sido pautada pelo Congresso. Há uma PEC (Proposta de Emenda à Constituição) na Câmara e outra tramitando no Senado.
O governo Bolsonaro também defende uma mudança na tributação brasileira, mas ainda não enviou projetos sobre o tema ao Congresso. O professor Marcos Cintra perdeu o comando da Receita Federal defendendo a volta de 1 imposto nos moldes da CPMF (Contribuição Provisória sobre Movimentação Financeira), que seria cobrado de todos para desonerar a folha de pagamentos das empresas. A ideia, que viria no projeto da equipe econômica, foi derrubada por Bolsonaro.
Na última 5ª feira (10.out.2019), o ministro Paulo Guedes (Economia) disse ao Poder360 que o governo enviará projetos sobre o tema, “mas não tudo de uma vez. A tributária vai ser ‘fásica’, aos poucos”.
“Eu vou mandar primeiro o ‘IVA dual’. Depois o Imposto de Renda e no final eu faço a desoneração. Porque eu quero que o Congresso me diga como vamos pagar pela desoneração [da folha de pagamentos das empresas], uma vez que não querem o imposto sobre transações. Vão aumentar o Imposto de Renda? Vão aumentar o IVA?”, completou.
IVA em outros países
Outros países com experiências com o IVA (Imposto sobre Valor Agregado) adotam isenção de tributação em alguns casos. Na Alemanha, por exemplo, há uma alíquota padrão para a economia de 19%, mas alguns produtos e serviços têm taxação diferenciada (7%), como livros, jornais, serviços culturais, alimentos, transporte de passageiros, produtos agrícolas e hospedagem. O imposto tem cobrança zerada para transações financeiras, seguros, educação e serviços médicos.
A Austrália definiu uma taxa padrão de 10%, com isenção em alimentos básicos, exportações, serviços médicos, educacionais e financeiros. O mesmo procedimento foi feito na África do Sul, mas com uma alíquota maior para o restante dos produtos e serviços, de 15%.
A Índia estabeleceu várias alíquotas de IVAs na economia: 28% para automóveis, ar condicionados; 12% e 18% para serviços bancários, de construção e de propriedade intelectual; 5% para cereais de marca, restaurantes, aviação na classe econômica; 0,25% ou 3% para ouro, prata e pedras preciosas. O país ainda isenta frutas, legumes e cereais comuns.
No Canadá, há 1 tributo de 5% padrão e outras taxas que variam conforme a região. Serviços educacionais e médicos também obtiveram isenção.
Reformas em discussão
Além desta proposta, que tramita na Câmara, os congressistas também discutem outra reforma tributária que unifica 9 tributos. A PEC 110/2019, de autoria do presidente do Senado, Davi Alcolumbre (DEM-AP), também cria o IBS (Imposto sobre Bens e Serviços), mas adota isenções em medicamentos e alimentos. Eis algumas das diferenças entre as propostas:
Informações deste post foram publicadas antes pelo Drive, com exclusividade. A newsletter é produzida para assinantes pela equipe de jornalistas do Poder360. Conheça mais o Drive aqui e saiba como receber com antecedência todas as principais informações do poder e da política.
Continuar lendo | {
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Jeep B-Ute concept is a tougher Renegade
Jeep's B-Ute concept shows what's possible with the company's smaller Renegade. | {
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For 85-year-old Squamish climber “Big Jim” Sinclair, the last half century has been all up hill. By Drew Copeland.
Jim Sinclair first visited Squamish in 1959, when it was still a rough-around-the-edges logging town and few climbers attempted its granite walls. Sinclair has since become one of the longest-standing members of the British Columbian town’s climbing community. “Nobody climbed hard [then],” he says. “We thought we did, and [a] few of us on 5.10 knew we were on our limit, but time took over. Now, if you don’t do 5.10, you’re hardly climbing.”
The affable Sinclair worked at a steel plant in Surrey, British Columbia, for 40 years, visiting Squamish on holidays and weekends until he bought a home there in 1988. Despite being an out-of-towner, he took it upon himself to welcome visitors and advocate for the area, earning the affectionate title of “Mayor of the Smoke Bluffs.” Local climbing icon Tami Knight remembers her first encounter with Sinclair. “I met Big Jim on one of my early trips out to Squish, and his stories were rad.”
At 85 years old, Sinclair is still as excited to chat about climbing as ever, and he remains a robust source of information on Squamish’s history. Sinclair bagged peaks up and down the Coast Range and has a few Squamish classics to his name, including Exasperator, Diedre, Merci Me and Unfinished Symphony.
He still climbs, although on easier terrain these days. “I make a very excellent second,” he laughs. “I have jumars now, so I can still get up anything.” | {
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Best in class C/C++ to WebAssembly/JavaScript compiler
Today we are proud to announce the release of Cheerp 2.0, the culmination of 4 years of improvements and optimisations and our biggest release yet since Cheerp 1.0 in 2014.
Cheerp is an open-source, commercial C/C++ compiler for HTML5 web applications, capable of compiling C/C++ to WebAssembly, JavaScript, or a combination of the two.
Cheerp is the most advanced and flexible solution to bring C++ code to the Web. It is based on the industry-standard Clang/LLVM stack, and provides a robust workflow with sensible defaults, clear error messages and gcc-like command-line options that allow for an easy integration in IDEs and continuous integration environments. Cheerp runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, making it possible for C++ developers to create Web application in a seamless manner on their system of choice.
Cheerp 2.0 generates WebAssembly code which is on average 20% smaller in footprint, and either as fast or faster (7% faster on average) than what generated by Emscripten, the main alternative C++ to WebAssembly compiler. In addition, it can also generate mixed JavaScript-WebAssembly outputs, circumventing the limitations of WebAssembly (such as direct DOM and WebGL/WebAudio access) without sacrificing its native-like speed.
Cheerp is the most flexible, best performing solution to run C/C++ code on the web. Battle-tested on millions of lines of code, used in many commercial products, and backed by Leaning Technologies, a company with years of experience in compile-to-JavaScript and compile-to-WebAssembly solutions, Cheerp is the tool of choice for converting C/C++ to web applications.
New Features of Cheerp 2.0
Cheerp 2.0 introduces support to WebAssembly, in addition to the garbage-collectible JavaScript target that has always been part of Cheerp. In addition, Cheerp 2.0 also introduces a new mixed mode, which allows to compile C/C++ to JavaScript, WebAssembly, or a combination of them, from a single code base.
The focus of Cheerp 1.0 was to compile C/C++ to an object-based, garbage-collectible JavaScript target, capable of interacting with the DOM and HTML5 APIs in a fully transparent way, with no overhead.
Cheerp 2.0 allows to tap into the native-like performance of WebAssembly, while retaining the flexibility and power of the object-based compilation to regular JavaScript. With a new range of attribute tags (such as [[cheerp::genericjs]] and [[cheerp::wasm]] ), Cheerp 2.0 new mixed mode allows to tag specific classes and functions that will be compiled to the specified target, allowing to mix-and-match WebAssembly and JavaScript modes. No tags are required at all if the codebase is wholly compiled to WebAssembly or to JavaScript.
Cheerp 2.0 also introduces a new set of improved optimisation steps, targeting both improved runtime performance as well as reduced output size. In this regard, one of the most significant changes is the introduction of the CFGStackifier algorithm. As a result, Cheerp 2.0 generates WebAssembly code that is at least as fast but usually faster than Emscripten, and typically smaller in footprint.
CFGStackifier — better structured control flow reconstruction
CFGStackifier is an algorithm to reconstruct a JavaScript/WebAssembly structured control flow from a LLVM optimized control flow graph. A basic version of this algorithm is implemented by upstream LLVM.
We extended CFGStackifier and tailored it to work well for both the WebAssembly and JavaScript targets. CFGStackifier replaces the aging Relooper algorithm introduced originally by the Emscripten project.
To a large extent, Relooper is a proof-of-concept algorithm, which can always compute a working solution, but not necessarily the optimal one, due to unnecessary restrictions imposed to the structure of the output flow. It does work reasonably well on many common cases, but over the years, we found significant inefficiencies in the compiled control flow on the complex commercial codebases (such as videogames and CAD software) that Cheerp is used on.
CFGStackifier is a principled, state-of-the-art, solution to the control flow reconstruction problem, which has provides a significant reduction in output size (both in WebAssembly and JavaScript targets). Moreover we have noticed a performance improvement up to 5–8% on very complex applications such as raytracing engines.
CFGStackifier has many interesting technical details and we plan to publish one (or maybe two) blog posts about it in the future. This new algorithm is stable and enabled by default in Cheerp 2.0, but we also allow users to select the old Relooper based solution by using the command line option -cheerp-cfg-legacy.
DOM manipulation and WebAPI access from WebAssembly — mixed-mode Cheerp
Cheerp 2.0 can compile C++ into a combination of WebAssembly and JavaScript code, allowing to leverage the advantages of WebAssembly (native-like speed and size) and of JavaScript (DOM manipulation and WebAPI access) on the same code base.
The -cheerp-mode command line switch selects the main compile output mode between JavaScript and WebAssembly. In addition, individual classes and functions can be tagged using Cheerp custom attributes — [[cheerp::wasm]] and [[cheerp::genericjs]] — to determine how they will be compiled. As an example, see this code snippet which can be compiled to WebAssembly:
This is very useful in the (common) case of wanting to compile a body of C++ code into fast WebAssembly code, but needing to interface with it from JavaScript. Using Cheerp’s interoperability and granular attribute tagging, this can be done without needing to write any ‘glue’ code.
Any method tagged with [[cheerp::genericjs]] will allow full access to the browser APIs (e.g. the DOM, WebGL, etc.), as well as any third-party JavaScript libraries. At the same time, and with no manual intervention, you can allocate and use objects from WebAssembly without having to worry about interfaces — Cheerp will generate all that automatically.
What you can do with Cheerp
Home.by.me, a home and interior design 2D/3D CAD made with Cheerp, by Dassault Systèmes.
Cheerp is a powerful, flexible and robust tool, which can be used in multiple ways:
Convert existing C++ application to Web applications: Cheerp can recompile any large scale C++ application into an HTML5 web application, allowing you to provide your users with a modern, cloud integrated user experience with minimal interventions on the core business logic.
By compiling your C++ code, there is no need to rewrite your application from scratch in JavaScript, saving you time, resources and the headaches of maintaining two code bases in parallel.
Compile native C++ games to HTML5: Cheerp allows you to quickly port your C++ game to the web, with no code rewriting. Modern web browsers are powerful gaming platforms, including 3D graphics (through WebGL), programmable sound pipeline (through WebAudio) and motion sensors (accelerometers and GPS). You can use Cheerp to convert full games or to offer a playable teaser trailer or demo than can be started with a single click.
Teeworlds.wasm, an upcoming multi-player, serverless WebAssembly game compiled from C++ with Cheerp.
Convert C++ libraries and integrate them into HTML5 applications: as a general rule, if you have a problem, there is a C/C++ library (either open source or proprietary) that will solve it.
With Cheerp you can compile any library and expose a web API that can be used directly from JavaScript code in your Web app. For a worked example of a C++ library compiled using Cheerp see our previous post.
Cheerp add-ons (commercial users)
As part of our offering for commercial users we provide several proprietary add-on libraries, designed to simplify porting and debugging of complex applications using Cheerp.
The main add-ons for Cheerp currently available are:
Cheerp memory profiler: This tool provides real-time accounting of memory usage, including introspection APIs designed to help in identifying memory leaks. This is integrated with an hosted JavaScript script to be added to the application HTML page to monitor memory consumption (and particularly leaks) in real time. The full Documentation for the Cheerp memory profiler is available here .
This tool provides real-time accounting of memory usage, including introspection APIs designed to help in identifying memory leaks. This is integrated with an hosted JavaScript script to be added to the application HTML page to monitor memory consumption (and particularly leaks) in real time. The full Documentation for the Cheerp memory profiler is available here libposixcompat: Provides additional compatibility with POSIX functions such as filesystem and timing APIs. For more info see here.
Provides additional compatibility with POSIX functions such as filesystem and timing APIs. For more info see here. libemscompat: Provides partial compatibility with Emscripten APIs, to simplify migrating projects to Cheerp.
Performance Benchmarks
Detailed performance benchmarks will be provided in a dedicated blog post. A summary of runtime performance and output size, focused on WebAssembly, is provided in this post.
Performance was evaluated on Google Chrome (standalone v8 — git revision) and Mozilla Firefox (standalone SpiderMonkey — hg revision). Performance was compared with Emscripten (git revision).
Runtime performance — Firefox
On Firefox’s SpiderMonkey engine, Cheerp 2.0 WebAssembly output is on average 36% slower than native, ranging from 1.13x times native speed to 2.45x native speed depending on the specific benchmark.
On average, WebAssembly code generated by Cheerp 2.0 is 9% faster than the one generated by Emscripten (best case: Cheerp 29% faster, worst case: same speed).
Cheerp 2.0 runtime performance relative to native speed (Native = 1, the lower the better). Firefox SpiderMonkey. Full data available here.
Runtime performance — Chrome
On Chrome’s v8 engine, Cheerp 2.0 WebAssembly output is on average 80% slower than native, with Chrome therefore seeming overall slower, and a lot more variable, in executing WebAssembly code compared to Firefox.
On average, WebAssembly code generated by Cheerp 2.0 is 5% faster than the one generated by Emscripten (best case: Cheerp 11% faster, worst case: Emscripten 2% faster).
Cheerp 2.0 runtime performance relative to native speed (Native = 1, the lower the better). Chrome v8. Full data available here.
Build size
When comparing build size, the cumulative size of the loader JavaScript file and the WebAssembly file was used.
The output of Cheerp 2.0 is on average 20% smaller compared to Emscripten (best case: Cheerp 44% smaller, worst case: Emscripten 2% smaller).
Cheerp 2.0 build size (WebAssembly binary plus any other required file, the lower the better.) Log scale. Full data available here.
Getting started with Cheerp 2.0
Cheerp 2.0 is available for Windows, macOS and Linux from https://leaningtech.com/cheerp/download/.
To get started with Cheerp, please visit the main Documentation page. You will find instructions on how to download, install and use Cheerp, as well as step-by-step tutorials.
Summary
Cheerp 2.0 is the most powerful release of Cheerp yet, and the culmination of 4 years of work since Cheerp 1.0 in 2014. This new major release introduces support for WebAssembly, as well as selective compilation into mixed-mode JavaScript-WebAssembly, which allows to leverage the advantages of WebAssembly (speed and size) and JavaScript (DOM and WebAPI access, garbage collection) on the same code base.
Cheerp 2.0 produces WebAssembly code that is faster, and smaller in size, then Emscripten, while retaining more flexibility in accessing the DOM and WebAPIs and libraries. Cheerp is an actively developed project backed by Leaning Technologies, a company with years of experience in compile-to-JavaScript and compile-to-WebAssembly solutions, and a strong technical team that can provide support and professional services if needed.
Tested on millions of lines of code, chosen by many commercial products, Cheerp is the best technology to enable complex, large-scale applications to be converted to a Web application.
For more information on how Cheerp can help your organization to leverage your existing C++ code to develop HTML5 web applications that work on any device, with no need for plug-ins or download, please check out our website at https://leaningtech.com/cheerp/.
Follow us on twitter and on our website https://leaningtech.com. For additional technical information on Cheerp, please visit our wiki or our tech blog. | {
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November 14, 2014 15:44 IST
While the row over allowing women into the AMU library has been wrongly portrayed, it does not mean gender biases are non-existent in AMU. The campus does have its own share of all kinds of cultural and ideological prejudices prevalent in the world outside. The AMU campus is not a segregated island, says Mohammad Sajjad.
During the last few days, Aligarh Muslim University has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Though this institution is an outcome of Muslim response to the colonial modernity in India, in quite a large circle, people prefer to see it in a certain kind of stereotype formed about Muslims in general, and about India’s Muslims in particular.
The ‘culpability’ of constructing such a stereotype is not confined to non-Muslims alone. An alumnus of AMU and passionate supporter of the idea of Pakistan who served in the civil services of Pakistan, Mukhtar Masood, in his memoir of wonderful prose, Awaz-e-Dost (A Friend’s Call), wrote, 'Aligarh ek chhota sa Pakistan hai, aur Pakistan ek barhaa sa Aligarh (Aligarh is a mini Pakistan, and Pakistan is a mini Aligarh).
In such a scenario, people tend to forget the fact that the AMU symbolises Muslim response to modernity in south Asia.
Jawaharlal Nehru, in his Discovery of India (1946), observed that the near-absence of new middle classes among Mulims was an impediment in the way of Indian nationalism in the 19th century, which R C Majumdar in his classic text-book, Advanced History of India sort of elaborated by saying, 'It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that no single institution has done so much for a community as this college for the promotion of higher education and modern culture among the Muslims. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was an ardent patriot and nationalist'.
True, Syed Ahmad (1817-98), the founder of the MAO College in 1875-77 -- which eventually became AMU in 1920 -- was not a very passionate campaigner for women’s education. He was apprehensive of alienating his targeted population away from the project of modernity if he took up all ‘radical’ issues at once. On this particular issue, he was, therefore, in disagreement with a few of his contemporaries including Syed Mumtaz Ali (1860-1935) of Lahore. The latter was a campaigner of women's emancipation through modern education and edited an Urdu weekly, Huquq-e-Niswan, for the purpose.
But Syed Ahmad was being pragmatic about his project of modernity and was, arguably, living within the limitations of the 19th century. On this particular count, the observers of our age looking into that past of India, may not compare him favourably with the likes of Jyotiba Phule. But unlike Raja Rammohan Roy, Syed Ahmad was not discriminating against women in his own private domains in any glaring manner. There were differing visions of modernity even within the Muslims of India.
Regardless of whether we appreciate or condemn Syed Ahmad on these counts, the absolutely undeniable fact of history remains that his comrades of the Aligarh movement, did come forward for modern education to women and launched a girls’ school in 1906, which went on to become the Women’s College in 1936, and this college did produce ‘radicals’ like Ismat Chughtai, among many others.
Time and again, the AMU is cornered to wear its patriotism and progressivism on its sleeves; it has to shout and demonstrate to prove such credentials, yet most often it remains unheard. This is not to say that the AMU is an island away from the socio-cultural realities of India. It has its share of all kinds of social tendencies and cultural prejudices found in the uniquely diversified India.
Syed Ahmad was not living a life of contradictions on the issue of women's emancipation. Even though every reformer of 19th century India had his limitations and had their projects confined to certain sections, yet, in a few shades of the narrative of Indian nationalism Syed Ahmad carries some kind of burden which Raja Rammohan Roy, and almost every other reformer of the 19th century, did not carry. Syed Ahmad and his enduring contribution, AMU, are made to carry that burden -- a haunting stereotyping -- which is a cause of discomfiture and concern for its associates.
The recent onslaught of the media against the AMU should be understood in this historical (and contemporary) perspective. Even most progressives in the Indian media were no exception to selectively ignoring some important realities about the gender row on library membership in AMU. It is this prejudice prevalent even in the informed segments of Indian population that tend to portray AMU in predetermined colours of regressivism. So much so that even chauvinist organisations came out in the open to condemn AMU’s alleged gender insensitivity. And it was precisely this prejudiced misreporting by the media, tarnishing the progressive image of the AMU, which attracted the massive students’ protest against the media on November 12.
Let us therefore try to understand what was irksome about the media for the majority of the AMU-ites.
The main library of the university, established in 1960, named after Maulana Azad, caters to all the postgraduate, professional undergraduate students, boys and girls. This is besides the departmental libraries, also called ‘seminar library’, some of these wonderfully rich. There are also book banks, reading rooms, and coaching guidance cells in each hall of residence for the students, both boys and girls. In addition to that the residential coaching academy and its library are another co-education spot.
The Women’s College imparts undergraduate programmes in conventional, non-professional courses. Anywhere in India, to the best of my knowledge, the students of affiliated colleges are not given access to the main library of the university. This is true of the colleges of Delhi university as well. Obviously, therefore, there has not ever been any feminist protest from Miranda House or Indraprastha College against their non-access to the central reference library of the Delhi university. So is the case with the Mahila Mahavidyalaya of Banaras Hindu University.
The media and feminists among the AMU’s insiders, however, have chosen to ignore some of the better ‘gender’ provisions practised by the AMU. For instance, the principal of the Women’s College of AMU is a permanent member of the executive council, practically the highest decision-making body of the university; the teachers of AMU’s Women’s College, on seniority, do become professor, chairperson and dean of the departments and faculties of the AMU. This is unlike BHU and DU where one has to quit the services of its colleges and get recruited to the postgraduate departments (in the main campus) afresh, to become professor, chairman, and dean in the main campus.
Women have served as proctor to look after the law and order on the AMU campus. AMU’s swimming pool and the horse riding club also have women members.
Nonetheless, this is certainly not to suggest that all is well with the library of the Women’s College of AMU. The library of the college does need much improvement. Many insiders, including the newly-elected students’ union of the college, as well as the students’ union of the AMU, complain that this library is awfully under-provisioned. I am told that besides augmenting the library, a swimming pool and a gymnasium club exclusively for the Women’s College is under active consideration.
Fund constraints could be there and we hope that the kind of sensitivity which has been displayed by the minister for human resource development, they will soon release sufficient funds for this. And the media, so committed for gender progressivism will certainly come forward to mount pressure on the government to provide everything for the infrastructure up-gradation of the AMU Women’s College.
Interestingly, the ministry asked the AMU for certain facts related to the issue, and before the university could furnish the factual details the minister herself had already subscribed to the prejudices maliciously spread by the media. The minister, Smriti Irani, didn’t have patience of even a few hours.
This is also not to suggest that gender biases are non-existent in AMU. I do reiterate that the AMU campus does have its own shares of all kinds of cultural and ideological prejudices prevalent in the world outside. The AMU campus is not a segregated island.
Mohammad Sajjad teaches history at the AMU, and has authored two books: Muslim Politics in Bihar: Changing Contours (Routledge, 2014) and Contesting Colonialism and Separatism: Muslims of Muzaffarpur since 1857 (Primus, 2014). | {
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Around 200 Royal Air Force (RAF) servicemen and eight Typhoon jets are now in Saudi Arabia taking part in a pre-planned exercise to help the Royal Saudi Air Forces (RSAF) maintain its combat readiness.
Major General Haidar bin Rafie Al-Omari of the RSAF said: “The British Royal Air Force aims to integrate all combat systems, including air combat, air support and electronic warfare, and especially how to use them against the enemy’s land defence systems for maximum operational efficiency.”
The drills will finish on December 11 and come amid an international scandal over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside a Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey.
London has not taken any action against Saudi Arabia yet but said it is ready to impose sanctions if evidence points to Riyadh’s direct involvement.
(Image: GETTY)
(Image: GETTY)
This is despite condemning evidence from the CIA that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination.
Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a frequent critic of the Saudi regime.
Riyadh denied responsibility but the CIA has now concluded with high confidence that the prince knew about the killing, the Washington Post reported.
The CIA assessment is based on the conclusion the Prince is the country’s de facto ruler who oversees even minor affairs and therefore is likely to have played a role.
(Image: GETTY)
A US official told the Washington Post: “The accepted position is that there is no way this happened without him being aware or involved.”
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said there needs to be a credible explanation of the killing before the UK acts “accordingly”.
He said: “We have an important strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia involving defence and security co-operation which has saved lives on the streets of Britain.”
The UK has also been blasted for its continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia as it conducts its brutal war in Yemen.
(Image: GETTY)
Recent estimates put the death toll at 56,000 people and the UK has sold £4.7 billion worth of arms.
The Tornado GR4 ground attack fighters and Eurofighter Typhoons play a crucial role for the Saudi’s air campaign in Yemen.
The Telegraph reported this year: “Riyadh has twice as many British-made warplanes at its disposal for its bombing campaign in Yemen than those that are available for the entire Royal Air Force.” | {
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Senate Democrats are playing hardball as they try to strong-arm Republicans to buck President Trump Donald John TrumpBarr criticizes DOJ in speech declaring all agency power 'is invested in the attorney general' Military leaders asked about using heat ray on protesters outside White House: report Powell warns failure to reach COVID-19 deal could 'scar and damage' economy MORE and bring up legislation to end the partial government shutdown.
A growing number of Senate Democrats, backed by progressive outside groups, are calling on the caucus to filibuster any legislation until Republicans give a vote to a House-passed package to fully reopen the government.
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Senate Democrats are in the minority, but if they are able to unite 41 of their 47 members behind the strategy they can grind the Senate to a standstill in an effort to ratchet up pressure on Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate Republicans signal openness to working with Biden Hillicon Valley: DOJ indicts Chinese, Malaysian hackers accused of targeting over 100 organizations | GOP senators raise concerns over Oracle-TikTok deal | QAnon awareness jumps in new poll The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally MORE (R-Ky.), who has refused to take up any government funding bill not supported by the president.
Minority Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerDemocrats scramble on COVID-19 relief amid division, Trump surprise Pelosi, Schumer 'encouraged' by Trump call for bigger coronavirus relief package Schumer, Sanders call for Senate panel to address election security MORE (D-N.Y.) handed the effort a significant boost on Monday, when he began telling colleagues he would vote against taking up a foreign policy bill on the Senate floor this week because of the shutdown fight.
“Schumer has notified the Dem caucus that he will vote against proceeding to S.1 because Senate Republicans should instead bring to the floor the House-passed bills to reopen the government,” a senior Senate Democratic aide said.
The escalation in shutdown tactics comes as the partial funding lapse is in its third week with no signs of progress toward a deal that would reopen roughly a quarter of the government.
Recent talks among Vice President Pence, administration officials and congressional leadership staff appeared to go nowhere. In a sign of digging in — and raising the chances that the funding fight surpasses the 21-day record — Trump is expected to give a prime-time address on Tuesday before traveling to the border Thursday, which would be the 20th day of the shutdown.
With Trump holding firm in his demand for more than $5 billion for the wall, Democrats are trying to keep their strategy focused on exploiting early signs of division within the Senate GOP caucus. The Democratic-led House is expected to begin passing individual appropriations bills this week, a move aimed at pressuring McConnell and vulnerable incumbents up for reelection in 2020.
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Senate Democrats are more limited in their options — they could try to force a vote, but Republicans could easily block them — but the chamber’s rulebook does give them enough leverage to throw up roadblocks and keep the upper chamber from considering any other legislation during the shutdown fight.
The senior Democratic aide added that Schumer has only made a decision about how to proceed on the foreign policy bill, which will face a key test vote on Tuesday night. Republicans haven’t announced what other bills they might want to bring up during the shutdown. Democrats, meanwhile, are expected to discuss strategy for non-government-funding legislation more broadly during their caucus meetings this week.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen Christopher (Chris) Van HollenMid-Atlantic states sue EPA over Chesapeake Bay pollution Trump payroll-tax deferral for federal workers sparks backlash Senators urge administration to make payroll tax deferral optional for federal workers MORE (D-Md.) publicly began pitching the idea of a legislative blockade over the weekend and has been privately talking to his colleagues, according to a Democratic aide. Van Hollen, speaking at a roundtable in Maryland on Monday, said Democrats were uniting behind the strategy that “we shouldn’t be doing unrelated business” until the Senate passes government funding bills.
“It is the position that I’ve got, and I think the great majority of Senate Democrats, that in the United States Senate the first order of business has to be reopening the government,” Van Hollen said.
More than a dozen Senate Democrats, including potential 2020 White House contenders, are publicly backing Van Hollen’s plan.
Sens. Kamala Harris Kamala HarrisNational postal mail handlers union endorses Biden The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden asks if public can trust vaccine from Trump ahead of Election Day | Oklahoma health officials raised red flags before Trump rally Jim Carrey to play Biden on 'Saturday Night Live' MORE (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenNo new taxes for the ultra rich — fix bad tax policy instead Democrats back away from quick reversal of Trump tax cuts It's time for newspapers to stop endorsing presidential candidates MORE (D-Mass.) and Cory Booker Cory Anthony BookerDemocratic lawmakers call for an investigation into allegations of medical neglect at Georgia ICE facility Black Voters Matter Fund deploying voter outreach caravans in 12 states to drive turnout Philanthropist Susan Sandler investing 0M in social justice organizations MORE (D-N.J.), all considered possible presidential candidates, and Sen. Jeff Merkley Jeffrey (Jeff) Alan MerkleyThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Trump, Biden renew push for Latino support Sunday shows - Trump team defends coronavirus response Oregon senator says Trump's blame on 'forest management' for wildfires is 'just a big and devastating lie' MORE (D-Ore.), a potential dark horse contender, threw their support behind the strategy on Monday.
“[McConnell] should immediately allow a vote on the bipartisan bills the House already passed to reopen the government— until that happens, [Senate Democrats] should block consideration of all unrelated bills,” Booker said in a tweet.
Merkley told CNN’s “New Day” that the Senate’s schedule “cannot be business as usual if we shut down a quarter of the government and just leave it shut down.”
In addition to Van Hollen, Sens. Ben Cardin Benjamin (Ben) Louis CardinPPP application window closes after coronavirus talks deadlock Congress eyes tighter restrictions on next round of small business help Senate passes extension of application deadline for PPP small-business loans MORE (D-Md.), Tim Kaine Timothy (Tim) Michael KaineThe Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by The Air Line Pilots Association - Pence lauds Harris as 'experienced debater'; Trump, Biden diverge over debate prep Catholic group launches .7M campaign against Biden targeting swing-state voters GOP senator to quarantine after coronavirus exposure MORE (D-Va.) and Mark Warner Mark Robert WarnerIntelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings Overnight Defense: Trump hosts Israel, UAE, Bahrain for historic signing l Air Force reveals it secretly built and flew new fighter jet l Coronavirus creates delay in Pentagon research for alternative to 'forever chemicals' House approves bill to secure internet-connected federal devices against cyber threats MORE (D-Va.), who all have large populations of federal workers in their home states, are supporting the strategy. Roughly 800,000 federal employees have either been furloughed or forced to work without pay.
“The Senate should vote on nothing else until we vote to reopen the government. Period. This shutdown is squeezing the finances of so many Americans, including thousands of federal workers who live in Virginia. As leaders, we can’t just whistle past the graveyard of this crisis,” Kaine said in a tweet.
Progressive groups that have frequently questioned Schumer’s willingness to play hardball are seizing on the strategy. Indivisible, a national progressive group, is urging its members to call senators and tell them “no votes on other legislation until the government gets reopened.”
The strategy will face its first test on Tuesday night, when Democrats will need to put up 41 votes to block a foreign policy bill that would include new sanctions against the Syrian government, as well as bolster U.S. support for Israel and Jordan.
Democrats were coming under fire over the bill because it includes a provision to counter the “boycott, divestment, sanctions” (BDS) movement by opposing boycotts or divestment from Israel.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, said it was “outrageous” for Republicans to be “prioritizing” the bill, adding that “not a single Democrat should vote to enable this farce.”
The American Civil Liberties Union also sent a letter to senators Monday urging them to oppose the foreign policy bill because of the anti-BDS provision.
“To be clear: this bill is not about Israel and Palestine but rather about whether states can treat individuals differently based on the political positions they choose to express,” the group wrote. “Moreover, the Senate should not be considering any legislation until it upholds its duty of maintaining a full and functioning government.” | {
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Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle took a few minutes before Friday’s game to approach Ryan Saunders, share a conversation, then a hug.
Carlisle said Saunders becoming the Timberwolves’ interim head coach is emotional for him. He was one of a number of coaches to attend Flip Saunders’ funeral in 2015, and Carlisle distinctly remembers the eulogy Ryan delivered to honor his father.
Carlisle loved that Ryan ran one of Flip’s go-to plays to open the Wolves’ win Tuesday over Oklahoma City.
“It was a nod to the heavens, for sure,” Carlisle said. “I know that somewhere up there his dad was beaming.”
Since Flip’s passing, Carlisle said he and Ryan have spent a lot of time together talking basketball, the league, Ryan’s career and other things Carlisle learned from some of the league’s great minds.
“This opportunity is something that is great for him and he’s built so similarly to his dad in terms of his character, in terms of his amazing way with people, in terms of his positive view on everything,” Carlisle said. “It’s an awful lot coming at him in a short period of time, but he’ll figure it out. He has a lot of good people around him here, and they got a nice team.
“I also want to say, Thibs (former coach Tom Thibodeau) did a very nice job of developing these guys on the one hand, and on the other hand putting some really good veteran guys with them now to help them move forward. It’s a dynamic business. Things happen so fast, so quickly, then all of a sudden you’re in here and the head coach of an NBA team — it’s a pretty amazing thing.”
ROSE MINUTE WATCH
Heavy minutes hasn’t been a recipe for Derrick Rose’s health this season.
The Wolves guard played 38-plus minutes five times, each under the leadership of the recently fired Thibodeau. Each time, he has either left the next game early or missed it altogether. Rose returned to the lineup Friday after an ankle injury caused him to miss the previous six games.
Don’t expect him to see exorbitant workloads for Rose moving forward. Saunders said he’d like to manage Rose’s minutes.
“That’s something, too, that obviously you want to communicate with the player and make sure he’s comfortable,” Saunders said. “Ultimately, this is about the players, and I want to make sure he’s in a great mental state in terms of how he’s able to play so he feels good about that.”
Rose said he and Saunders are “on the same page” with that.
“Me and Ryan talked about the minutes, and I think he understands where my body is,” Rose said.
So maybe Rose will play around 30 minutes or so?
“It should be somewhere around that,” he said.
Rose said he feels better but noted he wanted to take it easy in his first game back.
“Listen to my body while I’m out there on the floor,” he said. “Try not to do too much and with the talent that we have, I shouldn’t have to.”
KAT MUM ON FOULS
Karl-Anthony Towns is stuffing every stat line this season, including one he would prefer not to.
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Towns was asked whether that’s because of something he’s doing or the way the game is being officiated.
“You choose, I ain’t getting no fine (for complaining),” Towns joked. “I could do some better things fundamentally sounder but, eh.” | {
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The justice secretary has refused to rule out Boris Johnson shutting down parliament a second time and suggested the Queen’s Speech may not go ahead next month.
Robert Buckland said the opening of the new parliamentary session – announced for 14 October and the stated reason for the five-week suspension – would take place “if we are able to”.
And, asked if it was “remotely conceivable” that a second prorogation would be ordered – if the Supreme Court forces a recall of parliament – said the political situation was simply too volatile to make predictions.
“For me to sit here and imagine what might happen at end of October, I think, is idle,” Mr Buckland said.
“What I do know is that, if we are able to, we will have a Queen’s Speech in mid-October.”
When Dominic Cummings, last week, floated the possibility of a second suspension, if the Supreme Court rules the first was illegal, the comment was dismissed by Downing Street as “a joke”.
Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament Show all 11 1 /11 Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament Anti Brexit protesters march on Whitehall EPA Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament Many of the protesters carried placards AP Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament A demonstrator wears a Boris Johnson mask during a London rally AFP/Getty Images Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament An anti-Brexit demonstrator wields an EU flag during a London rally. AFP/Getty Images Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament The protesters also marched to Trafalgar Square, where they blocked traffic AP Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament John McDonnell addressed crowds in Whitehall. PA Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament A small group of Brexit supporters attempted to stage a counter protest in central London. AP Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament Three people were arrested in London, including a woman who sat on the road near Trafalgar Square. AP Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament In Oxford, locals and students gathered outside Balliol College, Boris Johnson's alma mater, to protest. PA Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament Thousands of people gather in central Glasgow to protest against the prime minister. AFP/Getty Images Protesters take to streets after Boris Johnson suspends parliament Jeremy Corbyn spoke to protesters in central Glasgow. Getty
But Mr Buckland, and the prime minister himself in a separate interview, suggested it is among the options being considered if the highest court in the land rules against the government.
Both also refused to commit to recalling parliament if the Supreme Court battle is lost, the justice secretary saying he would await “the precise wording of any judgement”.
Labour condemned the idea that the government might “ignore a court judgement and prorogue parliament all over again”.
“Any normal prime minister, faced with a ruling of that kind, would immediately go back to the Queen and ask for parliament to be recalled, said Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general.
“This is pretty scary stuff that is testing our constitution and our normal British sense of fair play to the limit.”
Mr Buckland, when speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, did not explain the threat to the Queen’s Speech, planned for the day MPs finally return to Westminster.
However, lawyers have suggested the Supreme Court, if it decides against the government might rule that the prorogation is “a nullity’.
That would mean that, in the eyes of the law, it never happened and parliament would pick up where it left off in July, with no new session and no Queen’s Speech.
Alternatively, the 11 justices could order the government to bring back parliament immediately, which could mean an earlier Queen’s Speech.
The case is expected to run for three days, including – extraordinarily – an appearance by John Major on Thursday, setting out why he believes Mr Johnson has broken the law. | {
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Lee Meisel starts his days by slinging whole pig carcasses over his shoulder and carrying them on his back into the kitchen of his own small restaurant in Lawerence, Kansas.
He's a slender guy and the pigs weigh about 200 pounds each. "The pigs might have a few pounds on me," he admits.
Perhaps it's not clear, but this is the picture of a man living his dream.
Meat is a fascination that started early for Meisel, who grew up bouncing around the state of North Dakota with his single dad and two brothers. He guesses he was just three when he had his first memorable meat encounter on a trip to the grocery store.
"I remember looking at the meat cases and seeing the guys in white coats and I remember being fascinated with the way the liver looked. It looked like this shiny, blobby, kind of deep red purply thing. And when you're a kid, you instinctively want to play with something like that."
Meisel's father, who raised him alone, came from three generations of cattle ranchers in what he calls "Indian Country" in North Dakota; his estranged mother was a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and growing up outside the tribe doing things like playing hockey and fishing, the young Lee wasn't sure what to make of that part of his heritage.
"Growing up mixed race, especially if you're part Indian in North Dakota, and there's some racism there, a lot of me as a child was wanting to escape that, thinking, 'Maybe I'm different, or what will they think about me if they know that I'm Indian?'"
He says there's a stigma against people on reservations in the northern Midwest, and that he was sensitive to that growing up.
"When you see a rundown car that's rusted out, that's a res-runner," he explains. "There is a stigma attached to that. I think there's this idea that most Indians are just sitting around getting wasted and collecting their government checks, but that's not the truth."
By high school, Meisel was feeling lost and confused. He credits two experiences with setting him on a clearer path: a job at Butcher Block Meats, and later, an education at Haskell Indian Nations University.
As a teenager, he hated working at the butcher shop so much that he thought of himself as the butt of a cruel joke. Being the new kid, he did a lot of the dirty work. He'd go home covered in meat, and smelling of the thick smoky tar he'd just cleaned out of a smoker.
But the old-timers he worked for changed his life.
"They were tough on me. They made me show up. As a teenager, I was just a flake. I would say I was going to go somewhere, meet you there in an hour, and then I'd just flake out. I don't know what it was about my life at that time, but I couldn't get my act together. So that was the first thing. You have to show up and you have to work hard. I needed that, needed to get some sort of routine going, some balance in my life."
Credit Paul Andrews Lee Meisl at work.
He also just loved the characters of these guys, with big hands like catcher's mitts, who were quick with knives and lived in insulated flannel all winter long and told him stories about their younger days hitting the bars, sleeping drunk in the back of the shop and getting back to work bright and early the next morning. Not the most traditional role-models, perhaps, but they inspired Lee, because he knew they'd do anything for him.
The owner, in particular, gave him ideas about a possible future.
"Here's a guy who started his own business," he thought. "It requires a lot of work, and some of it's dirty work, but it's possible for someone like me to do that."
That lesson would really hit home at Haskell, many years later.
After living and working without much direction in his early 20s, he heard about this school in Lawrence, Kansas, from his brother, who was on a search for something more. Eventually, Lee followed his brother to Haskell, where he realized that there was more than one way to be Indian, and that his way was valid.
"Everyone carries their own story with them," he says of the people he met at Haskell. "Part of it was being able to embrace that and saying, 'Maybe I don't know as much about my tribe, and maybe I wasn't brought up in this, but I have a different perspective. I have my own story, too.'"
He studied in the business school, where entrepreneurial impulses were encouraged.
"People there were always pushing you to go out and do your own thing," he says. "It made me realize there are people who are pulling for you. They want you to go out and succeed, and you realize how much that could mean to your tribe, to have that success story. That's so important."
Credit Paul Andrews / paulandrewsphotography.com / paulandrewsphotography.com In a kitchen of his own.
Meisel crunched the numbers and he didn't think an old-school, whole-animal butcher shop like the one where he worked growing up could be profitable today, even with how trendy it's become to connect with your food. That's still not the norm, he says, and there are lots of cuts of meat that people don't have the time or the knowledge to use at home.
So he decided to butcher whole animals in the kitchen of a snack shop, a place reminiscent of the concession stands he'd visit in North Dakota and Canada as a kid on fishing trips. Places in the middle of nowhere that had fries with gravy, some hot chocolate, someone's grandmother making chicken noodle soup. He thought of them as oases.
Even if his customers don't know how to use shanks or bones to make stock for gravy, Lee does.
Portrait Sessions are intimate conversations with some of the most interesting people in Kansas City. Each conversational portrait is paired with photographic portraits by Paul Andrews. | {
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ST. LOUIS -- The NHL has developed a reputation as being a big man's league, and not just in the sense of its players' physical frames but by their backing it up with big play on the ice.
For St. Louis Blues left wing Jaden Schwartz, being told he's too small is nothing new.
Listed at 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, Schwartz may be smaller in stature, but he's not afraid to play a big man's game, as Blues coach Ken Hitchcock likes to say.
Schwartz, who played at Colorado College for two seasons, has burst onto the scene for the Blues this season, particularly at the offensive end. Taken by the Blues with the 14th pick at the 2010 NHL Draft, Schwartz has eight goals and 14 assists through 31 games this season, his first full one in the NHL.
Jaden Schwartz Left Wing - STL GOALS: 8 | ASST: 14 | PTS: 22
SOG: 63 | +/-: 13
Twelve of Schwartz's 22 points have come in his past 12 games, which included a personal-best seven-game point streak. He has a pair of three-point games this season, including Dec. 12 against the Toronto Maple Leafs
Schwartz's style of play could be compared to a construction worker: Grab the lunch pail, throw on the hard hat, lace up the steel-toe boots and get to work. He seems to go against the odds on a nightly basis.
"He's finally feeling confident and comfortable in his role," Blues captain David Backes said of Schwartz. "A guy that's got as good a shot as anyone, works his butt off, and as short and stout as he is, he goes up there against the biggest guys and comes out of the corners with pucks. It's inspiring the way those guys play against really anyone in the League and come up with an advantage."
Schwartz, who was scratched against the Ottawa Senators on Monday, a 3-2 overtime loss, with an undisclosed injury, has come a long way on the ice since he was drafted. He takes a simple approach into each game.
"Just being consistent, being focused and energized each game," Schwartz said. "When you're watching and hoping, that's when things aren't going to go well. I'm trying to move my feet and work as hard as I can when I'm out there. I like playing with the linemates I'm out there with for sure. I get a good opportunity, so I think when you're playing more and touching the puck you're going to get a little more confidence as you go. I feel like that's playing a big part."
There's nothing fancy about the way Schwartz likes to play. Hard, tenacious and relentless on the puck are a few ways to describe his play. No shortcuts and no cutting corners. It's the only way he knows; it how he was taught to play.
"I knew when I came into the NHL there was a lot of skilled players, guys who were bigger than me," Schwartz said. "So I knew that I had to do something that was going to make me productive and make me produce, and I think I can do that with my hard work.
"I've watched players that are older than me who work hard and they've got really good tenacity on the puck and they're good in all zones. When I came in, I definitely wanted to put a stamp on me that I'm going to work hard every night."
Hitchcock compares Schwartz to Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise, and he's paired Schwartz with another lunch-pail worker in Vladimir Sobotka. Like Schwartz, Sobotka is smaller in frame (5-10, 197) but plays a big, heavy game.
"He's just a good player," Hitchcock said of Schwartz. "He's got confidence; he's strong on the puck. … [Schwartz] doesn't get near enough credit for being such a great penalty killer. I can't remember the last time those two guys [Schwartz and Sobotka] got scored on killing penalties. They do a great job together. They really love playing with each other."
Chris Stewart, who was slow out of the gates offensively this season, has picked up his game in recent weeks. Playing with Schwartz and Sobotka has seemed to energize him.
"If I was a player on that line, I would really want to put my best foot forward, because the longer you stay there, the more productive you're going to be," Hitchcock said. "Stewart's [been] really good down low in the zone. He protected the puck well. He showed great patience in the offensive zone. I thought that line's [been] excellent."
Stewart, who has two goals, an assist and a plus-4 rating playing with Schwartz and Sobotka their past two games together, appreciates his linemates' workman-like attitude.
"Height is not just everything," the 6-2, 231-pound Stewart said. "They're not the tallest guys, but they're thick boys. They compete on the puck. They definitely play bigger than their size.
"(If) I'm going to be the big guy on the line, I'm just going to try to create as much space for them as possible and get in the corners and bang some bodies and get to some loose pucks."
Sobotka said he sees a mirror image when looking at Schwartz.
"I think he's kind of like me, but he's way more offensive," Sobotka said. "He's got a great shot. He can pass too. He works really hard in the corners.
"I think we have good chemistry together and [the] most important thing, we're winning battles. … When he's got the puck, I'm just trying to drive the net and find the loose pucks. We read off each other and we know what we can expect from each other. If we don't have a play, we just chip it in and go win the battle in the corner. We try and go hard every shift, trying to get energy up for other guys and win battles and just play hard."
"We're both guys who like to put our work boots on every shift," Schwartz said.
Schwartz's 22 points are tied for sixth on the team; he's one of eight Blues players with at least 20 points, making him a nice part of a balanced scoring attack. But the 21-year-old continues to accumulate more and more responsibility as Hitchcock has grown comfortable using him in all situations, including special teams.
"I think it's a reflection of what happened to us in the [Stanley Cup] Playoffs against [the Los Angeles Kings last season]," Hitchcock said. "I think this is the evolution of a really good player. But the confidence for me came in the Los Angeles series, and he's just carried it into the season.
"He's a great 200-foot player. I think if you have enough of those guys, that's what wins you championships. He's going to be a good player on this team for a long time." | {
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A utility-backed nonprofit advocacy group playing an outsized role in Michigan’s primary election is violating federal tax and campaign finance laws, according to a complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Patrick Anderson, a tax policy expert and CEO of the Anderson Economic Group, filed the July 31 complaint against the tax-exempt “social welfare” group Citizens for Energizing Michigan’s Economy (CEME). The group has spent heavily in advertisements for and against statewide candidates, according to campaign finance groups.
Consumers Energy contributed $20 million to CEME in 2017, filings with the Michigan Public Service Commission show. The Energy and Policy Institute says Consumers has contributed $43.5 million to CEME over the past four years.
Anderson claims CEME is not involved in social welfare issues as required under CEME’s 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status, but rather does “express advocacy” for or against certain candidates. CEME is one of several “dark money” groups involved in statewide races this year that don’t have to disclose donors or expenditures.
“The campaign activity of CEME is so flagrant and egregious that it made a mockery of not only tax laws but also campaign finance laws,” Anderson said. “This is much more than one nonprofit that got a little bit out of hand. This is a multi-million dollar coordinated campaign.”
Anderson Economic Group is a national tax and public policy consulting firm based near Lansing. Tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups proliferated after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United decision.
Two officials associated with CEME, political strategist Howard Edelson and attorney Eric Doster, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
While the IRS has largely avoided investigating these types of complaints, Anderson hopes the amount of money involved, who’s spending it and how, will shed light on the issue.
Anderson’s complaint also highlights a $1.5 million “proxy tax” payment in 2016 that is listed in CEME’s IRS filings. He says the payment shows CEME acknowledging it spent money on prohibited activities. If CEME is found to be in violation of its tax-exempt status, contributors to the group could be at risk if the payments are claimed as tax deductions or ordinary business expenses, Anderson said.
“Even as a tax policy expert that was obscure to me,” he said. The proxy payment “underscores the degree to which corporations that donate to these front groups are placing themselves at risk.”
Consumers spokesperson Katelyn Carey directed questions to CEME.
“Like all of our nonprofit supported organizations, they are independent and not part of Consumers Energy,” Carey said.
The complaint lists four other groups possibly related to CEME: Alliance for Michigan Power, Michigan Energy First, Conservative Leadership and Values Coalition and Faithful Conservatives for Michigan.
Leading up to a 2016 vote on sweeping energy laws, Consumers and DTE Energy also contributed millions of dollars to Citizens for Michigan’s Energy Future, which has the same resident agent and Lansing-area address as CEME. The group advertised utility-backed policies as the Legislature debated issues around renewable energy and electric choice.
And prior to an agreement between advocates and utilities to keep a 30 percent renewable energy by 2030 initiative off this year’s ballot, DTE and Consumers had a history of spending millions of dollars through front groups to fight various initiatives.
Submitted / Anderson Economic Group
Campaign involvement
Campaign finance experts say CEME — which formed in 2013 — is the most active TV advertiser in statewide races ahead of the August 7 primary election.
Anderson — whose wife Madhu Anderson is running for a state House seat where her Republican primary opponent has received positive literature on behalf of CEME — said candidates typically raise $10,000 to $40,000 for state House races.
CEME spent more than $1 million in three months in just three statewide races “expressly favoring or opposing” candidates, the complaint says, including $100,000 over two weeks in one House race.
“It’s hugely in excess of what happens by legal campaign groups,” Anderson said.
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network identifies six state House and Senate primary races where CEME has launched radio or TV ads on a variety of issues.
“Usually, broadcast TV ads touting candidates for the Legislature are rare in the run-up to the primary election,” writes Craig Mauger, Michigan Campaign Finance Network’s executive director Craig Mauger.
One state Senate race involving Rep. Gary Glenn, the Republican chairman of the House Energy Policy Committee and well-known utility foe, is particularly contentious. Glenn has said publicly his Republican primary opponent, former state Rep. Kevin Daley, is being funded by “utility bosses.” Daley has said he is not aware of utility involvement.
Glenn is one of the most outspoken utility critics in the Legislature, backing policies to deregulate the state’s energy market and support customer-owned generation.
Lack of enforcement
Despite similar claims reported nationwide, the IRS has taken a lax position on complaints against 501(c)(4) groups, dating back to a 2013 controversy surrounding the agency’s scrutiny of political groups’ tax-exempt status applications. Investigating 501(c)(4) groups is politically sensitive for the agency.
“Regarding (c)(4) status, a group can engage in as much as 50 percent political activity as a rule of thumb,” said Paul Streckfus, the editor of EO Tax Journal and a former specialist at the IRS. “But even where a group appears to be all political, there is little if any enforcement by the IRS. A number of good government groups periodically complain about these type of groups to the IRS but as far as anyone can tell the IRS does not initiate audits.”
Matthew Kasper, research director with the utility watchdog Energy and Policy Institute, agrees that the IRS has been reluctant on the topic, but added CEME is “clearly not a social welfare organization since it is spending money advocating for or against candidates ahead of the election.”
“The IRS should revoke Citizens for Energizing Michigan’s Economy’s 501(c)(4) status,” Kasper said. “If the IRS doesn’t act in this case, then a complaint should also be filed with the Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs office.”
Anderson said the amount of money involved and how it’s spent should attract attention.
“This is flagrant, dramatic, organized, and it’s being used directly in politics in a way I think the IRS can’t ignore,” he said, contrasting it with “much smaller amounts of money by much smaller players.”
Anderson believes the high spending of CEME and related groups could influence energy discussions for years to come.
“The next time we have a debate in Michigan over utility policy, there will be lots of people who will know and remember what happened in the campaigns in 2018,” he said. “It’s going to make it very hard to have a fair debate in the future.” | {
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WhenGirlsPlay – Carmen Caliente And Madison Ivy What Girls Do In The Bathroom
318 60% | {
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Ron Paul backers need to face reality and give up the fight
Ron Paul may have effectively ended his presidential campaign, but his supporters haven't gotten the message.
Paul's backers continue to seek the replacement of the Oklahoma delegation to the Republican National Convention with a pro-Paul group. They insist procedural rules were broken at the state convention, contending a standing vote of delegates was improper and a paper-ballot vote required.
To most, that's a difference without much distinction. That's likely why the Republican National Committee rejected the request to change delegates.
Oklahoma isn't the only place Ron Paul supporters are fighting trench warfare over delegate spots to participate in a convention that will not — we repeat, not — nominate Ron Paul as president. | {
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(CNN) They spent nearly 15 years in prison for a crime so unspeakable they simply became known as the "San Antonio Four."
Elizabeth Ramirez, Kristie Mayhugh, Cassandra Rivera and Anna Vasquez were convicted in the late 1990s of gang-raping two little girls who were Ramirez's nieces.
They had recently come out as lesbians and prosecutors used their sexuality as a motive. The women refused plea deals and took the rare step of testifying in their defense to say they had done no wrong.
After years of fighting to clear their names, the state's highest court exonerated them on Wednesday, saying they had achieved the "Herculean" task of proving their innocence. The ruling overturns their convictions, prevents further prosecutions and paves the way for the women to potentially seek millions of dollars in compensation from the state.
"Those defendants have won the right to proclaim to the citizens of Texas that they did not commit a crime. That they are innocent. That they deserve to be exonerated," Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge David Newell wrote in the majority opinion. "These women have carried that burden. They are innocent. And they are exonerated."
The Bexar County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case, welcomed the decision.
"It has been a long legal process for these women and our office has worked with the defense to ensure justice was done in this case. With today's announcement we believe the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' decision did that," District Attorney Nico LaHood said in a statement. "I pray [for] peace and a new beginning for them."
The women known as the San Antonio Four in 2015.
An attack on their sexuality
The allegations in 1994 rocked San Antonio and made national headlines, becoming the subject of the documentary "Southwest of Salem." In an era when more gays and lesbians were coming out and mainstreaming, many saw the allegations as an indictment of the women's sexuality, especially as the case against them began to unravel.
"I think the only reason that the investigation was seriously pursued, why there wasn't more skepticism about the preposterous allegations in the first place, was because these four women had recently come out as gay, that they were openly gay," attorney Mike Ware told CNN's Jean Casarez in April
The case stemmed from allegations from Ramirez's nieces, ages 7 and 9. They stayed with their aunt for a few days in the summer of 1994 while their mother was on vacation. During their stay, Mayhugh, Vasquez and Rivera visited Ramirez's apartment at various points.
When they returned home they told their grandmother the women pinned them down and sexually assaulted them on two occasions. Their accounts varied in subsequent statements to police and the examining doctor and in trial testimony on several points, from the weapon used to subdue them to when the incidents took place, the Supreme Court opinion noted.
Such inconsistencies were "easy to set aside," Newell wrote, given testimony from the state's medical expert. Dr. Nancy Kellogg that said the girls had vaginal injuries that could only come from "painful trauma" caused by penetration with a foreign object.
Bexar County prosecutors portrayed Ramirez as the ringleader and tried her first. She was convicted in 1997 of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child, despite her testimony that she had no idea "how they could even think of me doing something like that." She was sentenced to 37.5 years in prison.
The remaining women were tried together in 1998 and were each convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child. All three were sentenced to 15 years in prison on the aggravated sexual assault charges and 10 years for the indecency charges.
The cases unravel
The convictions began to unravel several years ago when one of Ramirez's two nieces, now in her twenties, stepped forward to say she had lied.
Members of her family coached her, she told authorities, to make up a story because of their anger toward Ramirez's sexuality. Her father in particular coerced them so he could gain leverage in a custody battle, she said.
Soon after, Kellogg recanted her testimony based on new science that showed her findings regarding the girls' injuries were medically inaccurate.
With the new evidence, Ware and the Innocence Project of Texas filed for post-conviction relief to have the verdicts overturned.
A story 'no rational juror' would believe
A Bexar County District Court allowed Mayhugh, Rivera and Ramirez to be released from prison in 2013 while the court considered their request. Vasquez had just been released on parole.
The motion worked its way through the Texas courts. After a two-day hearing during which the niece and the doctor retracted their initial claims, a judge recommended in February 2016 that the convictions be vacated. But it declined to fully exonerate them without a full recantation from the second niece.
The Court of Appeals sided with the lower court's ruling that "more likely than not," the jury would not have convicted the women had they heard about the new scientific evidence. It also relied heavily on the niece who came forward, saying that her recantation coupled with the lack of reliable forensic evidence would lead "no rational juror" to find any of the defendants guilty.
The Innocence Project of Texas celebrated the news in a Facebook post that includes a recent picture of the women and their lawyer.
"Plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season, including the full exoneration of Anna Vasquez, Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, and Kristie Mayhugh, also known as the San Antonio 4!" | {
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In yet another presidential first, this week Donald Trump warned of an impending civil war in the United States—via Twitter, of course. On Sunday night, Trump paraphrased Robert Jeffress, a baptist-preacher-turned-Fox-News-pundit, tweeting: “If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.”
….If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal.” Pastor Robert Jeffress, @FoxNews — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019
The online reactions to the tweet were far ranging. #CivilWar2 started trending. A Harvard Law professor claimed the tweet itself was grounds for impeachment. A Republican representative disavowed the tweet as “beyond repugnant.”
Meanwhile, a right-wing militia group called the Oath Keepers weighed in to agree with Trump.
Here’s the money quote from that thread. This is the truth. This is where we are. We ARE on the verge of a HOT civil war. Like in 1859. That’s where we are. And the Right has ZERO trust or respect for anything the left is doing. We see THEM as illegitimate too.@StewartRhodesOK https://t.co/DjB8TY0vCo — Oath Keepers (@Oathkeepers) September 30, 2019
The Oath Keepers describe themselves as an anti-government “patriot” group whose members pledge to uphold the constitution if a tyrannical president declares martial law. The group believes that day is imminent, and is constantly looking for evidence of a Deep state conspiracy to back their ideology. As Mother Jones reported back in 2010, the group consists largely of soldiers, police, and veterans, like Lee Pray, who runs training drills with fellow Oath Keepers to prepare for when that day inevitably comes:
Pray (who asked me to use his middle name rather than his first) and five fellow soldiers based at Fort Drum take this directive very seriously. In the belief that the government is already turning on its citizens, they are recruiting military buddies, stashing weapons, running drills, and outlining a plan of action. For years, they say, police and military have trained side by side in local anti-terrorism exercises around the nation. In September 2008, the Army began training the 3rd Infantry’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to provide humanitarian aid following a domestic disaster or terror attack—and to help with crowd control and civil unrest if need be. (The ACLU has expressed concern about this deployment.) And some of Pray’s comrades were guinea pigs for military-grade sonic weapons, only to see them used by Pittsburgh police against protesters last fall… In Pray’s estimate, it might not be long (months, perhaps a year) before President Obama finds some pretext—a pandemic, a natural disaster, a terror attack—to impose martial law, ban interstate travel, and begin detaining citizens en masse. One of his fellow Oath Keepers, a former infantryman, advised me to prepare a “bug out” bag with 39 items including gas masks, ammo, and water purification tablets, so that I’d be ready to go “when the shit hits the fan.”
With Trump in the Oval Office, the group’s longstanding antagonism toward the presidency appears to have waned; they’ve pivoted to viewing the president not as the perpetrator of Deep state collusion, but the victim. | {
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