text
stringlengths 14
100k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Israeli Homes, Decorated With A Shopping Spree In China
Enlarge this image toggle caption Emily Harris/NPR Emily Harris/NPR
Adi Asulin lives in a fabulous apartment on the top floor of a seven-story building in the Israeli town of Ra'anana, north of Tel Aviv. The entry hall is long and light. Windows open onto an enormous balcony, which wraps around three sides of her home. The decor is fresh and white.
"It's all made in China," Asulin says.
Not just made in China. Nearly everything — the floors, the lighting, the furniture — she bought in China on a 10-day shopping spree.
The day after Asulin and her husband got keys to the place, she got on a plane to Guangzhou, in southern China.
"An adventure!" she says.
The big appeal was the price.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Emily Harris/NPR Emily Harris/NPR
"Forty, sometimes 50 percent off the prices in Israel," Asulin says.
The savings add up the bigger the job. Her new apartment had been a rental and needed a lot of fixing. But buying plus remodeling seemed beyond the family budget.
From a friend, Asulin heard about Israeli companies that arrange trips for individuals to buy directly from Chinese factories. She signed up, getting tickets and booking hotel rooms for herself, an architect and her dad for advice.
Once on the ground in Guangzhou, the trio was guided by the owner of the Israeli company and local staff. Their first stop was a flooring factory bigger than Asulin had ever seen — half the size of her city, she says.
"And I can choose whatever I want," she says. "Different colors, different materials, different prices."
The factory was organized by style: marble in one area, dark wood in another, colored linoleum somewhere else. For Asulin, it helped to have done a lot of planning and measuring before she arrived.
She loved having the time to focus exclusively on shopping — and finish most of it in a short time. She says this made the remodel much easier for her, a 37-year-old working mother of three.
"If I was buying everything in Israel, it was after work, with kids, afternoons and every weekend," she says.
Flying to China instead of letting Chinese products come to you is not the approach for everyone. Nurit Gefen, an Israeli interior designer, went on one China shopping trip with a client. She will not go again.
Gefen says it is the entirely wrong way to create a home.
"When you build a house, it's like pregnancy. You have to think about it, you have to dream about it," she says.
Plus, there are significant financial risks, she says.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Emily Harris/NPR Emily Harris/NPR
"When you go to China, you have to buy everything in advance. Before you know the colors, before you know exactly what you want," Gefen says. "And you can make mistakes when you buy things in advance. And you can't exchange it afterwards."
Partial payment in cash is often required upfront. Israeli newspapers have run horror stories of people who were ripped off on China shopping trips.
Still, they go. And Israelis are not the only ones doing their shopping directly in China. Israelis in the business say it's popular among people from a number of places, including Russia, India and the Gulf states.
Economics professor Daniel Levy of Israel's Bar-Ilan University says this service began because of structural problems in the Israeli economy. Israel started out socialist, and he says many practices of centralized control still affect the economy today.
"We don't have what you are used to in the U.S.," he says, "everybody trying to offer the best deal, which brings about greater efficiency and lower prices and happy customers. That's not what we have here at all."
This shows up most dramatically in grocery bills in Israel. Protests over the cost of food shook up Israel's elections last year. A 2011 parliamentary report showed that just two companies controlled more than 80 percent of the domestic cheese and yogurt production.
But weak competition also affects imports, including nonfood items like flooring and furniture.
Shai Safran heads Basini, an Israeli company that takes about 10 customers a month to China to buy everything they need for home remodels or building. He doesn't have a big showroom in Israel. He just treats factories in China as his own.
"Like my stores are the factories in China," Safran says. "I don't need 50 workers; I don't need inventory. I can save the cost of the business in Israel."
Even with his fee — for his contacts, logistics and know-how — Safran says he still beats the prices offered in Israel.
But that could change over time. Israel is building two new private ports and is hoping to reduce import costs in part by banning labor unions. A contract for the first port was signed last month — with a construction firm based in Beijing.
Emily Harris is NPR's Jerusalem correspondent. Follow her @emilygharris. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Arab women burn ‘flag of Islam’ in France to protest against gender oppression in the Muslim world.
Three members of the French feminist group FEMEN burned an Islamic flag this week outside the Grand Mosque of Paris. The flag-burning was carried out as a protest of oppression of women in the Muslim world.
A Tunisian activist set fire to the flag, on which was written the declaration of Islamic faith, “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His messenger.”
She and two other Arab women who took part in the flag-burning were shirtless during the event. The women wrote slogans on their torsos including “Arab women against Islamism” and “Freedom.”
The protest was one of several to take place across Europe following a Muslim preacher’s call to kill Tunisian woman Amina Tyler, a FEMEN activist, for having shared naked pictures of herself on Facebook.
Tyler put up pictures of her naked body with the words, “My body belongs to me” written on it in Arabic. She could face prison if it is proved that she posted the pictures while in Tunisia.
Salafi preacher Adel Almi said Tyler should be lashed under Islamic law, but that her case calls for a harsher punishment – death – “because what she did is an epidemic.”
FEMEN responded by condemning Almi and calling, “Long live the topless jihad against infidels.” The group declared Thursday, April 4, “International Topless Jihad Day,” and topless women protested outside mosques and Tunisian embassies in several countries. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Start Tracking SERPS
Keep an eye on your marketing campaign progress by tracking your keyword rankings across multiple search engines, devices or zip codes on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
For more than fifteen years, Hillary Clinton has worked full throttle to bring socialized heath care to America. Trashing the most sophisticated and efficient health care delivery system in the world has truly become an obsession with this old school socialist and obscenely rich elitist.
As a result, in this the season of exaggerated political promises and foolish expectations, Hillary is the Missiah of Medicine to the unwashed masses living and, presumably dying, without a nanny tyrant in the White House to pummel greedy physicians and insurance moguls into submission.
According to Clinton campaign myth, securing universal care for everyone in America is really quite simple: Just vote to give Hillary the key to the Oval Office!
Like Samantha on the Bewitched television series, Hillary would then fix health care by twitching her nose 300 million times and presto!—America would be covered!
Witch-President Hillary would also use nose twitches to end the war in Iraq, prevent and reverse global warming, pay off mortgages for all unqualified home owners who face foreclosure, end the Bush recession, and vanquish Monica Lewinsky and other “Friends on Bill” with dirty laundry still hanging in that little room just off the Oval Office.
The first item of business in a Clinton Administration would be to twitch away that devastating CBS video of Hillary’s “Sniper fire” experience in Bosnia!
Hillary’s commitment to health care is so powerful that the issue has become the centerpiece of her campaign. Think health care, and the name Hillary Clinton immediately comes to mind, right?
That may be so for slovenly Americans looking for another government handout, but not necessarily so when it comes to professionals working on Clinton’s presidential campaign staff.
As it turns out, Hillary has failed to pay $292,000 in health care insurance premiums for staff members who are supposed to be covered as a condition of employment and patronage. To date, no staff member has actually been denied heath care because of the unpaid premiums, but it’s still early!
See: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/9274.html
The big question: How much trust should America invest in a rich and powerful socialist with known truth issues who promises universal care for all, but who has failed to meet the needs of her own small staff? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Midtown technology campus launched earlier this year by Milstein Properties and Grand Central Tech is looking to get in on the biotech and life sciences craze. Company, the venture the two formed earlier this year to manage Milstein’s 1.1 million-square-foot office building at 335 Madison Avenue, now plans to convert the top 15 floors of a nearby building on East 43rd Street into a $51.8 million life-sciences nerve center, an application for public assistance shows.
“As a building, 6 East 43rd Street is an ideal location for a life sciences hub,” read a note included in Company’s application with the New York City Industrial Development Agency. “Our location enables us to easily serve not only New York City residents from all five boroughs, but also the major research institutions, hospitals and donors whose involvement is critical to life sciences endeavors.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
ANKARA (Reuters) - The European Parliament called on Thursday for Turkey’s European Union accession talks to be suspended if Ankara fully implements plans to expand President Tayyip Erdogan’s powers, in a vote which Turkey dismissed as flawed and wrong.
The parliament has limited influence on Turkey’s decades-old pursuit of EU membership, now in limbo after bitter exchanges between Ankara and some European countries, but the decision highlighted the gulf which has grown between the two sides.
EU leaders have been critical of Erdogan and his behavior toward opponents, both before and after an abortive military coup against him last July.
A year-long crackdown since the failed coup and the sweeping new powers which Erdogan won in a tightly fought referendum in April have raised concerns among Turkey’s Western allies.
Erdogan says both the crackdown and the increased presidential powers are needed to help tackle serious challenges to Turkey’s security both at home and beyond its borders.
The resolution passed by parliament in Strasbourg “calls on the Commission and the member states... to formally suspend the accession negotiations with Turkey without delay if the constitutional reform package is implemented unchanged.”
Some constitutional changes approved in April have already been implemented - Erdogan has been able to return to lead the ruling AK Party, and members of a top judicial body have been changed. Other steps, such as scrapping the post of prime minister, are due to take place within two years.
Opposition parties and human rights groups say the changes threaten judicial independence and push Turkey toward one-man rule. The EU has also expressed concern, although many in the European Parliament believe the bloc has not gone far enough.
“The current strategy of the European Commission and EU leaders seems to wait silently for things to improve in Turkey,” said the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on Turkey, Kati Piri, criticizing a stance which she said was “feeding President Erdogan’s authoritarianism”.
“FALSE CLAIMS”
Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said Ankara regarded Thursday’s vote in Strasbourg as invalid, while the foreign ministry was similarly dismissive.
“This decision, which is based on false claims and allegations, is trampling the reputation of the institution in question,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to the European Parliament. “This decision is of no value for us.”
Thursday’s vote came as EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn visited Istanbul for talks with Celik and other Turkish ministers.
FILE PHOTO: A European Union (L) and Turkish flag fly outside a hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, May 4, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer/File Photo
“As a European official I have to respect the decision of a democratic body,” Hahn told reporters, adding that he had raised the issue of the rule of law during his talks in Ankara.
He also raised the case of 12 rights activists detained on Wednesday, but said he had not received a satisfactory reply.
Hahn said Turkey has the right to defend its institutions in the wake of last year’s failed coup, but added: “I want to be very clear that we are very worried about the reaction, very concerned about the large number of imprisoned journalists and academics.”
“I really want to move forward in such an important strategic relationship. It depends on Turkey’s willingness, and (taking) steps on the rule of law and fundamental rights.”
Despite their concerns over Turkey, EU leaders do not want to undermine an agreement struck last year whereby Ankara effectively stopped migrants reaching Greece from Turkish shores, thereby easing a crisis that had threatened EU unity.
In an interview on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told Reuters that Turkey was not responsible for the escalation of tensions between the two sides.
“Europe displaying inappropriate behavior toward Turkey is not a situation we can accept. Being against our President Erdogan is also not a rational stance from Europe. Europe must decide: ... Do they really want to enlarge?” Kurtulmus said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
HALIFAX —Some buyers are complaining the bulky packaging for newly legalized cannabis is environmentally unfriendly, but producers say government guidelines are to blame.
Greg MacLean, who bought marijuana from the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation last week, says he was shocked to see how much packaging was used for four grams: two plastic containers, two cardboard boxes and clear plastic casing, all enclosed in a brown paper bag.
The 37-year-old medical user says the packaging is overkill, and he never saw this amount of packaging when he ordered online from dispensaries.
Health Canada’s cannabis guidelines dictate that packaging must prevent contamination, be tamper-proof and be child-resistant.
Allan Rewak of the Cannabis Council of Canada says the industry has been concerned about potential waste diversion problems, but also understands Health Canada’s caution in requiring enough warning signs on the packaging.
Rewak says over time the industry would like to work with the government to reduce the packaging, saying many of the warnings can be included on an insert.
Read more:
Taking stock of CSE’s ‘reefer madness’
How government is working to keep mail-order weed out of the hands of kids
Marijuana producers say cannabis branding ban on promotional items will bolster black market
Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...
Read more about: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
PlayStation VRやHTC Viveが発売した――VR元年の年とも呼ばれる――2016年から2年。ゲーム業界において、VR（仮想現実）が大きなマーケットに成長した、とは言い難い。AR（拡張現実）を使った成功例として『Pokémon GO』があるとはいえ、これもまだまだスタンダードのエンターテイメントとして定着していない。
そもそも、VRやARにまだ未来はあるのだろうか？ CEDEC 2018におけるパネルセッション「西洋におけるビデオゲームのテクノロジー」にて、これについての質問があった。
「素晴らしい質問！ ……これが今回のパネルセッションでまだ話題に挙がっていなかった理由はもしかして、もうVRのトレンドが去り始めているからなのでは？」とパネルセッションの司会を努めたジュリアン・マーセロン氏が冗談半分に言うと、会場が笑いに包まれた。
VRの難しさについて語るジェローム・リアー氏（右）、CEDEC 2018にて。
確かに、Q-GAMESで働くジェローム・リア―氏が話すように、ゲームをVRに落とし込むのは開発が大変で誤魔化しが効かない。なのに、普及台数がPCや家庭ゲーム機と比べると圧倒的に少ない。
『VRを大きく成功させるためには大衆が興味を示す超大作が必要です』
EAのSEEDという最新技術を研究する部門に所属するトマシュ・スタチョィアク氏はVRの未来をそれほど心配していないが、大きく羽ばたくまで、人々が当初に想像したよりまだ時間がかかるという考えを示した。
「VRを大きく成功させるためには大衆が興味を示す超大作が必要です。そうでなければ誰も高いHMDは買いません。でも普及台数が少ない状態で莫大なお金を出して大作を作ろうという会社はどこにもないんです。投資しても見返りがあるかどうかがわからず、誰も最初の1歩を踏もうとしないのです」
もちろん、大手でもVRゲームを積極的に開発していはないわけではない。カプコンは『バイオハザード7 レジデント イービル』をVRに対応させ、全編を最初から最後までVRで遊べるビッグタイトルの最も早い例の1つと言われている。ベセスダも『Doom VFR』や『The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR』と、同社の有名タイトルをVRで遊べるようにしている。しかし、上記のタイトルはVRなしでも遊ぶことができ、VRだけのために作られた体験ではない。
「VRが大ヒットしていないことにはもう1つの理由があると思います」とトマシュ氏は続けた。
「座ってVRでゲームをするというのは、我々がイメージした壮大なものではない。』
「座ってVRでゲームをするというのは、我々がイメージしたような壮大なものではないということです。80年代の映画みたいに自由自在に動き回って派手なアクションを繰り出せるものを想像していましたが、実際は椅子に座って周囲を見回している程度の体験がほとんどです。イメージ通りの本格的なVRをやりたいのであればVR専用の部屋が必要となります。家の広いアメリカではまだ可能かもしれませんが、ヨーロッパでは難しいし、日本となるとさらに難しいでしょう。なので、我々がみんなVRのために2軒目の家を買うほど裕福にならない限り、VRが近いうちに劇的に成長するのは難しいでしょう。それより、ARの方が可能性を感じています。メガネをするだけで楽しめるし、どこへ行っても使えるんです。自分の大学も職場もダンジョンになり得るし、椅子に座ることなくエキサイティングな体験ができます。なので、みんながVRに対して期待しているものは、実はARが実現させる可能性の方が高いんじゃないかと僕は見ていますね」
ARの成長に期待するトマシュ ・スタチョィアク氏（中央）、CEDEC 2018にて。
司会のジュリアン氏は家庭で遊ぶVRだけでなく、施設などで遊ぶVRもあることを指摘した。同氏が所属するバンダイナムコはVR施設を最も積極的に作り出しているゲーム会社といっても過言ではなく、「VR ZONE」というアミューズメント施設で遊べるVR体験はVRの従来のイメージに近い体験と言えるだろう。
「施設で体験できるVRは80年代の映画でイメージしたものに最も近い」
長年にわたってノーティードッグで働き、今年の2月にPromethean AIという、バーチャルワールドを作るためのAIに特化したスタジオを設立したアンドリュー ・マキシモフ氏はこれについて肯定的な発言をした。
「施設でVRを体験する人のほとんどは満足して帰ります。その理由は、ここで体験するものがVRだけのために作られているからだと思います。それこそ、80年代の映画でイメージしたものに最も近い体験でしょうね」
筆者もVR ZONE SHINJUKUで『マリオカート アーケードグランプリ VR』や『ドラゴンクエストVR』を体験しているが、違う次元に入り込むには「見える」だけでは不十分で、その中で実際に身体を動かしてこそ臨場感が生まれると感じた。確かに、家でコントローラーを握りながらVRを遊ぶとは根本的に違う体験と言える。VRゲームは家庭で遊ぶものよりも、一種のアトラクションとして捉えるべきなのかもしれない。
VRは会議といったコーワーキングやソーシャルな目的で使われていくと思います。
しかし、アンドリュー氏によれば、VRが一番羽ばたけるのはそもそもゲームではない。
「僕が思うに、VRは会議といったコーワーキングやソーシャルな目的で使われていくと思います。会議で相手と同じ空間を共有するのは非常に便利で、相手がどんな仕事をしているのかが可視化され、お互いのモニターを見ることもできます。モニターの数に制限もないし、大人数でコーワーキングしている場合は用のある人の机に瞬間移動して相談することもできます。通常の職場と同じようなことができるわけですが、それがスピードアップして、しかも現実世界で同じ空間を共有する必要がなくなります。シリコンバレーは物価が高いので、人を雇うのは必然的に高くなります。スタッフの住む場所が、例えばピッツバーグであれば給料を安くしても生活の品質は上がるし、VR空間で一緒に働けるんです。このようにVR空間で長時間を過ごす人が増えていくと思いますし、VRで一緒に楽しい時間を過ごすためのコミュニケーションツールも人気になっていくでしょう。そして、コミュニケーションツールのなかにちょっとしたゲームを遊べば、もっと本格的なVRゲームに対する需要も高まるはずなので、そうういう相乗効果もあると思います」
VRがゲーム以外の目的でどう使われていくのかについて語るア ンドリュー ・マキシモフ氏（中央）。
まだまだ歴史の浅いVRだが、すでに去ったトレンドではないようだ。今後の発展に注目していきたい。 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Story highlights Dutch journalist, 22, was gang-raped in Tahrir Square and hospitalized for surgery
Nina Burleigh: This is just one of scores of vicious rapes and beatings of female protesters
Egyptian women are primary victims, she says. The message is: Stay home
She says Muslim Brotherhood misogyny, attitude rapes are justified, infects society
Last week, a 22-year-old Dutch journalist was gang-raped in Tahrir Square and had to undergo surgery for severe injuries. The assault reminds us yet again of an often overlooked aspect of the Egyptian revolution.
When Egyptians overthrew their dictator in 2011, one of the first celebratory acts in Tahrir Square included the gang beating and sexual assault of American journalist Lara Logan , who, like the Dutch journalist, landed in the hospital.
The Logan rape has always been portrayed as another unfortunate byproduct of mob violence. In fact, it was much more than that. It was a warning shot fired by men whose political beliefs are founded on a common pillar: Women must stay out of the public square.
One of the hallmarks of revolutionary victory in Tahrir Square has always been rape and sexual harassment. Mobs of men routinely set upon women, isolating, stripping and groping. No one is ever arrested or held accountable, and elected officials shrug their shoulders and blame the victims.
Nina Burleigh
Vigilante groups have been organized to track the incidents. Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment, one of the groups, recorded 46 cases of sexual assaults and harassment against women on Sunday night alone -- and has added 17 more to its list that the group said happened Monday.
Egyptian women are the primary victims of sexual violence, and ultimately they are the intended recipients of the message: Stay home, your input in government and politics is not wanted.
Raping foreign journalists -- guaranteed to attract global attention -- is merely a more efficient way of getting that message across.
JUST WATCHED Is Morsy on the brink? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Is Morsy on the brink? 01:32
JUST WATCHED Egypt's military gives Morsy ultimatum Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Egypt's military gives Morsy ultimatum 03:37
When Egyptians overthrew the dictator, the Muslim Brotherhood took advantage of public hatred of the dictator to ally him with Western progressive ideals, including gender equality. Out went the nongovernmental organizations that worked to make divorce easier and inheritance laws fairer. In came the thugs who stripped and beat women in the streets.
Granted, some of these crimes against women were committed by the military and the police themselves, as women like Mona Eltahawy (a journalist whose arms were broken by soldiers) and Samira Ibrahim (a young protester who sued the government, accusing an army doctor of submitting her to a forced "virginity test") have reported.
Dina Zakaria, an Egyptian journalist, reported that the men who raped the Dutch journalist last week called themselves "revolutionists." That label should surprise no one.
If one fervently believes women should stay inside their homes and out of the business of public life, what better way to accomplish that than rampant sexual harassment and sexual assault in a country in which women's virginity and honor is the sine qua non of female participation in society?
Women made up 7% of the constitutional assembly that drafted the Egyptian constitution. No wonder then that the document (approved by referendum in December 2012) refers to women only as sisters and mothers, and only within the framework of family -- not employment or public life, even though a majority of Egyptian women work.
Whether or not that violence is political is worthy of discussion. I believe it is. At the moment, no one even debates it. It is the elephant in the room.
As the Egyptian revolution enters another chapter, and more women get stripped and sexually assaulted in the streets while being systematically excluded from the halls of power in Cairo, it is high time for American progressives and other Arab Spring commentators to stop separating anti-female violence from the politics of the Muslim Brotherhood's revolutionaries.
In the broadest sense, the West's response to the treatment of women in post-Arab Spring countries, from Egypt to Syria, says a lot about the status of women here.
We might not be able to do anything to stop violent, organized misogyny in far-off lands, but we can certainly stand up for our own principles and call it what it is. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Por Miguel do Rosário
O juiz Sergio Moro e seu entorno estão visivelmente desequilibrados. Depois de mandar sequestrar e prender o jornalista Eduardo Guimarães, o “esquadrão Moro”, composto pela união ilegal entre judiciário, MP e polícia (pela Constituição, eles deveriam servir de freio uns aos outros), agora iniciou um processo de perseguição generalizado a seus críticos na internet.
O documento recebido por Ponciano é como uma “lei penal em branco”, uma acusação genérica, que trata críticas a um homem público, e bota público nisso!, como “ameaça de morte”.
Ora, Roberto Ponciano nunca ameaçou a vida de ninguém. É um militante político inclusive erudito, com formação e mestrado em filosofia, escritor, um pai de família tranquilo, que lutou a vida inteira pelas pessoas mais pobres.
Um juiz federal, que está no topo da cadeia alimentar do Estado, perseguir um simples cidadão, por conta de críticas públicas e transparentes à sua atuação, é uma completa aberração autoritária.
Abaixo, Roberto Ponciano fala ao Cafezinho, com exclusividade, sobre a perseguição de que é vítima. Ponciano é um militante corajoso e experiente e não tem medo de nada, mas sua família, naturalmente, está sofrendo muito com esse tipo de violência.
No vídeo, vê-se claramente que Ponciano está perplexo e indignado. É militante há 30 anos e nunca sofreu esse tipo de violência, mormente de um juiz! Passou pelos governos Sarney, Collor, FHC, Lula e Dilma, escrevendo, falando, militando, e sempre pode exercer a sua cidadania com liberdade.
E agora querem lhe tirar essa liberdade? Em nome de quem?
As críticas de Ponciano a Moro são inofensivas. Não podem causar mal nenhum ao juiz. Já a ação de Moro visa destruir a vida de Ponciano. Que assimetria é essa? Se Moro quer responder às críticas, que use as mesmas armas. Não sabe escrever? Não sabe falar?
Reaja como cidadão democrático e não como esbirro da nova ditadura!
Aproveite e leia o artigo de Ponciano que enfureceu o justiceiro da Globo. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Can I take this big cock?
harleyrey FOLLOW 2 3741 VIEWS SHARE SAVE FLAG CONTENT | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
ONE of the striking things about the Brexiteers is how keen they are on history. Many studied it at university, usually Oxford: Bill Cash, John Redwood and Chris Grayling from the older generation and Daniel Hannan, Dominic Cummings and Douglas Carswell from the younger. They rest their argument for Brexit as much on historical exceptionalism as on economic logic. Britain is simply too different from continental European powers, with their Napoleonic codes and Verfassungspatriotismus, to fit in. And they relish historical parallels: between Brexit and Henry VIII’s break with Rome; between the Brexiteers and the anti-Corn Law activists who destroyed 19th-century England’s equivalent of the Common Agricultural Policy; and between the legislation that will translate European law into British law and the 1832 Great Reform Act. Nigel Farage, the least cerebral of the Brexiteers, has encouraged young Britons to see “Dunkirk”, a new film, to stiffen their spines for the struggle ahead.
Bagehot would like to point to a more recent historical analogy: between the Brexiteers and the American neoconservatives who persuaded George W. Bush to invade Iraq. The comparison might sound provocative—a bloody war and a peaceful referendum differ hugely. Nevertheless, striking parallels exist between the way that the neoconservatives and the Brexiteers think about the world. Indeed, there is even an overlap in personnel. Michael Gove wrote an essay on “the very British roots of neoconservatism and its lessons for British conservatives”, and Liam Fox is a familiar figure in Washington’s neocon circles.
The neoconservatives were a group of maverick intellectuals who exercised influence out of all proportion to their numbers. Ditto the Brexiteers. The neocons worked their magic by focusing on a single aim (regime change in the Middle East, starting with Iraq) and pursuing it with tireless energy. Ditto again. The Brexiteers are in some ways more remarkable than the neocons, who had only to outmanoeuvre the American defence-and-intelligence establishment, which preferred containment to regime change. The Brexiteers had to outmanoeuvre their own side. The young ones understood that Brexit was doomed so long as it was associated with ageing monomaniacs like Bill Cash, and flame-flowing populists like Nigel Farage. They were as brilliantly ruthless in sidelining their soulmates as they were in outmanoeuvring their opponents, meeting in Tate Britain because they knew that nobody from the Westminster village would ever go there.
All very impressive. But the parallels also have a darker hue. The neoconservatives sold the Iraq war on the basis of dodgy claims about weapons of mass destruction and direct links between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. The Brexiteers sold Brexit on the basis of dodgy claims about giving “our NHS the £350m the EU takes every week”. The neoconservatives insisted that regime change in Iraq would be easy—and would set off a chain reaction across the Middle East. Kenneth Adelman called it a “cakewalk”. Kanan Makiya, a leader of the Iraqi National Congress, predicted that American troops would be “greeted with sweets and flowers”. Brexiteers have made strikingly similar claims about an easy divorce leading to a chain reaction across Europe. Boris Johnson justified his belief that Britain could leave the EU while preserving all the benefits of membership on the grounds that his “policy on cake is pro having it and pro eating it”.
In both cases overconfidence led to a lamentable lack of planning. The Americans were so certain that Iraqis wanted regime change that they did not plan for prolonged resistance or social breakdown (John Bolton suggested that, having deposed Saddam, the Americans could give the Iraqis a copy of the Federalist Papers and scarper). The Brexiteers are so sure that Britain’s destiny lies outside the EU that they have not planned for the sheer difficulty of undoing 45 years of legislation. Charles Moore argued in the Spectator during the Brexit campaign that “it is crucial to the ‘leave’ cause that it resist the temptation to set out a plan”. One of the best books on the Iraq war is entitled “Fiasco”. The title could well suit an account of Britain’s Brexit negotiations.
Philip Hammond, Britain’s chancellor, is doing his best to tame Brexit, much as Colin Powell tried to tame the Iraq war. He is urging a “long transition” of two or three years after Britain leaves the EU during which trading relations will remain much as they are and Britain will continue to pay into the European budget much as it does now. He has ruled out adopting “the Singapore option” of radically reducing taxes and regulations. He has also argued that “literally nobody” wants to see a dramatic fall in migration immediately after Brexit. Prominent Labour figures, such as Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, also want continuity, arguing that Britain should remain a member of the single market.
Look back in anger
Perhaps these moderates have hit on a formula that will allow Britain to disentangle itself painlessly from Europe. But William Hague, a former Tory leader, is probably closer to the truth when he worries that Brexit may become “the occasion of the greatest economic, diplomatic and constitutional muddle in the modern history of the UK”. Both the main parties are split over crucial questions such as membership of the single market. When Parliament returns, the government faces weeks of angry debates and nail-biting votes over the “Great Repeal Bill”. In the longer term it will probably face a rebellion by Conservative ultras who would rather see their party destroyed than Brexit diluted.
The real problem with the Brexiteers is that they don’t spend enough time studying history. Since the mid-17th century the British have had a marked suspicion of radical change. They prefer their revolutions to be “glorious”—that is directed from above and dedicated to gradual change. And they insist that the popular opinion should be qualified and diluted by constitutional constraints. Leaps in the dark are supposed to be for foreigners. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Overcoming sin requires the Mercy of God. Too often we attempt to overcome sin through our own effort. This is a futile exercise in that you will never overcome your own sin through your own effort. There is one way and one way only to rid yourself of the sin you struggle with, and that is done by turning to the transforming power of God poured out through the Mercy of the Cross of Christ. It’s entirely possible that you have identified some habitual sin in your life, have confessed it, and then, within the next day, fell into that sin again, over and over. This is because you have attempted to rely upon your own strength and not the power of God. Jesus is the only means by which you can overcome your sin. Turning to Him for the Mercy to eliminate sin from your life requires commitment and focus. It requires total trust in Him and a complete surrender to Him. You cannot do this on your own (See Diary #1087).
What is it that you struggle with each and every day? Whatever your sin may be, you can overcome it, but only by relying on Mercy and the purifying power of the Cross. This is done by fixing your eyes on Jesus and relying on Him alone. Your responsibility is to turn to Christ. His action is one of purification. Do not doubt the power of our Lord and His ability to purge sin from your life. It may “hurt” to be purified, but it is obtainable. It requires sacrifice on your part and Mercy on His part. Reflect upon this internal struggle you encounter and resolve, deeply, to abandon yourself to Him. He will begin to lift this burden in your life when you do so.
Lord, I give You my sin and beg for the grace to overcome it. I know that I am weak, but that You are strong. Lift this heavy burden and bring purity and sanctity to my soul. I love You my Lord and I surrender my sin to You. Jesus, I trust in You.
More Divine Mercy Reflections
Daily Gospel Reflections
Saints/Feasts for Today
Image: St Francis in Prayer before the Crucifix by El Greco | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The St. Petersburg office of a pro-Kremlin media company linked to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation on Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election was set ablaze in an act of arson early Tuesday morning, October 9.
The Moscow Times reports that a fire broke out at the headquarters of Federal News Agency after an unknown suspect supposedly broke one of the business’s windows and tossed a molotov cocktail inside. The attack is reported to have taken place at around 3 a.m. A recording that was taken via video surveillance captures the moment the fire erupted in the space. As computers on one end of the room become engulfed by flames, an employee who was startled and fled the explosion can be seen returning to gather her belongings.
Federal News Agency (FAN) hosts one of 16 websites run by billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Internet Research Agency. As The Hill notes in its reporting, Prigozhin’s agency was pegged as an internet troll farm before pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice led to its rebranding. That pressure came via a February 2018 grand jury indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three entities believed to have carried out activities organized for the sake of influencing the outcome of the presidential race.
According to research gathered by Newsweek and Slate, the Internet Research Agency spent portions of a $1.25 million monthly budget to finance propaganda campaigns on social media and to coordinate grassroots political initiatives in communities across the U.S. However, the likelihood of Mueller and the DOJ being able to hold the network to account is slim given Prigozhin’s relationship with President Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s unwillingness to extradite those named in the indictment.
Under its incarnation as the Federal News Agency, the Internet Research Agency continues to enjoy an estimated 30 million page views per month. However, its focus on news coming out of the U.S. has gone cold and readers now know its publications deliver coverage deemed patriotic with a bias in favor of Putin. Still, the entity apparently continues to make enemies, as is evident by Tuesday’s attack, according to FAN’s editor-in-chief Yevgeny Zubarev.
“I believe this is tied to FAN’s activities,” Zubarev reportedly told the media after the incident. “We’re most often attacked online, but these types of attacks have already taken place offline.”
The fire is said to have been extinguished before it could spread beyond containment. There were no reports of injury documented as a result of the attack. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Then what did the F.B.I. get wrong?
There were serious errors in the applications for secret eavesdropping warrants.
Mr. Horowitz found that F.B.I. officials appeared to discount evidence that did not support probable cause to wiretap Mr. Page while playing up information that seemed to justify one.
“That so many basic and fundamental errors were made by three separate, handpicked teams on one of the most sensitive F.B.I. investigations that was briefed to the highest levels within the F.B.I., and that F.B.I. officials expected would eventually be subjected to close scrutiny, raised significant questions regarding the F.B.I. chain of command’s management and supervision of the FISA process,” the report said.
The inspector general did not speculate whether the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would have granted the application — renewed three times — to wiretap Mr. Page anyway. But he said the F.B.I. should review the actions of everyone who had a hand in drafting the applications. And he identified in each application where information verifying a fact was not included.
Relying on the F. B.I.’s information, the Justice Department first obtained court approval to wiretap Mr. Page in October 2016. The wiretap application portrayed Mr. Page, who had recently stepped down as a Trump campaign aide and had close ties to Russia, as a suspected unregistered agent of a foreign power. Mr. Horowitz found dozens of examples of missing or flawed documentation in the applications to wiretap Mr. Page.
The applications relied heavily on information provided by Christopher Steele, a British former intelligence agent whose research was funded by Democratic organizations. Mr. Steele told the F.B.I. that he based much of his information on a confidential source.
But when the F.B.I. interviewed that person, the source failed to back up some of Mr. Steele’s assertions, the report said. For instance, according to the F.B.I. interview, the source saw “nothing bad” about communications between the Trump team and the Kremlin, and never discussed WikiLeaks with Mr. Steele, according to the report. The F.B.I.’s failure to inform the court of those discrepancies was a serious error, Mr. Horowitz said.
“Despite the inconsistencies between Steele’s reporting and the information his primary sub-source provided to the F.B.I., the subsequent FISA renewal applications continued to rely on the Steele information, without any revisions or notice to the court,” the report stated. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Climate protester arrested for cycling on RNAS Yeovilton runway Published duration 14 July 2019
image caption Mr Maunder cycled on to the airfield on Saturday to highlight climate change
An environmental protester was arrested after cycling on to a naval airbase runway to highlight an "immoral celebration of military might".
Extinction Rebellion member Christopher Maunder broke into the grounds during RNAS Yeovilton's Air Day on Saturday.
"Flying planes is a damaging thing to do anyway, flying them just for entertainment is immoral at this time," he said.
Avon and Somerset Police said he was arrested for aggravated trespass.
'Death and destruction'
He was reported for summons to magistrates court at a date yet to be fixed, the force added.
The Ministry of Defence declined to comment as "legal proceedings are ongoing".
The annual air day event attracts 40,000 people to the naval base to see flying displays from military aircraft from around the world.
Mr Maunder, from Norton-sub-Hamdon near Yeovil, said: "We shouldn't be flying across the world to travel anywhere and we really shouldn't be flying military aircraft which is used to kill people.
"They are used to bring death and destruction and by their mere use they are damaging the atmosphere within which we live.
"Really, what is there to celebrate or find entertaining?"
image copyright Christopher Maunder image caption Christopher Maunder was tackled by armed services personnel before his arrest
He said he had climbed a low fence to get on to the airbase.
"Before I accessed the airfield we rung the airfield to tell them we were about to do it, and ensure no-one was about to take off or no planes were flying," he added. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Pakistani government’s Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC), a regulatory body governing the film industry, has recently banned at least two documentaries on Islamic extremism.
Last week, Pakistan’s CBFC issued a notice that left the organizers of Islamabad’s Foundation for Arts, Culture & Education (FACE) 2016 Film Festival “scrambling at the last minute to fill holes in their schedule: two documentary films that were meant to be screened at the festival” after they were deemed “unsuitable for public exhibition” by the regulatory board, reports Dawn.
Meanwhile, a third documentary was axed by its producer “after the CBFC advised that cuts be made to his film before it was screened,” adds the report.
The two films that were judged by the government to be “unsuitable” for public consumption were identified as Among the Believers and Besieged in Quetta.
Directed by Hemal Trivedi and Mohammed Naqvi, Among the Believers has already been screened in over 20 countries and won 12 awards.
According to the CBFC notice, a review panel argued that Among the Believers contains “dialogues which projects (sic) the negative image of Pakistan in the context of ongoing fighting against extremism and terrorism.”
Regarding Besieged in Quetta, the regulatory body voiced a similar justification, saying it casts Pakistan in a “negative” light.
“The board offered no clear reason for the ban other than the claim that it portrays ‘the negative side of the country,'” reportedly said Asef Ali Muhammed, the film’s director, adding, “This is very vague, unclear reasoning.”
The name, plot, and reason for why the producer of the third film decided to self-censor is unclear. It appears the producer’s decision was driven by the CBFC’s suggestion that certain edits be made to the documentary before it was screened.
“These documentary films, Among the Believers and Besieged in Quetta clearly flout the Motion Picture Ordinance of 1979 and the Code of Censorship, 1980,” declared CBFC Chairman Mobashir Hassan, when asked to justify the government’s decision to censor the movies. “These laws are like the bible of censorship procedure.”
“A panel arranged by the CBFC reviewed these films, they were appealed, we reviewed them again. Still, the decision to not allow these films to air was unanimous,” he added.
The review panel consisted of a “diverse” group of members, including “journalists and members of civil society,” claimed the chairman.
Among the Believers features Abdul Aziz Ghazi, the infamous Islamic State supporter and radical cleric of one of Pakistan’s most notorious mosques and religious schools (madrassas), the Lal Masjid in Islamabad.
Directors Trivedi and Naqvi followed “Aziz’s quest to impose a strict version of Sharia law throughout the country. In his network of seminaries which provides free food and shelter, children as young as four years of age are radicalized. The film charts the lives of two of his teenage students who are pawns in his ideological war,” explains Pakistan’s Geo News.
Meanwhile, the documentary Besieged in Quetta sheds light on the the persecution and plight of the Hazara minority in Pakistan.
The Hazaras are overwhelmingly Shiite and have often been the victims of massacres carried out by the Taliban and most recently the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region.
“It’s a very straightforward documentary based on interviews of people who have lost their loved ones to terrorism in Quetta in the last 15 years,” said director and Hazara community member Asef Ali Muhammed.
“It’s beyond my understanding why we can’t reflect the reality of today’s Pakistan through the medium of a documentary,” he added.
Naqvi, one of the directors of Among the Believers, also expressed frustration at the board’s justification for banning the film.
“It’s a very nuanced story,” said Naqvi, according to Dawn. “In fact, I see it as a coming-of-age tale, one where you can see how the ideological divide in Pakistan is fostered and grows in childhood. We’ve devoted 5 years to this project, and it’s very representative of Pakistan.”
“I don’t understand the ban, and the reasons given for it were very unclear,” he continues. “One of the reasons set forth was that the documentary violates the National Action Plan, which is absurd.”
Adopted in 2015 after Taliban gunmen massacred more than 150 students and teachers at the Army Public School in Peshawar, the National Action Plan is aimed at combating terrorism and Islamic extremism.
The plan reportedly calls for “concrete measures against [the] promotion of terrorism through Internet and social media” and declares a “ban on [the] glorification of terrorists and terrorist organizations through print and electronic media.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Carrie Fisher’s ashes are in an urn designed to look like a Prozac pill. It’s fitting that in death she continues to be both brash and wryly funny about a treatment for depression.
The public grief over Carrie Fisher’s death was not only for an actress who played one of the most iconic roles in film history. It was also for one who spoke with wit and courage about her struggle with mental illness. In a way, the fearless General Leia Organa on screen was not much of an act.
PBG/AAD/STAR MAX/IPx via AP
Fisher’s bravery, though, was not just in fighting the stigma of her illness, but also in declaring in her memoir “Shockaholic” her voluntary use of a stigmatized treatment: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), often known as shock treatment.
Many critics have portrayed ECT as a form of medical abuse, and depictions in film and television are usually scary. Yet many psychiatrists, and more importantly, patients, consider it to be a safe and effective treatment for severe depression and bipolar disorder. Few medical treatments have such disparate images.
I am a historian of psychiatry, and I have published a book on the history of ECT. I had, like many people, been exposed only to the frightening images of ECT, and I grew interested in the history of the treatment after learning how many clinicians and patients consider it a valuable treatment. My book asks the question: Why has this treatment been so controversial?
ECT’s origins in the 1930s
ECT works by using electricity to induce seizures. This is certainly a counterintuitive way of treating illness. But many medical treatments, such as chemotherapy for cancer, require us to undergo terrible physical experiences for therapeutic purposes. The conflicts over ECT have other sources.
Science Museum, London, Wellcome Images , CC BY
ECT was invented in Italy in the late 1930s. Psychiatrists had already discovered that inducing seizures could relieve symptoms of mental illness. Before ECT, this was done with the use of chemicals, usually one called Metrazol. By many reports, patients experienced a feeling of terror after taking Metrazol, just before the seizure started. A Cleveland psychiatrist who was active then once told me that the doctors and nurses used to chase the patients around the room to get them to take Metrazol.
Ironically, given that ECT would become iconic as a frightening treatment, the Italian researchers who proposed using electricity instead were searching for a safer, more humane and less fearsome method of inducing the seizures. Their colleagues, internationally, believed they had succeeded. Within only a few years of its invention, ECT was widely used in mental hospitals all over the world.
ECT used as a threat in hospitals in 1950s
Many depictions of ECT in film and television have portrayed the therapy as an abusive form of control. Most famous is the film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” in which an unruly patient is subjected to the procedure as a punishment. There is probably no fictional story that so haunts our consciousness of a medical treatment.
“Cuckoo’s Nest,” and many other depictions, are sensational, but we cannot grasp the historical background to the stigma around ECT if we do not acknowledge that “Cuckoo’s Nest,” while released as a movie in 1975, was not completely unrealistic for the era it depicts, the 1950s.
There is no question that ECT was benefiting patients then, but there is also a lot of evidence from that period showing that ECT, and the threat of it, were used in mental hospitals to control difficult patients and to maintain order on wards. ECT was also physically dangerous when first developed. Now there are ways to mitigate those dangers. Current practice, known as modified ECT, uses muscle relaxants to avoid the physical dangers of a seizure and anesthesia to avoid pain from the electricity.
These modifications were learned early, but it took a while for them to become standard practice. Ken Kesey, who wrote the original novel of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” released in 1962, worked in a mental hospital in the 1950s. He would have been able to witness all of this. Kesey, though, would also have known about ECT’s power to relieve symptoms of mental illness, and one of the characters in the book attests to this.
At that time, ECT was also used as a “treatment” for homosexuality, then considered by psychiatrists to be an illness. This was not a major part of ECT practice, but this is not a comfort to gay people who received the treatment, for whom it could be traumatizing. The psychiatrists who used ECT in this way sincerely believed they were trying to help sick people, which serves as a warning against “medicalizing” behavior, and assuming that this will reduce stigma. This use of ECT did not last, in part because there was no evidence it did alter anyone’s sexuality. But it survived in the social memory of the therapy.
The rise of the anti-psychiatry movement
By the 1960s, the evidence that ECT was very effective for treating depression was robust. But there were also good reasons for patients to fear ECT. These reasons, combined with widespread revolts against authority and conformity that flourished in the 1960s, also gave rise to a revolt against medical authority – the anti-psychiatry movement.
In its most extreme versions, the anti-psychiatry movement rejected the very idea of mental illness. But physical treatments, and most especially ECT, aroused its strongest rejections. Most advocates of anti-psychiatry – even those who questioned the very reality of mental illness – were supportive of talk therapy.
This provides another clue about why ECT occasions such deep divides. By acting so directly on the body, without any delving into the life history of the patient, ECT’s powerful effects raise questions about what mental illness is, and what kind of psychiatry is best. It evens raises questions about who we are, and what a person is.
ECT use declined in the 1960s and 1970s, but revived starting in the early 1980s. During the years since, there have been a growing number of positive portrayals, often in patient memoirs like Fisher’s. Writers such as Norman Endler and Martha Manning wrote moving accounts of how ECT brought them back from very bleak depression.
Increasingly, ECT came to be provided with consent, and the use of modified ECT became standard. Now, psychiatrists estimate that about 100,000 Americans receive ECT.
REUTERS/Darren Staples
With the rise of the age of Prozac, our culture became more comfortable with physical fixes for those illnesses we continue to call “mental.” According to psychiatrists who provide the treatment, many patients often go back for voluntary repeat ECT treatments, as Fisher did. That is hard to square with a stereotyped view of ECT as a form of abusive social control. ECT continues to have many critics, often people who received the treatment unwillingly, or who felt pressured into receiving it. For example, Wendy Funk wrote about this in her book “What Difference Does it Make?”
The main source of continuing controversy concerns a possible adverse effect: memory loss.
There is no question that ECT causes some memory loss, particularly of events near the time of the treatment. These memories often return, however. And there is also little doubt that many patients get potent therapeutic results, and many patients say they have little, if any, permanent memory loss.
But permanent long-term memory loss does occur, and it is uncertain how common it is. Many clinicians believe it to be exceedingly rare, based on their experience treating many patients over the years.
The scientific studies are not very conclusive, however, and serious and permanent memory loss is everywhere in patient memoirs – not least in those patients who have written positive accounts of ECT’s therapeutic effects. In her book “Shockaholic,” Fisher was emphatic about the power of ECT to reverse stubborn depression, but added, “the truly negative thing about ECT is that it’s incredibly hungry and the only thing it has a taste for is memory.”
ECT can be an invaluable treatment for many people. Many providers lament that that it is a stigmatized treatment. Dispelling the stigma, though, will require more than just testimony to its therapeutic effect, but also a full reckoning with its costs, both past and present. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
New federal regulations kicked in Monday for electronic cigarettes and some tobacco-related products, giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration greater control over what can be sold and limiting the way retailers interact with customers.
Such restrictions, however, are nothing new to California’s owners and operators of “vape bars,” where customers gather to smoke e-cigarettes. Two months ago the state launched its own restrictions, including raising the legal age for all smoking from 18 to 21.
All products that use a device in which a flavored liquid is heated into vaporized so it can be inhaled must now earn government approval. Also, merchants can no longer give free samples to customers, must ask customers for age-verifying identification and cannot claim that their products help smokers quit tobacco, store owners say.
Garrett Blankenship, owner of Darth Vapor in Chatsworth, said he took a huge hit when the smoking age went up, and expects another blow to the business from the tougher federal regulations.
“It’s the beginning of a new generation,” he said of customers between 18 and 21. “We’ll see where this heads.”
The new regulations also cover hand-rolled cigars, hookahs and pipe tobacco.
FDA officials now must assess all e-cigarette products available since 2007. To stay on store shelves, nearly every vaping product must secure FDA approval, though manufacturers will be able to keep selling their wares for up to two years during the application process and for a year during FDA review.
The American Lung Association embraces the new rules and wanted the government to go even further.
“Youth are using e-cigarettes at an increasing and alarming rate,” Harold P. Wimmer, national president and CEO of the association, said in a statement “E-cigarettes are now the most commonly used tobacco product by youth.”
The FDA fears that e-smokers, who are often attracted by the wide variety of vapor colors and flavors, will simply become tobacco consumers.
Wimmer agrees.
“The most common reasons for trying e-cigarettes included curiosity about e-cigarettes, good flavors and friends’ use.”
Demand exists
While smoking is generally declining for teenagers, e-cigarette use is on the upswing. Among high school students, it rose from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 15 percent in 2015, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 3 million middle- and high-school students use e-cigarettes, the CDC says.
Blankenship, a former Apple technician, said he invested about $120,000 to start the store two years ago. He’s lost about $15,000 in sales since the smoking age increased.
“We’re having a hard time meeting our bills,” he said, “I can’t restock product.”
Greg Honbo, co-owner of Vape Guys in Rancho Palos Verdes, took issue with the limits on what he can say to customers. He said he quit a 15-year cigarette habit when he started vaping.
“I was a victim of cigarettes, and I had to find a way to quit,” he said, adding that he tried nicotine patches and other methods. “I’ve been cigarette-free for five years now. Vaping was created for people who couldn’t find anything else to help them quit cigarettes. Now they’re treating it like it’s really bad. But I wish they had vaping when I was younger.”
While he doesn’t agree with the law, he said it likely won’t impact business much.
“It moved out some of the riffraff, the younger kids just hanging out,” Honbo said. “We don’t mind the younger crowd, but the majority of them don’t purchase too much. They just look for freebies and hang out.”
Minors still have easy access to vapes and accessories online and through friends anyway, he said.
Carlos Montolfo, co-owner of Loyalty Vape in Riverside, said raising the age limit to 21 knocked out close to one-fourth of his shop’s business overnight, given his proximity to the UC Riverside campus, although sales have rebounded a little since then.
The free-sample ban will have an impact, too, he said, forcing operators to focus more on service and building a base of repeat customers.
“I’ve always considered a vape shop to be like a barber shop,” Montolfo said. “You’ll drive a little further if you like your barber.”
As for e-cigarette juices, some shops sell more than 100. Montolfo said that, because his shop is one of the smaller ones, he offers fewer varieties — about 50 — that tend to sell well. Flipping through a menu of flavors is like reading the choices on an ice cream shop sign: watermelon bubble gum, lemon blueberry pound cake, deep-fried ice cream with cinnamon apples, and more.
Customer Brandon Jankel, 33, of Menifee says he will miss the samples.
“The free samples are what actually draws you to the new juices,” Jankel said, after purchasing a 30 milliliter bottle of strawberry champagne-flavored vape juice Monday afternoon at Loyalty Vape for $20.
“As a customer, you want to be able to try different flavors. There is so much variety out there and you don’t want to waste money on what you don’t like,” he said. “A lot of the convenience that has been around is going away.”
James Lua opened the Hidden Vape on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills three years ago. He said raising the smoking age cut into his sales and expected the new federal regulations to have a similar impact.
“It’s hard getting product out the door,” he said. “And we can’t assemble or advise people on how to use the devices.”
Jason Sy, manager of Pure Vapor Torrance, said he personally doesn’t understand the negative attitude about vaping because he believes it’s preferable to cigarettes. But the store no longer allows anyone under 21 to even walk inside, and that has cost the store about a fifth of its clientele, he said.
“I’ve been smoking 12 to 15 years, but I feel a lot better since I’ve been vaping. I can play basketball longer. I smell better. Food tastes better,” Sy said. “The FDA thinks we’re creating a gateway (with e-cigarettes). I could see why they think we’re attracting minors. And I do see the FDA’s concern that there haven’t been any long-term studies” of the health impacts of e-cigarettes.
Trade group takes stand
The American Vaping Association warned that new rules on vapor products will harm public health and close thousands of businesses.
“It is a misnomer to refer to what the FDA is doing as ‘regulation,’ ” said Gregory Conley, President of the AVA. “This isn’t regulation; it’s prohibition for all but Big Tobacco and perhaps a couple of companies with big Wall Street investments.”
Lacey Miller, owner of The Vapour Lounge in Rancho Cucamonga, said she thinks the new regulations will give potential vaping consumers pause, “because they’re not quite sure what’s going on with it.”
“I think in the long run it will be OK,” said Miller.
“I mean most big shops are like us. We never advertise it as a quit-smoking device. However, we would all give our stories about how we all quit smoking on it and it has helped us.”
Staff writers Neil Nisperos, Sandy Mazza and David Downey contributed to this report. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic is looking to stay in The Hot Zone. Following the ratings and critical success of the limited series starring Julianna Margulies, the Disney-owned network has begun discussions with producers Fox 21 TV Studios, part of Disney TV Studios, and Scott Free to turn the program, chronicling the Ebola virus outbreak, into an anthology series.
Primetime-Panic Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders See All
Talks are still in early stages but I hear the idea is for each season to look at a different health-related crisis where science is a big factor in finding a solution to potential epidemic or public panic. I hear producers are zeroing in on the post-9/11 anthrax crisis as topic of the potential second installment
I hear the project has been put on the fast-track as Nat Geo had made launching a second scripted anthology series after Genius a priority. No word yet on if any of the cast from the original The Hot Zone would return for the potential followup, but all sides appear open to it. Margulies led The Hot Zone ensemble cast that also included Noah Emmerich, Liam Cunningham and Topher Grace.
National Geographic/Amanda Matlovich
The Hot Zone, which debuted May 27, has become Nat Geo’s most watched scripted series ever, topping Genius: Einstein and MARS, and the channel’s second most watched series overall just behind The Story of God with Morgan Freeman. It has been watched by 9.33 million viewers across the premieres and repeats in L+7, and saw a 101% lift in the demo from L+SD to L+7. In L+3, The Hot Zone averaged a .82 rating in the demo over its three nights. It lifted Nat Geo’s viewership 350% above the previous six week average.
Additionally, The Hot Zone has emerged as an awards contender for Nat Geo with strong reviews.
Based on Richard Preston’s best-selling book of the same name, The Hot Zone was inspired by the true events surrounding the origins of the Ebola virus and its arrival on U.S. soil in 1989. In it, a heroic U.S. Army scientist, Nancy Jaax (Margulies), working with a secret specialized military team, puts her life on the line to head off the outbreak before it spreads to the human population. The Hot Zone is a co-production of Fox 21 TV Studios and Scott Free Productions.
Nat Geo has been ramping up its scripted slate. It has two two scripted series – Barkskins and The Right Stuff – heading into production next month (Barkskins in Quebec City and The Right Stuff in Florida). The next season of Genius, centered on Aretha Franklin, is in pre-productoin.)
Julianna Margulies On Becoming A Doctor, Lawyer And Scientist, And Why Her Grandmother Would Have Been Proud – The Actor’s Side | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
For this summers, I would have the incredible privilege of interning with Typeset. I am really excited for this opportunity and would be working on implementing collaborative editing using Operational Transformation algorithm on the editor with the tech team. This post will explain a very naive approach to the Operational Transformation algorithm.
I have read various papers on both the methods of implementing collaborative editing : Operational Transformation, which goes back to 1989, when it was first implemented by the GROVE (GRoup Outtie Viewing Editor) system (this algorithm is quite old, and Google uses this algorithm for collaborative editing for Google Docs, Google Slides, Wave, etc) and Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types, which is a much newer approach to real-time editing.
Real challenge of collaborative editing
If you know how real-time collaborative editing works, then you may know that handling concurrent editing in multi user environment gracefully is very challenging. However, a few simple concepts can simplify this problem. The main challenge, as mentioned, with collaborative editing is the concurrency control [concurrent edits] to the document are not commutative. This needs to be causally ordered before applying either by undoing history, or by transforming the operations [operational transformation] before applying them to make them seem commutative.
Bringing Latency into action
Introducing latency between the client and server is where the problems arise. Latency in a collaborative editor introduces the possibility of version conflicts. Here, where, I said Operational Transformation will come into action.
Let’s take an example :
Starting Client’s state :
ABCD
Starting Server’s state :
ABCD
Now, let’s say, Client enters X in between C and D , the operation would look something like this :
insert(X,3) //where 3 is the position where x is going to be added (0=A, 1=B, 2=C ..)
And at the same time, Server deletes b , the operation would be :
delete(B,1)
What actually should happen is that the client and server should both end with ACXD but in reality, client ends with ACXD
Starting Document State -> ABCD
"Insert 'X'" operation at offset 3 [local] -> ABCXD
"Delete 'B'" operation at offset 1 [remote] -> ACXD
but the server ends with acdx .
Starting Document State -> ABCD
"Delete 'B'" operation at offset 1 [local] -> ACD
"Insert 'X'" operation at offset 3 [remote] -> ACDX
Ofcourse, ACXD != ACDX and the document which is shared now is in wrong state.
Here is where the Operational Transformation algorithm comes to the rescue.
Operational Transformation Algorithm
Operational Transformation (OT) is an algorithm/technique for the transformation of operations such that they can be applied to documents whose states have diverged, bringing them both back to the same state.
How does Operational Transformation work?
A short overview of how OT works :
Every change (insertion or deletion) is represented as an operation . An operation can be applied to the current document which results into a new document state.
. An operation can be applied to the current document which results into a new document state. To handle concurrent operations, we use the tranform function that takes two operations that have been applied to the same document state (but on different clients) and computes a new operation that can be applied after the second operation and that preserves the first operation’s intended change.
Let’s apply Operational Transformation in the original example.
If we apply OT, Client will see :
Starting Document State -> ABCD
"Insert 'X'" operation at offset 3 [local] -> ABCXD
"Delete 'B'" operation at offset 1 [transformed] -> ACXD
and Server will see :
Starting Document State -> ABCD
"Delete 'B'" operation at offset 1 [local] -> ACD
"Insert 'X'" operation at offset 2 [transformed] -> ACXD //Transform function would add add it in the new (3 - 1 = 2) position
Client — Server [OT] Approach to Collaborative Editing
The transform function is used to build a client-server protocol that can handle collaboration between any number of clients.
Choosing a Client-Server architecture will allow scouting a large number of clients without actually complicating the environment. Also, there will be a single system which holds the source of truth i.e. the server, so even if the clients crash/go offline for a long time, we can go back to the server and fetch the document easily.
This source of truth also forces the client to wait for the server to acknowledge the operation that the client has just sent which would mean that the client always stays on the server’s OT path. This would help in keeping a single history of operations without actually having to keep a mirror of the state for each client that is connected. That would eventually mean the number of clients that are connected to the server would have only one single copy of the document on the server.
Conclusion
Operational Transformation is a very powerful tool that allows building great collaborative apps with support for non-blocking concurrent editing. I am looking forward to diving deep into the algorithm (and of course extending this blog post) and possibly working on an editor which supports it as well.
The second post related to OT can be found here. In the second post, I dug deep into the transformation function, how clients wait for an acknowledgment from the server before sending more operations and the compound operational transformation.
The third post in my series of OT can be found here. In this third post, I walked through the different OT algorithms that are well defined and implemented.
Resources | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Gov. Scott Walker said Saturday he played no role in soliciting donations from a mining company to the Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. Credit: Associated Press
By of the
Gov. Scott Walker said Saturday that he played no role in soliciting cash from a mining company for the Wisconsin Club for Growth during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections, adding that no one should be surprised that the pro-business governor backed legislation helpful to the firm.
Asked whether he was aware that Gogebic Taconite secretly donated $700,000 to Wisconsin Club for Growth — a pro-business advocacy group directed by the governor's campaign adviser — Walker said, "Not to my knowledge."
When asked if the previously undisclosed funds and subsequent legislation were part of some pay-to-play scheme, Walker said, "That's a ridiculous argument."
Long before the recall elections were launched, he said, he advocated creating jobs in Ashland and Iron counties by permitting the iron ore mine. "Nobody's shocked...that I supported the mine," Walker said after a campaign event in Kenosha.
Later, at a Racine stop, Walker said he helped solicit contributions to Wisconsin Club for Growth in 2011 primarily to help GOP senators who faced recalls. The court filings suggested, however, that he was involved in raising more than $1 million for Club for Growth in the months before his own recall election.
Walker said he is not soliciting funds for Wisconsin Club for Growth in this election, stating that his focus right now is on raising cash for his personal campaign and the state Republican Party. He also said he doesn't believe he directed campaign funds to the group during his 2010 campaign for governor.
Two separate judges have concluded the secret investigation is without merit, Walker said. "What it shows, just by the bits and pieces that come out, this is more evidence of a political witch hunt that's been disproved not once but twice in both state and federal courts," the first-term Republican governor said.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, who will face off against Walker in November, said she found it "appalling" that Walker may have been steering donations to a group with which he was closely associated.
"If it isn't illegal, it should be," Burke said in a statement. "That is not the Wisconsin way."
The disclosure of the secret fundraising operation occurred in court documents that were unsealed for a short time Friday. The 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals made the documents public as part of ongoing litigation over a probe into Walker's campaign, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative groups.
The appeals court is considering whether to reverse a lower court's ruling to halt the investigation, which was started in 2012 by Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm.
The brief release of a 24-page document filed by the attorney for Francis Schmitz, the special prosecutor appointed to lead the John Doe probe, contained detailed information about how investigators believed Walker solicited funds for Wisconsin Club for Growth. An attorney for Schmitz has said that Walker is not a target of the investigation.
The document was supposed to have remained under seal but was mistakenly released, according to Andrew Grossman, an attorney for the Wisconsin Club for Growth. Among the documents released were several emails laying out the governor's role in raising funds for the pro-Walker group.
"The Governor is encouraging all to invest in the Wisconsin Club for Growth," said an April 28, 2011, email from Kate Doner, a Walker campaign consultant, to R.J. Johnson, an adviser to Walker's campaign and the advocacy group. "Wisconsin Club for Growth can accept corporate and personal donations without limitations and no donors disclosure."
In the email, Doner wrote to Johnson that Walker wanted Wisconsin Club for Growth exclusively to coordinate campaign themes. "As the Governor discussed... he wants all the issue advocacy efforts run thru one group to ensure correct messaging," she wrote.
By late Friday, documents could no longer be accessed on the court's website.
But the disclosure continued to reverberate Saturday, especially among those who were at the center of the fight over Gogebic Taconite's efforts to build a massive open-pit iron mine in northern Wisconsin. In 2013, Walker signed a bill passed by the Republican-led Legislature that eased environmental regulations for iron mining.
Donations to nonprofits like Wisconsin Club for Growth are generally not disclosed to the public. Emails obtained by Schmitz's investigative team suggested that Walker encouraged groups and individuals to give to Club for Growth during the recall in an effort to bypass state rules on disclosure and donation limits.
"I want to throw up that we have a governor that encourages that sort of pay-to-play mentality," said state Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar). "It is Louisiana-sleaze politics in which big money thinks it can spend enough to get the government it wants."
Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), the only Republican senator who voted against the mining legislation, indicated he was not surprised by the donation. Schultz sought to craft a bipartisan mining bill with Jauch and Sen. Tim Cullen (D-Janesville).
"The fact that someone gave a donation in and of itself does not indicate solid evidence that there is pay-to- play," Schultz said. "But there just isn't any question that the quality of public policy making in Wisconsin has suffered since big money has come to this state."
He said it was "particularly disturbing" that the mining company sought to conceal its activities.
"They have obviously tried to channel their money in places where the public won't see it," Schultz said.
"I just think in this state that is going to get a very negative reaction from the public. And I think it has taken an exceedingly long time for all of this stuff to come out," Schultz continued. "As my dear late mother used to say, 'Eventually the truth will win out.' I guess I'm just saddened. I love this state. I have loved its political traditions, and I just don't think this is us. I really don't."
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said he was unaware that Gogebic had given the money.
Vos said he did not believe what Gogebic did amounted to a pay-for-play scheme.
"Governor Walker had already stated a position on the mine. Pay-for-play in my mind is, 'I will give you X if you do Y.' It seems to me what happened is, 'I am going to do Y, and we did it,'" Vos said.
Vos also took issue with allegations that Walker's campaign coordinated efforts with outside conservative groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth. He said neither the governor nor his campaign committee violated any state law.
"An elected official has the ability to help raise money for the campaign or to appear in events that do," Vos said. "They can't have any direct efforts or their campaign staff can't have direct efforts in how the money is spent.
"If my campaign committee coordinated with someone on how the money is spent to elect me, that crosses the line," Vos said. "And that never happens."
Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee), a foe of the mine, said the Gogebic cash was tantamount to bribery.
"I think it's the essence of bribery to be able to have one entity pay that much money to help politicians and to very quickly have those politicians, and not just the governor, turn around and take the bill and pass it," Larson said.
Larson said he also believed there was coordination between the Walker campaign and Wisconsin Club for Growth.
"State law is very clear on coordination between outside groups and campaigns," he said. "Coordination is illegal. What he has not explained is why he feels he is exempt from those laws. Those laws are clear."
Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said he was troubled by the disclosure.
"This is pay-to-play, and perhaps that's become politics as usual," he said. "It's not the way politics used to work in Wisconsin. But maybe it's the new normal."
McCabe said if campaigns are able to coordinate activity with outside groups that are supposedly independent, then campaign contribution limits and disclosure requirements become useless.
McCabe said it's "damaging to have these shadow campaigns being run because the public doesn't know who is paying for all of the campaigning. The donors can remain anonymous, and the public is kept in the dark about who is really paying to put people in public office. That sort of thing hits our democracy with the force of a bomb."
At his stop in Racine, Walker said he saw no reason to remove Johnson as a campaign adviser. Johnson is a central figure in the now-suspended John Doe investigation. These investigations allow prosecutors to seize documents and compel testimony in private.
"There is no issue," Walker said regarding Johnson. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Legendary Texas litigator Dick DeGuerin sounds like Matlock and dresses like J.R. Ewing.
The son of a politically connected oil and gas lawyer, DeGuerin, 74, got his start as a prosecutor in Houston and went on to represent Waco cult leader David Koresh. One of his biggest wins as a criminal defense attorney came in Galveston: the 2003 acquittal of Robert Durst, a New York real estate scion who had admitted to killing his neighbor, chopping his body into pieces and then dumping the parts into Galveston Bay.
Now DeGuerin says he’s again heading up a team to defend Durst, 71, who was charged last week with the December 2000 murder of his confidant, Susan Berman, in Benedict Canyon. Los Angeles police detectives said two handwriting experts have linked Durst to an anonymous letter alerting authorities to a “cadaver” at Berman’s home.
“I don’t think ‘legend’ is too strong of a word,” Tony Buzbee, another high-profile Houston attorney, said of DeGuerin.
If the case goes to trial, DeGuerin is expected to face two of the most skilled and venerated prosecutors in Los Angeles County — one who’s built a career prosecuting cold cases with mainly circumstantial evidence and one who won a murder case similar to Durst’s two years ago.
“They’ve put an A-team on this case,” said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and former federal prosecutor. “A real A-team.”
At a news conference last week, DeGuerin strode to the microphones and proclaimed that Durst didn’t kill Berman.
He said he thinks his client — “Bob,” as he calls him — was arrested “not because of facts” but because of “The Jinx,” a six-part HBO documentary about Durst for which he gave an extensive interview. The final episode aired March 15, a day after Durst was arrested on a murder warrant in New Orleans.
“It’s not based on facts, it’s based on ratings,” said DeGuerin, who would need a California-licensed attorney to join the team, although it’s not yet clear who that will be.
The acquittal in the Galveston case — in which Durst admitted to sawing off his neighbor’s limbs with a bow saw and faced up to 99 years in prison if convicted — stunned legal experts at the time, who credited the result to a smart defense team. DeGuerin and his team of lawyers argued that Durst shot his neighbor in self-defense during a violent struggle and was in a traumatized state when he dismembered the body.
Judge Susan Criss, who presided over the Galveston case, said she still remembers how she felt when she heard that DeGuerin would be defending Durst.
“I have been an incredible fan of Dick DeGuerin since I was in law school and still am,” she said. “I started studying my behind off. I worried at first: ‘He’s so strong-willed — can I handle him?’”
Though DeGuerin’s courtroom demeanor might be described as folksy, T. Gerald Treece, a professor at Houston’s South Texas School of Law, cautioned against thinking of him as a “good ol’ boy.”
“The folksy manner disguises a huge intellect and sharp wit for trial work,” he said. “The government better have a case.”
L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin, one of two prosecutors on the case, has forged a reputation as a skillful courtroom strategist who specializes in decades-old cold cases — ones that rely heavily on circumstantial evidence.
He prosecuted an Orange County engineer, who was sentenced in December to 26 years to life in prison, for the gruesome murder of his ex-girlfriend more than three decades earlier. During the trial, Lewin told jurors that Douglas Bradford had killed Lynne Knight with a homemade garrote — a weapon pieced together with chunks of a wooden mop handle and thick wire.
A break in the case came after a Torrance Police Department cold-case detective found a picture-hanging wire, like the one used in the killing, in Bradford’s mother’s home. Bradford was arrested in 2009 and convicted last year.
At a panel discussion at Loyola Law School last year, Lewin said he’s worked cold cases for more than 15 years, describing them as tough cases that require “elbow grease.”
“I’m half investigator, half prosecutor,” he said.
Jim Warner Wallace, the now-retired Torrance detective who worked the Bradford murder case and several others with Lewin, described him as the type of prosecutor who will “sleep three hours a night for two years” to help crack a case.
“If you’re a suspect in a cold case,” he said, “you don’t want this guy on your tail.”
In the courtroom, Lewin swoops his arms to punctuate his points and sticks his neck out and widens his eyes as he listens. Wallace, and two defense attorneys who have worked against Lewin, said the prosecutor easily engages and charms jurors.
“He is tenacious, diligent, exceedingly hardworking, thorough and aggressive,” said Robert L. Shapiro, who defended Bradford.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Habib Balian, on the other hand, has a low-key courtroom style — self-deprecating, even.
Two years ago he prosecuted Christian Gerhartsreiter, who pretended for years to be a member of the Rockefeller family. After Balian finished questioning some witnesses, he’d sit down at the counsel table, only to raise his hand for the judge’s attention.
Then he’d ask one more question, much in the style of the fictional, cigar-smoking Lt. Columbo, known for his endless inquiries.
“I can recall thinking, ‘Wow, I’m glad he didn’t ask ‘Question X,’” said Brad Bailey, a Boston-based attorney who defended Gerhartsreiter. “Then, sure enough, ‘Question X’ would be the question he’d raise his hand and say, ‘I have one more question.’”
Bailey described Balian as an extremely honest prosecutor, meticulous yet relaxed, and skilled at humanizing victims for the jurors.
At a conference in September, Balian spoke about prosecuting the Gerhartsreiter case. When he mentioned the victim’s wife, Linda Sohus, his voice sweetened.
“She was passionate about art,” he said, smiling sadly.
The two cases have some striking parallels.
Gerhartsreiter pretended to be part of a powerful, wealthy family from New York, and Durst actually is. Defense attorneys in the Gerhartsreiter case used handwriting on postcards to try to clear their client, and detectives say handwriting experts have linked Durst to an anonymous letter about Berman’s death. Balian showed jurors an interview Gerhartsreiter gave to “Dateline NBC,” and Durst was interviewed extensively for “The Jinx.”
With the three experienced litigators on the case, Levenson said she thinks it’s guaranteed to be “a fight.” She’s not sure, though, how an attorney with a Texas style will fare in a Los Angeles County courtroom.
“He wears his cowboy hat,” she said. “We’ll see if he can wear it in the courtroom here.”
[email protected]
[email protected] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Ontario’s counterterrorism plan directs local and provincial police to share relevant information gleaned from street checks — or “carding” encounters — with Canada’s intelligence agency and the RCMP, according to the written plan reviewed by the Star.
Municipal police services “should ensure” that intelligence they gather “is shared regularly with key partners,” including the Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police’s anti-terrorism section, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the RCMP, according to the 2014 document — the most recent version of the plan — that was posted online by two small Ontario police services, then apparently removed.
“Front-line officers across Ontario have the unique opportunity to recognize, identify, collect and report on intelligence gathered through primary response duties, such as street checks, vehicle stops and criminal investigations,” the document states.
The 55-page Provincial Counter-Terrorism Plan — along with a “high”- priority memo from the assistant deputy minister in charge of the public safety division of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services — was sent to all Ontario police chiefs, the OPP commissioner and police services boards on Oct. 22, 2014, following the attack on Parliament Hill earlier that day.
The two-page memo was a reminder of the role and responsibilities of local police in responding to domestic acts of terrorism, but the plan itself sets out pre-emptive responsibilities as well, including the sharing of information.
In a post-Sept. 11 world and in the age of electronic surveillance by law enforcement and spy agencies, it should come as no shock that street-level intelligence gathered by local police is shared with higher authorities. But the explicit mention of street checks in the counterterrorism plan raises questions about the use of citizens’ personal information gathered by police in non-criminal encounters.
Although national security and civil rights experts say that in some cases it’s necessary that such information be shared, they express concerns about privacy safeguards and doubts about the reliability of the information.
“I think it is appropriate that local police should be involved about terrorism but I wonder about the quality of intelligence gathered from street checks,” said Kent Roach, a national security expert and law professor at the University of Toronto.
“This is a concern in all cases, but especially in national security because the intelligence may be less likely to be tested in court as evidence.”
The Toronto Police Service, the OPP and the RCMP confirmed to the Star that information gleaned from street checks may be shared with agencies up the chain.
In response to Star questions, the RCMP said it “does share/gather information from its law enforcement partners,” and this includes “intelligence information which is sent to our partners when there is a link to criminality or there are public safety concerns.”
It is unclear how often this happens.
The RCMP said it “collects and shares information upon request by police services in accordance with the existing Canadian legal frameworks in place, including the Privacy Act.”
Andy Ellis, recently retired assistant director of operations at CSIS, said he could not discuss specific examples where street check information shared by police services was of value.
But, he said, “I can say with certainty that the law enforcement-led program has provided crucial information which has advanced national security cases.”
In Toronto, information gathered through “street checks” may have been included in information passed to higher policing and intelligence agencies, “but only if it was determined to be of value,” a police spokesperson, Meaghan Gray, told the Star.
“As a member of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team and the Provincial Anti-Terrorism Team, this sharing includes intelligence information which is sent to our partners when there is a nexus to criminality or public safety concerns,” reads Gray’s email.
“Any information that is shared is reviewed and approved by the (Toronto police) intelligence unit before being sent to another agency.”
In 2015, amid growing controversy, Toronto police suspended “carding,” or street checks — the practice of stopping, questioning and documenting people not suspected of a crime. As of this year, all Ontario police services conducting such stops must follow new provincial regulations aimed at banning arbitrary police stops.
In most policing jurisdictions, including Toronto, any officer could once access their service’s own historical carding information, but that is now restricted by the new regulations and police policies.
Toronto has now placed firm restrictions on officers accessing historic carding data, though critics have questioned whether that is enough to stop officers from accessing information that may have been improperly obtained.
An OPP spokesperson, Peter Leon, said the force has been collecting and sharing information upon request by police services “for more than 30 years, including the use of formal street checks by police.”
Asked how that happens, the OPP said that, when requested, it provides specific national security-related responses to individual queries from police services or intelligence agencies, including information gleaned from street checks.
Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...
Leon would not say how many individuals have had their details, gathered through street checks, passed on to its intelligence unit by local police services, because the answer is “operational in nature.”
“It doesn’t surprise me in the least that that’s what they’re doing,” said lawyer Paul Copeland, a member of the Law Union of Ontario who is closely following carding practices in the province.
“What surprised me a whole lot, all along the way on the carding stuff, is that they never really said what they used it for very much,” Copeland said. He said a Crown attorney once told him contact cards were used “all the time” for wiretap authorizations, “but I never saw anyone talk about that publicly.”
Street checks, Copeland added, are “really an intelligence gathering thing … and the whole question of how much information the government should be gathering, and what kind of oversights there are about it, seems to me to be fairly deficient as far as anybody really having any control over it.
“The police are really free to do whatever the hell they want and pass it on to whoever they want.”
Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association equality program, said the “general tenor” of the document seems to place a heavy emphasis on sharing, and “does not seem to address restrictions, limitations, caveats, (or) protections for privacy.”
Mendelsohn Aviv and Brenda McPhail, the association’s privacy expert, both said information sharing between police services and agencies is important and needed to keep residents safe.
“We recognize that in the heat of the moment, in the middle of a terrorist attack, there are likely going to be exigent circumstances, emergency needs,” said Mendelsohn Aviv. “But in a plan that is put together for the purpose of doing advance thinking about what needs to be considered, there is no mention of the rights and needs of all people in this province.”
Carding data, which includes physical descriptions and personal details, can link individuals who are stopped and documented together. It also includes locations, times and reasons for the stops.
Police have defended street checks and say the resulting databases are valuable tools that can be searched following a crime and provide connections and possible witnesses and suspects. But, when done arbitrarily, they have also caused friction and mistrust between communities and police.
Repeated Star analyses of Toronto police carding data have found that black people were more likely than white people to be stopped, questioned and documented in each of the city’s more than 70 patrol zones, and that the likelihood increased in areas that are predominantly white.
The most common reason for such documentation was “general investigation,” followed by radio calls, traffic and vehicle reasons, and loitering.
Jack Gemmell, a Toronto lawyer and a member of a working group on national security, said he is concerned about several aspects of the sharing agreement, including that it may aggravate the harm to racialized groups that have been disproportionately targeted by carding.
“By sharing this information, you are of course perpetuating the stigmatization of these people,” Gemmell said.
Overall in Toronto, between 2008 and late 2013, more than a million individuals were documented in 2.1 million carding encounters. Of those carding encounters, officers specifically noted that 14,150 involved passing on information to the service’s own intelligence unit.
When protesters descended on Toronto during the G20 summit in 2010, carding spiked by 150 per cent in the downtown patrol zones where the event was hosted. More than 500 contact cards were filled out by Toronto police officers over the summit weekend, a Star analysis found.
Of 558 contact cards filled out, 375 were for “general investigation” and 20 specifically involved passing on information to the intelligence unit. The data does not include any stops or documenting of citizens by other police services involved in summit security. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Real Estate Investment Trusts taxation bill, Senate Bill 301, has advanced this far into the legislative session because a grassroots movement had a simple message: Some of the largest landowners in our state — including the Ala Moana and Pearl Ridge Shopping Centers and the Hilton Hawaiian Village — do not pay Hawaii corporate income tax, while these grassroots citizens as well as other corporations and property owners pay their fair share.
REITs own about $18 billion worth of properties in Hawaii, and DBEDT estimates that the corporate tax on income earned from these REITs properties would total in the tens of millions of dollars annually.
As a retired Hawaii tax attorney with 45 years of corporate tax law experience and five years working at the IRS, I’d like to point out that the REITs’ argument that they shouldn’t have to pay Hawaii corporate income tax because they also pay general excise tax and property tax is absurd and disingenuous at best.
That’s as if the REIT executives stated they should not be paying Hawaii personal income tax because they already pay property tax on their houses and GET on every purchase from Longs.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
Moreover, property tax and GET on commercial properties are effectively paid by the tenants and merely collected and passed on to the Hawaii tax authorities by REITs or any other real estate owner.
Federal law provides that REIT shareholders pay income tax on REIT earnings when distributed as dividends. And as a practical matter, close to 100% of REIT earnings are distributed annually as dividends to their shareholders. States with income taxes receive a tax on the dividends paid to their resident shareholders on REIT income.
Other States Do It
Hawaii’s problem is that we have the largest amount of REIT investment in the country per capita, but a minuscule portion of REIT shareholders — only about 3% of Hawaii REIT shareholders reside in this state. Thus, the income tax from Hawaii real estate that clearly deserves to be paid to Hawaii is in fact being paid to other states.
The federal government has a similar problem with respect to non-U.S. resident REIT shareholders. The federal government simply applies a withholding tax to REIT dividends, which the REITs then pay over to the Treasury.
This is basically identical to the withholding we all see in our paychecks, and is currently collected for some smaller Hawaii real estate companies with nonresident shareholders and being considered by the legislature for real estate partnerships.
Like payroll withholding, REIT shareholders would receive a credit in their home state for tax already withheld for them in Hawaii. It would just put the income tax dollars into the coffers of the State where the services were provided to earn the income.
It’s hard for me to understand why the REITs have not been willing to simply accept this alternative, rather than risking a direct corporate income tax, as proposed in SB 301.
“Hawaii has many problems that could be addressed with this revenue.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if some local REITs that have otherwise been such outstanding Hawaii corporate citizens would say something like, “It’s fair that the state of Hawaii collect GET, property, and income tax for the services it provides to those owning prime Hawaii real estate.”
“Hawaii has many problems that could be addressed with this revenue. Hawaii is suffering more from this REITs tax situation than any other state in the country, so naturally should be a leader in rectifying the inequity.”
Only in the land of aloha would this even be a possibility. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Serco Inc. er blevet tildelt en kontrakt på USD 38 mio. fra den amerikanske hær, til at opgradere beskyttelsesdelen af HEMP – High Altitude...
Serco Inc. er blevet tildelt en kontrakt på USD 38 mio. fra den amerikanske hær, til at opgradere beskyttelsesdelen af HEMP – High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse – som er en del af radarenheden i det amerikanske missilforsvar – Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS).
Systemet skal understøtte missioner på Thule Air Base på Grønland, og kontrakten løber over fem år. Dan Allen, CEO af Serco Inc., udtaler:
Vores team har ydet support til HEMP radar opgraderinger, og vi ser frem til at forsætte med at levere vores services til Thule Air Base på Grønland.
Serco har en længere historik med at udføre HEMP radaropgraderinger, bl.a. på U.S. Air Force Space Command, Cavalier Air Force Station i North Dakota, og Royal Air Force Flyingdales i England.
Jeg er stolt af vores C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) […] for at vinde denne nye kontrakt, som udvider vores forretningsområde på forsvarsmarkedet.
En stor-højdes elektromagnetisk pulse kan være resultatet af en atomsprængning højt oppe i atmosfæren, eller den kan bruges som led i cyberkrigsførelse (Cyber Warfare), udført af andre stater eller terrorister, til at nedlægge kommunikation og kritisk infrastruktur. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A short note to let you know that Duncan and I have made the e-book version of our Essential Virtual SAN (vSAN) book available for free. We have now published it via the GitBook platform and you can find it on vsan-essentials.com. GitBook also gives you the option to download it in PDF, EPUB or MOBI formats. While the book is based on vSAN version 6.2, the vast majority is still applicable to vSAN today. For anyone working with vSAN, we think you will find it very useful.
And yes, we are looking at updating the content to a later release of vSAN, but we’re still working that one out at the moment. If there is some stuff that you would like to see included in a future release of the book, let us know.
Enjoy! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
It’s hard not to get misty-eyed look at Voyager 1’s iconic 1990 photo of the solar system, dubbed the “Pale Blue Dot.” Twenty-eight years later, a small NASA satellite has updated that iconic photo with a snapshot of its own, and it’s seriously adorable.
On May 5, NASA launched its Mars InSight lander along with two Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft, MarCO-A and B. The latter, nicknamed “Wall-E,” captured an image of Earth and the moon while it was floating over 621,000 miles from home. The result is predictably lovely.
“Consider it our homage to Voyager,” Andy Klesh, MarCO’s chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, says in a statement. “CubeSats have never gone this far into space before, so it’s a big milestone. Both our CubeSats are healthy and functioning properly. We’re looking forward to seeing them travel even farther.”
Pale Blue Dot 2.0 NASA/JPL-Caltech
The original “Pale Blue Dot” was not taken by a suitcase-sized CubeSat. While the MarCO spacecraft are indeed the farthest-reaching CubeSats in space, they’ve got nothing on Voyager 1, one of NASA’s greatest workhorses. Currently, the spacecraft is traveling through interstellar space, where it’ll rendesvous with a star in about 40,000 years.
An artist's rendering of MarCOs, the cube sat that shot the photo of Earth released by NASA this week.
In his 1994 book The Pale Blue Dot, astronomer Carl Sagan waxed poetic about Voyager 1’s timeless portrait of our solar neighborhood:
“That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives … There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.”
The original Pale Blue Dot image NASA
Now that MarCO has made their celebrity debut, the twin satellites will focus on helping out InSight, which is set to reach Mars in late November. The plan is for the CubeSats to get close enough to Mars so that they can beam back information about InSight’s descent into Mars’s atmosphere.
As the first CubeSats in deep space, these two are already off to a historic start. Plus, they’re so adorable they should be called CUTESATS! (I’m sorry, I’m trying to delete it.)
Listen to this: Theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack talks black holes, dark matter, and the end of the universe: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Die Deutsche Telekom will es Graffitikünstlern und anderen Interessierten erleichtern, die in klassischem Grau gehaltenen Multifunktionsgehäuse des Konzerns zu verschönern. Statt "nächtlicher Sprayaktionen mit Maskierung" könne man über eine Mail an "[email protected]" einfach seine Absicht ankündigen, teilt das Unternehmen in einem Blogbeitrag mit. Dazu müssen noch Standort, eine Skizze des Vorhabens und der Zustand des Kabelverzweigers mitgeteilt werden.
Die regionale Niederlassung der Telekom prüfe dann, ob die Kästen überhaupt der Telekom gehören und ob das Motiv umsetzbar sei. Motive müssten dabei "ethisch, politisch und religiös neutral sein und dürfen keine kommerzielle Werbung enthalten“. Die Kästen komplett schwarz zu machen, ist untersagt – die Wärmeentwicklung könnte der Technik im Inneren schaden. Lüftungsauslässe, Schließvorrichtungen und Scharniere seien ebenfalls tabu. Steht dem Vorhaben nichts entgegen, soll es dann die formlose Erlaubnis der Telekom per Mail geben. In einem PDF-Flyer hat die Telekom alle Rahmenbedingungen noch einmal zusammengestellt.
(axk) | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
On May 19 the European Commission granted conditional approval for Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec) for the treatment of patients with 5q spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) with a bi-allelic mutation in the SMN1 gene and a clinical diagnosis of SMA Type 1; or for patients with 5q SMA with a bi-allelic mutation in the SMN1 gene and up to three copies of the SMN2 gene.
The Beneluxa Initiative welcomes a dialogue with the company AveXis/Novartis on access and affordability of the product in each country. Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands aim to undertake a joint HTA assessment of Zolgensma as part of a reimbursement application by the manufacturer, with Austria acting as the reviewing expert in the procedure. The company AveXis/Novartis has stated its willingness to collaborate on this joint assessment and dialogue on reimbursement. As a consequence, HTA agencies in the three countries will align on the timing and content of the local HTA procedures. Joint price negotiations within the Beneluxa Initiative always start with a joint HTA procedure. Based on the outcome of the HTA assessment,countries will determine if the joint assessment will be followed by a joint price negotiation.
Last update: 19 May 2020 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
There are enough players in the January camp to have a pretty good scrimmage. We decided to draft sides, put them into a formation and (theoretically) play the game. We're looking for the readers to decide who would win so check out our arguments and vote below.
The Draft Results
Here's how the draft played out with Adam drafting with the first pick and then a snake draft the rest of the way.
Round Pick Blue (Adam) Pick Red (Jared) 1 1 Altidore 2 Bradley 2 4 Manneh 3 Morris 3 5 Nagbe 6 Kljestan 4 8 Hedges 7 Zardes 5 9 Agudelo 10 Birnbaum 6 12 Jones 11 Marshall 7 13 Rosenberry 14 Feilhaber 8 16 Zimmerman 15 Bedoya 9 17 Trapp 18 Acosta 10 20 Lletget 19 Garza 11 21 Rimando 22 Robles 12 24 Beasley 23 Zusi 13 25 Pontius 26 Evans 14 28 Kemp 27 McCarty 15 29 Bingham 30 Rowe Undrafted: Wondowlowski
Red Team Lineup
Jared: Looking at this roster it's appealing to get both Feilhaber and Kljestan connecting centrally. That's probably a more important opportunity than pairing Zardes and Morris up top, so I'm going to opt for a 4-2-3-1 formation. I'll play Kljestan deeper and that creates an intriguing triangle in the midfield with Feilhaber, Kljestan and Bradley. This will push Zardes out to the left and I'll pair him with Bedoya on the right. Zardes can pinch in and play more of a second forward and Bedoya will play more conservatively. Kellyn Acosta broke into FC Dallas at right back so he'll be comfortable there and Garza is a natural left back. Birnbaum and Marshall will man the central defense with Robles between the pipes. Here's what the starting lineup looks like:
Blue Team Lineup
Adam: This lineup works in a way that makes the field a bit lopsided, but it's one that I think puts forward the best ideas the USMNT attack has shown over the past year or so. I took Jozy first in the draft because I think he is far and away the best player in this camp and he is especially the best player when considering the depth of his position. No one else does what he does. Getting him firing on all cylinders is key, so the lineup revolves around him. Agudelo saw his hot streak correlate with New England's switch to a 4-4-2 diamond/4-1-3-2, and he makes a good partner. The other player this lineup revolves around is Jermaine Jones. Ideally and assuming full health, Jermaine Jones is a monster in the midfield, but he's typically not great as a pure 6 and has never been able to work out the double-pivot of a regular 4-4-2. With Trapp behind him, he can do what he did for Colorado: whatever he needed to do. The rest of the lineup writes itself. Manneh is the threat on the wing; Nagbe is tidy in possession and has the full goal open to him on the left side to unleash that cannon of a right foot. I ride the FC Dallas CB tandem, throw in Beasley and Rosenberry, and trust Rimando's PK prowess to justify his inclusion.
Jared: I think we'll see some goal scoring in this matchup. The quickness and strength of Agudelo and Altidore will be very difficult to handle. Add to that the playmaking from out wide and you don't need Jones to spearhead the attack. He can sit a little deeper, which suits him, and be more of a manager. Defensively I'm hoping the experience of Bradley, Marshall and even Birnbaum will be able to limit the dangerous chances that group can create. On the other side I think my offense can exploit the youth and space on the defensive side of the formation. I see pushing mostly up the left side where Bradley/Kljestan can work it to Feilhaber, Zardes and Morris. I like that combination against Trapp, the Dallas CBs and the newbie Rosenberry. I'm a Philadelphia Union fan and love the kid so I can pick on him. But I feel we can flood that area and create good opportunities.
Adam: One of the main reasons I picked Darlington Nagbe so high was his ability to fill so many different roles in the midfield. I actually hope we see him and Manneh on opposite flanks in a real game with Jozy up top, because that smells like goals to me.
On the other hand, the veterans on your side bring a lot of positional awareness on both sides of the ball. And while I'm confident in Hedges and Zimmerman, it's not like Jordan Morris will be intimidated looking at that defense.
Jared: Nagbe is the wild card. He can unleash a moment of brilliance in a flash and Jozy would be a more than happy recipient. I'm not sure we can keep Manneh and Nagbe at bay all game. What about defensive pressure? Should your team sit back and protect the defense or press forward?
Adam: I have to think we go on the offensive. Jordan Morris is a major threat on the break, but my team isn't set up to win a war of attrition. Score early, often, and try to take the life out of the game. If we let Sacha and Benny start moving the ball around and keep possession for long, we're toast.
Jared: I'm sensing a wide open game. But depending on who scores first I also like my bench. If we're up I like doubling down on defense with Dax McCarty and Bradley. If I'm down I can sub Zusi for Bedoya and get a little more offense. Can we somehow play this game!!?
Adam: My bench is...ok. Not the most versatile bunch. But I hope enough pieces on the field are comfortable enough in multiple positions that any tactical adjustments will still be feasible. And for the record, I think my team wins, 3-1.
Jared: I see the red team taking it 3-2.
Who do you think will win? Vote below. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Two Wisconsin girls accused of stabbing a classmate to please a fantasy character called Slender Man are mentally fit to stand trial on attempted homicide charges, a judge ruled Thursday.Experts for the state concluded that both girls would be able to assist in their own defenses but their attorneys disagreed with the findings. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren sided with the state during back-to-back hearings to decide the issue Thursday.During the first hearing, the 13-year-old girl watched quietly as experts explained why they thought she was or wasn't fit to go on trial. Wearing a black pantsuit and shackles, she spoke only to tell the judge that she believed she wasn't competent.Psychologists Anthony Jurek and Michael Caldwell testified for the defense that they interviewed the girl several times. They said she's clearly intelligent but has trouble making decisions when she's bombarded with information. She doesn't understand the nuances of the criminal justice system, such as the risk of turning down a plea bargain, they said.Psychiatrist Robert Rawski testified for the state that he believed the girl was highly capable. Ted Szczupakiewicz, an assistant district attorney, said judging by the two defense psychologists' reports the girl answered their questions about the legal process correctly.Bohren said that by all accounts the girl is highly intelligent."I'm satisfied that the issues of age and maturity do not override her competency," he said. "She's competent to make the decisions that have to be made."The judge ordered the other girl to undergo mental health treatment in August after a psychologist testified that she claimed to see and hear unicorns, Slender Man and Lord Voldemort, the villain from the "Harry Potter" series. Psychiatrist Kenneth Casimir generated a report in November, however, that found her mental state had improved.Bailiffs led that girl into the courtroom for her hearing in shackles, too. She wore black leggings and a zip-up sweatshirt over a Batman T-shirt.The proceeding lasted only a few minutes. Her attorney, Anthony Cotton, told the judge the girl suffers from schizophrenia, but he declined to challenge Casimir's report, offering the judge no explanation. After the proceeding, he told reporters that he felt he didn't have a strong basis to challenge the report.Bohren said he thought Casimir's report was credible and deemed the girl competent to stand trial.The judge set a joint preliminary hearing, the point in the legal process where he will have to decide whether enough evidence exists to proceed to trial, for February.Prosecutors have charged both girls with attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the attack in May in Waukesha, a city of 71,000 about 15 miles west of Milwaukee. They say the girls plotted for months to kill classmate Payton Leutner, luring her to a wooded park after a sleepover and stabbing her 19 times. After her attackers left, Leutner crawled through the woods to a sidewalk where a bicyclist found her and called 911.The two girls charged in the case were found walking toward a national forest where they said they believed Slender Man lived in a mansion.All three girls were 12 at the time. The first girl that Bohren found competent Thursday has since turned 13.Press isn't naming either defendant because their attorneys have said they may still try to move their cases into juvenile court, where proceedings are secret. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
TIOGA, N.D. — In late June, as black and gold balloons bobbed above black and gold tables with oil-rig centerpieces, the theme song from “Dallas” warmed up the crowd for the “One Million Barrels, One Million Thanks” celebration.
The mood was giddy. Halliburton served barbecued crawfish from Louisiana. A commemorative firearms dealer hawked a “one-million barrel” shotgun emblazoned with the slogan “Oil Can!” Mrs. North Dakota, in banner and crown, posed for pictures. The Texas Flying Legends performed an airshow backlit by a leaping flare of burning gas. And Gov. Jack Dalrymple was the featured guest.
Traveling through the “economically struggling” nation, Mr. Dalrymple told the crowd, he encountered many people who asked, “Jack, what the heck are you doing out there in North Dakota?” to create the fastest-growing economy, lowest unemployment rate and (according to one survey) happiest population.
“And I enjoy explaining to them, ‘Yes, the oil boom is a big, big help,' ” he said.
Outsiders, he explained, simply need to be educated out of their fear of fracking: “There is a way to explain it that really relaxes people, that makes them understand this is not a dangerous thing that we’re doing out here, that it’s really very well managed and very safe and really the key to the future of not only North Dakota but really our entire nation.”
Tioga, population 3,000, welcomed North Dakota’s first well in 1951, more than a half-century before hydraulic fracturing liberated the “tight oil” trapped in the Bakken shale formation. So it was fitting that Tioga ring in the daily production milestone that had ushered the Bakken into the rarefied company of historic oil fields worldwide.
But Tioga also claims another record: what is considered the largest on-land oil spill in recent American history. And only Brenda Jorgenson, 61, who attended “to hear what does not get said,” mentioned that one, sotto voce.
The million-barrel bash was devoid of protesters save for Ms. Jorgenson, a tall, slender grandmother who has two wells at her driveway’s end and three jars in her refrigerator containing blackened water that she said came from her faucet during the fracking process. She did not, however, utter a contrary word.
“I’m not that brave (or stupid) to protest among that,” she said in an email afterward. “I’ve said it before: we’re outgunned, outnumbered and out-suited.”
North Dakotans do not like to make a fuss. Until recently, those few who dared to challenge the brisk pace of oil development, the perceived laxity of government oversight or the despoliation of farmland were treated as killjoys. They were ignored, ridiculed, threatened, and paid settlements in exchange for silence.
But over the past year and some, the dynamic seemed to be shifting.
Satellite photos of western North Dakota at night, aglitter like a metropolis with lighted rigs and burning flares, crystallized its rapid transformation from tight-knit agricultural society to semi-industrialized oil powerhouse. Proposals to drill near historic places generated heated opposition. The giant oil spill in Tioga in September 2013 frightened people, as did the explosion months later of a derailed oil train, which sent black smoke mushrooming over a snowy plain.
Then, this year, North Dakotans learned of discovery after discovery of illegally dumped oil filter socks, the “used condoms” of the oil industry, which contain radiation dislodged from deep underground.
Suddenly a percolating anxiety came uncorked. “The worm is turning,” Timothy Q. Purdon, the United States attorney, said in April.
It was against this backdrop that on a brisk spring day David Schwalbe, a retired rancher, and his wife, Ellen Chaffee, a former university president, walked headlong into the wind on their way to an F.B.I. office in Fargo.
A mile-long oil train was rumbling through downtown. Wordlessly, Mr. Schwalbe tightened his grip on the black binders bearing what he considered evidence, based on an unusual deal involving his family’s land, that Governor Dalrymple had a corrupt relationship with the oil industry.
‘This has David kind of nervous,” Dr. Chaffee confided. “He comes from a very below-the-radar culture.”
A Potential Advantage for the Oil Industry
As a boy in the 1950s, Mr. Schwalbe scampered up and down the steep banks of Corral Creek, which flows from Killdeer Mountain into the Little Missouri River. His family homestead lay in the remote region where Theodore Roosevelt sought solitude in what he called the “desolate, grim beauty” of the Badlands.
Like many in his generation, Mr. Schwalbe took for granted the craggy buttes and rippling grasslands, the cottonwoods and poplars, the mule deer and mountain lions. He never anticipated a day when this singular landscape would be ravaged, in his view, by rigs, pumping units, waste pits and pipelines and when he would become an archetypal North Dakotan of a certain age, disheartened by what others saw as progress.
As he helped his father run cattle 11,000 feet above the Bakken formation, Mr. Schwalbe came to understand that the family ranch would never sustain his parents and their six adult children. After college, he settled in eastern North Dakota, returning home mostly for “brandings, hunting and holidays.”
When their father died, five Schwalbe siblings — David, Dennis, Donnie, Donnette and Dale — sold their shares of the ranch to their brother Delry. All six kept their rights to what lay beneath the surface, however. Just in case.
The Schwalbes were following the lead of Burlington Northern Railroad, which once owned every other tract in the area, the legacy of a federal land grant. The railroad eventually sold the surface but retained the minerals, which were managed by its energy company, Burlington Resources, now a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips.
“We figured they knew something we didn’t,” Mr. Schwalbe said.
Land has long been sliced and diced in North Dakota from generation to generation, with surface ownership severed from the ownership of underlying minerals like coal and oil. Given that mineral rights trump surface rights, this made many residents of western North Dakota feel trampled once the boom began.
In 2006, a land man for Marathon Oil offered to lease the Schwalbe siblings’ 480 acres of minerals for $100 an acre plus royalties on every sixth barrel of oil.
“Within a few years, people were getting 20, 30 times that and every fifth barrel,” Mr. Schwalbe said. But the Schwalbes did not expect “to see any oil come up out of that ground in our lifetime.”
Oil companies were just starting to combine horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing to tap into the mother lode of Bakken oil. “We didn’t really know yet about fracking,” he said.
The Schwalbes’ first well was drilled in 2008, their second the next year. Powerless to block the development, Mr. Schwalbe and his wife, nearing retirement, took some comfort in the extra income, the few thousand dollars a month.
Then that was threatened, too.
On June 20, 2011, the Schwalbes received a letter informing them that Burlington Resources intended to forge a 30,883.94-acre oil production unit that would effectively override their lease agreement with Marathon and subsume their mineral property. In the Bakken, such units are typically 1,280 acres.
The Schwalbes were instructed to sign a ratification agreement by August, when a hearing was scheduled on what some started calling “the mega-unit.” The mega-unit would include the Little Missouri State Park, a patchwork of private, state and federal land beloved for its rugged trails.
Initially perplexed by the thick document on their doorstep, the Schwalbes soon grasped a painful point: though they would be ceding control of their mineral property, their consent was not required. Only the owners of 60 percent of the unit’s minerals were needed for ratification, and Burlington, together with the federal government, already met that goal.
“That’s part of why they chose Corral Creek for their scheme,” Dr. Chaffee said. “They didn’t have to deal with a lot of fleas like us, the pesky citizens.”
The proposal had the potential to set an advantageous precedent for the oil industry.
As ConocoPhillips officials explained at the August hearing, they aimed to maximize oil recovery by being freed of the “artificial boundary lines” that require 200-foot setbacks from the borders of each standard production unit. Their plan would allow for 23 more wells; for 73,000 more barrels of oil per well; and for consolidated production that would reduce “surface disturbance,” truck traffic and air pollution. It was a proposal “for the common good,” they said.
Many of the “pesky citizens” were skeptical. “Basically this whole unit scenario is only good for one person, and that’s Burlington,” Leroy Fettig, a land and mineral owner, said at the hearing.
In normal units, oil leases expire after a set time if no drilling occurs and owners can then renegotiate on better terms or put them up for bid. But under the proposed unit, Mr. Fettig said, “You wouldn’t have to drill one additional well to hold all the acreage here theoretically for a very long period of time.”
He worried, too, he said, that Burlington would have unfettered access to a nearly 50-square-mile area and be able to situate well pads, roads and gathering pipelines without having to negotiate easements or rights of way.
“Mr. Fettig, you’re not an engineer, are you?” a lawyer for Burlington asked him. “You’re not a geologist?”
“I’m not a lawyer, either,” Mr. Fettig replied.
Mr. Schwalbe’s lawyers cautioned that he would see a significant drop in his monthly checks, as his royalties would be shared with all the mineral owners in the mega-unit, including ConocoPhillips itself. Down the road, he could recoup that loss, and then some, when wells were developed elsewhere in the unit. But he worried that if, say, oil prices dropped, he would not see that income in his lifetime.
Before the hearing, Mr. Schwalbe had approached Lynn D. Helms, director of the state’s Department of Mineral Resources, with a compromise: unitize the property in phases to be fairer to the owners of the dozen existing wells.
“I realize in the overall scope of things, my check is pretty small, but it’s got a Social Security check beat all to hell,” Mr. Schwalbe said at the hearing. “I’m hoping with the help of the commission this can be worked out equitably for everybody.”
Mr. Helms ultimately executes the policies of the three elected officials — the governor, attorney general and agriculture commissioner, all Republicans — who make up the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry. Yet at their monthly meetings, he guides them calmly from vote to vote and rarely encounters dissent. A review by The New York Times of meeting minutes since 2011 found no failed motions concerning oil and gas.
“You feel as if the meetings are a performance, that everything’s sort of done under the table, with a lot of back-room deals,” said Wayde Schafer, the Sierra Club’s sole employee in North Dakota.
Private citizens were not the only ones concerned about the mega-unit. “Before we get all up in arms about it, we have a few questions about what the proposal is and if it is going to benefit us or not,” a state land official wrote to a state oil official in October 2011. “One of the things that has got us so upset is that they are playing this off as a ‘done deal.' ”
It is essentially a done deal, the oil official responded, saying he expected an order at the Nov. 21 commission meeting would “dispose of this case.”
The Nov. 21 vote was postponed.
On Dec. 16, Mr. Schwalbe received a notarized copy of an order signed by Mr. Helms on Dec. 5. Citing “issues in this case of such complexity that additional time is necessary for the commission to render a decision,” it continued the case for 45 days. Mr. Schwalbe breathed a sigh of relief.
On Dec. 20, however, he got a call from his brother Donnie: The commission had taken up the matter after all, voting unanimously to approve the mega-unit.
“We were just dumbfounded,” Mr. Schwalbe said. “It seemed so sneaky. You know how sick a feeling it is when somebody takes your property away and gives it to somebody else? And you don’t even get a chance to be there and protest?”
Mr. Helms’s spokeswoman, Alison Ritter, said, “There’s nothing in that order that says we couldn’t act before the 45 days was up.”
Before the vote, Mr. Helms had recommended approval because, he said, the mega-unit would allow for more efficient drilling with fewer multiwell pads and storage tank batteries and “a much smaller impact on the park.” He also cited “one other major positive” — the recovery of an additional 15 million barrels of oil. During the long discussion that followed, the park was barely mentioned, though Mr. Helms did note that the development called for no tank batteries inside it.
In a statement to The Times, Governor Dalrymple’s office said the commission had acted “solely to preserve the Missouri State Park’s viewscape.”
Under the present development plan, there will be up to 28 wells and, despite what was said before the commission’s vote, three storage tank batteries inside park boundaries, Jesse Hanson, a state parks official, said. He called it “a significant intrusion.”
‘Reluctant Landowners Standing in the Way of Progress’
North Dakota’s small conservation movement has shied away from the confrontational approach that characterizes the antifracking movement elsewhere.
“We all feel we have to issue the apologia that we’re not anti-oil, we just want to see it done responsibly,” Dr. Chaffee said.
The industry, as a result, has not grappled with much opposition. “From a conservation standpoint, I can name most of those people,” said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council.
In her split-level house overlooking the majestic White Earth River Valley, Brenda Jorgenson, for one, has been a persistent thorn in the side of industry and state officials.
“ 'Reluctant landowners’ is the phrase they use for people like us,” her husband, Richard Jorgenson, said, laughing. “Reluctant landowners standing in the way of progress.”
While the Schwalbes were battling the mega-unit, the Jorgensons were trying to get their dirty drinking water tested by the state and then challenging, unsuccessfully, the burial of a waste disposal pit they call a “toxic tomb” on their property. Later, also unsuccessfully, they fought the construction of a high-pressure gas pipeline in their fields.
“We had a human prayer line to block that pipeline,” Ms. Jorgenson said. “It’s like having a ticking bomb in your backyard.”
Ms. Jorgenson maintains photo albums that intermingle pictures of her grandchildren doing snow angels with those of fracking trucks advancing on her home. Relatives ask why she and her husband do not just move. “But that’s just what the oil companies want,” Ms. Jorgenson said. “They see us as the trespassers.”
One company, in fact, sued three activist landowners in 2011, seeking damages for trespassing after the men tried to document what they believed was the cover-up of a saltwater spill.
A judge dismissed the lawsuit, calling it an effort to “shut these people up.”
“It was a great result, which is kind of rare,” said Derrick Braaten, their lawyer.
When Mr. Purdon, the United States attorney, tried to hold oil companies accountable for dead migratory birds, the result was not as satisfactory.
For years, federal wildlife agents had been imploring oil companies to cover their waste pits; migratory birds sometimes dived or fell in, dying preventable deaths. But some companies preferred to absorb the cost of citations rather than invest in netting.
In 2011, Mr. Purdon decided firmer action was needed. In one sweep through the Bakken, Richard Grosz, a special agent for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, collected 28 dead birds from drilling sites. One, found submerged, had a rock tied to its neck: “They had tried to deep-six the evidence,” Mr. Grosz said.
Six oil companies were charged with misdemeanor violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Mr. Purdon said that within hours of the complaints being filed, he received a call from a friend with a message from top-ranking state officials: “If Tim thought he would be a federal judge someday, that’s done.”
Three companies signed plea agreements. The others fought the charges, and not just in court. During a presidential campaign debate, Mitt Romney, whose energy adviser was chief executive of one of those companies, Continental Resources, mocked the prosecution; The Wall Street Journal called Mr. Purdon “dodo prosecutor of the year.”
A federal judge dismissed the cases, saying the bird act was meant to address deliberate killing by hunters and poachers.
Since then, Mr. Grosz said, “we have not gone back out in the oil patch to look for these things. Birds are still being killed. But we’ve quit.”
A ‘Case of Such Complexity’ Suddenly Becomes a Done Deal
The mega-unit became a reality on Jan. 1, 2012. Mr. Schwalbe’s first royalty check was reduced by 95 percent.
For many months, Mr. Schwalbe and his wife stewed. Then Dr. Chaffee, apolitical during 15 years as president of state universities, decided to get partisan. She joined the Democratic ticket of State Senator Ryan Taylor, a fresh-faced rancher who faced an uphill battle against Mr. Dalrymple for an office under Republican control for two decades.
Mr. Dalrymple was running his own first race for governor, having ascended to the post in 2010 after his predecessor was elected to the United States Senate.
On the day Mr. Taylor announced Dr. Chaffee’s candidacy for lieutenant governor, Mr. Schwalbe stepped off the sidelines of what his wife called a “near-hermit existence.” His first campaign assignment was to study the opposition’s year-end financial disclosure report.
And there he found what he believed to be an explanation for why the mega-unit “case of such complexity” had gotten simpler after Mr. Helms signed the Dec. 5 continuation order.
On Dec. 5, the Exxon Mobil Corporation PAC contributed $600 to Mr. Dalrymple’s campaign. On Dec. 12, Harold G. Hamm, chief executive of Continental, gave $20,000. On Dec. 17, the Marathon Oil PAC gave $5,000. On Dec. 21, the day after the mega-unit vote, for which he was present, Continental’s Bismarck-based lawyer gave $5,000. On Dec. 27, Denbury Resources contributed $5,000.
All these companies held a working interest or lease ownership in the Corral Creek mega-unit. ConocoPhillips, which stood to profit the most, had contributed $1,000 through its PAC in October.
The governor’s office declined The Times’s requests to interview him, and provided a written statement. It did not verify or deny The Times’s calculation of contributions or respond to specific questions about allegations of conflicts of interest.
Over the campaign, Mr. Dalrymple would collect over $93,000 from those with a direct interest in the mega-unit and a total of about $550,000 from oil-related executives, lawyers and political action committees. That represented a quarter of the $2.16 million in contributions over $200 (the bar for disclosure) to Mr. Dalrymple.
Governors in top oil-producing states typically get industry contributions. In North Dakota, though, the governor’s relationship to those contributors’ interests is uniquely direct because he is chairman of the Industrial Commission.
In California, by contrast, the Department of Conservation supervises the industry. In Alaska, it is a commission appointed by the governor. In Texas, it is the elected Railroad Commission.
“North Dakota’s is a hugely defective setup,” said David C. Thompson, a lawyer in Grand Forks. “Our elected officials regulate companies they get contributions from and companies they own stock in. Nobody ever recuses himself; they just vote.”
In mid-2012, Mr. Schwalbe approached Mr. Thompson at a campaign event. The lawyer happened to be researching state corruption laws on behalf of Brad Crabtree, a Democratic candidate for the Public Service Commission, which, in addition to regulating utilities, oversees oil pipeline siting and mine reclamation.
Mr. Crabtree, who went on to lose, had declined to accept contributions from the energy industry and sought to shine a spotlight on “comprehensive, institutionalized conflict” in the way North Dakota’s regulators conducted business.
Mr. Thompson, meanwhile, discovered a Watergate-era bribery statute that made it a felony for public officials to accept “a thing of pecuniary value” from any “actor” with an imminent or pending proceeding before them. No quid pro quo was necessary; the mere possibility that the official’s “performance or nonperformance” of his duties could be affected made it a crime.
Therefore, Mr. Thompson concluded in a legal analysis posted on the blog NorthDecoder.com, Mr. Dalrymple, in the case of the mega-unit, had taken bribes.
That bombshell landed with a fizzle. The state media took no interest, Mr. Taylor said, and, “as a candidate behind in the polls, who would be accused of trying to make sheer political hay,” he declined to use the allegations.
Then Mr. Thompson got a call from Paul Sorum, a founder of North Dakota’s Tea Party running for governor as an independent.."He said, ‘Are you aware of the citizen-initiated grand jury process?' ” Mr. Thompson related. “You need 10 percent of voters” in a county to sign a petition.
A week before the election, a petition filed in Dunn County, where the mega-unit is, asked a judge to convene a grand jury to determine whether Mr. Dalrymple could be prosecuted for bribery.
On Election Day, Mr. Taylor lost by nearly 30 points. Even before he had formally announced his candidacy for governor, the State Legislature had eliminated two rural districts, one of them his. “That was a dirty deal,” he said.
A couple of weeks later, a judge dismissed the grand jury petition, finding a few signatures illegitimate.
The Seeds of a Resistance Movement
The conservationists of North Dakota often express nostalgia for the strong stance that former Gov. Arthur A. Link took during a coal-mining boom in the 1970s. He pledged to protect the state for future generations “when the landscape becomes quiet again.”
“When the draglines, the blasting rigs, the power shovels and the huge gondolas cease to rip and roar, and when the last bulldozer has pushed the last spoil pile into place and the last patch of barren earth has been seeded to grass or grain, let those who follow and repopulate the land be able to say, ‘Our grandparents did their job well,' ” he said.
The current governor is better known for his business acumen than his rhetoric. John Stewart Dalrymple III, 66, is something of a patrician, a rarity in North Dakota. His state biography says he grew up “on the family farm in Casselton,” N.D., but he was born in Minneapolis and attended a private day school there before boarding at St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire and going on to Yale, like his father before him.
The 140-year-old family farm once stretched over 32,000 acres, making it “the largest cultivated farm in the world,” according to North Dakota State University archives. More recently, Dalrymple Farms has been one of the state’s largest recipients of federal commodity subsidies.
Mr. Dalrymple was more of an agribusinessman than the typical North Dakota farmer: “I’m not saying he never greased a combine, but his farm office was in the National Bank building in Casselton and he’d wear a white shirt to work,” said Bill Patrie, a specialist in rural cooperatives who worked with Mr. Dalrymple to establish a farmer-owned pasta co-op.
Mr. Dalrymple served as co-op chairman through eight years in the legislature and a decade as lieutenant governor. While lieutenant governor, he championed the cooperative’s conversion to an investor-owned firm in which he was a major shareholder, and then oversaw its sale to a Canadian conglomerate, making $3.77 million.
“In essence, Jack converted a quasi-public local institution into a personal, one-time profit maker and sold it to a multinational corporation,” Mr. Patrie said, adding, “I believe he used his public office for private gain.”
But Mr. Patrie said the local news media and farmers’ groups did not raise objections.
“We North Dakotans trust our politicians — even when they sell us out,” he said.
Many Democrats were incensed when Edward T. Schafer, a Republican former governor, toured the state in an oil industry-sponsored “Fix the Tax” bus in 2011, arguing that oil taxes should be lowered to prevent the boom from going bust. The effort failed; afterward, Mr. Schafer was named to the board of Continental Resources, and awarded a compensation package, mostly stock, valued at $700,000 that year.
According to Mr. Dalrymple’s 2012 statement of interests, he and his wife own oil stock themselves, including unspecified amounts in at least one company with regular business before his Industrial Commission: Exxon Mobil, a top state producer through its subsidiary XTO.
Because XTO was a working interest owner in the mega-unit, Mr. Schwalbe believed the governor himself could be said to have “owned a piece of the property.”
In early February 2013, Mr. Schwalbe filed a second grand jury petition.
At the same time, state legislators pushed for a higher bar for citizens to convene grand juries so that innocent people would not be subjected to criminal charges, as one legislator put it. They succeeded. And a judge threw out the second citizens’ petition.
Mr. Schwalbe felt defeated, but pockets of resistance were beginning to develop as the boom intensified.
Taking Steps to Assert Greater Authority
Early this year, an irritated crowd at a Mountrail County Commission meeting confronted Mr. Helms, the director of mineral resources, asking why state officials had approved an oil waste pit in the wellhead protection area for a municipal water supply.
Mr. Helms explained that his inspectors had had the wrong maps, adding, “We strive for perfection, but since we’re human, we have to settle for excellence.”
That came across as cavalier to the Rev. Carolyn Philstrom, a young Lutheran pastor, who shot off a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. “I baptize babies with that water,” she wrote, though she subsequently tempered her outspokenness because it bothered parishioners.
When the illegally dumped oil filter socks were discovered, Rick Schreiber, the director of solid waste for McKenzie County, became the rare official voicing outrage at what he called oil company recklessness and state inaction.
“I’m not here to make friends with the oil patch,” Mr. Schreiber said in February as trucks rolled over the radiation detector he had installed at his landfill. “If I’m the guy that has to beat the hornets’ nest with a stick, I’ll do it.”
This year, the Industrial Commission has gradually taken steps to assert greater authority over the industry.
After applications to drill near a 19th-century battlefield and near the Elkhorn Ranch in Theodore Roosevelt National Park stirred unusually heated public debate, the commission established special procedures including a public comment period for drilling on public, though not private, land near 18 “areas of interest.” The petroleum industry had resisted, cautioning that “radical environmentalists” would exploit the comment period to obstruct development. But conservationists saw the measure as a watered-down version of a proposal that already offered too little, too late.
Next, after more than a dozen mineral owners filed anti-flaring lawsuits, the commission moved to clamp down on a longstanding problem. Some 30 percent of the natural gas produced in the state — compared with less than 1 percent nationwide — was being treated as a byproduct of oil production and burned off.
At a hearing in April, Dr. Lyle Best, a pediatrician, said he lived downwind of tall flares that roared like jetliners and flickered light through his bedroom window.
“Our real annoyance, however, is the understanding that these two flares have burned off over 60 million cubic feet of natural gas in the past six months and are continuously wasting enough energy to heat hundreds of homes at the same time that many people in our country are sleeping on the street, and at least one North Dakotan died of hypothermia this winter,” he said. “This doesn’t even address the issue of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.”
When the commission voted in July to require “gas-capture plans” and impose production restrictions if companies did not meet them, Mr. Dalrymple said, “I hope that what we do today, we are serious about.”
And when QEP Resources petitioned to create its own mega-unit, Mr. Dalrymple dissented from the 2-to-1 vote of approval. In its statement, the governor’s office said the QEP mega-unit, unlike the Corral Creek one, would not have provided a “benefit to conservation efforts.” QEP later dropped its plan.
A Series of Disappointments
At the entrance to the mega-unit, on the dirt access road built for the hundreds of trucks that now traverse what used to be pristine pastures, Mr. Schwalbe’s cousin, Candyce Kleemann, sat at the wheel of her pickup, photographs on her dashboard.
“These are the before pictures: before the invasion,” said Ms. Kleemann, who lives and ranches inside the unit. “When we fought the unit, they told us there would be minimal damage or changes. But it’s a different landscape. Look, that’s our new saltwater injection well.”
She pointed to a sign: “Danger: H2S. Poisonous gas.” And to another: “Caution: power lines.” Her own sign, proclaiming her land to be private property, made her snort.
“That one’s useless,” she said. “We’re even more powerless than surface owners in the rest of the oil patch. In this unit, oil can go wherever they want here, put roads and gathering lines wherever they want, bury crud in our ground. The state does not seem to care.”
In 2012, Ms. Kleemann’s husband, Robert, a Dunn County commissioner, complained to the state that the unit development plan was being modified, putting 11 wells within a half-mile of six homes.
When an official responded that the changes appeared necessary for topographical reasons, Mr. Kleemann wrote back, “I do not think you could understand our concerns unless we could put a drilling rig on each side of your house so you could listen to the clang of pipes, the roar of motors, the constant beep of the horn and be awakened in the morning to the driller giving orders over the bullhorn and you could try to sleep with the constant noise of Jake Brakes.”
State officials were more concerned that ConocoPhillips was not developing the unit as aggressively as promised. Now the pace has picked up, with several dozen wells drilled in 2013 and several dozen more this year.
In April, when the Schwalbes laid out their concerns to two F.B.I. agents in a windowless room in the Fargo federal building, they felt encouraged. The agents seemed apprehensive “because of the individual involved,” Mr. Schwalbe said, but gradually “their interest was piqued.”
“They thanked us for coming forward,” he said afterward, surprised.
In the summer, though, a final meeting with the agents left them disheartened. The investigation remained open, they were told, but prosecutors saw no federal case to be made.
Mr. Schwalbe, who had wagered that “this year is going to be better because people are starting to get mad,” was disappointed by the November elections, too.
His wife’s former running mate, Mr. Taylor, ran again, this time for agriculture commissioner, proposing that oil well setbacks from homes be increased to a quarter-mile from 500 feet and that pipelines be fitted with antispill devices. But he lost, as did a ballot initiative to set aside tax revenues for conservation. With considerable oil industry backing, the agriculture commissioner was re-elected, as was the attorney general, extending the mandate of the current Industrial Commission.
Mr. Schwalbe does not like to visit Corral Creek anymore. The landscape is, in his eyes, scarred, the tranquillity spoiled. His new outspokenness led him into an uncharacteristic public role as spokesman for a new group, North Dakota Rural Voters.
“I never thought I’d be involved in anything like this,” he said. “At my age, I thought we’d just slide through the rest of our lives. But at a certain point, it became a point of pride for me personally and me as a North Dakotan. I don’t like people taking things that don’t belong to them, not my money, not my property, not my state.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The largest electronic medical record (EMR) vendor in the U.S. is fighting a proposed government rule to allow patients and their physicians greater access to electronic health information – regardless of the technology platform – to promote data exchange.
According to a number of recent reports, EMR vendor Epic Systems is lookng to derail the finalization of a rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that would implement some provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act. In particular, the rules governing information-blocking of patient healthcare information and EMR interoperability are at the heart of the fight.
For its part, Epic said in a statement it supports patient information sharing, but believes the new rules open up security issues related to sharing data with third-party applications, a position some see as a red herring.
“Yet again, Epic is information blocking – this time trying to trick public opinion with privacy concerns,” said Cynthia Fisher, founder and chairman of the non-profit PatientRightsAdvocate.org. “In reality, it is a smoke screen to protect their market share, control, and financial interests. It’s all about the money.”
Mike Jones, a vice president of research at Gartner, agreed, saying that by blocking information, vendors are seeking to define interoperability on their terms. “Gartner’s view is that these rules are an essential part of the solution to drive more open ecosystems.”
The proposed rule would require EMR vendors to give patients electronic access to all of their health information at no cost and to allow those data stores to connect to any third-party apps a patient chooses, such as the Health app launched by Apple two years ago.
Creative Commons Lic. A sample of a patient electronic medical record.
The new rule, to be administered by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), would additionally allow for more choice in care and treatment, according to the government agency.
Because of lack of access to health information, patients are misdiagnosed, mistreated and mischarged, Fisher said.
“These rules will invert the power and put the control into the hands of patients, giving them much-needed access and transparency,” Fisher said. “Patients having complete information wherever they get care will allow for proper diagnoses, treatment, and the ability to shop for the best quality of care at the lowest possible price.”
The Trump Administration’s implementation of the bipartisan Cures Act, through the new rules, will begin “a technological revolution in healthcare,” Fisher added. “Allowing technology innovators to disrupt the status quo is the biggest threat to Epic’s business model."
The U.S. is not alone in its efforts to promote patient rights for better access and sharing of healthcare information. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) contains a Right to Data Portability article that says industry standard data formats should be used to enable consumer data sharing, as opposed to proprietary data formats.
For example, the rules would require increased interoperability between EMRs through the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) standard, new API requirements, and data export capabilities to ease switching of health IT services or to provide patients their health information directly.
While industry standards already exist, progress on adopting them has been slow; regulation and enforcement issues so far have allowed EMR vendors to define interoperability on their own terms, according to Jones.
The ONC would oversee conditions and certification requirements for EMR providers developed under the ONC Health IT Certification Program.
Epic reportedly lobbied against the new rule set, and in an email, Epic CEO Judy Faulkner urged CEOs and presidents of hospital systems to co-sign a letter disapproving of the rules.
Epic has even threatened to sue HHS over the rule, according to one report.
This wouldn’t be the first time EMR providers have been accused of actively blocking industry measures to make patient information sharing simpler.
Industry experts have said the patient information sharing isn’t a technological problem but an issue related to vendor profits. By keeping their software proprietary and unable to exchange data, or by actively blocking the use of protocols that would otherwise allow it, EMR vendors can corner their respective markets.
Thinkstock
In its statement this week, Epic claimed it supports the proposed ONC rule to enable simpler patient data access, and pointed to its MyChart patient portal; Epic said the portal has allowed patients to download Epic EMR data to a file or thumb drive for the past decade – something disputed by others who say that capability is no more than 18 months old.
Epic, however, argued that the new rule must be amended to ensure patient privacy.
“By requiring health systems to send patient data to any app requested by the patient, the ONC rule inadvertently creates new privacy risks,” Epic said.
There are two “highly likely patient privacy risks,” according to the company.
The data sent to the apps might include family member data, without the patient realizing it and without the family members’ knowledge or permission. Almost all medical records contain family history, which may be threaded throughout the record. Apps may take much more of the patient’s data than the patient intended. There are no transparency requirements to make it very clear to the patient what data the app is taking and what the app will do with that data.
Epic pointed to a 2019 study that found 79% of health care apps resell or share data, and there is no regulation requiring patient approval for that downstream use.
“For patients to benefit from the ONC rule without these serious risks to their privacy, we recommend that transparency requirements and privacy protections are established for apps gathering patient data before the ONC rule is finalized,” Epic said.
Third-party apps enabling the sharing of EMR information are growing.
In 2018, Apple launched its Health Record feature on its Health app, which allows patients to pull healthcare info from multiple providers onto a single record they can share with clinicians – regardless of where they work.
Apple's Health Record uses the Health Level Seven (HL7) application programming interface (API) and the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) industry standard; the two specifications enable all EMR platforms to upload basic patient data from a standard continuity of care document (CCDA) into a single Apple format, once the patient opts in.
“Today the EHR is a system of record. New systems of innovation and differentiation can help deliver new capabilities (e.g. virtual care, remote patient monitoring, apps and devices to help people care for themselves)," said Jones.
He went on to argue that keeping data siloed is old-school thinking.
"Vendors that block the exchange of health information to ‘protect the patients and health systems’ or seek to charge royalties or focus mostly on proprietary forms of API information exchange are an anachronism from the days of early EHR adoption," Jones said. "Healthcare needs effective information sharing: Patients want it and many health systems want it."
Another leading Medical IT vendor, Meditech, said it “is strongly in favor of a patient's right to have access to their medical record data” and their right to “electronically transmit that data for use wherever they like.
“There are some troublesome aspects to the proposed rule, but we have chosen to communicate those directly to the administration and are hopeful those concerns will be addressed, if not in the rule itself, then in subsequent clarifications,” Meditech said.
Healthcare organizations and government policymakers in some regions are now collaborating to deliver and open health information exchange (HIE) and drive new market requirements.
“Lack of effective meaningful health data-sharing is a major industry challenge and is a barrier to effective joined-up healthcare for many patients and citizens today. The HHS rule, and similar attempts in other countries to open up the exchange of healthcare data are to be welcomed,” Jones said. “The more forward-thinking vendors operating in the market recognize the emergence of integrated health, and in some counties, regional health and social care ecosystems.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
[Welcome Pathetic Triathletes! We’d like to invite you to check out the posts Is Ragen Wrong about Everything? and The Truth about Ragen Chastain to get an idea of why this blog exists and why we feel it is important to call her out.]
In exactly 103 days, Ragen Chastain claims she will swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run a full marathon in under 17 hours at IRONMAN Arizona in Tempe, AZ. To date, her only endurance event experience consists of gaming the rules at the 2013 Seattle Marathon to force the volunteer to allow her to finish in over 12 hours, and failing to complete the swim segment at IRONMAN 70.3 Arizona last October. This year she has worked hard on her 5K personal record and managed to get it down to an elite 1:05:51. This was followed up by her recent IronFlop 4.3K disqualification when she was unable to finish a novelty fun run 5K course properly and ruined a week of IRONMAN training by walking for an hour.
Ragen is currently “sick” or else training hard depending on whether you check IronFat or Dances with Fat. It is coming up on a month since her last training update, reminiscent of last summer when she only posted a single IronFat update between July 8 and August 28, and most of her Dances with Fat posts were deleted reposts. If she follows last year’s pattern, she will soon be making enormous progress after a year of dismal failures, right in time for another swim DNF in November. We anticipate a century ride report at some point before November 20, but any other speculation would be fairly meaningless.
While Ragen continues to train for “3-5 hours” every day, we would like to focus on something completely different. Fit Fatties is a forum Ragen created where “thousands” of fit but fat women apparently post about all their amazing athletic endeavours on a regular basis. The most notable output of Fit Fatties is the infamous Fit Fatties Across America video where Ragen and her pal Jeanette DePatie and 1,500 forum members completed a 2,800 mile “virtual journey” across America that amounted to a grand total of 125 feet per day for each participant. Signing up for a Fit Fatties forum account quickly reveals the forum is a ghost town, but it has evolved into an extremely active Facebook group. It is clear from Ragen’s participation that she does not care about the participants in any way beyond being able to brag about creating Fit Fatties and use it for self-promotion. Her only participation in the Facebook group for the last few months has been occasional posts asking people to send her money for the upcoming Fat Activism Conference.
In the Fit Fatties Facebook group, HAES is king and weight loss talk is banned. There are no male members in sight, and the vast majority of posters are obese middle-age women doing basic activities like walking, hiking, or biking short distances, which is certainly reasonable enough. Ragen’s elite athleticism is sometimes a source of awe and inspiration for many members who look up to her for being such an apparently accomplished athlete.
However, there are occasionally some genuinely impressive “fit fatties” who post in the Facebook group, like the four women we will be featuring in our post today from the last few weeks. While Ragen was spending the last two years writing about how much she hates training and doing as much as possible to portray triathlon as a depressing and miserable sport nobody in their right mind would ever participate in, these women were training hard to do what they love. While Ragen was spending over a year whining about being unable to find triathlon gear and renting inappropriate men’s wetsuits for photo shoots, these women were solving their gear problems quickly and getting on with their training. While Ragen was skipping out on events and taking her utter failure of a 70.3 as a sign she should register for a full IRONMAN, these women were doing races appropriate for their abilities and body sizes. All of these women have achieved athletic goals far more impressive than anything Ragen has ever done in her life, and none of them will ever be featured on Dances with Fat or IronFat because Ragen simply does not care about other fat athletes who make her look bad.
Despite our obviously negative opinion of Ragen and her antics and moneymaking schemes, Fit Fatties may actually be her most positive creation, simply by virtue of Ragen herself having no part in its content and being unable to monetize it.
Update: Some concerns have been expressed about the use of anonymized Fit Fatties content in this post. We feel it is a reasonable fair use of the content, and specifically avoided obscuring faces because of past issues and because it plays into the “headless fatty” trope many fat activists decry. There is very little meaningful identifying information in any of these posts, and some of the concerns seem rather overblown. Nevertheless, faces have now been obscured to further anonymize the photos, which we feel detracts from their accomplishment to some extent. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Lyubayeva, who was born in the Ukraine, met key ministers of the Flemish government this morning to discuss the matter, after Homans had voiced her intention to dismiss her.
The case made the headlines the whole week in Flanders, but the final decision was only to be made today. The Flemish government decided to make Lyubayeva redundant.
Lyubayeva received a negative evaluation from minister Homans, who says she was not good enough in her function. However, others say Lyubayeva was fired because she was too critical of the policies adopted by the N-VA (Homans' party) and by Homans in Flanders. It is also said that there was no personal click between her and the minister.
The function that Lyubayeva held is being described on the website of the Flemish government as "an independent position within the Flemish government reporting directly to the Flemish Interior Minister". | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
© Асен Тотин Траекторията на полет BGF004, зафикисрана от сайт flightradar24.com, в участъка около границата между Турция и Иран. Самолетът е достигнал границата и е направил обратен завой към Турция с последващо отклонение на юг-югоизток.
Самолетът, с който премиерът Бойко Борисов пристигна на посещение в кралство Саудитска Арабия, е направил маневра над иранското въздушно пространство по пътя за Рияд. Това показват данни от сайта Flight Radar, който проследява полети в реално време. В последвало съобщение до медиите правителството потвърди информацията и обяви, че самолетът е получил неочакван отказ за прелитане над Иран, а временно управляващият иранското посолство у нас е извикан от Министерството на външните работи.
Сигналът беше получен от читател на "Дневник", който изпрати и скрийншот от траекторията на самолета. Моделът и обозначенията му - "Еърбъс А319" с регистрационен номер LZ-AOB, съвпадат с този на правителствения авиоотряд АО-28, с който делегацията отпътува за кралството.
Радарните данни - потвърдени и от справка на "Дневник" в приложението на Flight Radar - сочат, че от Турция самолетът е навлязъл във въздушното пространство над Западен Иран, но впоследствие е пресякъл отново границата с Турция и се е отклонил на юг през Ирак.
Обичайният маршрут, използван от превозвачи на Балканите към Арабския полуостров, минава през Турция, Средиземно море и Египет и избягва Сирия и Ирак. Това се илюстрира и от снимка на трасетата в района от сутринта на 29 ноември, на която се вижда, че повечето авиокомпании заобикалят небето на двете държави. Минаващите през Иран са на път за страни като Кувейт и Обединените арабски емирства, докато за Саудитска Арабия се лети над Египет и Източното Средиземноморие.
"Имаме разрешение за полет над Иран"
От друга страна, отношенията между Иран и Саудитска Арабия са достигнали едно от най-ниските си равнища за последните десетилетия. Уахабитското кралство забрани миналата година полети от и до Иран, а ислямската република рядко допуска във въздушното си пространство самолети от и до летища в уахабитското кралство.
"Дневник" потърси Министерството на външните работи за коментар, но пресцентърът му пренасочи към Правителствената информационна служба. Нейни представители отказаха коментар и обясниха, че ще проверят информацията.
По-късно от пресслужбата на кабинета разпространиха изявление до медиите, според което "правителственият самолет е притежавал необходимите дипломатически разрешения за полет над иранското въздушно пространство". Кабинетът цитира външния министър Екатерина Захариева, която е в Рияд като част от делегацията на Борисов.
"Полученият в последният момент отказ за прелитане е необясним и поради тази причина днес в МВнР в София е извикан временно управляващият иранското посолство у нас," пише още пресслужбата.
"След като екипажът е получил искането за излизане от иранското въздушно пространство, той се е върнал към Турция и със съдействието на турските власти е получено разрешение за осъществяване на полета над иракска територия, обясни вицепремиерът. Тя изрично подчерта, че българската страна е имала официално издадено разрешение за преминаване през територията на Иран и за отиване, и за връщане, още преди осъществяването на полета и всякакви твърдения за липса на разрешение и неспазване на процедурите, са неверни и спекулативни."
Думите на Захариева същевременно не обясняват решението да се използва иранското въздушно пространство за пътуването до Рияд.
Представетили на иранското посолство, потърсени от "Дневник", за момента се въздържат от коментар. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Tensions began rising in May when the U.S. rushed thousands of additional troops to the Mideast.
In this Thursday, July 4, 2019, photo made available by U.S. Navy, two F/A-18 Super Hornets assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW 7) drop 1000-pound general-purpose bombs during an Independence Day air power demonstration next to the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in Arabian Sea. The USS Abraham Lincoln was rushed to the Mideast amid tensions between the U.S. and Iran as its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers unravels. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jeff Sherman/U.S. Navy via AP)
Iran announced Sunday it will increase its uranium enrichment to an unspecified level beyond the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, breaking another limit set under the accord and furthering heightening tensions with the U.S.
Setting another unspecified 60-day deadline for the deal, Iran raised pressure on European nations while urging further diplomacy to save an agreement that President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. from a year ago.
Hopes for saving the faltering deal appear increasingly dim, however, as the Europeans have been unable to offer Iran any effective way around U.S. sanctions that block Tehran’s oil sales abroad and target its top officials. But Iran’s recent measures, while of concern to nuclear non-proliferation experts, could be easily reversible if Europeans offer Iran the sanctions relief it seeks.
Tensions began rising in May when the U.S. rushed thousands of additional troops, an aircraft carrier, nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the Mideast.
Mysterious oil tanker blasts near the Strait of Hormuz, attacks by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Saudi Arabia and Iran shooting down a U.S. military drone have raised fears of a wider conflict in a region crucial to global energy supplies.
In Sunday’s news conference, Iranian officials said the new level of uranium enrichment would be reached later in the day, but did not provide a percentage. Under the nuclear deal, the cap for enrichment was set at 3.67%, a percentage closely monitored by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.
“Within hours, the technical tasks will be done and enrichment above 3.67% will begin,” Iran nuclear agency spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said. “We predict that the IAEA measurements early tomorrow morning will show that we have gone beyond 3.67%.”
ALSO READ: Pompeo says US ready to talk to Iran with ‘no preconditions’
The IAEA said it was aware of Iran’s comments and “inspectors in Iran will report to our headquarters as soon as they verify the announced development.”
Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made remarks in a video Saturday about Iran’s need for 5% enrichment. Bushehr, Iran’s only nuclear power plant, is now running on imported fuel from Russia that’s enriched to around 5%.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif sent a letter to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini outlining the steps it had taken, said Abbas Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister. Discussions with European powers are continuing and ministerial-level talks are planned later this month, he said.
“We will give another 60-day period, and then we will resume the reduction of our commitments,” Araghchi said, without elaborating.
On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron told his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, in a phone call that he is trying to find a way by July 15 to resume the dialogue between Iran and Western partners.
Germany expressed concern over Sunday’s announcement, while Britain called on Iran to reverse course and abide by the nuclear deal. The European Union said parties to the nuclear deal are discussing a possible emergency meeting.
Kamalvandi stressed that Iran will continue to use only slower, first-generation IR-1 centrifuges to increase enrichment, as well as keep the number of centrifuges in use under the 5,060-limit set by the nuclear deal. Iran has the technical ability to build and operate advanced centrifuges that work faster but is barred from doing so under the deal.
“For the enrichment we are using the same machines with some more pressure and some special technical work,” he said. “So we don’t have an increase in the number of centrifuges for this purpose.”
But Kamalvandi stressed that Iran is able to continue enrichment “at any speed, any amount and any level.”
Sunday’s announcement about uranium enrichment came a year after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal. Iran has repeatedly warned Europe in recent weeks that it would begin walking away from an accord neutered by a maximalist American campaign of sanctions.
The decision to ramp up uranium enrichment came less than a week after Iran acknowledged breaking the deal’s 300-kilogram (661-pound) limit on its low-enriched uranium stockpile.
Experts warn higher enrichment and a growing stockpile narrow the one-year window Iran would need to have enough material for an atomic bomb, something Iran denies it wants but the deal prevented.
Enriched uranium at the 3.67% level is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90%.
International reaction came swiftly, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who long has described Iran and its nuclear program as a threat to his country. He called on world powers to impose “snapback sanctions” on Iran.
“It is a very, very dangerous step,” Netanyahu said. “I’m asking you, not to provoke but out of joint knowledge of history and what happens when aggressive totalitarian regimes can cross the threshold toward things that are very dangerous to us all. Take the steps that you promised. Enact the sanctions.”
___
Associated Press writers Kiyoko Metzler in Vienna and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Jon Gambrell And Nasser Karimi, The Associated Press
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
I’m a bartender, and these days, I find that declaring such describes and involves more than just the job duties I perform to make a living. For better or for worse, it is who I am. It’s what people know me as now. It’s the life I live, and it’s an absurd one, at that.
“Contrary to all reason and common sense” is the phrase that many literary sources use to define the word “absurd,” a derivative of the Latin word “absurdum.” Moreover, “absurdism” is an idea that’s been explored by many brilliant minds of the past and present, like Aristotle and Thomas Nagel, to name a few. They, like many people who have deeply contemplated their circumstances in this life, felt that sometimes, well, shit just seemed weird.
In his paper titled The Absurd, Nagel suggests that true absurdity is the realization that we live in an absurd world. That’s it. It’s when you look around, take a whiff, and think to yourself this is pretty strange.
During random blips of random bartending shifts, I often experience such whiffs. I look around and realize that what I do and where I am is absolutely absurd. Instead of working in front of a computer or in a doctor’s office or in an auto body shop, I stand in front of a crowd of people and pour poison into a glass for them. It makes them happy, and they give me money for it. That makes me happy in return.
It usually goes something like this: I’m four or so hours into my Saturday night bar shift with another four to go until last call, and that’s not including all of the delirium-induced closing procedures that will span into the wee hours of the morning. It’s been a full house since I stepped behind the bar — so much so to where I ponder how incredible it is that an electrical fuse doesn’t blow, or how there have been no punches thrown yet.
We’re three to four thirsty folk deep at the bar — not quite in the weeds, but it’s busy enough to pull me away from the film debate I’m engaged in with two friends who can’t agree on who’s the best “Bond” of all time — Daniel Craig or Sean Connery. It’s busy enough to walk away from the guest who got your attention for service, but prematurely blew their load by turning around to their friends and asking them what they want. It’s busy enough to politely avoid the story a wine geek is trying to tell you about their trip to Burgundy last month. It’s busy enough for you to avoid breaking glass in your ice well at all costs. It’s busy enough to cater to those who tip and demonstrate good bar etiquette, and for those who don’t, well, it’s busy enough to leave them to the will of the Darwinian code of survival at the bipedal watering hole.
In the midst of the madness, in the chaotic scramble for clean rocks glasses or a re-supply of blue cheese-stuffed olives, I’m briefly stunned. It’s as if my favorite combatant from the video game Mortal Combat, “Sub-Zero,” froze me with his darting ice cloud. For the shortest blip of time, I contemplate hard. When these profound moments of wonderment occur, I’m immediately paralyzed and entranced; but in a good way — like a dog having its belly scratched with its master’s hand, their freshly-trimmed nails gently grazing back and forth in perfect rhythm. I’m most alive during these moments that come and go like my guests tend to do on a busy night.
These moments, or resets, only last for a few seconds but are sanity savers. They align me into the groove state — a stylish flow of suave movement and wit that many bartenders channel when the house is packed, the band is rocking, the one-liners are being instantly downloaded by the muse, and their hair and/or waxed mustaches are still perfectly maintained. My regulars are assembled on all fronts, my garnish tray has been recently replenished with shining, fresh fruits and other goodies, I hear the “ooh’s” and “ahh’s” from those who I’ve convinced to try my new cocktail, and to top it off, a patron just paid me to take a shot with them. There’s flirtation and joy and humor and celebration in the air. In this state, I feel like the immaculate Manhattan I just darted a maraschino cherry into. I feel complete.
Ever so slightly-buzzed, I’m moving nimbly alongside my fellow comrades in an un-choreographed and improvisational dance of sorts. Bartenders often work in small, cramped spaces that do not allow for clumsy, out-of-rhythm step. We dip and bend and waltz around our dance partners, constantly grazing and touching each other to alert them of our close proximity — something I often accidentally do in public to complete strangers at crowded supermarkets. In any other environment, how we touch each other and where we put our hands would be grounds for sexual harassment charges or worse. But it’s accepted and encouraged in the trenches of the barroom.
At large, there is no equation or particular scenario that alludes to the onset of these brief realizations of the absurd, these “holy shit — this is what I do” moments, but typically they occur when I have a broader vantage point of the room. And I’m usually put under the spell right when I need it the most, as my level of patience for dealing with drunken adults has all but evaporated. Right before I pull my own hair out, jump up onto the bar top and kick over everyone’s drinks, and make my escape by bursting through the wall “Looney Tunes” style, the cloud of cool hits me. I’m pouring a beer and then WHAM! I’m tranquil. I’m centered. I just stare out at the bar packed-full of men and women drinking poison, and in the midst of the chaos, I scan the incredibly diverse pack of upright monkeys, laughing to myself when I consider my relationship and role with them.
Some of them are loud, some of them are quiet. Some try to find another to mate with, some bite their nails in nervous anticipation of the next big play of the game on the big screen. Some are well dressed and some are barely dressed. Some live a few drunken somersaults away and some are visiting from distant lands. Some cram food down their throat, and some cram their tongues down someone else’s throat.
I’m awestruck and realize that this is a special time in history that will never again be replicated the in same way it is taking place before my wide-open eyes at this very moment. It’s the stuff movie scenes are made of: the sound of side plates being stacked, the pocketed eruptions of laughter, the clinking of cheers’ing wine glasses, a cocktail being born out of its frosted tin, the burping, the “yo’s,” the “ey’s,” the “eyy-yoo’s” — the crowd of thirsty night owls all seem to be tapped into this energy in the room that no one can precisely put their finger on.
And when that tranquility dissipates and I do end up breaking glass in my ice well, or I slice my finger while peeling a lemon, or yet another keg exhales its last dying drops of beer into my face, I get angry and flustered again. Once again I commit the crime that Thomas Nagel referred to in his paper—I’m back to taking myself and my life too seriously. I curse the Gods when someone doesn’t tip, or when a guest takes minutes of my time to taste all of the craft beers we have on tap and then decides on a Coors. I’m made livid when someone snaps their fingers and signals to me to come hither as if I’m their butler. And holy shit — those who turn their backs to me while I hold their freshly-crafted cocktails in my hands and wait to be compensated — yeah, I hate those fuckers.
But at the peak of my anger, at the very limit of my ire, Sub Zero graciously chills me out once more. As I return to the beer taps yet again for a guest who is a repeat offender of the “Can I get one more?” offense, I turn and look and sigh and laugh at the madness, the absurdity of the room. All of For another few seconds, I become mindful and zen and shit. This is my office, I think to myself. Holy shit!
I’m a bartender. What I do is absurd, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
**
For more ramblings on bartending, please check out the link for my book “The Watering Hole—A Bartender’s Breakdown of the Bipedal Drinking Establishment” listed below.
Follow me on Twitter @jayreidwrites, and visit my website at JayReidWrites.com. Cheers!
http://www.amazon.com/Watering-Hole-Bartenders-Breakdown-Establishment/dp/0692287906/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419125486&sr=8-1&keywords=the+watering+hole+a+bartenders+breakdown | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This drama depicts the slow deterioration of a marriage due to alcoholism as ambitious ad man Joe Clay gets his wife Kristen to join him in drinking bouts that soon begin to destroy their lives. Using the framework of an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, Joe gets up to address the gathering and his story is told in flashbacks that begin 10 years
earlier. How they met, where it begins and how it will end play out in this award-winning drama.
CAST
(Names in red denote Curtain Call debut.)
Sunny Makwana - Joe Clay
Nicole Neurahr - Kirsten Clay
Elayne Mordoff - Molly Hungerford & Mrs. Nolan
Larry Greeley - Jim Hungerford
Mark Sank - Ellis Arnesen
Kristina DeLelle - Debbie
Rich Masotti - Leland
ENSEMBLE:
Brittani Kelly, Jerry Kranz, Emilia Gallagher, Anna Mansager and Greg Robustelli
Most production photos courtesy of fotosbyfailla.com. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
There are few topics more fraught with anxiety and confusion – for men and women – than the idea of virginity. I can’t count the number of letters I’ve gotten from virgin readers, men and women of just about every age who have not had sex yet and are desperately afraid that they’re “too late”.
Some may have had physical intercourse with another person – oral sex, mutual masturbation, possibly even anal sex – but consider themselves virgins because they’ve never had penile/vaginal sex. Others may have had penetrative sex but not “count” it for one reason or another. Still others may have never so much as held hands with someone who wasn’t a family member.
Because of all of the importance placed on the concept of virginity, many people are convinced that having passed some arbitrary cut-off point that they have rendered themselves utterly unfuckable and have somehow missed on a critical aspect of growing up. They may get older but they will never truly be adult because they’ve never crossed the finish line on this one particular area.
But – and you had to know that a “but” was coming – is it too late for them? What are these late-bloomers supposed to do?
The “Importance” of Virginity
Virginity has an outsized level of influence in Western culture, especially in countries with large conservative religious communities; the idea of sex and “purity” get completely intertwined and then but up against gender roles that completely contradict those values.
Men are under immense cultural pressure to lose their virginity as soon as possible because of how much sexual prowess is tied into masculine identity. The idea of losing one’s virginity as a rite of passage to adulthood is a deeply entrenched one; thus, men carry around the idea that you are still just a boy until you’ve managed to actually ejaculate into another person’s vagina, no matter how old you may be physically.
Take for example, the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin, a movie that – despite being fairly understanding and surprisingly sensitive about older virgins – still equates virginity with childhood. Steve Carrell’s character may be middle-aged with a steady job, a sizable apartment, a car and presumably relatively debt free… but because he’s never managed to actually penetrate a woman, he’s still obsessed with “childish” things.
Meanwhile, we live in a culture that glorifies male sexual conquests even as it pathologizes male sexuality. We are taught to measure a man’s value by the number of sex partners he’s had; the more women he’s seduced, the greater the value. Wilt Chamberlin may have been a great basketball player, but he’s legendary for his supposed number of conquests. Gene Simmons is a similar case. Sure, he may have created one of the most iconic rock bands in history and written songs that continue to resonate with each generation of listeners… he’s also lionized for having supposedly slept with over 4800 women in his lifetime.
If you take the idea that a man’s value is proportional to the number of sex partners, it’s not surprising that we absorb the idea that therefore someone who hasn’t had any is worthless.
Women, on the other hand are caught up in a particularly nasty double standard; while sex is tied with virility and masculinity with men, it’s value is inverted for women. For them, sex is commodified as an equivalent to purity: the less sex she has had, the higher her value. A virgin, therefore, is the ultimate expression of virtue and goodness (and thus priceless) and any woman who has an excessive number of sex partners (for a suitably subjective value of “excessive”) is degraded.
(Which admittedly brings up the question of just who these studs are supposed to be racking up all these lays with, but that’s a matter for another time.)
Even in this day and age when women are closer to social and sexual equity than they have ever been before, the double-standard still exists; the ultimate insults to label a woman are “slut” and “prude”.
The Truth About Virgins
Here’s the hard and fast truth about virgins and virginity: it’s a completely cultural construct. When you strip away all of the value placed on sex and sexuality and look at it with an unemotional eye, virginity is a lack of a particular physical experience. To be a virgin is no different, ultimately, from never having eaten Chinese food or having been to Disneyland. In fact, you could reasonably equate the two; more often than not, you wait for too damn long for a thrill that’s over in under 3 minutes and half the time you’re wondering what the big deal was.
There is no difference between a person who has had sex and someone who hasn’t. Even a woman’s hymen is no demarcator of virginity; many will rupture their hymen long before they’ve had penetrative vaginal intercourse. You are no wiser, more mature or otherwise changed from who you were minutes beforehand; the only difference is that you now have a set of memories that you didn’t have before and the need to shower and change the sheets. Having had sex doesn’t validate you as a person, nor does it somehow confirm that you have worth or that you’ve been devalued by the experience. It won’t magically give you confidence that you didn’t have before, it won’t change how you think or make you empirically more or less attractive. Anything you gain from sex was, ultimately, within you from the start.
The Fear of “Too Late”
The fear of reaching is incredibly pervasive in our culture, especially when we’re bombarded with stories of how boys and girls are sexual at an increasingly young age. Just about everyone who is a virgin past a certain point – generally as soon as puberty hits, if we’re honest about it – is convinced that they’re on the cusp of reaching some nebulous “point of no return”. That deadline – the idea we have to lose our virginity by X date or remain forever unfuckable – tends to vary; we tend to put undue importance on arbitrary dates because they carry totemic significance for us. For some, it’s a quest to lose our virginity the night of The Big School Event (Homecoming, Prom, Spring Formal, what-have-you) because it’s part of the modern high-school mythology that we’ve made up. For others it’s trying to beat a particular date – our 18th or 21st birthdays, high-school or college graduation, before summer’s over, before getting married.
The fear for guys is that by being a virgin past this nebulous date, they will have not only missed their chance to sew their wild oats – because of course, nobody over the age of 35 has no-strings-attached sex ever – but they will be so clearly marked as “damaged goods” that no woman would possibly want them. They live in fear that no woman would want to have to “show them the ropes” and as a result, their lack of experience will leave them completely incapable of living up to the demands and expectations of a more-experienced partner; thus they have effectively aged out of the dating market and are doomed to die alone, unloved and having never been naked with a girl.
Women on the other hand are taught that their sexual desirability has a built in expiration date; pass a specific point and nobody will have want to have sex with you, not when they could bang someone younger instead. This gets especially caught up in the (admittedly old-fashioned) idea of women being an “old maid” if they haven’t found a partner or spouse by an equally random age. A flawed article in an issue of Newsweek sent women into paroxysms of fear of spinsterhood when it claimed that women who weren’t married by 40 would never be married and had better odds of being killed by terrorists. In Japan, there are references to a woman as a “Christmas cake” – it may look tasty, but nobody wants it after the 25th.
The problem is that – for the most part – these fears are self-inflicted. It rapidly becomes a case of self-fulfilling prophecy; they believe that there is something shameful and wrong about being a virgin at such an “advanced” age and so it bleeds into other aspects of their lives. Some may become bitter and resentful, feeling as though they’re being cheated of something that they’re rightfully “owed”. Others will have their pre-existing approach anxiety ramped up to near pathological levels, leaving them with anxiety attacks and a crippling shyness around people they’re attracted to. Still others will be unpleasantly needy or put all of their focus on just trying to find someone to sleep with, instead of dealing with them as people.
Small wonder that they have issues finding that first sex partner; it’s their behavior that ends up causing them problems, rather than their relative state of inexperience.
Virginity Through The Ages
First: You are a unique fucking snowflake and the culmination of tens of thousands of years of evolution that brought you into existence Trying to measure your self-worth by age and sexual experience is a recipe for heartache and completely ignores that – once again – you are comparing your unedited footage to somebody else’s highlight reel. Their life is not your life and trying to measure yourself by their yardstick is only going to drive you to distraction. It takes absolutely nothing about your life or theirs into account; you don’t know what circumstances lead to how they lost theirs nor does it allow for reasons why you may not have lost yours. It says nothing about their value as a person, their partner or the quality of their experience. Many people who lost their virginity early wish that they had waited longer – they simply weren’t ready for the full emotional, psychological and physical implications of a sexual relationship. It is a useless metric for comparison; you’re not comparing apples to apples, you’re comparing apples to wallabies.
If You Are In Your Teens:
If you’re in high-school, don’t worry about getting laid. You will be convinced that everybody else is having sex and you are somehow missing out. Cool down, chill the fuck out and – critically – start planning for the future. High-school is a lousy time to have sex; nobody knows who they are and even less about what they’re doing. In addition… you’re going to regret it. I don’t mean in the “abstinence-only-sex-before-marriage-will-ruin-you” sense but in the sense of actually regretting having lost it when you did. According to one survey, over 52% of girls and a third of guys who lost their virginity under the age of 18 had mixed feelings over the matter or actively regretted. And to be perfectly honest, while I don’t ascribe to the “your first time should be perfect” theory, it’s not something you want to do and then regret later. Better to wait a little bit longer – or at least not rush into it – and be better prepared.
Take the time to invest in your future (which is to say, college and beyond) by laying the groundwork that will get you laid like a goddamn bandit a little later on.
If You Are In Your Twenties:
Yes, you’re on the trailing edge of the bell-curve; it’s uncommon but certainly not unheard of or terribly unusual. In fact, it’s pretty understandable. This is often a transitionary period for people, trying to balance education with work and a social life – made all the harder if you’re one of the 60% of college students staring down the barrel of paying off those college loans. Some of you may have spent more time focusing on your studies or work. Others may still be in the middle of shaking off old identities and trying to work out social anxieties and inexperience.
I didn’t have sex – or much in the way of any form of sexual contact – until I was a sophomore in college and up until that point, I was absolutely convinced that not only was I the Last American Virgin but never mind drinking, I was going to be eligible for AARP membership before I ever managed to get laid. I was overweight, awkward as hell, I had no sense of style to speak of and I was still convinced that Platonic Friendship Backdoor Gambit was a completely legitimate way of getting a girlfriend. I annoyed the ever-loving fuck out of my friends with my constant grousing and my half-backed and quarter-assed attempts at getting laid. I was bitter, resentful and a complete shit to any poor girl who I managed to convince to date me for longer than a week or two.
And yet… I met a girl, we started dating and lo and behold, one Halloween night we stole back to my dorm room and whatta ya know. Two and a half anxious minutes later (plus foreplay) I was no longer one of the Great Untouched.
It’s also worth noting that people who lost their virginity after the age of 19 tend to have better relationships in general; they tend to have more emotional maturity and life experience that makes them better able to navigate relationship issues than those who lost their virginity earlier.
One issue that women will face at this point (that frequently don’t) is the fear of attachment. Many guys, especially in their 20s and 30s, will be uncomfortable about sleeping with a virgin for fear that she will then imprint upon them like a duckling looking for it’s mommy. These guys are, frankly, fucking idiots; women are just as capable of having sex for sex’s sake as men, and honestly the odds are good that you would be better off not fucking them in the first place. However, should you wish to do so, it may be better to take the initiative yourself rather than waiting for their horniness to overcome their fear of being stuck with a “clinger”
If You Are In Your 30s and Older
I will be honest: it’s relatively uncommon – but hardly unheard of – to be a virgin in one’s 30s or beyond. However: do not mistake “uncommon” with “something wrong”; once again, there is nothing shameful about being a virgin at any age. Ideally at this stage in your life, you will be relatively well established; a job (if not a career), a place to live, enough stability in your life to spend time on a social life instead of spending all of your waking hours working. This is all to your advantage. You have experience and (theoretically) maturity on your side by this point, and this can help when it comes to building the skills that help make you more socially adept and able to find the partner you’re looking for.
Now it should be noted that older women will have a disproportionately more difficult time than older men when it comes to losing one’s virginity; our culture puts an inordinate value on youth when it comes to a woman’s sexual desirability. There are any number of justifications and excuses for this – men have a larger fertility window than women do, for example – but human sexuality is far more complicated than we frequently give it credit for. Ultimately it comes down to the fact that we are taught over and over again that women past a certain age simply aren’t sexual beings any longer while older men are almost expected to take an active interest in women younger than them.
Difficult, however, does not mean impossible. While there will be plenty of men who prefer younger women, there are just as many who will appreciate women their own age… and many younger men have an appreciation for more mature women as well. We live in an age when being a cougar comes with a certain level of cachet and desirability and there’s no reason why women should not take advantage of that.
How Do You Explain It?
So what do you say to make people understand why you’re still a virgin?
Well… for the most part, you don’t. Explanations tend to sound like excuses or justifications, which circles right back to the idea that there’s something wrong with being a virgin. This isn’t a shameful secret, and you’re not unveiling some horrible problem and you shouldn’t present it that way. You’re just less experienced than some. It may even be a bonus to the right sort of person.
You can say that you’ve had some bad experiences and it put you off sex for a while. You can say that you wanted to wait for the right person or the right time You can explain that you were deeply religious and you only just now are coming out from under. You got caught up in building your career or your life that you simply didn’t have time or that sex just wasn’t a priority for you. You can even fudge it a little if you want and just say that you haven’t had many partners…
Technically zero isn’t many, after all…
Humor can also work: I have one friend who told her first that she was a unicorn trainer retiring from the business.
Ultimately, regardless of your reasons, keep any explanations short and sweet; you don’t need to unpack your life’s history in order to get the point across. Your prospective partner should be someone who’s understanding, caring and sensitive; anyone who is going to have a problem with the fact that you’re a virgin simply isn’t worth sleeping with and you are well rid of them.
What About Paying For It?
At some point, it will likely be tempting to hire the services of a professional in order to just “get it over with”. In general, I’m not against sex work or sex workers provided it’s safe, sane and consensual for everybody involved. However, like I’ve told one reader, I don’t believe it’s always the best choice. If part of the reason you’re a virgin is because of confidence issues, anxiety around women or other self-limiting beliefs, visiting an escort isn’t going to magically make those problems disappear; if anything it can make things worse, especially if you see visiting an escort as an option of last resort. The last thing you need is to compound any unnecessary and self-inflicted shame about one’s virginity with even more negative associations with how you lost it in the first place.
That having been said, if you’re convinced that this is something you want to pursue, do your due diligence. First of all, this means doing your research. You don’t want to be picking up a prostitute from the street corner and you don’t want to find yourself involved with someone who’s in the business against her will. Look into independent escorts or reputable agencies; there are plenty of resources online to help you find them. There are Yelp-like sites for reviews and sharing of information as well as etiquette guides and safety tips – for both you and the escort.
And of course: condoms, condoms, condoms.
Also worth noting: there are sexual surrogates, whom are trained in helping people with issues regarding sex and intimacy. In fact, one of my readers has written about some of her experiences working as a surrogate with older virgins. Now, finding a surrogate can be difficult; it’s a legal grey-area in many cases and you need a referral from a therapist – preferably one who specializes in sexual issues – before you can start working with one. It’s also not just a case of going and getting laid – this is therapy, not prostitution.
You can find more information – including finding a therapist – at the International Professional Surrogates Association
What Do You Do In The Meantime?
The hardest part for many people is simply: what do you do? How are you supposed to manage the frustration and anxiety until you do have sex for the first time?
Obvious answer is obvious: you want to build your life. The best thing you can do is live a complete, rich life that helps you build yourself into an interesting, social and more confident person. Build your social circle – not just people you hope to sleep with but friends and activity partners; the more comfortable you are at interacting with others socially, the better you will be at interacting with prospective sexual or romantic partners. This, in turn, will make you a more attractive individual and help bring the people you’re looking for into your life. Work on issues regarding approach anxiety or self-limiting beliefs; these will hold you back much more than anything else in your life.
Also: embrace the sex toy as a means of managing your frustration. You have better luck at finding sex when your every move and gesture doesn’t scream “I AM SO HORNY I COULD FUCK CONCRETE RIGHT NOW!” Don’t let macho bullshit get in the way of easing your sexual needs; masturbation sleeves for men, such as the Fleshlight can help immensely when it comes to releasing the pressure. If you’re squicked out be the disembodied vulva design of Fleshlights or similar products, you may want to look into Tenga, a Japanese sex toy line for men that Sex Nerd Sandra recommended on the NerdLove podcast. Using these is also a good way to train yourself to control and delay your orgasm – a lot of men fear being a two-pump chump their first time.
Be sure to vary your masturbation habits. Get to know exactly what gets you off by using a variety of speed, pressure, levels of lubrication, even location of friction. The more you understand about your orgasm response and what you like, the better able you will be to communicate it to your partner, which will make the sex that much better when you do have it. Just be sure to avoid what’s known as “the death grip”, where you end up getting used to extreme levels of pressure from your hand that the human body simply cannot match.
Most of all however: relax. Some things come in their own time and can’t be forced – as frustrating as it may be. Getting tense and upset over being a virgin will only make things harder; learning to go with the flow will help you not only find a partner faster… but it’ll make things that much better when it does happen. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
married and Has two last names doesn't get mad when you get it wrong
542 shares | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Private: Hard Nation #33
Still flabbergasted by the outcome of the 2016 election, Mark & Pete play a reenactment of an 1865 interview from the Hard Nation archives, with President Abraham Lincoln (Beth Appel). Listen to “Casual, Cool Abe” discuss the difficulties of bringing a divided nation together, the widow he keeps in his outhouse, and the “Look Who’s Talking” cycle of plays. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
CNN was caught handing out an apparently edited question to a member of the audience “clarifying” what to ask Ted Cruz during the debate Tuesday night with Bernie Sanders about the future of Obamacare.
The question, read by Carol Hardaway is as follows:
“I have multiple sclerosis but could not afford insurance – without the treatment or medications I need, I had problems with walking, with my speech, and my vision. When the affordable care act was passed I moved from our home state of Texas because they refused to expand Medicaid to Maryland and within 2 weeks I started receiving treatments through Medicaid and am now well enough to work as a substitute teacher.”
“Senator Cruz, can you promise me that you and the Republican leaders in congress will have – actually have a replacement plan in place for people like me who depend on their Medicaid? In other words, I like my coverage, can I keep it?”
The email is from a Gmail account, with the subject line “Your Question,” as the picture shows.
This isn’t the first time CNN has been caught “managing” questions from the audience.
Just last October, WikiLeaks revealed that CNN commentator and former chair of the DNC Donna Brazile funneled questions to Hillary Clinton ahead of a major Democratic primary debate. She was fired as DNC chair and let go as commentator shortly after the revelations came to light.
A month later, WikiLeaks again revealed that CNN was caught asking the DNC to prepare questions for Wolf Blitzer’s interview with then-candidate Donald Trump
“Wolf Blitzer is interviewing Trump on Tues ahead of his foreign policy address on Wed,” wrote the DNC’s Lauren Dillon to fellow Democrats. “Please send me thoughts by 10:30 AM tomorrow. Thanks!”
Now that CNN is understood to be the fake news network, it’s surprising that they’re still digging their own grave by continuing to brazenly peddle fake narratives.
The Save Infowars Super Sale is now live! Get up to 60% off our most popular products today! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Sign up for our COVID-19 newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest coronavirus news throughout New York City
With I, Tonya, Margot Robbie makes her first steps as a producer, a role that she combined with her leading role as Tony Harding in the biopic.
Earlier this week I sat down to talk about her work on “I, Tonya,” while also asking her for an update on when we can next expect to see Harley Quinn in the DCEU, which is when she told me she has been working on her own story for the character.
With my last very question, though, I asked if there was anything she had learnt from producing “I, Tonya” that had made her appreciate the work put in by those in the same position in the DCEU.
“The most important thing as a producer is it’s your job when you pick your director to stand by your director,” Robbie explained. “You can’t stand by your director and second guess everything. There are times when you step in and debate a certain situation. You don’t want to leave any stone unturned.”
“In my opinion a good producer trusts their director, and their job is to enable that director’s vision. That’s it. That’s your job. If that’s your director’s vision you need to do everything in your power to make that possible. And I think that’s a wonderful thing.”
“In the DC Universe, too, once you decide on who your director is, and they have a vision, you have to enable that vision and step in at moments to keep it on course if need be. I think that’s the way. I think that’s what a producer should do.”
There have been rumors that other producers in Warner Bros’ DCEU haven’t acted in this manner, though. While Zack Snyder was given free rein to work his particular brand of cinematic magic on “Man Of Steel” and “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” the savage critical response to the latter reportedly led to two different edits of “Suicide Squad” being ordered by Warner Bros.
One of these was from director David Ayer, which was called a more “somber” cut, while the other was from the editing team behind its successful trailer. Ultimately it is believed that a compromise was reached and they found a middle ground. That didn’t really work though because the reviews for “Suicide Squad” were actually worse than “Batman v Superman.”
“Justice League” was also reportedly changed following the tepid response to “Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice,” as a lighter tone was injected to appease fans that found the original too dark. Not only was Joss Whedon brought in as a co-writer, but he conducted the reshoots, too. But, to be fair to Warner Bros, that was only because a family tragedy stopped Zack Snyder from doing so.
However, to criticize Warner Bros and the DCEU for these decision would be harsh. Especially because Marvel, 20th Century Fox, and Lucasfilm have been much harsher to directors overseeing their Cinematic Universes.
They have either dismissed them in pre-production after nearly a decade (Edgar Wright on “Ant-Man”), fired them mid-shoot (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on “Han Solo”), or taken the edit away from them after shooting (Gareth Edwards on “Rogue One,” Josh Trank on “Fantastic Four,” Joss Whedon on “Avengers: Age Of Ultron”).
The fact that “I, Tonya’s” budget was only $11 million and all of the films above cost somewhere between $150 million and $250 million tells its own story, though.
Finger crossed that if Margot Robbie was to oversee a blockbuster of this size she would still prove to be a woman of her word, and give them the freedom she afforded Craig Gillespie on “I, Tonya.”
“I, Tonya” is released in New York on December 8, while it will be expanded across the US in the subsequent weeks. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Aesthetic Perfection release a new music video for “Gods & Gold,” unveiling darker, gothic endeavors in the hauntingly contagious latest, Into The Black.
With an outstanding career spanning 15 years, Daniel Graves, the mastermind of the project, is no stranger to experimentation when it comes to pushing boundaries and creating gritty-but-catchy tunes.
Read more: Metallica singer James Hetfield has solo Motörhead jam session in his car
In the opening lines of the track, Graves screams about a darkness breeding hate and war, summoning the perfect spirit for the album without straying too far from his roots.
“‘Gods & Gold’ was a very challenging song for us to work on,” Graves says. “I really wanted to push the envelope here and try something new. We’d been tinkering with it for quite some time, and it was just coming up short.”
Featuring vicious guitar from Rammstein’s Richard Z. Kruspe, the song encapsulates Into The Black’s heavy-yet-melodic sound while also touching upon themes of mortality, spiritual disillusionment and self-reflection.
As a Rammstein fan himself, Graves knew Kruspe was the missing puzzle piece when the guitarist expressed interest to collaborate.
“I didn’t even realize I’d had his playing style and vibe in mind when I was writing the track until that very second,” Graves shares. “Then boom. Just like magic, it all came together. It instantly became our favorite song and obvious choice for the first track on the album.”
Along with Kruspe, Into The Black features a rich roster of guests, including Black Veil Brides’ Jinxx, Anaal Nathrakh’s Mick Kenneyand Rotersand’s Krischan Wesenberg. Joe Letz, formerly of electro-industrial band Combichrist, has also joined Graves to take Aesthetic Perfection to the next level.
Check out the new “Gods & Gold” video below.
Into The Black dropped March 29 via Close To Human Music and is available here. Catch Aesthetic Perfection at the Into The Black North American tour in the upcoming dates below! Tickets can be found here.
Dates:
09/06 – San Diego, CA @ The Casbah
09/07 – Mesa, AZ @ Club Red
09/08 – El Paso, TX @ Rock House
09/12 – San Antonio, TX @ Amp Room
09/13 – Austin, TX @ Elysium
09/14 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
09/15 – Dallas, TX @ The Church
09/17 – New Orleans, LA @ The Goat
09/18 – Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
09/19 – Tallahassee, FL @ The 926 Bar
09/20 – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum
09/21 – Orlando, FL @ Will’s
09/24 – Charlotte, NC @ The Milestone
09/25 – Richmond, VA @ Fallout
09/26 – Washington, DC @ Dangerous Pies
09/27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Voltage Lounge
09/28 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Knitting Factory
09/29 – Boston, MA @ ONCE Ballroom
09/30 – Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place
10/01 – Toronto, ON @ Coalition
10/02 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Howlers
10/03 – Cincinnati, OH @ The Event Center
10/04 – Detroit, MI @ Small’s
10/05 – Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s
10/06 – Milwaukee, WI @ Club Anything
10/07 – LaCrosse, WI @ Warehouse
10/08 – Minneapolis, MN @ Red Sea Lounge
10/09 – Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
10/11 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
10/12 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Area 51
10/14 – Vancouver, BC @ Pub 340
10/15 – Seattle, WA @ Highline
10/16 – Portland, OR @ Paris Theater
10/18 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick and Mortar
10/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The first gas has been injected into the 1,220-kilometer Nord Stream pipeline, a link set to put an end to unreliable gas deliveries to Western Europe via transit countries.
Both former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended the symbolic opening ceremony on Tuesday. The pipeline, Europe’s biggest energy project, was worked out between the two leaders in 2005.
The 7.4-billion-euro pipeline runs from Russia's Arctic gas fields, under the Baltic Sea to Europe via Germany, bypassing transit nations such as Ukraine. Moscow's disputes with transit countries have in the past caused supply disruptions.
The Nord Stream pipeline runs under the Baltic Sea, bypassing transit nations.
"Transit nations are tempted to try and use their transit status. Now this exclusivity disappears," Putin told reporters at a pumping station near Vyborg, where he pressed the computer button to start Nord Stream's first gas test flows.
Partial alternative to nuclear energy
Russia supplies about a quarter of the natural gas consumed in Europe. Gas needs in Europe are expected to soar by 50 percent in the next decade to 200 billion cubic meters per year. Nord Stream will account for 55 billion cubic meters once its capacity doubles by 2013.
"The volume of gas [the link will eventually pump] is equivalent to the energy of 11 nuclear power plants," Putin said, in reference to Germany's recent decision to give up its nuclear power program by 2022.
The first gas from the pipeline is expected to reach European customers in the next few months. German customers are expected to receive their first deliveries in November.
Gazprom is the majority shareholder in the company operating Nord Stream. Minority shareholders are Germany's Wintershall and Ruhrgas, Dutch company N. V. Nederlandse and France's GDF Suez.
A second parallel pipeline, called the South Stream that runs under the Black Sea, is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. It is due to start pumping gas to Bulgaria and beyond in 2015 at the earliest.
Author: Wilhelmina Lyffyt (dpa, Reuters, AFP)
Editor: Martin Kuebler | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Welcome to the Urban EDC Showcase! Each week, we feature one member from our community and the gear they rely on everyday. Want to be featured? Submit your gear photo.
This week, we chat EDC with Erik (@doomboxedc) from Sweden. He's a Finance Specialist for a large Swedish industrial company. He's also an avid fisherman and outdoorsman. Get the full gear run-down and find out how he got into everyday carry! Read on for more.
Featured Tools:
Bottle Openers: Koch Tools Solo 2.1 & Micro Solo
Notebook: Field Notes
Flashlight: Prometheus Lights Beta-QR
Knife: Chris Reeve Knives Small Insingo
Multi-Tool: Victorinox Swiss Army Knife Bantam
Handkerchief: Blue Label Hank
Watch: Seiko Orange Monster
Storm Trooper: Lego
Background:
Erik lives in a small town 1.5 hours south of Stockholm, but grew up on the country side. He's a hardcore fisherman, having grown up right next to a lake. His fondest childhood memories from the Swedish summer involve some kind of fishing.
Erik tells us that he's also really into growing chili. Each year, he grows lots of chili from the super hot variations to the milder types, or even the basic jalapeno. Since moving into a new house with a small garden, this has been a new passion hobby for him.
Erik also wasn't afraid to get into his obsession with EDC gear. As a kid, he always carried a Victorinox with him in his right front pocket. As he grew older, he started carrying a pocket knife that his great grand father used to carry, and a silver coin that he received from his girlfriend. Through the helpful EDC community on Instagram, soon enough, he started getting more into custom EDC gear, evolving into what it is today.
He tells us that he loves chasing after the "hard-to-find" custom EDC gear but his philosophy is that gear is meant to be used, so while the hunt for a rare knife is fun, he makes sure that all of his gear gets some use, without any exceptions.
Favorite EDC Tool:
Erik had a real tough time choosing his favorite EDC tool. He tells us that his Chris Reeve Insingo has a special place in his heart because in his opinion, it come very close to being his perfect EDC knife. However, Erik also mentions that his Victorinox Bantam is a handy tool to have as it's so slim it disappears into your pocket but still manages a wide range of daily tasks. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
I'm sure it was only a coincidence, but there's a certain undeniable symbolism in the fact that the official end of combat operations in the nearly eight-year-old war in Iraq came on the same day as my regularly scheduled colonoscopy.
President Obama's Aug. 31 declaration that "Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country" marked the turning point of one of the most catastrophic missteps in the history of American foreign policy.
The invasion of Iraq launched in March 2003 by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush triggered a conflict that has lasted longer than World War II,; claimed over 4,400 American lives; injured more than 31,000 GI's, many of whom will require lifelong care; killed God knows how many Iraqis; cost the U.S. close to a trillion dollars and left some 50,000 American troops still in harm's way.
And that's even without taking into consideration the fact that Iraqis still seem more interested in killing each over religious differences than forming a workable government, and that the drawdown in Iraq has been accompanied by a massive buildup of American military power in Afghanistan that could disrupt plans for a U.S. pullout beginning next summer.
Yet the Iraq war has all but fallen off the front pages and is still practically ignored by Congress, the news media and the American public. That's why I read with great interest a Nov. 15 article by Larry Kaplow on the Foreign Policy website, based on his experience as the longest serving American journalist in Iraq.
You can read it in its entirely on the website, and you should since I think it's one of the most perceptive and realistic assessments of that misbegotten war
The 46-year-old Kaplow, who arrived in Baghdad just before the U.S. invasion in 2003 and was a reporter for Cox Newspapers before becoming Newsweek's Baghdad bureau chief in 2008, recently returned to the U.S. after Newsweek closed the bureau. The son of veteran network TV correspondent Herb Kaplow, he served two years in the Peace Corps in Guatemala before joining Cox at the Palm Beach Post in 1992.
Kaplow offers his assessment of the Iraq war in a thought-provoking article entitled "Think Again: Iraq" in which he asks - and gives his own answers - to a series of commonly held assumptions about Iraq. I won't try to summarize his article but here are some of the highlights:
Iraq is a Democracy
In theory, but it doesn't work like one. Yes, it has had three free national elections and a constitutional referendum and there are elements of democracy. Saddam Hussein held his last election, a plebiscite in 2002, and claimed 100 percent of the vote (and maybe it was true -- who would risk voting against him?). Under the old regime, even when I could slip away from government minders, people were usually too scared of informants among their family and friends to speak openly. You weren't even allowed to keep your mouth shut. Failure to join the chanting crowds at pro-government rallies -- watched closely by neighborhood-level Baathists -- could cost you your job, admission to university, or worse. Now there's lots of open talk, government criticism, and widespread Internet access.
But Iraq is not democratic in a reliable or deep sense, where people can expect equal rights, legal protections, or access to their leaders. Free speech is still a dangerous pursuit. At least seven reporters or their staff have been killed this year in what appear to be direct attacks on news agencies, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Most others are afraid to get too specific in their criticisms of the leadership. Regulations are tightening, and the track record of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has just maneuvered himself into another term in office, is getting darker.
Maliki Is Iran's Man
Not quite. Iraq's prime minister, stubbornly independent and impetuous, probably causes as many headaches in Tehran as he does in Washington. True, Maliki lived in Iran for eight years after escaping Iraq in 1979, when the regime wanted him and tens of thousands of other Islamic Dawa Party supporters for arrest and execution. He helped run a military camp in southern Iran where Dawa men trained for their guerrilla war against Saddam. But they constantly clashed with their Iranian hosts over issues of ideology (for one thing, Dawa refused to accept velayat al-faqih, the Iranian model that places government under clerical rule) and tactics.
Maliki plays the United States and Iran against each other for what he sees as Iraq's or his own interests. Associates say Maliki believes, rightly, that the fighters affiliated with militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr that took up arms against his government got their weapons from Iran. I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually turns and decides to tolerate a longer U.S. presence just as a counterweight to Iran.
Sadr Calls the Shots
In his dreams. It was a disappointment for the U.S. and a win for Iran that Maliki's new government includes an alliance with Sadr. The radical anti-American cleric has been living in Iran since 2007, and Tehran funds and arms elements of his militias. Now his movement has helped put Maliki over the top and will hold at least a few cabinet seats. When they were in government before, the Sadrists nearly destroyed the Ministry of Health as they used hospitals for secret prisons or as places from which to hunt down Sunnis. They made a mess of the Ministry of Transportation and the national airlines, and diverted public money to build their party. But none of that means Sadr can run roughshod over the new government.
Remember, Sadr was instrumental in making Maliki prime minister last time, too. But once in office, Maliki turned the tables. Amid their abuses of the ministries they controlled, the Sadrists also demanded more power and then dropped out of the government when Maliki refused them. That's when Maliki, in the spring of 2008, turned the Iraqi Army loose on the Sadrist gangs in Basra and several other cities. The offensive didn't crush the movement -- many of the militants melted away into hiding while a cease fire was negotiated. But that set back the Sadrists and their leaders vowed never to back Maliki again.
Kirkuk Is a Time Bomb
Prove it. The prospects of a major conflict between Arabs and Kurds over the northern city of Kirkuk Merit concern, as we've been warned ad nauseum for the last seven years, but they aren't any greater than the chances of violence in a lot of other places in Iraq. The good thing about a city constantly being labeled a "potential flashpoint" is that it draws a lot of attention to keep it from erupting. As long as that tendency continues, there are several factors that could keep Kirkuk calm.
But the biggest test yet is on the way. A nationwide census scheduled for the end of this year will likely aggravate ethnic tensions. It could prompt Kurds to push more Arabs out -- to run up the Kurdish numbers -- or lead to a defensive outburst of violence from minority Arabs. It could provoke either side to overreach. The census was originally scheduled for 2007, then pushed ahead to this October and then again to December. The International Crisis Group has called for the census to be delayed further until the big issues can be resolved by the leadership.
The Iraq War Is Over
Which one? What Americans call "the Iraq war" has really been a series of conflicts, sometimes overlapping. There was the U.S. invasion, then the Sunni insurgency and al Qaeda-type mayhem, followed by the sectarian war between Sunnis and Shiites that led to the U.S. troop surge in 2007. There was also the war in which mainstream Sunnis fought, with U.S. help, against al Qaeda-linked extremists. And there has been sporadic but fierce fighting among Shiite groups. This is partly what makes it so hellish for average Iraqis who are trying to work, keep their kids in school, and just survive: Front lines, threats, and enemies keep changing without notice.
Most of the bloodshed is still caused by groups loosely affiliated with al Qaeda-type extremists (more local than linked to the international al Qaeda). Former Baathists also carry out attacks and there is still a trickle of foreign bombers coming in from Syria -- about five to 10 a month, according to a U.S. military official I interviewed in late September.
The point is that several groups still apparently believe that Iraq can be destabilized to their advantage and it probably can. Looking ahead, there are the major Kurdish-Arab issues still to be settled. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whose revered and patient guidance has cooled off several crises, is in his late 70s and ailing: Any successor will need years to accumulate influence matching his. Sadr is ambitious and unpredictable. Neighboring Sunni Arab regimes remain hostile to the idea of a Shiite-led government controlling Baghdad for the first time in centuries
It will take concerted diplomacy, economic development, and probably thousands of U.S. troops on the ground -- even if they're just in bases -- to make sure all these tensions don't pull the country and the region into chaos. The last thing Americans want is to have to return to Iraq and stitch it back together.
There you have it. Oh yes, my colonoscopy. It showed no malignancies, unlike the Iraq war. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Want to know if someone is staring at you without actually looking at them directly? Try yawning, you'll know they're staring if they yawn too.
296 shares | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The discussion surrounding Windows 10 Mobile has been a hotbed of predictions, analysis and speculations. Even though the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella has come out and strategically reaffirmed the viability of a longer-term Windows Mobile (specifically phone hardware) strategy, the words to describe Windows Mobile future were chosen very carefully. The story of Windows 10 Mobile is a commingling of broader definitions of mobile as well as establishing a Microsoft-centric app ecosystem across various devices.
As Microsoft continues to farm out it’s once ‘Windows first’ app ecosystems onto rival platforms, many die-hard Windows users grasp at the few remaining reasons to choose Windows first. Until recently, Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana remained one of few shining examples of how choosing Windows first would be a benefit to users in the ecosystem. Unfortunately, for some, those days are quickly approaching an end.
More information of Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana running on Android recently landed onto the Internet.
Cortana’s deep integration with Windows means that’s where she can really shine. So, while there are some features you’ll use on Windows that we don’t (yet) support on Android phones (like saying “Hey Cortana” to wake her up), we have focused on making Cortana on Android the perfect companion to your Windows experience. In the spirit of the Windows Insider Program, we are looking for a limited number of people to get their hands on an early version of the app. It’s important to keep in mind that is the first public release of the Cortana for Android beta. And that for now, Cortana for Android is only available in the U.S. and China. Over the coming months, we’ll continue to deliver frequent updates to the app to expand the features and functionality.
While the official announcement of beta programs intended to expand Cortana’s presence onto iOS and Android were revealed a few months ago, the news still isn’t sitting well with some Windows users. The beta testing of Cortana for Android was scheduled to start at the end of this month and run through August. However, a leaked APK on the internet brings a working build with comparable functionality.
The details of the .APK, the level of integration and how well it works on the Android are still scarce at this point. It should be expected, that we’ll be bringing more news, articles, and videos to surface over the next month with more information on this development. Our initial testing of the app lands the Android version comparatively against the Windows Mobile version. Windows Phone users will note that stylistically, the Android version of Cortana resembles the Windows Phone version. As for the voice recognition, the Android version seems speedy, if not slightly more favorable. The increased speed may be in part, due to newer code being applied to the APK that will eventually make its way to Windows. Disgruntled die-hards should note that Cortana on Windows Mobile still offers greater integration than what will be presented on Android or iOS. Hooks for items like Calendar, Email, and other apps will present Cortana with a much richer pool of information to offer daily cards and reminders for Windows Phone users.
For anyone interested, there are several places where the .APK can be downloaded. Since this is not an official Microsoft release you’ll have to search them out for yourselves. For anyone looking to be a part of the official Microsoft beta program for Cortana on Android, more information can be found here.
Thanks for the tip @NairobiWP
Stay tuned.
Share This Post: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This was just an ordinary Friday, and then Miley Cyrus dropped She Is Coming. It's a six-track EP, but there's only one song that matters right now: "Cattitude." Yes, it's a rap featuring RuPaul. It contains the lyric "This cat is in heat/ Let me ride that beat/ My pussy on fire/ Pussy five-alarm fire." Who else would dare do this? We love her, and we support her.
Related | Free to Be Miley
Still, Miley's feline moment has proved divisive among fans and critics alike. Cases can certainly be made, both for and against. The PAPER editorial team's thoughts, below.
Michael Love Michael Miley's "Cattitude" does a lot for me, I'm not sorry. Nonsensically silly and entertaining as the song itself may be, I can't help but think of this as a pussy-powered response to a government that keeps making decisions affecting the autonomy of femmes, cis women, nonbinary, trans, and queer people of color everywhere. I also know that Miley has a history of speaking her mind, and that RuPaul's role in drag culture's infiltration of mainstream culture is nothing to sneeze at. In that vein, "Cattitude" becomes something of a self-arming rally cry. On one hand, its upbeat observations about genderqueer sexuality can feel tamped down by Miley's proclamations of wealth and hip-hop posturing. But on the other, it can be a safer entry point to the fight ahead — abortion bans and all — for those wanting or needing to mobilize with an extra boost of empowerment. Yes, pop songs, even the wackiest of them, possess that kind of power. I say: get some "Cattitude" where you can.
Jael Goldfine Look, we can make fun of crazy ol' Miley. Or! We can recognize Miley as the comedienne she is, who has sacrificed her reputation among people without a sense of humor to bring us a sophisticated parody of our contemporary pop moment. Jibberish click-bait collaborations, flailing female empowerment, the conundrum of hip-hop as the base unit of music regardless of who should be making it, the creeping camp counselor Christianity of self-love rhetoric, "Cattitude" effortlessly skewers it all. We can clutch our pearls, or enjoy "Cattitude" as the SNL skit it is. Aside from all that, I laughed out loud at RuPaul telling Miley to get her country ass indoors.
Kat Gillespie "Cattitude" is a questionable experiment, and distracts from superior tracks on She Is Coming, like "The Most." But I'm not going to write it off completely, mainly because Pitchfork already did that, and they did it rudely. "Redefines embarrassing"? Please. The song is clearly meant to be Camp! This one's for the gays, my dudes. Go listen to The National or something. Miley has made a choice here, and it's a bold one. But we all slept on "Malibu," a true masterpiece, so she had to get our attention somehow! I can't believe I'm typing this but… I stand with "Cattitude."
Brendan Wetmore To be quite honest, hearing RuPaul try to rhyme "pussy nut" with "fingering your butt" is not the best sensation. It's abrupt, a little unfortunate, and most of all, it barely rhymes. I'm a fan of RuPaul's music, and a huge fan of Miley's, but I feel a little let down by a song with a title as meaning-packed as "Cattitude." No doubt I'll still dance along, though, when it's played at every Pride day rager, bumping along to the chorus of fan clacks in the crowd.
Jeena Sharma For me, "Cattitude" sees Miley return to her brief — but iconic — post-breakup period that had her abandoning the candy-colored "Party in the USA" / Hannah Montana days for a wilder sound. And honestly, that was great! One of her best yet underrated albums. Whatever provoked the return, however, did not produce the same result. It neither achieves the fun vibe of "We Can't Stop" nor the sweet depth of "Malibu." For now, I'm going to go give Bangerz another listen.
Matt Moen The truly remarkable achievement made by this song is that it somehow manages to give less than zero fucks. It has transcended the boundaries of pop into a realm of post-taste, a new frontier being bravely tread by Cyrus with the aid of RuPaul. In a sense, this is rather liberating (if somewhat initially painful to stomach). "Cattitude" exists free of the pressures to be a good song. It flies in the face of every pillar of convention and traditional wisdom that is breathlessly upheld by the critical institution. In this regard, "Cattitude" is a declaration of war against the arbiters of taste. John Waters would be proud. Whether it is good or bad is beside the point, it is undoubtedly the most memorable song Miley has bequeathed unto us in several years. It is a modern masterpiece masquerading as a delicious disaster. "Ride, shine, clock said pussy time /Bust my pussy nut while I'm fingering your butt." I mean... Shakespeare could never!
Stream She Is Coming by Miley Cyrus, below. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Iran has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the Middle East and the highest mortality rate outside China, but calls to close places of worship in Qom, the epicenter of the disease, have been met with defiance.
Videos have gone viral showing people in the Iranian city licking doors of holy shrines, insisting that the deadly virus will not affect them, nor stop them from worship.
While the city of Qom is the epicentre of #CoronaVirus in Iran, authorities refuse to close down religious shrines there.
These pro-regime people are licking the shrines & encouraging people to visit them.
Iran's authorities are endangering lives of Iranians & the world pic.twitter.com/s9o6zYhzNQ — Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 29, 2020
Several videos were widely shared online featuring devout Shiite Muslims arguing that people shouldn't be afraid of visiting tombs, and should reject calls to close it.
World Health Organisation @WHO needs to intervene urgently.
Videos of pro-regime people urging even their own children to lick the #CoronaVirus infested shrines are surfacing.
Not only is this child abuse, but it's also helping the virus spread Iran and to other countries. pic.twitter.com/CDDYzSuxMF — Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 29, 2020
As soon as the videos were shared online, people took to Twitter to express even more concern over the spread of the COVID-19 that has already taken the lives of more than 50 people in the country.
Videos show Iranians LICKING holy shrines in religious tradition as country's clerical hardliners refuse to close sites despite coronavirus outbreak https://t.co/gkgSs5I9VM Poor thinking is one way Nature uses to 'select' for death, illness & injury - nothing personal, just law. — Alex Rowan (@PsycheMentoring) March 2, 2020
3 to 4% of Iranians support #Iran's Islamic Regime. This religious minority has done its best to infect Iranians with #CoronaVirus. They can be seen in these videos licking germs on shrines of Shiite religious figures to prove that Spirits of Imams can protect them from #COVID19! pic.twitter.com/ujG29ETrjd — Babak Taghvaee (@BabakTaghvaee) March 1, 2020
Social media commentators called on Iranian officials to recognize the dangers posed to citizens' lives by the near-epidemic virus and to contain the deadly outbreak by closing holy shrines in the city of Qom, where many cases have been recorded for more than a week so far. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
From multi-functional designs and elements to mixing metal finishes, we had some of the top designers and professionals weigh in on the hottest trends you’ll be seeing in 2017.
Liz Toombs, C.I.D, Owner, Polka Dots & Rosebuds Interiors & Out of the Box Room Design
Wallcoverings have matured since your grandmother had bold floral prints adorning her walls. I personally love grass cloth. The key to choosing the right paper is to make sure the busyness of the pattern is appropriate for the space where it will hang. I advise clients to avoid a busy print in a large, regularly used space like their living room, as they will likely tire of it quickly. Contrary to that, a powder bath is a small space where not much time is spent, so it’s safe to be bold on those walls! If you’re afraid to commit to a wallpaper, try it out in a small area of your home such as the back of a bookcase or china cabinet. If you like how it turns out, consider adding some pattern and texture to other areas of your home. Be careful not to paper everything, choosing strategic placement for wallpaper gives you maximum impact.
Mixing finishes – Tastefully mixing metal finishes in your home is very chic. We are mixing our metals in jewelry, and the look is stunning. Why would home fashion be any different? Homeowners often feel they have to choose one metal finish and stick to it throughout their entire house – not true. Don’t get pigeonholed into one finish. Mix things up and you’ll be surprised how naturally things work together. Antique brass and oil rubbed bronze are my personal favorite combination.
Sacha Ferrandi, Founder, Source Capital Funding, Inc.
One of the biggest trends in 2017 will be the rise of ‘Smart Everything’. As appliances and amenities that connect with the internet (such as Nest, smart fridges, heated driveways, etc.) become more affordable, we will see a rise in this type of ‘custom’ design in new homes and renovations.
These smart appliances are part of a general trend of customization in the home design world. This is especially true for Millennials that are entering the home industry, as they want to purchase homes that are built around their interest and desires.
Matthew Goodwin, Founder and President, Ver-Tex Construction Specialties, Inc.
One of the biggest trends we see continuing to increase is daylight harvesting. Daylight harvesting maximizes natural light, helping to enhance efficiency and productivity, while maintaining the aesthetic appeal of your space.
Motorized shades can be a tremendous aid to maximizing how you use (and conserve) daylight, especially when those shades or blinds are integrated into a smart home automation system. On a sunny day, the space uses less artificial light. On a cloudy day, the interior lights will brighten to create the ideal work environment.
These shading systems also protect furniture, fine art, rugs, and even wood surfaces, from the sun’s damaging UV rays. As more families move towards creating a smart home, motorized shade control with iPad apps and new
remote controls are increasing in popularity.
Doug Hopeman, CEO, Artificial Plants and Trees
The use of multi-purpose furniture will be a huge design trend we see next year. Many homeowners are looking for furniture that is versatile and weather-proof but still modern and luxurious.
Lilian H Weinreich, Owner, Lilian H Weinreich Architects
Elegant room dividers: full height sliding partitions are multi-functional and multi-user friendly.
No matter the ceiling height, full height partitions elongate a space. They can also be used as folding screens to provide privacy, in the image below, a folding screen shields the view from the front door. Partitions can also create flexibility by dividing spaces. Glazed screens allow daylighting while still providing privacy.
image of mixed metal kitchen by Houzz | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
NFL-watching-Arizona-protests.jpg
(file)
Arizona was all set to be the setting for Super Bowl 49 next February. Then, the state legislature passed a bill allowing business owners with strongly held religious beliefs to refuse service to gays. Critics call it license to discriminate.
And while the bill is not yet law, and Gov. Jan Brewer is on the hot seat over whether she will sign it, already there is economic fallout across Arizona.
A bevy of business groups, led by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, have warned that the bill would be toxic for tourism and bad for business. They are calling on Brewer to veto the bill.
At least three state senators who voted for the bill now say doing so was a mistake. A storm of protests, led by Arizona’s gay and lesbian community, have ensued. Their battle cry: "Veto Hate."
But most ominous of all is what the all-powerful NFL could do. Namely, move the Super Bowl that was slated for Arizona early next year.
Already, the league has issued a cryptic statement that is was closely watching debate over the bill both in and outside of Arizona and would react accordingly.
In other words, if the bill should become law, moving the big game could be a distinct possibility.
So should it be on the table?
Should the Super Bowl be a pawn in the debate over gay rights vs. religious rights in Arizona?
Or should the NFL stay out of a matter of states' rights?
Tell us in the comments.
Background: Inspired by the case of a New Mexico wedding photographer who was taken to court after refusing to shoot a gay commitment ceremony, the bill seeks to shield businesses from being forced to serve members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community if doing so would run counter to their religious beliefs. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Donovan Award Voting Process Is Unfair To Western Schools
A separate award deserves a separate voting procedure.
This article was written by Steve Wang, the faculty sponsor for Torque, the women’s ultimate team at Rice University. He has also been a faculty member at Haverford College and Bucknell University, and has served as an observer at eight Division-III National Championships.
In the initial announcement of what would become the Donovan Award, the award’s creator, Michael Ball, wrote, “D-III ultimate is a separate division of the sport and should have its own Callahan-like award.” You would be hard-pressed to find anyone involved in the Division who disagrees. Ultiworld, USAU, and all the other organizations and individuals that helped to set up the award deserve the division’s thanks.
The voting procedures for the inaugural Donovan Award were an exact duplicate of those for the Callahan Award for Division I. However, as Ball pointed out, Division III is a separate division with distinct characteristics. These differences mean that simply using the voting procedures from Division I creates major inequities between D-III teams from different parts of the country.
Simply put, nominees from areas where there are many D-III schools (the midwest and the east coast) have an effectively insurmountable advantage over those from parts of the country where there are very few D-III schools (the west). I will address the problem and some possible solutions below.
Fewer D-III Opponents
The explanation is multi-faceted. Let’s start here: Division I players do not vote for the Donovan. This is a very sensible restriction and there is an obvious rationale for it. However, this means that some Donovan nominees might not play against a single eligible Donovan voter during the entire regular season. For instance, the Rice women’s team played 18 regular season games in 2017, but did not have an opportunity to play a single D-III series participant: the tournaments in and around Texas that Rice usually attend are typically not on the agenda for other D-III schools due to distance. If you factor in the teams that Rice met at Regionals, you get a grand total of two D-III opponents.
This is a phenomenon repeated all across the west. The Claremont Greenshirts played only two distinct D-III opponents before Nationals. Puget Sound Clearcut lined up against four distinct D-III teams. On the Men’s side, things are basically the same. There, Puget Sound played six different D-III teams, and Claremont faced just four. Compare these totals with, say, the teams from Haverford and Williams. Haverford’s women saw 12 distinct Division III opponents before Donovan voting began, while Williams played 13. For men, Williams faced 19 unique D-III opponents, and Haverford had a whopping 22.
The five western teams mentioned above with few opponents were not chosen randomly; they have all reached at least semifinals at D-III Nationals and collectively they have four titles and seven finals appearances. In other words, these are programs that have had some of the division’s strongest players in years past.
But prior to Nationals, very few Donovan voters would have seen those players in action.
Low Information Voting
Here is where I expect some objections: isn’t this what nomination videos are for? Well, maybe, but I seriously question how much we can expect them to drive votes from the other side of the country, even if video quality goes up, for a couple of reasons.
First, talent levels in D-III are generally lower, which makes it less likely that even the top candidates will be able to showcase a ton of truly jaw-dropping highlights that turn heads the way, say, Nick Lance’s or Marisa Rafter’s did. Some will be better than others, for sure, but the compressed talent levels, and the fact that Callahan videos will be hoarding the lion’s share of attention during that time of year, mean that it will be very hard for any Donovan video to truly stand out. In addition, the relative lack of media coverage of D-III, as well as its ad hoc nature, makes it significantly harder to tell who the top candidates might be than in Division I.
This makes it incumbent upon voters to really scrutinize all available evidence before making their choices, but this brings me to the second reason: who exactly are we expecting to make these selections? We all know that recruitment is often an issue at smaller colleges. I have been involved with teams at three different D-III schools, and, in my experience, the level of commitment to the sport among the average player (i.e., the 10th-15th players on the depth chart, not the captains) is notably lower than in Division I. That is, they may be committed to their team, since they are their friends, but they generally don’t live, breathe, and sleep ultimate as much as you would have to do if you want to make an A-team at a quality Division I program. It is foolish to expect most such players to make highly-informed choices by studying Ultiworld articles, searching out discussion threads on Reddit, or making fine-grained comparisons between a dozen Donovan videos.
What actually happens when such a player is asked to select three candidates to vote for from a long list of nominees that they are mostly unfamiliar with, and that are hard to distinguish from one another? Studies show that these are the conditions under which celebrity candidates do best (this partly explains the early 2016 Republican presidential primaries). In the absence of a universal celebrity, voters fall back on familiarity; you can see any congressional primary election map for evidence of that. The equivalent outcome in Donovan voting is that a voter gravitates toward the candidates they are familiar with – either one they’ve seen in person, or one from the school nearby.
The Schulze Method
The factors already mentioned are enough to cause major inequities on their own. But there is one additional detail that exacerbates things even further. There is no perfect voting system, and the Schulze method is generally a decent one. However, it tends to work better in elections where voters have enough information, and do enough research, to accurately rank all or almost all of the candidates. In elections such as the Donovan, the Schulze method has a tendency to reward broad but relatively shallow support – a vote for third place is often as good as a vote for first, when compared to a candidate whose support is drawn from a disjoint set of voters.
For instance, suppose that 20 ballots from the west all go A-B-C, while 30 ballots from the east all have candidate D in third place, splitting their first- and second-place votes among five different eastern candidates. The Schulze method would pronounce candidate D the winner — over candidate A. Alternatively, suppose the 20 western ballots are the same, but, from 35 ballots, five eastern candidates each get seven first-place, seven second-place, and seven third-place votes. In that scenario, candidate A would not even be one of the five finalists.
This strong reward for even second- and third-place votes further magnifies the inequity between candidates from D3-dense areas and those from D3-sparse areas.
Possible Changes
No selection process will be completely fair to everyone. But there are some ways we can reduce geographic inequity.
Making the voting less of a turnout contest is probably the most important thing that could be changed. This can be done (at least in part) by giving each team just one vote. Doing so would mean there are fewer low-information players cajoled into voting because their team, or a team they are close to, has a nominee it wants to push. Rather, voting will probably be done by players in team leadership, who are more likely to pay attention to things like Ultiworld articles, nomination videos, etc.
If each team only has one vote, then voting can be conducted much later in the season, as verification of voter eligibility is drastically simplified; tabulation of the voting is much easier as well. In particular, teams that compete at Nationals could be allowed, even encouraged, to submit their ballot as late as Sunday morning of Nationals, before the championship games. Preliminary finalists could still be announced ahead of time (perhaps the top two vote-getters plus the next three that are participating at nationals). This would enable nominees from less-populated regions the opportunity to make their case before at least a few teams from other parts of the country.
Finally, the voting system itself could be recalibrated so as to reward intensity of support a little bit more and breadth a little bit less. One simple way would be to give nine points for a first-place vote, six for a second-place vote, and four for a third-place vote.
Some of the changes suggested here are fairly radical. I’m not sure if there is a solution short of that, but hopefully this article can spark a discussion among D-III stakeholders to find good ways to make the Donovan procedures more equitable. The division deserves it. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The John Lewis advert is out, advent calendars are sneaking onto the shelves, and one of your friends has tried to put some festive songs on. Christmas has arrived once again so it’s time to get decorating.
We’ve scoured the web and found eleven great ideas for decorating your doors this Christmas.
Wreath with Fairy Lights
Simple and subtle can often be best. Here we’ve got a straight-forward wreath with just a few fairy lights added for effect. It looks homely, warm, and inviting. If you’re not one for going overboard, this style is for you.
Candy Cane Canning Jar Ring Wreath
Want something a little less traditional? This tutorial explains how to create a great looking wreath that breaks the mould. All you need is a few jar lids and you’re good to go. It’s the perfect option for something a bit different without a huge cost.
Snowflakes and a Wreath
Another simple approach here. You might have to adjust slightly based your door’s window situation, but nonetheless, it looks great. It’s also a good chance to turn decorating into a family activity as you enlist the help of the kids to make the snowflakes.
Cinematic Magic
You could also bring a bit of cinema magic into your decorations. It doesn’t have to be the Grinch of course, so you could survey the family and see if there’s a specific film they all like. Then you could work together on making your own themed decorations. Whether it’s Frozen or Die Hard, whatever suits your family is best.
Snowman Door
Christmas is meant to be fun, right? This minimalist but effective design is great for lifting spirits. Who doesn’t wanted to be greeted by a big smiley face every time they leave the house?
Simplistic Snowflake Wreath
Another simplistic option here and one you can do yourself. It’s nice and easy and you can replicate it with any similar decoration that you like. The tutorial is here, so feel free to get creative with it.
Santa Hat Door Hanging
A novel use for the Santa’s hat here. If you’ve not got one hanging around the house you can pick one up pretty cheap. Then it’s just a matter of hanging it up with some ribbon. You can stuff it with whatever you like, maybe even a little gift each day for your loved ones to fish out when they get home?
Bauble / Snowman Combination
We love this impressive bauble/snowman combination. It’s a striking and colourful way to decorate your door and the scarf is a nice detail. Here’s some directions on how to recreate it.
Gift Wrapped Door
This one is an easy way to make your door look like a giant Christmas present. You don’t need much to do it, but it’s a fun idea that looks decent. Check out this tutorial on how to replicate it yourself.
Pine Cones on Ribbons
For a more natural and outdoorsy look, you can make your own pine cone decoration to replace the most traditional wreath. It’s a good excuse to get outside yourself and you’ll end up with a pretty item without much stress.
Ribbon Wreath
Another easy-to-execute idea that looks lovely. This ribbon-based wreath is a great replacement for the ones you usually find on people’s doors. Follow the directions here to make your own.
Feeling Inspired?
We would LOVE to see how you decorate your door for Christmas 2016.
Please share your pictures with us on Facebook or Twitter!
Image Sources: | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Three and a half years ago, Mark Johnson was an inmate at Santa Rita Jail. Today, he's a student at UC Berkeley who wants to get a graduate degree. It's a transition that he said might not have been possible without the help of a nascent group of former inmates who are operating a program called the Underground Scholars Initiative at Cal.
Johnson grew up in Oakland and spent his youth hanging out around the Berkeley campus, but he said he never imagined himself enrolled there. He spent much of the past fifteen years struggling with an addiction to methamphetamine, homelessness, and bouts of jail time resulting from drug-related crimes.
Johnson said that each time he wound up in jail, he used the time to get clean and would make plans to stay that way when he got out, but then he would relapse. "I'd start communicating with my family again, doing push-ups and sit-ups and eating better, and towards the last couple months I would be talking about how I can't wait to get out," Johnson said. "But not even four hours after being out, I'd be right back doing the same thing again."
The last time Johnson was in jail, though, he enrolled in a GED program, and that helped him start to turn his life around. "From that point, I became a teachable person because up until then, I had been working on my own will and had no real trust in anybody's suggestions," Johnson said. "Someone suggested I address my drug problem, and it's by God's grace that I made it to a rehab."
Johnson went straight from Santa Rita Jail to a residential rehab program in Berkeley. After a year focused on his recovery, he enrolled in community college courses with the intent of becoming a drug counselor and therapist.
Now that he's a student at Berkeley, Johnson said the range of possibilities for his future is expanding. He's hoping to embark on a research project through the prestigious McNair Scholars Program or do a senior capstone project. He still intends on becoming a drug counselor, but he is also planning on getting a master's degree in social work or public health.
Johnson credits much of his success at Cal to the Underground Scholars program, which began two years ago, is run by a former prison inmate, and grew out of a campus seminar on prisons taught by UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies professor emerita Patricia Hilden. Hilden pointed out that although there are many studies linking educational attainment with reduced recidivism, there is a paucity of information about how many formerly incarcerated people make it to college or receive higher degrees after incarceration. Hilden said there's good reason for that. "The intuitive response is to reach out to people [who were incarcerated], but, in fact, it's a real invasion of someone's privacy," she explained.
click to enlarge Erin Baldassari
Underground Scholars director, Steven Czifra.
Part of what Underground Scholars does is allow people to be open about their past and in that way, empower them, said the program's director, Steve Czifra. "Having other people around who are open about being formally incarcerated has allowed other students to do Cal in a way that isn't fractured," he said. "They don't have to section-off parts of who they are and be secretive about their past and be shameful. ... They can be empowered to be who they really are."
Czifra took the course that Hilden taught after a serendipitous encounter with Danny Murillo, a former inmate who became one of the co-founders of the Underground Scholars program. Both Murillo and Czifra were convicted as teenagers of serious felonies, and both were sentenced to prison. They served their sentences in separate facilities, but each was eventually transferred to Pelican Bay State Prison, where they spent several years in the facility's notorious solitary confinement units, known as Security Housing Units, or "the SHU."
Murillo had enrolled in a GED program while he was in the SHU during the last several years of his prison term, and thanks to a neighboring cellmate, he was able to get the books he needed to begin college courses there.
Czifra, however, didn't enroll in community college until several years after getting out of prison, and then it took him several attempts before he earned his Associate's degree. But both men found themselves starting at Cal at the same time. Murillo spotted Czifra as he was walking on campus, Czifra recalled. "Danny just walked right up to me," Czifra said. "We sort of sniff out our own."
Czifra said that when Murillo invited him to a seminar on prisons led by Hilden, it was the first time that he had found a community at the school. "I was a fish out of water. I was surrounded by privilege ... and I didn't feel community in any of [the student] populations," Czifra said, adding that during the seminar, that changed. "We were talking about prisons and now I know the most. There wasn't a PhD in there that knew one thing about spending one day in prison."
Hilden said the seminars would often last much longer than their designated three hours and would spill over into coffee shops and other venues. Most of the people in the seminar had either been incarcerated or had family members who were incarcerated, she said.
"The group grew very close just because of the subject matter and the circumstances," Hilden said. "The summer that followed, several of them decided to organize meetings once a week, and they began to develop what eventually became the Underground Scholars."
click to enlarge Erin Baldassari
Members of the Underground Scholars Initiative are hoping to create a "prison-to-school" pipeline, helping former inmates attend universities like Cal.
The group received a grant from the university in 2013, and then at the end of 2014, was able to secure a small office space with two desks and a couch in Stiles Hall, where it continues to meet once a week.
Some Underground Scholars also volunteer their time to mentor new students coming into the program, which includes helping them select which classes to take, advising them on who to go to for help with housing or other needs, or even proofing a paper before it's sent in to a professor. "They were patient and sat down with me and showed me how to do the reading," Johnson said. "They were basically helpful in helping me arrange my classes so I'm not taking too many academic units."
Czifra said that informal self-help is now morphing into what he hopes will become a more institutionalized presence at the university, a so-called "prison-to-school pipeline" that makes it easier for people coming out of prison to get into universities like Cal.
That entails changing the way incarcerated people view UC Berkeley, working with admissions to find out how to best prepare applicants to be accepted into the school, and enrolling them at the school concurrently with community college classes to give them a leg-up in the application process, Czifra said. "We're also tutoring the hell out of them and just staying close," he said.
For Johnson, however, the program has also helped remove that stigma of having spent time in jail. "Underground Scholars saved me from having the burden of a secret. I didn't want anybody to know I had been incarcerated," Johnson said. "Now, I'm able to be proud of my accomplishments, and I don't shy away from the past." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
UK Positioning Itself As Bitcoin's Best Friend
from the while-the-us-goes-the-other-way dept
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community. Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis. While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Imagine if a government put out a series of questions that the public could respond to, garnered responses from across a community, listened to them, and then actually enacted sensible tech policy. Sounds like a dream, right? Well that's exactly what the UK just did.Last week the UK announced the results of its extensive inquiry on bitcoin and digital currencies , and so far, the results seem both fair and reasonable One major conclusion is that the UK will apply AML (anti money-laundering) regulation to digital currency exchanges, with the details to be determined by the Parliament in the forthcoming session. The US, by contrast, already imposes such requirements on exchanges plus other digital currency companies via FinCEN and the Bank Secrecy Act. The UK government will also work to ensure that law enforcement has the tools it needs to stamp out criminal uses of digital currencies.But the even bigger part is what's missing:.[1] No arduous process for startups and small businesses. No policies that give an advantage to big institutions over up-and-coming innovators.In fact, the British government decided that what is most appropriate is to work with the digital currency community to develop a set of best practices for consumer protection and create a voluntary, opt-in regime. This approach was chosen "in order to address the risks identified but without imposing a disproportionate regulatory burden on the industry." And because it recognizes the substantial promise that digital currency technology has to offer, the government will devote GBP 10 million (approximately US$15M) in an annual budget for research in the space, including the newly-formed Alan Turing Institute The report reads like a breath of fresh air, with an honest assessment of the current low likelihood of use by major criminal enterprise, and acknowledgements of the risk of regulating too much, too soon. It even summarizes the belief that New York's proposed BitLicense is an overly restrictive approach that could damage the industry.The UK's approach differs from that of New York in several ways, including that the UK chose to analyze first and propose later. While NY did hold hearings in advance of releasing its regulations, it still to this date has failed to release a summary of its research and rationale for requiring strong digital currency regulation, despite its legal requirement to do so. And New York's regulations require permission to innovate via licensing, whereas the UK's proposal takes a different and far more innovation-friendly tack.The UK digital currencies report acknowledged that market participants are addressing some of the risks in the space, and singled out exchanges as a special category, instead of New York's overly broad "virtual currency business activity" that encompasses everything from microtipping services to launching a protocol for a new currency. (As an aside, New York has claimed it won't regulate "software developers," but what it actually means is it won't regulate software developers as long as they aren't developing the software covered by its proposed law.)Some London-based entrepreneurs I spoke to reacted with uncertainty about the effect that overly burdensome anti money-laundering regulations could have, and this is yet to be determined. But in the end, a regime in which one does not need permission to innovate, but instead has a reasonable set of rules to abide by, bodes far better for building the future of technology.Basically, the UK just became the anti-NY. And the innovation will flock to the places with smart, sensible policies that allow for permissionless innovation.
Filed Under: bitcoin, innovation, new york, permissionless innovation, regulations, uk | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Bitcoin Cash Price Surpasses $1,800 — Eying the Second Largest Market Cap
As news.Bitcoin.com reported earlier this weekend, bitcoin cash (BCH) markets have been on a rampage following the canceled 2MB hard fork event. BCH prices have increased three-fold since then, reaching a high of $1810 across global exchanges and has since dropped to around $1400. Alongside this, the network hashrate has also met parity with the BTC chain.
Also Read: Tezos Founders Enter Legal Battle for Control of $400m in Raised ICO Funds
Bitcoin Cash Reaches an All-Time High of $1,800+ and $7B in Daily Trade Volume
All eyes are on crypto-markets this week, and they’re looking at two markets in particular: bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH). The two ecosystems have been sharing a strange correlation over the past 72 hours as BCH has reached new all-time highs and BTC has dropped over $1,300 in the last three days. Bitcoin cash markets are up over 70 percent over the course of the day.
Moreover, Bitcoin cash trade volumes have surpassed $7B in BCH swaps over the past 24-hours. The South Korean exchanges Bithumb, and Korbit are dominating BCH markets, as the won captures 47 percent of the market.
Further, the market capitalization of bitcoin cash reached over $29B, temporarily taking ethereum’s second place position.
The Hashrate Parity
In addition to the market action, both BTC and BCH markets are seeing a strong correlation in the hashrate arena. At the time of writing, both networks have an equal share of roughly 5.4 exahash per second. BCH is operating at 10 percent of the BTC’s difficulty, and it’s 100.7% more profitable to mine BCH, according to Coin Dance statistics. There’s also a bunch of pools mining bitcoin cash including F2pool, Antpool, Viabtc, BTC.com, Bitcoin.com, BTC.top, Supernova, Bitclub, and some unknown pools.
Mempools and Fees
To add to all the market mayhem, the Bitcoin network’s mempool (transaction queue) is backed up by 139,000 transactions waiting to confirm. According to Johoe’s Mempool statistics, the backup has accumulated quite a bit over the past three days since the 2x cancellation. On November 11, using Earn’s fee calculator the average 226-byte transaction costs $9.64 or 155,940 satoshis. Some users are paying upwards of $15-20 per transaction just to get them confirmed quicker. The bitcoin cash mempool is also seeing some action but is clearing smoothly. The average fee for a bitcoin cash transaction is roughly $0.10-0.25.
The week going forward should be interesting, to say the least, watching both of these markets and ecosystems. Now, of course, the story could go on forever with the two community’s raging back and forth at each other in typical internet fashion. However, the statistics alone on November 11th are more fascinating, and the story will play itself out as time progresses.
What do you think about the market and mining ecosystem correlation between BTC and BCH over the past 72 hours? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Images via Shutterstock, Johoes mempool stats, Poloniex, Bitstamp, and Coinmarketcap.
Want to create your own secure cold storage paper wallet? Check our tools section. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Samantha Vinograd, a top national security official during the Obama administration, said Friday that "all American citizens are now walking prime targets” for retaliation following a U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
“I had a former State Department official text me a few hours ago saying, ‘I would not want to be in a secretary of State’s motorcade in any country going forward,'” Vinograd, a staunch critic of 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, told CNN's "New Day."
“In other words, that U.S. officials need to be concerned that they could be targeted," she said, adding that service members and ordinary citizens are also at risk.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It’s not just service members,” said Vinograd, a national security analyst for CNN. “All American citizens are now walking prime targets for Iranian retaliation.”
Soleimani was killed in a strike at Baghdad International Airport alongside Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Popular Mobilization Forces, Iraqi state TV first reported Thursday.
Soleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, was considered one of Iran’s most powerful generals. The Pentagon said the decision to order the strike that killed him at Baghdad International Airport was a “defensive action."
“At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," the Pentagon said in a statement. "The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world."
Vinograd said U.S. citizens all around the world should be on alert.
“[The Quds Force] has demonstrated its willingness and intent to strike American citizens, to strike American diplomats who are afforded protections under international law. So in addition to the force protection measures needed for American service members, I am equally as focused on the American diplomatic corps, as well as all of the contractors that work for the U.S. government, and other American citizens not just in the Middle East but around the world," she said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
play stop mute unmute max volume repeat
Come home and play with me.
You've been gone to work for two days. I miss you so bad. Don't you want to cum home and play with me? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Based on a study by McLean Hospital researchers, individuals with anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions may soon be able to use a smartphone app to deliver on-demand cognitive bias modification for interpretation (CBM-I), a way to change mental habits without visiting a therapist.
The study, "Translating CBM-I Into Real-World Settings: Augmenting a CBT-Based Psychiatric Hospital Program," was published in the journal Behavior Therapy. It shows the potential effectiveness of CBM-I when combined with cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) in an acute psychiatric setting. It also points the way for adapting this therapeutic approach for use outside the hospital.
The lead researcher of the study is Courtney Beard, PhD, director of McLean's Cognition and Affect Research and Education (CARE) Laboratory.
Beard described CBM-I as a "class of interventions designed to shift people's interpretations of ambiguous situations in either a more positive or more negative way." She explained that "CBM-I tries to address interpretation bias, a mental habit that is implicated in many mental disorders."
To do this, individuals undergoing CBM-I treatment can be presented with a series of word association questions that address everyday situations.
For example, the CBM-I task may show a patient a situation about a person yawning during their conversation. Then the patient is asked whether that person is "tired" or "bored." The individual who answers "tired" is told the response is "correct," and "bored" is incorrect. Through repetition, this type of CBM-I therapy helps the person reframe or reassess these daily ambiguous situations.
advertisement
"People face countless interactions like this every day in their lives," Beard said. "If you have a tendency to jump to a threatening or negative conclusion, it can have a huge impact on how you're feeling and on what you do and how you react. You can get stuck in a cycle that can maintain anxiety or depression."
For their study, Beard and her colleagues developed and implemented CBM-I to augment CBT-based treatment in a partial hospital setting. They presented patients with word-sentence associations that encouraged patients to endorse positive interpretations and reject negative interpretations.
Study results showed that CBM-I was practical and acceptable to acute psychiatric patients. Many stated that CBM-I bolstered their primary CBT-based care. The study also found that that the word association exercises were successful in helping reframe potentially negative situations.
Based on these results, Beard and her team are moving forward with a National Institute of Mental Health-backed study to develop a smartphone version of CBM-I.
"With the smartphone app, we can offer CBM-I to many more people at one time," Beard said. "With the app, they can practice new skills, create healthy mental habits, and stop automatically jumping to negative conclusions. And they can do it on demand."
Beard stated that the app could be particularly helpful for individuals who have just been discharged from a treatment program. "They can use it during the month transition period after they leave the hospital, which is a risky and challenging time for them," she said.
Beard sees great promise for app-based CBM-I therapy. "It quickly shows people what their brain is doing," she explained. "The patient sees hundreds of situations in a short amount of time. So, they see how often they jumped to a negative conclusion, and that can be very powerful. It's kind of like cognitive therapy in your pocket -- but a little different and a lot faster." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hide Transcript Show Transcript
WEBVTT MENTO WITH A LOOK ATTHIS FIRST-IN-THE-NATION TESTPROGRAM, RIGHT?LETICIA: IT'S A VERY UNIQUEPROGRAM, IT'S CALLED VIA.ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DOWNLOADEDON THE APP STORE ON YOUR PHONE.ONCE YOU REQUEST A WIDE, -- ARIDE, A DRIVER WILL SHOW UP.IT WILL BE FULL OF PEOPLE GOINGTO THE SAME LOCATION.PEOPLE WILL GET TO KNOW THISWEBSITE AND THE APP VERY WELL.IT ALLOWS USERS TO BOOK A SHAREDRIDE FROM ANYWHERE IN THE CITYOF SACRAMENTO FOR A FLAT FEESIMILAR TO A BUS TICKET.THAT MEANS RIGHTS COULD BE ASLITTLE AS TWO DOLLARS.THE CITY IS EXPLORING GIVINGRIDES TO THOSE WHO MAY NEED ARIDE TO THE BUS STOP.IT IS SUPPOSED TO SUPPORT CARFREE LIVING.OFFICIALS SAY IT WILL MAKE ITMUCH EASIER AND AFFORDABLE TOGET TO PLACES LIKE THE GROWTHRESTORE, RALEY FIELD, -- PLACESLIKE THE GROCERY STORE, RALEYFIELD, OR THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE.IT WILL -- THE MAYOR SAYS ITWILL SAVE RESIDENTS MONEY ON GASAND PARKING REDUCE CONGESTION ONTHE ROADS AND REDUCE POLLUTION.THE CITY COUNCIL IS SUPPOSED TOVOTE ON THE VIA CONTRACT NEXTMONTH.IF APPROVED, VIA COULD BE UP AND
Advertisement West Sacramento hopes to reduce car use with ride-sharing program City officials to vote on Via next month Share Shares Copy Link Copy
Officials in West Sacramento hope to eliminate personal vehicles altogether by implementing a ride-sharing program that would pick up residents and take them to their location for a flat fee.Via is a first-in-the-nation test program that is all about on-demand transit, and West Sacramento leaders are planning to vote on bringing it to the city.Riders would download the app on their phones, and similar to Uber and Lyft, they request a ride. A luxury van shows up at the door and would pick other people up on the way to the same location.Via will allow users to book a shared ride from anywhere in West Sacramento for a flat fee, similar to a bus ticket. Rides could cost as little as $2.The city is also exploring giving free rides to those who need a ride to a bus stop.The pilot program is envisioned to support car-free living in the riverfront districts.Overall, city officials said the program will make it easier and more affordable to get around the city to places like the grocery store, Raley Field or the doctor's office without having to rely on a personal vehicle.Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said Via will save residents money on gas and parking and would reduce pollution and congestion on the roads.The city council is set to vote on the Via contract next month. If it is approved, the service will launch in the spring. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
On Monday, President Trump announced that a contingent of fewer than 100 U.S. troops in Syria was being moved away from Kurdish-held territory on the border of Turkey. The move effectively green-lighted military operations by Turkey against the Kurds, which have now commenced.
Some U.S. military officials went public with complaints about being “blindsided.” The policy cannot have been a surprise, though. The president has made no secret that he wants out of Syria, where we now have about 1,000 troops (down from over 2,000 last year). More broadly, he wants our forces out of the Middle East. He ran on that position. I’ve argued against his “endless wars” tropes, but his stance is popular. As for Syria specifically, many of the president’s advisers think we should stay, but he has not been persuaded.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER
The president’s announcement of the redeployment of the Syrian troops came on the heels of a phone conversation with Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This, obviously, was a mistake, giving the appearance (and not for the first time) that Trump is taking cues from Ankara’s Islamist strongman. As has become rote, the inevitable criticism was followed by head-scratching tweets: The president vows to “totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey,” which “I’ve done before” (huh?), if Turkey takes any actions “that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits.” We can only sigh and say it will be interesting to see how the president backs up these haughty threats now that Erdogan has begun his invasion.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
All that said, the president at least has a cogent position that is consistent with the Constitution and public opinion. He wants U.S. forces out of a conflict in which America’s interests have never been clear, and for which Congress has never approved military intervention. I find that sensible — no surprise, given that I have opposed intervention in Syria from the start (see, e.g., here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). The stridency of the counterarguments is matched only by their selectiveness in reciting relevant facts.
I thus respectfully dissent from our National Review editorial. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
JNS.org – In what crazy, upside-down world does a Palestinian Arab randomly stab Jews in Jerusalem, get shot dead by Israeli policeman, and then become the focus of an Associated Press article with a headline about Israelis killing Palestinians?
In our crazy, upside-down world, that’s where.
The latest craziness began when the terrorist was strolling through the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday morning, where he happened to see a Jewish man. So the Arab stabbed the Jew. The stabber then went a little further along, until he spotted a Jewish child walking along. So, he ran up and stabbed the child in the back.
You can already imagine Excuse #1 bubbling up in the fertile minds of the rationalizers and justifiers: The Old City is “occupied Arab East Jerusalem” — meaning that the Jewish victims actually were “settlers,” which makes them “legitimate targets” for “resistance.”
Related coverage Bonds Building Bonds — Honoring Generations of Sound Investment JNS.org - If anyone in your family celebrated a bar or bat mitzvah, a wedding, or the birth of a...
Resistance to what? Why, to the existence of Jews, of course.
Israeli policemen approached the terrorist. He was literally caught with the bloody knife in his hand. Instead of surrendering, he ran, which is why the police shot him. It’s about as black-and-white a case as one can imagine. Yet, incredibly, the Associated Press characterized him as “an alleged Palestinian attacker.”
It seems that as far as the AP is concerned, when it comes to Palestinian terrorists, they’re always “alleged” and never “terrorists.” Isn’t that curious?
The would-be murderer turned out to be 19 years old. Get ready for Excuse #2. Technically, the terrorist was a teenager. And the word “teenager” can be morphed into “child.” Which brings us to a pending Congressional resolution about “Palestinian children.”
The bill in question, H.R. 4391, was authored by an extremist Congresswoman from Minnesota named Betty McCollum. It’s called the “Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act.” It calls for slashing US aid to Israel as punishment for arresting “Palestinian children.”
According to McCollum, it is immoral and illegitimate for Israel to ever detain a “Palestinian child.” Even if the “child” was caught trying to stone, stab, or shoot Jews to death. Children must never be detained. I guess that includes the “child” with the bloody knife in Jerusalem on Friday.
When McCollum introduced the bill last year, it attracted 30 co-sponsors, all Democrats. One was Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton, who is now a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. It will be interesting to see if Moulton again signs on to the reintroduced McCollum resolution.
Elsewhere on Friday, another Palestinian Arab tried to cross into Israel by infiltrating the security perimeter near Bethlehem. When he refused to halt and desist, Israeli soldiers shot him.
Now the folks at the AP had their headline: “2 Palestinians Killed by Israelis in Separate Events.” They took a story about a Palestinian Arab terrorist attack and a potential second attack, and turned it into a story about trigger-happy Israelis murdering Palestinians.
And here comes Excuse #3. Why would a Palestinian Arab be trying to penetrate the security perimeter, instead of just applying for a permit to enter Israel? The AP found a way to excuse this obviously suspicious behavior: “Younger Palestinian men must request an entry permit from the military, which are [sic] hard to obtain.”
Oh well, that’s different, then. If it’s “hard” to obtain a permit to enter somebody else’s country, then certainly you have a right to break into that country. Or so the AP apparently wants its readers to believe.
The AP interviewed the infiltrator’s father, one Louai Ghaith. It’s odd how they couldn’t manage to find and interview any of the stabbing victims’ relatives. Or friends. Or neighbors. Or any other Jew in the Old City of Jerusalem. I guess they were all busy.
The father insisted that his son was just “going to fulfill his religious duty; he was going to worship” at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. What a coincidence — a knife-wielding man entered Jerusalem on a permit to pray at Al-Aqsa. Maybe the Israelis do have a reason to carefully scrutinize and restrict the foreign citizens they allow to enter their capital city after all.
Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. He is the author of A Father’s Story: My Fight for Justice Against Iranian Terror. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
LaneAxis Professional Trucker Network
1 717 members, 21 online
U.S Patent : https://bit.ly/3bqttwB
Twitter : https://twitter.com/LaneAxisNetwork
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/LaneAxisNetwork/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/laneaxis/
If you have Telegram, you can view and join
LaneAxis Professional Trucker Network right away. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Declaration of struct fields can be enriched by string literal placed afterwards — tag. Tags add meta information used either by current package or external ones. Let’s first recall how struct declarations look like, then we’ll deep dive into tags themselves and we’ll wrap up with couple of use cases.
Struct type
Struct is a sequence of fields. Each field consists of optional name and required type (source code):
package main import "fmt" type T1 struct {
f1 string
} type T2 struct {
T1
f2 int64
f3, f4 float64
} func main() {
t := T2{T1{"foo"}, 1, 2, 3}
fmt.Println(t.f1) // foo
fmt.Println(t.T1.f1) // foo
fmt.Println(t.f2) // 1
}
Field T1 is called an embedded field since it’s declared with type but no name.
Field declaration can specify more than one identifier like f3 and f4 from 3rd field declaration in T2.
Language specification states that each field declaration is followed by semicolon but as we’ve seen above it can be omitted. Semicolon might be useful if there is a need to put multiple fields declarations into the same line (source code):
package main import "fmt" type T struct {
f1 int64; f2 float64
} func main() {
t := T{1, 2}
fmt.Println(t.f1, t.f2) // 1 2
}
Tag
A field declaration may be followed by an optional string literal (tag) which becomes an attribute of all the fields in the corresponding field declaration (single field declaration can specify multiple identifiers). Let’s see it in action (source code):
type T struct {
f1 string "f one"
f2 string
f3 string `f three`
f4, f5 int64 `f four and five`
}
Either raw string literals or interpreted string literals can be used but conventional format described below requires raw string literals. Differences between raw and interpreted string literals are described in spec.
If field declarations contains more than one identifier then tag is attached to all fields from field declaration (like fields f4 and f5 above).
Reflection
Tags are accessible through reflect package which allows run-time reflection (source code):
package main import (
"fmt"
"reflect"
) type T struct {
f1 string "f one"
f2 string
f3 string `f three`
f4, f5 int64 `f four and five`
} func main() {
t := reflect.TypeOf(T{})
f1, _ := t.FieldByName("f1")
fmt.Println(f1.Tag) // f one
f4, _ := t.FieldByName("f4")
fmt.Println(f4.Tag) // f four and five
f5, _ := t.FieldByName("f5")
fmt.Println(f5.Tag) // f four and five
}
Setting up empty tag has the same effect as not using tag at all (source code):
type T struct {
f1 string ``
f2 string
} func main() {
t := reflect.TypeOf(T{})
f1, _ := t.FieldByName("f1")
fmt.Printf("%q
", f1.Tag) // ""
f2, _ := t.FieldByName("f2")
fmt.Printf("%q
", f2.Tag) // ""
}
Conventional format
Introduced in commit “reflect: support for struct tag use by multiple packages” allows to set meta information per package. This provides simple namespacing. Tags are formatted as a concatenation of key:"value" pairs. Key might be name of the package like json. Pairs can be optionally separated by spaces — key1:"value1" key2:"value2" key3:"value3" . If conventional format is used then we can use two methods of struct tag (StructTag) — Get or Lookup. They allow to return value associated with desired key inside tag.
Lookup function returns two values — value associated with key (or blank if not set) and bool indicating if key has been found at all (source code):
type T struct {
f string `one:"1" two:"2"blank:""`
} func main() {
t := reflect.TypeOf(T{})
f, _ := t.FieldByName("f")
fmt.Println(f.Tag) // one:"1" two:"2"blank:""
v, ok := f.Tag.Lookup("one")
fmt.Printf("%s, %t
", v, ok) // 1, true
v, ok = f.Tag.Lookup("blank")
fmt.Printf("%s, %t
", v, ok) // , true
v, ok = f.Tag.Lookup("five")
fmt.Printf("%s, %t
", v, ok) // , false
}
Get method is simply wrapper of Lookup which discards boolean flag (source code):
func (tag StructTag) Get(key string) string {
v, _ := tag.Lookup(key)
return v
}
Return value of Get or Lookup is unspecified if tag doesn’t have conventional format.
Even if tag is any string literal (interpreted or raw) then Lookup and Get methods will find value for key only if value is enclosed between double quotes (source code):
type T struct {
f string "one:`1`"
} func main() {
t := reflect.TypeOf(T{})
f, _ := t.FieldByName("f")
fmt.Println(f.Tag) // one:`1`
v, ok := f.Tag.Lookup("one")
fmt.Printf("%s, %t
", v, ok) // , false
}
It’s possible to use escaped double quotes within interpreted strings literals (source code):
type T struct {
f string "one:\"1\""
} func main() {
t := reflect.TypeOf(T{})
f, _ := t.FieldByName("f")
fmt.Println(f.Tag) // one:"1"
v, ok := f.Tag.Lookup("one")
fmt.Printf("%s, %t
", v, ok) // 1, true
}
but it’s much less readable.
Conversion
Converting struct type value into other type requires that underlaying types are identical but tags are ignored (source code):
type T1 struct {
f int `json:"foo"`
}
type T2 struct {
f int `json:"bar"`
}
t1 := T1{10}
var t2 T2
t2 = T2(t1)
fmt.Println(t2) // {10}
This behaviour has been introduced in Go 1.8 (proposal). In Go 1.7 and older above code could would throw a compile-time error.
Use cases
(Un)marshaling
Probably the most common use of tags in Go is marshalling. Let’s see how it’s used by function Marshal from json package (source code):
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
) func main() {
type T struct {
F1 int `json:"f_1"`
F2 int `json:"f_2,omitempty"`
F3 int `json:"f_3,omitempty"`
F4 int `json:"-"`
}
t := T{1, 0, 2, 3}
b, err := json.Marshal(t)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
fmt.Printf("%s
", b) // {"f_1":1,"f_3":2}
}
Package xml also takes advantage of tags — https://golang.org/pkg/encoding/xml/#MarshalIndent.
ORM
Object-relation mapping tools like GORM use tags extensively — example.
Digesting forms data
https://godoc.org/github.com/gorilla/schema
Other
There’re more potential uses cases of tags like configuration management, default values for structs, validation, command-line arguments description etc. (list of well-known struct tags).
go vet
Go compiler doesn’t enforce conventional format of struct tags but go vet does that so it’s worth to use it e.g. as a part of CI pipeline. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The ensuing daze of a dream can make the experience hard to recall just as you wake to regain your ground.
Usually, over time some of those details tend to emerge. Or at least in a way that you can understand the experience. I believe this process has a functional use. And everyone agrees good sleep and pleasant dreams are a good habit of reaching.
You have probably heard of the term "k-hole" one way or another. I first heard of it from a NOFX song. Then later came up again by a few different indie bands I was listening to in college. I didn't pay much attention to it – I knew it had something to do with Ketamine. I thought maybe a "k-hole" was just something people were using to disconnect from reality (or avoid it). Maybe like a whip-it. I supposed it depends on how you use it.
Either way, I was sort of right – even though I couldn't have been more wrong about it
If you're unsure of (or even uncomfortable with) the term, maybe "Ego-death" is an attractive way to look at it instead – though I don't think the two experiences are inclusive to each other.
I think it's a good habit to keep yourself grounded; occasionally it's helpful to let go. Allowing yourself to disassociate, you can see thoughts & themes for what they are – separate from your defenses. Without your bias or beliefs, you can become satisfyingly absent from your anxiety or fears. Away from the uncertainty that keeps you away.
The sorta place where you can see through the dark and see details of your life in a new field of view. A perspective where you can try on new thoughts or ideas or desires – or even see people and relationships for the connections by which they’re made – all of the complex paths you've established over your life have a chance to weave and unfold into space where you can meet them on the bridge that binds two concepts.
Photo by Jonas Verstuyft / Unsplash
Just how abstract those thoughts can be is entirely subjective to your experiences – but it seems to leave you with the awareness there is still a physicality to your thoughts. Almost as though your attention can suddenly exist between the contacts of consciousness and energy that drives their relationship. A tangible connection you can break or tighten.
Especially the case for pain and neglect – it's helpful to see those wounds for what they are – to dig into them and see where they go or where you can follow. By allowing yourself to look at the characters, bodies, and ideas that your subconscious uses to cover these paths, you can pursue beliefs in new ways to see yourself for who you are, and ultimately see yourself in a place where your experiences can guide you. To a place where you can finally rationalize them without relying on the fear or anxiety that you're exhausted from using.
Thankfully, sometimes confronting those patterns are enough to let them go
On this day, during my second round of ketamine IV treatment, I had finally gotten my intentions to a place where I felt like I could let myself go and truly unground myself.
With my eyes closed, the familiar darkness of the back of my eyelids suddenly appeared much lighter. Suddenly in that new light, I noticed there was a dimension to it. As I found myself drawn to that depth, I realized that there was a pair of legs in there!
Photo by Tom Sodoge / Unsplash
So just like you can look down and decide to kick your legs, I did that to this pair. I suddenly found myself walking in a busy street I didn't recognize, using a body I wasn't prepared to be using – in an atmosphere I was overwhelmed by – and a state where I couldn't perceive as my emotions as my own. I imagined myself in a foreign country.
I felt let like leaving – but I just wasn't sure how to get out of those legs. I realized I needed to get out of the street. I was near an exit.
There was a door
As quickly as I recognized each form, the experience would change. I was no longer moving at this point – wasn’t going through doors – but I felt unmistakably centered in different rooms or chambers. It progressed like this for a period that I could never wholly recall – despite how lucid and vivid it all felt at that moment.
There were some perceptions about death and my father that I felt comforted by although didn’t feel like applying to the rest of this experience. But I could understand why someone unaware of the concept of a "k-hole" might feel like they were dying at that moment. I just was just glad that maybe my father got to experience something like this before he let himself go in that hospital bed.
I walked into another room, one I could remember this time. And almost immediately as the experience kept changing, I felt an uncomfortable, anxious feeling. The sort of uneasy feeling you got being out of your bed past your bedtime, I thought.
Photo by Mat Reding / Unsplash
Suddenly, I sensed a presence sitting around a corner. As I approached, I noticed the figure’s waved outline that I hoped for it to be my wife.
I realized it was a figure of my oldest sister (one who helped care for me when my parents weren’t able), which I suddenly became reluctant to approach. As the picture emerged, I saw the face of my mother. The discomfort escalated until I let out a heavy sigh.
Immediately the walls of the original room disappeared, and the music I was hearing started pulling me further into the ketamine hole.
How long has this been? I felt relief as my being was released. The music was the last thing to try to go. I could still hear some of the music my friend had picked out for me. The lyrics were coming through more clearly than the arrangements:
I put the radio on, hold you tight in my mind / Isn't strange that you're not here with me? / But I'm putting all the lights on in the television / Trying to transmit, can you hear me? / Ground control to Major Tom / Can you hear me all night long? / Ground control to Major Tom
With the remaining fiber left of me, I was able to reconstruct my voice and said to the RN –
...perfect...
As to let the universe know I was OK as I let go of one last out-breath...
The music no longer made sense.
I separated myself away from the things I'd been anchoring myself. I was no longer visualizing rooms or physical places – or painful feelings – I was somewhere abstract and dark. And comforting.
I couldn't say I lost track of time because there was no time to track.
I saw that darkness morph into a distinctive shape of an animal I recognized as a cat. Similar to the experience earlier, I was hoping to see my new kitten. As the form evolved, it turned into a remarkably clear appearance of a black cat. When this cat looked at me, it was simultaneously staring back at me as it was growing larger.
Quickly yet again I realized that it wasn't a cat at all, but my mind just wanted me to see something!
At I gravitated toward the cat (or it to me) and could see the pupil in its eye stretch from a narrow slit into a full oval – I could see now just the reflection of myself in the lens of his eye. What surprised me the most, however, I could look through that too – where he was looking at what I could recognize as my daughter. Sitting in a dress on the floor in that original room where I last saw my mother. By this time, I wasn't startled as she too quickly disappeared.
So like before, I felt the rest of the sense of my identity go, and the only thing I was aware of was the lack of time itself.
I no longer felt the discomfort. I just felt the connection to my current state. I let it resonate. For how long, I couldn't say. As it needed to ring.
I started noticing the music again. Just as I saw the music, I felt the pain of my mother's rejection replaced by the love I felt for a child I'm not quite ready to have.
Again, I felt comfort as the feelings replaced by the love for my 2-year old son.
An ego gained
As I came back to reality and interacted with my wife and the RN in the room. My passion for Arthur overwhelmed me as I realized the experiences over the last two years were shaping him into the type of anxiety we're trying to avoid. I didn't mourn for him the way I've lamented my childhood. I was satisfied with the knowledge my present experiences grant me.
Even as I write this, I feel the same vibrations from this hole resonating still with me – I'm capable of correcting my thoughts and patterns and will have a lasting impact on my children. It hurts me that Arthur is living through this volatile period with me, but at the same time, I think he's a lucky boy. I came out of that experience believing he's going to have an even more fortunate sister. Maybe a Lisa to my Bart.
I suppose I'm making connections now that will bring me to a place where that will all resonate again, and I can't help but feel I will have healed.
I came out of that experience self-intact, and a stronger bond to my present state and future potential than ever. I came out with a few less irrational beliefs.
I came out of that experience with a fantasy I can fulfill. Hope for good sleep and pleasant dreams. A good habit for everyone involved. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Non-endorsements come as Trump becomes presumptive nominee and many have tried to come to terms with fact that he will be party’s standard-bearer
Neither George HW nor George W Bush, the only two living former Republican presidents of the United States, will endorse Donald Trump.
In statements released to the Guardian on Wednesday evening, spokesmen for both former presidents said they would be sitting out the 2016 election. Freddy Ford, a spokesman for George W Bush, told the Guardian: “President George W Bush does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign.”
The statement by the 43rd president was echoed in one released by his father. Jim McGrath, a spokesman for George HW Bush, told the Guardian: “At age 91, President Bush is retired from politics. He naturally did a few things to help Jeb, but those were the ‘exceptions that proved the rule’.”
The non-endorsements come as Trump becomes the presumptive nominee and many party figures have tried to come to terms with the fact that the demagogic reality television star will be their party’s standard-bearer in November.
Donald Trump's path to Republican nomination clear as Ted Cruz quits Read more
While some such as senators Dean Heller of Nevada and Ben Sasse of Nebraska have made clear they will not vote for Trump in November, others such as senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio have said they will vote for the party’s nominee but not endorse him.
The decision by both former presidents is particularly personal because of the unsuccessful candidacy of Jeb Bush. The former Florida governor, who is George HW’s son and George W’s brother, was repeatedly attacked during his campaign by Trump. The presumptive nominee tarred the two-term governor as “low-energy” and mocked him as “an embarrassment to his family”.
Trump also has repeatedly attacked George W Bush on the stump. In particular, Trump accused Bush of lying about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to justify the 2003 Iraq war. “They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction – there were none. And they knew there were none. There were no weapons of mass destruction,” Trump said in a February debate in Greenville, South Carolina.
The presumptive nominee has also repeatedly called the Iraq war “a mistake” and has falsely claimed he was against the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime at the time.
The non-endorsements mark the continued difficulty that Trump will have reuniting a party that has divided with rancor as a result of candidacy.
The Clinton campaign released a video on Thursday that showed former Republican candidates attacking him and released a compilation of prominent conservatives ranging from elected officials, party leaders and talk radio hosts who are all refusing to back Trump in November. A recent poll released by CNN shows the likely Democratic nominee, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, leading Trump by a margin of 54-41 in the general election. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The network announced on Wednesday that it was moving forward with a spin-off titled Beyond the Tank, which will follow up on the financial adventures of the companies that wind up cutting a deal on the show. (Shark Tank often shows brief updates on the businesses, but this would be a deeper, hourlong look at what happens after entrepreneurs partner up with the show’s moneyed investors such as Marc Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, and Barbara Corcoran. Including whether or not the deal even comes to fruition.) | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
WENN/GETTY How Hitler may have looked in his Argentina bolthole
A major eight-part documentary series draws on newly declassified FBI files and makes startling discoveries which suggest Hitler may not have died in his bunker at the end of the Second World War after all. Instead, the programme ventures, he could actually have been spirited out of Berlin under the noses of the invading Soviets. Then, having travelled on a U-boat from Spain, he may have spent the rest of his life plotting the rise of the Fourth Reich at a secret compound in the Argentine jungle.
On an exclusive tour last week of the tunnel network Hitler had built under Berlin, the Express found out more about the astounding claims. And in the process of filming Hunting Hitler, which starts on the History channel on Monday, November 2, the producers have made a discovery that may change the way in which Hitler’s demise is viewed by historians.
GETTY On April 21, 1945 eight planes were apparently loaded with the Führer’s personal effects
They have found a false wall in a Berlin subway station which could have facilitated the Führer’s escape 70 years ago. The programmemakers describe the discovery of the wall as their “eureka moment”. Last year, the FBI declassified 700 confidential documents. These indicate that perhaps the greatestwar criminal in history may not have committed suicide in the “Führerbunker” but instead fled to South America as Nazi Germany collapsed. A secret memo from FBI director J Edgar Hoover declared that: “American Army officials in Germany have not located Hitler’s body, nor is there any reliable source that will say definitely that Hitler is dead.”
NC The modern entrance to Luftbrücke station, under which the secret tunnel has been found
GETTY The false wall was found at Luftbrücke U-Bahn station
In the aftermath of the war, many experts wondered if the Führer had faked his death and the US Army even mounted a clandestine operation to search for him in Spain. Armed with cutting-edge technology and these newly released FBI files, Hunting Hitler’s team of renowned investigators approached this like a cold case. In Berlin last week, the Express met the investigators, including Bob Baer, an ex-CIA veteran, the model for George Clooney’s character in the 2005 film Syriana and one of America’s most elite intelligence officers; Tim Kennedy, a top US special forces operative who was part of the unit tracking Osama Bin Laden after 9/11, and Sascha Keil, a German historian from the Berlin Underworlds Association. The producers have found out that there was a mass Nazi exodus from Tempelhof Airport on April 21, 1945, the day after the last recorded public sighting of Hitler. On that date, eight planes were apparently loaded with the Führer’s personal effects.
GLOBO This grainy picture claims to show Hitler alive in south America in the 1970s
The expert team on Hunting Hitler initially worked out that the Nazi leader could have made it from his bunker to the airport almost entirely underground, except for the final 200 yards. Rumours have long circulated of a hitherto unknown tunnel connecting this final 200 yards from a nearby subway station (once known as U6 and now called Luftbrücke) to the airport. And now, using a state-of-the-art sonar device regularly employed by the US military in their manhunts, the team investigating the mystery of Hitler’s possible evasion have unearthed that tunnel. This provides the “missing link” from what was the U6 subway station to Tempelhof and could have allowed the Führer to escape without being captured above ground by the marauding Soviets.
GETTY Debris inside Adolf Hitler's command bunker
If I were an SS officer assigned to get Hitler out of Berlin, I’d take him to Misiones. It fits Bob Baer
Tapping the false wall in the subway station to prove its hollowness, Jason Wolf, the show-runner on Hunting Hitler, recollects the moment they made this massive breakthrough in their investigation. He says: “It was a eureka moment. We were looking for the tunnel when Sascha suddenly went rogue down the subway. He knocked on the wall and it sounded hollow. We brought out the sonar and confirmed it was a false wall. “We looked at each other and went, ‘Holy cow!’” The other major revelation in Hunting Hitler concerns a jungle compound in the Misiones province of northern Argentina. As they explored its ruins, the team uncovered all manner of Nazi artefacts. Baer, who during his long and distinguished CIA career tracked Saddam Hussein among many others, reflects that the discoveries in Misiones were one of the key factors in making him think that they may not be on such a wild goose chase after all. “I used to track people in that region and it’s an area of great mystery,” he says. “There’s something terribly wrong about it. If I were an SS officer assigned to get Hitler out of Berlin, I’d take him to Misiones. It fits.”
GETTY Author Bob Baer
The premise that Hitler managed to flee Berlin at the end of the war - and one claim in particular that he saw out his days in a remote part of Brazil - has been widely reported before and even Baer admits that he was initially “completely sceptical” about this investigation. However the series does make a compelling case that the escape could have happened. Now Baer says that, “I couldn’t resist this story and the opportunity to use my knowledge about people escaping to look at the possibility that Hitler escaped from Berlin on April 21, 1945 and made it to South America. “Was that possible? Yes.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
In this Monday, July 1, 2019, photo, Mark Char appears in court, in Honolulu, with his face painted black. Char was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for attempted murder and assault for stabbing three people on a freeway in August 2016. (Bruce Asato/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP)
In this Monday, July 1, 2019, photo, Mark Char appears in court, in Honolulu, with his face painted black. Char was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for attempted murder and assault for stabbing three people on a freeway in August 2016. (Bruce Asato/Honolulu Star-Advertiser via AP)
HONOLULU (AP) — A Hawaii man who painted his face black with a marker for his sentencing hearing has been ordered to serve life in prison.
A judge sentenced Mark Char Monday to a mandatory life prison term with possible parole for attempted murder, news organizations reported.
Honolulu Circuit Court Judge Todd Eddins also sentenced the 60-year-old to five years in prison for second-degree assault and one year for third-degree assault.
Attorney Keith Shigetomi, who withdrew as Char’s defense lawyer after the hearing, said it was Char’s choice to appear with his face and head blackened.
ADVERTISEMENT
“You treating me like a black man, so today I am a black man,” Char told the judge.
Char continued talking and laughing after he told Eddins that he was done with his pre-sentencing statement.
A state jury found Char guilty in March of stabbing three people in a road rage incident on a freeway in August 2016.
Char repeatedly braked in front of Jesther Marlang’s car before they both pulled onto a median. Char reversed and crashed into Marlang’s car, police said.
Char then used pepper spray against Marlang and his passenger, Deion Anunciacion, and stabbed them. During the struggle Char bit and nearly severed two of Marlang’s fingers, authorities said.
He also stabbed a passing motorist, Jene Winn, who tried to stop the confrontation, police said.
Char claimed he acted in self-defense and called his trial a kangaroo court.
“You’re a menace to the public,” the judge said. “This is not a kangaroo court; you got a fair trial.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A randy couple are facing jail for allegedly making a series of explicit public porno films including one in a Burger King.
Police in Louisiana say they discovered images which suggest the pair filmed graphic scenes inside a public library, supermarket and the popular fast food restaurant.
The Smoking Gun reports the married couple are now facing obscenity charges — which could lead to a jail term.
Investigators said they received a “report of lewd activity that occurred within a public library” in Houma.
It is claimed by local police that they suspects “recorded themselves performing sexual activities on each other and uploaded them to a porn site.”
Looking into the case, it is said the pair in the sordid videos are Elizabeth Jernigan, 33, and her husband Rex, 35.
Investigators forced themselves to have a good long look at the couple’s PornHub page and found it was packed with over 160 explicit videos.
Officers told the investigative website that the Jernigans recorded themselves engaged in sexual activity “in various other businesses throughout the City of Houma and Terrebonne Parish.”
They said the PornHub videos seem to show the wife exposing herself and masturbating inside various businesses at the Southland Mall in Houma including a Burger King.
The public library video includes similar explicit exploits and concludes with Elizabeth performing oral sex on her husband in front of a magazine rack.
The Jernigans are now each charged with six counts of obscenity.
Rex later shared this news on the couple’s PornHub page after their release on bail.
Under his pseudonym Sexybeast82, he wrote: “To all my friends and followers, the wife and I just recently bailed out of jail for our public videos we posted on pornhub, hopefully soon we’ll get to post a new video soon.” His wife is known as LaylaDevine.
The couple’s PornHub page has 4,187 subscribers and its videos have been viewed more than 1.7 million times. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Clashes broke out at a rally held Saturday on Saturday supporting President Donald Trump’s border wall in Otay Mesa, California, as left-wing counter-protesters taunted them and chanted for amnesty for illegal aliens.
According to the local CBS affiliate:
The rumble ensued when a small group of counter-protestors started a chant from the rear of the gathering, apparently yelling “Racists go home!” A group of wall supporters equal in size carrying flags moved in quickly and engaged in a shouting match with the other side as deputies and police stood by. What began as face-to-face shouting and chest bumping escalated, and seconds after the first shove by a counter-protester the first punch was thrown by a wall supporter. That fight spawned several others, and in every direction, small huddles of people were kicking up dust — some trying to pull foes off of grounded and outnumbered friends, others turning flags upside down and taking their best shot at opponents’ heads and bodies.
There were no injuries and no arrests.
Videos circulated on social media depicting the clashes (content warning).
Some activists supporting the wall drove from as far away as Arizona to attend:
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) was on hand to support the border wall activists (videos courtesy Arthur Christopher Schaper via YouTube):
“Angel Moms,” who have lost relatives to homicides by illegal aliens, also spoke at the rally:
The San Diego Union-Tribune interviewed counter-demonstrators:
The border wall is a “xenophobic act, reminiscent of Nazi Germany,” said Rafael Bautista, 33, of southeast San Diego. Bautista, who helped organize the protest but isn’t affiliated with a single group, said he migrated to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of 4 and has family on both sides of the border.
“They want to put up walls between two shades of color,” he said. “This is exactly the opposite of what we want in this country.”
Groups sponsoring the rally included “San Diegans for Secure Borders, Unite America First, Frontline America, San Diego Patriots, Latinos for Trump, Make America Great PAC and other pro-border wall groups,” according to the local CBS affiliate.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Hulk’s Snap
Avengers: Endgame Easter Eggs, Callbacks and Cameos 27 IMAGES
What About Captain America Putting the Soul Stone Back?
Could Gamora Replace Black Widow?
What About Black Widow’s Movie?
Many were expecting either Tony Stark or Steve Rogers to sacrifice their life to protect the universe and defeat Thanos in Avengers: Endgame , but many were surprised to see Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, meet her end in the fourth Avengers film.To quickly recap: In order for the Avengers to secure all of the Infinity Stones to complete their “Time Heist,” it was inevitable that one of them would have to trade their life for the Soul Stone on Vormir, and it was Black Widow who chose to pay that price. In a sacrificial act to save her friends and restore the Vanished, Black Widow exchanged her soul so Hawkeye could return to the present with the Soul Stone and reunite with his family once they were resurrected.It's proven to be one of the most discussed and divisive Avengers: Endgame moments, but is that really the end of her story, especially considering there’s a Black Widow movie currently in the works? Let’s break it down.After the Hulk snaps the Vanished back to life, he explains that he tried to also bring Black Widow back to no avail. That seems to kill the theory that someone with the Stones could just will her back to life. It seems when a soul is traded for the Soul Stone, it’s a permanent deal that not even the combined Infinity Stones can undo. It’s natural that Bruce Banner would try to resurrect her given their emotional connection, but his efforts were in vain.(We've heard some skeptics argue that Banner might have been successful and no one would know because she'd be back on Vormir, but we're going to take his comment at face value and assume Bruce realized his efforts were in vain through the power of the Infinity Stones.)At the end of the film, Captain America goes back in time to put the Infinity Stones back where they belong in the timeline. That includes returning the Soul Stone to its home on Vormir. (Crazy to think that Cap probably talked to Red Skull when he dropped it in the return slot!) One could theorize that Black Widow’s soul would be released upon returning the Soul Stone, but given there was no hint of this in the movie, it seems Vormir doesn’t do refunds or exchanges.It’s also worth considering that after the Soul Stone is put back in 2014, eventually the events of Infinity War will transpire and Thanos will sacrifice Gamora to collect the Soul Stone. If Gamora’s soul is given for the Soul Stone, would that free up Black Widow’s soul? The movie doesn’t offer much clarity on this matter, but the comics explain that the Soul Stone actually contains an entire dimension called the Soul World. We saw Thanos take a short visit there at the end of Infinity War where he was able to briefly commune with Gamora’s soul. In the comics, the Soul Stone actively desires souls and isn’t keen on letting them go, so it’s likely the same rules apply in the film. There’s no “swapping” of souls because the Soul Stone wants to grow its collection, not give them up.Black Widow’s movie is reportedly going to be a prequel set after the events of the first Avengers movie, so even though she’s dead at the end of Endgame, there’s still plenty of story to explore back when she first joined the Avengers. Who knows, we might finally learn what happened in Budapest!The Black Widow movie is being directed by Cate Shortland with a script by Jac Schaeffer. In addition to Scarlett Johansson reprising the title role, the cast will also reportedly include David Harbour and Florence Pugh in undisclosed roles.
Loading
Got more questions about Endgame? We've got you covered:And be sure to watch our video explaining the big ending:
Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
TBMM Genel Kurulu'nda MHP'nin 'çocuklara yönelik cinsel istismar' konulu araştırma önergesine CHP ve HDP 'kabul', AKP 'ret' oyu verdi.
MHP'nin çocuk istismarlarının araştırılması ve önlenmesine yönelik araştırma komisyonu kurulması için yaptığı teklif AKP'li milletvekillerinin oylarıyla reddedildi.
Komisyon önerisi oylanırken, AKP'li milletvekillerin dışarıda olduğu ve ilk etapta evet oyunun çıktığı belirtildi.
Meclis Başkanı'nın oylamayı kabul etmemesinin arından tekrar edilen yeni oylamada AKP'liler salona girerek hayır oyu kullandı. Böylece önerge reddedilmiş oldu. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The quote above the fold is, surreally, on display in Greece this very day:
Mr. Papandreou said, urging a yes to reforms. And this extraordinary admission: "The financial system," he said, "is stronger than the will of the people." PBS
Imperialism was not originally the policy of governments, but rather the policy of financiers like Cecil Rhodes and rich industrialists like Joe Chamberlain (Neville's father). Rhodes pushed the limits of legal on a continent where the law was barely a fiction. Rhodes owned the South African press and a good deal of the London press. So he got his side of the story told. Sound familiar?
At first, European expeditions were too weak to challenge African rulers. It was safer to use blank treaty forms, explained away by an empire-minded missionary, than to use live ammunition. But paper imperialism soon proved inadequate. When effective occupation became necessary to establish a good title, conflict became inevitable. The African rulers best equipped to resist were understandably those who depended on violence themselves...Soon the Maxim gun...became the symbol of the age in Africa...Most of the battles were cruelly one-sided (but not for the British against the Boers, or for the Italians against the Abyssinians). - Thomas Packenham, "The Scramble for Africa"
The imperialists relied on the infamous "blank treaty form", by which some native ruler would agree to the "protection" of this or that European government. Said protection rapidly devolved into outright takeover, followed by colonial exploitation with a heavily racist tinge. (Can you say Benton Harbor, MI?)
As for the government of the country, (King Mwanga) had signed away control of his own revenues ("The revenues of the country shall be collected and the customs and taxes shall be assessed by a Committee or Board of Finance"). No longer did he command his own army ("The King, assisted by the (British East Africa) Company, shall form a standing army, which the officers of the Company will endeavour to organize and drill like a native regiment in India"). Nor could he decide his own policy (The Resident's consent "shall be obtained...in all grave and serious matters connected with the state"). No wonder Mwanga had desperately tried to avoid signing away these rights..."The English have come", said Mwanga acidly, "They have built a fort, they eat my land, and yet they have given me nothing at all." - T. Pakenham, "The Scramble for Africa"
What is happening today in Michigan, Wisconsin, NJ, Maine, Greece, and Ireland is colonialism. It is the appropriation of wealth by power. It is economic war against people defenseless against the latest hi-tech: computerized financial fraud and looting, aided by the open complicity of a captive Federal justice and regulatory system that prosecutes small fry and lets the big fish go on devouring the country.
The fight for Europe’s future is being waged in Athens and other Greek cities to resist financial demands that are the 21st century’s version of an outright military attack... The bankers are trying to get a windfall by using the debt hammer to achieve what warfare did in times past. They are demanding privatization of public assets (on credit, with tax deductibility for interest so as to leave more cash flow to pay the bankers). This transfer of land, public utilities and interest as financial booty and tribute to creditor economies is what makes financial austerity like war in its effect. - Michael Hudson "Whither Greece? Without a National Referendum Iceland-Style, EU Dictates Cannot be Binding"
In the U.S., the deliberate "cowardice" (read complicity) of the DLC/Third Way wing of the Democratic Party over the last twenty years has allowed the entrenchment of a pro-corporate, pro-theocrat Federal Judiciary. The pinnacle of this judiciary, the SCOTUS, has green-lighted corporate dictatorship with the Citizens United ruling. And they have let people know how that is going to play out with the dismissal of class action suits against Wal-Mart and AT&T. The U.S. is now playing by corporate rules under corporate judges , who run the gamut from anti-democratic (Scalia) to totally corrupt (Thomas). These rules are "monitored" by a corporate press which manufactures outrage and public opinion on corporate demand.
Meanwhile, Obama has done absolutely nothing about the crooked voting machines; and now his is doing nothing about the GOP voter disenfranchisement campaigns. Bully pulpit? He only uses it to repeat the fraudulent "our country is like one big household" lie of the intellectually bankrupt neoliberal economists, whose home is the same University of Chicago that staffed Obama's campaign.
With that level of Federal "get out of jail free"-ness, corporations and billionaires are free to loot the states one at a time, as if they were individual African tribes. The result has been the Koch Brothers/ALEC rape of Wisconsin, Michigan, NJ, Minnesota, Ohio, Maine, and Florida. (Florida seems to have deserved it, electing a convicted felon who robbed the government of billions of dollars.) These people do not care one whit about citizens or democracy or the law. They are here for the loot, the same as Cecil Rhodes. The failure of the national democrats has allowed individual states to sign the "blank treaty form" of GOP governorships with these looters; and the results have been as spectacularly bad for the natives as any Scramble-era treaty was for African natives.
And, yet, the Democratic leadership, and Obama in particular, goes on this laughable campaign of bipartisanship when 19 separate polls show that 75%+ majorities want taxes on the rich raised, want the Pentagon downsized and the wars wound down, want Wall St. to be prosecuted, and want Social Security and Medicare to be left alone.
Anyone who cannot see that US citizens, short of direct action, are now powerless in front of corporate ownership of all the money and both political parties is a blind fool. There have been demonstrations in Wisconsin for months, and Walker is still busy selling off the state and making more power grabs under the cover of rabid judge Prosser. The national Democrats have done squat. Obama reneged on his promise to stand with unions. Given this record, the leadership of the Democratic Party is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
The loan scam being played on the states and on Greece and Ireland is also of 19th century vintage:
The terms for building the Suez Canal...fell little short of exploitation...This money could only come from international loans, floated at ruinous rates of interest, and a ruinous sinking fund...This was not simply due to extravagance...(the) new public works...were often surprisingly well designed and operated...The economy...was perfectly sound...most of this reckless borrowing had simply been spent paying foreigners the exorbitant interest on earlier loans... In 1875, Ismael could only keep the wolf from the door by selling to the British government his last big asset, his four million pound holding in the Suez Canal shares. Next year the wolf was back at the door, and he was technically bankrupt. He defaulted on the interest on the foreign loans. - Thomas Packenham, "The Scramble for Africa"
The British used usorious loans to steal the Suez Canal right out from under the Egyptians. This is exactly what is going on in Greece and in the privatization bonanza on offer to corporations in Michigan and Wisconsin. Its all about money. Nobody asks how the money was obtained. We are governed by money. We are slaves to money. It is the stuff of science fiction:
The economy's out of control. Money just doesn't need human beings anymore. Most of us only get in the way...People lived before money was invented. Money's not a law of nature. Money's a medium. You can live without money, if you replace it with the right kind of computation. - Bruce Sterling, "Distraction"
Where is this all heading in an era where first world societies are totally dependent upon supplies of oil and credit? It is heading towards punishments that destroy entire segments of society (i.e., the former middle class), just like in Africa under the most violent of the colonizers:
When German brutality in South West Africa provoked a revolt by the Hereros, the German general, Lothar von Trotha, issued a Vernichtungsbefehl ('extermination order') against the whole tribe, women and children included. About 20,000 of them were driven away from the wells to die in the Omaheke desert....When the census was taken in 1911,...less than a quarter of the original number of Herero (15,000 out of 80,000) were found to have survived the war. - The Scramble for Africa
Today, we don't literally let people die of thirst. We simply create a jobs and credit desert (by corporations sitting on $2 TRILLION of cash and banks refusing to make small business loans). Then, like in the Irish Potato Famine, we blame the unemployed victims as lazy, or coddled, or unwilling to work for a sub-living wage. No doubt about it, the worst of colonialism is back in new garb, with new tools, but running the same old grab control, loot, and repress game they always did.
The Boers hated and feared the financiers more than the other foreigners. They somehow understood that the financier was a key figure in the combination of superfluous wealth and superfluous men, that it was his function to turn the essentially transitory gold hunt into a much broader and more permanent business....it was quite obvious that (the war with the British) had been prompted by foreign investors who demanded the government's protection of their tremendous profits in foreign countries as a matter of course - as though armies engaged in a war against foreign peoples were nothng but native police forces involved in a fight with native criminals. - OOT
As in the Colonial Era, the democratic institutions of government and the military/police complex have been co-opted by the rich to serve themselves. The rich are, more than ever, chasing after superfluous wealth. They already own the world. And, with the rise of mercenary armies, and the effective privatization of the US military as an arm of corporate (especially, oil company) dominance, the most desperate and/or the most sociopathic of "superfluous men" are coming to control the instruments of violence.
--------
So, is there a way out of this mess? Perhaps for a few, determined states who have not been totally overtaken by propaganda, theocracy, and bribery. The answer is right there in my first below-the-fold quote:
The African rulers best equipped to resist were understandably those who depended on violence themselves...Soon the Maxim gun...became the symbol of the age in Africa...Most of the battles were cruelly one-sided (but not for the British against the Boers, or for the Italians against the Abyssinians).
The tribes (including the Boers, who behaved in a tribal manner) who survived the colonial onslaught had modern guns. To survive 21st century colonialism, we need the modern equivalent: our own banks and our own media.
Our media is up and running, although heavily outgunned and under constant threat of censorship (by cable or internet operators), ruinous lawsuits (the infamous Righthaven), and propaganda assault (like Fox News vs Media Matters).
The banking angle is much more important and much more neglected. We need community banks who will lend to small businesses. We need operations like Credo Mobile that capture basic infrastructure fees that would otherwise feed corporate lobbying. We need operations like Credo's parent, Working Assets, the socially-conscious investment fund.
Finally, we need political actions that directly attack our financial overlords. We need organized campaigns to get people to disinvest in the most blatantly vile and corrupt banks - because the corrupt court system is NOT going to stop the continuing assault on middle class property.
In this era, dollars have become bullets and bombs. We are not going to win this fight unless we take it to the people who make nothing but money and trouble.
----
FOOTNOTE: This diary updates the increasingly dire situation that I described two years ago in America's 30-year journey into the Homeland of Darkness.
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Autoload path depth insanity
In the recent 2-3 years there have been a few major developments in the PHP community. I’d say the most notable ones were the creation of the PSR-0 autoloading standard and the dawn of the composer dependency manager.
The PSR proposals were originally based on the common ground between the projects pushing them. Today they dominate the way modern PHP libraries are written. I think it’s time to stop and think for a minute about how we really want our code and libraries to look like.
The situation has improved. We now have a PSR-4 specification and support for this new standard in composer.
Thanks to everyone who made this happen.
Autoloading
While I believe that the creation of PSR-0 was extremely important for PHP, I no longer care about autoloading. The reason is simple: Composer made it irrelevant.
With composer you get autoloading for free, but even better: you now have a standard tool that can generate a classmap instantly. Classmap is one of the most performant ways to lazy-load classes and it does not even care which files they are in.
src └── Symfony └── Component └── HttpKernel └── HttpKernelInterface.php library └── Zend └── Mvc └── Application.php
If you take a look at these two examples, they have something in common. Both of them contain a useless level of directory nesting. Both Symfony’s src and Zend Framework’s library directory contain only one single directory – as such it could be eliminated.
Of course PSR-0 would allow removing the src directory and having Symfony in the root directly (and some projects do that) but that’s not ideal, as you lose the ability of having a consistent directory for the source code.
Who will win the pointless nesting competition?
Here is an example from a library I wrote, called Ilias:
ilias ├── src │ └── Igorw │ └── Ilias │ └── Program.php └── tests └── Igorw └── Tests └── Ilias └── ProgramTest.php
Unlike the previously mentioned projects, this library is not part of a big organization. As you can see, there are not one, but two levels of unnecessary directory nesting. The name of my project is igorw/ilias , why would I care to repeat this information yet again in the directory structure?
And it gets even worse when look at the unit tests. The amount of nesting is reaching a level of ridiculousness that exceeds the amount of ignorance a human being can generate. I hate to say it, but this is annoying.
Side note: Fortunately PHPUnit does not care about autoloading, so I can shorten the test filename to tests/unit/ProgramTest.php , which also allows for a clean separation between unit, integration and functional tests. Thank you, Volker.
But instead of just complaining, I have a few suggestions that would greatly improve the way we deal with autoloading today, by introducing a sane amount of brevity.
It would allow the path to be shortened to src/Program.php .
Proposal
Based on PSR-0, these are the changes I would make:
An autoloader must take a class_prefix option which defaults to null .
If the class_prefix is not null and the FQCN begins with the class_prefix , the transformed class prefix must be stripped from the beginning filesystem path.
The transformed class prefix is calculated by applying the following transformations to it: If the last character is not a namespace separator, append one. Convert each namespace separator to a DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR .
Here are some examples:
class_prefix: Symfony class name: Symfony\Component\HttpKernel\HttpKernelInterface filename: Component/HttpKernel/HttpKernelInterface.php class_prefix: Zend class name: Zend\Mvc\Application filename: Mvc/Application.php class_prefix: Igorw\Ilias class name: Igorw\Ilias\Program filename: Program.php
The composer configuration could be something along these lines, the class prefix can be used both matching and for constructing the directory prefix:
{ "autoload" : { "psr-n" : { "Igorw\\Ilias" : "src" } } }
Based on the feedback I receive I may write up a more detailed spec and a proof-of-concept implementation for submission to the PHP FIG.
FAQ
Why not just use classmap? The main annoyance with classmap autoloading is that you must manually re- dump it every time a new class is added, which makes it unsuited for a development environment. Sure, you could hack together an autoloader that re-generates the class map if a class is not found, but I would strongly favour a clean solution over such hacks.
Doesn’t composer’s target-dir fix this? Unfortunately, no. The target-dir is prepended to the entire package name, which means you will need to put code in your top level directory. What I am asking for is src/{$prefix}/Name.php , which is not possible with target-dir .
But Symfony2 bundles do not have nesting and work fine. See the composer target-dir question above.
Just use an IDE, it will solve all your problems! An IDE cannot fix the filesystem structure of a software project.
What if the FIG does not like it? Depending on the feedback I receive, I may consider submitting a patch for composer anyway.
<insert random insult here> Thanks man, I appreciate it.
Obligatory XKCD | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Darlene Wink (right) talks with attorney Peter Wolff before she makes her initial appearance in court at the Safety Building on charges of two misdemeanor counts of using county resources for political purposes. Credit: Kristyna Wentz-Graff
By of the
Two staffers who worked directly for Gov. Scott Walker while he was county executive were charged Thursday with illegally doing extensive political work while being paid by taxpayers to do county jobs.
One of the two, Darlene Wink, cut a deal with prosecutors under which she agreed to provide information in a related investigation about the destruction of digital evidence and to aid in further prosecutions. This is the first indication that the multifaceted John Doe investigation may be pursuing charges of evidence tampering.
Milwaukee County prosecutors also made the surprising disclosure that top Walker aides set up a private Internet network to allow them to communicate with one another by email about campaign as well as county government work without the public or co-workers' knowledge.
The emails Walker officials traded via the shadow network could provide investigators with a trove of information as they pursue other angles in the case. Earlier this week, the Journal Sentinel reported that the probe was focusing on possible bid-rigging and other misconduct in the competition to house the county Department on Aging in private office space.
In a statement, Walker's campaign said he had a policy against county employees using government resources to do campaign work.
"Scott Walker expected everyone to follow the law and made that clear publicly and privately," the statement said.
Walker faces a potential recall election later this year.
On Thursday, prosecutors charged Kelly Rindfleisch, deputy chief of staff to Walker in 2010, with four felony counts of misconduct in office for working for then-Rep. Brett Davis' 2010 campaign for lieutenant governor while on the county clock. Davis, who lost in the Republican primary, is now Walker's state Medicaid director.
The complaint says that Rindfleisch told a friend in an Internet chat shortly after taking the job with Walker that "half of what I'm doing is policy for the campaign."
During work hours between February 2010 and early July 2010, it says, Rindfleisch sent more than 300 emails to Davis and 1,380 fundraising emails. The John Doe also turned up more than 1,000 emails between Rindfleisch and top staffers on Walker's 2010 campaign during work hours over the same period.
The complaint said Walker's chief of staff, Tom Nardelli, was unaware that Rindfleisch had been hired when she showed up on her first day of work.
Franklyn Gimbel, her attorney, said he will be raising a number of legal objections to the case against his client. He said those issues need to be resolved before he can discuss the merits of the case.
"There's no discussion of a plea," Gimbel said.
Each of the felony counts against Rindfleisch carries a maximum penalty of 3½ years behind bars and a $10,000 fine.
Davis did not respond to repeated requests for comment made to his cellphone and office phone.
Wink, Walker's onetime constituent services coordinator, has agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts for using county resources to raise money for Walker's 2010 gubernatorial bid. Prosecutors will ask that a judge not lock up Wink as part of the deal.
In a letter outlining the agreement, Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf said Wink's political activity was not as extensive as other county workers'. Plus, Landgraf wrote, she has "valuable information" that might be needed in future cases. She already has given investigators information on the destruction of some unspecified digital evidence.
"Her truthful testimony in this regard is a thing of value to the State of Wisconsin," Landgraf wrote.
According to complaint:
Wink worked on campaign fundraisers, phone banks, Reagan Day dinners and Milwaukee County Republican Party matters while working in Walker's office. In one 2009 chat with Timothy Russell, a longtime friend and fellow Walker aide, Wink asked how she could clear a document from her chat session. Russell told her it would disappear when she logged out.
"I just am afraid of going to jail - ha! ha!" Wink wrote in August 2009.
Russell replied, "You wouldn't, not for that."
Public workers are prohibited from doing campaign work at the courthouse.
Peter Wolff, Wink's attorney, said she never intended to do anything wrong and remains adamant that Walker knew nothing of her campaign activity.
"She's a genuine and good-hearted person," Wolff said.
Wink, a former vice chair of the county Republican Party, resigned from her county job in May 2010 after admitting to the Journal Sentinel that she was spending part of her work day doing campaign work.
According to the Rindfleisch complaint, Walker responded to the public controversy by sending an email to a top aide from a private email account.
"We cannot afford another story like this one," Walker wrote to Russell. "No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the work day, etc."
The maximum penalty for each of Wink's two misdemeanor counts is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.
Milwaukee County officials expressed shock at the criminal charges and said Walker or another high-level Walker staffer should have known about the alleged campaign activity and stopped it.
"Scott's no neophyte - he knows what the rules are," said Supervisor Mark Borkowski, who noted that he doesn't view Walker as someone who would condone something so blatantly illegal but was at a loss to explain it.
The charges are the latest in a 20-month John Doe investigation into the activities of Walker's former and current staffers. A John Doe is a secret probe in which prosecutors can compel testimony and subpoena documents while looking into possible criminal activity.
Already, District Attorney John Chisholm's office has charged Russell, former Walker deputy chief of staff, and former county veterans official Kevin Kavanaugh with stealing more than $60,000 in donations intended for Operation Freedom, an annual event honoring veterans at the county zoo. Both are facing multiple felonies.
Russell's domestic partner, Brian Pierick, was also charged with two felony child enticement counts.
Rindfleisch, 43, went to work for Walker in January 2010 as a policy adviser before replacing Russell as the county executive's deputy chief of staff at a salary of $59,560 a year. She left the county job on Nov. 12, 2010, less than two weeks after Walker defeated Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the governor's race.
Now listing herself as a consultant, she previously worked in government relations for the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans and as a legislative staffer, including time as an employee of the Assembly Republican Caucus and Senate Republican Caucus.
The partisan legislative caucuses were disbanded in 2001 after investigators concluded they were taxpayer-financed campaign machines for their respective political parties. That investigation led to criminal charges and fines against five lawmakers and four legislative aides.
Though he was serving in the Assembly when the caucus scandal broke, Walker was never mentioned in connection with it.
The criminal complaint says that as part of that caucus probe, Rindfleisch told investigators that she spent part of her time organizing and planning campaign fundraisers while working for the state. She spoke with agents after being given immunity.
Records show Rindfleisch is the registered agent for JVS Consulting, a company created a little more than a week after she joined Walker's staff.
During his campaign for lieutenant governor, Davis, a three-term Oregon Republican, paid a total of $5,000 to JVS for consulting and fundraising work between March 31 and July 1, 2010.
Walker did not officially endorse any of the four Republicans running for lieutenant governor in 2010.
The criminal complaint against Rindfleisch shows that Walker's campaign manager, Keith Gilkes, had spoken with one donor on behalf of Davis and told the donor that Davis was "the candidate" for lieutenant governor.
Despite this behind-the-scenes support, Davis was seen as too moderate by some Republicans and ultimately lost the primary to Rebecca Kleefisch, the state's current lieutenant governor and Walker's running mate. After Kleefisch won the primary, Walker said he had voted for her.
Gilkes did not respond to a request for comment.
Secret network
The complaint reveals a "secret email system" that was "routinely used by selected insiders within the Walker administration" for county business as well as unofficial purposes such as campaigning.
"It should be (illegal) because it defeats the public's right to know," said Bob Dreps, an attorney who handles open records cases for clients such as the Journal Sentinel. "If it's official business, it belongs in the official system."
The existence of the email system was a closely held secret, and it was not made known to the county employee responsible for gathering county emails in response to requests for information by the public, reporters and groups, the complaint said. The secret system used personal Internet email accounts.
"In the course of the investigation, it was learned that a private email network was established and operated out of the county executive's office and that the private network was used to communicate both political campaign and government-related information to select individuals," Chisholm said in a statement.
The complaint does not list all the officials who used the secret system, but it does say the unofficial networking system was set up in the county executive's office suite by Russell while he was Walker's deputy chief of staff.
Russell's county office was less than 25 feet from Walker's on the third floor of the courthouse, the complaint notes.
The complaint does not say whether Walker was aware of the secret email system.
Rindfleisch and Wink did campaign work on the unofficial network, the complaint says.
The secret email system also was used for county business "which could have and which did include communications" subject to the state's open records statute, the complaint says.
Laurie Panella, the acting director of the county's information management division, testified that the email system was never disclosed to her, "although it would have been important for her to know."
Because of her role on an open records committee set up to handle the public's requests for information, Panella testified that Russell knew of requests for his emails with Wink. But Russell never told Panella that he and Wink had used the secret email system during the course of the business day, Panella testified.
Rindfleisch, who was also on the committee, never disclosed that she used the system.
The complaint includes a lengthy log of some of the hundreds of campaign-related emails sent by Rindfleisch to Davis and his campaign.
Rindfleisch was in regular contact with Walker's campaign as well, the complaint says. She spent, it says, significant periods of county time on communications with the Friends of Scott Walker campaign committee.
The John Doe investigation "has identified in excess of 1,000 emails" between Rindfleisch and Gilkes, campaign manager Stephan Thompson or Walker campaign communications director Jill Bader.
State Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch said Thursday that to his knowledge there is no such alternate Internet and email system in state government being used by Walker appointees to avoid the open records law.
"Not that I'm aware of," Huebsch said.
Huebsch was named as one of the people that Rindfleisch worked with to set up fundraisers for Davis. The complaint said he didn't realize that Rindfleisch was a county employee.
Wink, 61, joined Walker's county office shortly after he took over as county executive in 2002 after years as a Republican activist in Milwaukee County's southern suburbs.
The criminal complaint showed Wink spending hours and hours during the work day trying desperately to organize a fundraiser in honor of Walker's November 2009 birthday. The event was derailed by news that former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin would be attending a West Allis event on the same day.
Wink then contacted Reince Priebus, now the national Republican National Committee chairman, to use his influence to get Palin to stop by the Walker event, the complaint says.
"We are already losing people to that event," she complained.
The fundraiser was eventually canceled, and Walker attended the Palin rally, receiving one the biggest ovations when he entered the hall. Wink immediately began spending much of her time at work putting together a replacement fundraiser for her boss, the complaint says.
She abruptly resigned her $41,269-per-year job in May 2010 after admitting doing political work on county time.
Using a pseudonym, Wink acknowledged posting scores of comments on Journal Sentinel blogs and stories - most of them praising her boss, touting his gubernatorial bid or ripping his two opponents. She also agreed that nearly all of her online comments could be described as political. Asked if that was a good idea, she said, "Probably not, no."
"I never gave it a thought that it was going to be an issue," Wink said.
Wink resigned two hours after the newspaper asked for her payroll records.
In the email from Walker to Russell that day, Walker wrote, "I talked to her at home last night. Feel bad. She feels worse."
Rindfleisch scaled back on her fundraising work on county time after Wink resigned, according to the criminal complaints.
"I took the wireless down," she wrote Russell in an email on the day Wink quit and the Journal Sentinel published its story about Wink's comments.
The complaint reported some testy exchanges between the Walker allies.
In one May 2010 electronic chat exchange between Rindfleisch and longtime Walker associate Jim Villa, Villa made it clear that he thought both Rindfleisch and Davis were obliged to him for his fundraising efforts on behalf of Davis.
"Brett AND YOU owe me," Villa wrote.
In an April 2010 exchange, Rindfleisch emailed Cullen Werwie, a Davis campaign aide who has gone on to become Walker's official spokesman. She attached documents related to Davis' campaign and asked Werwie to send them out to others on her behalf.
"I can't have my name on it, otherwise I'd send it," Rindfleisch said.
Werwie received immunity from prosecution to testify in the case. He declined to comment Thursday, referring questions to his attorney.
The complaint reveals that search warrants were executed on Walker's county office on Nov. 1, 2010, the day before the gubernatorial election. Previously, it was known search warrants were served on his campaign that day, but not his county office.
In addition, the Rindfleisch complaint indicates that many top Walker aides and associates have testified in the John Doe. Among them are Villa, Walker's former chief of staff; Huebsch, the secretary of the state Department of Administration; and Thompson, who was Walker's deputy campaign manager and is now executive director of the state Republican Party.
Huebsch and Thompson had previously declined to discuss their involvement in the criminal probe.
Also, the complaint against Wink shows that Joe Fadness, the operations manager for Walker's campaign, also testified before the Doe.
Patrick Marley and Jason Stein, reporting from Madison, and Bruce Vielmetti, Steve Schultze and Ben Poston, reporting from Milwaukee, contributed to this report.
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Your job can be here
Share it with 50.000+ JavaScript developers that are looking for remote jobs | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Equality Act 2010 has some wonderful provisions related to disability – largely taken from the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA). Not perfect, but its provisions should have taken us a huge way towards broadening accessibility and removing structural inequality. But most disabled people can tell you that the Equality Act, like the DDA before it, has done no such thing. This is largely because of one glaring flaw in the structure of the act.
That problem is enforcement.
This is going to get a bit technical, and just to avoid confusion, I am not a lawyer and not in any way legally qualified. I read a lot, though, including about what people have had to do in order to try to enforce their rights, as well as actual references about related law. For the most part, the DDA and the Equality Act create new categories of civil claim – that is, reasons you can sue people. The disabled person who has been discriminated against, failed to have reasonable adjustments made to allow their access, or been harassed or victimised, is able to make an application to a court for damages. In the case of employment, that application is instead to a tribunal, for a finding of, for example, unfair dismissal, or workplace discrimination related claims. In both cases, it is incumbent on the disabled person to bring this claim, with associated costs; costs in the small claims track of the county court start at £25, but if you are claiming damages enough to actually make a business take note, it rapidly gets higher – with a claim of £3000 requiring an up-front fee of £105.
You might think that you just need to make a claim for nominal damages, to make the point so the business owner, university or whomever. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know if that would have any impact on your chances of success, but I am a person with some experience of how organisations think, and I know people who've been through this particular mill, and given that often the result of a finding in your favour is only those damages, nominal damages do very little to influence the behaviour of an organisation.
Courts can also impose injunctions, ordering that the organisation cease their discriminatory behaviour, and in some cases they prefer this over damages. Indeed, this can be done without proving that anyone has suffered actual detriment, merely that they would do so if the discrimination continues. In a case where you have simply tried to access a shop and been unable to do so, this is not usual, in my experience (though I'd be happy to hear otherwise). A recent high-profile case, based on the Equality Act but not related to disability, concerned a buy-to-let landlord who instructed an agent not to let to “coloured people” because they left “curry smells” in properties. He was issued an injunction against having such policies. Should he be found to be violating this injunction later, he will be liable to criminal prosecution.
There is one organisation whose remit includes supporting or bringing cases related to discrimination, including disability discrimination. This is the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), who provide advice for the public and organisations in terms of rights and obligations under various laws, including the Equality Act. However, they do not have a sufficient mandate or, more critically, sufficient resources to act as a general enforcer of the Act. They take up cases of broad applicability, or where the situation is particularly critical and the person allegedly discriminated against doesn't have resources to pursue it, even with legal aid or a conditional fee arrangement (CFA), commonly referred to as “no win, no fee”. It may be cynical of me, but I also tend to think that a case being high-profile, as in the case of the landlord mentioned above, also tends to make it more likely that the EHRC will get involved.
But let's see you have the mental, emotional and financial resources to pursue a county court claim against the organisation that you feel has discriminated, in whatever way. You take them to the county court, the judge finds entirely in your favour, and awards damages; if they were particularly jerkish in their conduct of the case itself, you may even get awarded costs. A friend of mine has recently done just that, being awarded quite reasonable damages – seemingly an absolute success. However, the only thing that stops the owner from continuing to discriminate is the obvious risk of further such legal action. The decision doesn't create a binding precedent on any court, and decisions are not generally reported widely enough for it to even be any sort of persuasive element in future cases. They can be pointed out to other judges in arguments, and that other judge in another case may give them consideration – but of no substantial impact greater than the arguments given by the parties in the case, other than the respect they might give a fellow judge. Of course, I would not advise anyone faced with such legal action to ignore previous cases on the basis that the judge may make a different decision; judges are not known for being capricious.
Not only that, but simply winning in the county court doesn't force the offending party to actually pay you your damages (and costs if you manage to get them). No, you have to wait a while to give them a chance to pay voluntarily, and then go back to court to get the judgement enforced. Then the respondent has a bit of time to provide information to the court about their means, and you sometimes have to go to a bit of fuss to ensure that they have been informed of the need to provide this information. Only once you have ensured this and they haven't responded, or if they do actually respond, can the judge set out enforcement measures to force them to pay – often in instalments.
Then there are cases where organisations are “judgement proof”, referring to a situation where they have so arranged matters such that, even if they lose and are faced with damages, they can legally show themselves unable to pay. For example, if you are suing a limited company, they might have arranged their finances such that very little in the way of assets remain in the hands of the company; in the face of an adverse judgement, they can just have their company declared bankrupt, wind it up, and start up again with a “new” company. There are some handy features in the Equality Act, such as section 110, that allow for liability to be joint and several between a company and its employees, but you have to make sure you invoke these provisions, pay slightly more to make them a co-respondent in the case.
All this is window-dressing, though. We have a situation where the law of the land is such that it is unlawful to discriminate against certain classes of people, where there is a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people – and to make them on an anticipatory basis. But the vast majority of the time, this law can only be enforced by the people being discriminated against. Legal aid is not generally available, and conditional fee arrangements are difficult in the small claims track of the county court, as the losing side doesn't generally have to pay the winner's costs – and if the solicitors think the respondent may be judgement-proof, they will not enter into such a no win, no fee arrangement, because it's perfectly plausible that the applicant will get no money at all. When you consider that the groups likely to be making such claims under the equality act, including disabled people, are statistically likely to be economically disadvantaged as well, this is a situation where enforcement ends up being rare. This probably contributes to the strange feeling of victimisation businesses tend to exhibit when a disabled person does have the temerity to actually try to enforce the law.
There is a solution, and we can see the kernel of it already in effect. The EHRC can get involved in cases, even cases without a defined victim of discrimination. They can get courts to impose injunctions to stop discrimination, which is harder for a normal claimant in county court unless there is a reason they will have an ongoing relationship with the respondent. They have skills, and they have resources.
However, as mentioned earlier, they are limited by both their resources and their mandate. They are not a general civil enforcement agency. If we had such an agency, however, they could take complaints from members of the public who have suffered discrimination, investigate, and potentially – with appropriate changes in the law to support them – impose fixed penalties that businesses could pay in preference to going to court, and ending up paying more; a system could be in place to increase these penalties for repeat offences, leading to possibly much stronger penalties in court for the unrepentant. This would enable far more cases of discrimination to be acted upon, making it more normal to suffer such attentions, and creating a stronger incentive to bring behaviour in line with the law.
Such an agency would require resources, but the civil penalties themselves could help fund them. Then disabled people could not be accused of extortion, as they would not benefit directly from enforcement action – though victim payments might be appropriate in some cases, they would be being determined or advised upon by a specialised agency. It wouldn't simply be disabled people versus business – and universities, and hospitals, and government agencies. It would be a specialised, well-resourced agency acting, based on complaints from disabled people, but not being instructed by them.
Surely, if our society, if the UK as a country, is serious about disability discrimination – or indeed any form of discrimination – it shouldn't be up to those who are already disadvantaged to enforce the laws that protect us. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
add your own caption
Tired of upvoting immature high schoolers? why not zoidberg? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
So, some prices vary wildly from country to country, and some prices don't. What's the difference?
THE NANNY EFFECT
If the answer is obvious to you, then you just might be smarter than some of the 20th century's most brilliant economists, who spent decades building a framework for finding out why some prices between countries (and even between cities in the same country) differ so dramatically. The most elegant of these theories is known, less elegantly, as the Balassa-Samuelson Effect, after two economists Béla Balassa and Paul Samuelson. The Balassa-Samuelson Effect is a mouthful. Let's call it the "Nanny Effect."
In a nutshell, the Nanny Effect says that the price of some goods -- e.g.: Picasso paintings, barrels of oil, bricks of gold, and company stock -- shouldn't vary much by location, because it would create opportunities for arbitrage. If you bought a gold brick for $10 in Peru and sold it for $100 in the United States, Lima sellers would raise their price toward $100.
But most services aren't like gold bars. They're delivered locally and consumed locally. You're not hiring a Bangalore nanny to look after your kids, and you're not flying to Shenzhen for a haircut. From the dry-cleaner, to the restaurant, to the hairdresser, most of the jobs in a service economy have a local clientele. In cities where incomes are high, average price levels for these services are typically high. Where incomes are low, average price levels are low.
But how do incomes go from low to high? Balassa and Samuelson said it must come down to workers' productivity, especially in the sectors that can "trade" their goods and services abroad. If a country gets better at making cars it can sell to foreigners for money, it gets richer. As income and investment flows into a country, incomes rise and prices rise across the board -- even for the haircuts and the nannies.
WHY IS INDIA SO CHEAP? ... AND WHY IS ZURICH SO EXPENSIVE?
On Tuesday, and my roommate Shyam emailed from Mumbai to brag about the cheap food. Ordering "a full lunch of a rice, naan and three curries for, oh, about $1 is pretty great." It sure is, Shyam. But if he had visited ten years ago, it might have been closer to 50 cents. As India has become more productive over the last few decades, wages in the tradable sector (IT) rose, pulling up wages in the nontradable sector (waiters), and the currency has appreciated. There is a still a major price difference D.C. and Delhi. One dollar will pay for much less stuff in America than its equivalent in rupees will buy in India. But as Indian exports continue to grow, one should expect Shyam's lunch to get more and more expensive.
There is much more to price levels than the Nanny Effect. Much, much, much more. Restrictive urban policy raises the price of rent in similarly productive cities. Energy policies and levies raise or lower the price of gas. Tariffs raise the price of imports. On a nation-by-nation basis, taxes restrain demand and subsidies increase supply on an idiosyncratic basis.
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Stihl Ms 270 C Parts Diagram – here you are at our website. At this time we are delighted to declare we have discovered an incredibly interesting topic to be discussed, namely | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
NEW YORK — US President Donald Trump on Tuesday urged Middle Eastern nations to fully normalize diplomatic relations with Israel, while maintaining that crippling US sanctions imposed on Iran would continue until the Islamic Republic changed its behavior.
Speaking before the United Nations General Assembly, the US president accused Tehran of trafficking in “monstrous anti-Semitism” and engaging in a “fanatical quest” to obtain nuclear weapons. Trump said the rogue regime’s aggression had created newfound regional alliances to counter the Iranian threat.
“Thankfully, there is a growing recognition in the wider Middle East that the countries of the region share common interest in battling extremism and unleashing economic opportunity,” Trump said. “That is why it’s so important to have full normalized relations between Israel and its neighbors.”
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up
He continued, “Only a relationship built on common interest, mutual respect, and religious tolerance can forge a better future.”
In a highly anticipated address before the international community — as tensions with Iran intensified after it allegedly attacked two Saudi oil facilities — Trump insisted that he would maintain his “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran.
Iran, he said, was on a “fanatical quest for nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.” The world, Trump continued, “must never allow this to happen.”
After the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year and reimposed harsh sanctions on the Islamic Republic, Trump said, the regime has “escalated its violent and unprovoked aggression.”
“All nations have a duty to act,” Trump said. “No responsible government should subsidize Iran’s bloodlust. As long as Iran’s illicit behavior continues, sanctions will not be lifted. They will be tightened.”
Last week, the US sanctioned Iran’s central bank and two other major state financial institutions as punishment for its alleged attacks on crucial oil supplies in Saudi Arabia. It also said it would send military forces and hardware to Gulf allies and moved to sever some of Iran’s last ties to world markets.
Analysts have feared the moves could leave Trump with little else to sanction for, possibly paving the way for a military confrontation if they do not yield their intended results of altering Iranian behavior and bringing its leaders to the negotiating table to hammer out a revised nuclear accord.
After Trump withdrew the United States from the Obama-brokered Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, he stated his intention to forge another deal with stronger terms.
The US president said he wanted the pact to include a ban on ballistic missile testing, allow international inspectors access to Iran’s military sites and contain no sunset provisions that allow certain restrictions on its nuclear program to expire.
Trump also used the forum of world leaders to argue that Iran’s hatred of Israel was rooted in its leaders’ dysfunction.
“For 40 years, the world has listened to Iran’s rulers as they lash out on everyone else for the problems they alone have created,” he said. “Last year, the country’s supreme leader stated that Israel is ‘a malignant cancerous tumor that has to be removed and eradicated. It is possible, and it will happen.'”
After a pause for effect, Trump continued, “America will never tolerate such anti-Semitic hate. Fanatics have long used hatred of Israel to distract from their own failures.”
Trump did leave the door open to a very different potential relationship with Iran, however. “America is ready to embrace friendship with all who genuinely seek peace and respect,” he said. “Many of America’s closest friends today were once our greatest foes. The United States has never believed in permanent enemies. We want partners, not adversaries. America knows that while anyone can make war only the most courageous can choose peace.”
The US president did not mention Tuesday his administration’s efforts to clinch an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. The White House has said it would unveil its proposal after Israel’s September election, once a coalition is formed.
With Israel currently deadlocked after both Blue and White and Likud have failed to garner a bloc of more than 61 members, it’s possible the extended period of coalition negotiations will delay once again the release of the Trump peace plan. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Perez suggested Magnussen had not stuck to an unwritten rule between F1 drivers in second practice on Friday, after Magnussen tried to pass Perez exiting the final chicane before the double-left hander that ends the lap as both were completing outlaps.
Magnussen was squeezed into the wall and Perez was subsequently reprimanded as the stewards determined he had driven "unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers”.
“We spoke at the stewards,” said Magnussen. “We spoke a little bit afterwards because one thing is what he said at the stewards and one thing is what I think is the… truth.
“I don’t care. I don’t want to make a big fuss and I’m not going to appeal too much to the stewards for a penalty for something that happened in practice and had no real consequence."
Perez had been made aware he had Magnussen "directly behind" on his outlap but had slowed right down because the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas was going slowly ahead, which bottled Magnussen up.
Though Magnussen was told the "gap is fine behind" he remained very close to Perez through the chicane because he was wary of being caught by another car if he backed off significantly himself.
When they exited the corner and Perez moved off-line, Magnussen thought “he was pitting or letting me by or something”.
“I went on the power and when I was on the side of him he closed the door and I hit the wall,” said Magnussen.
“I don’t know what was his perspective, I don’t know if he went off line by accident because he was focusing on something else or whatever.
“But he did go off the line. I just stayed on the line and went on power to start the lap and got pushed into the wall.”
Regarding the gentleman’s agreement, Magnussen acknowledged it exists and said “you don’t attack the guy in front”.
He said he would not have tried to overtake Perez had he not gone off-line to pass him.
“But he moves off the line, and you go,” added Magnussen. “You’re not going to ask, ‘are you sure?’. You go.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Editor's note: We publish thousands of stories at GlobalPost every year. But some of these don't receive the reader attention they deserve. Our series "20 Must-Reads of 2013" fixes that problem. Here's a look — maybe a second one — at some of our best journalism of the year.
NAIROBI, Kenya — Soon after the end of the M23 rebellion that threw parts of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) into conflict for much of the last two years, a blog post titled "We Stopped M23" appeared on the website of a California-based nonprofit called Falling Whistles.
The slick homepage describes the organization as “a campaign for peace in Congo." It urges visitors to “be a whistleblower for peace” by purchasing stylish metal whistles, hung on a chain or black cord, from the organization's online store.
You've got options: A brushed copper whistle will set you back $58. The cheapest is $38, while the clearly popular "Gunmetal" whistle, currently out of stock, costs $48. Part of the profit from the whistle sales supports grassroots work in Congo.
The group's latest advocacy project is #StopM23, which has encouraged supporters to use Twitter and Facebook to demand that the United Nations and the White House end violence in the DRC.
Falling Whistles is a product of the online activism zeitgeist that has produced countless click-your-support petitions like — most famously — last year’s Kony 2012 campaign.
But does any of it actually work?
Ugandan Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), is still at large, still kidnapping children and still terrorizing villagers more than a year after Invisible Children’s #Kony2012 campaign and video became an internet phenomenon.
Last week the online activist group Avaaz ran a petition in Kenya under the banner #JusticeForLiz, seeking the arrest and prosecution of a gang of brutal rapists whose official punishment — they were made to spend a morning cutting grass — sparked widespread outrage.
Despite nearly 1.4 million petition signatures, however, Kenya's chief of police has dampened hopes of justice being done.
In the case of #StopM23, the question is not whether the rebellion has ended. It's whether Falling Whistles really played much of a part.
Most analysts agree that a series of UN reports detailing Rwanda’s connections with M23, combined with the humanitarian crisis triggered by the fighting and last November’s rebel takeover of the DRC city of Goma, are what drove the actions.
But Falling Whistles argued that “what was needed to tip the scales was a large public outcry.
“Less than a year since we joined together to #StopM23, the rebel group has been defeated,” the company said last weekend as rebels fled an unusually effective assault by the Congolese army backed by UN peacekeepers.
Falling Whistles claimed its campaign, which involved “bombarding the US ambassador to the UN with thousands of tweets,” had “worked” by pushing Washington to suspend some aid to Rwanda, the country widely accused of backing the M23 rebellion.
As evidence of the role they played, the organization noted that the hashtag #StopM23 “trended on Twitter in the United States over the course of 24 hours."
The reaction from many who know the region — and its conflicts — was as fast as it was scathing.
“The narcissism of this reaches a wholly new level, even for US clicktivism,” one long-standing Africa correspondent wrote on his Twitter feed.
Another correspondent, who lived in the capital Kinshasa until recently, tweeted a link to the blog post with the comment, “Errr, WT very F??”
The nonprofit appeared to claim credit for a string of developments that made the M23’s defeat possible: President Barack Obama’s decision to appoint a special envoy to the region, the UN Security Council’s decision to deploy a new, more aggressive UN brigade, and the implementation of much-needed reforms to Congo’s abysmal army.
Three days after posting the blog, Falling Whistles seemed to realize the hubristic tone of its celebratory post had not gone down well.
“Here’s what Falling Whistles meant when it said ‘We Stopped M23,'” advocacy director Monique Beadle began.
She went on to list a series of clarifications, particularly about who Falling Whistles understands “we” to be. Many actors — Congo’s army, UN peacekeepers, the US State Department, and refugees, journalists, donors — along with “Whistler Society leaders” and supporters in countries around the world "united to Stop M23," Beadle wrote.
In emailed responses to GlobalPost, Sean Carasso, the 31-year-old who founded Falling Whistles after traveling to the DRC in late 2007, stood by the claim that the campaign, as part of a coalition of advocacy organizations pressuring the US government to act, contributed to the end of the M23.
“The Envoy, the aid cuts, and the public pressure on Rwanda were all important aspects to the events of the last few weeks,” said Carasso, referring to M23’s rapid military losses. “Those were things we promoted in public and in private, and we’re relieved to see that they contributed to the downfall of M23.”
Carasso acknowledged the limitations of tweeting-for-change, but said he believes strongly in its power.
He pointed out that around 18 percent of the money raised from over 80,000 whistle sales has gone to local activists and organizations in eastern Congo.
“Look, I know as well as anyone else that 140 characters from a single person isn’t going to change anything immediately,” he said.
“But thousands (or millions) of people saying the same thing, in unison, in a single week? That’s powerful.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Adam Neumann, the founder of the co-working giant WeWork, helped work on White House adviser Jared Kushner’s Middle East peace plan, Vanity Fair’s Gabe Sherman reports.
Neumann, a college dropout who built WeWork into a company valued by investors at $47 billion ($10 billion more than the auto giant Ford), was ousted earlier this year with a $1.7 billion golden parachute after the company faced bankruptcy when its valuation plummeted by $40 billion. (Neumann reportedly cast the deciding vote against himself.) In a report titled “The Fall of WeWork,” Sherman detailed Neumann’s habit of declaring that he wanted to be “elected president of the world” and become humanity’s first trillionaire while spending millions of the company’s money on “vanity projects” like a wave-pool company. Sources told Sherman that Neumann’s “egomaniacal glamour and millennial mysticism” led Neumann to believe that he could solve “the world’s thorniest problems,” like Middle East peace.
Advertisement:
WeWork executives were “shocked” to learn that Neumann, who was born and raised on an Israeli settlement near the Gaza Strip, was working on Kushner’s Middle East peace plan last summer, two sources told Sherman. Neumann tasked Roni Bahar, WeWork’s director of development, with finding a company to produce a “slick video” for Kushner to show what the West Bank and Gaza would look like after the economic transformation that would purportedly be brought upon by the plan.
Kushner showed a version of the video during a speech at the White House’s peace conference in Bahrain last year.
Neumann bragged to associates that he, Kushner, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would “save the world,” sources told the outlet. After U.S. intelligence concluded that bin Salman likely ordered the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Neumann told former George W. Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley that “everything could be worked out if bin Salman had the right mentor,” Sherman reported.
Advertisement:
When a confused Hadley asked Neumann who he had in mind, Neumann replied, “Me.”
“When Adam got in front of world leaders, it was like he started thinking he was one,” a former WeWork executive told Sherman, which led to him “discussing the Syrian refugee crisis with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and urban planning with London Mayor Sadiq Khan.”
Since his time dabbling in foreign policy, Neumann has come under fire after WeWork announced that it would lay off 2,400 employees while allowing its founder, who brought the company to the brink of complete failure, walked away with nearly $2 billion. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., called Neumann’s golden parachute “another example of a rigged and corrupt system.”
Advertisement:
Business Insider previously reported that Neumann has long maintained a “close relationship” with Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. WeWork is a major tenant of Kushner’s real estate company and The New York Times reported that a negotiation over real estate between the two was once settled with a tequila-fueled arm wrestling match which Kushner lost.
Neumann praised Kushner as a mentor to Bloomberg Businessweek in 2016.
Advertisement:
“Many times when I’m with Jared, I take cues from his behavior just to learn how to act,” Neumann said at the time.
Kushner’s own career, like Neumann’s, has been marked with failure as much as success. At Kushner’s direction, his family’s company bought a building at 666 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan for a record $1.8 billion before getting a bailout from a Canadian firm on their $1.4 billion mortgage after losing millions and to court international investors in China and the Middle East, which came under scrutiny from former special counsel Robert Mueller. In 2015, the company bought part of a Times Square building for nearly $300 million, which Bloomberg News described four years later as a “toxic brew of debt, conflict, and vacancies” that has “put their investment in jeopardy.” Kushner’s company also currently faces legal action over thousands of alleged violations at its rat-infested Baltimore housing units where residents have complained of strong-arm collection tactics and unlivable conditions.
Despite a long string of business failures, Kushner was tasked by the president, who similarly left a trail of bankruptcies and defaults in his real estate career, to oversee everything from solving the opioid epidemic to diplomacy with China and Mexico to reforming the justice system, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the entire federal government, along with his mandate to deliver Middle East peace.
Advertisement:
Kushner rolled out the economic component of his plan in June, which would create a $50 billion fund to be invested by the Palestinian Authority, though it remains unclear where the money would come from. The plan was immediately rejected by Palestinian leaders and widely panned by U.S. foreign policy experts. Michael Koplow, the policy director of the Israel Policy Forum, described Kushner’s plan as a “Monty Python sketch of Israel-Palestinian peace initiatives.” Daniel Kurtzer, George W. Bush’s ambassador to Israel, said he would give “this so-called plan a C- from an undergraduate student.”
“The authors of the plan clearly understand nothing,” he said.
Kushner’s previous partner on the Middle East peace plan was Jason Greenblatt, whose experience is limited to two decades as a lawyer for the Trump Organization. Axios reported in September that Greenblatt’s responsibilities would be taken over by Avi Berkowitz, a 29-year-old recent Harvard graduate and a personal friend of Kushner’s who former White House official Hope Hicks said had been mostly responsible for “assisting Kushner with daily logistics like getting coffee or coordinating meetings.”
Advertisement:
Martin Indyk, the former special envoy for Middle East peace under President Barack Obama, recently mocked Kushner’s A-Team, which includes a former Trump attorney, his former coffee-fetcher, and, apparently, Neumann.
“If Avi Berkowitz is [Greenblatt’s] replacement it’s a considerable downgrade in the position. He’s Kushner’s 29-year-old assistant,” Indyk wrote. “Nice guy but does not have the weight or experience of Trump’s former real estate lawyer.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
In een kantoorpand van Kiwi Electronics in de Steenplaetsstraat in Rijswijk is dinsdagochtend een grote brand uitgebroken. Inmiddels is de brand onder controle. Vanwege de rook en hitte kon de brandweer het gebouw niet in. Daarom is de voorgevel uit het pand gehaald, zodat er vanaf buiten geblust kan worden. .
De brand ontstond rond 09.00 uur. Er kwam veel rook vrij en daarom adviseerde de brandweer deuren en ramen te sluiten. Inmiddels heeft de brandweer dat advies opgeheven: 'Als je geen last meer hebt van de rook- of brandlucht, kan je gewoon de ramen openzetten om even te luchten', aldus de woordvoerder.
Volgens de woordvoerder is de brand ontstaan in een printer. De aanwezigen in het pand zijn geëvacueerd en omliggende gebouwen zijn ontruimd. Een persoon is door de ambulance nagekeken vanwege rookinhalatie. De brandweer hield de omliggende panden nat om te voorkomen dat de brand oversloeg.
Eigenaar was aanwezig op het moment van de brand
Rogier Kerstens, directeur van Kiwi Electronics, was aan het werk toen de brand ontstond. Hij was alleen in het gebouw: 'Ik had de lasersnijder aangezet en toen sloegen de stoppen door', vertelt hij. 'Met die lasersnijder wordt onder meer hard plastic gesneden, zoals harde kunststof ramen. Daar zit een beveiligingsmechanisme op, maar die heeft toch vlam gevat. Ik snap wel dat de brandweer heeft geadviseerd om deuren en ramen te sluiten, want het is giftig spul en zeker als het brandt,' aldus Kertens. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia will resume land reclamation that will help prevent Jakarta from sinking below sea level, a cabinet minister said, five months after work was suspended due to regulatory and environmental concerns.
An aerial view of land reclamation in Jakarta Bay, Indonesia April 14, 2016 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Agus Suparto/ via REUTERS/File Photo
Greater Jakarta, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, sits on a swampy plain and is sinking at a faster rate than any other city in the world.
Jakarta has focused its attention on bolstering its defences with a 15-mile sea wall and refurbishing the crumbling flood canal system.
The government decided late on Tuesday to allow work to continue on a key phase of the “Giant Sea Wall”, which aims to shore up northern Jakarta while revamping the capital’s image into a Singapore-like waterfront city.
“If this Giant Sea Wall is not done, that will create a big impact on Jakarta with regards to salt water penetration,” Coordinating Maritime Minister Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters on Tuesday.
Included in the master plan is the building of 17 artificial islands off Jakarta’s northern coast, where property developers plan to build shopping malls and attractions similar to Singapore’s Sentosa Island.
But work on that project was suspended in April following disagreements between the government and the Jakarta governor over who had authority to issue permits. Some fishermen have also protested against reclamation, saying it would reduce their catch.
In response, the government plans to offer them fishing permits in waters near the Natuna Islands.
The suspension in April also threatened to delay Indonesian property developer PT Agung Podomoro Land’s multi-billion-dollar Pluit City, comprising apartments, offices and shopping malls on parts of artificial land it was constructing.
“We are still waiting for government direction,” said Justini Omas, the company’s corporate secretary. “Previously, we had planned that construction of the island would be done in 2018.”
Earlier this month, former Agung Podomoro executive Ariesman Widjaja was jailed for three years for bribing a member of the Jakarta provincial assembly to influence the regulation for the land reclamation, media said. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Competency hearing sought for boy charged in shooting
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify the potential sentence for the 11-year-old charged with manslaughter.
Detroit — Even in the most violent big city in the United States, law enforcement officials say it’s highly unusual for a pre-teen to be charged with manslaughter, as was the case Wednesday with an 11-year-old boy who allegedly killed a 3-year-old boy while playing with a gun in his father’s backyard.
“I cannot remember a time where we have charged someone so young with taking a life,” said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who’s worked in the prosecutor’s office for more than 30 years. “Very unfortunately and very tragically, the alleged facts in this case demanded it.”
The 11-year-old was visiting his father’s house in the 16000 block of Eastwood on the city’s east side Monday, playing with 3-year-old Elijah Walker in a car parked in the backyard, when the shooting occurred at about 1:40 p.m., according to prosecutors and a police report of the incident obtained by The News.
The alleged shooter, a seventh-grader at the Brewer Academy, initially was identified as Elijah’s brother, although police later said the two boys weren’t related.
The 11-year-old appeared at a pre-trial hearing Wednesday before Wayne County Juvenile Court Referee Anthony Crutchfield, who set a $5,000 or 10 percent bond after ruling the boy will stand trial on charges of manslaughter; death by weapon aimed with intent but without malice; and felony firearm. Because of his age, The News is not identifying the boy by name.
If he is convicted, he could be sentenced to a juvenile detention facility up to age 21.
Police are continuing to investigate the case to determine if they will also seek negligence charges against one of the boy’s parents, according to a source close to the investigation.
Police also are investigating reports that the 11-year-old pulled a gun on a neighbor during an argument last week, the source said. Meanwhile, federal authorities are trying to trace an AK-47 assault rifle taken from the shooting scene to determine if it was used in any other crimes, the source said.
It’s so rare to see 11-year-old manslaughter defendants, not a lot is known about them, Oakland University criminal justice professor Daniel Kennedy said.
“There’s just not a lot of data to study, because you don’t see it that often,” he said. “We don’t know as much about 11-year-olds as we do 15-year-olds. Maybe 10 percent of all homicides in this country are committed by people under the age of 18, and most of those cluster around 16 or 17. You don’t see a lot of 11-year-olds.”
Angie Wolf, director of justice strategies at the California-based National Council on Crime and Delinquency, said 11-year-olds don’t yet understand the consequences of their actions.
“An 11-year-old’s frontal cortex isn’t near developed yet,” she said. “That’s the part of the brain that focuses on judgment and how to solve problems and make decisions. This child has no idea what he’s done or the consequences of it.”
While charging a pre-teen with a violent crime is rare, it has happened before in Metro Detroit and elsewhere.
In a case that drew national attention, Nathaniel Abraham, an 11-year-old sixth-grader from Pontiac, was convicted of killing 21-year-old Ronnie Greene with a stolen .22-caliber rifle in 1997. An Oakland County judge sentenced Abraham as a juvenile, allowing him a second chance. When released in 2007, state programs paid for an apartment and tuition to attend a community college — yet a year later undercover cops caught Abraham doing a curbside drug deal in downtown Pontiac.
Sometimes, children even younger than 11 are charged with violent crimes. In Hastings, Nebraska, last year, a 9-year-old boy was charged with juvenile manslaughter after he shot his 4-year-old brother in the head with a .22 caliber rifle. A 10-year-old Maine girl in 2012 became the youngest person in 30 years to be charged in that state with a homicide, after killing a 3-month old baby. And in Ohio last year, a 10-year-old girl was also charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of a 3-month-old infant.
Probe continues
The Detroit defendant, a thin boy with close-cropped hair, wore an oversized black T-shirt and khaki pants when he walked into the small courtroom Wednesday, arms folded across his chest at the direction of the court officer. During the hearing, the boy sat with his hands folded on the table in front of him, fidgeting and alternating between glancing at the assembled media, the referee and his mother, who sat to his left.
The boy’s attorney, Beverly Anthony Walker, asked for a competency hearing.
“In interviewing him, some questions came up that caused me to question his competency to stand trial,” said Walker, who added that the boy “was not active in school or the community.”
When the court referee asked about bond, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Steven Robinson said that a week prior to the shooting, the 11-year-old was “confronted with a neighbor, supposedly with a gun.”
When asked after the hearing whether he meant the boy or the neighbor had the gun, Robinson repeatedly refused to clarify his statement. Crutchfield was then asked by reporters for a clarification, but he simply shrugged and said: “I don’t know ... people say a lot of things in here.”
However, a police source confirmed that neighbors told investigators that the boy pulled a gun on a neighbor during an argument. Police were interviewing neighbors Wednesday about the alleged incident, the source said.
The source also said an AK-47 assault rifle was taken from the father’s home. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are checking the gun to see if it was used in another crime, the police source said.
‘The gun went off’
When officers from the 9th Precinct responded to a 911 call at 1:40 p.m. Monday, Elijah’s mother told them her son had been shot in the face, and then “pointed to the house and stated he is in the house,” the police report said. “I went into the house using the side door on the east side of the house and (observed) the victim ... laying on his back in the middle of the kitchen floor. Victim was not moving and had a gunshot wound to his left side of his face next to his left eye. Victim had blood coming out of his ears and his shirt was full of blood.”
After the officer called for an ambulance, he asked the victim’s mother what had happened. “She stated that she was in the house when (the 11-year-old, who has a different mother), ran into the house and stated that Elijah was just shot,” the police report said.
The woman told police she ran outside, pulled her son from the 1991 tan Chevy, and carried him into the kitchen, the report said.
The officer then talked to the 11-year-old, who “stated that he was playing in the car in the backyard with Elijah when the gun went off and Elijah was shot in the face,” the report said.
Elijah was taken by ambulance to St. John Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Crutchfield ordered the boy to undergo counseling if it’s available.
The hearing was attended by the defendant’s father, Curry Bryson, and his mother, Kwanna Luchie.
In the courthouse hallway after the hearing, Bryson said the shooting “has been hard for me.” He added: “I have a camera system around my house and that’s what saved me.” He did not elaborate.
The boy’s mother declined to speak with the media.
Relatives are seeking donations to cover funeral costs for the child they described as a “sweet baby boy” on a GoFundMe page launched Monday, which has raised more than $1,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
[email protected]
(313) 222-2134 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Tydligen är kampen om rasism något som nu upptar fler och fler ledande företrädares sinnen. Det finns skäl att kritisera de flestas, i synnerhet Fredrik Reinfeldt, för deras minst sagt torftiga och världsfrånvända anslag. Invandring, migration och rasism är dessvärre kommunicerande kärl och när som enda socialdemokratiskt förslag för att mota den spirande främlingsfientligheten är folkbildning så börjar jag bli orolig över den politiska analysförmågan. En analysförmåga måste vara tillräcklig för att nå regeringsmakten men där vi inte är. För om folkbildning är det entydiga svaret som kan avges idag så kanske vi även börja fundera på orsak- och verkan samt var frontlinjen går.
Går gränsen till rasism i Ställdalen? En ort med 500 mantalsskrivna som 2012 tog emot 230 nyanlända i anläggningsboenden. En ort där Sverigedemokraterna har mer än 35 procent av rösterna, utan egen läkarmottagning, och som dessutom är rekryteringsbas för Sveriges mest kända medborgargarde? Eller går gränsen för rasism i Stockholms stad, som samma år, med miljonen invånare tog emot 93 nyanlända flyktingar i anläggningsboenden och som i år klagar över den belastning som drygt 20 nyanlända flyktingbarn kommer utgöra på vård och skolsystemet? Stockholms stad där endast 2,3 procent sympatiserar med Sverigedemokraterna enligt senaste opinionsunderökningen men samtidigt där medborgargarden börjat organiseras på Kungsholmen som en reaktion till de kanske 300 tiggarna i Stockholms stad. Eller går gränsen till rasism i Blinkarp, Röstånga i Svalövs kommun? En ort med 880 invånare som i dagsläget härbärgerar 250 nyanlända i två boenden varav det ena skall ”förtätas” ytterligare. En ort där propaganda från Svenskarnas Parti får sitta kvar. Eller går gränsen till rasism i socialdemokratiska Surahammar som nu sagt upp avtalet med Migrationsverket att ta emot 40 nyanlända per år på grund av resursbrist eftersom Migrationsverket skickat det dubbla tidigare. Eller kanske gränsen går i Täby, där Fredrik Reinfeldt är kanske den mest välrenommerade medborgaren. Täby har tagit emot 3 flyktingar per 1000 invånare samtidigt som Borlänges siffra är 51. I Täby hade Sverigedemokraterna stöd från 5,8 procent av väljarna i valet till EUP, i Borlänge 12,9 procent.
Mot dessa siffror så hjälper ingen folkbildning eller att släppa ut håret mot rasism. Inte heller hjälper något nyckelskrammel eller ens tårtningar av Jimmie Åkesson de 11 000 med permanenta uppehållstillstånd som väntar på kommunplacering men som fastnat i välfärdspiraternas anläggningsboenden. Detta är hårda siffror och om inte Löfven eller Reinfeldt kan begripa att det finns ett sammanhang mellan oron, och det faktiska utfallet, för att välfärdens resurser tryter för att kunna omfatta alla, och rasismens grogrund och gränser. För vem är mest rasist? Väljaren i Borlänge och Ställdalen som per capita öppnar sina samhällen mer än genomsnittssvensken men samtidigt mer och mer glider över i Sverigedemokraternas hägn eller Stockholmaren och Täbybon som stängt sin solidaritet mest av alla men samtidigt visar upp lägst ”smittograd” av Sverigedemokrati? Vem är mest rasist? Var går frontlinjen och hjälper socialdemokraternas universalrecept ”folkbildning” till?
Frågor som jag anser att såväl Stefan Löfven som Fredrik Reinfeldt bör besvara för anständighetens skull. Innan valdagen. Utan dagens intetsägande floskler. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Rams will be a much-improved team this season, but you wouldn't know it based on attendance at the their home games in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Last week, the stadium was half-empty for the opener, a decisive win over the Colts that apparently did nothing to convince folks to show up on Sunday.
For some perspective, the 92,000-seat Coliseum sold out five days before Saturday's University of Texas-USC game -- it was the first USC sell out in four years.
In case you're wondering, the Trojans held on to win, 27-24.
And things were somehow worse for Los Angeles' other professional football team. In case you forgot, the Chargers relocated up the coast this offseason and are playing their home games this season in a 30,000-seat soccer stadium. Turns out, they couldn't even fill that up by kickoff:
Upside: Can't beat the view.
On Saturday, Major League Soccer's L.A. Galaxy hosted Toronto FC. And even though the Galaxy were blown out, 4-0, they drew 19,560 fans.
But who knows, maybe L.A.-area NFL fans are chronically late and both venues will packed by halftime. More likely, however, is this tweet from Rotoworld's Patrick Daugherty is about as on-point as it gets:
If you're not planning to attend these game in person (or even if you are), you can follow all the action with CBSSports.com's GameTracker -- Redskins-Rams right here, and Dolphins-Chargers right here. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Transcript
Speaker 1: Oh, wait, you're listening ...
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: You're listening to RadioLab. RadioLab, from WNYC.
Yascha Monk: And not to this part, but into that yeah.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Robert Krulwich: I'm Robert Krulwich.
Latif Nassar: And I'm Latif Nassar. And today on RadioLab, Robert I am going to make you wrestle with your most cherished ideal, American Democracy.
Yascha Monk: Oh, I see. Okay, great. Hang on a second I'm just struggling with the earphones. Now I have them on.
Robert Krulwich: Okay.
Latif Nassar: Okay great, and I'm going to start things off by introducing you to Yascha.
Yascha Monk: Yascha Monk, I'm a lecturer on government at Harvard.
Latif Nassar: He studies politics.
Yascha Monk: What else was I going to say?
Latif Nassar: Maybe we could just start with where you grew up.
Yascha Monk: Yeah, so I was born in 1982. I grew up in Germany, moved around a bunch of different places within Germany as a kid, and then went to college in England.
Latif Nassar: Cambridge.
Yascha Monk: In 2000. I was kind of studying politics, I was a history major.
Latif Nassar: So, Yascha was studying politics but he was studying it in the past. So he was looking at going all the way back to the cradle of democracy in ancient Greece and then how democracy came to thrive around the world. But as he was studying that he was noticing in the news he would see, in certain countries like France or Austria, there would be these parties, these far right ultra-nationalist, anti-immigrant parties that were starting to gain some traction. And for Yascha ...
Yascha Monk: I saw some of this ...
Latif Nassar: This was a little bit scary.
Yascha Monk: Because my families been in the wrong place at the wrong time for about four generations.
Latif Nassar: His great grandparents perished during the Holocaust.
Yascha Monk: My grandparents barely survived the Soviet Union. My parents grew up in Poland, and were thrown out of a country in a huge anti-sematic way for 1968. So, the idea that throughout the system that seems relatively stable, seems relatively peaceful, might suddenly turn fracterous and even violent was something that I suppose I always sort of had a dim awareness of, even as a kid.
Yascha Monk: So I remember being quite worried by this, and having friends who were quite worried about it. But we were worried about it as sort of this weird, bad thing that's going on. But I don't think we actually thought that these people might win.
Latif Nassar: Jump to-
Yascha Monk: The early 2010s.
Latif Nassar: They start winning.
Speaker 7: For the first time Marine Le Pen will have a seat in Parliament, along with seven others from her far right party.
Latif Nassar: These far right parties in Austrian France, they start to gain power, and it's not just there.
Yascha Monk: They're huge swaths of Europe.
Speaker 8: What's happening in Italy is also happening elsewhere in Europe.
Latif Nassar: Similar right wing parties start rising up in Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary ...
Speaker 9: An identity crisis for the entire European continent.
Latif Nassar: And it's not just Europe. You have India, Turkey and ...
Speaker 10: What started off as ...
Yascha Monk: Of course the United States.
Speaker 10: Unlikely, impossible, is now reality.
Latif Nassar: Basically there's this wave of politicians whose message was ...
Yascha Monk: People aren't really listening to you.
Latif Nassar: Your government has failed you.
Yascha Monk: Trust me, I really speak for the people. I'm going to fix everything.
Latif Nassar: And, to Yascha, this was like a wake up call. Not just because of immigration policy, or right and left leanings of certain politicians, but even more deeply than that.
Yascha Monk: I was quite worried about the way in which these political movements perhaps pretended to have some allegiance to democratic mechanisms but actually were enemies of it.
Latif Nassar: Like there was this one guy, the leader of the Austrian Freedom Party.
Yascha Monk: Who glorified the Third Reich in various ways, and really hearkened back to the country's fascist past in a positive way. That wasn't a far fetched fear, I don't think. I mean a huge number of the world's dictators have been elected democratically at some point, and then they move against democratic institutions in such a way that you can't displace them democratically anymore.
Latif Nassar: So for Yascha, who by this point was a lecturer at Harvard, he kept seeing this in country after country, after country. He saw these citizens willingly elect these want to be dictators into power. So he started wondering what is making these citizens do this? Do they feel like their current leaders don't get them? Are they riled up about some issue of the day like refugees or income inequality? Or is this a sign that they're upset about something even more foundational.
Yascha Monk: The political system itself.
Latif Nassar: Are they actually angry with democracy itself.
Yascha Monk: So I sat down with a friend and colleague to figure it out.
Latif Nassar: And his friend, it turns out, worked on something called the World Values Survey.
Yascha Monk: Which is a really ambitious attempt to try and get a public opinion around the world.
Latif Nassar: It's basically just a bunch of social scientists who ask a whole bunch of very standard questions to a whole bunch of people all over the world. And they're like, okay, let's actually scrutinize what's being said in here about democracy.
Yascha Monk: And when we actually looked at the numbers, we were honestly flabbergasted by what we saw.
Latif Nassar: Okay, so there's actually three questions in particular that he got interested in.
Robert Krulwich: Okay.
Latif Nassar: Here, so let's start with this one.
Yascha Monk: How do you feel about a strong ruler who doesn't have to bother with Parliament or elections?
Robert Krulwich: Who doesn't have to bother with Parliament or elections.
Yascha Monk: Correct.
Latif Nassar: Yeah.
Robert Krulwich: Okay.
Latif Nassar: They also asked this of Americans just instead of doesn't have to bother with Parliament it was doesn't have to bother with Congress. Anyway, so in 1995 24% of all Americans endorsed that kind of strong man leader.
Robert Krulwich: 24%, so one out of every four?
Latif Nassar: Yeah, but in the last several years that number has jumped from 24% to 32%.
Robert Krulwich: So now it's a third almost. That's, yeah.
Latif Nassar: Yeah. Say a strong leader who doesn't have to deal with Congress or elections is either a very good, or fairly good, thing.
Robert Krulwich: Whoa, well that surprises me.
Latif Nassar: It's kind of even more striking in Europe. So ...
Yascha Monk: In Germany, one in six people used to like that idea.
Latif Nassar: But now ...
Yascha Monk: It's one in three.
Robert Krulwich: Oh, in Germany. Where they should know better.
Latif Nassar: Yeah.
Yascha Monk: In France and the United Kingdom it was one in four 20 years ago, and now it's one in two.
Robert Krulwich: Half.
Latif Nassar: Half, yeah.
Yascha Monk: So every second Brit and Frenchman says, "Yeah, the idea of a strong ruler who doesn't have to bother with Parliament and elections, that's pretty appealing to me."
Robert Krulwich: It's not appealing to me. That is not appealing to me.
Latif Nassar: Yeah.
Robert Krulwich: Who would say that they like to not be involved in a democracy, which is about being involved.
Latif Nassar: Okay, well if you think that's crazy here comes question number two. Flat out, simple, straight forward ...
Yascha Monk: How important is it to you to live in a democracy on a scale of one to 10?
Latif Nassar: And ...
Yascha Monk: When you look at Americans born in the 1930s, 1940s, 2/3 of them give the highest importance to living in a democracy. They say that's really essential.
Robert Krulwich: It might be ... Well, 2/3 seems a little soft to me.
Latif Nassar: Sure.
Yascha Monk: But among Americans born since 1980 it's less than 1/3.
Latif Nassar: Less than 1/3 consider it essential to live in a democracy.
Robert Krulwich: What? Less than a third?
Latif Nassar: Yeah.
Robert Krulwich: So of 100 people, 100 young people, 32, 30, 25 would say, "I love democracy. That's very important." And the rest ... What would the rest say?
Latif Nassar: It's not the most important thing for them deciding where to live.
Robert Krulwich: Okay, well then if this is good where would you like to ... What would you prefer? Would you like to be living-
Latif Nassar: Okay, well that's a good Segway to the next question.
Robert Krulwich: All right.
Latif Nassar: Final question.
Yascha Monk: Which was about Army rule. So do you think that Army rule is a good system of government?
Robert Krulwich: Army rule, so we're not ... This is no civilians anymore. Soldiers running the government, soldiers following orders, soldiers giving orders?
Latif Nassar: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Yascha Monk: So, 20 years ago about one in 16 Americans thought that was a good system of government, and the most recent poll a couple of years ago it was one in six.
Robert Krulwich: Uh-oh.
Yascha Monk: And among young and affluent Americans it's actually gone up from 6% to 35%.
Latif Nassar: Whoa.
Yascha Monk: So it's a nearly sixfold increase.
Robert Krulwich: In America? You got one in three young, affluent Americans, "Military rule is a wonderful thing." That's what you're saying?
Latif Nassar: Yeah.
Yascha Monk: Exactly.
Latif Nassar: Yeah.
Robert Krulwich: That's misguided, or tragic. I don't know which.
Latif Nassar: So Yascha said something, he was like, "look, like-
Yascha Monk: I don't think if a Colonel took over tomorrow 1/3 of Americans would say, "This is wonderful." I don't think it was actually true, but it does show a deep lack of attachment to the current local system, and the sort of sense of you know what, I mean, let's try something new. How bad could things get? I don't think it could be much worse than what we have today.
Robert Krulwich: Here's the thing that gets to me, let's imagine a well intentioned but totally authoritarian dictator who takes over, gets used to power and then, as dictators do, chooses to remain in place forever. The adventure of democracy is that it admits that nothing is ever right, we always have to fix it, and the system has built in it impermanence. Every six years you elect a senator over again. Every two years you elect the congressman over again. Every four years you can have the option to switch presidents. Presidents can't serve beyond a particular point, there will be checks, there will be balances. There will be protection, but the whole thing admits that there's always change, and always the ability to change. And this survey you just read me says, "Nah, we don't believe in it anymore."
Robert Krulwich: Well that's dangerous to me, scary to me. I think my response is if that's the case, and I don't argue that people have these opinions, if that's the case then let's fix it. Let's not throw it out, let's repair it in some way. But that's when it seems like a moment like this calls for. That's the speech.
Latif Nassar: Basically you're saying, let's fix it.
Robert Krulwich: Yeah.
Latif Nassar: Yeah, well there's a lot to fix, right?
Robert Krulwich: Obviously.
Latif Nassar: There's corporate money, and special interest lobbyists, and Gerrymandering and minority groups who don't get a voice, and active voter suppression in a lot of places. The weirdness of the electoral college, the two party system in general where it seems like they have nothing to do except for hate on each other. But the thing is just focusing ... Take this very specific week, this week that we are talking about this. There is a midterm election coming up, and so I figured let's just focus on one thing, voting. Is there a way to just tweak this fundamental part of democracy. Can we change the way we vote so that people don't feel, as many people now do, that they're throwing their vote away, that their vote doesn't count, that their vote is wasted?
Robert Krulwich: Okay, so what would you suggest?
Latif Nassar: So what I got is a ... It's kind of an alternate universe. It's a different way of doing elections that could have a profound effect on the way our democracy works.
Simon Adler: AB can you hear me?
AB Filbenbowmen: Yes.
Simon Adler: There we are.
AB Filbenbowmen: Oh, good. Okay, cool.
Latif Nassar: And we're going to start off with producer Simon Adler
Simon Adler: Yeah, so in search of democratic inspiration, I called across the ocean to the Emerald Isle to talk to this guy.
AB Filbenbowmen: So my name is AB Filbenbowmen. I currently work for ERT Radio1 on the Drive Time program.
Simon Adler: AB is a radio producer reporter for Ireland's equivalent to the BBC, known as RTE. And he's a self described election nerd.
AB Filbenbowmen: Okay, so to sort of start from the start.
Simon Adler: Please.
AB Filbenbowmen: The way I would look at this is American democracy is one of the oldest democracies in the world, it's kind of like a laptop from 1985 and at the time everybody was like, "Oh my God, this is incredible. It's so fast. It's so responsive. You're going to get so much stuff done with this." And to be fair you did. But you've got to keep updating your operating system otherwise pretty soon your democracy is struggling to deal with things like Facebook news feeds and Twitter and leave itself open to being hacked by Russia.
AB Filbenbowmen: Now, in Ireland we got our democracy a little bit later the 1920s.
Simon Adler: Okay.
AB Filbenbowmen: At that point democracy had moved on from the 1770s, 1780s, when you guys sort of brought in your democracy. And we adopted what was then quite modern voting system called PRSTV.
Simon Adler: PRSTV.
AB Filbenbowmen: Exactly.
Simon Adler: It sounds a bit like an STD.
AB Filbenbowmen: It does sound quite like a sexually transmitted infection, it does yes.
Robert Krulwich: Oh this seems like dead in the water from hello.
AB Filbenbowmen: The extended version is Multi seat PRSTV, that really sounds like an STI. It's not.
Robert Krulwich: One more time.
Simon Adler: Multi seat PRSTV.
AB Filbenbowmen: Which stands for multi seats proportional representation by single transferable vote.
Latif Nassar: I have no idea what that means.
Simon Adler: Well, weird as it might sound this is a system of voting that, unlike ours, can make every voter feel heard. Gets you candidates who best reflect the collective interest of the people, and makes sure no one ever feels like they're throwing their vote away.
Robert Krulwich: I don't believe you.
Simon Adler: You don't have to believe me.
Latif Nassar: No okay, I'm following. Tell us, tell us how this impossible feat, how does this even work?
Simon Adler: I'm walking through the lower part of Dublin Central.
Simon Adler: Well, let's just put this in concrete terms.
Latif Nassar: great.
Simon Adler: So 2016 there's an election for the National Parliament in the Dublin Central District.
Simon Adler: It's blocks of brick row houses punctuated by these brightly colored pink or purple, or yellow, doors.
Simon Adler: You can think of it like an election district. In Ireland, it's what's known as a constituency.
Simon Adler: Couple of adult stores, low rise white public housing units.
Maureen O.: It's a predominantly working class constituency with a lot of difficulties.
Simon Adler: This is Maureen O'Sullivan, a long time resident of the constituency with a shock of white hair.
Maureen O.: And I've always been involved with youth clubs, et cetera, doing volunteer work and then teaching in communities in the area.
Simon Adler: And so back in February of 2016 this area of Dublin, along with the rest of the country, was holding their Parliamentary elections. Elections for what they call TD's.
Latif Nassar: Wait, what are TD's?
Maureen O.: Right, okay, well TD is the Irish, the Gaelic, for [foreign language 00:15:06]. Which translates into member of Parliament.
Simon Adler: At that time Dublin Central had three of these TD seats, three people representing them in Parliament. One of whom ...
Maureen O.: I was elected in 2009.
Simon Adler: ... was Maureen.
Maureen O.: I am independent, not allied with any party.
Simon Adler: And going into that 2016 election, things were looking pretty uncertain for Maureen. First of all, there was a field of 15 candidates running for those three seats. And worse, seats one and two were expected to be snagged quite easily by these two high profile, major party candidates.
AB Filbenbowmen: yeah.
Simon Adler: This again is AB Bowmen who actually covered this 2016 election.
AB Filbenbowmen: They're not locked down but these are people who look like they are going to get elected.
Simon Adler: And what that means is you've got this wide open field of folks all fighting against Maureen for that third and final seat.
Robert Krulwich: Who's our contenders?
Simon Adler: Well, right. So we're going to focus in on two of them.
Simon Adler: Can I just get you to introduce yourself and-
Mary F.: Of course.
Simon Adler: ... then we'll start.
Mary F.: Yeah. So I'm Mary Fitzpatrick.
Simon Adler: So first we've got Mary Fitzpatrick.
Mary F.: Mm-hmm (affirmative) yeah, yeah.
Simon Adler: On the spectrum of American politics, do you know where you fall?
Mary F.: You just have two parties.
Simon Adler: She's pretty liberal, been around Irish politics for a while.
Gary Gannon: Are you interviewing me already? Okay.
Simon Adler: And second.
AB Filbenbowmen: Gary Gannon who's a young community worker.
Simon Adler: This brash guy with red stubble on his face.
AB Filbenbowmen: Quite interesting, quite authentic. And he's sort of an interesting one to watch.
Simon Adler: Because he's representing this brand new political party.
Gary Gannon: A plucky upstart, I think that's what you call it in the west, I think. Yeah.
Simon Adler: Did you have a slogan or anything? Like ...
Gary Gannon: Oh, yes. No, we had an amazing slogan. It was very simple. And it was just the one word, if. I stole it completely from an old fable about when the Macedonian Army was marching on Sparta, and they sent Sparta a message saying that if we win we will burn Sparta to the ground. We will enslave your women and kill your children. And Sparta sent back a one word message just saying ...
Speaker 16: If.
Gary Gannon: If.
Simon Adler: Like I said, brash.
AB Filbenbowmen: And then you've got other voices who are left wing, or environmentalist, or others.
Simon Adler: So that's our field.
Latif Nassar: All right.
Simon Adler: And now here's how things actually work over in Ireland.
Speaker 16: Voting is underway in the Republic of Ireland as the country elects 157 new members of it's Parliament.
Simon Adler: So, day of the election comes. As an Irish citizen, you walk into the voting booth and it's a very, very long ballot because it has all of the candidates, all 15 of them, their photo, their name, and then a line next to them.
Latif Nassar: Okay.
Simon Adler: And this ballot is a key component of that updated Irish laptop of democracy. Because instead of just filling in the circle next to one of those 15 you say ...
AB Filbenbowmen: My number one choice is this guy, my number two choice is this lady, my number three choice is this person, and you can go all the way down the ballot giving preferences to as many different people as you like.
Simon Adler: You write in a number next to each candidate.
Robert Krulwich: How about one man, one vote. Got it.
Simon Adler: Well, it's still one man, one vote.
Robert Krulwich: No it can't be.
Simon Adler: No it is. It is. It is. It is. At the end of the day your vote will only have counted for one person. However, in the voting process ...
AB Filbenbowmen: You're not just measuring what everyone's first choice is. You might have a favorite choice, but you're not totally equal about the other three choices. And what this system allows us to do is to reflect that.
Simon Adler: It allows you to say how you feel about the rest of the candidates, and if your first choice doesn't make it, if he or she is way down the list and out of the running then your vote lives on in the form of your second choice.
AB Filbenbowmen: So for as long as there's a viable candidate with your number on it, your vote will stay alive in the system.
Robert Krulwich: Is this too early for me to raise a warning flag? Or should I wait for it?
Simon Adler: You can wave. I may ignore it, but let's see it or hear it.
Robert Krulwich: The commitment that people make to voting is slight, most of us are into lunch, sports, work, and then maybe on the day of a vote they have their best friend say, "You've got to vote for Sally."
Latif Nassar: Like they know one, they're not even going to know seven.
Robert Krulwich: Yeah. So the first smell of this is it would take us more time than we want, and we might walk away from this exercise because we don't feel prepared.
Simon Adler: You can engage with this on whatever level you'd like Robert. If you only know one candidates name, you can just put your one next to that person and hand in your ballot and you're done.
Robert Krulwich: Hmm.
Simon Adler: Or, let's say there's a candidate on there you really, really don't like ...
AB Filbenbowmen: You can leave them off the ballot entirely.
Simon Adler: You're ranking your preferences. It's very simple.
Robert Krulwich: Fairly good answer.
Simon Adler: Okay, so let me walk you through how this plays out.
Robert Krulwich: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Simon Adler: So, polls close at 10PM on Friday February 26th, and then ...
Latif Nassar: Then all hell broke loose.
Speaker 17: General election 2016 on RTE radio1 with Rachel English and Shawn O'Reily.
Simon Adler: The real action begins.
Speaker 17: It's going to be a day of drama, shocks, and surprises.
AB Filbenbowmen: So what happens is we vote on the Friday, and on Saturday morning ...
Simon Adler: The votes actually get counted. So for Dublin Central ...
AB Filbenbowmen: Dublin Central gets counted in one central location which is the RDS.
Speaker 17: Let's go first to Ireland's largest count center the RDS.
AB Filbenbowmen: The Royal Dublin Society.
Speaker 18: Shawn, thank you very much and welcome indeed to the RDS where we're counting-
Simon Adler: It's this barn like building with big vaulted ceilings.
AB Filbenbowmen: Big, big hall, huge amount of noise.
Gary Gannon: okay well I didn't realize we were going to go through the whole post traumatic trauma of the whole thing. I've kind of blacked it out. No, I'm joking. Actually it was lovely.
Mel Macheavel: The doors open at 9:00 and I arrived, and Desba Throng arriving.
AB Filbenbowmen: This is Mel.
Mel Macheavel: Mel Macheavel.
Simon Adler: He's a campaign worker for our endangered incumbent Maureen.
Mel Macheavel: Maureen O'Sullivan.
Simon Adler: And on the morning of the count, as he pushed his way through these heavy wooden doors what he would have seen was this cavernous hall filled with people milling about.
Gary Gannon: Everybody's got clipboards ...
Mel Macheavel: There's people with tons of sandwiches made and ...
Gary Gannon: Tea and coffee in abundance and everybody is really excited.
Simon Adler: So, shortly after 9:00 ...
Gary Gannon: All the boxes come in.
Simon Adler: These giant metal boxes of ballots come in.
AB Filbenbowmen: So the boxes are opened ...
Gary Gannon: Literally they're lifted up and there is a cascade and a spilling of all this paper.
AB Filbenbowmen: Because it's all done by paper voting.
Latif Nassar: Wait, what?
AB Filbenbowmen: Yeah. We tried electronic voting in this country, and we didn't like it because it was very fast and I think we realized that the drama of an election and also the ritual of democracy gets everybody engaged and gets people watching. It's like watching a big sports game. You don't want it to be over in five minutes.
Speaker 20: They're off.
Simon Adler: And so ...
Speaker 20: Time now for our live update. I have to warn, as we always do, at this time on this day we're talking tallies first of all, which obviously can skew the results.
Simon Adler: Not just at the RDS, and not just for Dublin Central but all across the country.
AB Filbenbowmen: Vote counters are dumping boxes of votes, and going through them and putting them into stacks.
Speaker 20: First in Kilkenny is Justin McCarthy.
Mel Macheavel: Rough bundles.
Gary Gannon: in no particular order.
Speaker 20: 75% of the boxes have been tallied here and they include all of-
Simon Adler: And so early on here the counters are just trying to get a handle on how many first choice votes each candidate is getting.
Speaker 20: From Calvin, Audrey Carver.
Audrie Carver: 100% of the boxes are open and a final tally-
Simon Adler: And while the ballot counters are doing this official count, there's another group of people standing next to them ...
Speaker 20: Up the Atlantic way in Donne ...
Simon Adler: Doing their own unofficial calculations.
AB Filbenbowmen: Yes, definitely.
Gary Gannon: The tallymen.
Rachel: 88% of boxes opened and tallied from Cork.
Speaker 20: Cork North Central ...
Speaker 23: All boxes opened, all sheets tallied.
Simon Adler: These tallymen, there are several of them put forward by each candidate, and ...
Gary Gannon: They're just looking over the railings waiting for you to turn that ballot.
Simon Adler: Brash upstart Gary Gannon again.
Gary Gannon: So they can share who the name of the person that got the number one preference. They're like, Gannon number one. Gannon, and they're just counting them up.
Latif Nassar: And what they're counting is number one?
Simon Adler: Yes, they're shouting out and tallying the first choice labeled on each ballot.
Gary Gannon: So you have an understanding whether you're at the races or not.
Simon Adler: Which it seemed like Gary was.
Speaker 20: We have a 98% tally and there is a growing belief here that the third seat will be between Gary Gannon and-
Simon Adler: He was getting a lot of first preferences.
Gary Gannon: So I walked in, I got pulled over by one of our national newspapers to do an interview.
Speaker 24: Let's bring Gary Gannon in. How are you Gary? It's too early to be saying you're over the line, but you're going well in Dublin Central.
Gary Gannon: Oh, God it's far too early. I think about ...
Gary Gannon: All the radio researchers are coming over, grabbing me, bringing me over to speak on the radio.
Speaker 24: There's a bunch of you have done 9% as well so we could be in for another dog fight there.
Gary Gannon: Absolutely, yeah. I've canceled me weekend plans. I think I'll be here for a while.
Gary Gannon: It was genuine like a real sense of excitement.
Simon Adler: But not for everyone.
Maureen O.: So that morning I was at home doing different things.
Simon Adler: Again, this is incumbent Maureen O'Sullivan.
Simon Adler: Well, what did you do? Did you make breakfast, did you go for a walk?
Maureen O.: I did. I had my breakfast, probably I walked the dog.
Simon Adler: What type of dog?
Maureen O.: A white, fluffy dog.
Simon Adler: Okay, and what's his name?
Maureen O.: His name is Bailey. So I brought him for a walk.
Simon Adler: Are you listening to the radio?
Maureen O.: No, no, no.
Simon Adler: You're totally disconnected.
Maureen O.: Yeah, pretty much. I let my campaigners go over to be part of the tally.
Simon Adler: Campaigners ...
Mel Macheavel: And it's starting to kind of make-
Simon Adler: Including mel.
Mel Macheavel: So within the first hour, from some of the tallies that we were seeing, like Maureen isn't picking up enough votes. I was thinking, oh I hope this is not going to be an early day where there's no need for you to hang around because nobody is in the race any longer.
Maureen O.: And then, I think I was driving when I got the first call from my campaigners over in the count saying, "It's not looking good."
Rachel: Lina Paul was elected, let's go back now to the busiest count center of them all, to Mary Wilson in the RDS.
Mary Wilson: Rachel, thank you very much. A first count immanent we believe here in Dublin Central-
Simon Adler: Meanwhile the counters take all those ballots, now officially sorted by first preference, and they pick up the stack for each candidate on the table and walk that stack back to ...
Mary F.: this wooden shelving unit-
Simon Adler: Again, Mary Fitzpatrick.
Mary F.: ... behind the tables. About a little bit of a distance, in the center.
Simon Adler: This giant sort of cubby.
Mary F.: Pigeon holes, just like light, flimsy, wooden boxes.
Simon Adler: And this is the sacred shrine of Irish democracy on this day. The cubby?
Mary F.: Absolutely.
Latif Nassar: Because?
AB Filbenbowmen: Because when they've counted all of the first preference votes ...
Simon Adler: They place them all in their respective cubbies ...
Mel Macheavel: There's a hush in that part of the arena ...
Gary Gannon: And the returning officer stands up on a stage with a microphone and goes ...
Speaker 26: The following is the result of count one.
Gary Gannon: Here is the first count for the constituency of Dublin Central.
Speaker 26: 68, 6-
Gary Gannon: And they read out every candidate, how many number one votes did they get.
Speaker 26: 2,021, 2-0-2-1.
Gary Gannon: And first off the bat-
Simon Adler: At the end of the first count first and second are pretty much locked down with the two people everybody expected to win.
Latif Nassar: But-
Simon Adler: But then in third place, unexpectedly is Mary Fitzpatrick.
Mary F.: Yeah. I mean I was very pleased to be in third position on the first count.
Simon Adler: Now, with our system of voting at this point you're done. The election is over, the two front runner candidates would have each won a seat, and then Mary Fitzpatrick would have won a seat. Gary and Maureen they'd be out, done.
AB Filbenbowmen: But in Ireland not so.
Simon Adler: In Ireland they're just getting started. So back to the race. And remember, at this moment Mary Fitzpatrick is in third, Gary is in fifth, and in seventh ...
Maureen O.: At that stage I was listening to the radio and I knew what they were saying about Dublin Central.
Simon Adler: ... is incumbent Maureen O'Sullivan.
Simon Adler: And what were they saying?
Maureen O.: Just-
Speaker 20: 3% it appears almost certain that Joe Costello and Maureen O'Sullivan are set to lose out.
Maureen O.: Myself and Joe Costello, you're out. I had some-
Simon Adler: And why? Did you like-
Maureen O.: Because of the numbers. I think the feeling was I was too far down that first preference to come back up.
AB Filbenbowmen: But then looking at the early results coming in from around the country-
Simon Adler: But, like I said, it's not over yet.
Mary F.: So the way the vote progresses is the sheriff or the presiding officer starts to eliminate candidates.
AB Filbenbowmen: The first elimination is the bottom three candidates. Those candidacies are gone and in the bin.
Simon Adler: Since Gary is in fifth and Maureen's in seventh they're safe, for now. But the bottom three candidates, they're gone.
Latif Nassar: Why three?
Simon Adler: Because they are so far out that mathematically they could never come back. Between the three of them they've only got like 150 votes.
AB Filbenbowmen: So we get rid of all three of them.
Simon Adler: And redistribute those ballots.
Latif Nassar: So if you voted for those people-
Simon Adler: They just go, okay, who did you vote for as your second choice.
AB Filbenbowmen: And the point is your vote is still live and is still part of this election.
Simon Adler: And so those 150 votes, those 150 ballots they begin to go this sort of ballet.
Mary F.: The ballots are all in these pigeon holes. Everything is visible.
Simon Adler: The vote counters walk back to that shrine, to that cubby and pull the ballots from the cubby holes for those-
Mary F.: Three candidates.
Simon Adler: Then march these ballots back to the front table.
Mary F.: And sort them then into bundles of second preference on the ballot.
Simon Adler: So now you've got stacks for every candidate that was listed as a second choice.
AB Filbenbowmen: And we distribute them.
Simon Adler: They take them back to the cubby where they are then added to the remaining candidates first preferences.
Mary F.: And that becomes the second count.
Latif Nassar: Okay.
Robert Krulwich: Okay, so what they want is everybody who voted to the degree that it is possible, should maybe be participating in electing somebody to the legislature.
Simon Adler: Exactly.
Robert Krulwich: All right.
Simon Adler: So-
Robert Krulwich: Excuse me, what time is it now?
Simon Adler: We're probably middle of the afternoon at this point.
Robert Krulwich: And when did we start?
Simon Adler: We started at 9:00 in the morning.
Robert Krulwich: Okay, point taken.
Simon Adler: People are having-
Robert Krulwich: Point taken by you.
Simon Adler: ... a good time.
Robert Krulwich: No.
Simon Adler: No, no, no, Robert-
Robert Krulwich: Not even, I am now watching this program for five hours. That's a long time.
Simon Adler: I will challenge your statement that just because a competition unfolds slowly that it is without drama or suspense.
Robert Krulwich: All right. I'm sorry that we're making this so hard for you.
Simon Adler: That's fine.
Robert Krulwich: But you are not making it easy for us. Anyway, back to the scene.
Gary Gannon: Dublin Central is reduced to three seats ...
AB Filbenbowmen: So I'm looking at this going, okay, Mary Fitzpatrick-
Simon Adler: Our candidate in third after the first count has
AB Filbenbowmen: 2,500 votes. Gary Cannon-
Simon Adler: Currently in fifth.
AB Filbenbowmen: He's only 200 votes behind her, and my instinct is he's going to be more transfer friendly-
Simon Adler: He's going to get more second choice votes than her.
AB Filbenbowmen: I think he could overtake her. And I start watching where the transfers are going, and I start to be proven right.
Mary Wilson: Gary Gannon of the Social Democrats did very well on transfers so-
AB Filbenbowmen: So count two, Gary Gannon is getting 20 votes. And Mary Fitzpatrick is only getting two. Count three-
Simon Adler: The whole process repeats, and knocks somebody out, do the ballot ballet, redistribute those transfers.
AB Filbenbowmen: Gary Gannon picks up 60 votes, and Mary Fitzpatrick only picks up seven. So he's gaining on her already.
Gary Gannon: They're talking about me, they're asking who is this guy, where is he come from? All of these things, and then I was getting a phone call-
Simon Adler: Mary's stock is falling while Gary's are rising.
AB Filbenbowmen: Mary's stock is staying static.
Mary F.: We were struggling for transfers, that was the issue.
AB Filbenbowmen: She's not going up much, and the others are gaining on her.
Mary F.: So, yeah, it's painful. It's not pleasant.
AB Filbenbowmen: And bear in mind you've still got other people picking up votes there.
Mel Macheavel: We're seeing little pickups for Maureen.
AB Filbenbowmen: Maureen picked up 49.
Mel Macheavel: But not a lot. We're moving ahead slowly.
Mary Wilson: Okay, we have a Dublin Central count coming in.
AB Filbenbowmen: Count four-
Simon Adler: Again, eliminate the bottom candidate, redistribute those votes. This time around really not much changes. Then count five.
AB Filbenbowmen: The next person going out has got 800 votes. 31 of them go to Mary Fitzpatrick, but also 190 of them go to Gary Gannon.
Speaker 20: And Gary Gannon has surprised a lot of people in his ability to pick up transfers from-
AB Filbenbowmen: And Gary Gannon has just jumped into fourth place.
Speaker 20: We've got quite a fight now in our hands. The standings as they are-
AB Filbenbowmen: So at the places are Mary Fitzpatrick in third place-
Simon Adler: She's just barely holding on. In fourth, hot on her heels, is Gary Gannon, and then way at the back of the pack, still in seventh is incumbent Maureen O'Sullivan.
AB Filbenbowmen: That's the state of play at count five. Count number six.
Mary Wilson: Oh, here we go, continuing coverage, Micheal Gallighar is here. We're, guys, hello? We're back.
AB Filbenbowmen: This is where two big things happen.
Mary Wilson: Everybody's having their own conversations obviously.
AB Filbenbowmen: One-
Speaker 27: Marylou McDonald of Sinn Fein and Dublin-
AB Filbenbowmen: Marylou McDonald of Sinn Fein-
Simon Adler: One of the front runners expected to take a seat-
AB Filbenbowmen: Gets over the line. And also-
Gary Gannon: I'm walking around just hugging people.
AB Filbenbowmen: ... Gary Gannon now jumps into third place.
Gary Gannon: It was invigorating.
Simon Adler: Pushing Mary Fitzpatrick out of a winning spot.
Mary F.: Like that, it was on the transfers, I got cashed, and that's it.
Simon Adler: She never recaptured it. So the woman who under our system would have won off the bat, she lost out.
Mary F.: That is it.
Simon Adler: Still hanging on in second to last, but also disheartened is our incumbent Maureen O'Sullivan. Who's expecting to lose.
Maureen O.: And I suppose maybe 7:00 people started to arrive.
Simon Adler: She actually invited her campaign staff and volunteers back to her place for a concession party.
Maureen O.: And I said, when people came in, "I don't want to know anything about the elections. I'll catch up tomorrow." Unknown to me, because I was busy with the tea and the drinks and the food, some of them in the house were still in contact with those over in the RDS.
Mary Wilson: To the Dublin Central constituency, and to our reporter Damian O'Mara. Damian, you have a development to report.
Simon Adler: One of those guys still over in the RDS was Mel.
Mel Macheavel: I did have a sense, looking at the numbers, and saying, "Well, okay, but if and then maybe there's a chance. There's a chance at this."
Simon Adler: Well, and was that a crazy thought to have, or a very smart thought to have?
Mel Macheavel: It was just a thought to have.
Simon Adler: Because despite the fact that all day the media had been saying that Maureen was out ...
Speaker 20: Maureen O'Sullivan set to lose out.
Mary Wilson: Outgoing TD Maureen O'Sullivan.
Speaker 20: Maureen O'Sullivan might be eliminated.
Simon Adler: At count seven, something starts to happen.
Speaker 26: Three furlongs to go.
AB Filbenbowmen: coming around the bend, Gary Gannon looks like he's in poll position, but-
Gary Gannon: All of the sudden we weren't reallocating people's second preferences or their third preferences. We'd got to the stage where we were reallocating people's fourth, fifth, and sixth preferences.
Simon Adler: Because, keep in mind, most people's votes are still sloshing around the system. And at this point not only has their top choice been knocked out but their second and third as well. So their vote is now being cast for their fourth, fifth or sixth place choice. And a lot of those they start going to Maureen.
Gary Gannon: She'd known people for years, been elected twice previous to that. So even people who weren't involved for number one, number two, number three, their votes were still carry on past the fours and the fives, and just mauled me on those transfers.
AB Filbenbowmen: So we go to count eight.
Speaker 20: Beginning to make a bit of ground into this straight-
Simon Adler: Maureen makes this massive jump vaulting her ahead of two opponents into fourth place. Now, just a couple hundred votes behind Gary.
Simon Adler: And did you have any sense this would-
Maureen O.: No, no. Because I didn't have the television on, and they decided not to tell me. Not to raise my hopes.
Speaker 20: From the ninth count at the moment-
Simon Adler: So the ninth count-
Speaker 20: The situation is that-
Simon Adler: Another candidate is axed, they redistribute her votes.
Mel Macheavel: It's coming down to it.
Simon Adler: When they count up those transfers-
Maureen O.: That'd mean then that Gary Gannon is likely to be elected or what's the situation there? Micheal Gallagher-
Simon Adler: Maureen gets some 300 more transfers than Gary, meaning suddenly-
Speaker 20: Gary Gannon is precisely eight votes ahead of Maureen O'Sullivan.
Gary Gannon: oh my God I did not see that coming.
Simon Adler: She's within eight votes of him.
Maureen O.: I went closer to 10.
Simon Adler: But Maureen, meanwhile, is still convinced she's going to lose. She's actually heading down to the count center to concede the race.
Maureen O.: I said to myself, "I should go over and concede." So, came out into the car, and as I'm driving over to concede I was just at the traffic lights. I could picture it, and at that stage the phone call comes.
Simon Adler: She looks at her phone, and it's one of her campaign staff calling.
Maureen O.: I thought, why are they ringing me just to hurry me up to get over or whatever.
Simon Adler: But in fact, they were calling because ...
Mary Wilson: In Dublin Central, but Maureen darling, you've been just as I mentioned your name Brian, we're going to Dublin Central.
Speaker 26: ... one last time up. This is the result of the 11th count for Dublin Central. And I deem the following candidate to be elected, and they are Maureen O'Sullivan.
Simon Adler: In her car, Maureen did eventually pick up.
Maureen O.: And then it was, where are you? You're about to be elected. You're going to be elected.
Simon Adler: She put down the phone, drove to the count center, and when she arrived.
Maureen O.: Great applause, great hugs, great kisses. So it was just a lovely explosion of feeling, warm feelings towards me from everybody.
Mary Wilson: Maureen O'Sullivan congratulations.
Maureen O.: Thank you very much.
Mary Wilson: You're a very relieved woman.
Maureen O.: I'm a stunned woman. I was at home reconciled to a new life outside of politics and then suddenly I'm back in the frame. We had thought that we were too far behind to ...
Maureen O.: So I just said, "Look, I know what Lazarus felt like." It was that kind of moment.
Simon Adler: Well, so is this the story of a multi seat proportional representation by single transferable vote working how exactly as it's meant to, or is this sort of a perversion of the system?
Gary Gannon: No it absolutely is. That day worked out exactly as single transferable votes was meant to do.
Simon Adler: One last time, the gracious Gary Gannon.
Gary Gannon: Everybody got their count, everybody got their say and everybody got their vote. And don't get me wrong when I say, like it is hard but I mean I was 28, 29 then. There was a huge sense of will show you. We'll be back. So single transferable vote, on that day, worked against me, but I think it worked out perfectly.
Robert Krulwich: Perfectly. I mean let me just make sure if I get this right. There's this woman, Maureen, who hardly anybody loves, she scores almost no votes as the favorite. She's just everybody's eh, you know. A fourth, fifth, six, I'll choose Maureen, and yet because the votes keep getting shuffled and shuffled and shuffled, it's Miss Meh who becomes the winner. She's chosen because a lot of people don't hate her.
Simon Adler: Yeah. Well so here's what it makes me think of, right. And I had this moment where I was just imagining if we had been using this at various crucial moments in our very recent history things could have gone an entirely different way. Take the American presidential election of 2016 between-
Robert Krulwich: Hillary and Trump.
Simon Adler: ... Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, but also Gary Johnson and Jill Stine.
Robert Krulwich: Yeah but nobody voted for them, hardly anybody.
Simon Adler: Well no, but hardly anybody that number of hardly anybody's that's a sizeable enough number that they could have swung the election one way or the other. If you look at really key states, the deciding states, if you presume Gary Johnson's votes were split, and if you presume all of Jill Stine's votes went to Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton would have won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and the whole kit and caboodle.
Robert Krulwich: Whoa. That's interesting.
Simon Adler: Now the weird thing is you can just keep playing this game, and it'll drive you crazy. But you can keep playing it. So if you go back to the 2016 republican primaries where Donald Trump emerged victorious, right?
Robert Krulwich: Over 10 people or something like that, or more.
Simon Adler: Over 10 people, right.
Robert Krulwich: Right.
Simon Adler: But there was a sizeable number of people in those primaries who were never Trumpers. If those people had-
Robert Krulwich: I see where you're going here.
Simon Adler: ... been able to block their votes together they might have been able to rally behind a candidate who was not Donald Trump. And then rewind even further back, the 2000 election where the number of votes that Ralph Nader got in Florida were more than the difference between Bush got and Gore got-
Robert Krulwich: No elect a republican, can you?
Simon Adler: Okay, so go back to Ross Perot, right, George H.W. Bush was running against Bill Clinton in 1992.
Robert Krulwich: Oh that's right.
Simon Adler: Ross Perot, it's very controversial whether he really was a spoiler in that election, but I mean if you ask the Bush people they say he definitely was. And so if the Peroters went to Bush then Bill Clinton would have just been a historical footnote. He wouldn't have been the president. It's like a huge, huge seismic difference in world history.
Robert Krulwich: Huh.
Simon Adler: So, when we come back we're not going to be looking at my own imaginative math. We're going to look at what is rank choice actually look like if it was in the United States, because it is in the United States.
Robert Krulwich: It's about to happen.
Simon Adler: Yeah.
Robert Krulwich: When we come back.
Cory: Hi, my name is Cory, and I'm from Minneapolis, Minnesota. RadioLab is supported in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, enhancing public understanding of science and technology in the modern world. More information about Sloan at www.sloan.org.
Robert Krulwich: Welcome back, I am Robert Krulwich.
Latif Nassar: I'm Latif Nassar, and this is RadioLab.
Robert Krulwich: And we're trying to fix democracy. This is how we're ... In little bits and pieces.
Latif Nassar: Yeah, so let me just back up for a second, because we have been talking about this and thinking about this around the office for a little while and at some point as we were meditating on this dwindling faith in democracy, one of our fellow producers at our sister show More Perfect-
Sara Kari: Okay.
Latif Nassar: ... Sara Kari. She just took me and Simon-
Simon Adler: Great.
Latif Nassar: Great, and just dragged us into a studio.
Sara Kari: Okay. So, we've been having this conversation about whether our democracy is broken for a few months now, and every meeting that we've had I've been the one in the room being like, "Guys, our democracy is fine. Have you seen other places? This is crazy. Who are these people that think our democracy is broken, like they don't know what they're talking about."
Latif Nassar: And do you know why? Like where is that feeling coming from?
Sara Kari: Well-
Sara Kari: Okay can you tell me your name?
Usma: Usma.
Sara Kari: And who are you?
Sara Kari: Probably because of this woman.
Usma: I'm Usma.
Sara Kari: Who are you in relation to me?
Usma: Oh, I'm your mom.
Sara Kari: My mom, and both of my parents, actually grew up in Pakistan.
Usma: That is the big thing, 25 years of my life where I spent, and I feel that-
Sara Kari: Which is a pretty young country, and it's just struggled so much to keep its democracy alive and healthy.
Usma: And I saw the consequences of not getting the full democracy there in Pakistan. So that, then after living 25 years, of the next 25 years of my life in America, I really found out the value of democracy as an individual, and as a group also. So I can differentiate now very well between those two.
Sara Kari: So that's kind of how I've always understood our democracy. But then Simon I listen to your Ireland story with all of this rank choice voting stuff and that's the first moment when I was like, oh. Like maybe our way of doing things is broken. Maybe we do need an update.
Simon Adler: Okay, why? What about it made you switch teams?
Sara Kari: Because it made me suddenly aware of the fact that in our system candidates don't actually need a majority of the votes to win.
Simon Adler: Right.
Sara Kari: So you have candidates who then make that calculation where they say, "I only really have to win the votes of people who are in my base, and if my base is bigger than everybody else's base than screw everyone else."
Simon Adler: Yeah. It seems like in a democracy, most people should vote for the person who wins, not just that the person who wins is going to have the biggest base to-
Sara Kari: Totally.
Simon Adler: ... a bigger base than everybody else. Like it should be that most people are in some way, in some preference, supporting the person who comes to power.
Sara Kari: Yeah, exactly. And it's funny, when I heard about rank choice voting I was like, oh this system is so cool because I feel like it addresses that exact problem. And so I totally got sucked into it, and I started looking around. And it turns out there are a bunch of people who think that this could be used here in the U.S. and not only that, it already is. And when I asked around, a number of people pointed to this moment in 2000, with the election, when Bush loses the popular election but he wins because he wins in Florida. And so people look at the results in Florida, and see that a bunch of votes that might have gone to Al Gore, they go instead to Ralph Nader. Who then becomes sort of notorious as this spoiler that maybe ruined the election for Al Gore. And after 2000, at that point, you do see some cities that start to adopt rank choice voting at the local level.
Sara Kari: So what I did is-
Latif Nassar: Okay I'm putting my phone on airplane mode.
Sara Kari: ... I grabbed Latif and we kind of did this cross country rank choice voting tour. And the first place we're going to start with ...
Sara Kari: Hello, San Francisco?
Dominic Fracasa: Yes, San Francisco is here.
Sara Kari: Is San Francisco.
Sara Kari: Is this Dominic?
Dominic Fracasa: Yes this is.
Sara Kari: Oh, hey Dominic. What's up?
Dominic Fracasa: Hi, what's up?
Sara Kari: So, this is Dominic Fracasa.
Dominic Fracasa: Check, check, check, yeah.
Sara Kari: He used to do radio.
Latif Nassar: You got the pipes for it Dominic.
Dominic Fracasa: Hey, let me know if you need any ad spots, so we can get right to it, you know.
Latif Nassar: Okay, cool.
Sara Kari: But now he's a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Dominic Fracasa: I'm a city hall reporter for the Chronicle. Yeah, so the very first rank choice election in San Francisco happened in 2004. But it was actually, rank choice voting became, I guess, the city's method, or the city's system if you will, back in 2002. Where there was a ballot initiative that was passed by voters that said, "Look, this is going to be the system that we're going to implement going forward." So the vast majority of local elected offices are chosen with rank choice contests.
Sara Kari: So city council-
Dominic Fracasa: The board of supervisors ...
Sara Kari: The school board ...
Dominic Fracasa: Our assessor recorder ...
Sara Kari: And in one very specific election ...
Dominic Fracasa: The case in the mayors race.
Sara Kari: The case in the mayors race.
Dominic Fracasa: Okay, great. I can't believe this was just a few months ago. It seems like a long time ago at this point.
Sara Kari: Okay, so early 2018 the San Francisco mayor's race kicked off.
Dominic Fracasa: And when it really kicked into gear there were three leading candidates. You had-
London Breed: Hi, I'm board of supervisors president London Breed.
Dominic Fracasa: ... London Breed, and you had ...
Mark Leno: Hello, I'm Mark Leno-
Dominic Fracasa: Former San Francisco supervisor Mark Leno. And you had ...
Jane Kim: Hi, I'm Jane Kim-
Dominic Fracasa: Current supervisor Jane Kim, and these aren't, these are all democrats.
News Clips: The field of candidates is set now. KPIX5 Joe Vasquez is live-
Sara Kari: Okay, so out of the gate-
News Clips: New front runner in the San Francisco mayor's race, and it's-
Dominic Fracasa: London Breed.
London Breed: This campaign is a winning campaign.
Sara Kari: She was the more moderate, more established candidate.
News Clips: She's getting one heck of a bounce in the polls.
Dominic Fracasa: And she had a fairly strong lead, and a lot of wind in her sails.
News Clips: The two to one lead over her two closest rivals, Mark Leno and Jane Kim.
Sara Kari: And as the campaign made it's way to election day-
Dominic Fracasa: Things are going pretty well.
London Breed: We are winners, and we are-
Sara Kari: And it was almost like, sure there are three names on the ballot-
Dominic Fracasa: But ...
Sara Kari: At the end of the day it was more like-
Dominic Fracasa: London Breed, London Breed, and London Breed.
News Clips: The favorite in the recent polls heading into Tuesday's election.
Sara Kari: But then right before the election something happened that you basically never see in American politics.
Jane Kim: We are proud to stand together to say that we are united in our belief that we need fundamental change here in the city and county of San Francisco.
Sara Kari: In the very last few weeks before election day, the two underdogs, Jane Kim and Mark Leno, they held a press conference on the steps of city hall.
Jane Kim: Mark and I are opponents, as everyone knows.
Dominic Fracasa: They stood outside city hall, literally joined hands and said ...
Jane Kim: And I'm proud to be the first set of candidates to truly take advantage of the rank choice voting system and encourage our supporters to vote for both of us.
Robert Krulwich: Wait a second. So what she's saying is vote for me, definitely vote for me, but also vote for this guy who I'm running against.
Sara Kari: Yeah, exactly.
Dominic Fracasa: Vote for me first, but vote for Jane second. Or vote for me first, and vote for Mark second.
Sara Kari: So if one of us were to come in last, let's say Mark comes in last, if all the people who voted for him ranked Jane as their second choice then all of those votes would go to her, and vise versa. That way they actually have a better chance of beating the front runner.
Dominic Fracasa: London Breed, and that made a lot of sense. They were both quote unquote "More progressive candidates," and saw each other, at least the rhetoric goes, as the person that they'd like to see as mayor if not themselves.
Simon Adler: Was that a surprise move to you as you were covering it? Did you see that coming?
Dominic Fracasa: I didn't see it coming, no. I think that was just a surprise to a lot of people.
News Clips: I almost had to do a double take when I saw these new campaign posters supporting both Jane Kim and Mark Leno for mayor.
Sara Kari: After that press conference ...
Dominic Fracasa: Mark Leno and Jane Kim started appearing in campaign adds together.
Jane Kim: I'm Jane Kim ...
Mark Leno: And I'm Mark Leno ...
Sara Kari: Campaigning for one another.
Jane Kim: Mark and I are opponents ...
Mark Leno: But Jane and I agree ...
Jane Kim: You should pick our next mayor ...
Mark Leno: Not the billionaires-
Sara Kari: And so basically the whole campaign is like, "If you don't vote for me first than at least vote for me second."
Mark Leno: Let's stand together.
Jane Kim: Vote for me, and Mark Leno.
Mark Leno: Vote for me, and Jane Kim.
News Clips: KPIX5's Joe Vasquez is with the London Breed campaign. Where just moments ago Breed addressed the crowd. Joe-
Sara Kari: So, on election night London Breed has a pretty commanding lead as the polls are coming to a close, and basically she's trying to get up to this marker of 50% of the votes plus one vote. That's a majority, and if she can get to that then she wins. There's no rank choice runoff, there's no vote swapping, and as the night goes on-
News Clips: She is not yet declaring victory but this crowd is celebrating.
Sara Kari: She's got like a double digit lead, things are looking pretty good.
News Clips: They are celebrating the person they believe could be the next mayor of San Francisco.
Dominic Fracasa: Holy smokes, she's beating Mark Leno by 10 percentage points, and she's beating Jane Kim by more than that. So we're getting to midnight. I'm completely bleary eyed, staring at my laptop, refreshing the department of elections website every few seconds. When 12:30 at night ...
Sara Kari: It happens.
News Clips: In the early returns London Breed had a sizeable lead, but she didn't reach 50%.
Sara Kari: She came in just shy of 50%.
News Clips: So the rank choice voting system kicked in and-
Dominic Fracasa: And all of the sudden this entire race has changed.
Sara Kari: Okay, so the rankings had been London Breed number one, Mark Leno number two ...
News Clips: Jane Kim, who was in third place, was now eliminated in that ranked choice system.
Dominic Fracasa: But when Kim got eliminated, a huge chunk of her voters about three out of four went to Leno, because Leno was their second choice.
News Clips: And now ...
News Clips: By a razor thin margin ...
News Clips: Mark Leno is leading the race.
Sara Kari: The Kim Leno strategy had come to fruition.
Dominic Fracasa: He's up .84%, the slimmest of leads.
News Clips: The mayor's race is still too close to call out here-
Sara Kari: The race would actually drag on for days.
Dominic Fracasa: As more ballots got counted.
News Clips: Tens of thousands of outstanding ballots.
Dominic Fracasa: We didn't have a mayor chosen until, I think, eight days later.
Sara Kari: When in a gymnasium packed with screaming supporters out walked the new mayor of San Francisco-
Dominic Fracasa: London Breed.
London Breed: Yes, I'm your mayor.
Sara Kari: Mark Leno came up just short.
Dominic Fracasa: He came within 1.1% or a little over 2,500 votes-
Sara Kari: Oh man.
Dominic Fracasa: So I mean, okay it didn't work in that he didn't win, but you can't say that it was completely ineffective.
Sara Kari: And so ultimately what did people think of this whole Mark Leno, Jane Kim, coming together?
Dominic Fracasa: People saw the duel endorsement strategy as gaming the system. As saying, "Look, they are doing this in order to keep London Breed from winning."
Sara Kari: And that was at your-
Dominic Fracasa: And they already-
Sara Kari: ... paper, right? That was the editorial one?
Dominic Fracasa: Yeah, our editorial board said as much. And I think that's not just the ed board. I mean people do feel that way. That it was this strategy, especially London Breed supporters, who saw a teaming up, a piling on, and in this ... I mean just very quickly, just zoom out all the way. I think people just find that weird in a country in which politics ends up being a zero sum game, often times, in which you are relentlessly attacking your opponent-
Simon Adler: Blood sport, yeah.
Dominic Fracasa: ... beating them down. Exactly, exactly. But, at the same time that's very much, there might be some people at my own newspaper that disagree with me, but I think that's very much in the spirit of what rank choice voting invites. Coalition building-
Sara Kari: Now, Dominic wanted to be clear that in the case of the mayor's race, this coming together of opponents ...
Dominic Fracasa: I don't want to make it sound like it was just some kind of kumbaya thing. Because that wasn't the case.
Sara Kari: But at the very next stop on our tour we actually found that case. The kumbaya case. Hey Curtis, are you there?
Curtis Gilbert: Yeah I am.
Sara Kari: Which, also on the line we have Latif.
Latif Nassar: Hi, how you doing?
Curtis Gilbert: Hey what's up?
Sara Kari: We heard about, from this guy.
Curtis Gilbert: Curtis Gilbert, and I'm a reporter at American Public Media. But I used to be a reporter at Minnesota Public Radio.
Sara Kari: So Curtis told us in Minneapolis they actually started using rank choice voting in 2009.
Curtis Gilbert: But it's gotten much more interesting since then. So in 2013 was the first time Minneapolis actually had a competitive mayor's race under rank choice voting.
News Clips: There's a record breaking number of candidates vying to succeed Minneapolis mayor R. T.Rybak who's stepping down at the end of this year.
Curtis Gilbert: 35 candidates signed up to run to replace him.
Latif Nassar: Oh.
Sara Kari: Wow.
Curtis Gilbert: Yeah.
News Clips: Curtis Gilbert covers Minneapolis politics, he joins me in the studio. Boy you're going to be busy.
Curtis Gilbert: Yeah, you betcha.
Curtis Gilbert: I mean there were so many ... I mean 35 candidates is a lot.
Sara Kari: Unlike the race in San Francisco the mayoral race in Minneapolis ...
Speaker 40: People say, "Aren't you the republican?"
Sara Kari: Did have more diverse candidates.
Speaker 40: And I say, "Sure, I've done some work in the republican party, and I also stand fiercely for marriage equality, always have."
Sara Kari: There was a republican, an independent, a bunch of democrats ...
Curtis Gilbert: It was a wide open, free for all race. It was really interesting.
Sara Kari: But despite all that ...
Curtis Gilbert: They were very, very civil.
News Clips: Thank you very much, it's nice to see you're not utterly infallible. I always thought you were.
Curtis Gilbert: Very, very gentle to each other.
News Clips: We won't be rude with each other because it doesn't benefit us to be rude with each other.
News Clips: Right.
Curtis Gilbert: And this is one thing that the advocates of rank choice voting sort of look at as a positive, voters are turned off by negative campaigning. And there's a theory that goes that if you're hoping to get second and third choice votes you'll be much nicer to your opponent so you don't alienate their supporters. So maybe you get a second or third choice vote. And it did seem like there was an element of that playing out in the race.
News Clips: I will talk more about the issues because I think I've run out of time, thank you.
Sara Kari: So at worst there was some light ribbing.
News Clips: They said we could finish our sentences if we've run out of time, but I think that was a run on sentence.
Sara Kari: There were polite stage logistics.
News Clips: Getting out of that chair is a little challenging so we may want to pass the microphone around.
Sara Kari: And ...
News Clips: Thank you, thank you Jackie.
Sara Kari: Plenty of thank you's.
Curtis Gilbert: The most remarkable one of all was the final debate. It was there, and it was in a church. I think it was in downtown Minneapolis, I can't remember what the church was. And at the end of the debate the candidates, and I think there were eight of them, all kind of put their arms around each other and one of them suggested that they all sing ...
News Clips: One, two, three.
News Clips: (singing)
Curtis Gilbert: ... Kumbaya.
News Clips: (singing)
Latif Nassar: No.
Sara Kari: After the debate?
Curtis Gilbert: After the debate.
News Clips: (singing).
News Clips: That's going on into the rest.
News Clips: The farewell tour.
News Clips: Right there.
Latif Nassar: So it's almost like a cartoon, right? Like the Kumbaya it's really funny, but it's also I think for a lot of people right now that feels like a relief. It feels like a relief to hear politicians not biting each other's heads off. And that's something that comes from rank choice voting. You find consensus. You find coalition. You find commonalities instead of differences. But that also flattens everyone out. If everyone ends up running to the middle, and then you just have kind of a bland consensus where no one's saying bold things, and everybody is just kind of middle.
Robert Krulwich: So, in a way, when you make this choice you're choosing for do this carefully.
Latif Nassar: Right.
Robert Krulwich: Do this carefully. I wondered about that, because I was thinking maybe don't do this carefully, maybe have a country that can be dynamic. Although right now I'm not so sure. So-
Simon Adler: We're too dynamic, yeah.
Robert Krulwich: Yeah. But that in a deep way, that's what's being asked here.
Latif Nassar: Yeah, what do we actually want? Like do we want a system where you are lined up behind your alpha dog who's going to argue for all of the things you want, and maybe you're going to get them but maybe you're also going to lose them all. Or do you want to be in a system where we're all sort of begrudgingly bought into our second place person who we can kind of get behind, but it definitely wasn't our ... It's not our ideal. I think that's a question. That's like a soul searching kind of a question. What do you want, and what do we want this country to be?
Robert Krulwich: Right.
Latif Nassar: And for that reason, I don't know how I feel about it.
Robert Krulwich: Well, nothings going to be perfect. I think what's really interesting is what seems sort of mechanical and technical, it does affect the tone of your country and of history. So the world we've got is the function of how we vote now. Change the system before we vote, you might get a very different world. How different, what different, where different, which kind of difference, scary different, good different, you don't know.
Sara Kari: Well, we might actually know soon, because I actually have one more stop on our cross country rank choice voting tour.
Sara Kari: (singing)
Sara Kari: The great state of Maine.
Sara Kari: (singing)
Sara Kari: Super politically diverse, fiercely independent, like a lot of independent voters.
Sara Kari: (singing)
Sara Kari: And in fact, in 2016 there was this coalition of independents and democrats that managed to get this ballot initiative that would change all statewide elections to rank choice voting.
Latif Nassar: State wide?
Sara Kari: Yeah.
Latif Nassar: Oh.
Sara Kari: And ...
Steve Mistler: Rank choice voting was adopted in 2016.
Sara Kari: According to Maine Public Radio reporter, Steve Mistler, it passed.
Steve Mistler: It passed however, with a major flaw.
News Clips: It was a scam. It undermines the integrity of our election process.
News Clips: Put forward by a group of people-
Steve Mistler: The state senate, which was under republican control at the time picked up on this constitutional conflict within the state constitution.
News Clips: The reality is we're not happy with it.
News Clips: My oppose to it, very unconstitutional.
Sara Kari: The Maine constitution literally says you have to use a plurality vote.
Steve Mistler: The word plurality is actually written om the Constitution.
Sara Kari: As opposed to a majority.
Steve Mistler: Correct, and ultimately the Maine legislature passed a law that delayed implementing rank choice voting.
News Clips: This is one more example of where politicians are standing against the will of the people.
Sara Kari: And it set of this whole fight where people rallied against the state legislature, and held another vote ...
Steve Mistler: In June ...
Sara Kari: Literally this past June.
News Clips: But the people gathered at the state house this morning-
Sara Kari: To get around the delay.
News Clips: ... legislature, through what was billed as a people's veto.
Sara Kari: That passed-
Steve Mistler: By almost the exact same margin, if not slightly more than when it passed originally in 2016.
Sara Kari: At some point the Maine Supreme Court gets involved and really the details of this are all kind of a mess. But what it boils down to is this; in the upcoming elections, like the midterms that are happening now, Maine will use rank choice voting for its congressional races.
Steve Mistler: We have three of them this year. We have a first congressional district race. It'll be used in that contest.
Sara Kari: And also in Maine's second congressional district.
Steve Mistler: Which is a swing seat and one of a dozen or so nationally.
Sara Kari: Aka one of the districts that everybody is going to be watching in the midterms, and on top of that they're going to use rank choice voting for the senate.
Steve Mistler: The U.S. senate campaign, it'll be used in that contest.
Latif Nassar: Do you know, is this the first time it's going to be used for a position in the federal government?
Sara Kari: Yeah, no other state has ever done it.
Latif Nassar: Oh, wow.
Sara Kari: But at the same time, because of their state constitution-
Steve Mistler: It's not being used in the gubernatorial race.
Sara Kari: So does the ballot just look insane, like part of it is this rank choice voting thing and part of it isn't and like-
Steve Mistler: They're just separate.
Sara Kari: Okay.
Steve Mistler: So there's separate ballots for the federal races, and then there's a separate one for the state wide one. So I haven't actually seen how many ballots that voters are handed on-
Latif Nassar: So this is really going to happen now, like this week.
Sara Kari: Yeah, oh yeah.
Steve Mistler: Two main claims of rank choice voting are being put to the test in its very first role out in Maine.
News Clips: Voters in Maine will head to the polls later this month-
Steve Mistler: Whether it can work for a third party or independent candidates, but it's also a test case about whether or not it does what it promises.
News Clips: He just told another big fib right in front of everybody in Maine.
News Clips: First, you're lying about my rep here, and you're also-
Steve Mistler: Which is reduce scorched earth campaigns.
News Clips: Dude, I don't know where you're getting this.
News Clips: It's Tiffany [inaudible 01:03:58] do you have a problem [crosstalk 01:03:59]
News Clips: This is why we're getting nothing done.
News Clips: When they go low, we kick them right?
News Clips: And Mr. Desantos lied 21 times.
News Clips: If you voted as much as you lie [crosstalk 01:04:12]
News Clips: Of course I support the senator.
News Clips: Crazy.
News Clips: The democrats ...
News Clips: They've gone wacko.
News Clips: Trump supporters are just nasty and deplorable.
News Clips: You may not understand how the house and the senate work.
Sara Kari: But also, I guess I just wonder if the people of Maine are going to come out of this election feeling a little bit more like democracy is working for them.
Robert Krulwich: Wouldn't it be interesting if in Maine, somebody who was everybody's eighth choice gets elected to congress. It could happen. I don't know we'll see. Yeah.
Robert Krulwich: This RadioLab was reported by Latif Nassar, Simon Adler, Suzie Lechtenberg, Sara Kari, Tracy Hunte. Produced by Simon Adler, Matt Kielty, Sara Kari, and Suzie Lechtenberg. Our story on PRSTV was produced with support from RTE's Drive Time, huge thank you to them and to AB for making that possible.
Latif Nassar: Also, thanks to Rob Richy at Fair Vote, Dawn Sari, Diana Lagerman. Thank you to Anna Lurman and the rest of the team at the Varieties of Democracy Institute in Sweden. As well as Carolyn Tolbert, Bobby Agey, and Edward Still.
Robert Krulwich: I'm Robert Krulwich.
Latif Nassar: And I'm Latif Nassar and thanks for listening. And go vote, what the hell, right?
Robert Krulwich: Yes, yes.
Latif Nassar: Yeah.
Jenna Calderoni: Hi this is Jenna Calderoni, calling from Raleigh, North Carolina. RadioLab was created by Jad Abumrad and is produced by Soren Wheeler. Dylan Keefe is our Director of Sound Design. Maria Matisar-Padea is our managing director. Our staff includes Simon Adler, Becca Bressler, Rachael Cusick, David Gebel, Bethel Habte, Tracy Hunte, Matt Kielty, Robert Krulwich, Anne McEwin, Latif Nassar, Alyssa O'Donell, Arianne Wack, Pat Walters, and Molly Webster. With help from Shima Oliaee, Cap Flaslow and Moe Asipiomo.
Jenna Calderoni: Our fact checker is Michelle Harris. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Q Christian Fellowship has designed 7 foundational resources for our community; the Affirmation Guide for Sexuality and Spirituality, Affirmation Guide for Trans & Gender-Expansive Identities, Relational Guide for Clergy, Relational Guide for Parents of Newly Out LGBTQ+ People, Affirmation Guide for Prospective LGBTQ+ Seminarians, Relational Guide for Allies, and an Affirmation Guide for LGBTQ+ College Students.
Q Christian has designed and edited our first Affirmation Guide on Sexuality and Spirituality featuring Rev. Tonetta Landis-Aina. This seminal resource covers various ethical postures considered by members of the LGBTQ+ Christian community, featuring dozens of quotes from additional scholars, theologians, writers, poets, and more. No matter the sexual ethics you have adopted as part of your journey, you'll find this work to be significant and applicable for you. Video content for the guide chapters can be found below.
Recommended Contribution: $18 per Download | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The 2020 season is over for the New York Mets and it’s time to hand out our final piece of... | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A Los Angeles, California-based dentist pleaded guilty on Thursday to a March 2018 indictment charging him with health care fraud arising from his false and fraudulent billings for crowns and fillings, which were never provided to patients.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna of the Central District of California, Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington, D.C. Field Office and Assistant Director in Charge Paul D. Delacourt of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office made the announcement.
Benjamin Rosenberg, D.D.S., 58, of Los Angeles, pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud before U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt of the Central District of California. Sentencing will take place on May 23 before Judge Kronstadt.
As part of his guilty plea, Rosenberg admitted that he submitted and caused to be submitted approximately $3,853,931 in false and fraudulent claims to various insurance companies for dental care that Rosenberg knew had not been rendered. Rosenberg further admitted that he submitted these false and fraudulent claims to Metlife, Anthem, Cigna, Delta Dental, Guardian, LMCO-DHA, United Health, and United Concordia (the “carriers”), which caused the carriers to pay Rosenberg approximately $1,415,011.
This case was investigated by the FBI. Trial Attorney Emily Z. Culbertson of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section is prosecuting the case.
The Fraud Section leads the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which is part of a joint initiative between the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to focus their efforts to prevent and deter fraud and enforce current anti-fraud laws around the country. Since its inception in 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, which maintains 14 strike forces operating in 23 districts, has charged nearly 4,000 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more than $14 billion. In addition, the HHS Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Two Nigerian soldiers and two ‘members of the vigilante’ were killed during an offensive against ‘bandits’ that saw 58 killed, the army said.
As part of Operation Sharan Daji, Nigerian troops “commenced clearance operations into bandits enclaves” in Zamfara and Katsina states, Major Clement K. Abiade said in a statement published on Facebook on Tuesday, January 22.
On January 20, “troops came into contact with a large gang of bandits armed with sophisticated firearms and Rocket Propelled grenades at Dumburum and Gando forests leading to fierce gun battles which lasted several hours,” Abiade said, adding that the bandits were “forced to abandon their camps due to superior firepower.”
Two soldiers and two “members of the vigilante” were killed, and eight soldiers and six vigilantes were wounded during the encounters.
Abiade said 58 bandits were “neutralized,” and one was captured alive. Troops destroyed 18 camps and rescued 75 people who had been kidnapped. Items recovered included five FN rifles, four AK-type assault rifles, 10 locally made rifles and 40 motorcycles.
The military, working in “collaboration with all security agencies and local vigilante” began the operation on January 19 and it is scheduled to continue until June, Abiade said, adding that the offensive is “designed to identify and destroy bandits’ camps/enclaves in the area of operation.
Launched in early 2016, “Operation Sharan Daji was “established to fight against cattle rustling and banditry activities within the North West which include; Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Kebbi states,” according to the military.
Zamfara state violence
For years, farming and cattle herding communities in Zamfara have been targeted by gangs of cattle thieves and kidnappers who raid villages, steal cows and abduct locals for ransom.
In the last two years, kidnapping for ransom has reached unprecedented levels in the region, where entire villages have been deserted for fear of raids and kidnapping by criminal gangs.
Those abducted are often released within days if the ransom is paid but residents say they can be killed if no money is forthcoming, and their bodies dumped in the bush.
The region has been hit by violent crime over the past year, with Amnesty International warning in July that people living in the impoverished state were “at the mercy” of armed bandits who take hostages and raid villages.
As a hideout, the gangs use the Ruggu forest which straddles Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna states.
The attacks have prompted villagers to form militia groups for protection but they, too, have been accused of taking the law into their own hands and killing suspected bandits.
Those killings attract reprisals from motorcycle-riding criminal gangs, who carry out indiscriminate killings and arson in retaliation.
On November 30, Nigerian police said that more than 100 “bandits” had been killed in a crackdown targeting crime in Zamfara, following a surge in kidnappings for ransom and cattle rustling.
Nine days earlier, the army said that troops deployed in the northwest as part of Sharan Daji had killed 20 bandits and arrested a further 21, Daily Post reported.
In July, Nigerian police said they found the bodies of 41 men with their throats cut in Zamfara state. Police believed the victims were gang members who had been involved in cattle rustling and kidnapping in area notorious as a hideout for criminal gangs, and that they were killed by members of a widely-feared local vigilante group “who decided to carry out the extra-judicial killings.”
The problem has sparked the concern of neighboring Niger.
In August, Niger’s government announced it was sending security reinforcements to the Maradi area on the southern-central part of the border, which abuts Zamfara.
In late December, five Nigerien and five Nigerian troops were killed in a joint operation by the two countries against armed “bandits” in the Maradi region of Niger.
At least ‘bandits’ were killed on the troubled frontier between Niger and Nigeria after a three-week a joint military crackdown between the two countries in October, Niger’s interior minister Bazoum Mohamed said, adding that 12 bases in Nigeria were dismantled and the authorities were “fully in control” of the region. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
While Fifty Shades of Grey parodies are nothing new, we've yet to see a full-length feature film parody. But all that's about to change thanks to Marlon Wayans, who just announced that he is co-writing and starring in Fifty Shades of Black
Image via Marlon Wayans' Instagram
Loading
THR reports that Wayans will work with producer-writer Rick Alvarez and director Michael Tiddes on the new comedy spoof, which will reunite the people behind the Haunted House franchise.“We're excited to be back in business with IM Global doing our comedic remix of this movie. Sex and comedy go hand-in-hand and I'm looking forward to having fun with this project," said Wayans in a statement. "It’s amazing when a film of this caliber comes along begging to be made fun of. I’m really happy to be doing what I love with people I love to do it with. That double entendre was intentional."The actor also posted the news to his Instagram , with the comment, "Check it out! Just announced my next movie FIFTY SHADES OF BLACK coming soon."Production is set to begin shortly, and an early 2016 release is planned. While you wait, check out this Batman/Fifty Shades mashup
Rachel Paxton-Gillilan is a freelance writer. You can find her on Twitter @rachpax | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Subsets and Splits