text
stringlengths 14
100k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Legislation that would slap new financial penalties on Russia is running into a familiar obstacle: congressional inertia.
Top Republican senators are warning that Congress won’t approve new sanctions quickly, even though many in the upper chamber want to pass something in the wake of the Helsinki summit.
ADVERTISEMENT
Complicating the path for the flurry of bills, two key Senate committees are first planning to hold a slate of hearings related to Russia and existing sanctions legislation that will likely run through August. The House, meanwhile, is leaving town this week until September with no plans to pass a bill.
The congressional calendar ensures that any fight over Russia sanctions gets dragged into the fall and pushed against the partisan midterm election landscape, where many Republicans are fighting for their political lives.
Sen. Bob Corker Robert (Bob) Phillips CorkerHas Congress captured Russia policy? Tennessee primary battle turns nasty for Republicans Cheney clashes with Trump MORE (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, brushed aside questions about why a bill isn’t moving faster, saying senators don’t do “ready-fire-aim” policies.
“The Helsinki press conference was a sad day for our country and everyone knows it, but still, when you move ahead with laws and sanctions, hearings are appropriate,” he said. “Moving a bill three days after a deplorable press conference is not an intelligent thing to do.”
Corker, a critic of President Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE who spearheaded a 2017 Russia sanctions bill, added that senators want to be “methodical” and not “rush in with our hair on fire.”
Trump sparked widespread backlash when he refused to denounce Russia’s election meddling during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland.
His rhetoric was considered by most lawmakers to be a political disaster and forced Republicans to go on defense to verbally distance themselves from the president, whose warmer stance toward Putin has mystified members of his own party.
A flurry of potential legislative responses to Trump’s rhetoric has been floated: A bill from Sens. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioOvernight Defense: Pentagon redirects pandemic funding to defense contractors | US planning for full Afghanistan withdrawal by May | Anti-Trump GOP group puts ads in military papers Democrats step up hardball tactics as Supreme Court fight heats up Press: Notorious RBG vs Notorious GOP MORE (R-Fla.) and Chris Van Hollen Christopher (Chris) Van HollenCongress must finish work on popular conservation bill before time runs out Democrats fear Russia interference could spoil bid to retake Senate Mid-Atlantic states sue EPA over Chesapeake Bay pollution MORE (D-Md.) to slap penalties on Russia if the director of national intelligence determines it meddled in a future election is picking up more bipartisan support. Meanwhile, Sens. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamSenate GOP aims to confirm Trump court pick by Oct. 29: report The Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting Senate GOP sees early Supreme Court vote as political booster shot MORE (R-S.C.) and Bob Menendez Robert (Bob) MenendezKasie Hunt to host lead-in show for MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Senators ask for removal of tariffs on EU food, wine, spirits: report VOA visa decision could hobble Venezuela coverage MORE (D-N.J.) are drafting a bill that would automatically impose tough new sanctions on Russia.
“I’m doing everything but the kitchen sink,” Graham told reporters about his upcoming bill.
In addition, Sen. Cory Gardner Cory Scott GardnerCook Political Report shifts Colorado Senate race toward Democrat Overnight Health Care: US coronavirus deaths hit 200,000 | Ginsburg's death puts future of ObamaCare at risk | Federal panel delays vote on initial COVID-19 vaccine distribution The Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting MORE (R-Colo.) has legislation that would ask the State Department to determine if Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism, which would trigger automatic sanctions.
But none of those bills will move this summer.
Both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Mike Crapo Michael (Mike) Dean CrapoBottom line Davis: The Hall of Shame for GOP senators who remain silent on Donald Trump Top GOP senator urges agencies to protect renters, banks amid coronavirus aid negotiations MORE (R-Idaho), announced this week that they would hold a series of hearings to examine a 2017 sanctions bill that placed new penalties on Russia and to weigh any future congressional action that is needed. The move, endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellFEC flags McConnell campaign over suspected accounting errors Poll: 59 percent think president elected in November should name next Supreme Court justice Mark Kelly: Arizona Senate race winner should be sworn in 'promptly' MORE (R-Ky.), effectively puts any Senate vote on tougher sanctions on hold until the hearings wrap up.
In addition to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Michael (Mike) Richard PompeoTreasury sanctions individuals, groups tied to Russian malign influence activities Navalny released from hospital after suspected poisoning Overnight Defense: Pentagon redirects pandemic funding to defense contractors | US planning for full Afghanistan withdrawal by May | Anti-Trump GOP group puts ads in military papers MORE’s testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, the panel is expected to hold an additional hearing next week and then additional meetings once the Senate returns in mid-August. Crapo, meanwhile, noted on Wednesday that he is already having conversations with committee members, but formal panel hearings won’t start until after Aug. 13.
These announcements have sparked criticism from Democrats that Republicans aren’t serious about standing up to Trump months before the midterm election. GOP leaders, on issues ranging from trade to immigration, have shown little appetite for sparking a confrontation with Trump and angering his base — which they will need in November to keep control of Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerCruz blocks amended resolution honoring Ginsburg over language about her dying wish Senate Democrats introduce legislation to probe politicization of pandemic response Schumer interrupted during live briefing by heckler: 'Stop lying to the people' MORE (D-N.Y.) knocked Republicans as doing “virtually nothing” since the Helsinki summit.
“Republicans have failed to take meaningful action to hold the president accountable for his foreign policy blunders in Finland. Republicans have offered words of rebuke, statements, disappointed tweets, but they have not backed those words up with the force of action,” he said from the Senate floor this week.
Fifty-one percent of respondents in a recently released Quinnipiac University survey said they believe the Russian government has something on Trump, while 35 percent said it does not.
Schumer touted the polling as “astounding.”
Asked about Schumer accusing Republicans of being unwilling to confront Trump, Corker noted that the Senate passed new Russia sanctions last year in a 98-2 vote despite pushback from the White House.
When a reporter pointed out that Schumer was referring to Republican actions since Helsinki, the GOP senator responded, “Well, Helsinki happened about a week and a half ago. So, you know, there are efforts that are — I can’t even respond to that.”
GOP leadership has appeared open to passing new sanctions legislation. McConnell mentioned Rubio’s bill while speaking to reporters on Tuesday. And Sen. John Cornyn John CornynThe Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting Liberal super PAC launches ads targeting vulnerable GOP senators over SCOTUS fight Senate GOP faces pivotal moment on pick for Supreme Court MORE (Texas), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said on Wednesday that he is “certainly interested in doing something else to deter Russia.”
McConnell, in sharp contrast to Trump, has had harsh words for Russia and Putin since the Helsinki summit.
But there are already signs of skepticism that Congress needs to pass tougher Russia sanctions. And formal pushback from the White House as the process moves forward would only feed opposition from Trump’s conservative allies on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulRand Paul says he can't judge 'guilt or innocence' in Breonna Taylor case Overnight Health Care: Health officials tell public to trust in science | Despair at CDC under Trump influence | A new vaccine phase 3 trial starts Health officials tell public to trust in science MORE (R-Ky.) blasted the talk of tougher sanctions when he opposed a Russia-related resolution last week and accused his colleagues of having “Trump derangement syndrome.” Meanwhile, Sen. Richard Shelby Richard Craig ShelbySenate GOP eyes early exit Dems discussing government funding bill into February GOP short of votes on Trump's controversial Fed pick MORE (R-Ala.), while not ruling out supporting additional penalties, has signaled that the United States should work with European allies.
Crapo stressed on Wednesday that he has not decided if the Senate needs to take up a new bill and if his committee would take up already drafted legislation or craft a new proposal.
“We definitely need to be sure that our sanctions regime is very capable to respond. But … we just put together a very extensive sanctions bill last year,” he said. “We are going to have some very extensive briefings and negotiations … and then make that determination.”
The Senate took a symbolic shot at Trump over Russia last week, when it passed a resolution warning Trump not to hand over diplomats to Moscow for questioning. But separate resolutions supporting the intelligence community’s findings that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election have repeatedly been blocked.
GOP Sen. Jeff Flake Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeHow fast population growth made Arizona a swing state Jeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Republican former Michigan governor says he's voting for Biden MORE (Ariz.), whose resolution with Sen. Christopher Coons Christopher (Chris) Andrew CoonsMurkowski: Supreme Court nominee should not be taken up before election Battle lines drawn on precedent in Supreme Court fight Sunday shows - Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death dominates MORE (D-Del.) has been blocked twice, demurred when asked how the Senate can get a deal on tougher Russia legislation if senators couldn’t even agree to pass a nonbinding resolution.
“I don’t know,” he told The Hill. “That’s my concern, obviously. This [resolution] ought to be a layup.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, The Times’ letters editor, and it is Saturday, April 22, 2017. Happy Earth Day (even if much of the planet, especially its trees, isn’t doing so well). Here’s a look back at the week in Opinion.
Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has been fired by his employer after reigning for years as the king of cable show ratings (a fact he never tired of mentioning). Getting fired for alleged sexual harassment might bring financial ruin to any middle-class Joe Sixpack that O’Reilly claimed to understand better than anyone, but being deposed from cable news royalty doesn’t come without its perks. O’Reilly will reportedly make $25 million for being forced out after it was revealed he or his employer paid several sexual harassment accusers millions to keep quiet.
O’Reilly may be gone from cable news, but his legacy remains. The Times Editorial Board warns that the bullying, shouting and stubbornness that O’Reilly popularized will remain on TV for as long as they draw viewers and advertising dollars:
This conversation-as-blood-sport approach goes back at least to “The McLaughlin Group” and “Crossfire,” two political talk shows that spiced up substantive discussions with contentiousness, but it became a prime-time staple in the O’Reilly era. News anchors, political observers, celebrity chefs, hosts of true-crime shows, sports analysts, stock pickers — there was a bumper crop of TV personalities eager to shout down or talk over opposing viewpoints. Lamenting the decline of honest debate and enlightening exchanges is a bit like arguing that croquet should be more popular than boxing. Humans like to watch conflict, and savvy TV executives indulge them. Still, O’Reilly could have used his enormous viewership and audience loyalty to try to temper the growing polarization and anger in society. Instead, he fed the toxic sentiment that undergirds our divisions, portraying the people who disagreed with him as not just wrong, but corrupt, morally bankrupt and dangerous to real Americans. It’s worth noting that Fox acted only after a New York Times report brought O’Reilly’s copious settlements to the surface, prompting advertisers to flee his program in droves. The controversy didn’t hurt his appeal among viewers — to the contrary, his ratings increased in recent weeks — but it threatened Fox’s bottom line. That led Fox to apply again the principles it discovered last year when it parted ways with the news network’s former chairman and harasser in chief, Roger Ailes . Once again, ad dollars speak more loudly than female employees. >> Click here to read more
Another right-wing fire breather’s career is in jeopardy. Alex Jones — propagator of the “chemtrail” and 9/11 conspiracy theories, among others — may not actually believe much of what he shouts at his credulous audience, if we are to believe his lawyer. Jones’ ex-wife claims his paranoia raises questions about his fitness as a father, to which Jones’ lawyers say he’s only playing a conspiracy theorist on the air. Regardless of what he truly believes, writes lawyer Ken White, Jones’ followers take him seriously and have acted dangerously in response. That ought to count for something. L.A. Times
Hey, President Trump , we still want to see those returns. Tax day fell on April 18 this year, and The Times Editorial Board took the occasion to remind the president that most Americans still want to see the returns that he has refused to release. The board writes: “Trump, whose finances are particularly complicated and whose potential conflicts of interests are far greater than most presidents — and who promised during the campaign that he would release his returns eventually — should do as other candidates and presidents have done. Especially with a major tax reform proposal on the way.” L.A. Times
Think filing taxes is hard? Talk to a freelancer. One shouldn’t be hard to find because, as Sara Horowitz notes, freelancers make up about a third of the American workforce. Yet despite the emergence of the so-called gig economy, the tax code is still written as if all Americans can expect to work their whole lives for a single employer that pays for their healthcare and retirement. “Freelancers must retrofit themselves into an archaic system designed for the industrial era, one that taxes independent workers disproportionately even as they benefit less from the social safety net,” Horowitz writes. L.A. Times
He voted for Trump. After Syria, he feels betrayed. Justin Raimondo cast his vote for the president because he articulated a foreign policy that deemphasized foreign intervention like the war in Iraq and promised to end Washington’s Cold War mentality. “As the elites rush to embrace the president, those of us who supported him are horrified, angry and increasingly convinced that instead of draining the swamp, Trump has jumped headlong into it,” Raimondo writes. L.A. Times
Nation, meet the lawyer for the anti-Trump resistance in California. Xavier Becerra has long been familiar to anyone who has paid attention to L.A. politics, but his national profile increased at precisely the moment he left Washington to become California’s attorney general — partly because of profiles that contain language like this: “For now, he clearly relishes his role as a burr in Donald Trump’s backside. At times, he seems to be practically daring the new president to come at California.” The Atlantic
Reach me: [email protected] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A new study tracking the economic effects of whistleblowers has found that people who come forward to report wrongdoing helped the US government secure $21.27bn more in fines over 35 years.
The study, conducted by researchers from Arizona State University, American University, Texas A&M University and University of Iowa, set out to discover if the costs of promoting and maintaining programs set up for financial whistleblowers were worth it. It found that in cases where whistleblowers were involved:
Firm penalties were $90.16m to $90.88m greater.
Penalties imposed on executives and employees averaged $50.22m to $56.50m more than if no whistleblower was involved.
The prison sentences for those involved were on average 21.86 to 27 months longer.
The $21.27bn collected thanks to involvement of whistleblowers accounts for 30% of the $70.13bn collected from 1978 to 2012.
Starting in 2011, thanks to the Dodd-Frank reform bill, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began rewarding corporate whistleblowers with up to 30% of any settlement it recovered. The largest award yet was issued earlier this year and amounted to $30m.
The financial rewards encourage people who have more evidence of wrongdoing to come forward, said Jordan A Thomas, partner at Labaton Sucharow, while speaking at Baruch College as part of the American Whistleblower Tour in October.
Previously, Thomas worked on development of the SEC whistleblower program. The monetary awards issued under the program can alleviate some of the risks of becoming a whistleblower – like losing a job and being without an income.
“Prior to the SEC whistleblower program, getting a tip was not something you looked forward to,” he said. With the program in place, the tips are more substantial. “We are starting cases knowing where the problem is, the people who are involved, and sometimes we have them on tape. It’s a very different world. It’s exciting when you are at the SEC and you are receiving these cases.”
For most whistleblowers, money is not the driving factor, said Louis Clark, president of the Government Accountability Project. Whistleblowers are usually hardworking people with high standards who believe in the institution they work for.
“Cynical people tend not to whistleblow,” he said.
Money can, however, make things easier.
Sherron Watkins was vice-president of corporate development at Enron in 2001 when she uncovered accounting irregularities in the company. At first, she attempted to report the problems internally. When that didn’t work, she turned to the authorities.
Now, 13 years later, she still cannot get a job in corporate America.
“I have this label ‘whistleblower’ which is synonymous with troublemaker,” she said at the Baruch College event. “That’s sort of the story of even the most well-known whistleblowers. ... You are out of your industry. That’s why I welcome this program, because you have to reinvent yourself and it’s not always easy. Rarely do people have the notoriety that I have, where I am on the lecture circuit. It’s a problem.”
National security whistleblowers, too, end up locked out of their industry. They are, however, not eligible for any monetary awards and often end up struggling to make ends meet.
Whistleblowing is much harder than just finding a problem, quitting one’s job and going to the press or the authorities, says Watkins.
“When I speak to college students I try to remove the naivete. First, when you find a problem in your job, you are not going to quit,” she says. “You are going to have a car, you are going to have a mortgage, you are not just going to walk out the door. Secondly, you can’t just call the New York Times and have them listen to you.”
Yet under the new program, blowing the whistle could end up being worth quite a penny – for both the whistleblower and the authorities. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A Republican elector from Texas will not cast his vote for Donald Trump, saying: 'I am here to elect a president, not a king.'
Christopher Suprun, a conservative who worked as a firefighter in the wake of the September 11 attacks, slammed the president-elect for being unqualified, unfit and 'dismissive' of his own conflicts of interest in an op-ed piece in the New York Times on Monday.
In the US, presidents are elected by the Electoral College - not by the popular vote, where Hillary Clinton's lead has surpassed 2.5million ballots.
In most states, electors are 'bound' and required by law to cast a vote for the winner of their state's popular vote.
But other states like Texas don't have a rule against electors going rogue, and at least six Democratic electors have already expressed their intentions to try to block Donald Trump from securing 270 Electoral College votes on December 19.
Christopher Suprun (pictured), a Republican elector from Texas will not cast his vote for Donald Trump, saying: 'I am here to elect a president, not a king'
In the US, presidents are elected by the Electoral College - not by the popular vote, where Hillary Clinton's lead has surpassed 2.5million votes
In the Electoral College, however, Trump carries a lead of 306 to Clinton's 232. It would be unlikely 37 Republican electors would be convinced to change their votes
Suprun is just one of 38 electors in the Lone Star state, where Trump won by more than 9 points.
The faithless elector detailed his criticism in the Times on Monday, writing:
'Fifteen years ago, as a firefighter, I was part of the response to the Sept. 11 attacks against our nation. That attack and this year’s election may seem unrelated, but for me the relationship becomes clearer every day.
'George W. Bush is an imperfect man, but he led us through the tragic days following the attacks. His leadership showed that America was a great nation. That was also the last time I remember the nation united. I watch Mr. Trump fail to unite America and drive a wedge between us.
'Mr. Trump goes out of his way to attack the cast of “Saturday Night Live” for bias. He tweets day and night, but waited two days to offer sympathy to the Ohio State community after an attack there. He does not encourage civil discourse, but chooses to stoke fear and create outrage.
'This is unacceptable. For me, America is that shining city on a hill that Ronald Reagan envisioned. It has problems. It has challenges. These can be met and overcome just as our nation overcame Sept. 11.'
The paramedic from Dallas also cited the Federalist papers written by Alexander Hamilton as guidance, arguing that Trump did not meet the presidential standards.
Suprun was looking to vote for John Kasich, the Republican Governor of Ohio, instead
Hamilton argued for the Electoral College, writing that the group would ensure 'the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications'.
Suprun also attacked everything from Trump's demeanor to his White House picks, adding he 'could be impeached in his first year given his dismissive responses to financial conflicts of interest'.
'Mr. Trump lacks the foreign policy experience and demeanor needed to be commander in chief,' he writes.
'Mr. Trump urged violence against protesters at his rallies during the campaign. He speaks of retribution against his critics. He has surrounded himself with advisers such as Stephen K. Bannon, who claims to be a Leninist and lauds villains and their thirst for power, including Darth Vader. “Rogue One,” the latest “Star Wars” installment, arrives later this month. I am not taking my children to see it to celebrate evil, but to show them that light can overcome it.'
Suprun rallied his fellow electors behind a Republican alternative like John Kasich, Governor of Ohio, instead.
He said: 'I'm expecting backlash, but that has been par for the course this campaign. People are unhappy. They're angry. But I'm angry, too.'
It would be unlikely to convince 37 Republican electors to change their votes- the number needed to erase Trump's lead among the 538 total electors.
Even then, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would be likely vote Trump into the White House anyway.
But some are hoping to undermine the institution itself, with one elector saying: 'If it gets into the House, the controversy and the uncertainty that would immediately blow up into a political firestorm in the U.S. would cause enough people — my hope is — to look at the whole concept of the Electoral College.'
Suprun, on the other hand, said the Electoral College system 'is fine as it currently exists.' His problem lies solely with Trump.
'I was told if we elected Donald Trump he would transform his personality into being presidential. He isn't,' Suprun said.
'I wanted him to be presidential, but since the election he hasn't grown into our institution, he's attacked them. I am here to elect a president, not a king.'
Suprun may have an ally in Michael Baca (pictured), an elector from Colorado, who signed an agreement with at least six others to try to block Trump from the presidency
He added: 'I am not sure of who I will vote for, but would have to strongly consider someone like Kasich who has both executive and legislative experience bringing people together.'
'I'm looking for someone we can all unify behind...Fifteen years ago, I swore an oath to defend my country and Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. On Dec. 19, I will do it again.'
Suprun may have an ally in Michael Baca, an elector from Colorado, who signed an agreement with at least six others to try to block Trump from the presidency.
Baca, a registered Democrat and Bernie Sanders supporter, previously said he would consider voting for a moderate Republican like Kasich if it meant garnering more support.
Another Texas Republican elector, Art Sisneros, resigned last week rather than vote for Trump. He will be replaced when electors convene on December 19.
Sisneros wrote on his blog: 'If Trump is not qualified and my role, both morally and historically, as an elected official is to vote my conscience, then I can not and will not vote for Donald Trump for President. I believe voting for Trump would bring dishonor to God.'
Republican elector Baoky Vu of Georgia also expressed his resignations about voting for Trump and eventually resigned from the job. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Pope Francis has given all priests the power to forgive women who have had an abortion, saying the procedure was a “grave sin” but one that God’s mercy could wipe away for those with a repentant heart.
The move, announced in a letter to mark the end of the Vatican’s holy year of mercy, was a powerful reminder of Francis’s desire to focus his papacy on forgiveness, even as he faces an unprecedented backlash from traditionalists within the church who believe the he has gone too far on sensitive issues such as divorce, and now abortion.
Francis first opened the door for women who have had an abortion to be absolved by priests last year, in what was supposed to be a temporary measure during the year of mercy.
Traditionally, abortion was considered such a grave sin that only a bishop could absolve a repentant woman, or a priest given special permission by a bishop.
At the time, Francis defended his decision by focusing on the personal situations that force some women to get abortions, saying he was “well aware of the pressure that led them to this decision” and that it was an “existential and moral ordeal”.
Now, Francis has indefinitely extended priests’ right to grant forgiveness.
In the apostolic letter released on Monday, he wrote: “I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life. In the same way, however, I can and must [state] that there is no sin that God’s mercy can not reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father.”
Jon O’Brien, the president of Catholics for Choice, based in the US, praised the move, and said it showed that Francis understood the deep chasm that exists between ordinary Catholics – who turn to abortion and birth control with the same frequency as people of other faiths – and their clergy.
While women have not been “queuing up around the corner of their church” over the last year in a desperate attempt to gain forgiveness, O’Brien said, Francis’s move was significant because it also appeared to represent an appeal to his fellow bishops and priests to look at the issue of abortion with less condemnation, and focus more on “reconciliation”.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, who has been critical of Pope Francis. Photograph: Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters
Francis’s announcement is likely to agitate the Argentinian pope’s toughest critics, a group of four hardline cardinals who are pressuring him over a papal document on the family called Amoris Laetitia that implicitly opened the door for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive holy communion, and called on priests to show “discernment” on the matter.
The four cardinals, led by the American Raymond Burke, who is based in Rome, wrote a letter to Francis in September demanding to know where Francis stood on the issue and then released the letter publicly last week when the pope declined to respond.
In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Burke said that, without further clarity, he was considering taking a “formal act of correction of a serious error”, which church experts said was akin to accusing the pope of heresy.
In a subsequent interview in Avvenire, Francis said of his detractors: “They are acting in bad faith to foment divisions” and that some people misunderstand his position.
“It’s either black or white [to them], even if in the flow of life you have to discern,” Francis said.
John Allen, a Vatican expert and editor of Crux, a Catholic publication, said in a column the decision was nevertheless seen as a “major gesture of outreach to women and others” who have been involved in what Francis called a “very grave sin”. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
How to Beat Down a Bully
The international community is at long last beginning to take a strong stand against Moscow’s aggression in eastern Ukraine. There is solid evidence indicating not only that Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down by Russian-aided rebels in eastern Ukraine, but that the Kremlin has bolstered the rebels with heavy artillery despite toughened Western sanctions. Moreover, Russia has massed over 45,000 soldiers near the eastern Ukrainian border, who are poised to undertake a "humanitarian operation." The large convoy of trucks Russia is sending to aid rebel-held Lugansk could prove to be a thinly disguised Trojan horse, setting off a major showdown once it arrives at the border.
President Vladimir Putin’s double game has only ramped up since the downing of MH17, in response to the recent gains Ukraine’s military forces have been making against the rebels. After a turning-point victory in liberating the strategic town of Slavyansk last month, the Ukrainian military has gone on to retake three-fourths of its lost territory and is now pounding the last two major rebel strongholds, Donetsk and Lugansk. Many of these rebels are not just pro-Russian sympathizers, they are full-fledged Russian citizens — including some notorious bad apples like Igor Strelkov and Vladimir Antyufeyev, whom Russia previously used in not-so-subtle attempts to destabilize former members of the Warsaw Pact. Now Moscow is also aiding them by firing artillery across the border at Ukrainian forces attempting a final rout of the rebels.
The time has come for the West to make a decisive move to counter Putin’s irregular war against Ukraine. The Russian president has introduced a perilous new norm into the international system, namely that it is legitimate to violate the borders of other countries in order to "protect" not just ethnic Russians, but "Russian speakers" — with military means if necessary. Putin has notoriously threatened to annex Transnistria, the Russian-speaking territory of Moldova, inter alia. The Putin Doctrine represents a serious transgression of the status quo that has guaranteed the continent’s security since the end of World War II; moreover, it violates the most essential tenet of the post-1945 international order.
The aim of Western actions must involve compelling Russia to end all support for the rebels in eastern Ukraine and ensure complete respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity. In order to bring about this result — and ensure Moscow does not continue its dangerous double game — a comprehensive approach is needed. It should consist of three elements: even tougher economic sanctions; military armaments to Ukraine; and an updated NATO strategy. The combined effect of this approach is to persuade the Kremlin that the cost of its Ukraine adventure and aggressive pursuit of the Putin Doctrine is too high.
The West has imposed economic sanctions on Russia for the past several months, but the results thus far have been feeble. The problem is partly that the sanctions started small and were only slowly ratcheted up. Moreover, European sanctions have been noticeably weaker than U.S. measures, feeding Putin’s calculation that he can continue to act as he chooses, while a reluctant Europe hesitates to impose sufficiently punishing measures.
The sanctions that the United States and the European Union put in place on July 29, however, are strong enough to get Moscow’s attention. Indeed, despite Russia’s counter-sanctions on European and American food products, Putin is witnessing the failure of his efforts to split Europe from the United States — not to mention the larger failure of preventing Kiev’s new government from tilting to the West. But these measures have not been enough to actually deter Russia from continuing to intervene in eastern Ukraine. The West needs to make clear that the latest sanctions will not be the last if Moscow’s aggression is not rapidly terminated.
The second part of a comprehensive strategy is to make it easier for Ukraine to re-establish control in its restive east. Since his late-May election, President Petro Poroshenko has conducted a successful counteroffensive against the rebels in eastern Ukraine. His forces have resealed a significant part of its eastern border and taken back much of the territory seized by the rebel forces. But as Poroshenko’s troops have advanced, Moscow has increased the amount and sophistication of military supplies to Ukraine, including the SA-11 surface-to-air missile system that shot down MH17 and the SA-13 system. Thus far, his multiple requests for direct lethal aid have only met with reluctance in Brussels and Washington.
The West has dithered under the assumption that providing lethal aid to Ukraine would escalate the conflict. But a sanctions-dominant approach clearly has not prevented escalation. Indeed, with France’s determination to sell the Mistral ships to Russia, the West is in the peculiar position of arming the aggressor and forbidding arms to the victim. If Russia does not cease firing missiles at Ukrainian forces and supplying the rebels with arms and equipment, and does not pull troops back from the border within two weeks, the West should begin supplying Ukraine proper with anti-tank missiles, anti-aircraft missile batteries, and a variety of additional infantry weaponry. And it should immediately threaten to do even more if Russia invades eastern Ukraine — including inviting Kiev to join NATO.
The third element of a comprehensive strategy against Moscow requires a clear-eyed understanding of the Putin Doctrine. His stated right to "protect" Russian speakers is an invitation to intervene along Russia’s border in all directions, including in the territory of America’s NATO allies in the Baltics and elsewhere. For this reason, Washington’s response must involve a new approach at NATO for managing the Russian relationship. The NATO-Russia Joint Doctrine that concluded in the late 1990s, which saw Russia as a partner, and which spoke of not building military infrastructure in the new NATO members or permanently deploying major military equipment and forces, needs to be reviewed. Publicly.
The small steps taken earlier this year to reassure NATO’s eastern members — Baltic air policing, NATO maritime movements, several small-scale NATO exercises, placement of U.S. and Western European aircraft around the Baltics and in Poland, and the deployment of a company of U.S. paratroopers to Poland — need substantial reinforcing. If Russia fails to respond to tougher sanctions, pointed diplomacy, and lethal aid supplied to the Ukraine military, the allies must take further measures at September’s NATO summit in Wales.
It would be prudent to follow up NATO’s suspension of cooperation with Russia with an official review, with one of the options being maintaining the suspension and another being to end it and all other forms of cooperation. Because Washington still needs Moscow’s help with a handful of key things (missile defense, Iran negotiations, Syria peace talks, and agreeing to rules governing cyberwarfare), the aim would be to list ending the NATO-Russia Council as an option — but with the unstated intention of not actually following through. As NATO’s Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow has been arguing, Russia has begun treating the United States and the alliance as an adversary. This is why we need to go beyond suspension and dangle complete cessation, even if for the time being we don’t plan to make good on this threat.
Regarding NATO’s troop placement, however, the United States needs to use this as the major means of reassuring our allies. It would be a good idea to bring the level of U.S. troops in Eastern Europe up to 1,000 from the temporary placement of 600 paratroopers (this could include 100 to 150 "soft forces," such as trainers). Washington also needs to do its best to get the Western Europeans to add to this total. To entice the Europeans to match the U.S. commitment, Washington should propose not permanent placement but a perpetual rotational arrangement. This way, the reddish line of permanent placement would not be crossed, but NATO would nonetheless achieve upgraded deterrence capability, while mollifying Poland and the Baltics.
Eastern European nations such as Poland are likely to welcome and add to increased capabilities commitments; Western Europeans nations, however, are far more hesitant. Direct lethal aid and a regularized rotational U.S.-Europe troop placement will go most of the way toward re-establishing conventional deterrence against Moscow. But to go all the way, Western allies also need to conduct a yearly exercise in Poland (and make announcements that in future years this new major exercise will be taking place in the Baltic states). This should be a major ground-air exercise of the NATO Response Force (NRF), with a military plan for defending an invasion from the east.
Regarding military capabilities, the United States should endorse both the German proposal to organize clusters of allies that would increase their military capabilities and Britain’s proposal that would align Western allies to spearhead NATO military operations beyond what the current NRF plans call for. It is worth remembering that crude measures like the level of overall defense spending are far less important than the current state of military capabilities, which lately have been enhanced even by Western allies that have reduced their defense spending (e.g. France, Britain, and Germany). Furthermore, the alliance ought to augment its operational air force capabilities to be able to conduct 30-day air operations like the one carried out in Libya in 2011 (with the necessary fighter aircraft, flight crews, refueling aircraft, drones, and satellite surveillance). NATO needs to be thinking of capabilities in the full spectrum of land, naval, air, and cyber-power, and air capability is the biggest gap.
Indeed, the time has come for the West to take an even stronger stand against Russian aggression and force Putin to back down and end this crisis. The West should proceed with a fuller slate of toughened sanctions, targeting all major sectors of the Russian economy — virtually all of their products and services — and a full-fledged embargo against transferring any arms or defense technology to Russia. Tightening the economic screws is still a major element of a successful strategy to get Russia to cease and desist. But this is not enough.
The Russian president needs to be deterred from annexing other contested territories, like Transnistria, and reinforcing his ugly new international relations norm by deeply interfering in the internal affairs of other national states, such as the Baltics. This will require a series of additional and stronger military moves on the European chessboard. Let Crimea be the apogee of revanchist Russian aggrandizement. It is time for global security and international law to push back strongly against bellicose Russian dictates. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Game of Thrones ended Sunday night, with a bit of a fizzle where there was supposed to be a bang. The episode wasn’t going too badly, all things considered, until Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) emerged from the Red Keep’s dungeons to propose that Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), a wheelchair-bound prophet, had the best shot at uniting the people of Westeros.
“There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it,” he said. “And who has a better story than Bran the Broken, the boy who fell from a high tower and lived? He knew he’d never walk again, so he learned to fly. He crossed beyond the Wall, a crippled boy, and became the three-eyed raven. He is our memory, the keeper of all our stories. The wars, weddings, births, massacres, famines. Our triumphs, our defeats, our past. Who better to lead us into the future?”
So after eight seasons of intrigue, Tyrion’s case for Bran’s ascension is a brief monologue that seemingly lays out the show’s philosophy—how to break the wheel of oppression, rule, and struggle that has defined Westeros’s history. This endless conflict is what made Game of Thrones such a relatable battle epic. Tyrion, within the story, reasserts the power of story in his speech. But what he concludes is that the most compelling story belongs to . . . the cryptic bird guy.
Feinting to Bran is such an odd choice that for a moment I thought it was a joke. (I was not alone; even Hempstead-Wright initially thought the script was having fun at his expense.) To be sure, Game of Thrones has been determined to subvert expectations in its final season, and Vegas bookies had their money on Bran from the beginning of Season 8. But dispassionate, mysterious Bran is not exactly classic leadership material, and he certainly doesn’t seem qualified to lead troops into battle, or to inspire a rabble of hungry Westerosi. It doesn’t help that his sister seceded from Westeros entirely as soon as he was nominated for kingship—meaning that the Stark family isn’t even a part of the Seven (or Six!) Kingdoms anymore, which might sit very strangely with the leaders of Dorne, the Iron Islands, and Highgarden, all of whom have also had their flirtations with independence.
And this is to say nothing of Bran’s immersion in just one of Westeros’s multiple religions. The Three-Eyed Raven is magic from the old gods, not the new; the resurgent sect of fundamentalist worship of the Seven might have a thing or two to say about answering to a heathen tree-worshipping bird warg, and that’s without even touching what kind of inroads Melisandre’s religion, the worship of R’hllor, might have made after Stannis Baratheon brought the gospel of the night being dark and full of terrors to Westeros.
The only reason this tentative plan seems to stick is because Bran can’t have children—a problematic assertion about people in wheelchairs, and also one that Sansa tells absolutely everyone, propriety be damned. The idea is to move away from dynastic monarchs to committee-selected monarchs. This is a nice idea, but not a perfect solution; Bran might break the wheel right now, but Tyrion’s tenuous compromise doesn’t exactly set forward a path for the future.
Tyrion’s good at stories. The first time he was Hand of the King, in Season 2, he was adept at spinning Joffrey’s tyrannical rule into goodwill from the people. He believed in Daenerys’s story—the long-lost Targaryen daughter, bringing her justice and her mercy on the backs of three fire-breathing dragons. I don’t believe for a second that he actually thought Bran’s was the best story of anyone who gathered as part of that council. How could it be? We watched Bran, for multiple seasons, and his plot was frequently as dull as paint drying; a lot of confusing lore in an icy place, where the only action was watching Bran’s eyes roll back in his head. Yet he’s somehow more interesting than a slave-turned-captain, a captive-turned-queen, a nimble assassin, Westeros’s first female knight, and the Lady of the Iron Islands? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
I'm Stuart Varney and this is "My Take."
If you're a moderate, a middle-of-the-road Democrat you know a JFK kind of guy, even a Bill Clinton. Who do you have for the 2020 race? Nobody.
Your best hope is former Vice President Joe Biden but he's not declared his candidacy at this point, and if he runs and wins, he wouldn't be sitting in the Oval Office until he's almost 79-years-old. His age would be a factor in a presidential election.
YOU CAN WATCH "MY TAKE WITH STUART VARNEY" EXCLUSIVELY ON FOX NATION. SIGN UP FOR YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW
The rest of the field has left you behind. Kirsten Gillibrand wants full government health care. She sees no role for private health insurance.
One hundred fifty million Americans ought to lose the insurance they get from their employer and trust the government...instead! Talk about radical.
Bernie Sanders wants a huge estate tax increase: he doesn't want you leaving much to the grandkids!
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who now seems to lead the Democratic party, wants huge increases in income taxes, plus trillions in spending on green energy.
Senator Elizabeth Warren wants a wealth tax.
Senator Richard Blumenthal wants an increase in social security taxes imposed on the rich.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
In my opinion, the Democrats have taken a sharp left turn towards socialism: it's tax and spend on steroids. So what does a moderate Democrat do? Leave the party? Back an independent like former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz?
Hope the Democrats lose again in 2020 to flush the socialists out?
Or, more likely, pray that Joe Biden runs? Time to bring in a moderate Democrat.....
Adapted from Stuart Varney's "My Take" monologue on Fox Nation on 6, 2019.
YOU CAN WATCH "MY TAKE WITH STUART VARNEY" EXCLUSIVELY ON FOX NATION. SIGN UP FOR YOUR FREE TRIAL NOW | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
On Saturday, June 21 one of the Republic of Namibia's rare desert elephants was felled by a hunter's rifle. Unlike most of the other elephants that die on any given day in Africa, this particular elephant was slain legally. Namibia has reportedly sold nine hunting permits to foreign hunters for undisclosed amounts. Two of the bulls, including the first to be killed last month, are "problem" animals who have come into conflict with local humans. The remaining seven will be killed for their trophies.
Desert elephants, which can only be found in Namibia and Mali, are not a separate species or subspecies. They are, however, uniquely adapted to their arid environments. The animals have a few morphological differences from savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana), most notably their thinner bodies and wider feet. They also possess a number of unique behaviors shared by no other African elephants, such as digging wells to purify their drinking water. Tourists routinely travel to Namibia to volunteer in the elephants' conservation and organizations such as Desert Lion and Elephant Conservation have been set up to protect and study them.
Namibia's desert elephants were nearly wiped out by poachers before the international ivory ban was first established in 1989. The country says it is now home to about 600 desert elephants, a number that conservationists dispute. According to the Conservation Action Trust, there are only about 100 desert elephants left in Namibia, including just 18 adult males. The cull would remove half of those males. According to the organization, the loss of adult role models would create more behavior problems in the future and also result in a loss of the population's unique mannerisms.
Namibia, however, does not see its desert elephants as animals that are any different from the other elephants within its borders. In a press release (pdf) sent at the beginning of June, Simeon N. Negumbo, permanent secretary of Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism, wrote that the country is home to more than 20,000 elephants and the region where the hunts will take place has a total of 391 elephants with a 55 percent sex ratio. He called desert elephants "tourist attractions" and said all elephants in the country are "no longer rare...but only potentially valuable." He noted that human–wildlife conflict is increasing, and that some humans have been killed by elephant attacks.
Especially ironic given that last point, a hunter named Johann Louw was attacked and trampled by a Namibian elephant on July 5. Louw and his hunting party had reportedly received one of the nine desert elephant hunting permits. Louw has been hospitalized. The fate of the elephant that attacked him is unknown as of this writing.
This entire situation echoes so many of the problems facing elephants today. In many regions the animals are being poached into oblivion. In a few others they are mostly protected and breeding well but are also increasingly crowded into ever-shrinking habitats, putting them in conflict with both humans and their own kind as they compete for food and space. I have been writing about elephants now for 25 years and it's impossible to say how this will all pan out. Tragically, the only certain outcome I can see these days is death.
Photos: Desert elephant bull and cow photographed by Vernon Swanepoel. Used under Creative Commons license | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Last week Subway, the world’s biggest fast food chain, became the latest in the industry to announce it was adopting a stronger antibiotic-free policy—serving chicken and turkey raised without medicines intended to fight bacterial infections starting next year. The announcement came shortly before a petition with hundreds of thousands of signatures was about to be delivered to Subway’s headquarters in Connecticut calling for an end to antibiotic use in the sandwich maker’s food supply chain. More and more restaurant chains and food production companies are taking action against antibiotic overuse, in large part due to public demand. Although the trend started with Chipotle and Panera Bread, fast-food giants such as McDonald’s and Chik-fil-A are also making the switch. As more large food chains commit to antibiotic-free policies, suppliers will be forced to adopt new practices or lose vital sales.
Overusing antibiotics can lead to bacteria that are resistant to treatment. Limiting antibiotic use to when it is strictly necessary—in humans as well as in animals—is vital in order to ensure their continued efficacy. That’s why advocacy groups, wielding massive petitions, had been calling for Subway to stop using meat from suppliers that raised their animals with routine antibiotics and rely instead on what they referred to as antibiotic-free livestock.
But the term antibiotic-free is a bit of a misnomer. According to Bill Wenzel, Antibiotics Program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the PIRG is not calling for a total ban on antibiotics, which are at times necessary to treat sick animals. What the group seeks to eliminate is the routine overuse of antibiotics for growth promotion or wide-scale disease prevention. Routine use of antibiotics is mainly seen in large-scale farming operations, where animals are kept in close, confined areas that often become breeding grounds for transmitting illnesses. Addressing the routine use of antibiotics—mainly seen with cattle and pigs—thus requires a change in farming practices.
When it comes to taking action against antibiotic overuse, efforts in the marketplace have been much more effective than tackling the government. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has guidelines in place that seek to restrict the routine use of antibiotics. Adopting those guidelines is voluntary, however. “One of the things that was frustrating to us was that we couldn’t move the Congress or the president to substantial action to take care of the public health threat,” Wenzel says.
Three states attempted to pass bills that would enact state-level policies. In Oregon and Maryland neither bill was voted into law. California is the one notable exception. Earlier this month the state signed into law legislation banning the use of antibiotics not prescribed by a veterinarian, including routine antibiotics for disease prevention. “Our hope is that now that California has proven that it can be done, other states will take up the charge as well,” says Lena Brook, a food policy advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The NRDC, along with PIRG, were two of the advocacy groups who planned to deliver the petition with nearly 300,000 signatures to Subway.
Consumers have already demonstrated the ability to change company policy. “Collectively, the companies are ahead of where the federal government is on this issue,” Brook says. “The marketplace is leading the charge.”
Chipotle in 2001 and Panera Bread in 2004 became the first restaurant chains to commit to sourcing some of their meat from antibiotic-free livestock. Other major chains, however, including McDonalds and Chick-fil-A, are beginning to take action as well, particularly in regards to sourcing poultry. This is partly because three major poultry producers—Tyson Foods, Purdue Farms and Pilgrim’s Pride—have all taken measures to reduce the amount of medically unnecessary antibiotics used. “Chicken is the low-hanging fruit in this scenario,” Brook says. For restaurants, making the switch to antibiotic-free beef and pork is where the real difficulty lies, because there’s so much less available.
Subway plans to switch to antibiotic-free beef and pork by 2025. Its biggest challenge will be securing a steady supplier that can meet both its standards and its demand for meat.
Restaurant chains taking such actions cause an industry-wide domino effect due to their power in the marketplace. “Larger restaurant chains deal with so much volume that having them put strict requirements in place affects change,” Wenzel says. Those requirements put financial pressure on farmers and food producers, unlike the voluntary guidelines set by the FDA. In order to continue doing business with major buyers, meat suppliers will have to follow requirements regarding antibiotics—although they have a few years to implement those changes. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Blazers GM Olshey says it was "constructive" in that Blazers were able to get their message across face-to-face in meeting at The Nines | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Ok, it might not be ALL the X399 and X370 motherboards in the world, but it's a good start. We covered AMD's press event earlier today (yeah, it's night time here in Taipei) and couldn't help but notice the constellation of Ryzen and ThreadRipper motherboards adorning the venue, all fresh and awaiting their new Ryzen 7, 5, and 16C/32T ThreadRipper denizens.
The slots, the chokes, the sockets...its all here. Well, except detailed specifications. We're running about for the next few days to track down all the details, so stay tuned. But for now we wanted to share some pictures of AMD's finest in all their glory--some things are just cool. If nothing else, it's a great display of just why the press hates glass cases.
Without further ado, and in no particular order (trust me)...
Image 1 of 3 Image 2 of 3 Image 3 of 3
Image 1 of 9 Image 2 of 9 Image 3 of 9 Image 4 of 9 Image 5 of 9 Image 6 of 9 Image 7 of 9 Image 8 of 9 Image 9 of 9
Image 1 of 6 Image 2 of 6 Image 3 of 6 Image 4 of 6 Image 5 of 6 Image 6 of 6 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Tuesday endorsed President Barack Obama’s call for military action in Syria.
Following a meeting with President Obama and other key congressional leaders on Syria, Speaker John Boehner says, "I'm going to support the president's call for action."
The top elected Republican in Washington, Boehner said following a meeting at the White House that he intended to support Obama’s plan for limited strikes against the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria.
"I am going to support the president's call for action,” he told reporters. "I believe my colleagues should support this call for action."
As some Republicans signal their reluctance to approve Obama’s request for authority to intervene in Syria, Boehner’s endorsement could be influential. The GOP speaker is often hesitant to get out in front of his unruly Republican conference on major issues, giving Boehner’s pronouncement on Tuesday all the more weight.
Following the meeting, Boehner's deputy, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., backed the use of force, as well.
“The use of these weapons has to be responded to,” Boehner said. "And only the United States has the capability and capacity to stop Assad and to warn others around the world that this type of behavior is not going to be tolerated."
But, as if to drive home the point that Republicans aren’t onboard with Obama, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Republicans’ 2012 vice presidential nominee who often sides with Boehner over conservative insurgents on many issues, voiced his skepticism.
"The President has some work to do to recover from his grave missteps in Syria. He needs to clearly demonstrate that the use of military force would strengthen America's security,” Ryan said in a statement. “I want to hear his case to Congress and to the American people."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., emerged following the meeting to express her own support for the strikes, on a humanitarian basis. But she said that Obama should lay out more of the evidence against Assad to help build his case for action.
"I believe the American people need to hear more about the intelligence that supports this action," she said.
If Boehner and Cantor can deliver a large number of Republican votes, they could combine with Democrats in the House to help advance the resolution supporting the use of force in Syria through the politically-tricky House of Representatives. But Boehner’s office also made clear that the Obama administration would need to spearhead any effort to win the necessary votes in the House.
“Everyone understands that it is an uphill battle to pass a resolution, and the speaker expects the White House to provide answers to members' questions and take the lead on any whipping effort,” said Michael Steel, a spokesman for the speaker.
This story was originally published on | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Code: find ./ -type f -exec sed -i 's/return-void-barrier/return-void/g' {} \;
If your device bootloops, which is not likely, you will need to wipe
Once booted, attempt to install an app either from the Market or a side loaded apk. If the install fails and borks out, a wipe is necessary.
If it is determined you have to wipe, do a Factory Reset in Android Settings menu. At this time do not use Clockwork Recovery to wipe.
Once wiped, flash rom again and reboot.
Welcome to Team Tiamat Xoom Rom 1.0Team Tiamat Xoom Rom Team organization:BigrushdogSolarnzMadIndustriesThese guys really know how to win. That why we roll like that!This OP will be quick and dirty as I am going on vacation. Any Xoomers around Panama City Beach wanna by me a beer, holla.First and foremost, the Xoom Community owes a debt of gratitude to Roach from the Transformer board. He pointed me toward theTruly the most epic piece of script. Roach is WIN in it's purest form! Thanks man, you got the party started!OK, the goods...Built from Verizon 3G stock image! Everybody keeps their google winningCompletly deodexed, zip aligned stock system apps and framework.Pure stock system apps and framework for you themers and minimalists. EXCEPT framework-res.apk. It was not affected by deodex, so you can grab stock from anywhere.As far as we can tell, ANY XOOM DEVICE CAN FLASH THIS NO WORRIES. HOWEVER, IF YOU ARE COMING FROM A XOOM WITH ANYTHING BUT THE VERIZON 3G FIRMWARE, IT IS POSSIBLE YOU MAY HAVE TO DO A FULL WIPEExample: If you have a US Wifi Only device, but you upgraded with my method to the Verizon 3g upgrade kit, YOU WOULD NOT HAVE TO WIPE. If you have a UK Wifi Only model with UK wifi only 3.1, it is possible you may have to wipe.Rom FeaturesPacked with Tiamat 1.4.4 stock GPU. Flash OC'd gpu version is you wish.rooted with SU and superuser, of courseDesktop UA string, CRT Screen Off Animation, Call setting with SIP, and SMS capable enabled.At the moment, with the 3g fix you will not have the SIP calling or SMS capabilities. This is because we have had to go back to a more stock framework-res.apk.Supercircle 100 point battery mod! thanks JewremyWifi Ad-Hoc mod enabled! thanks KelvieUSB Mass Storage Enabled. Use Dinomight's Mass Storage Tool or activity manager script. I've got some truly epic things lined up for this now that I can unleash the brd|smaliBeast !Init.d boot scripts enabled. Thanks Steady Hawkin!Busybox built inlocal.init.rc enabled in system/etcopenVPN binary and script from CyanogenMod. untested but with tun.ko included, should win. Also grabbed Wireless Toolkit binary with built in symlinks from CyanogenModadded Quickboot, Estrongs File Explorer, and Flash Player hulufied brdizzled in data/apps. This was included so users coming from full wipe can be up and running. Feel free to remove from zip before flashing.And i'm sure there's more but can't remember atm.Instructions:1) Back up your device's apps and data and nandroid to be safe2) Put rom in root of MicroSD3) Flash rom4) Flash the 3g Fix if you're activated on Verizon.5) Reboot6) DETERMINE IF A WIPE IS NECESSARY6) Welcome to Team Tiamat Xoom Rom motoGoogEpicPwnageWinningnessIf you want to have the charging light on while the xoom is powered on, flash optional update 2. This only turns the charging light on.Download:MD5 Checksum 1bc044999c4b22107f332c3a9c4dcf8dOptional downloads (quick updates to the full rom): Team Tiamat Xoom Rom 1.0 Update 1 - 3g fix (Not the full rom, just a quick fix)MD5 Checksum d2e5078d9825389d5619dbb862ea0dd8MD5 Checksum d8fccf5c75882194b74c7e8a935301fdMD5 Checksum 8d9cdb4d2cb75869ef6c5786f82b09e7 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Σύμφωνα με αποκαλυπτικό δημοσίευμα του Guardian , κατά την έρευνά τους για να ανάψουν το πράσινο φως στη γλυφοσάτη το 2017, οι ευρωπαϊκές ρυθμιστικές αρχές (Efsa) βασίστηκαν στην έκθεση του ομοσπονδιακού Ινστιτούτου Αξιολόγησης Κινδύνων (BfR) της Γερμανίας, η οποία αποτελεί «αντιγραφή και επικόλληση» μελετών της Monsanto και άλλων εταιρειών. Σημειώνεται πως η εν λόγω έκθεση οδήγησε στην ανανέωση της πενταετούς άδειας για το αμφιλεγόμενο προϊόν τον Δεκέμβριο του 2017, και ακολούθως στην αντίστοιχη από τη χώρα μας και το υπουργείο Αγροτικής Ανάπτυξης και Τροφίμων τον Μάρτιο του 2018
Όπως αναφέρει η βρετανική εφημερίδα, η αποκάλυψη ήρθε κατόπιν μελέτης μιας ομάδας ευρωβουλευτών από αρκετά κόμματα του Ευρωπαϊκού Κοινοβουλίου, η οποία απέδειξε πως η μελέτη της BfR αποτελεί λογοκλοπή κατά 50,1% ολόκληρων κεφαλαίων για τους κινδύνους για την υγεία, περιλαμβάνοντας ολόκληρες παραγράφους και σελίδες κειμένων. Η αποκάλυψη έρχεται λίγες μόλις ώρες πριν από κρίσιμες αποφάσεις που αναμένεται να λάβει το Ευρωκοινοβούλιο για την ενίσχυση του ανεξάρτητου ελέγχου της διαδικασίας έγκρισης φυτοφαρμάκων.
Οι συντάκτες της έκθεσης δήλωσαν ότι βρήκαν «σαφείς αποδείξεις ότι η έρευνα της BfR παρουσιάστηκε σκόπιμα ως μία ανεξάρτητη εκτίμηση, ενώ στην πραγματικότητα ο φορέας απλώς αναπαρήγαγε τις εκτιμήσεις του αγροχημικού κλάδου».
«Αυτό εξηγεί γιατί η εκτίμηση του Παγκόσμιου Οργανισμού Υγείας (ΠΟΥ) για τη γλυφοσάτη ως πιθανώς καρκινογόνα ουσία ήταν τόσο αντίθετη με την αξιολόγηση της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης, η οποία χορήγησε σε αυτό το τοξικό παρασιτοκτόνο ένα καθαρό υγειονομικό πιστοποιητικό, απορρίπτοντας τις προειδοποιήσεις για τους κινδύνους» ανέφερε η ευρωβουλευτής των Πρασίνων, Μόλι Σκοτ Κάτο, η οποία χαρακτήρισε την κλίμακα της φερόμενης λογοκλοπής από τους συγγραφείς της γερμανικής BfR ως «εξαιρετικά ανησυχητική».
Για «ενσωμάτωση» αποσπασμάτων κάνουν λόγο οι Γερμανοί
Στο δημοσίευμα φιλοξενείται αντίδραση της Ευρωπαϊκής Αρχής για την Ασφάλεια των Τροφίμων (Efsa), με εκπρόσωπο της Αρχής να αναφέρει πως «η έκθεση δεν παρέχει νέες επιστημονικές πληροφορίες που να θέτουν υπό αμφισβήτηση την αξιολόγηση και τα συμπεράσματα για τη γλυφοσάτη. Η Efsa επιμένει στην αξιοπιστία των διαδικασιών αξιολόγησης κινδύνου και τα συμπεράσματά της για τη γλυφοσάτη».
Σε ακόμα πιο απορριπτικό ύφος, σε δήλωσή της η BfR απέρριψε κάθε έννοια εσκεμμένης εξαπάτησης, υποστηρίζοντας πως οι συντάκτες της έχουν αξιολογήσει σχετικές εκθέσεις του κλάδου πριν επιλέξουν αποσπάσματα κειμένου για «ενσωμάτωση».
«Συχνά βλέπουμε ότι η πολυπλοκότητα της συμβατικής διαδικασίας για την επανέγκριση των παρασιτοκτόνων δραστικών ουσιών δεν γίνεται σωστά κατανοητή» φέρεται να δήλωσε ο καθηγητής της BfR, δρ. Αντρέας Χένσελ, συμπληρώνοντας πως «ο όρος “λογοκλοπή” δεν έχει σχέση με το πλαίσιο».
Όπως αναφέρει ο Guardian, ξεχωριστή ανάλυση των ερευνητικών μεθόδων που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για την αξιολόγηση της γλυφοσάτης από τον Διεθνή Οργανισμό για την Έρευνα για τον Καρκίνο (IARC) του Παγκόσμιου Οργανισμού Υγείας (ΠΟΥ), καθώς και από την Υπηρεσία Προστασίας του Περιβάλλοντος των ΗΠΑ (EPA), έθεσε επίσης ερωτήματα σχετικά με την ανεξαρτησία της ρυθμιστικής αρχής.
Συγκεκριμένα, διαπιστώθηκε πως οι ρυθμιστικές αρχές της EPA χρησιμοποίησαν μη δημοσιευμένες εκθέσεις του κλάδου στο 63% των μελετών που εξέτασαν, την ώρα που τον IARC βασίστηκε αποκλειστικά σε διαθέσιμη στο κοινό βιβλιογραφία. Σχεδόν τα τρία τέταρτα των επισκοπικών δημοσιεύσεων που εξετάστηκαν από τον IARC, έδειξαν στοιχεία γονοτοξικότητα στη γλυφοσάτη, συγκριτικά με το μόλις 1% των αναλύσεων της βιομηχανίας, σύμφωνα με τη μελέτη που δημοσιεύτηκε στο Environmental Sciences Europe. Υπενθυμίζεται πως τον περασμένο Αύγουστο, το δικαστήριο του Σαν Φρανσίσκο αποφάσισε την καταδίκη της πολυεθνικής, που πρόσφατα πέρασε στην κυριότητα της γερμανικής Bayer, απέναντι στον 42χρονο κηπουρό, Ντουέιν Τζόνσον, που είχε προσφύγει εναντίον της. Ο Τζόνσον κατηγόρησε την Monsanto πως ευθύνεται για την πρόκληση καρκίνου στον ίδιο, αφού ο ίδιος ψέκαζε επί σειρά ετών με τον ζιζανιοκτόνο της, Rounup, που περιέχει την ύποπτη για πρόκληση καρκίνου γλυφοσάτη. Το δικαστήριο τελικά αποφάσισε ότι η Monsanto ενήργησε κακοβούλως και το ζιζανιοτόνο της «συνέβαλε σημαντικά» στην ασθένεια του Τζόνσον, επιδικάζοντας συνολικές αποζημιώσεις ύψους 289 εκατ. δολαρίων. Κατόπιν έφεσης, το δικαστήριο αποφάσισε τον Οκτώβριο τη μείωση του προστίμου, χωρίς να αναιρέσει την καταδίκη της εταιρείας.
Απόφαση-κόλαφος από τη Γαλλία
Στο μεταξύ, την ίδια ημέρα, γαλλικό δικαστήριο ακύρωσε την άδεια για ένα από τα προϊόντα της Monsanto που βασίζονται στη γλυφοσάτη, απαντώντας στις ανησυχίες σχετικές με την ασφάλεια, συντελώντας το τελευταίο χτύπημα που δέχεται η εταιρεία που πλέον βρίσκεται στα χέρια της Bayer.
Σύμφωνα με τους New York Times , δικαστήριο της Λυών αποφάσισε πως η έγκριση που χορήγησε ο Γαλλικός Οργανισμός Περιβάλλοντος (ANSE) το 2017 στο γνωστό RoundUp Pro 360, δεν είχε λάβει υπόψη τους δυνητικούς κινδύνους για την υγεία. Στο ίδιο δημοσίευμα αναφέρεται πως, σύμφωνα με δεσμεύσεις του Εμάνουελ Μακρόν, η γλυφοσάτη πρόκειται να αποσυρθεί από τη Γαλλία εντός τριετίας.
Το γαλλικό δικαστήριο δήλωσε πως η ANSE δεν τήρησε μια αρχή προφύλαξης του γαλλικού δικαίου, ιδίως επειδή δεν πραγματοποίησε ειδική αξιολόγηση των κινδύνων για την υγεία για το RoundUp Pro 360, ενώ αξίζει να σημειωθεί πως ούτε η ANSE, ούτε η Bayer έχουν μέχρι στιγμής αντιδράσει δημόσια.
«Παρά την έγκριση της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης για τη γλυφοσάτη, το δικαστήριο έκρινε ότι οι επιστημονικές μελέτες και τα πειράματα σε ζώα έδειξαν ότι το RoundUp Pro 360, ένα παρασκεύασμα του οποίου η τοξικότητα είναι μεγαλύτερη από εκείνη της γλυφοσάτης, είναι ένα καρκινογόνο προϊόν για τον άνθρωπο, τοξικό για την ανθρώπινη αναπαραγωγή και για τους υδρόβιους οργανισμούς» αναφέρει η περίληψη της απόφασης του δικαστηρίου.
«Αυτό είναι ένα σπουδαίο πρώτο [βήμα], το οποίο πρέπει να επαναληφθεί» δήλωσε η Κορίν Λεπάζ, πρώην υπουργός Περιβάλλοντος της Γαλλίας και μέλος της περιβαλλοντικής ένωσης CRIIGEN, που έφερε την υπόθεση στη γαλλική δικαιοσύνη.
Σημειώνεται πως η ένωση έχει αμφισβητήσει τη διαδικασία με την οποία η Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση ανανέωσε τη γενική άδεια για τη γλυφοσάτη, απαιτώντας μάλιστα την παραπομπή της υπόθεσης στο Ευρωπαϊκό Δικαστήριο, με το γαλλικό δικαστήριο να απαντά πως ένα τέτοιο μέτρο δεν είναι απαραίτητο.
Ζητούνται απαντήσεις από το ελληνικό υπουργείο Αγροτικής Ανάπτυξης
Υπό το φως των καταιγιστικών εξελίξεων από το Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο και την απόφαση για απαγόρευση στη Γαλλία, μένει να φανεί ποια θα είναι η αντίδραση της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης και του υπουργείου Αγροτικής Ανάπτυξης και Τροφίμων, που τον περασμένο Μάρτιο υπεραμύνθηκε της απόφασης για παροχή πενταετούς άδειας στην ύποπτη για καρκινογενέσεις ουσία.
Υπενθυμίζεται πως ο τότε υπουργός Αγροτικής Ανάπτυξης, Βαγγέλης Αποστόλου, είχε υπερασπιστεί την απόφαση του υπουργείου του απέναντι στις έντονες επικρίσεις, υποστηρίζοντας πως η Ελλάδα «δεν έχει τη δυνατότητα να αρνηθεί την έγκριση, έως τις 15/12/2022 που ισχύει η ανανέωση-παράταση της άδειας για το glyphosate στην Ευρώπη, σε σκευάσματα που περιέχουν αυτήν τη δραστική ουσία και βέβαια πληρούν τις προϋποθέσεις του σχετικού Εκτελεστικού Κανονισμού της Ε.Ε., που υποχρεώνει την απαλλαγή από τη βοηθητική ουσία POE-tallowamine».
Αξίζει ακόμη να σημειωθεί πως ο υπουργός ανέφερε τότε πως με το συγκεκριμένο φυτοπαρασκεύασμα «δεν υπάρχει πρόβλημα», παρότι αποδεχόταν πως είναι επιτακτική η ανάγκη να αναζητηθούν εναλλακτικές φιλικότερες προς το περιβάλλον και να μειωθεί η εξάρτηση της γεωργίας της Ε.Ε. από τα φάρμακα.
«Γι' αυτό είναι επιτακτική η ανάγκη να ξεκινήσει άμεσα η αναζήτηση εναλλακτικών, όλο και περισσότερο φιλικών στο περιβάλλον λύσεων για τα φυτοπαρασκευάσματα, που παρότι το ένα μετά το άλλο απομακρύνονται από τη φαρέτρα των Ευρωπαίων παραγωγών, εξακολουθούν να δημιουργούν αντιδράσεις, έστω κι αν δεν υπάρχει πρόβλημα, όπως συμβαίνει στη συγκεκριμένη περίπτωση» προσέθετε, τονίζοντας πως η χώρα μας είχε καταψηφίσει τη χρήση της γλυφοσάτης μαζί με τη Γαλλία. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Story Highlights 48% say economy is worsening, up from 45% in December, 36% in October
Public continues to be split on current state of the economy
Confidence that now is a good time to go job hunting holds at 66%
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans' outlook for the economy has soured in the past two months, with 48% now saying economic conditions are worsening -- up from 45% in December and 36% in November. Meanwhile, Americans remain positive about the availability of quality jobs and are still split on whether the economy is in overall good shape.
Americans were split last month on whether the economy is in good shape (50% saying "excellent" or "good") or not (49% saying "only fair" or "poor") and little has changed this month. Forty-nine percent now have a positive view (12% "excellent and 37% "good") and 50% a neutral (36% "only fair") or negative one (14% "poor").
Views on the availability of good jobs are much more positive, with 66% saying it is a good time to find a quality job. Even among those who think the economy is getting worse, almost half (48%) say now is a good time to find a quality job.
Gallup began asking the question about the availability of good jobs in August 2002, and the percentage saying it was a good time to find a quality job had never reached 50% until January 2017. Since then it has never been below 50% and has held relatively steady over the past nine months, ranging between 64% and 68%.
Prior to December, Americans had grown more optimistic during 2018 that the economy was getting better. The percentage believing the economy was improving, which stood at 46% in December 2017, rose to 57% by November 2018. However, a 10 percentage-point tumble to 47% in December was followed by a three-point drop this month to 44%. The corresponding level of pessimism over the past year saw the percentage thinking the economy is getting worse fall as low as 34% in October before rising to the current level of 48%.
The public has been dealing with several troubling economic factors this month, including the current federal government shutdown that began Dec. 20, volatility in the stock market that produced major declines in December and a government report released Jan. 4 that showed an uptick in national unemployment. All three events had occurred or were occurring while the poll was being conducted Jan. 2 through Jan. 10.
Partisan Gap Grows on Question of Whether Economy Is Getting Worse
The high-profile political contest between President Trump and the Democrats in Congress over the shutdown has been consistently in the news for more than a month, causing growing anxiety among Americans about the way the government is being run and feeding the already-powerful partisan split between Republicans and Democrats about Trump's performance as president.
The partisan split was evident throughout the last year on the issue of whether or not the economy was worsening, with the gap between Republicans and Democrats ranging between 53 points in April (Republicans 13%, Democrats 66%) and 41 points in October (Republicans 11%, Democrats 52%). Last month, the gap stood at 47 points, with 20% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats thinking the economy was getting worse.
Republicans, Democrats Differ Widely on Economy's Direction Right now, do you think that economic conditions in the country as a whole are getting better or getting worse? Republicans Democrats Party gap % % Pct. pts. January 2019 Getting better 83 18 65 Getting worse 13 74 61 December 2018 Getting better 76 22 54 Getting worse 20 67 47 November 2018 Getting better 87 32 55 Getting worse 9 57 48 "Party gap" shows percentage-point difference between Republicans and Democrats GALLUP
This month the gap between the two parties has jumped 14 points to 61%. The percentage of Democrats saying the economy is worsening grew to 74%, the percentage of Republicans dropped to 13%.
Bottom Line
While it is impossible to know what effect the federal shutdown has had on perceptions of the economy, it is a fact that a 16-day shutdown in October 2013 coincided with drops in public confidence in the economy. The decline in confidence disappeared within a few months, however.
With that in mind, it may turn out that the future of the unemployment rate and the stock market will have far more bearing than the shutdown on whether Americans' views on their nation's economy turn sour over the rest of 2019.
View complete question responses and trends.
Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Moore seeks to change Confederate-named school
Julianne Moore and producer Bruce Cohen both went to a northern Virginia high school that was named after a Confederate general, but they're campaigning to change that.
The former classmates have created a Change.org petition to rename J.E.B. Stuart High School to Thurgood Marshall High School, after the Supreme Court justice and civil rights leader. The petition cites the fatal shooting of nine African-Americans in Charleton, S.C., as the inspiration for the campaign to change the name.
In a statement to The Washington Post, Moore called it "reprehensible" that the school is named after a "person who fought for the enslavement of other human beings."
“We name our buildings, monuments, and parks after exalted and heroic individuals as a way to honor them, and inspire ourselves to do better and reach for more in our own lives,” Moore said in the statement. "I think the students of this school deserve better than that moniker.”
Moore and Cohen, who both attended the high school in the 1970s, said in the petition description that the school symbol was, and still is, an image of Stuart riding a horse and waving the Confederate flag. The Fairfax County school was named after Stuart when it was founded in 1959, five years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision that ordered the desegregation of schools, in what was widely seen as an act of defiance against the ruling, according to the Post.
The petition has garnered more than 29,000 signatures at the time of this article's publication. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Don't know which eye to look at? Just look at the bridge of their nose
183 shares | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
next Image 1 of 2
prev Image 2 of 2
The Mexican charter company whose 39-year-old plane crashed in Havana had been the subject of two serious complaints about its crews' performance over the last decade, according to authorities in Guyana and a retired pilot for Cuba's national airline.
Mexico's government said late Saturday that its National Civil Aviation Authority will carry out an operational audit of Damojh airlines to see if its "current operating conditions continue meeting regulations" and to help collect information for the investigation into Friday's crash in Cuba that left 110 dead.
The plane that crashed, a Boeing 737, was barred from Guyanese airspace last year after authorities discovered that its crew had been allowing dangerous overloading of luggage on flights to Cuba, Guyanese Civil Aviation Director Capt. Egbert Field told The Associated Press on Saturday.
The plane and crew were being rented from Mexico City-based Damojh by EasySky, a Honduras-based low-cost airline. Cuba's national carrier, Cubana de Aviacion, was also renting the plane and crew in a similar arrangement known as a "wet lease" before the aircraft veered on takeoff to the eastern Cuban city of Holguin and crashed into a field just after noon Friday, according to Mexican aviation authorities.
A Damojh employee in Mexico City declined to comment, saying the company would be communicating only through written statements. Mexican authorities said Damojh had permits needed to lease its aircraft and had passed a November 2017 verification of its maintenance program. They announced a new audit late Saturday.
Cuban Transportation Minister Adel Yzquierdo Rodriguez told reporters Saturday afternoon that Cubana had been renting the plane for less than a month under an arrangement in which the Mexican company was entirely responsible for maintenance of the aircraft. Armando Daniel Lopez, president of Cuba's Institute of Civil Aviation, told the AP that Cuban authorities had not received any complaints about the plane in that month. He declined to comment further.
Yzquierdo said it was routine for Cuba to rent planes under a variety of arrangements because of what he described as the country's inability to purchase its own aircraft due to the U.S. trade embargo on the island. Cuba has been able to buy planes produced in other countries, including France and Ukraine, but has pulled many from service due to maintenance problems and other issues.
"It's normal for us to rent planes," he said. "Why? Because it's convenient and because of the problem of the blockade that we have. Sometimes we can't buy the planes that we need, and we need to rent them."
He said that with Damojh, "the formula here is that they take care of the maintenance of the aircraft. That's their responsibility."
He said Cuba didn't have pilots certified to fly the Boeing, so it had hired the Mexican crew with the expectation that they were fully trained and certified by the proper authorities.
Yzquierdo also said the jet's "black box" voice recorder had been recovered and that Cuban officials had granted a U.S. request for investigators from Boeing to travel to the island.
Eyewitness and private salon owner Rocio Martinez said she heard a strange noise and looked up to see the plane with a turbine on fire.
"It had an engine on fire, in flames, it was falling toward the ground," Martinez said, adding that the plane veered into the field where it crashed, avoiding potential fatalities in a nearby residential area.
Field told AP that the Boeing 737 with tail number XA-UHZ had been flying four routes a week between Georgetown, Guyana, and Havana starting in October 2016. Cubans do not need visas to travel to Guyana, and the route was popular with Cubans working as "mules" to bring suitcases crammed with goods back home to the island, where virtually all consumer products are scarce and more expensive than in most other countries.
After Easy Sky canceled a series of flights in spring 2017, leaving hundreds of Cubans stranded at Guyana's main airport, authorities began inspecting the plane and discovered that crews were loading excessive amounts of baggage, leading to concerns the aircraft could be dangerously overburdened and unbalanced. In one instance, Guyanese authorities discovered suitcases stored in the plane's toilet.
"This is the same plane and tail number," Guyanese Infrastructure Minister David Patterson said. He and other Guyanese authorities said they did not immediately know if the crew suspended last May was the same one that died in Friday's crash. Damojh operates three Boeing 737s, two 737-300s and the 737-201 that crashed Friday, according to Mexican officials.
Ovidio Martinez Lopez, a pilot for Cubana for over 40 years until he retired six years ago, wrote in a post on Facebook that a plane rented from the Mexican company by Cubana briefly dropped off radar while over the city of Santa Clara in 2010 or 2011, triggering an immediate response by Cuban aviation security officials. As a result, Cuban officials suspended a captain and co-pilot for "serious technical knowledge issues," and Cuba's Aviation Security authority issued a formal recommendation that Cubana stop renting planes and crews from Damojh, Martinez wrote.
"They are many flight attendants and security personnel who refused to fly with this airline," Martinez wrote. "On this occasion, the recommendation was overlooked and they rented from them again."
Contacted by AP in Havana, Martinez confirmed his Facebook account but declined to comment further.
Mexican officials said the Boeing 737-201 was built in 1979.
Mexican aviation authorities said a team of experts would fly to Cuba on Saturday to take part in the investigation.
____
Associated Press writers Andrea Rodriguez in Havana and Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
EMBED >More News Videos Sunday's storm caused a tree to fall over a vehicle, trapping the driver inside, in the Bucktown neighborhood.
EMBED >More News Videos The water flooding the Edens expressway last night has receded, but, at one point, the water rose up to three feet high.
MY FEELINGS ARE HURT! New Edition canceled b/c of the rain inside UIC Pavilion. WHAT?! pic.twitter.com/u98VdbTCT2 — kathychaney (@kathychaney) July 24, 2016
EMBED >More News Videos Being cautious during the summer months can help prevent heat related illness.
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Investigators were on site Monday to determine what caused the collapse of a canopy at the CTA Blue Line stop at the Illinois Medical District. Normal Blue Line service was restored in time for the Monday morning commute.An aluminum canopy covering a pedestrian walkway was knocked onto the CTA Blue Line tracks at the Illinois Medical District station at about 7:00 p.m. A CTA spokesperson said it was immediately unclear if lightning or wind, or a combination, were to blame. The concrete ramp was still intact. No injuries were reported.Landscaping crews along the Eisenhower have been finding debris along the expressway, such as sheet metal and plexiglass that matches the pattern of the canopy that fell away.The Paulina entrance for the Blue Line is closed and nearby large tree branches are down.When severe storms came through the area last night, flashes appeared along this stretch of the Blue Line east of Ogden and part of the pedestrian canopy blew over."It's very scary. I want to know where it came from and how it happened because I ride the Blue Line every day," said Sheila Hill, a Blue Line passenger."I've never seen anything like it. It was amazing to me. It was just a boom and sparks and debris flying all over the tracks. I don't know how that's going to be fixed anytime soon," said another passenger, Victor Stroud.Crews worked through the night to restore service after the storm for the Monday morning commute.Two sisters driving along the Eisenhower took cell phone video of the dramatic flashes near the Illinois Medical District stop.Blue Line service was restored for the Monday morning commute, but some passengers did have a detour around Paulina."The only difference I noticed is that the exit I usually take was just blocked off and boarded up. So I kind of had to go around and take the Ogden exit," said passenger Adriel Cansino.The CTA says the incident is still under investigation.CTA Red and Brown lines were also temporarily stopped due to tree debris falling on the track at Armitage due to the Sunday storms. Brown Line service was impacted between Loop and Southport. Red Line service was impacted between Belmont and Grand.Meanwhile, the storms left people stranded at O'Hare, where 291 flights were cancelled Sunday. More than 80 were cancelled as of Monday morning.The Chicago River was near flooding level Sunday night in the Albany Park neighborhood where residents within a block of the river were told to remove their vehicles to avoid flood damage. Ald. Margaret Laurino (39th Ward) said city workers were working on mitigating the issue, according to her Facebook page.In Bucktown, the storm brought down utility poles and trees, including one over a vehicle on Seeley Avenue. The driver needed help getting out of the car."When (the tree) snapped it started pinning one guy in his car, so he couldn't even get out of his car," said witness Ronald Ayala.Most of Sunday was quiet and dry. By the end of the night, most counties in northeast Illinois and Lake County in Indiana saw severe thunderstorm warnings. Starting at about 5 p.m., Cook and Lake counties, including the communities of Rolling Meadows, Elk Grove, Niles and Evanston, saw storms and large hail. A second storm system dumped heavy rain throughout Chicago between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.The heat continued Sunday, which was the fourth day in a row with temperatures in the 90s. A heat advisory was in effect for most of the Chicago area most of the day with Heat Index values reaching upwards of 112 degrees Sunday afternoon.Some of the 326 boats which participated in the 108th Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac encountered storms late Saturday and early Sunday.The 333-mile race from Chicago to Mackinac Island in northern Michigan kicked off on Saturday. Arete reached the island first, according to the race's Facebook page The event is the longest freshwater sailing race in the world.A hot and humid Saturday was punctuated with evening thunderstorms that swept through the Chicago area, causing high winds, heavy rains, flooding and the delay of a Coldplay concert at Soldier Field.The storms caused power outages, too. As of Sunday afternoon, 99 percent of the nearly 60,000 ComEd customers who lost power had service restored.The Edens Expressway flooded Saturday night but has since receded. At one point, the water rose up to three feet high.The water was so high at the Winnetka underpass on the Edens, a spot that tends to flood often, several people got stuck. Five cars with people inside became stuck on the Edens in the deep water and had to be rescued.When help arrived, emergency crews brought a raft out to rescue the stranded motorists.No one was hurt but we're told several homes in the area also flooded.The north suburbs, particularly around Winnetka and Northfield, saw the most rain with upwards of four inches.Many communities saw major flooding, but the heavy rain also canceled the New Edition concert at the UIC-Pavilion due to flooding inside the venue. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Facts and information about Auguries *** Roman Priests and Religion *** History, Facts and Information about Auguries *** Definition of Augurs and Auguries *** Auguries *** Power of the Augur *** Definition of Augury and Auguries *** Info about the Auguries *** Taking the Auspices Auguries Power of the Augur
The ceremony and function of the augur was extremely important to the Romans and the powerful augurs would be consulted prior to any major undertaking in Roman society, both public and private, including matters relating to war, commerce, and religion. The augurs were to tell whether any action should be fortunate or prejudicial to any particular persons, or to the whole commonwealth. Definition of Augury
The word augury was directly related to interpreting the behaviour of birds. Interpretations of divinations achieved by augury was taken from the the flight of birds which were called the auspices.
Auguries
There were five kinds of auguries which were used in Ancient Rome: From the appearances in heaven such as thunder, lightning, comets and other meteors; as, for instance, whether the thunder came from the right or left, whether the number of strokes was even or odd *** From birds (hence the name of auspices). Some birds furnished them with observations from their chattering and singing in birds such as such as crows and owls. Other birds from their flying such as as eagles and vultures *** From chickens kept in a coop for this purpose. The manner of divining from chickens were that early in the morning the augur, commanding a general silence, ordered the coop to be opened, and threw down a handful of crumbs or corn. If the chickens did not immediately run to the food, if they scattered it with their wings, if they went by without taking notice of it, or if they flew away, the omen was believed to be unfortunate indicating danger or misfortune. But if the chickens leaped directly from the pen, and eat voraciously there was great assurance of happiness and success *** From animals such as foxes, wolves, goats, heifers etc. The general observations about the animals were whether they appeared in a strange place, or crossed the way, or whether they ran to the right or the left etc. *** The last kind of divination was from unusual accidents, such as sneezing, stumbling, seeing apparitions, hearing strange voices, the falling of salt upon the table etc. Taking the Auspices
To take the auguries relating to birds or observing the heavens, the augur stood upon a tower with his head covered in a gown, peculiar to his office, and turning his face towards the east, marked out the heavens into four quarters, with a short, straight rod, with a little turning at one end. After completing this ceremony he stood waiting for the omen, which never signified anything, unless confirmed by another of the same sort. The right of taking auspices was long the peculiar privilege of the patricians and frequently afforded them pretexts for evading the demands of the plebeians. When a law was to be proposed which would aid the Plebs it was easy to discover some unfavourable omen which prohibited discussion. When a patrician privilege was to be annulled the augurs readily saw or heard some signal of divine wrath which prevented the vote from being completed. Aruspices
The definition of the Aruspices (aka Aruspex or Haruspex plural Haruspices) was a man trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, hepatoscopy or hepatomancy. The role of the Aruspices was to examine the animals offered in sacrifices on the altars of the gods, and by them to divine the success of any enterprise. They took their observations from: The animals before they were cut up *** The entrails of those animals after they were cut up *** The flame that used to rise when they were burning *** The flour of bran, from the frankincense, wine and water, which they used in the sacrifice Auguries
The content of this Auguries category on life in Ancient Rome provides free educational details, facts and information for reference and research for schools, colleges and homework. Refer to the Colosseum Sitemap for a comprehensive search on interesting different categories containing the history, facts and information about Ancient Rome. Facts and information about Auguries *** Roman Priests and Religion *** History, Facts and Information about Auguries *** Definition of Augurs and Auguries *** Auguries *** Power of the Augur *** Definition of Augury and Auguries *** Info about the Auguries *** Taking the Auspices | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The city of Orlando has agreed to sell 12 acres of land to Orlando City S.C. for its new soccer stadium at a price of $18 million. Is that a fair deal? I’m going to indulge myself now by answering in a manner that I pretty much never have in almost 18 years of running this site:
Who the heck cares?
I’m sure that given enough time and data on land values in Orlando, I (or someone else) could pick apart fair market value for the city property that will now be turned over to the soccer club. (Not to mention the $11 million the city has spent on cleanup and site prep, and whether that’s typical or a special consideration for a project like this.) But for now, let’s just enjoy for a moment that a professional sports franchise is actually agreeing to pay to build its new stadium, and pay (something) for the land to build it on, and pay property taxes on the stadium once it’s complete — you know, like regular people do when they own property. It shouldn’t be remarkable, but it is, and we should bookmark it as an example that things can sometimes be different.
Why this happened in Orlando is complex — part city government that was resistant to coughing up public money, part rich foreign owners who just wanted to get a team in place and didn’t care much about dickering over a few tens of millions in subsidies — and not necessarily easily transferrable to other cities. But even a glimpse at a possible future where new sports stadiums are treated like private investments, not public necessities so that private owners can earn more profits, is enough for me, for today at least. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Morocco is to extend its national lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus until May 20, the government said on Saturday.
The decision was made by the government council as the number of confirmed cases rose to 2,685, including 137 deaths and 314 recoveries.
Lockdown measures imposed on March 20 mean people are only allowed to go out to buy food or medicine, and to staff some key jobs. Schools, mosques, non-essential shops and all entertainment venues have been closed.
Visit our dedicated coronavirus site here for all the latest updates.
Morocco has made wearing masks mandatory, with those who fail to do so at risk of being fined or jailed.
The government has been paying wages of up to 1,200 dirhams ($120) to households whose main provider is unable to work and deferred taxes and loans for small businesses to ease the economic pain related to the lockdown measures.
The country's economy is forecast to contract by 3.7 percent in 2020, according to International Monetary Fund estimates.
Read more:
Morocco arrests over 4,300 for breaching coronavirus emergency rules
Coronavirus: Morocco NGO helps poor single mothers amid COVID-19 crisis
Morocco to free over 5,000 prisoners to slow coronavirus spread
Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:54 - GMT 06:54 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in a rare interview Sunday that he considers President Donald Trump “immoral” and wouldn’t take a job in the administration.
McChrystal, a retired four star general and former top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, spoke to ABC News anchor Martha Raddatz about the resignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis and the administration’s Middle East policy.
“If you were asked to join the Trump administration, what would you say?” Raddatz asked.
“I’d say no,” McChrystal said.
“Do you think he’s a liar?” Raddatz followed up.
“I don’t think he tells the truth,” McChrystal said.
“Is Trump immoral in your view?” the ABC anchor asked.
McChrystal: “I think he is.”
When asked what he would say to Trump supporters, McChrystal said he would not tell them “they are wrong.”
“What I would ask every American to do is stand in front of that mirror and say, ‘What are we about? Am I really willing to throw away or ignore some of the things that people do that are — are pretty unacceptable normally just because they accomplish certain other things that we might like?’
He continued: “If we want to be governed by someone we wouldn’t do a business deal with because their — their background is so shady, if we’re willing to do that, then that’s in conflict with who I think we are. And so I think it’s necessary at those times to take a stand.”
McChrystal argued Mattis’ resignation letter was “much broader than the Syria issue — it was about America’s role in the world.” He added he hoped it would cause Americans to “take pause” about someone like Mattis jumping ship from the administration.
“I think maybe it causes the American people to take pause and say, wait a minute, if we have someone who is as selfless and as committed as Jim Mattis resign his position, walking away from all the responsibility he feels for every service member in our forces and he does so in a public way like that, we ought to stop and say, ‘OK, why did he do it?,'” McChrystal said.
Watch above, via ABC News.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
[email protected]
POLICE Commissioner Anthony Ferguson yesterday suggested the total number of lives lost due to Hurricane Dorian may never be fully recorded as he defended the pace of the official count.
The number of confirmed deaths has stalled at 50 over the past two days, and at a NEMA briefing yesterday, Commissioner Ferguson said officials have not progressed much further.
Meanwhile, the number of missing persons has dropped significantly to 1,300 - down from the 2,500 reported on Wednesday.
“We are going thoroughly step-by-step and we do not want to make people believe that this job will be one that will happen overnight,” Mr Ferguson.
“We have to go though all of that rubble, take our time and search. We have never said that it’s going to be quick and I say again, this process is going to be very slow because we want to make sure that whatever is there we want to recover it, the land mass is vast.”
Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has said he believes that the hurricane death toll is in the “hundreds”.
For his part, the police chief stressed recovery did not stop at simply finding bodies.
“This process is slow,” Commissioner Ferguson said. “We haven’t made much progress from the 50 we gave you. We will continue to do our very best. I know that there are persons making comparisons but the police is not going to be involved in that. Everybody is free to make whatever comparison they wish to make, we are not going to query anybody’s opinion.
“But I will tell you at the end of the day, we will give you what we recover, the facts,” he continued, “even at that point we recover persons we are not saying that’s the end of it.
“Every single person in here knows in major disasters such as the magnitude of what we went through in the Abacos and Grand Bahama, it’s going to take a long time before you can really say numbers, and you may never get the amount of numbers but we have to do all within our power to do our best and try to bring resolve to this issue.”
At the NEMA briefing yesterday, the police chief also revealed two people have been arrested for firearm possession in Marsh Harbour this week.
He underscored police presence was not just focused on recovering bodies, but also ensuring the security and safety of the people in affected zones, adding Abaco was “fully covered”.
Meanwhile, the number of missing persons has dropped significantly to 1,300 - down from the 2,500 reported on Wednesday.
National Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Carl Smith said the number of missing persons on the government’s register is decreasing daily as officials have begun cross-referencing various databases of people who have been evacuated from the islands.
Mr Smith said the Department of Social Services is working closely with the police to identify people who have been found. He encouraged people to contact the help desk at Department of Rehabilitative Services to report if they have found relatives previously reported as missing. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Are we finally ready to throw away God? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Los Angeles, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/15/2013 -- Black Skeptics Los Angeles (BSLA), an African American atheist community-based organization, has partnered with the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) on its 2014 scholarship fund for youth non-believers of color. This year BSLA awarded five outstanding South Los Angeles students college scholarships. Jamion Allen, Phillip Aubrey, Hugo Cervantes, Ramiro Salas and Victory Yates from Washington Prep High School, King Drew Medical Magnet and Duke Ellington Continuation School received scholarships of up to $1000 toward their college expenses.
In 2013, BSLA, a 501c3 nonprofit, spearheaded its First in the Family Humanist Scholarship initiative, which focuses on undocumented, foster care, homeless and LGBTQ youth who will be the first in their families to go to college. The organization was created to provide resources for non-believers of color and combat stereotypes about atheists not being socially responsible. Responding directly to the school-to-prison pipeline crisis in communities of color, BSLA is the first atheist organization to specifically address college pipelining for youth of color. If current prison pipelining trends persist the Education Trust estimates that only “one of every 20 African American kindergartners will graduate from a four-year California university” in the next decade.
About The Freedom from Religion Foundation
The Freedom from Religion Foundation is a nonprofit organization that “works as an umbrella for those who are free from religion and are committed to the cherished principle of separation of state and church.” The FFRF sponsors publications and competitions and conducts outreach and education on secularism worldwide.
Website: http://www.blackskepticsla.org
Contact: Sikivu Hutchinson, [email protected], 213-703-6982 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Nigel Farage faces a European Parliament investigation for using taxpayer funds to pay for a roadshow around Britain campaigning against the European Union.
The Ukip leader has been reported to Brussels authorities for financing his ‘Say No To EU’ speaking tour using EU money allocated to his group of MEPs.
Mr Farage’s Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy group (EFDD) - which is made up of Ukip MEPs and Eurosceptics from other countries – has received 6.4million euros (£4.7million) from the Parliament in the past three years to pay for its activities.
Nigel Farage faces a European Parliament investigation for using taxpayer funds to pay for a roadshow around Britain campaigning against the European Union
Labour MP Wes Streeting has written to the president, Martin Schulz, after he discovered some of the money is being used to sponsor Mr Farage’s anti-EU tour, which he is using to launch his anti-EU campaign.
Mr Farage is currently visiting theatres and hotels across Britain trying to persuade people to vote to end Britain’s membership of the EU in the referendum.
Mr Streeting, who is a member of the Commons Treasury select committee, has asked Mr Schulz to investigate whether the spending is a breach of EU rules, which state groups must ‘carry out their duties as part of the activities of the Union’.
He has also accused Mr Farage of having double standards for using the money while vehemently arguing the government should not be able to use public money to campaign to stay in the EU.
Labour MP Wes Streeting has written to the president, Martin Schulz, after he discovered some of the money is being used to sponsor Mr Farage’s anti-EU tour, which he is using to launch his anti-EU campaign
Mr Streeting said: ‘Nigel Farage has a catalogue of questions to answer about whether he is spending taxpayers’ money on his campaign and breaching European Parliament rules.
‘Mr Farage has already criticised David Cameron over the use of public funds in the referendum campaign, so any suggestion that Ukip has bankrolled his anti-EU tour with European taxpayers’ money must be thoroughly investigated by the Parliament’s authorities.
‘Perhaps Nigel Farage will now rule out using any further EFDD funding for his anti-EU campaign?’
An EFDD spokesman said last night: ‘The EU and political groups spend billions on pro-EU propaganda.
'They cannot complain when elected MEPs facilitate public knowledge and debate on how the EU “works”. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
There were two big economic policy stories this week that you may have missed if you were distracted by Trumpian bombast and the yelling of the Sanders dead-enders. Each tells you a lot about both what President Obama has accomplished and the stakes in this year’s election.
One of those stories, I’m sorry to say, did involve Donald Trump: The presumptive Republican nominee — who has already declared that he will, in fact, slash taxes on the rich, whatever he may have said in the recent past — once again declared his intention to do away with Dodd-Frank, the financial reform passed during Democrats’ brief window of congressional control. Just for the record, while Mr. Trump is sometimes described as a “populist,” almost every substantive policy he has announced would make the rich richer at workers’ expense.
The other story was about a policy change achieved through executive action: The Obama administration issued new guidelines on overtime pay, which will benefit an estimated 12.5 million workers.
What both stories tell us is that the Obama administration has done much more than most people realize to fight extreme economic inequality. That fight will continue if Hillary Clinton wins the election; it will go into sharp reverse if Mr. Trump wins. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Cash or credit?
Many experts will tell you that using credit whenever possible is your best bet. However, if you have difficulty staying out of debt, credit cards can be a burden.
An easy way to get control of your finances is to reduce the number of credit cards you have, according to Sandra Campos, CEO of fashion brand Diane von Furstenberg.
The first step is to realize how much you are spending and how much money you are taking home. Making a budget will help, however, it is important to keep in mind that several open lines of credit may make you think you can spend more than your earn. Incentive programs that card companies offer, such as credit card points and cashback, can also lead to overspending.
Advice from her mother has been a guiding principle for Campos: “Reduce the amount of credit cards you have and really focus on cash.”
Cash and debit cards are good ways to spend if you don’t have great credit or are trying to get a handle on your finances. According to one study, paying with cash not only leads to better choices, it also increases the emotional attachment to that purchase.
Campos herself uses one credit card, opting to use cash and debit for her spending, though there are times when it may make more sense to use a credit card, such as online purchases, traveling and for record-keeping.
Disclosure: Invest in You: Ready. Set. Grow. is a financial wellness and education initiative from CNBC and Acorns, the micro-investing app. NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, who already has received the nod from Democratic Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, has scored more endorsements from state Latino leaders.
State Senator Martin Quezada (D-Phoenix) and Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo joined about a dozen other Latinos — most of them members of the Arizona Legislature — to announce their endorsement of Sanders. Among those endorsing him also were non-Latinos, including state Representative Reginald Bolding (D-Laveen) and state Senator Andrea Dalessandro (D-Sahuarita).
Quezada said he is behind Sanders because he believes the Vermont senator has stayed true to the ideals that Americans want in an elected official.
“He’s an individual who puts American ideals before special interests,” Quezada said. “He’s a candidate who puts the voters ahead of lobbyists. And he’s a candidate who puts people ahead of corporations. Those are things that so many politicians nowadays do not do anymore.”
The backing of Quezada and other Latino leaders is significant for the Sanders campaign as it tries to court Hispanic voters in Arizona. The state has the nation’s fifth-largest Latino statewide eligible voter population. There are about 902,000 Latinos living in Arizona who are eligible to vote, according to the Pew Research Center.
Nationwide, Sanders is closing in on Hillary Clinton’s lead. A Quinnipiac University poll released this month finds 44 percent of Democrats say they support Clinton, compared with 42 percent who say they support Sanders.
But among Latinos, Clinton has a substantial lead over Sanders. A recent NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Election Tracking poll found 54 percent of Hispanic voters support Clinton and 33 percent support Sanders.
The Vermont senator mainly has struggled with name recognition among Latino voters. As a way to help with that, his campaign added a number of influential Latinos to his campaign team. They include Erika Andiola, a 28-year-old undocumented immigrant from Arizona who made national headlines when she posted a tearful video on YouTube moments after immigration officials came to her home in Mesa and arrested her undocumented mother and brother.
“It is time that we elect somebody who truly understands what working families are going through everyday,” said state Representative Richard Andrade (D-Phoenix). Facebook
Twitter
Jose Miranda, state director of Sanders’ campaign in Arizona, said his group is trying to gain support for Sanders among Latino voters by going door to door and talking directly with voters in English and Spanish. He said it’s easy for the campaign to appeal to Latino voters because Sanders has an agenda that is in line with issues Latinos support, such as immigration.
“Bernie cares very deeply about deportations and raids that are happening, especially here in our community,” Miranda said. “But even beyond that, Latinos also care about jobs and about whether their kids have access to a good education.”
State Representative Richard Andrade (D-Phoenix) said the Democratic presidential candidate is advocating for paid sick leave and to raise the minimum wage, issues that he said affect working families. In endorsing Sanders, Andrade noted that he recently introduced bills in the Arizona Legislature that would address these same issues.
“It is time that we elect somebody who truly understands what working families are going through everyday,” Andrade said. “Bernie Sanders is definitely that one person who's going to put us in the right direction, because he puts working families first. He doesn’t put corporations and big businesses first.”
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The modern Olympic ideals differ dramatically from the way the games were actually played in ancient Greece, says a University of Maryland classicist who has heavily researched the Olympic past. The ancient games featured professionals with a “winning is everything” philosophy.
“Ancient Olympiads were more like the modern PGA golf circuit than the amateur ideal advanced for most of the 20th century,” says Hugh Ming Lee, a professor of classics at the University of Maryland. “The Greeks and Romans awarded honors to the most accomplished athletes and paid them for their efforts. These professionals traveled a competitive circuit. The Vince Lombardi notion of winning is much closer to the original Olympic spirit.”
Ancient athletes resorted to various “potions” to gain a competitive edge. “The dung of a wild boar was honored for the powers it conferred on charioteers,” Lee points out. “Even the emperor Nero tried it.”
Modern-day ‘Ultimate Fighting’ resembles the Greek’s pankration, where almost everything short of eye-gouging and biting was permitted. “If it weren’t for the nudity, the ancient games would have played well on modern TV,” Lee says.
The ancient Greeks played the games under a flag of truce to give athletes safe passage. The games offered a respite from war, according to Lee. The athletes ran the final race of the Olympiad in armor, perhaps to acknowledge the coming end of the truce. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Filip Miucin was fired from IGN last week after plagiarism allegations. Photo : YouTube
The gaming site IGN is working to remove all of the posts written by former editor Filip Miucin, who was fired last week for plagiarism, after internet sleuths found that dozens of his articles and videos copied or rephrased from other websites without attribution .
“We’ve seen enough now, both from the thread and our own searches, that we’re taking down pretty much everything he did,” IGN reviews editor Dan Stapleton wrote on Twitter last night, referring to a thread on the gaming forum ResetEra cataloging the allegations. For days, people had pointed out more similarities between Miucin’s work and various other articles and message board posts .
The plan, IGN editors said, is to scrutinize all of the work Miucin has published since the site hired him last October, then figure out what can be restored. IGN’s editors also said they hope to re-review the games he reviewed, including ports of Doom and Skyrim on Switch, both which have been replaced by the same message: “This article has been removed due to concerns over similarities to work by other authors. The author of this article is no longer employed by IGN.”
(I should note that IGN’s managing editor of games, Tina Amini, worked at Kotaku for nearly four years and is a close friend of mine.)
This move comes a week after a YouTuber accused Miucin of plagiarizing a review of the game Dead Cells, which led IGN to fire him last Tuesday. That was followed by our coverage at Kotaku, which noted an additional case of apparent plagiarism involving a review of a FIFA game. On Friday night, Miucin posted a video response on YouTube, saying that any Dead Cells plagiarism had been “not at all intentional” and suggesting that he had not done this sort of thing before. “You can keep looking, Kotaku, and please let me know if you find anything,” he said in the video, setting off a chain of subsequent discoveries and accusations of dozens more instances of apparent plagiarism. Miucin has since removed the video from his YouTube channel.
The lengthy list of allegations against Miucin now includes a Bayonetta 2 review that drew from Polygon, a video that took word-for-word from a NeoGAF post, and a number of videos in which Miucin read excerpts from Wikipedia about topics like Super Mario Odyssey and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero as if he had written them. The list even includes an Octopath Traveler article that copied from one of his own IGN colleague’s reviews, much to that writer’s dismay. Tipsters have pointed me to dozens of instances in which Miucin took directly from other sources, some of which are rounded up here.
Even his Linkedin resume is copied from a job template website:
Left: Filip Miucin’s Linkedin.
Right: Template from the Society for Human Resource Management
Miucin has not yet responded to several requests for an interview. Several IGN editors have made public statements about the incident.
“Deeply disappointed and upset that it’s looking more and more likely that we unwittingly hosted work that was directly lifted from or at best heavily derived from others,” wrote IGN editorial manager Justin Davis on Twitter. “ I assure you we are taking very active steps to remove it all, and make it right. I feel betrayed.”
“Tonight IGN took down more content over concerns some of the work by Filip may have been copied,” wrote video boss Fran Mirabella. “ After 18 years at IGN as a reviewer, a producer - it’s despicable. Authors and supporters affected: I’m sorry. Nobody at IGN stands for this. This is a personal statement of my own.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Elegant duplex home design on ravishing design
Today we bring you a elegant duplex home design with ravishing look. It has a medieval look to it, and can be put together at a medium budget. The sloping roof and top pergola is giving more beauty to this home.
Homes that are built in slope roof with gable windows are now going trendy. It was a old model, but now it’s been widely used for the contemporary designs along with some new creative touches included.
So we are presenting you home with gable window design in slope roof.
The painting and lighting of a home is leading great result to the home. we bring you a elegant duplex home design with ravishing look. It has a medieval look to it, and can be put together at a medium budget. The sloping roof and top pergola is giving more beauty to this home.
Facilities included are sit out which is common and open area. And we got a living, dining, 2 bedrooms with attached bathroom, kitchen, work area, 2 bedrooms with attached bathroom in first floor, one living in first floor, and a balcony. This completes the structure of the ravishing duplex home plan presented.
A trending contemporary home with great exterior view
This one built with giving high importance to the sunlight to enter the home. There we can see Many large windows in 3 panel and pergola design in sloping roof. We can also see some other windows used on top of the wall in the right side with a particular design given to the windows.
This also enable light to pass through. Now if we look for the porch, it is large enough to park a car and bike together. It leads to the open sit out.
I see some specialty in the balcony which is on the top of sit out. It’s area and glass railing is ravishing look which is completed by flat roof.
The designer has took effort to make garden in the front area. Also the wall is designed with cladding stones to the half. The painting and lighting of a home is leading great result to the home. The light used in the front of home placed in the garden area is a mind blow design. In night this light can make a feel towards this home.
Additional Details | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Let’s continue with the topic of packing boolean arrays into bits. Last time I’ve shown a basic - single threaded version of this ‘super’ advanced algorithm. By using more independent variables, we could speed things up and go even faster than no packing version! We’ve also used std::vector and std::bitset . Today I’d like to look at making the task parallel.
Read the first part here: Packing Bools, Performance tests
Recall
Just to recall, there’s an array of values and a threshold value. We want to test input values against that Threshold and store boolean condition results into bits.
Brief pseudo code
for i = 0...N-1 byte = pack (input[i] > threshold, input[i+1] > threshold, ..., input[i+7] > threshold) output[i/8] = byte i+=8 // handle case where N not divisible by 8
In other words, we want to pack boolean results:
true, false, true, false, true, false, true, true
into full byte
11010101
where the first value corresponds to the first bit of the byte.
Simd, SSE2
The improved version of the solution uses eight separate values to store the result of the comparison and then it’s packed into one byte. But with SIMD we could do even more. There’s a way to pack 16 values at once using only SSE2 instructions. Can this be faster?
The core part of this approach is to use _mm_movemask_epi8 . As we can read here:
int _mm_movemask_epi8 (__m128i a)
Create mask from the most significant bit of each 8-bit element in a,
and store the result in dst.
Since the comparison instructions set value 0xFF or 0, the above code is perfect to do the packing.
So the code can look like this:
auto in16Values = _mm_set_epi8 ( /*load 16 values*/ ); auto cmpRes = _mm_cmpgt_epi8 ( in16Values , sseThresholds ); // cmpRes will stores 0xFF or 0 per each comparison result auto packed = _mm_movemask_epi8 ( cmpRes ); *(( uint16_t *) pOutputByte ) = static_cast <uint16_t> ( packed );
packed will be 16 bit mask composed from most significant bit of each 8-bit element in cmpRes . So this is exactly what we need.
The problem
Unfortunately, there’s a little problem. _mm_cmpgt_epi8 compares only signed byte values, so we need to do more work to support unsigned version.
There wouldn’t be any problem if we compared with the equality operator, but for greater than it’s not an option.
You can read more about missing SSE instruction in this article: A few missing SSE intrinsics BTW: Thanks @malcompl for letting me know on Twitter.
Implementation
Maybe it will be unfair, but to solve the signed/unsigned problem I just make a conversion code that subtracts 128 from the input values (and the threshold). So that conversion is not counted in the measurement.
In the end, you’ll see the reason for doing this.
Auto vectorization
What about auto-vectorization? Maybe I am a terrible programmer, but it seems that most of my loops are hard to make vectorized. You can try and enable auto-vectorization in Visual Studio. But every time I do this I get almost zero success and no vectorized loops. See MSDN Auto-Parallelization and Auto-Vectorization. Maybe it’s better in GCC/Clang?
Threading with OpenMP
So far the code was single-threaded. We should be leveraging all available cores on our machines. Even in typical user devices, there are two or more cores (sometimes plus hyper-threading).
I don’t want to create a sophisticated task-queue worker system, so I got one idea: what about OpenMP? Our problem is quite simple, and what’s most important: we can perform packing in a highly parallel manner, as there are almost no conflicts between packed bytes.
Visual Studio offers a simple switch that enables OpenMP 2.0. As far as I can see GCC offers almost the newest version (4.5), and Clang allows to use OpenMP 3.1.
BTW: why VS only offers OpenMP 2.0… why we cannot go higher? Other people complained, see this thread: Add support for OpenMP 4.5 to VC++ – Visual Studio
If you want to have a quick intro about OpenMP, I suggest this resource: Guide into OpenMP: Easy multithreading programming for C++.
Basically, OpenMP offers a fork-join model of computation:
The picture comes from wikipedia.
Our problem is perfect for such scenario. Theoretically, we could spread one thread per byte! So each byte packing would get its own thread. OK, maybe it’s not the best option as the overhead of thread switching would be much heavier than the computation itself, but I hope you get what I meant here.
What’s great about OpenMP is that it will handle all the hard part of threads management. All we have to do is to mark the parallel region and rewrite code in a way it’s easy to be run on separate threads.
So our version with OpenMP uses the following code
#pragma omp parallel for private ( Bits ) for ( int i = 0 ; i < numFullBytes ; ++ i ) { auto pInputData = inputValues . get () + i * 8 ; Bits [ 0 ] = pInput [ 0 ] > Threshold ? 0x01 : 0 ; Bits [ 1 ] = pInput [ 1 ] > Threshold ? 0x02 : 0 ; Bits [ 2 ] = pInput [ 2 ] > Threshold ? 0x04 : 0 ; Bits [ 3 ] = pInput [ 3 ] > Threshold ? 0x08 : 0 ; Bits [ 4 ] = pInput [ 4 ] > Threshold ? 0x10 : 0 ; Bits [ 5 ] = pInput [ 5 ] > Threshold ? 0x20 : 0 ; Bits [ 6 ] = pInput [ 6 ] > Threshold ? 0x40 : 0 ; Bits [ 7 ] = pInput [ 7 ] > Threshold ? 0x80 : 0 ; outputValues . get ()[ i ] = Bits [ 0 ] | Bits [ 1 ] | Bits [ 2 ] | Bits [ 3 ] | Bits [ 4 ] | Bits [ 5 ] | Bits [ 6 ] | Bits [ 7 ]; } // and then the part for handling the last not full byte...
All I had to do was to reorganize code a bit - starting from my not-depended version. Now each loop iteration works on one byte and 8 input values. We have a private section - Bits , that will be separate for each thread.
OpenMP will try to spread the work across available worker threads. Usually, it will be the number of cores. For example my machine has 4 cores with HT, so OpenMP reports 8 in my case (using omp_get_max_threads() ).
Not bad as just one line of code?
OK, so I have probably 8 worker threads available… will my initial code perform 8x faster? Probably not, as we need to count additional API/Library overhead. But 2x or even more might easily happen.
Packed struct
David Mott made a comment, where he suggested using packed structs.
Why should we manually perform bit operations? Maybe we can force the compiler and get some help? Why not :)
struct bool8 { uint8_t val0 : 1 ; uint8_t val1 : 1 ; uint8_t val2 : 1 ; uint8_t val3 : 1 ; uint8_t val4 : 1 ; uint8_t val5 : 1 ; uint8_t val6 : 1 ; uint8_t val7 : 1 ; };
the processing code is much cleaner now:
for ( int64_t j = 0 ; j < lenDivBy8 ; j += 8 ) { out . val0 = pInputData [ 0 ] > ThresholdValue ; out . val1 = pInputData [ 1 ] > ThresholdValue ; out . val2 = pInputData [ 2 ] > ThresholdValue ; out . val3 = pInputData [ 3 ] > ThresholdValue ; out . val4 = pInputData [ 4 ] > ThresholdValue ; out . val5 = pInputData [ 5 ] > ThresholdValue ; out . val6 = pInputData [ 6 ] > ThresholdValue ; out . val7 = pInputData [ 7 ] > ThresholdValue ; * pOutputByte ++ = out ; pInputData += 8 ; }
The OR operation is completely hidden now (maybe even not needed as the compiler can do its magic).
The case for the last byte is not as clean, but also not that bad:
if ( arrayLength & 7 ) { auto RestW = arrayLength & 7 ; out = { 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 }; if ( RestW > 6 ) out . val6 = pInput [ 6 ] > Threshold ; if ( RestW > 5 ) out . val5 = pInput [ 5 ] > Threshold ; if ( RestW > 4 ) out . val4 = pInput [ 4 ] > Threshold ; if ( RestW > 3 ) out . val3 = pInput [ 3 ] > Threshold ; if ( RestW > 2 ) out . val2 = pInput [ 2 ] > Threshold ; if ( RestW > 1 ) out . val1 = pInput [ 1 ] > Threshold ; if ( RestW > 0 ) out . val0 = pInput [ 0 ] > Threshold ; * pOutputByte ++ = out ; }
We could also use union to provide array access for bits.
Results
Ok, here’s the final run, with all versions:
And the chart for all:
Chart for versions performing better than no packing
OpenMP is a great way to make things faster, we get around 2.5…3x better performance (although I have 8 available system threads…)
Using packed structs is a really good option: the bit playing code is hidden and the compiler is responsible to pack things. And it performs almost the same as manual version. Even faster for larger sets of data.
My simd version wasn’t perfect, but I was still hoping for more gains. It operates on 16 input values at once (as opposed to 8 values in other versions). But the perf was slower. I am not an expert of simd stuff, so maybe there’s a way to improve?
Other solutions
Recently Daniel Lemire has posted a list: Compressed bitset libraries in C and C++.
OpenCL - we could go fully parallel and use a GPU approach. The problem is quite simple so I didn’t consider going into OpenCL implementation, but in the production code, if the algorithm was essential to the whole system… then why not.
I need to see that talk mentioned in the comments: CppCon 2016: Chandler Carruth “High Performance Code 201: Hybrid Data Structures” - YouTube. As it covers some pretty crazy structures that also might help with bit packing… Or maybe you know how to apply such ideas onto my code?
Summary
Ufff… all done :)
What could we learn from the benchmarks?
We can save some space by going into bit mode and at the same time the performance of packing might be faster than ‘no packing’ version.
The Standard Library containers like vector of bools or bitset doesn’t perform well, it’s better to create manual versions, adjusted to a particular need.
Using compiler to to the hard work: in our case it’s bit setting is quite a good alternative.
If the task is highly parallel make sure you use all options to make things faster: reduce dependency of variables (also temp vars), use simd if possible, or threading libraries.
As always measure measure measure as your case might be different.
I hope you enjoyed those tests. The problem was simple, but there are many ways we can explore the topic. And that’s only the tip of an iceberg when it comes to packing/compressing bitmaps.
Code on github: fenbf/celeroTest/celeroCompressBools.cpp | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Tracking the latest as the two major alliances in Maharashtra battle it out with each other ahead of the polls.
10.45 pm: Surprise by the timing of NCP's announcement: Chavan
Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today took a dig on former alliance partner NCP expressing surprise on the timing of the regional outfit's decision to break away from the Congress. The NCP made the announcement of parting ways from the Congress soon after the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance ended.
"NCP announced its decision to break ties with us immediately after Shiv Sena-BJP parted ways and it is a curious coincidence. I think there will be a new alliance in the offing," said Chavan at a press conference in Mumbai.
"Since the BJP formed the government at the Centre, our only aim has been to stop communal forces from coming to power in the state. We also did not want divide secular votes. In yesterday’s meeting the NCP, for the first time, made its claim on the post of chief minister. So, it seems that the NCP has broken ties with us for its benefits and not in the interest of state," the chief minister said.
10.30 pm: Parted ways but still friends with Shiv Sena, says BJP
"It is very unfortunate that we have to part ways after 25 years of journey. We have seen lots of ups and downs with Shiv Sena and we have braved them boldly for the last 25 years," BJP general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Maharashtra Rajiv Pratap Rudy told PTI.
"Reluctantly, we have to part ways as there is a severe constraint of time as all nominations for 288 seats which will include our smaller alliance partners has to be accomplished by 27 September, the deadline for nominations fixed by the Election Commission," said the BJP leader who spearheaded the talks with Shiv Sena along with party's election in-charge of the state Om Mathur.
"We are committed that even if we are parting ways there will be no bitterness whatsoever between our old partners and the sole consideration of these elections is to get rid of NCP-Congress regime which has unleashed years of misgovernance and corruption," he said.
PTI
8.00 pm: Now, NCP ends ties with Congress
It is official and all uncertainties have come to an end. Soon after BJP snapped ties with the Shiv Sena, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party followed suit and called off its 15-year-old alliance with the Congress.
"For the past 15 years in Maharashtra and after 2004 at the Centre, we have been with the Congress. We have an alliance. We established the NCP in 1999 and during that time we took a different stand in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. During that time, the circumstances were such that the state government could not have been formed if both the parties had not come together. NCP has always advocated for a secular government both at the Centre and in the state," NCP leader Praful Patel said at a press conference in Mumbai.
"And because of that ideology we went for a tie-up with the Congress although we did fought against each other. In 2004, NCP maintained a stand that there has to be a progressive and secular government at the Centre. The NCP has always supported the Congress very responsibly. In the past 15 years, all our party workers, MLAs, MPs have supported the Congress responsibly," he said.
"In these past 15 years, no matter what the conditions were, the Congress always got the post of the chief minister. This time Sharad Pawar met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and told her that they wanted to ally with the Congress. Almost a month back, Sharad Pawar, Ahmed Patel, AK Antony and myself met in Delhi. We had told the Congress that NCP has emerged as a stronger and wider party than the Congress. At that point of time, Congress said that they have more strength in Lok Sabha," the NCP leader said.
"We are not insisting on the basis of the results of Lok Sabha polls. If you analyse the strength of the NCP in Maharashtra it is stronger than the Congress. Congress needs to take this into consideration. We have told the Congress party that we need to solve the problem as soon as possible but no one took heed," Patel said.
"Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre had said Congress will give 124 seats to NCP which we clearly said that we are not going to accept. We told them Congress has been occupying the chief minister's post for 15 years and this time we should share it," the NCP leader said. "If they did not agree with our proposals we told them to present their proposal. We have seen many proposals in the media but we wanted an official proposal from the Congress but it never came. There was not a single official meeting in the matter after the meeting in Delhi. The Congress' first list of candidates had names of some of the seats on which we were having a discussion," the NCP leader said.
Trying to put the onus on the Congress for breaking the alliance, Patel said, "NCP has not done a single thing which would hurt the alliance at the Centre and in the state. Now NCP will look for like-minded parties to fight the polls under the leadership of Sharad Pawar."
Addressing the press meet NCP Maharashtra unit chief Sunil Tatkare expressed displeasure with the Congress for going ahead with its first list without consultation.
"A coalition partner usually discusses with the allies before publishing a list. This is a poll tradition. Congress did not even bother to inform us and came out with the list. The NCP will form a alliance with parties which are like-minded," Tatkare said.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar while thanking the people of Maharashtra for the support said that his party will inform the governor that his party is withdrawing support from the government.
"I want to tell the people of Maharashtra that we are withdrawing support from the state government. We will inform the Governor of the state. I thank the people of Maharashtra for keeping the faith in us and for supporting us," Pawar said.
7.15 pm: People of Maharashtra to decide who will serve them and not themselves: Congress
Soon after the news of breakdown of talks and then the final snapping of ties between BJP and Shiv Sena became official, the Congress was quick to make the most of the opportunity.
"One coalition held the course for 15 years. On the other side is a bunch of squabbling political parties who are fighting just before the polls. It is for the people of Maharashtra to judge who is there to serve them and who is there to serve themselves," Congress leader Manish Tewari told CNN-IBN.
6.05 pm: BJP ends ties with Shiv Sena
After days of uncertainty, the Bharatiya Janata Party has officially snapped ties with its 25-year-long Shiv Sena as no compromise could be reached on the seat sharing formula.
"Negotiations went on for so long that it only created an atmosphere of distrust. The Shiv Sena never showed any flexibility in their stand. They were adamant with their proposals and wanted us to accommodate accordingly. Options offered by Shiv Sena were not acceptable as they did not care for the smaller parties of the alliance. We cannot deceive our smaller partners and we told Shiv Sena that we need to take them along," Maharashtra BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis told a press conference in Mumbai.
The state BJP chief said that the BJP wanted to put the NCP-Congress combine out of power in Maharashtra.
"It is painful to part ways with a 25-year-old long alliance partner but limitations put forth by time is inevitable. We will always have friendly sentiments towards Shiv Sena. We are not going to criticise that party. If someone does it we should not respond to that. The last date to file nominations is quite near and we can't allow Congress-NCP to take advantage of the uncertainty," Fadnavis said.
He also said that the party will go ahead and fight the forthcoming Assembly polls together with the remaining four smaller parties of the alliance. "This mahayuti will sustain and we will fight the polls with these partners," Fadnavis said.
Similar views were given by senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse as well at the beginning of the press meet.
"We have been holding talks with our partners for the past few days. But there has been no outcome. Shiv Sena has been stubborn over seat sharing," Khadse said.
5.55 pm: Aditya Thackeray becomes emotional, expresses his feelings on Twitter
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515152508780433409
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515152802557882368
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515153190195458048
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515153467006926848
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515154146060533760
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515155150747353088
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515155814462394368
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515156118746591233
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515156796185399296
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515157296326782977
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515157725961920512
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515157861937061889
https://twitter.com/AUThackeray/status/515158237121761280
5.50 pm: Uddhav, Aditya to address rally in Mumbai on 27 September
In a press release, the Shiv Sena said that the party would to launch its election campaign on Saturday. Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, his son and Yuva Sena president Aditya Thackeray and other senior Sena leaders will address the rally at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse Ground at 6 pm on 27 September.
All Sena candidates will file their nomination papers by 27 September, the party said in the statement.
4.30 pm: Congress calls off alliance with NCP?
Sources have told NDTV that the Congress feels that "there is no time left for alliance with NCP".
3.51 pm: No one told us about the end of an alliance, says Shiv Sena
The Shiv Sena is now saying that no one told them about the end of the alliance. So does this mean that there is still hope for Mahayuti, or is the Shiv Sena playing the wronged 'jilted' party role in this divorce?
One Shiv Sena leader speaking to the media said, "We feel sad that the BJP didn't meet with us and instead spoke to Uddhav Thackeray. They were supposed to come with us to meet him. We have spoken about a final proposal about seat sharing."
Curiouser and curiouser. What else will this day bring forth? We'll soon find out.
3.45 pm: BJP says they are still waiting for Shiv Sena proposal
The BJP has declined to confirm the end of the Mahayuti alliamce. BJP Maharashtra chief Devendra Fadnavis just told the media that they were waiting for the Shiv Sena to send a proposal that was acceptable to all parties.
So is it all over or not? At this point no one wants to confirm anything.
Firstpost editor Sanjay Singh said earlier, that neither party wanted to take the blame for the split. Is this what we are seeing?
3.15 pm: It's officially over, says media
It's apparently all over. The 25-year-old Mahayuti alliance has come to an end.
News channels are all quoting party sources as saying that both BJP and Shiv Sena officials have confirmed that the grand alliance or 'Mahayuti' is finally over and both the parties will contest the Maharashtra assembly polls alone. Apparently the final stuicking point had been over the Chief Ministerial post.
According to the Times Now news channel, the Shiv Sena had been insistent that Uddhav Thackeray was portrayed as the CM candidate before the parties went to the polls, and the BJP was not willing to accept the condition.
Earlier a seat sharing disagreement had stretched ties to breaking point. The BJP had been insistent on no less than 130 seats and the Shiv Sena was not wiling to come down below 151.
An official announcement on the split is expected to be made shortly.
But is all lost? There is still scope for a post poll alliance, say political pundits.
In an earlier post, Firstpost had said that the BJP and Shiv Sena could still decide to break the 25-year-old Mahayuti alliance and embark on their own along with smaller players like the Republican Party of India (RPI), Raju Shetty’s Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana (SSS), Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) and Shivasangram.
The BJP, which has traditionally been contesting rural seats in Maharashtra leaving the urban seats to the Shiv Sena, would want to capitalize on the ‘Modi wave’ in urban pockets of Maharashtra.
You can read the full article here.
2.12 pm: BJP-Sena alliance not over yet?
A report in the Zee News contradicts all other news reports. Updated an hour ago, the report quoted senior leaders of both BJP and Shiv Sena as saying that the alliance is not over yet and talks are still underway.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh confirmed that the discussion are still on over seat sharing for the October 15 Maharashtra assembly polls. Shiv Sena confirmed the same adding that the alliance is "very much intact" and talks were going on.
News channels and websites were abuzz since Amit Shah cancelled his Mumbai visit and a senior BJP source confirmed that the 25-year-old grand alliance had failed.
1.37 pm: BJP state leaders in urgent meeting
The central leadership of the BJP has reportedly told the BJP not to be cowed down by the Shiv Sena, even as state party leaders conduct a rushed meeting to discuss the way forward. The meeting is underway at BJP leader Om Mathur's house.
The meeting comes even as BJP President Amit Shah cancelled his visit to Mumbai, in a sign that he was done negotiating with the Shiv Sena.
The NCP meanwhile, which is eyeing a tie up with the BJP in case the Shiv Sena alliance falls through is also conducting a meeting of its own. Will the biggest loser in this entire affair be the Congress?
1.11 pm: Rajnath says talks with Shiv Sena are still on
Is there still a spark of hope for the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance? A new report from NDTV has quoted BJP President Rajnath Singh as saying that seat sharing talks between the BJP and Shiv Sena are still continuing.
So is the cancellation of Amit Shah's trip merely another pressure tactic on the part of the BJP, rather than a definitive end to the alliance? That's not clear as yet, but what we do know for sure is that the Shiv Sena is definitely on the back foot. Uddhav Thackeray had better climb down in a hurry if he wants the alliance to continue.
12.50 pm: Amit Shah not coming to Mumbai
Firstpost's political editor Sanjay Singh says that Amit Shah is not coming and the Maharashtra alliance is over.
He writes:
This is a very clear indication that he (Shah) does want to be part of any further negotiations with the Shiv Sena and the talks between the two parties, where both were playing tough are now unsalvageable.
This means that at state level both the BJP and Sena, who have been 'ideological' allies for the last 25 years will conduct a very bitter campaign against one another in all 288 seats and enter into a fierce contest. The electoral outcome and the electioneering will both be very interesting, going by the heat and dust it could potentially generate.
Read the entire piece here.
10:48 am: Eleventh hour confusion over Amit Shah's Mumbai trip
Fresh confusion has injected new doubt into the health of Maharashtra's Mahayuti alliance, with news reports saying that BJP President Amit Shah has cancelled his visit to Mumbai. Shah was supposed to attend the inauguration of ‘Ekatma Bhavan’, on the occasion of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's birth anniversary, organized by Rambhau Mhalge Prabodhini in Bhayendar.
The inauguration program will be held at 4 pm.
However news channels are now reporting that the visit is cancelled, and that BJP leaders have lost faith in the coalition.
If true, this will be a final body blow to the Shiv Sena - BJP alliance in Maharashtra and the end of a 25-year-old partnership between the two parties. It also comes mere days after BJP and Shiv Sena leaders said that both parties wanted the partnership in Maharashtra to continue.
The Shiv Sena on Tuesday made the first step to end the ongoing impasse with its alliance partner, BJP over the seat sharing issue.
7.50 pm: No Congress, NCP meeting tonight likely
In all likelihood, the meeting between Congress and NCP scheduled for 8.30 pm tonight will not happen as most of the Sharad Pawar-led part are attending a poll rally in Malegaon. It is unlikely that they would be able to return to Mumbai on time to attend the meeting, a Times Now report said.
The channel also reported that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's office did not give a venue for the meeting as many NCP leaders were out in town. Another possibility was that the Congress state unit is yet to get a response from its high command in New Delhi to move forward.
There is also another news angle that the NCP is unhappy with the Congress offer of 124 seats and it is firm on a minimum of 130 seats.
2.22 pm: Only Cong-NCP, media want Shiv Sena-BJP alliance to fail: Saamana editorial
Saamna, which is the official mouthpiece of the Shiv Sena has also become all sweetness and light towards the BJP.
An editorial in the newspaper today said the situation in the state is "good" and the "horses of Sena-BJP are running fast and are unstoppable" against "Congress-NCP mules".
Sena, in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana', also blamed "some in the media" for wanting the alliance to snap.
"The situation in Maharashtra is good. The horses of Sena-BJP are running fast and are unstoppable. There is no value of Congress-NCP mules," it said even as leaders of the two parties today came together in front of the media for the first time in several days and asserted both wanted the alliance to continue.
"What news is there if the alliance remains? But there is certainly news if it snaps. That is why, some in media are waiting for the alliance to snap," the editorial said.
"It is said that there is betting of Rs 100-500 crore on whether 'Mahayuti' alliance will remain or break," it said, adding "media is now part of this betting. A section is waiting for the alliance to break so that it can be sensational news."
1.39 pm: NCP-Congress alliance unlikely to continue?
And even as we see reconciliatory gestures on the one hand, we are seeing irreconcilable differences on the other.
The latest news from Maharashtra now, is that the NCP and Congress alliance is unlikely to continue. The Times Now channel said that senior Congress leaders had said they had drawn the line at 124 seats for the NCP, although it wants to contest an equal number of seats.
1.15 pm: Sena, BJP to meet other allies before revealing new proposal
The BJP and the Shiv Sena have met the press to say that they are considering various means by which the alliance can be saved.
Addressing a joint press conference a short while ago, Vinod Tawde of the BJP said both parties were of the view that the alliance should stay together and were working out various proposals. Other parties in the alliance will also be consulted this evening about the seat sharing proposal".
Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut agreed, saying, "Only BJP and Shiv Sena will decide future of this alliance. Both sides of the opinion that alliance should prevail".
1.12 pm: Shiv Sena scrambling to save alliance
Senior Shiv Sena leaders have held talks with BJP aiming to end the deadlock on seat sharing that is threatening to disintegrate their 25-year-old alliance ahead of the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Sena group leader in Assembly Subhash Desai, party spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut arrived at the BJP office -- Vasant Smriti Bhavan-- in Dadar in central Mumbai around noon and met top BJP leaders on the alliance issue.
BJP's Maharashtra poll in-charge Om Mathur and state party president Devendra Fadnavis were among those present at the meeting.
Fadnavis has convened a meeting of state BJP unit functionaries, district unit presidents, legislators and MPs here today to discuss the political situation ahead of the Assembly polls.
Leader of Opposition in Assembly Eknath Khadse and Leader of Opposition in Council Vinod Tawde are also participating in the meeting.
1.02 pm: Crucial meet at Sharad Pawar's residence
Amid standoff on seat sharing talks, National Congress Party (NCP) chief has called for an emergency meeting at his residence to discuss the ongoing issue. On Monday, party's Core Committee chaired by Sharad Pawar met and agreed that the alliance with Congress should continue. But it also had insisted on getting a larger share of Maharashtra's 288 Assembly seats than 124 offered by Congress.
12.03 pm: Shiv Sena climbs down? Agrees to BJP demand of 130 seats
Spooked perhaps by reports that the BJP was sending out some feelers towards Sharad Pawar's NCP which is having its own problems with the Congress party, Shiv Sena leaders have reportedly climbed down from its 'final offer' of 119 seats and agreed to the BJP demand of 130 seats.
The development was reported on the Times Now channel which said that the Shiv Sena had blinked first. Indications to this effect had first come when senior Shiv Sena leaders were quoted by the channel as saying that they hoped the Maharashtra alliance would be saved.
This also came amid signs that the BJP was readying to go it alone in the Maharashtra elections.
However the Times Now channel quoted sources as saying that the BJP was unhappy with the Sena 'compromise' because to give the BJP its desired 130 seats, it has severely reduced the number of seats given to smaller parties in the alliance.
Earlier a top Maharashtra BJP leader and the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Eknath Khadse even went to the extent of saying the alliance was on the "death bed".
The deadlock had left smaller allies of 'Mahayuti', the mega-alliance led by Sena and BJP, restive with one of them threatening to walk out and contest the polls alone.
Meanwhile on the other hand, it looks like the Congress and NCP are not really that close to patching things up. The Congress had reportedly told the NCP to 'take it or leave it' even as talks between the two sides reportedly ended inconclusively.
Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane told reporters that the two sides have decided to meet again at 8.30 pm as "no solution could be arrived at." The meeting was held at Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's official residence - Varsha.
Congress has been refusing to yield to NCP's demand for equal seats, while the latter has rejected offer of 124 of the state's 288 Assembly seats.
NCP leader Praful Patel and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, state party chief Sunil Tatkare and other leaders attended the meeting, to resolve the seat-sharing deadlock and salvage the 15-year-old alliance.
State Congress chief Manikrao Thakre, who was present at the meeting, also said the "talks were inconclusive."
The NCP's core committee chaired by party chief Sharad Pawar had gone into a huddle here yesterday where it reaffirmed that the alliance should continue but insisted on getting a larger share of the state's 288 Assembly seats than 124 offered by Congress.
NCP had contested 114 and Congress 174 in 2009 Assembly elections and has been insisting on fielding candidates in half of the 288 seats, citing it had double the number of Lok Sabha seats in the state than Congress. In the worst-ever performance for the ruling alliance, NCP had won 4 Lok Sabha seats against Congress' 2.
7.00 am: Fed up BJP planning to go it alone?
Firstpost editor Sanjay Singh says that the general feeling among the Maharashtra BJP is that Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray has gone too far, especially with his barb against PM Narendra Modi.
He writes:
Uddhav said, "Everyone knows how terrible the situation was when the Godhra riots took place…Everyone was saying that Modi should be immediately removed from the Gujarat CM's post. At that time, it was only Balasaheb who told LK Advani that Modi should stay on, given that he pursues the Hindutva ideology.
The BJP leaders are agitated over Uddhav's remarks, which implied that it was time for Modi to return the favour.
“Shiv Sena has unfortunately got into this habit of upbraiding even the top leadership of the BJP. As an alliance partner, the least they could have done was to spare Modi. But sometimes they say there was no Modi wave, and at other times they say that Modi reached the top only because the Thackeray family stood by him. The Sena did not make life any easier for Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, but since everyone respected Bal Thackeray’s stature and understood his temperament, ties never came to breaking point. Uddhav should realise he is no Bal Thackeray and things are different in 2014. They can’t be given a free run”, a BJP leader said.
Read the whole article here | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
With a relatively late Mardi Gras, krewe members and paradegoers are hoping for warm weather and sunny skies. The last three March 5 Fat Tuesd… | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Article content continued
Although he anticipates a smooth transition, Jones has already been comparing notes with Carter, who’s slated to make his third consecutive start on the corner.
“We talk about it a lot,” said Jones. “That’s my roommate so we talk about things like that. We’re just playmakers. That’s what we pride ourselves on.”
Jones also takes pride in being able to play multiple positions. Along with his responsibilities as a returner, Jones is listed on the Riders’ depth chart as a backup receiver and also has experience as a tailback.
“Having versatile guys is very, very important for us as a team,” Jones said. “It’s always good to have two or three guys like me and Duron who can play both sides of the ball in case things happen. It’s a long season.”
Jones is already a valuable contributor on special teams, ranked No. 3 in the CFL in both punt-return average (14.5) and kickoff-return average (24.3).
The 25-year-old speedster leads the CFL with 531 combined yards even though he hasn’t seen any action on offence.
Not yet, anyway.
“I never campaign for anything,” Jones insisted. “I allow them to evaluate me and when they evaluate me and see that I can do multiple things, I’m the emergency guy. Whatever you need me to do. I have a significant position on this team as the returner so, if we can keep that the way it is as a team, we’re doing a great job. If not, we have to make some adjustments and we’re able to do that.”
According to head coach and GM Chris Jones, the only reason his primary returner has yet to see action on offence or defence is because the team is wary of increasing his workload. Jones remembers being on the Montreal Alouettes’ staff when they made that mistake with Ezra Landry and Keith Stokes, both of whom saw their return games suffer after getting more touches on offence.
“That’s why we don’t play (Christion) a lot,” said the Riders’ boss, who nonetheless won’t hesitate to alter that approach if the situation demands it. “He’s a guy who’s extremely versatile and he’s a very physical football player. I’d put him in (as a DB) in a second. He can play.”
[email protected] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hello again, friends! It’s now been two weeks of the real-deal carnivore, zero carb, all meat diet, and things go well. Well, actually, I did cheat a tiny little bit- I went to a festival over the weekend and one of the friends I went with brought pork belly. Now, I had never had it before- believe it or not. It’s fantastic, and I highly recommend it- like super bacon on steroids, but not the actual bacon steroids, the metaphorical kind. However, he fried it in vegetable oil, and for that, I will apologize to you all. I’m pretty good about willpower most of the time, but damn it, there was no way I could have not had some of that. C’est la vie, or so it would seem.
Aside from that, there is one other notable observation that I’ve had so far. Like a fool, I didn’t weigh myself at the beginning of the challenge (I ended up waiting until like two weeks in), and as a result, I’m not sure what my starting weight was. However, I do know that from the time I weighed myself (about two weeks in to the Starbucks sous vide egg bite compromised first half) to now (two weeks of pure carnivore), my weight hasn’t fluctuated more than +/- .2 of a pound. Of course, I’ve controlled for time of day and attire (morning and a bathrobe, respectively).
The really fascinating part of this is that I have almost certainly been consuming more calories than I was before. If we’re counting the 3 lb. bags of bacon ends that I’ve bought so far and the (less good) bacon they have at lunch at Tesla, I’ve probably broken 20lbs of bacon in the past month. I’m no baconologist, but that’s gotta be more than the average person’s yearly consumption of bacon.
What (most non-carnivores would call) common sense would dictate is that I almost certainly would have put on tons of weight and would have some arteries exploding, but here I am, weight unchanged and arteries un-exploded. If that changes, I would probably suggest you not expect any articles, what with the whole “artery explosion” thing.
I’m sure you’d understand.
However, barring my untimely (and currently unexpected) demise, I’ll keep on keeping on, both because of bacon and also for you, my dear readers. (Depending on how much you’re comfortable lying to yourself, you can switch the two of those priorities around.)
Another interesting development (and likely related to the first bit) is that I seem to have put on a bit of muscle and gained some strength. I’d imagine that’s got something to do with the neutral weight thing, but as far as I was aware, one can either lose fat or gain muscle, but not both at once. If I’m wrong about this assumption, please let me know and I’ll shout you out in next week’s chapter.
Now that we’re all caught up, let’s get to some…
Meat Thoughts:
One of the things that I’ve been thinking about since I went to this festival (which was not Burning Man, maybe next year) is that modern man has more or less gotten rid of the tribalistic, ritualized celebration that older shamanic societies once had. I know this isn’t a new idea, but as this is the first festival I’ve been to since 2014, I have a significantly different perspective.
My reasons for bringing this up are kind of varied, but one of the bits that’s been stuck in my head is that the word “carnival” more or less literally means something along the lines of “farewell to meat.” While you may be surprised that the Catholic church ever had anything to do with something as exciting as what we think of today as a carnival, apparently it’s their creation. Go figure. Turns out the whole thing was a celebration of rich, fatty foods on (Mardi Gras, [which is the same thing] literally means Fat Tuesday) the last day before the fast of Lent.
We’ve become (or, at least, have been for the duration of the US- thanks for nothing, Quaker Oats guy) very restrained as a society, and it seems that the only outlets given for us to celebrate and cut loose are alcohol based and involve clubs. This isn’t an argument against alcohol, don’t get it twisted. However, I don’t know about you, but if you actually like going to clubs, you’re either lying or a psychopath. As they say on Twitter, don’t @ me. (Or do- something something all publicity.)
That’s where festivals come in- I mentioned that it seemed that random people at festivals in the middle of the woods seemed to be the closest approximation of a traditional religious experience that we have in the modern age. He responded by mentioning something called neo-shamanism, though he didn’t go far into detail.
My initial impression was me imagining some hipsters at Coachella wearing tribal headdresses while using a tablet on a selfie stick or some comparable bullshit. I don’t normally agree with the concept of “cultural appropriation” due to the normal flow of memetic dynamics, but I’d be willing to meet for peace talks with those who do if we can stop that specific type of person- don’t act like you don’t know who I mean.
On a (moderately) more serious note, we seem to have a deep desire for something to replace the old tribal or religious rituals that we once had as hunter-gatherers in the wild. Now, if you’re more than vaguely familiar with the site, you’ll know how I feel about tribalism, so don’t think this is in support of either that or some kind of dogmatic organized religion.
However, I’m also not going full Christopher-Hitchens-style-militant-atheist here, either. We haven’t evolved enough in the time that cities have been around to get rid of these deep, ingrained desires, but we have come far enough to overcome the supremely irrational bits, like not eating bacon (though that may have been a good idea in the past due to cleanliness issues).
What I’m really getting at is this: What if we were to take the best parts of these old traditions and combine them with our new ways? I worked on a kiosk selling hair straighteners for an Israeli company, and every week we would have Shabbat dinner on Friday after sundown. Just the act of sharing a consecrated meal changes how you interact with each other, and I think there’s great value in that.
Imagine if you had a weekly (or even monthly) meal with your family, friends, and coworkers, no electronics allowed, and no distractions to prevent you from bonding and enjoying each other’s company? Imagine if there was a place you could go once a week to hear someone give a lecture closer to a TED talk than a fire and brimstone sermon?
The last bit I’ve thought of here is this: Imagine if we could have, once a year, a huge festival, a Carnivore’s Carnival of sorts (but done in a way that doesn’t infringe on Lemony Snicket’s trademarks). Everyone could come together and learn some skills during the day at seminars or workshops, eat a big smoked pig or something comparably delicious together for dinner, and then let loose at night.
This is more or less what I’ve been considering since this weekend, and I’m going to figure out how to make it happen- as soon as I can find someone to give me the latin word that means the opposite of carnival’s original meaning.
Until next time, thanks for reading and see you after another week of the all meat diet!
Like this: Like Loading... | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A former Cal State Fullerton administrator was fatally stabbed on a campus parking lot Monday in what police said was a targeted attack.
Fullerton Police Lt. Jon Radus told reporters that a bomb squad found an incendiary device inside a backpack under the car where the deadly assault occurred.
The backpack also contained an unspecified item that Radus said could have been used in a kidnapping.
"We believe this particular victim was the target of this homicide," Radus said, adding that investigators had not found a murder weapon.
Radus identified the victim as Steven Shek Keung Chan, 57, of Hacienda Heights. Chan was a budget and finance director from from 2009 to 2017 who returned to the school earlier this year as a consultant, the school's president, Fram Virjee, said in a statement.
"I did not have the honor of knowing Steven personally or working with him directly, but over the past few hours, in providing a shoulder to lean on for those who were close to him, it is clear that he was beloved for his commitment to and passion for both Cal State Fullerton and our Titan Family," Virjee said.
The suspect, who a witness said was wearing black pants, a black t-shirt and had black hair, remained at large after fleeing the scene on foot.
UPDATE: Crime appears to be a homicide caused by a bladed weapon. Suspect description: Asian adult male in mid twenties, black hair, black pants and black shirt last seen headed east on Nutwood. @csuf — CSU Fullerton PD (@csufpd) August 19, 2019
The killing occurred at about 8:30 a.m. in Parking Lot S, on the south end of the commuter campus in Fullerton, California, about 35 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles and 8 miles north of Disneyland.
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene and his attacker was last seen headed east on Nutwood Avenue, which runs along the south end of the campus, officials said.
"We do not know motive at this point for what occurred," Radus told reporters. "We do not believe there is a random stabber."
The school, which had 39,774 students last fall, has the biggest enrollment of any in the 23-campus California State University system.
Monday marked the school's first day of the academic year, and classes begin next week. Campus police said they'd step up patrols around the school.
For a relatively low-profile commuter school, Cal State Fullerton has endured its share of tragedy. In 1971, three assistant football coaches were killed in a plane crash. Five years later, school custodian Edward Charles Allaway killed seven people in the university library's basement. Allaway believed his co-workers were making pornographic films with his ex-wife.
In 1984, physics professor Edward Cooperman was shot to death in his office. The year after that, a part-time professor and regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Alex Odeh, was killed by a bomb.
In 2009, Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart, Cal State Fullerton cheerleader Courtney Stewart and a third person were killed in a car crash by a drunk driver. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A little over a year ago, with the help of a few other Trekkies I met through Tumblr, I took on a huge but super-fun project: running each and every live-action Star Trek episode—from The Original Series through Enterprise—through the Bechdel Test. In case you’re not quite up to speed, the Bechdel Test started as a tongue-in-cheek commentary by Alison Bechdel on the state of mainstream media in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. In order for a movie to pass:
There must be at least two (named) women characters;
Who talk to each other;
About something other than a man.
It’s not a test of whether or not a movie is feminist (Star Trek [2009] only passes because Uhura and her roommate Gaila talk about a science project while Kirk is hiding under their bed secretly watching Uhura change). But if a show or movie can’t even meet this extremely basic standard, it can indicate a lack of women characters and/or that the ones who are there might be tokenized, stereotyped, or one-dimensional.
I knew the Trek movies didn’t stack up very well, but no one had tested the episodes. Trek still has a huge place in our culture, impressive fan series are coming out all the time, we’re expecting another movie in 2016, and the rumors that we might one day get another series persist. So it’s important to figure out what worked and what could’ve been improved in terms of representations of women and other underrepresented groups. The future society portrayed in Star Trek was supposed to show greater equality for women (as well as people of color, although it seriously overlooked LGBT characters). But inequality behind the scenes, as well as trying to market a show based on conventional wisdom about what modern audiences want (more catsuits, maybe?), created tensions with that egalitarian vision.
Results
Here are the results for the series overall. The percentages represent the percentage of episodes of that series that passed the Bechdel Test.
I think the only thing that surprised me was how well The Next Generation did. I expected to see the numbers reversed, with Enterprise doing a bit better, but it turns out I’d forgotten how many awesome female one-off characters and recurring guest stars there were in TNG, including a wealth of named female ensigns, bad-ass admirals, well-respected diplomats, and controversial scientists. And of course, Guinan.
Even Troi and Crusher interacted more and more meaningfully than Hoshi and T’Pol on Enterprise. Enterprise not only did pretty poorly considering it ran in the twenty-first century, but many of the episodes that passed just barely made it, thanks to Hoshi and T’Pol exchanging two or three lines about something on the ship. Where were the high points? You can get a clearer idea by looking at the breakdown by season:
Behold the awesome power of the Janeway. Voyager had the only Trek season (five) where every single episode passed the test! Even many of the episodes that failed were Janeway-centric but just showed her interacting with men. Having a female captain made a huge difference, but I think having two other main female characters, including B’Elanna Torres as chief engineer, was almost as important a factor. Very few episodes went by where we didn’t get Janeway and B’Elanna discussing the transporters, the warp drive, the impulse engines, or other issues around the ship’s mechanics.
Deep Space Nine comes in pretty much in the middle of the pack. There were actually a lot of women characters in diverse roles, but it felt like we got to see more of their working and personal relationships with men (e.g. Kira and Odo, Dax and Sisko, Dax and Worf, Keiko and Miles, Kai Winn and Sisko and Dukat, the Female Shapeshifter and Odo) than with other women.
Issues Arising
The Bechdel Test has its limits, as I mentioned at the beginning. And issues did arise during this process. One thing was figuring out how to test pesky group scenes. For example, the senior staff are all in Ops and Dax and Kira each say something one after each other, but not clearly to each other. In the end I created two sets of results, one that interpreted the test a little more loosely by including scenarios like that. In retrospect, I don’t think that was necessary and I didn’t use those higher numbers in the results above.
Another question I considered was whether to pass women talking about a man in a work-related (as opposed to romantic) context. There were times when it seemed like it would make sense with the spirit of the test—like passing Dr. Crusher and Nurse Ogawa talking about a collapsed male patient’s medical condition—but it seemed to open the door too much. Ideally, an episode would have more than one scene of women talking, so it wouldn’t be the determining factor.
Part of why the Bechdel Test is so useful is that it’s such a low standard that it’s surprising that so many things fail, and it’s hard to argue there’s not room for improvement. I found it impossible to think of a single episode that would fail a reverse version of the test. Even the TNG episode “Angel One,” which is set on a matriarchal planet, has two men talking with each other about something other than a woman right away in the first three lines, and then 13 more times in the rest of the episode!
I want the next Trek movie and/or show not to continue the downward trend we saw with Enterprise but to take on the challenge of outdoing Voyager on the Bechdel Test. And the test can’t get at this, so I have to also mention I want more characters of color and LGBT characters (seriously overdue!). It shouldn’t actually be all that difficult, and it might actually help your bottom line! Just take this handy-dandy reminder from Worf (in “Suddenly Human”): “You are human, and among humans, females can achieve anything the males can.”
Links to More Detailed (Episode by Episode) Results:
[Correction: In my initial calculations for this post I counted the Voyager pilot, “Caretaker,” as a fail when it in fact passes the test, because Janeway and Kes talk about getting down to the Ocampan settlement through the tunnels. That means Season 1 of Voyager is actually at 93.8%, and the series overall gets bumped up slightly to 87.5%.]
Jarrah Hodge is a feminist blogger from Vancouver, B.C. She runs the feminist blog gender-focus.com, and analyzes Star Trek from a feminist perspective at trekkiefeminist.tumblr.com. You can also find her on Twitter @jarrahpenguin.
Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
Have a tip we should know? [email protected] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hundreds of elephants and tens of lions in Zimbabwe will be moved by the country’s wildlife agency as part of a major operation to save the animals from a devastating drought.
More than 200 elephants have died over the last two months due to a lack of water at the country’s main conservation zones in Mana Pools and Hwange National Park.
Residents of Jutshume village, near to Hwange National Park, shared a video of an elephant calf that had fallen into a well last month after desperately searching for water. Residents managed to rescue the calf, which later fled into the wild, but believe its leg was broken in the process.
A second adult elephant, which had collapsed near to the village, was fed by residents until it was strong enough to walk.
The lelephant calf fell in a well looking for water. #Asakhe pic.twitter.com/TyfcP0EE3t — Zenzele (@zenzele) October 29, 2019
Animals near to Jutshume village, by the border with Botswana, used to drink from the Maitengwe dam, known locally as Mabhongane or “roaring lion”. But the wall of the dam collapsed in 2005 and has not been repaired, leaving stretches of barren land.
The country’s wildlife agency plans to move 600 elephants, two prides of lion, a pack of wild dogs, 50 buffalo, 40 giraffes and 2,000 impala, according to reports by Agence France-Presse.
Parks and wildlife authority spokesperson Tinashe Farawo told AFP that the operation will begin during rainy season, when pastures flourish, usually around the middle of November. Farawo described the mission as “the biggest translocation in our history”.
The animals will be moved from Savé Valley Conservancy, a major park in southeastern Zimbabwe, to three other reserves in the north of the country.
Conservation experts have warned that the country could lose more elephants to drought if there are not enough rains this season.
A recent drought has left more than five million rural Zimbabweans, nearly a third of the population, at risk of food shortages before the next harvest in 2020, according to the UN.
Zimbabwe has 85,000 elephants but the country’s national parks and conservation areas can only cope with 55,000. Grazing lands and water have fast depleted as the country is experiencing its worst drought in years.
Charles Jonga, director of Campfire, a leading conservation organisation, says the El Niño induced drought had worsened the already dire water situation in the country’s parks.
Farawo said the wildlife agency was in dire need of water pumping equipment to save the elephants. “We are in desperate need of resources to provide water. We are desperately waiting for the rains.”
Wildlife lovers have donated bails of hay for elephants in a bid to save the world’s largest land mammal.
Many desperate animals are straying from Zimbabwe’s parks into nearby communities in search of food and water, a situation that has increased human–wildlife conflict.
Over the past five years, 200 people have reportedly died in “human–and–animal conflict”.
“We are likely to lose even more elephants, especially if the rains are late. The world must know that Hwange relies on underground water, and it has never been easy for parks to maintain this overpopulated park,” Jonga said.
Zimbabwe and other southern African nations have been calling on the global watchdog to relax terms of wildlife trade.
But Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia’s fresh appeal to lift restrictive measures on the trade in raw ivory was rejected at a conference held by Cites, the watchdog, this August. Cities prohibits unregulated commercial trade in endangered species around the world. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
La Mesa (KGTV)- It’s being called one of the most progressive marijuana ordinances in the county. The city of La Mesa plans to unveil its proposed rules this week. City leaders believe lifting limits is the key to defeating illegal pot shops.
If passed, the City of La Mesa would be the first in the county to put forth an ordinance without a hard cap on the number of dispensaries within city limits.
“We didn’t play that game,” says La Mesa City Council Member Bill Baber. “We’re basically saying they’re in our commercial areas, they have to be regulated, and the market itself will flush out how many get to exist.”
Councilmember Bill Baber says the proposed ordinance would weed out illegal pot shops by operating a path to run a legitimate business.
It’s a different approach than the one in Chula Vista. City leaders hope a limited number of legal dispensaries will drive customers away from illegal pot shops.
Currently, there is only one legally operating dispensary within La Mesa city limits.
“We’re proposing our dispensaries that have legally been selling medicinal marijuana to also move one step forward and to sell recreational. It’s the same product.”
Under the new laws, the dispensaries will be taxed. The money will go to the city’s general fund. It will help with putting more officers on the street and shutting down illegal operations. Councilman Baber says the city estimates the new ordinance will bring in nearly $2 million a year in city taxes.
The funds will also be used to clean up old run-down buildings that once housed illegal dispensaries.
“In 4 years our city attorney and our police have shut down 26 of these,” says Baber.
West La Mesa Resident, Erik Egelko, says the boarded-up businesses are now bringing in squatters. Behind an old, illegal pot shop on El Cajon Boulevard sits old furniture, trash and the rancid smell of urine.
“It just really turned into a slum,” says Egelko. “I see west la Mesa as having this incredible potential.”
The La Mesa City Council will be reviewing the ordinance during tomorrow’s city council meeting. There will be public comments for residents to weight in. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
On November 13, a series of terror attacks occurred in Paris, France resulting in the loss of over 150 lives and hundreds more injured.
Amongst all of the attacks, the most bloodshed occurred in Bataclan Concert Hall. Other sites that were attacked include a stadium, a restaurant, and more. The attackers were armed with weapons such as AK-47s and bombs. They relentlessly shot innocent civilians. The death toll is expected to rise.
With this somber news, K-pop singers and other celebrities have spoken up about praying for Paris.
You can see their posts below (posts will be updated as they become available):
Super Junior’s Choi Siwon
A photo posted by SIWON CHOI (@siwon1987) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:07pm PST
Super Junior-M’s Zhou Mi
A photo posted by 我是周觅！조미zhoumi (@zhouzhoumi419) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:32pm PST
9MUSES’ Hyuna
A photo posted by MOON (@moongom119) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:05pm PST
Super Junior’s Yesung
A photo posted by Yesung (@yesung1106) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:50pm PST
Yang Hyun Suk
A photo posted by YANG HYUN SUK (@fromyg) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:12pm PST
Secret’s Hyosung
A photo posted by JUN HYO SEONG /SECRET 전효성 (@secrettimehs) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:48pm PST
Son Dambi
A photo posted by 손담비 (@xodambi) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:28pm PST
Eric Nam
A photo posted by 에릭남 Eric Nam (@realericnam) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:20pm PST
Girls’ Generation’s Sooyoung
#prayforparis #staystrongparis A photo posted by Sooyoung Choi (@hotsootuff) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:27pm PST
Se7en
#PRAYFORPARIS A photo posted by 세븐 SE7EN (@se7enofficial) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:26pm PST
miss A’s Jia
A photo posted by Mengjia (@mjbaby0203) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:37pm PST
GOT7′s BamBam
A photo posted by BamBam(뱀뱀) (@bambam1a) on Nov 13, 2015 at 7:17pm PST
Hyene
A photo posted by 혜이니 (@hye2nk) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:54pm PST
Rainbow’s Seungah
A photo posted by 오승아 (@snowmanloveu) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:04pm PST
NU’EST’s Aron
A photo posted by Aaron Kwak (@nuestaron) on Nov 13, 2015 at 7:00pm PST
Shannon
A photo posted by Shannon/샤넌 (@shannonpix13) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:26pm PST
After School’s Jungah
#prayforparis A photo posted by AFTER SCHOOL Jung A (@jjungajjunga) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:24pm PST
Secret’s Song Jieun
T-ara’s Soyeon
I have a special memory about paris…Please accept my sincere condolences..#prayforparis A photo posted by S*소야니
G.NA
A photo posted by Gina aka. G.NA ♥ (@missginachoi87) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:34pm PST
BoA
A photo posted by BoA Kwon (@boakwon) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:56pm PST
Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyeon
A photo posted by hyoyeon kim (@watasiwahyo) on Nov 13, 2015 at 6:58pm PST
Royal Pirates’ James
God please help A photo posted by James (@jamesjhl) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:32pm PST
2AM’s Seulong
A photo posted by LSOD.d (@lsod.d) on Nov 13, 2015 at 5:25pm PST
G-Dragon
A photo posted by G-DRAGON (@xxxibgdrgn) on Nov 13, 2015 at 8:15pm PST
Fly to The Sky’s Brian
방금 파리에 테러리스트 사건 뉴스 보고 마음이 너무 무거워 집니다 ㅠ ㅠ 우리 모두 파리를 위해서 기도합시다! 생각만 해도 마음이 너무 아프고 눈물이 납니다~ To know that terrorist attacks are still happening around the world breaks my heart. I ask that we all come together and pray for Paris throughout the day and for the days to come! It saddens me and I pray that God be with all of Paris #prayforparis #stophate #spreadlove #spreadlovenothate A photo posted by Brian Joo (@brianjoomuzik) on Nov 13, 2015 at 7:55pm PST
Taeyang
A photo posted by TAEYANG (@__youngbae__) on Nov 13, 2015 at 7:41pm PST
miss A’s Fei
A photo posted by missa_fei xi (@ff0427) on Nov 13, 2015 at 8:28pm PST
Jessi
A photo posted by 제시 / Jessi (@jessicah_o) on Nov 13, 2015 at 8:24pm PST
Kasper
A photo posted by 세린 (@kasper0417) on Nov 13, 2015 at 8:10pm PST
Lee Hong Ki
A photo posted by 홍기 이 (@skullhong12) on Nov 13, 2015 at 8:07pm PST
After School’s Lizzy | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Image Credit: Dave Hogan/Getty ImagesIt’s a Disney story without a happy ending: In the latest issue of GQ, Billy Ray Cyrus says that the fourth and final season of Hannah Montana, the show that made his daughter Miley a superstar, was “a disaster.”
“I was going to work every single day knowing that my family had fallen apart, but yet I had to sit in front of that camera,” he tells the magazine. “The damn show destroyed my family. And I sit there and go, ‘Yeah, you know what? Some gave all.’ It is my motto, and guess what? I have to eat that one. I some-gave-all’d it all right. I some-gave-all’d it while everybody else was going to the bank. It’s all sad.”
As for his daughter, he says, “I’m scared for her. She’s got a lot of people around her that’s putting her in a great deal of danger. I know she’s 18, but I still feel like as her daddy I’d like to try to help. Take care of her just a little bit, to at least get her out of danger. I want to get her sheltered from the storm. Stop the insanity just for a minute.”
“Every time something happened in Miley’s career, every time the train went off the track, if you will — Vanity Fair, pole-dancing, whatever scandal it was — her people, or as they say in today’s news, her handlers, every time they’d put me… ‘Somebody’s shooting at Miley! Put the old man up there!’ Well, I took it, because I’m her daddy, and that’s what daddies do. ‘Okay, nail me to the cross, I’ll take it…”
“How many interviews did I give and say, ‘You know what’s important between me and Miley is I try to be a friend to my kids’? I said it a lot. And sometimes I would even read other parents might say, ‘You don’t need to be a friend, you need to be a parent.’ Well, I’m the first guy to say to them right now: You were right. I should have been a better parent. I should have said, ‘Enough is enough — it’s getting dangerous and somebody’s going to get hurt.’ I should have, but I didn’t. Honestly, I didn’t know the ball was out of bounds until it was way up in the stands somewhere.”
In an odd addendum, he compares his daughter’s struggles in the spotlight to those of the late Kurt Cobain, with whom he had an unlikely friendship in the early ’90s: “He was one of those guys that became a friend to me that I never expected. We met at a venue one night and I was standing in the shadows, 1 a.m. in the morning, and he’s ‘Hey man, congratulations — you pissed the whole world off.’ We shook hands, and I said, ‘Thanks, man… I love what you all do.'” He says that the pair bonded over their young daughters, and that Cobain was one of the few not to ostracize him at an awards ceremony during his “Achy Breaky” days.
.
In the end, says Cyrus, he would trade all his family’s success to regain their happiness: “I hate to say it, but yes, I do. Yeah. I’d take it back in a second,” Cyrus says. “For my family to be here and just be everybody okay, safe and sound and happy and normal, would have been fantastic. Heck, yeah. I’d erase it all in a second if I could.” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Amazon is reportedly in talks to pay US$1 billion dollars to acquire the television production rights to popular Chinese science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem, written by the Chinese writer Liu Cixin.
Firstly serialized online in 2006 and published as a book in 2008, the three part novel includes The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest and Death’s End. It became one of the best-selling science novels in mainland Chinese history. The story, set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, involves a clash between an alien and human civilizations.
The rights to the novel are currently held by Youzu Interactive, an online game developer listed in China.
An English translation by Ken Liu won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel and was nominated for the 2014 Nebula Award. Writer Liu Cixin, who first saw this news online, said he hopes that the deal can really be realized, and expected the episodes can capture the essence of the original book.
Credit Suisse recently released a report on the prospects of the Chinese media industry, pointing out that it has shifted from supply side and quantity driven expansion to a new era supported by content and quality. In the mean time, the TV drama industry has become a major distribution channel with the rise of online video websites. The brokerage also notes that the market value in China is has tripled to US$42billion in 2016 from five years ago.
As the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon has invested heavily in making of original series based on popular science fiction franchises. Last November, it purchased the rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings foraround US$250 million dollars to making a TV show. It bought the rights to science fiction novels Ringworld, Snow Crash and Lazarillo de Tormes. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Green Bay Packers fans have loved ESPN's Skip Bayless for years, especially for his analysis of quarterback Aaron Rodgers' play. So I'm sure they'll be thrilled to hear who Skip has picked to win the NFC North in 2012. It's near the end of this video and here's your only hint: ROAR! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
And Airbnb is only a piece of the peer-to-peer economy. People are renting out their cars to people they don’t know, dropping off their pets with people they don’t know, renting power tools to people they don’t know.
In retrospect, I underestimated the power of a few trends that make the peer-to-peer economy possible. First, I underestimated the effects of middle-class stagnation. With wages flat and families squeezed, many people have to return to the boardinghouse model of yesteryear. They have to rent out rooms to cover their mortgage or rent.
Second, I underestimated the power that liberal arts majors would have on the economy. Millions of people have finished college with a hunger for travel and local contact, but without much money. They would rather stay in spare rooms in residential neighborhoods than in homogenized hotels in commercial areas, especially if they get to have breakfast with the hosts in the morning.
And the big thing I underestimated was the transformation of social trust. In primitive economies, people traded mostly with members of their village and community. Trust was face to face. Then, in the mass economy we’ve been used to, people bought from large and stable corporate brands, whose behavior was made more reliable by government regulation.
But now there is a new trust calculus, powered by both social and economic forces. Socially, we have large numbers of people living loose unstructured lives, mostly in the 10 years after leaving college and in the 10 years after retirement.
These people often live alone or with short-time roommates, outside big institutional structures, like universities, corporations or the settled living of family life. They become very fast and fluid in how they make social connections. They become accustomed to instant intimacy, or at least fast pseudo-intimacy. People are both hungrier for human contact and more tolerant of easy-come-easy-go fluid relationships.
Economically, there are many more people working as freelancers. These people are more individualistic in how they earn money. They often don’t go to an office. They have traded dependence on big organizational systems for dependence on people they can talk to and negotiate arrangements with directly. They become accustomed to flexible ad-hoc arrangements.
The result is a personalistic culture in which people have actively lost trust in big institutions. Strangers don’t seem especially risky by comparison. This is fertile ground for peer-to-peer commerce.
Companies like Airbnb establish trust through ratings mechanisms. Their clients are already adept at evaluating each other on the basis of each other’s Facebook pages. People in the Airbnb economy don’t have the option of trusting each other on the basis of institutional affiliations, so they do it on the basis of online signaling and peer evaluations. Online ratings follow you everywhere, so people have an incentive to act in ways that will buff their online reputation.
As this sector matures, government is getting more involved. City officials have clashed with Airbnb and Uber on a range of issues. But most city governments don’t seem inclined to demand tight regulations and oversight. Centralized agencies don’t know what to make of decentralized trust networks. Moreover, in most cities people seem to understand this is a less formal economy and caveat emptor rules to a greater degree.
Meanwhile, companies like Airbnb and even Uber seem inclined to compromise and play nice with city governments. They’re trying to establish reputations as good citizens, to play nice with bureaucrats and co-op boards; they can’t do that with in-your-face, disruptive tactics.
We’re probably entering a world in which some sectors, like energy, retain top-down regulatory regimes. Other sectors, like bake sales, are unregulated. But more sectors, like peer-to-peer, exist in a gray zone in between. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Don’t worry we understand all these concerns. Once you take our service we assure you tension free academic days. Also, our experts are trained in their field of subject and have minim 6 years of experience in assignment solving; which means you can easily trust them and be tension free.
We are aware about the problems that students are normally facing when it comes to completing their assignment. The most common fear in all students is scoring low grades by not submitting the assignment on time. This fear will not let you do anything. It will not let you to enjoy or spend time with your family, friends or even there are some part time workers who can’t pay attention to their job as well ;so getting affected by both sides.
One stop solution for all your Business and Academic needs
Whenever it becomes difficult to manage the assignment in college, schools or even university, taking expert help is wise choice. If you are someone who is doing part time job or due to any other reasons is not able to submit assignment on time and often miss the deadline and therefore score low grades, that is exactly where our services are helpful to you. We at All assignment support employ teams of dedicated and professional tutors who help students globally at all academic level, no matter what type of assignment service you are looking for, we are here to take care of all your academic needs. You can reach us from any corner of the word for online assignment help. Once you take our service, we assure you tension free academic days.
Key Features
24/7 live support We work 24/7 for your convenience, so you don’t need to wait for any central time you can reach us any time from any corner of the word. You can asks questions about your assignment to customer support executive or even directly get into touch with the expert. Feel free to contact us via phone, email, WhatsApp or live chat.
5200 + phd experts Knowledge, skills, experience and creativity are the features that we consider before hiring the expert. Our experts are PhD holders from reputed universities of the world so feel free to contact us and take our service if you want to live a tension free academic life without fear of low grades.
Experts for all subjects It doesn’t matter whether you are a school going kid or finishing your final PhD thesis, our experts can provide you professional writing and technical assistance on any subject at any level.
Plagiarism free work We provide turntin tested work to ensure plagiarism free assignments. In case any assignment shows any unacceptable level of plagiarism we process complete refund. Students can ask for turntin reports if they want- *conditions applied
Free rework If the work is not as per your requirements we give unlimited revisions till you are satisfied.
Best Market Price Our service is affordable and we make sure that you get your money’s worth
Request call backs You can request call back and our relationship manager will get back to you instantly.
Safe payment options Scared may be we are spam?? Don’t worry your transactions are secured by bank and PayPal so no question of scam or fraud. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Want that your work should be like a game? Do you have bad motivation at work? High Five Driven Development is a very easy way to increase motivation at work. This is a very easy coaching technique for everyone.
Video producer: http://agileee.org/ | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Kent Brantly, the Ebola-stricken American doctor who was flown back to the United States from Liberia on Saturday, "seems to be improving," Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday.
"It's encouraging that he seems to be improving," Frieden told CBS' "Face the Nation." "And we're hoping he'll continue to improve. But Ebola is such a scary disease because it's so deadly. I can't predict the future for individual patients."
Brantly, 33, is being treated in a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, one of four facilities in the country equipped to deal with infectious diseases. He is believed to be the first Ebola patient ever to be treated on U.S. soil.
Nancy Writebol, a 59-year-old American who was also infected with Ebola while working as a medical missionary in Liberia, is expected to arrive early this week — raising concern that the disease might spread in the United States.
But the CDC says that such concerns are unwarranted, because Ebola can only be spread through direct contact with bodily fluids or blood, and patients exhibiting symptoms are immediately placed in isolation.
"I hope that our understandable fear of the unfamiliar does not trump our compassion, when ill Americans return to the U.S. for care," Frieden said on "Face the Nation."
Frieden said his office has received "nasty emails" and at least 100 telephone calls from Americans concerned that Brantly and Writebol would be allowed to return to the Unted States.
"The plain truth is that we can stop Ebola," Frieden said on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos." "We know how to control it."
Samaritan’s Purse, one of two faith-based groups sponsoring the missionaries, said Brantly received a dose of an experimental serum before leaving Liberia.
On Sunday, Brantly's wife said she was grateful to have him back in the United States.
“Our family is rejoicing over Kent's safe arrival, and we are confident that he is receiving the very best care," Amber Brantly said in a statement. "We are very grateful to the staff at Emory University Hospital, who have been so nice and welcoming to us. I was able to see Kent today. He is in good spirits. He thanked everyone for their prayers and asked for continued prayer for Nancy Writebol's safe return and full recovery.”
Story continues
Ebola has resulted in the deaths of more than 700 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since February, according to the World Health Organization, and has sickened more than 1,300 in what health officials say is the largest outbreak ever of the hemorrhagic virus.
Frieden said that while the United States may see a few cases of Ebola from people coming into the country from overseas, it is unlikely the virus will spread.
"The single most important thing we can do to protect Americans is to stop this disease at the source in Africa," he said on ABC. "The tried and true public health mechanisms work. We find the patients. You isolate them. You find out who their contacts were. You trace the contacts. You track them every day for 21 days. If they get fever, you start that process again. You make sure there's good infection control, and you educate the community in Africa about safe burial practices. When you do those simple things, Ebola stops.
"Ebola is really like a forest fire," he added. "If you leave one ember burning, it can flare up again." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A moving ceremony at Te Papa was held today to welcome home ancestral remains of tangata whenua to Aotearoa.
The repatriation to the national museum in Wellington is the largest of its kind in New Zealand's history.
The ancestral Māori and Moriori remains were taken from New Zealand in the 1800s and eventually housed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
The iwi in residence at Te Papa, Ngāti Toa, greeted their ancestors with karanga, wailing and the recitation of ancient Māori incantations to clear a pathway for the tūpuna to return home.
Photo: RNZ / Laura Bootham
About 300 people packed into the marae at Te Papa, as more than 100 Māori and Moriori ancestral remains, or kōiwi tangata, were returned.
The 107 remains included 35 toi moko, or preserved Māori tattooed heads, 24 Moriori skeletal remains and 46 kōiwi tāngata or Māori skeletal remains. They were carried onto the marae in white boxes before being gently laid down and covered with korowai or Māori cloaks.
The chairperson of the repatriation programme, Professor Pou Temara, says today is the result of negotiations and hard work.
"I have a deep sense of satisfaction that what we have negotiated in the last 10 years as culminated in the biggest repatriation of our work."
The kōiwi tāngata had originally been in the collections of H.G. Robley (1840-1930), who served in the campaign at Gate Pā and developed a keen interest in Māori culture and moko.
Photo: RNZ / Laura Bootham
Professor Scott Schaefer, an Associate Dean of Science for Collections at the American Museum of Natural History, says today's ceremony was a chance to share the cultural respect attributed to the remains and celebrate their return.
"We have significant collections that we've returned today, so that is something we're very proud of. Personally, this was extremely humbling, extremely emotional from the point at which I was able to act as a pall-bearer and bring a tūpuna ancestors up the stairs to this plaza and into this room."
The Māori leader or Kaihautū at Te Papa, Arapata Hakiwai, says overseas museums are starting to support the repatriation of indigenous people's remains and Te Papa is negotiating to have more ancestral remains repatriated.
The challenge now is to ensure that these remains have a final resting place, he says.
"We do know through the research of the Repatriation Advisory Group where some of the ancestors are from. Others we have an idea of what area they're from, but that's going to be on-going research.
"Over the next 12 months we will be working with particular iwi where we can to establish secure provenance and return them home."
Te Papa chief executive Rick Ellis says it is estimated that there is still about 650 remains still in foreign places that can hopefully be repatriated, particularly from Europe. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
A man was caught on camera punching a pitbull-style dog in the face before slamming it against a fence outside a pub.
Jamie Hill, 40, from Bournemouth, Dorset, was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and ordered to appear in court.
However, he failed to turn up to the planned hearing and Dorset Police issued a warrant for his arrest.
CCTV footage shows the dog entering the beer garden at the Buffalo Bar in Bournemouth before walking into the pub in April last year.
A woman tries to catch the dog at the Buffalo Bar in Bournemouth before a man in a blue hoodie makes his way into the beer garden in April last year
The man is seen punching the dog three times before slamming it against the metal and wooden fence
A woman sitting on a bench puts out her cigarette and follows the unattended dog inside before the animal reappears.
While the dog sniffs around the patio, a man wearing a blue hooded jumper and carrying a lead grabs the animal and slams it against the fence before punching it three times.
He then picks up the dog by the scruff of its neck and walks off with the animal as two onlookers watch in horror.
Jamie Hill, 40, from Bournemouth, Dorset, was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal
The man picks the dog up by the scruff of its neck before walking out of the beer garden
He carries the pitball-style dog out of the Bournemouth beer garden as onlookers watch in horror
Police have now launched a fresh appeal to try and find the man, who is described as white, around 5ft 9ins tall and of medium build with short greying brown hair.
PC Emily Watkins, of Bournemouth police, said: 'We have carried out numerous enquiries to locate Jamie Hill but these have so far been unsuccessful.
'I am urging anyone with information as to his whereabouts, or who sees a man matching the description given, to please contact us.
The man holds the dog by his neck as he swiftly carries it out of the Buffalo Bar in Bournemouth
'While we have no information to suggest that he presents a direct risk to the public, I would urge anyone who sees this man not to approach him but to immediately contact Dorset Police on 999.'
Anyone with information in regards to Hill's whereabouts should contact Dorset Police. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The world's oldest and most famous transport system overflows with sweaty commuters on a hot summer's day.
But for all the technological advances in the world, nothing will stop the rising heat surrounding the London Underground train network. And now the streets above could be at risk too.
That's because heat emitted from trains running under London's streets for more than a century has baked the surrounding clay.
The clay that envelops tunnels is dangerously close to the limited amount of heat that it can absorb, Sharon Duffy, head of transport infrastructure at Transport for London Engineering, said in a report.
Only 2 percent of heat on London's trains is caused by commuter body heat, she said. Instead, the majority of heat in tunnels arises from movement by trains, especially when they brake and slow down.
Some of London's larger tunnels were originally built with holes across the ceiling to accommodate steam trains, pushing heat upwards. Nowadays, these tunnels accommodate air conditioned carriages. For the rest of the ageing network with smaller tunnels, however, removing heat has been possible in only a few locations.
With the temperatures in central London tunnels averaging 32 degrees C (90 degrees F) in busy rush hour periods, authorities are experimenting with potential solutions on a limited scale.
For instance, London's transport body has installed water chillers to blast cold air onto one platform beneath St Paul's Cathedral in the capital's financial district.
While the act of removing all heat from tunnels is virtually impossible, Transport for London Engineering aims to stop heat getting there in the first place.
London is not alone. New York's subway platforms can exceed 37.8 degrees C (100 degrees F) on a regular basis, according to New York radio station WNYC.
Documents obtained by Politico's Capital New York showed that concerns about high temperatures on the city's transport network were raised by a panel spearheaded by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2014.
"At higher temperatures, expansion joints on bridges and highways are stressed, and the instance of rail track stresses and track buckling increases," the draft report noted. "Underground, subway platforms and stations could become dangerously hot for riders." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
“It has been something of a wedge issue used against Republicans in the past,” says Barry Burden, a UW-Madison professor of political science. “There are Republicans who are quite supportive of embryonic stem cell research — they see the potential for cures for Alzheimer’s and these other diseases. And then there are others in the pro-life camp of the party who strictly oppose it. This judge’s ruling could be a win-win for Democrats even though it rolled back an Obama policy. They could take quick legislative action to mute the judge’s decision and have another accomplishment to tuck into their hat before the campaign. But even if they don’t do that, this issue allows Democrats to remind some Republicans and independents that they are on the Democrats’ side on this issue.”
Just as Doyle would often invoke his late mother’s battle with Parkinson’s disease while talking about the need for stem cell research, Barrett got personal on the issue in a press briefing after the biotech summit in Middleton. He noted his brother-in-law suffered a spinal cord injury about 20 years ago and has been confined to a wheelchair since then. Barrett repeated his belief that Walker would stop research that holds the potential to one day help his brother-in-law walk again. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
HDP Adana Milletvekili Meral Danış Beştaş'ın soru önergesini yanıtlayan Sağlık Bakanı, Bakanlığının "doğum kontrolü" şeklinde çağ dışı kalmış bir uygulaması olmadığını belirterek, "Bakanlığımız 'çağdaş üreme sağlığı' kavramı çerçevesinde hizmetlerini yürütmektedir" dedi.
"KÜRTAJ İLE İLGİLİ YENİ BİR YASAL DÜZENLEME ÇALIŞMASI SÖZ KONUSU DEĞİLDİR"
İsteğe bağlı gebelik sonlandırmanın ülkede 18 Aralık 1983 tarihli ve 2827 sayılı kanuna dayanılarak hazırlanan "510 Sayılı Rahim Tahliyesi ve Sterilizasyon Hizmetlerinin Yürütülmesi ve Denetlenmesine İlişkin Tüzük" çerçevesinde uygulandığını ifade eden Sağlık Bakanı Akdağ, "Bunun dışında kürtaj ile ilgili yeni bir yasal düzenleme çalışması söz konusu değildir" açıklamasını yaptı.
Dünya Sağlık Örgütünün sezaryen oranının yüzde 5'in altında ve yüzde 15'in üstünde olmasının anne ölümü açısından olumsuz sonuçlar doğurabileceğini belirttiğine işaret eden Sağlık Bakanı Akdağ, ülke yöneticilerinin halkın sağlığını korumak için önlem almak, ülkenin geleceği için politikalar belirlemek ve uygulamakla sorumlu olduğunu belirterek, "Bu yüzden Bakanlığım, tıbbi endikasyonu olan gebelerin en iyi şartlarda sezaryenle doğum yapmalarını sağlamanın yanı sıra, tıbbi endikasyon dışı sezaryen doğumları önlemek için gerekli tedbirleri almak zorundadır" dedi. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Papanack Park Zoo’s Night Safari
Our Night Safari is open on September 19 and October 3rd, 2020. The gates open at six thirty and The Guided Torch Light Tour starts at seven o’clock sharp. The gates also close at seven o’clock.
On our special moonlight-tour you’ll hear the ‘spine chilling’ howl of wolves, watch the lions feasting and you may even catch a rare glimpse of the nocturnal animals as they enjoy the cool night air.
There will also be story-telling around the campfire, hot chocolate and the gift shops will be open too!
Bring your flashlight and don’t be late because there’s no admission after seven o’clock! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Eugenio Zaffaroni y el papa Francisco no se veían tan de cerca desde hacía tiempo. Este martes se reencontraron en el Vaticano en el marco de un congreso sobre "Derechos sociales y doctrina franciscana". Ante más de 50 jueces y juezas de toda América, incluidos unos 20 de Argentina, el ex ministro de la Corte Suprema y el Sumo Pontífice coincidieron sobre el rol de la Justicia.
"Cada sentencia es una acto político. El derecho es lucha, y tenemos que ser partisanos y políticos. Cada sentencia nuestra es un acto político. Porque es un acto de gobierno de la polis. Mentira que podemos ser neutrales, mentira que podemos ser imparciales; imparciales individualmente no podemos ser", planteó Zaffaroni durante su discurso.
Y agregó: "No podemos ser ni apartidarios ni aideológicos (sic), porque no hay ningún ser humano que sea así, y si lo hay, es un ser patológico, no es un juez. Asumamos nuestra responsabilidad, tengamos conciencia de lo que debemos hacer y sigamos luchando".
El encuentro, liderado por el obispo argentino Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo –de la Pontificia Academia de las Ciencias–, se centró en cómo la Justicia y los jueces pueden ayudar a reorganizar la vida social y económica en los países de América y el resto del mundo.
Además de Zaffaroni, entre los representantes argentinos estuvieron la presidente del Tribunal Superior de Justicia de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Inés Weinberg de Roca; el defensor general de la Ciudad, Horacio Corti; el camarista general Guillermo Treacy; el juez de cámara Carlos Balbín y la jueza de cámara Fabiana Schafrik; el juez de la Cámara del Trabajo Roberto Carlos Pompa y la jueza Elena Liberatori.
Eugenio Zaffaroni en el Vaticano
Zaffaroni moderó el segundo bloque de ponencias. Cada disertante tuvo 15 minutos para exponer sus ideas respecto de cómo optimizar las políticas judiciales en torno del cabal respeto por los derechos humanos, promoviendo encuentros de formación, cursos, etc.
Luego de un breve break, comenzó el tercer y último bloque. A su término, el papa Francisco ingresó a la sala. En sus primeras palabras destacó el rol de los magistrados y su labor "constante a que el derecho de las personas, sobre todo el de las más vulnerables, sean respetados y garantizados".
El papa Francisco antes jueces argentinos y de la región
El Sumo Pontífice aprovechó el encuentro para manifestarles su preocupación por la intervención judicial en los escenarios políticos.
"Me preocupa una nueva forma de intervención exógena en los escenarios políticos de los países, a través del uso indebido de procedimientos legales y tipificaciones judiciales", dijo.
El Papa advirtió sobre el uso del off the record: "Además de poner en muy serio riesgo la democracia, generalmente es utilizado para minar los procesos políticos emergentes y propender a la violación sistemática de los derechos sociales".
El Papa suscribió la Declaración de Roma
Finalmente, pidió que "para garantizar la calidad institucional de los Estados, es fundamental detectar y neutralizar este tipo de prácticas que resultan de la impropia actividad judicial en combinación con operaciones multimediáticas paralelas".
Este martes, los participantes firmaron un documento de compromiso y conformaron un comité permanente panamericano para la participación de la Justicia en la tutela de los denominados derechos sociales. El comité está conformado por siete miembros que estarán en su cargo durante dos años.
Declaración de Roma: Declaración de Roma:
Los abajo firmantes, participantes de la primera Cumbre Panamericana de Juezas y Jueces sobre derechos sociales y doctrina franciscana, declaramos:
Nos asiste una profunda preocupación por el deterioro de los sistemas normativos nacionales e internacionales y en particular por la degradación en el ejercicio universal de los derechos económico, social y culturales.
Observamos un pronunciado proceso mundial de dualización social que conlleva a justicia estructural y violencia; minorías cada vez más pequeñas concentran en forma inédita la riqueza del plante, disminuyendo el bienestar y la dignidad de millones de seres humanos.
En forma paralela advertimos que el actual sistema económico mundial poco y nada hacen para preservar el equilibrio ambiental, coadyuvando en esta forma a una degradación integral de la existencia humana.
La palabra y el ejemplo de Francisco nos interpelan sustantivamente y promueven independiente de nuestra creencia religiosa personal, replanteos y abordajes críticos de nuestra visión judicial.
La actual situación de la humanidad exige de quien tenemos la enorme responsabilidad de controlar judicialmente el cumplimento de los derechos humanos una postura firme y valiente que limite en la práctica el avance de las prácticas destructivas y degradantes del hombre y del plantel.
Consideramos que los estados asuman la operatividad incondicional de los derechos económico, social y culturales y a los fines de su estricto cumplimiento, modifiquen su política presupuestaria logrando ecuaciones más equitativas y justas.
Hacemos un llamado a todos los países para que alcancen los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible de la ONU, que son compromisos específicos y con plazo de nuestra generación, para cumplir con la declaración universal de los derechos humanos y los acuerdos relaciones con los derechos humanos.
Hacemos un llamado a todos los países para que tomen medidas decisivas para cumplir los objetivos del acuerdo climático de París, que son vitales para la supervivencia y el bienestar humano, especialmente para los pobres y las generaciones venideras.
Entendemos que no hay posibilidad de vivir en paz y democracia en procesos políticos y sociales en los que se profundicen el descarte de las personas y la destrucción del medio ambiente.
Alertamos sobre el uso que en la actualidad se hace de una parte del poder judicial para modificar escenarios políticos y económicos, desnaturalizando las funciones judiciales y destruyendo la democracia con el costo que eso implica para el desarrollo de los derechos humanos.
Resaltamos que los sistemas de comunicación concentrados cuando actúan para presionar a los poderes públicos pierden su esencia y hacen peligrar la institucionalidad al sustituir los poderes públicos mediante operaciones mediáticas de dudosa legitimidad.
En este contexto de crisis planetaria, hacemos un llamado los colegas jueces de las Américas para asumir el rol que el ahora nos exige, coordinando esfuerzos, diseñando estrategias y ratificando de forma cotidiana nuestro compromiso con la dignidad humana y la paz global, como también para la revalidación de los derechos humanos en todas las dimensiones. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
You may have heard about the asteroid that will pass close to Earth this weekend. At 1:05 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Oct. 31, asteroid 2015 TB145 will pass within 300,000 miles, or about 1.3 lunar distances, of Earth.
It will pass within about 178,000 miles of the moon as well. There is no threat of impact to either Earth or the Moon.
"The trajectory of 2015 TB145 is well understood," said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
This visitor dubbed the “Halloween Asteroid” was discovered on Oct. 10 by the 1.8-meter telescope at the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). Pan-STARRS surveys about 80 percent the skies above Haleakalā, a dormant volcano on Maui, Hawaii, looking for movement which could indicate a previously unknown Near-Earth Object (NEO).
So why didn’t we see this earlier?
While the telescope does an excellent job of finding asteroids and comets, discovering 32 so far this year and setting a record of 19 in one night in 2011, finding NEOs can be as much a matter of luck as technology. An asteroid this small, about 1,300 feet wide, is particularly difficult.
“You may spot something one night but weather may prevent the additional observations necessary to determine its orbit.” explained Dr. Ken Chambers, Pan-STARRS Director. “Also, a fully illuminated [by the sun] object is much easier to see than a partially illuminated one. Think crescent moon versus full moon. These objects are rarely fully illuminated, finding them can take a while.”
The asteroid’s odd orbit delayed its discovery as well. The planets and most asteroids are distributed along the ecliptic plane, a flat disk shape extending out from the Sun. 2015 TB145 orbits at a 40-degree angle to that plane, where Pan-STARRS and previous sky surveys have spent less time studying.
Pan-STARRS provides more increasing our knowledge of Near Earth Objects. Part of the process required to spot differences between observations is cataloging and tracking each object the camera spots. This provides very valuable data about our stellar neighborhood and beyond.
“We are taking a census of solar system, of the Milky way and ultimately the universe.” added Chambers.
The Institute for Astronomy and University of Hawaii plan a large public release of data and images gathered by Pan-STARRS in 2016.
Tony Rice is a volunteer in the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador program and software engineer at Cisco Systems. You can follow him on twitter @rtphokie. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
PRIZE
We have allocated a fair number of cards to ebay, but since they have no system to prevent a single buyer placing substantial orders, and otherwise these would all be bought out by resellers very quickly, our systems will push them up slowly. One at a time for now.
I will update this thread once the eBay stock has sold out, but until then you can assume more cards will be pushed up form time to time.
…Adam
Original PRIZE 10% off Sitewide on eBay Deal Post | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Goldman Sachs paid its chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, $21m last year – and granted him a further $5m in bonus shares in January.
The Wall Street bank handed Blankfein $13.3m (£8.7m) in restricted shares and a $5.7m cash bonus on top of his $2m annual salary last year.
His total 2012 pay was $9m more than in 2011, and the highest since the $68m he received in 2007, before the financial crisis struck.
The payout, disclosed in a filing with the US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), makes Blankfein, 58, the world's best paid banker.
On top of his annual pay Goldman granted him long-term incentive plan (LTIP) shares worth an additional $5m at today's share price. But he will have to meet performance targets in order to collect the full amount, and the value of the shares could go up or down.
Blankfein's top four lieutenants collected a total of $72m in annual pay, bonuses and share options last year.
Gary Cohn, president and chief operating officer, and David Viniar, chief finance officer, both received $19m, while Michael Evans and John Weinberg, both vice-chairmen, collected $17m each.
Cohn, Evans and Weinberg were also each granted LTIP shares worth $4m. But they will not be able to cash them in until at least December 2015.
Goldman paid its bankers an average of $400,000 last year, $30,000 more than in 2011. The total pay, bonuses and perks bill to its 32,400 staff came in at $13bn.
The payroll figures come after the bank, which was dubbed "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money" by Matt Taibbi in a Rolling Stone magazine article on the bank in 2010, reported a near-doubling of full year net profits to $7.5bn.
Goldman's compensation committee said the bank's bosses had "demonstrated exceptional leadership" and "performed extremely well throughout the year and made significant contributions to our firm's overall success".
It said Blankfein "continued to be a strong leader who demonstrated considerable commitment to our firm and our clients, as well as a deep and nuanced understanding of the strategic aspects of all our major businesses".
The bank pointed out the pay was partly based on a "360 review process evaluation", in which colleagues in all ranks of the business rate each others performance.
The payouts come despite a senior employee attacking it as "morally bankrupt" and revealing that senior Goldman bankers describe clients as "muppets".
Greg Smith, who was based in London, published his savage resignation letter from the bank in the New York Times. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
South Korea's new president has a lot on his plate.
Sworn in Wednesday, Moon Jae-in has stepped into the leadership vacuum left by former President Park Geun-hye, who was impeached over a massive political corruption scandal.
As well as the smoldering tensions with North Korea, Moon has inherited a heavy load of economic problems.
Here are some of the main issues:
Tensions with China
South Korea has upset China, its biggest trading partner, by agreeing to the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system on its territory.
China has responded with an array of economic reprisals, including cutting tourist visits and pressuring the Chinese operations of major companies. (Beijing has denied that it is coordinating the response).
Related: China is crushing South Korea's tourism industry
The election of Moon, who has criticized the deployment of the defense system, could offer a chance to reset relations.
Moon said he'd be willing to negotiate with both China and the U.S. over the system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).
Trump's trade threats
President Trump has rattled South Korean officials with recent comments about the free trade pact between the two countries, describing it as a "horrible" deal.
Trump warned late last month that he intends to renegotiate or terminate the deal, which came into effect in 2012.
His attack on the agreement came soon after his vice president, Mike Pence, had complained in Seoul that U.S. businesses in South Korea "face too many barriers to entry, which tilts the playing field against American workers and American growth."
Related: Pence says trade with South Korea must change
Economists say a major overhaul or scrapping of the trade deal would be a big blow for South Korean exporters. However, the Trump administration may end up taking a cautious approach to any formal talks because South Korea is an important regional ally.
Seoul said after Trump's recent comments that it has not yet received an official request to renegotiate the agreement.
Corruption
Moon has come into office after an extraordinary corruption scandal brought hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets and resulted in Park's downfall.
The scandal has also engulfed some of the country's biggest companies. In the highest profile case, de facto Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong is on trial for bribery and other corruption charges.
Related: South Korea's long history of light sentences for business leaders
Lee denies the charges, but the scandal has fueled public anger against his company and South Korea's other huge family-run conglomerates, known as chaebols. The opaquely run companies have also been accused of hurting innovation and entrepreneurship in the country by squeezing out smaller companies.
"Reform of the chaebols should help to boost productivity growth across the economy," Capital Economics said in a research note ahead of the election.
But the research firm cautioned that "the scale and importance of the chaebols to the economy means any significant change will certainly take time." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday arguing that a group acted illegally when it secretly recorded videos alleging the women’s health organization profited from selling fetal tissue from abortions.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco against anti-abortion group the Center for Medical Progress alleges conspiracy and fraud among other violations in connection with the videos.
ADVERTISEMENT
The videos, which were released by the Center for Medical Progress in July 2015, sparked widespread controversy by purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials trying to sell aborted fetal tissue.
Under federal law, donated human fetal tissue may be used for research, but profiting from its sale is prohibited.
“This case is about a network of anti-abortion extremists and the laws they broke in order to spread lies and harm Planned Parenthood,” Dawn Laguens, vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said on a conference call.
The Center for Medical Progress and several of its officials named as defendants in the lawsuit could not be immediately reached for comment.
No Planned Parenthood staff were involved in any wrongdoing, Laguens said, and the organization has not profited from its tissue donation programs.
ADVERTISEMENT
“This entire smear campaign is a fraud built on illegal acts and a web of lies,” she said.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Cynthia Osterman) | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Last updated on .From the section Welsh
Loren Dykes receives a special 100th cap from ex-Wales international Danny Gabbidon
Wales' women were frustrated by an impressive Czech Republic defensive display as the nation paid tribute to defender Loren Dykes.
The Wales full-back became just the second player to reach a century of caps for her country and was captain for the night.
A record crowd of 2,168 were in attendance at Newport's Rodney Parade.
Wales had enough chances to win the contest, but were denied by some poor finishing.
While the result and especially the performance were important to Wales going into their Euro 2021 qualifying campaign, which begins in the Faroe Islands on 29 August, this was an occasion that really belonged to just one player.
The 31-year old Dykes is unassuming off the field, but an inspiration to a generation on it. She made football history in Wales by joining the most exclusive of clubs, the 100-cap club.
Dykes became just the second Welsh player to reach the milestone behind Lyon and Seattle Reign star Jess Fishlock.
Dykes, a mainstay for Bristol City in the Women's Super League, has been enjoying a rare moment in the limelight, with heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua among those to wish her congratulations on social media.
The Wales players wore special shirts during their warm-up that featured Dykes' face and it was clear during the emotional pre-match anthems that the record means a huge amount to Wales' defensive lynchpin, who was her usual reliable self.
Loren Dykes reflects on football career as she wins her 100th Wales cap
Jayne Ludlow's side were looking to address an unwelcome statistic that has seen them go six matches - since a 3-0 win over Russia in June 2018 - without scoring.
They could comfortably have opened their account in a first half they dominated, with a combination of poor finishing and good fortune keeping the score at 0-0.
Fishlock twice came close, blazing over after a fine team move before forcing Barbora Votikova into an adroit save with a long-range effort.
Helen Ward also missed the target with a promising opportunity, while Everton teenager Elise Hughes headed over from close range as Wales looked by far the more likely side to make inroads.
However, the visitors improved after half time and Jitka Chlastakova rifled a right-footed effort just past the upright, while Lucie Martinkova headed straight at Laura O'Sullivan.
Wales' best second-half chance fell to Natasha Harding, but her control let her down at the vital moment.
Dykes was denied a fairy tale moment with six minutes remaining when her speculative cross came back off the crossbar, while Fishlock's deflected shot drifted just wide.
Wales manager Jayne Ludlow told BBC Sport Wales:
"For us as a team it was a game of two halves. We were really pleased with the first 45 minutes performance. We created some really good goal-scoring opportunities and defended really well.
"We lost our way for a 20-minute spell in the second half and there are definitely areas we can tighten up on.
"They highlighted some weaknesses tonight we will have to change.
"I am not concerned about the lack of goals. I would be concerned if we weren't creating chances.
"I do hope it will change before August and I am sure that it will.
"Loren did everything she needed to do... I am really pleased for her with her performance."
Wales: O'Sullivan, Dykes, Ingle, Ladd, Evans, Harding, Fishlock, James, Ward, Hughes, Green.
Czech Republic: Votikova, Bartholdova, Bartonova, Martinkova, Vonkova, Necidova, Cahynova, Vystejejnova, Starova, Divisova, Nepokojova | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie is the ultimate plant-based comfort food recipe! It is loaded with vegetables including: potatoes, celery, onions, parsnips, turnips, carrots, peas and corn. The three varieties of mushrooms used in the dish give it a “meaty” texture. It makes a delicious dish for a family dinner or for a St. Patrick’s Day party or potluck dinner.
Happy Monday! Where did the weekend go? Speaking of that, where did last month go? February was so busy here that I felt like I blinked and it was over! However, I am excited about heading into March and Spring being just around the corner. The first thing that comes to mind with March is St. Patrick’s Day, which then brings me to Irish food…Yum! I have so many favorites like my Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie, Guinness Beef Stew and Crock Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage. I can’t wait to make them all this month. However, in honor of Meatless Monday, I decided to prepare a Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie for dinner.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
What is in the Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie?
I love this dish because it is loaded with veggies and mushrooms. The three varieties of mushrooms give the vegetarian shepherd’s pie a “meaty” texture. Here is what you will need to make this recipe:
Potatoes
Celery
Onion
Parsnips
Turnips
Carrots
Garlic
Cremini Mushrooms
Baby Bella Mushrooms
Shitake Mushrooms
Butter
Milk
Salt
Pepper
Red Wine
Tomato Paste
Vegetable Broth
Sage
Thyme
Flour
Frozen Peas
Frozen Corn
Cheddar Cheese
What else will I need to prepare the Shepherd’s Pie?
You will also need a large pot to cook the potatoes and a cast iron skillet to prepare the pie and bake it. If you do not have a cast iron skillet, the vegetables can all be placed in a glass baking dish and topped with potatoes before baking it.
How do I make the Shepherd’s Pie?
Start off by preheating the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, place potatoes in a large pot and boil until tender. Drain the water and mash or rice the potatoes in the pot. Add in milk, butter, salt and pepper to taste and stir until smooth. Set the potatoes aside.
Next, heat a tablespoon of butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add all of the mushrooms and cook until juices are released from the mushrooms and they begin to brown (about 6 to 8 minutes). Remove from pan and place in a large bowl.
Then, heat another tablespoon of butter in the cast iron skillet. Add onions and celery and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. During the last minute of cooking, stir in the garlic. Remove from heat and add onions, celery and garlic to reserved mushrooms.
Now, heat 2 tablespoons of butter in the cast iron skillet. Add in the parsnips, turnips and carrots. Once again, cook until tender. Remove from heat and add the root vegetables to the mushrooms, celery, onions and garlic mixture.
Deglaze the skillet with the wine, scraping up any browned bits in the pan. Add in tomato paste, sage, thyme, vegetable broth and flour. Heat until mixture begins to thicken, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Then, stir in the peas and corn and cook over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes. Return the reserved mushrooms and vegetables to the skillet and stir until combined. Remove from heat and spread the mashed potatoes on top. Texturize the potatoes to form small peaks on top and sprinkle the cheese on top. Place in the oven and bake at 350 degrees until the cheese melts and potatoes lightly brown. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes. Serve warm and enjoy!
Print Recipe Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie Whether for St. Patrick's Day or just on a night where you need a comforting family favorite: try this Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie. Ingredients 3 lbs Russet Potatoes peeled and cut in chunks
4 Celery Stocks with Leaves coarsely chopped
1 Medium Onion chopped
3 Parsnips peeled & diced
2 Turnips peeled & diced
3 Carrots peeled & chopped
5 Garlic Cloves finely chopped
16 oz Cremini Mushrooms or other white mushrooms, cleaned & sliced
8 oz Baby Bella Mushrooms cleaned & sliced
8 oz Shitake Mushrooms cleaned & sliced
5 Tbsp Butter divided (preferably Kerrygold’s or another Irish Butter)
1/2 Cup of Milk
1 Cup of Red Wine
2 Tbsp of Tomato Paste
1 Cup of Vegetable Broth
2 tsp of Sage & Thyme
2 Tbsp Flour May Use Gluten Free Flour to make GF
1 Cup of Frozen Peas
1 Cup of Frozen Corn
3/4 Cup of Cheddar Cheese Instructions Preheat Oven to 350 Degrees
Place Potatoes in a Large Pot and Boil for approximately 20 minutes, or until tender.
Mash or Rice potatoes, add 2 Tbsp of Butter & 1/2 cup of Milk. Stir until smooth and keep warm (salt & pepper to taste).
Heat 1 Tbsp of Butter over Medium High Heat in large cast iron skillet, add all mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently until juices are released from mushrooms and they begin to brown. Approximately 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from pan and salt & pepper.
Heat 1 Tbsp of Butter over Medium High Heat in same skillet and add onions and celery, cook until softened, about 8 minutes. During last minute add garlic and stir. Add onion, garlic, & celery to reserved mushrooms.
Heat 2 Tbsp of Butter over Medium High Heat in same skillet. Add Parsnips, Turnips, & Carrots, sauté until tender, approximately 8-10 minutes.
Add Wine and deglaze pan by scraping any browned bits.
Add Tomato Paste, Herbs (sage & thyme), Vegetable Broth & Flour. Heat until slightly thickened, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Add Peas and Corn, cook until heated through, approximately 1-2 minutes.
Return reserved mushroom mixture & carrot mixture to pan and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
Spread Mashed Potatoes over Veggie Mixture and texturize a bit to form peaks.
Sprinkle top with Cheddar Cheese.
Place in upper 1/3 of Oven and bake until Cheese melts & potatoes lightly brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve Hot & Enjoy!
So Tell Me…
Have you ever made a Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie? What is your favorite comfort food? Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day?
Thank you so much for stopping by! As always, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Have a great week!
PIN IT HERE↓ | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
LADYSMITH (WKOW) — A new tree of hope shines bright for Jayme Closs.
The Barron girl went missing after parents were found murdered in their home in October.
Family and friends gathered in Ladysmith to light a tree Sunday night, to show they’ll never give up hope to find her.
The tree is decorated with symbols of hope, love and prayer. The lights are green and blue to symbolize support and the tree was blessed with holy water.
“We’re just so grateful for community support that they’ve supported us, supported Jim and Denise,” said Jayme’s uncle Mike Closs, about Jayme’s parents.
Family and friends say they’re thankful the community and world have kept Jayme and her family in their prayers. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Michelle Visage is losing her patience. And fast (Picture: Channel 5)
Michelle Visage is furious with Perez Hilton after he put her up for tonight’s live eviction.
Perez and Cami had each been told to choose two housemates to face the public vote when Perez rounded on Michelle.
He told her afterwards that he’d picked her because he she was bound to survive the first eviction but his excuses didn’t wash well with the TV judge.
Bitching about Perez to the rest, she said his plan to grow a fan base off the back of CBB had been jeopardised because of his ‘fake’ and ‘manipulative’ behavior inside the house.
‘Do you not know how you look? Fans? You’ve done nothing but performing for cameras, performing soliloquies in the garden. You’re not going to get a fan…’ she ranted.
MORE: Celebrity Big Brother 2015: A new housemate is officially entering the house tonight – but will it be Katie Price?
During the convo we also learned that Perez’s real name is in fact Mario [Armando Lavandeira, Jr]. Who knew, eh?!
CBB continues tonight at 9pm on Channel 5. Michelle, Chloe, Alexander and Alicia all face the public vote and after one is evicted another NEW celeb will be entering the house.
MORE: What did Celebrity Big Brother’s Perez Hilton look like before his drastic weight loss? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
After spending several hours jumping through quasi-superhero misadventures in South Park: The Fractured But Whole, my elementary school counselor called me into his office. He understood that I wanted to talk about my gender, and started with a simple prompt: Was I a boy, a girl, or "other"?
I sat there for a few moments, taking in the moment. For the first time in my life, a big-budget game was asking me if I was trans! Its predecessor, The Stick of Truth, only let you play as a cisgender boy, but brought the same "New Kid" into the sequel: If I chose Girl here, it would be an unmistakable change from what came before. Reading previews had spoiled what would happen immediately after, but I still had to see it for myself.
"Can you just hang on a minute? I need to call your parents, mkay?"
As Mr. Mackay rushed to the phone and incredulously repeated what I had revealed in the privacy of his room, I stared on in disbelief. This is a nightmare scenario for many queer children: parents aren't always sympathetic to their own kid's identity, and have been known to throw them out of the house permanently, regardless of age. Yet here Mr. Mackay was, reconstructing a worst-case scenario for a weak "wait, is this for real?" joke we've seen a million times before. Of all the franchises that could have handled this emotionally significant moment with care, why did we have to settle for South Park?
Despite its reputation as a satirical stalwart that treats everything and everyone as "fair game," South Park has a particular taste for transphobic humor. The homeroom teacher went through a several-year transition arc, treating her surgeries and sex life as dehumanizing, gross-out gags.
When I came out to someone I trusted, they used the episode where Kyle (a small, white kid) becomes a tall, black basketball player to paint me as deluded. Trey Parker and Matt Stone even went as far as recreating the wild fantasy Republicans peddle to strip our rights away: When Cartman is tired of using the men's room, he declares himself "transginger" for the sole purpose of accessing the girls' room instead. Rather than use its position as a cultural touchstone to advocate for our rights, the comedic duo has always preferred to use us as cheap, hateful gags.
I did my best to ignore the loud contempt South Park had toward people like me, but Ubisoft went and announced that The Fractured But Whole would let players create trans characters. South Park aside, this would be a historic release: For once, a monolithic publisher was willing to give us the spotlight. We wouldn't be a throwaway camp villain, a recurring gag or an ally with implied queerness. We would be stars, and that alone grabbed my attention.
Watch more, on Waypoint:
There weren't many customization options available from the jump, but I immediately found what I was looking for. With wavy, chestnut hair, thick rectangular glasses and blue eyes, I built a New Kid that mirrored my own appearance. If I was testing their attempt at trans inclusion, I intended on visiting the town myself and seeing how its residents reacted to my presence.
Would it replicate a moment from my own life, when a waiter loudly misgendered me in every other sentence while I squirmed in my seat? This being a superhero story, would I have an opportunity to protect another trans middle schooler from bullies, only to run up against an administration that sided with the aggressors?
The developers also had the opportunity to send a positive message: that trans kids can be heroes. Allowing players to don a cape and cowl in the midst of strangers, and wear clothes that match your identity in public spaces. This is an emotionally fulfilling experience, and something we've seen precious little representation of in bigger games.
Writing the first blockbuster game with a trans protagonist gave Ubisoft San Francisco and South Park Digital Studios an opportunity to make something subversive and empathetic, mocking some of the more outlandish insults thrown at us while touching on the struggles we face regularly. There are moments that feel like they're winding up, eager to say something on the subject, but they always fall back on the show's ugly history instead. It's been over a decade since Comedy Central aired "Mr. Garrison's Fancy New Vagina," yet despite their feeble gestures toward inclusivity, it felt like I was playing through reruns featuring the same hurtful ignorance.
My fellow superheroes exclusively used he/him pronouns in and out of cutscenes. They'd occasionally remark that I was a feminine boy, but never made so much as a nod toward my trans identity.
After Mr. Mackay called my parents twice(!), he messed up my pronouns, said a few empty words of encouragement and shuffled me out of his room. As soon as I left the school, a gang of rednecks drove up in a truck, stating they didn't take kindly to "this thing" before tossing me into a fight. It's tempting to credit the writers for one rare moment of awareness: transphobic violence is rarely discussed in media, and in games, it's mostly dished out for the player's amusement. How would a cis player react if they saw their trans character face discrimination?
I cross-referenced my playthrough with other reports and discovered something far more upsetting: No matter what gender you choose in the counselor's office, the rednecks will always find an excuse to start trouble: "Hey, it's that boy," they'll shout. "They're cisgendered too!" "We don't take kindly to your types around here." Rather than commenting on the danger we face when we choose to live publicly, the writers turned our fear into a cheap gag, rendering the confrontation toothless. Despite what their framing might suggest, we're bullied, harassed and physically attacked at a disproportionate rate, often by folks who look nothing like a cartoon bigot. When over 20 of us have been murdered in this year (in the US alone), tongue-in-cheek attempts at downplaying the violence against our community are more than a little frustrating.
The locals weren't too thrilled with my recent revelation, either. Aside from the occasional "little miss," talking to anyone who wasn't offering a quest resulted in lines like this:
"Aren't you a cute little abomination?"
"That's an interesting look you got going on, boy and/or girl. I don't see gender."
"Aren't you a brave little… whatever you are!"
"Who are you supposed to be, tiny Liberace?"
The kicker came from my New Kid's father, who apparently knew I was trans before his call with Mr. Mackay.
"That's some new outfit, sport! Have you been going through your mom's closet again?"
Very supportive, Dad.
We certainly face an overbearing amount of hostility from strangers and relatives alike, but South Park can't help making its own snide comments on trans existence. Several of your teammates fill their character sheets with terms like "Asexual Gender-Neutral Kite Alien," mimicking the same "I identify as___" jokes transphobes make to delegitimize our existence. "PC Principal" also trains you to point out microaggressions for free hits: By offering a strategic incentive for an otherwise sensible action, the writers frame it as a cheap shot we're always waiting to make, rather than a genuine reaction to hurtful language ("...people use microaggressions every day. I'm counting on you to make them pay for doing so!"). When one of the heroes turned to me and said "You kinda have big raisins for a boy, New Kid"— raisins is their code word for breasts—it became clear I was only there to be laughed at.
The South Park creative team is far from the "equal opportunity offender" its ardent defenders make it out to be. The writers remain blind to the abuse and violence marginalized groups receive. They dish out judgment from a scale that was already tipped. From their perspective, our insistence on fair treatment is just as contemptible as the folks mistreating us: We're a nuisance preventing them from getting on with their lives. In the world of South Park, nothing is worse than the disruption of their status quo. There may not be hard limits to comedy, but why waste your admiration on tired, hateful statements that masquerade as jokes?
I still remember the moment I visited Bill in The Last of Us. He was the cranky, overprotective sort, living by himself in a ghost town lined with traps. In their desperate search for a vehicle, Joel and Ellie convinced Bill to tag along with them. It wasn't long before they stumbled upon his partner, Frank, hanging from a noose in a suburban home. I could hear the pain welling up in Bill's voice: The two partners had gone their separate ways, but Bill's lingering feelings reverberated through his terse sentences. While mainstream games lag behind the progress made by film and novels, and despite the fact that he was cis, Bill felt like a turning point. In 2013, it finally felt like we would have a place in AAA.
Four years have passed, and the likes of Ubisoft, Square-Enix and EA are still spinning their wheels right next to Bill. We'll get the occasional arms dealer or sidekick who happens to have a same-sex partner, but that segment of their life is hidden in the background, easily ignored by a closed-minded player. When BioWare bucked this trend and included an open trans woman in Mass Effect: Andromeda, her introduction felt forced and unnatural, as if she was reading from a notecard during a grade school presentation. There's a sense that publishers want to include us in their games, but their train of thought begins and ends at our insertion. They understand we exist, though they don't understand what our existence looks like.
In spite of The Fractured But Whole's constant mockery, there was one moment where they tried something different. After heading home for the day, I walked in on my parents having a heated argument over my conversation with the school counselor. They saw my trans identity as an open secret within the family: As soon as it left the confines of our house, they were at each other's throats. Once they noticed me, they awkwardly retreated into their bedroom, leaving my New Kid to pick at my dinner and sigh dejectedly.
The trans option was window dressing to them, but it meant a great deal more to me.
I was speechless. After mocking me for hours, Ubisoft San Francisco portrayed something I've never seen from a game this large. Before I came out, scenes like this constantly ran through my head: What if they saw my transition as an inconvenience, a burden, an embarrassment they hid from the rest of the world? Watching two people you love argue over your sexuality or gender identity is a mortifying, all too common occurrence for queer kids, and someone cared enough to include it here. For a brief second, I thought they would turn things around and treat us with empathy.
Unfortunately, I soon realized I had given them too much credit. Aside from a few enthusiastic nods from Wendy, the story all but discarded my choices. My fellow superheroes exclusively used he/him pronouns in and out of cutscenes. They'd occasionally remark that I was a feminine boy, but never made so much as a nod toward my trans identity. It felt like the writers grew tired of their punching bag and moved to the next target, leaving me out to dry. The trans option was window dressing to them, but it meant a great deal more to me. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
At least 72 shot, 13 killed in Chicago over violent summer weekend, police department says
Aamer Madhani | USA TODAY
CHICAGO – At least 72 people were shot, including 12 fatally, over the weekend in Chicago, another eruption of violence in a city that has struggled with murders and shootings in recent years even as the national homicide rate hovers near historic lows.
Police investigated a 13th murder – the slaying of a 32-year-old woman who was found dead around 9 p.m. Sunday in a bathtub with her hands and feet bound. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office was scheduled to conduct an autopsy Monday to determine how the woman, Shantel Boler, was slain.
No arrests have been made in any of the incidents, but police said investigators have strong leads for some of the shootings.
"There is a shortage of values about what is right, what is wrong," Mayor Rahm Emanuel said. "We as a city, in every corner, have an accountability and responsibility. If you know who did this, be a neighbor. Speak up."
The violence, which police say is primarily fueled by gangs, disproportionately affects several swaths of low-income black and Latino neighborhoods on the city’s West and South Sides.
The latest shootings, stretching over a 60-hour period from Friday evening until early Monday morning, came after city officials expressed optimism that Chicago had made headway in cutting the persistent gun violence.
At the end of July, the city had recorded more than 300 murders –more than any other U.S. city, but an improvement for Chicago. Murders were down 23% compared with the same point last year, and the city tallied 19% fewer shooting incidents.
The weekend’s violence underscored that although the city had witnessed a positive trend, several neighborhoods remain volatile.
More: Chicago violence toll: 34 people shot, 5 killed
More: Chicago activists shut down Lake Shore Drive, speak out against gun violence at Wrigley
More: Can you change how criminals think? Chicago hopes behavioral therapy can cut gun violence
More: At end of bloody year in Chicago, too few murders solved
Thirty-nine people were shot, including five fatally, in a roughly seven-hour span late Saturday and early Sunday. In a half-dozen of the weekend's incidents, at least four victims were wounded or killed by gunfire, according to police reports.
In one incident, around 12:40 a.m. Sunday, several gunmen fired on a group of people standing in the courtyard of a building, wounding eight. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 35 in the shooting in the Auburn-Gresham neighborhood on the city’s South Side. No one was in custody for that shooting.
Around 3:30 a.m. Monday, police responded to a call of shots fired on the city's West Side. Officers found a 29-year-old man wounded in the neck. He was transported to a nearby hospital but succumbed to his injuries.
Police have solved or made arrests in few of the killings – the murder clearance rate for the city hovered around 20% last year.
The murder rate has become an issue for Emanuel, who is up for re-election in February. Monday morning, Emanuel visited two area hospitals that treated many of those wounded over the weekend to thank officials for their work.
“What Chicago witnessed this weekend was absolutely horrific and should not be tolerated," mayoral challenger Paul Vallas said. "Right now, Chicago has one of the worst clearance rates for homicides and other violent crimes among America’s major cities. This is a crisis in which four out of five killers in Chicago are literally getting away with murder."
Last week, dozens of protesters temporarily shut down the Windy City’s Lake Shore Drive to express their outrage over Chicago’s endemic gun violence and call for Emanuel’s resignation.
The demonstration's organizers timed the protest to coincide with rush-hour traffic along the busy thoroughfare on the city’s lakefront, then marched to Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs hosted the San Diego Padres.
Ira Acree, co-chairman of the Leaders Network-Chicago and a pastor on the city’s West Side, said this weekend’s violence shows that two Chicagos exist – one that is thriving and largely inoculated from the shootings and another ravaged by a lack of investment and indifference from the city’s politicians.
“Chicago's political leadership – Emanuel and City Council – won't address the poverty that fuels the frustration, anger and self-hatred which leads to violence,” Acree said. “As a concerned citizen and pastor, I am against all forms of violence – urban, domestic and police violence – but until we confront the institutional economic violence being committed at City Hall, substantial transformation will never take place.”
The mayor pushed $55 million in grants to help boost small-business creation in some of the neighborhoods hardest hit by the violence. Emanuel also touts his One Summer Chicago program, which offers more than 30,000 paid internships to city teens and young adults.
Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson blames the violence, in part, on gun laws that he said aren't stringent enough to dissuade criminals from using a weapon. He said police need more help from the community, so authorities can identify, arrest and prosecute culprits.
"They hold me accountable, they hold the mayor accountable, they hold the City Council accountable," Johnson said. "You know what I never hear? I never hear people saying these individuals out on the street need to stop pulling the trigger. I never hear that. They get a pass from everybody." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The so-called BRICS countries agreed to form an international development bank with aspirations to challenge the dominance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa said Tuesday that the New Development Bank will start with $50 billion in capital and $100 billion as a currency reserve fund for liquidity crises. Operating details still need to be resolved.
Still, the BRICS bank, which could add more member nations, represents a bid to expand the influence of the BRICS emerging markets and act as a counterbalance to institutions run by the U.S. and other developed nations, experts said.
“This is about the consolidation of BRICS 2.0,” said Marcos Troyjo, professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University and co-director of the BRICLab Center. “If BRICS 1.0 was about capturing investor attention to the scale of their economic relevance, BRICS 2.0 is about embarking on institution building.”
The BRICs acronym was coined by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist Jim O’Neill in 2001 to describe the four large emerging markets — Brazil, Russia, India and China — that could play a large role in global economic growth. They began meeting for periodic summits in 2009, and were later joined by South Africa.
As developing countries began playing a larger role in the world economy, their leaders repeatedly complained that they have not been given correspondingly larger voices in international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, both based in Washington. The U.S. typically appoints the World Bank president, and European countries appoint the IMF chief.
“International governance structures designed within a different power configuration show increasingly evident signs of losing legitimacy and effectiveness,” said the official statement signed by the BRICS leaders, who met in Fortaleza, Brazil, on Tuesday. “We believe the BRICS are an important force for incremental change and reform of current institutions toward more representative and equitable governance.”
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma hammered out some of the final details before signing the agreement Tuesday.
Among the terms are that the bank will be in Shanghai, its first president will be from India, and the first chair of the board of directors will be from Brazil.
On Wednesday, the BRICS leaders will meet with the heads of South American countries through the intergovernmental Union of South American Nations, which was founded in 2008.
The new bank is expected to make loans for development and infrastructure projects. It also will function as an incubator for development expertise from other emerging economies.
Other countries, such as Indonesia, Mexico or Turkey, could eventually join the bank, Troyjo said, noting that BRICS countries have seen their growth slow over the last few years from the peak of international investor interest in emerging market countries.
“The only thing they may have in common is the use of some kind of state capitalism in their growth,” he said. “The BRICS are needing to reinvent themselves, and it’s unlikely their route forward can be the same route that got them here.”
[email protected] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Un « gilet jaune », le 16 novembre à Nantes. LOIC VENANCE / AFP
Des violences à Paris et un retour sur les ronds-points de France : le premier anniversaire des « gilets jaunes », qui ambitionnaient de donner un second souffle à leur mouvement de contestation sociale inédit lancé il y a un an, a été marqué, samedi 16 novembre, par le retour du chaos à certains endroits de la capitale.
Pour cet « acte LIII » (53), les « gilets jaunes » – qui avaient rassemblé 282 000 manifestants lors du samedi inaugural, le 17 novembre 2018 –, cherchaient à faire renaître la « révolte des ronds-points » qui avait ébranlé le mandat d’Emmanuel Macron mais ne rassemblait plus que quelques milliers de personnes ces derniers mois.
Plusieurs milliers de personnes étaient attendues dans la capitale, où les autorités redoutaient l’intervention de « 200 à 300 “ultrajaunes” et de 100 à 200 militants d’ultragauche ». Epicentre de plusieurs samedis violents, les Champs-Elysées, interdits à toute manifestation, ont été épargnés.
Le ministère de l’intérieur a recensé 28 000 manifestants en France, dont 4 700 à Paris. Le mouvement a, de son côté, estimé la participation à 39 530 personnes dans l’Hexagone, selon le décompte du « Nombre jaune ». De son côté, à 20 heures, la Préfecture de police de Paris faisait état de 147 personnes interpellées. Le parquet de Paris a annoncé 129 gardes à vue. Retour sur une journée d’actions dans toute la France.
A Paris, la préfecture annule une manifestation déclarée
Une voiture incendiée par les manifestants, le 16 novembre sur la place d’Italie à Paris. PHILIPPE LOPEZ / AFP
Voitures retournées, jets de pavés et feux de poubelles : la situation s’est dégradée dès la fin de la matinée place d’Italie, où environ 3 000 personnes étaient rassemblées, selon notre journaliste sur place. Du matériel de chantier a été saisi par des manifestants et du mobilier urbain abîmé, entraînant une intervention des forces de l’ordre à grand renfort de lacrymogènes.
Le centre commercial Italie 2 a fermé ses portes dès les premières violences. Vers 13 heures, ses portes d’entrée et les vitrines d’une résidence hôtelière voisine ont été attaquées à coups de pavés par plusieurs dizaines de personnes encagoulées et vêtues de noir. Régulièrement, des petits groupes revenaient à la charge et étaient provisoirement repoussés ou dispersés par les forces de l’ordre qui utilisaient aussi un canon à eau. Les pompiers sont intervenus à plusieurs reprises pour éteindre des feux de palettes ou de poubelles et d’un engin de chantier sur le rond-point central.
Il est 16 h 09, la manif est coincée entre la rue Bobillot et Place d’Italie. Il reste quelques dizaines de manifes… https://t.co/1MqwNaRIgf — pibzedog (@Pierre Bouvier)
« La tournure des événements m’a conduit à interdire cette manifestation » et à la « fixer » sur la place, a expliqué Didier Lallement, préfet de police de Paris, lors d’une conférence de presse dans l’après-midi, faisant état de « destructions scandaleuses » et d’un « certain nombre de policiers blessés ». Il a encouragé les personnes pacifiques à emprunter le « couloir de sortie » sur une des avenues qui mène à la place et a assuré que « nos réponses seront fermes vis-à-vis des casseurs » : « Ils ne partiront pas en toute impunité. » « Les images sont spectaculaires, mais le reste de la capitale vit normalement », a-t-il ajouté.
Le ministre de l’intérieur, Christophe Castaner, a dénoncé ces violences dimanche 17 novembre lors d’un entretien à Cnews, Europe 1 et Les Echos. Le ministre a fait une distinction entre un « mouvement d’origine » avec des demandes « légitimes » d’un côté, et des « voyous » de l’autre. Selon lui, ce qu’on a vu à Paris samedi, « c’est peu de manifestants mais des voyous, des brutes qui étaient venus pour se battre, en découdre avec les forces de l’ordre, empêcher les pompiers d’agir et de préserver quelquefois des vies ».
Un cortège tendu porte de Champerret
La porte de Champerret sous les gaz, le 16 novembre à Paris. MARTIN BUREAU / AFP
La tension est montée dès le matin porte de Champerret, où rendez-vous était donné pour une autre manifestation déclarée. Plusieurs dizaines de « gilets jaunes » ont réussi à descendre sur le périphérique, entravant la circulation quelques instants avant l’intervention des forces de l’ordre.
Les tensions se reportaient aux abords du métro, avec les policiers ayant recours à un usage massif de gaz lacrymogènes et de grenades. Plusieurs charges dispersaient les manifestants dans le quartier, avant qu’ils se retrouvent dans un cortège sur un itinéraire autorisé sur le boulevard.
Aux premières tensions, les forces de l’ordre lancent plusieurs lacrymogènes. https://t.co/pWTGos584V — aline_leclerc (@Aline Leclerc)
On croisait une grande majorité de quadras, quinquas et sexagénaires, pacifiques, pour beaucoup venus de province pour cet anniversaire. Et des grappes d’hommes plus jeunes, en noir ou pas, très excités, faisant tomber des barrières de chantier, essayant d’incendier des poubelles, provoquant à chaque fois des tirs massifs de lacrymogènes.
Les pacifiques n’étaient pas tous pacifistes : plusieurs, sans prendre part aux tensions, les appelaient de leurs vœux. Des propos évoquant la violence comme un mal nécessaire entendus à de nombreuses reprises cette année, après que les violences de décembre 2018 ont seules paru à même de faire plier le gouvernement. « La manif déclarée d’un point A à un point B, ça ne sert à rien. Y a que quand ça chauffe que le gouvernement bouge », confiait ainsi Louise, 35 ans professeur des écoles dans le Val-d’Oise, qui estime que les « gilets jaunes » n’ont « pas été entendus sur le cœur de [leurs] revendications qui est la justice fiscale ».
Plusieurs manifestants évoquaient aussi le contexte international et les révoltes qui ont vu le jour dans le monde entier depuis un an. « La colère devient mondiale, partout sur la planète, l’ouvrier devient esclave », lance Hervé, adjudant-chef à la retraite venu de la Nièvre. Acquiesçant, un homme à ses côtés hurle : « Il faut mettre fin au capitalisme ! »
La tension gagnait peu à peu en intensité, les commerçants de l’avenue de Clichy puis du boulevard Magenta regardant cette foule de plusieurs milliers de personnes avec inquiétude, aucun n’ayant fermé boutique. Le pic de tension a été atteint lorsque boulevard Beaumarchais, deux membres des CRS (compagnie républicaine de sécurité) ont été obligés de se réfugier dans une laverie, sous les jets de projectiles de manifestants et les invectives de la foule. Une charge massive de leurs collègues a permis de les en libérer et un homme a été interpellé pour cette attaque, selon Christophe Castaner.
La manifestation a trouvé son but place de la Bastille, où protestataires et forces de l’ordre s’observaient sans savoir l’issue.
La police utilise des canons à eau contre les manifestants, le 16 novembre à Paris. MICHEL EULER / AP
Un rassemblement pacifique à Montmartre
Un autre cortège déclaré, soutenu par l’intermittente Sophie Tissier et le collectif des Policiers en colère, devait, lui, partir de Montmartre vers 13 heures pour rallier Bastille. Au total, 35 délégations de « gilets jaunes » étaient attendues pour remplir ce cortège pacifique. Mais celui-ci n’a pas rassemblé suffisamment de participants.
Parmi eux, Daniel, retraité de 62 ans, mobilisé depuis le 11 novembre 2018 sur les ronds-points vendéens : « Nous, on n’est pas là pour casser, ça ne sert à rien. Ça fait plus d’un an que je me mobilise. J’aimerais ne pas être là aujourd’hui, mais si je suis venu, c’est parce que rien n’a changé », dit cet ancien employé dans le logement social, qui sera de retour dimanche sur « [s]on rond-point », où il organise encore des barbecues tous les mercredis. « La situation est même pire, on le voit avec tous les corps de métier qui descendent dans la rue, comme les personnels soignants », poursuit Sybille, 33 ans, venue de Meurthe-et-Moselle pour participer à sa première manifestation parisienne. « On ne lâche rien tant que Macron ne fera rien », insiste cette employée dans l’hôtellerie.
Pour la première année de mobilisation des gilets jaunes, la manifestation officielle devait partir à 10h du Sacré… https://t.co/bNVNWIm8uS — CBouanchaud (@Cécile Bouanchaud)
Article réservé à nos abonnés Lire aussi De l’éveil à la politique au passage en prison, Cyrille et Matthias racontent comment une année de « gilets jaunes » les a transformés
La Flèche d’or investie en « maison du peuple »
Pour marquer ces un an, les « gilets jaunes » avaient annoncé leur volonté d’innover dans les modes d’actions. En fin de journée, plusieurs centaines de personnes ont investi l’ancienne salle de concert La Flèche d’or, dans le 20e arrondissement de Paris, fermée depuis trois ans. Une occupation illégale préparée par une vingtaine de collectifs d’horizons divers : des « gilets jaunes » d’Ile-de-France, des militants d’Extinction rebellion (XR), d’autres de défense des sans-papiers, de mal-logés ou encore des membres du Comité de lutte et d’action queer (CLAQ), entre autres. Ils ont aussitôt rebaptisé le lieu « maison des peuples », dans l’esprit de celles que d’autres « gilets jaunes » ont ouvertes temporairement ailleurs en France cette année, notamment à Saint-Nazaire, avant d’être expulsées.
Des #giletsjaunes et d’autres mouvement comme @xrFrance occupent ce soir l’ancienne salle de concert La Flèche d’or… https://t.co/67JJu2zRlu — aline_leclerc (@Aline Leclerc)
« L’idée, c’est d’avoir un lieu de croisement des luttes, explique Sacha, « gilet jaune » de La Plaine Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). Un outil pour réfléchir, parler, élaborer ensemble. » Elle se veut aussi un lieu pour « préparer la mobilisation du 5 décembre », a expliqué au micro Valérie, de XR. « C’est une façon de continuer le mouvement jusqu’à cette journée de grève et se donner la possibilité d’une suite », a ajouté Camille, du CLAQ. Les manifestants ont été invités à l’occuper jour et nuit.
Bref rassemblement au Forum des Halles
Au Forum des Halles, à Paris, quelque 200 personnes se sont rassemblées en début de soirée en scandant des slogans anticapitalistes : « Travaille, consomme et ferme ta gueule ». Quelques vitres ont été brisées. Mais les manifestants ont été rapidement dispersés par une charge des forces de l’ordre.
Il est 18 h 18, au Forum des Halles. Quelques dizaines de manifestants scandent « travaille, consomme et ferme ta g… https://t.co/6ZBPm88taE — pibzedog (@Pierre Bouvier)
Devant une entrée de la Préfecture de police, une voiture siglée police a été retournée sur le toit au milieu de la chaussée, et une autre des douanes a eu le pare-brise détruit. Il n’y a pas eu de blessé selon la Préfecture de police.
Des rassemblements à Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes ou Marseille
Manifestation à Nantes, le 16 novembre. LOIC VENANCE / AFP
A Nantes, près d’un millier de manifestants, selon la préfecture, ont défilé dans le centre historique dénonçant « la fracture sociale ». Une fanfare a joué l’air de « Joyeux anniversaire » quand le cortège s’est élancé, mais l’ambiance s’est rapidement dégradée quand des heurts ont éclaté avec les forces de l’ordre. Le centre a été envahi par les gaz lacrymogènes. Une barricade de panneaux de chantier a été érigée près du château. « Moins de chaînes, plus de chênes », pouvait-on lire, tagué, sur les murs de la préfecture ou encore « Plutôt vandales que vendus ».
Serge, 58 ans, « gilet jaune » de la première heure, est venu d’Ancenis. Il dit avoir « de l’espoir » dans les municipales. « On veut mettre la pression sur les futurs élus ; on peut faire bouger les choses localement », a-t-il déclaré. « Je suis là parce que je ne veux pas que ma fille s’immole devant un Crous ou qu’elle soit de la chair à travailler, a confié de son côté Vanessa, 47 ans. Si le mouvement disparaît, j’ai peur que la société se déshumanise. Ce sera la fin du service public et le règne de l’argent roi. »
L’ambiance s’est également peu à peu tendue à Marseille, où un millier de manifestants sont venus de l’ensemble du département des Bouches-du-Rhône. Partis du Vieux-Port le long de la corniche, les manifestants ont ensuite tenté de forcer un barrage des forces de l’ordre pour rentrer au cœur de la ville. C’est alors qu’ils ont rencontré la résistance des policiers et gendarmes qui ont réagi avec des grenades lacrymogènes pour disperser la foule. Le cortège s’est ensuite scindé en plusieurs groupes.
Des sprays au poivre sont utilisés contre des « gilets jaunes » qui tentent de forcer un barrage de police, le 16 novembre à Marseille. DANIEL COLE / AP
A Montpellier, la permanence du député La République en marche Patrick Vignal a été la cible de manifestants, avec une vitre cassée et plusieurs inscriptions anarchistes taguées sur le bâtiment, a constaté l’Agence France-Presse (AFP) sur place. A Lyon, un millier de manifestants s’était rassemblés en plein cœur de la ville dans une ambiance qui s’est là aussi rapidement tendue avec des tirs de lacrymogène, a constaté un journaliste de l’AFP.
Quelques heurts sporadiques, avec échanges de gaz lacrymogènes et jets de projectiles, ont marqué le premier anniversaire du mouvement à Bordeaux où ils étaient 1 800 « gilets jaunes » à défiler, selon la préfecture. Cette dernière fait état de « très peu de dégradations », un Abribus détérioré et quelques tags. Huit personnes ont été interpellées, deux pour outrages et six pour jets de projectile.
Article réservé à nos abonnés Lire aussi L’onde de choc sociale des « gilets jaunes », un an après
Soutiens aux « gilets jaunes » ou dénonciation des casseurs, les politiques divisés sur l’« acte 53 » Le premier anniversaire des « gilets jaunes », qui ambitionnaient de donner un second souffle au mouvement de contestation sociale, samedi 16 novembre, a été entaché par des tensions, notamment dans certains quartiers de Paris. A l’issue d’une journée de mobilisation dans plusieurs villes de France et sur les ronds-points, la classe politique s’est montrée divisée entre soutien aux manifestants et dénonciation des casseurs. Au sein de La France insoumise (LFI), c’est l’appui aux « gilets jaunes » qui a primé. Le député Eric Coquerel estimant ainsi sur Twitter que la préfecture de police de Paris « avait plus pour objectif d’empêcher la marche (…) que de garantir le droit de manifester ». Pour le premier secrétaire du Parti socialiste (PS), Olivier Faure, « la colère et le désespoir sont toujours là, et la violence inacceptable s’accroît dangereusement ». « Il n’y a pas d’ordre sans justice », a-t-il rappelé. Le porte-parole du Rassemblement national, Sébastien Chenu, a pour sa part fustigé sur BFMTV la politique du gouvernement : « Emmanuel Macron est passé complètement à côté de ce que demandent les «gilets jaunes . Il a eu une réponse superficielle et uniquement comptable. » « On est très loin des revendications » A droite, chez Les Républicains (LR), l’heure était plus à la dénonciation des violences qui se sont déroulées dans la capitale, place d’Italie dans le 13e arrondissement. « S’attaquer aux forces de l’ordre et aux pompiers, vandaliser des monuments commémoratifs, détruire et voler… Comment sommes-nous tombés si bas que cela puisse arriver en plein Paris ? », a ainsi estimé le député européen François-Xavier Bellamy. A l’instar de plusieurs élus de sa formation, il a appelé la justice à être « implacable ». Benjamin Griveaux, candidat La République en marche (LRM) à la mairie de Paris a, lui aussi, dénoncé le « saccage » de la place d’Italie, tandis que Jérôme Coumet, le maire divers gauche du 13e arrondissement, s’est dit « effondré » d’avoir assisté « à des violences tout l’après-midi » : « Je trouve qu’on est très loin des revendications et beaucoup plus près d’actions violentes que je juge gratuites. » | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Hotmail security breach spreads as 30,000 Gmail and Yahoo! passwords are posted online
The massive security breach that led to millions of Hotmail customers being advised to change their passwords has now spread to users of email services including Gmail and Yahoo! Mail.
Up to 21million people and businesses who use the Hotmail service in the UK were warned they are potentially at risk of being defrauded after passwords were acquired illegally.
Around 10,000 passwords were obtained by hackers who created a fake website identical to Hotmail's to fool users into entering their email address and password in a 'phishing' scam.
Defrauded: A list of over 20,000 email addresses and passwords of users of services including Gmail and Yahoo! Mail has leaked online (file picture)
'Phishing' scams involve using false websites to lure people into revealing important data such as bank account details, login names or passwords.
Now the BBC claims that another list of over 30,000 email addresses and passwords is circulating, which contains the details for Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, AOL, Comcast and Earthlink accounts.
The latest list was posted on Pastebin.com, the same website to which the Hotmail list was originally uploaded.
How to avoid being defrauded
- Change your passwords every 90 days - Use different passwords for various internet log-ins - Do not open unsolicited email attachments and links
The site, which is intended for web developers to share code, has since been taken down for maintenance.
Hotmail's list of users was posted anonymously on to Pastebin.com on October 1. The list was reported by technology blog Neowin.
It is feared that the information could be used by fraudsters to access email accounts and steal personal information such as credit card account details.
A spokesman for Google, which runs Gmail, said: 'We recently became aware of an industry-wide phishing scheme through which hackers gained user credentials for web-based mail accounts including Gmail account.
Breach: Around 10,000 Hotmail passwords were obtained by hackers using the same 'phishing' scam that has now spread to other email services | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Российский Первый канал в программе "Воскресное время" назвал покидающего Белый дом Барака Обаму "худшим президентом со времен Второй мировой войны". Между тем его рейтинг сейчас составляет 58 процентов. Самых высоких показателей (78 процентов) рейтинг Обамы достигал после избрания в 2009 году, а самых низких – 42 процентов – в 2014-м. Эти данные приводятся в исследовании института общественного мнения Gallup. Авторы опроса отмечают, что действующий президент США обошел своего предшественника Джорджа Буша-младшего, которого в последние дни пребывания на посту главы государства поддерживали лишь 40 процентов граждан США.
"Опросы общественного мнения говорят, что американцы считают Барака Обаму худшим президентом за время после Второй мировой войны… Более половины опрошенных оценивают его деятельность как неудовлетворительную…" – заявил в эфире Первого канала Валерий Фадеев, не уточняя, о каких опросах идет речь.
Тем временем, согласно опросу социологической службы Rasmussen Report, в последнюю перед инаугурацией неделю деятельность Барака Обамы на посту президента одобряют 62 процента американцев. По данным другой авторитетной социологической организации, Gallup, сегодняшний рейтинг президента Обамы – 58 процентов. Среди послевоенных президентов – а до войны такие опросы не проводились – он один из наиболее популярных. Итоги работы Билла Клинтона в последнюю неделю его президентского срока одобряли 57 процентов избирателей. Буша-младшего – 40. И только Буш-старший, сложивший президентские полномочия в 1993 году, имел такой же рейтинг, что и Обама, а Рональд Рейган опередил Обаму на один процентный пункт.
А вот Дональду Трампу есть над чем задуматься. Несмотря на его заявления о сокрушительной победе, его деятельность как избранного президента в настоящий момент одобряют 40 процентов американцев, а 55 оценивают ее негативно. Как сообщает организация Gallup, это исторически низкий показатель. Позитивный рейтинг Обамы за неделю до инаугурации составлял 78 процентов, Билла Клинтона – 66 процентов, Джорджа Буша-младшего – 62.
А вот что Валерий Фадеев заявил об операции по ликвидации Усамы бен Ладена, которая, по его словам, "позволила Обаме переизбраться на второй срок":
"А где доказательства, что это был Усама бен Ладен? Почему так быстро избавились от трупа? … Когда бойцы спецназа убили предполагаемого бен Ладена, решили измерить его рост… Но не нашлось рулетки. Тогда рядом с трупом лег боец, чтобы сопоставить его рост с убитым... Никаких убедительных доказательств, что был убит именно Усама бен Ладен, так и не представлено. Но есть еще одно шокирующее обстоятельство: в августе того же года в катастрофе американского транспортного вертолета погибли 22 спецназовца из тех 23, которые участвовали в майской операции в Пакистане. А в декабре погиб двадцать третий. Убит на поле боя выстрелом в голову. Такое вот стечение обстоятельств. Зато свои вторые выборы Обама выиграл".
В операции по ликвидации Усамы бен Ладена участвовало, вероятно, несколько сотен военнослужащих и сотрудников ЦРУ. Непосредственно на земле работал спецназ военно-морских сил США – "морские котики". Численность отряда составляла 78 человек, не считая переводчика, членов экипажей вертолетов, а также собаки с проводником. Это подразделение называется "команда 6". Имена ее членов составляют государственную тайну, поэтому их гибель – это вымысел, одна из теорий заговора, окружающих всякое значительное событие.
Тело Усамы бен Ладена было погребено в соответствии с обычаями ислама, которые гласят, что погребение должно состояться не позднее чем через сутки после смерти. Тем не менее идентификация была проведена. Это правда, что у "морских котиков" не оказалось при себе рулетки. Но у одного из них рост оказался ровно такой же, как у Усамы бен Ладена, – 6 футов 4 дюйма, или 193 сантиметра. Рост совпал. Фотография лица убитого была послана в штаб-квартиру ЦРУ, где ее сличили с известными изображениями Усамы бен Ладена. Совпадение по точкам составило 90-95 процентов. Усаму опознали в убитом две находившиеся в доме женщины, в их числе – одна из его жен. С тела был взят генетический материал. Экспресс-экспертиза ДНК была проведена на авиабазе Баграм в Афганистане, затем с этим биоматериалом работали, независимо друг от друга, лаборатории Пентагона и ЦРУ. Их вывод: вероятность ошибки составляет один шанс из 12 квадрильонов. Квадрильон – это единица с 15 нулями, или миллион миллиардов. Наконец, гибель Усамы бен Ладена подтвердила спустя четыре дня после операции сама "Аль-Каида".
Автор сюжета о Бараке Обаме также заявил, что уходящего президента "подозревали в том, что он подделал свидетельство о рождении на американской территории".
Конституция США гласит, что в президенты не может избираться лицо, не являющееся гражданином США по рождению. Но споры о месте рождения Барака Обамы не имеют юридического смысла. Его мать была урожденной американкой. Дети американских граждан получают гражданство независимо от места рождения и считаются урожденными американцами. Сенатор Маккейн родился на американской военной базе в Зоне Панамского канала, где служил его отец, но это не помешало ему избираться на пост президента США. Дональд Трамп одно время активно муссировал теорию о неправильном месте рождения Обамы, но давно отказался от нее.
В сюжете Первого канала приводится цитата из издания National Review: "Как главнокомандующий Обама фактически упустил возможный мир в Ираке. Он совершил столько просчетов, что это привело к появлению, а потом и усилению ИГИЛ (террористической организации, запрещенной в России. – Прим. РС). Помог довести ситуацию в Сирии до катастрофы и передал весь этот хаос Москве и Тегерану".
Войну в Ираке начал не Обама. Она началась в марте 2003 года при Буше-младшем и была окончена за 19 дней. Американцы потеряли при этом 139 человек, британцы – 33. Потери иракских вооруженных сил составили 9200 человек. Однако, выиграв войну, Америка проиграла мир. Ошибки временной американской администрации в Ираке подробно проанализированы, о них написаны книги. Главная из них – решение распустить иракскую армию. Десятки тысяч здоровых, обученных военному делу мужчин оказались без средств к существованию. Они сначала сбились в разбойничьи шайки, а потом образовали вооруженное подполье. Именно так была создана питательная почва для ИГИЛ, именно в Ираке произошло слияние обломков режима Саддама с джихадистами. Но нет никаких доказательств того, что это произошло при поддержке США.
И опять-таки, все это случилось до того, как Барак Обама стал президентом. Он получил иракскую проблему в наследство от республиканца Буша.
Виталий Третьяков, декан Высшей школы телевидения МГУ, заявил в сюжете Первого канала: "При нем США фактически развязали несколько войн. Ливия, Сирия – тому яркие доказательства. Свергли несколько режимов".
Разберемся. Свергал ли Барак Обама режимы в Тунисе и Египте? Сомнительное утверждение. "Арабская весна" стала следствием внутренних противоречий в этих странах. Ливия была третьим звеном в этой цепной реакции. Режиму Муаммара Каддафи противостоял Национальный переходный совет, политическую поддержку которому оказали не только США, но и все основные международные организации. Но Каддафи не уступил. В стране вспыхнула гражданская война. Чтобы остановить кровопролитие, Совет Безопасности ООН принял в марте 2011 года резолюцию о защите мирного населения. Россия и Китай при голосовании воздержались. На основании резолюции началась воздушная операция международной коалиции. Ее инициатива исходила не от США, а от Франции и Великобритании.
Война в Сирии тоже начиналась как гражданская. Ситуация резко осложнилась с возникновением на территории Ирака и Сирии джихадистского "Исламского государства". Вооруженные силы США не воюют в Сирии и не развязывали там гражданскую войну.
Далее автор сюжета утверждает: "Крайне лицемерно прозвучали слова Обамы о том, что в день инаугурации Трампа Америка вновь продемонстрирует всем, как нужно мирно передавать власть от президента к президенту".
Утверждение, что Барак Обама не обеспечил мирный переход власти, противоречит заявлениям Дональда Трампа, благодарившего президента за гладкую передачу дел.
"Еще одна мина, заложенная под будущую администрацию, – решение Обамы поставлять боевикам сирийской оппозиции переносные зенитно-ракетные комплексы, чтобы осложнить жизнь российским военным", – продолжает Первый канал.
США не поставляют и не намерены поставлять сирийской оппозиции переносные зенитно-ракетные комплексы. О том, что возможность таких поставок якобы "прописана" в законе об оборонном бюджете на 2017 год, сообщила журналистам 27 декабря прошлого года официальный представитель российского МИДа Мария Захарова. Она назвала это решение "пособничеством террористам". В тот же день госсекретарь США Джон Керри объяснил по телефону министру иностранных дел России Сергею Лаврову, что закон, наоборот, запрещает поставки ПЗРК в Сирию. Однако никаких опровержений не последовало, новость о мнимых поставках оружия, угрожающего российской авиации, быстро распространилась по российским средствам информации.
"При первом чернокожем президенте, который считал себя наследником Мартина Лютера Кинга, странным образом лишь обострились межрасовые противоречия и полицейский произвол в отношении афроамериканцев. Все это не раз оборачивалось многодневными беспорядками в США", – говорится в сюжете Первого канала.
Были ли беспорядки следствием недовольства американцев политикой президента-афроамериканца? Предоставим слово самому Бараку Обаме. Вот отрывок из его прощальной речи, которую так скупо процитировал Первый канал – в этом отрывке президент Обама упоминает героя книги Харпер Ли "Убить пересмешника" Аттикуса Финча:
– После моего избрания заговорили о пострасовой Америке. Как бы нам этого ни хотелось, такой взгляд был далек от реальности. Расовый вопрос остается силой, часто раскалывающей наше общество. Я живу достаточно долго, чтобы видеть, что межрасовые отношения сегодня лучше, чем 10, 20, 30 лет назад. Это видно не только из статистики, это видно по отношению молодых американцев любых политических убеждений. Но ситуация все же не такая, какой должна быть. И если мы хотим, чтобы наша демократия работала в этой все более этнически разнообразной стране, каждый из нас должен прислушаться к совету великого героя американской литературы Аттикуса Финча, который сказал: "Нельзя по-настоящему понять человека, пока не станешь на его точку зрения. Надо влезть в его шкуру и походить в ней".
Кажется, этот совет подходит не только для тех, кто рассуждает о расизме. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Description: Racism whether upon open or hidden, is an evil aspect of life which Islams seeks to eradicate. It is clear from the versus of the Quran, and many sayings of the Prophet (saw) which have been narrated by his companions, that differences in colour, tribes, races, or traditions are not to be excuses for unjust behaviour or treatment. "O Mankind, we created you from a single pair of a male and a female, and made you in to tribes and nations so that you may know each other (not that you despise each other). Verily, the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is he who is most righteous of you." (Al-Quran, Chapter 49, Verse 13) | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
After a night of protests that turned violent, Hillary Clinton tweeted about Freddie Gray's death, and the message she expressed was an important one from such a high-profile figure. In a tweet that was signed -H, marking that Clinton herself actually penned the statement, the presidential hopeful wrote that she was praying for everyone in Baltimore and also called Gray's death a "tragedy." Clinton wrote:
Tonight I am praying for peace & safety for all in Baltimore, & for Freddie Gray's family - his death is a tragedy that demands answers. -H
Gray died after suffering a spinal cord injury that left his spine 80 percent severed at his neck, according to an autopsy. The injury was sustained while he was in police custody, and Gray died a week later. Six officers have since been suspended, but how the injury happened is still unclear. The Baltimore Police Department is investigating the incident, and Bustle has reached out to the department for comment. But there are answers that are desperately needed, and soon, as Clinton so succinctly stated.
Clinton didn't comment on the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson until a few weeks after it happened. But when she did, it was poignant. During a prepared speech, she asked white people to imagine what it would be like to be black and face the injustices that black Americans face every day. That statement still rings true today.
She said about Brown:
Imagine what we would feel and what we would do if white drivers were three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as black drivers instead of the other way around. If white offenders received prison sentences ten percent longer than black offenders for the same crimes. If a third of all white men – just look at this room and take one-third – went to prison during their lifetime. Imagine that. That is the reality in the lives of so many of our fellow Americans in so many of the communities in which they live.
In her speech where she spoke about Brown, Clinton said we can't ignore the inequalities that persist in the American justice system. That's exactly what protesters in Baltimore are saying as well. The demonstrators are calling for justice, answers, and accountability by police officers. After the deaths of so many black Americans after meetings with law enforcement — Gray, Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice are the most well-known — everyone, including Clinton, is asking for answers. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The Australian government spent more than $10,000 in taxpayer cash fighting a legal battle to keep documents secret about the home affairs minister Peter Dutton’s decision to save two foreign au pairs from deportation.
The visa status of the two unknown young women has been in the spotlight since March, when it was revealed that Dutton used his powers of ministerial discretion to grant them visas on public interest grounds.
In the first case, an au pair whose visa was cancelled at Brisbane’s international airport in June 2015 was able to make a phone call and within a couple of hours the minister approved a new visa.
In November the same year, Dutton defied written warnings from his own department that granting a visa to a second au pair was of “high risk” because she had been previously counselled about work restrictions.
Dutton insists he doesn’t know the two individuals involved and that they didn’t work for his family.
Overnight the department released answers to 28 outstanding questions from a May Senate estimates hearing, which were close to a month overdue.
At the May hearing, the Labor senator Murray Watt grew increasingly frustrated with the department’s obfuscation and said: “It feels like a cover-up.”
Watt had asked home affairs department secretary, Michael Pezzullo, who the first au pair had phoned while detained at the airport in order to receive ministerial intervention.
“This is a matter for the individual and not the department,” the department responded in its written answer.
The department said it was unable to calculate the number of cases with similar circumstances in which tourists have been allowed to stay in Australia despite suspicions they would undertake paid work.
“Determining the number of times this has occurred would require an examination of a large number of individual cases and an unreasonable diversion of departmental resources,” the department said.
Guardian Australia has spoken with a German au pair who was stopped at Sydney’s international airport in 2012 and had her visa cancelled at the border because of concerns she would work. She was locked up for a night at the Villawood detention centre and was promptly put on a plane the next day to Thailand.
“All in all, I think it’s the worst experience till now that I’ve had in all my travels,” she said.
The department refused to be drawn on questions about whether a Liberal party contact had made a call to the minister’s office seeking ministerial intervention for the au pair or whether the person was known to the minister.
It also revealed it had not undertaken any monitoring to ensure the June au pair had complied with work restrictions.
The total legal cost associated with the department fighting a freedom of information case to suppress documents about the au pairs was $10,245.92.
Dutton received departmental briefings about the case three days after a federal tribunal hearing in March and twice in April after the tribunal ruled in the department’s favour based on concerns for the au pairs’ privacy. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Dragon Heist: session seventeen point one: Arvene’s solo adventure
Arvene had decided she wasn’t interested in any more dungsweeping. So, taking her newly acquired Waterdeep Tram Travel Pass and her quirky sense of adventure, she headed off for a day on the tracks.
When one of our Dungeons & Dragons Dragon Heist players couldn’t make a session last week, I caught up with them before the next session via Whatsapp and DM’d them through their own mini-adventure. This recap recounts what happened.
The set up
We have been the main campaign playing via Discord and using Trello and D&D Beyond to keep track of characters and share campaign information. While this mini-adventure didn’t use Discord, having the campaign information available on Trello and DnD Beyond, both internet-based applications, meant that at any point over the course of the week we could send messages and consult campaign information wherever we were. Even if it was three o’clock in the morning.
The party:
Alan Crabpopper, Human Ranger – a private investigator and member of the Harpers.
Dugg, Earth Genasi Fighter – dungsweeper and estranged son from a noble family.
Little Joe, Drow Sorcerer – channeling the spirit of John Wayne.
Arvene Galanodel, Half-Elf Cleric – priestess of Tymora, ex-city guard, ex-nun.
Previously in Waterdeep
Alan, Dugg, Joe, and Arvene met in Waterdeep and formed a small independent private eye company called Dragonclaw Inc. Their first few jobs were dangerous and almost got them killed several times over. But they did have some success, including saving Renear Neverember, and investigating wererats in the Field Ward.
In the meantime, in a rare moment of downtime, Arvene visited the local temple and received a tip that there may be some work in the Dock Ward. A traveling carnival, the Sea Maiden’s Fair, had recently docked and had put out calls for people with local knowledge to assist in orientation. Until now she hadn’t had a chance to follow this up.
Last session, Arvene and her fellow investigators took part in a successful mission to reclaim a stolen sword. Their mark was a human male whom they found sleeping in The Dripping Dagger. Having relieved the gentleman of his magical sword, Arvene also stole his wallet, which contained his annual Travel Pass for the trams of Waterdeep and a silver broach shaped like a harp.
Travelling the Trams
The first thing Arvene wanted to do was travel on the trams. Until now the party had received a very poor reputation from public transport operators of Waterdeep, mainly due to their treatment by Arvene’s drow companion Little Joe. Little Joe wasn’t here right now, and she had acquired a season pass, so she thought she’d test her luck.
Catching a tram was no trouble. A successful charisma check (17) meant she was charming and apologetic and so was able to ride. Then, before heading for the Dock Ward, she wanted to take a quick tour of the city. So she did.
First she went to the Sea Ward and stared at all the fancy rich folks strutting around, before checking in at the Temple of Luck, dedicated to her god Tymora. After a couple of small acts of trickery and mischief, she headed off to the Castle Ward to check out the six giant walking statues, before passing by Blackstaff Tower. Then, after an overpriced lunch in a luxurious café, she got back on the tram and headed down to the Dock Ward to see what she could find out about the Sea Maiden’s Fair.
At this stage I was very grateful that I had the Dragon Heist campaign downloaded on the DnD Beyond app on my phone. There’s no way I would have been able to access all this specific information on the wards of Waterdeep from the queue at the cinema.
Staking out the Dock Ward
At the Dock Ward she easily found the three ships that made up the Sea Maiden’s Fair. A good perception roll (17) meant she could tell that it appeared to be a sea-faring carnival. Two of the ships were docked and one was out in the harbor, 200 feet or so from the pier.
With an low perception (11), she took quite a while to find out more. This is what she discovered:
The ships were called: the Hellraiser, The Heartbraker, and The Eyecatcher.
The Hellraiser transports musicians and decorative floats and was docked.
The Heartbreaker holds performers, strange creatures, and wagons, and was docked.
The Eyecatcher is a more ostentatious ship, but was anchored in the harbor, so it was difficult to see what it carried.
The crews appeared to be mostly human sailors, all wearing wide-brimmed hats.
Further investigation meant talking to people. Naturally, given her city watch background, Arvene gravitated towards a guardsman she could see keeping watch over the boats. A poor charisma check (9) meant she wasn’t given much to go on, except: the master of the fair is called Zardoz Zord, a flamboyant man who dresses very oddly. The crew of the ships are all men, who communicate with a thick elvish accept and use weird hand signals when talking.
Sea Maiden’s Fair
Arvene’s curiosity got the better of her, so she decided to board the Heartbreaker. She cast Disguise Self and took on the visage of a crewman of the ship. Boarding the ship was easy; the docks were very busy so no one noticed as she walked up the steps to the main deck. There were three sailors on deck mopping and cleaning and testing the rigging. She tried to eavesdrop on them, but didn’t hear anything interesting.
She explored the rest of the deck by picking up a mop and pretending to be a crew member. A strong performance roll (18) meant this was not a problem, but again she found nothing of interest, and eventually was told to, “Get lost,” by a ship mate having his dinner in the mess room.
As she was about to leave, she could feel her magical disguise waning; she made one last check of the wagons which were stored on deck. 19 stealth. 22 perception. There were four wagons. Three held nothing of interest, mostly just costumes and equipment for the carnival’s parades. The fourth wagon contained a number of sealed barrels and crates, and there was the distinct smell of ash and sulfur. One of the barrels was slightly open and Arvene could just about make out the gun power that was inside.
As she made her discovery she felt a strong firm hand on her shoulder. “I think you might be on the wrong ship,” came a thickly accented voice. She could feel her disguise slipping. She quickly made her excuses, “Oh yeah! These sea-legs have thrown me off!” And she fled the ship.
JB Nevercott
After the adventure at the docks she decided to head back to Trollskull Manor. Her passive perception is 13, so she didn’t notice the shadowy figure following her home. When she reached the front door it didn’t look like anyone was home. Then there was a gentle tap on her shoulder. “Excuse me. I couldn’t help but notice you by the docks earlier.”
The tapper was a finely dressed man with a toothbrush mustache and a purple trilby hat. He smiled warmly, with a mysterious glint in his eye that caught her off guard, “Nevercott,” he said, “JB Nevercott. May I come in?”
Arvene gulped audibly. He was rather dashing. As he told her of his occupation, “I’m a haberdasher, and I make the finest clothes. I’m sure I could make something that would complement your stunning beauty, if you let me.”
Arvene rolled an insight check to see if he was legitimately nice, or just being creepy. She rolled a 6. She thought he was the nicest man she’d ever met.
Nevercott was charming and warm, everything that her current adventuring companions were not. He asked questions about her, complimented her hair, and didn’t even mention the dilapidated nature of the taproom. Eventually, as night fell, he stood up to take his leave. A true gentleman. Much to Arvene’s disappointment. As he left he handed her his card and winked. “We’ll see each other soon enough, my dear.” END
Afterthoughts
I was quite proud that I managed to pull the story round to that final point. Especially as the session which Arvene missed ended with JB Nevercott somehow appearing in the taproom of Trollskull Manor offering Little Joe a job.
Having Tello and D&D Beyond accessible on my phone was essential for running this mini-adventure. I really enjoyed the fact that in the odd moment at work, on the bus, in the walk-in freezer at the supermarket, or wherever I was, I could check on either and update my player on their situation.
Running a game via text was also a new experience for me. I liked it, and will definitely try this again when someone can’t make a session.
It also helps that you can now ask Google to “Roll a D20 for me,” and Google does just that.
What did we learn?
DM Tip D&D Beyond is by far one of the most useful tools for any DM, whether playing in this rather obscure manner, or in a more traditional way; having the full campaign for Dragon Heist at the swipe of a finger makes double checking NPCs, quests, and locations super simple. Some people, understandably, may be reluctant to pay the full cost price of the adventure if it’s in digital form, especially if they already own the hardback, but in my opinion it is definitely worth the investment.
Next session, Arvene will rejoin the rest of the party, but will she reveal the exploits of her mini-adventure or will it be her little secret?
Liked it? Take a second to support the GeekFamily Network on Patreon!
Share this: Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Tumblr
LinkedIn
Reddit
More
WhatsApp
Pocket
Telegram
Skype
Email
Print
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Every time a relationship with a different sex maniac comes to a fiery end, I have the same thought: “This time I’m going to date someone nice, who’s never even once been accused of sexual harassment.” Every time I say it to myself in this really self-congratulatory way, like I’ve just discovered the cure for cancer. But then, without fail, when I start dating one of these nice, in-control people, within two weeks I want to kill myself. It’s hard to get off on virtue alone.
Sadly, in recent years, the sex maniac has become a marginalized figure. It’s no secret that female sexuality has long been policed—ya know, slut shaming and the sexual double standard and all that good stuff. But today we have we created an environment where (allegedly predatory) male sexuality needs to be policed, and (allegedly passive) female sexuality needs to be protected—which seems equally tragic to me. In our increasingly safe-spaced culture, it’s increasingly unchill to be sexually out of control—which is kind of a bummer, because being restrained isn’t very sexy (unless it’s, like, for bondage purposes).
Last weekend, at a brunch in a Soho loft, I was close-talking with a 60-something poet in a three piece suit. “In the ’70s you could be a sex maniac and it wasn’t a big deal,” he told me. “It was considered a good thing, even. It made you interesting. But today you can barely make a dirty joke without someone being ‘triggered.’”
Of course, conduct is key. Being a sex maniac is most appreciated when channeled in the right way in the bedroom, but not useful when channeled in the wrong way, in the buildup. You can be a hedonist and also be a decent human being who communicates your desires in a way that doesn’t offend anyone. You have to get the dance right.
Also at the brunch was an ex-lover of mine—“Scott,” a 35-year-old filmmaker and a sex maniac (obviously), who, in addition to his propensity for polyamory, also has taste for transgression—namely, a taste for women who are considerably older, considerably younger, and considerably married. “It’s a bad cultural moment to be an overtly sexual man,” Scott told me, checking out a woman over my shoulder. “There’s obviously a distinction between a man who has a lot of sex with different women, and a predator. But nowadays, any halfway ‘woke’ guy knows that because of the patriarchy, you have to recognize that you’re always one step away from being predatory. Still, I do think there’s a moral path for men who don’t want to pursue the conventional domestic existence. Of course, beside that higher path there is also a low and sordid path. But some of us male sluts are really trying our best, okay? I'm trying to be the Dexter of emotionally crippled sex-addicted womanizers.”
Ideally, we would find a middle ground—a world where sexual bullies aren’t tolerated, but where respectful perverts are given space to hone their craft. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to sexual dynamics. We shouldn’t treat stereotypically masculine or heterosexual roles as if they’re the enemy, but rather as one sexual dynamic among many. And we should be able to play different roles and push these dynamics to their extremes. It sounds like such an obvious thing to say, but there is something very nice about people who enjoy sex. And I’m personally still holding out for the ethical sex maniac who can last the long haul. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
News: The Red Markets Kickstarter is live! Help us reach the offset print run stretch goal, so we can get a full color print run of the book.
Synopsis: After barely surviving their last job, the Brutalists decide to take two jobs at once in order to earn their retirement goals even faster. This job will push the crew to their limits, but they need to cash out before their enemies catch them. One job involves working with a group of strange artists while the other one involves working with the DHQS again. The government’s black ops program may be as evil as they come, but the Brutalists need the work.
Liked it? Get exclusive bonus episodes on Patreon!
Share this: Twitter
Reddit
Facebook
Email
| {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Deadly drought in Southern Africa leaves millions hungry
United Nations says Southern Africa is experiencing worst drought in a century, 45 million people in 14 countries are in need of urgent assistance. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Obama-era official has admitted he met Iran’s foreign minister ‘three or four times’ since Trump took office.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have accused Obama-era official John Kerry of “actively undermining” US policy on Iran after he admitted meeting Iran’s foreign minister “three or four times” since leaving office.
“John Kerry had illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people,” Trump said in Twitter post on Friday.
“He told them to wait out the Trump Administration!” he said, ending his Tweet with the word “BAD!”
John Kerry had illegal meetings with the very hostile Iranian Regime, which can only serve to undercut our great work to the detriment of the American people. He told them to wait out the Trump Administration! Was he registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act? BAD! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 14, 2018
Meanwhile, Pompeo told a news conference that Kerry’s meetings with Mohammad Javad Zarif were “inconsistent” with US foreign policy and “beyond inappropriate”.
“You can’t find precedent for this in US history, and Secretary Kerry ought not to engage in that kind of behaviour,” an agitated Pompeo told reporters at the State Department.
“It’s inconsistent with what foreign policy of the United States is as directed by this president, and it is beyond inappropriate for him to be engaged.”
Kerry, who negotiated the 2015 Iran nuclear deal which Trump scrapped this year, said during a tour to promote his new book “Every Day is Extra” that he had met Zarif “three or four times” since Trump had entered the White House.
A spokesperson for Kerry said in a statement to The Hill on Friday: “Kerry stays in touch with his former counterparts around the world just like every previous secretary of state.
“There’s nothing unusual, let alone unseemly or inappropriate, about former diplomats meeting with foreign counterparts … What is unseemly and unprecedented is for the podium of the State Department to be hijacked for political theatrics,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile, Kerry took to Twitter to respond to Trump, saying: “Mr. President, you should be more worried about Paul Manafort meeting with Robert Mueller than me meeting with Iran’s FM. But if you want to learn something about the nuclear agreement that made the world safer, buy my new book.”
Mr. President, you should be more worried about Paul Manafort meeting with Robert Mueller than me meeting with Iran's FM. But if you want to learn something about the nuclear agreement that made the world safer, buy my new book, Every Day Is Extra: https://t.co/DKjc33Kvvu https://t.co/cesltkt0zW — John Kerry (@JohnKerry) September 14, 2018
Trump supporters immediately leapt on Kerry’s actions as evidence of “treason,” with some calling for him to go to prison.
A spokesperson for Kerry said there was nothing improper about his conduct.
Nuclear deal
Tensions between Iran and the US have risen after Washington pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
{articleGUID}
Under the 2015 deal, the Iranian government agreed to cut down its uranium stockpile and scale back its enrichment programme far below the level required to build a nuclear weapon.
Tehran also agreed in perpetuity to notify United Nations inspectors if and when it builds a new nuclear facility.
In exchange, UN-approved sanctions were lifted in January 2016, and Tehran was allowed to resume trading oil and gas on the international market. A total of $100bn in frozen Iranian assets was also released.
Following the US pullout from the nuclear agreement in May, Iran said it was interested in keeping the deal alive, but only if the remaining powers could guarantee it would not face economic isolation under Washington’s sanctions.
Europe and other signatories of the deal oppose the US’ decision to leave the agreement and have vowed to find ways of maintaining trade ties with Iran. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Your cosplays are always so spot on. I do not know how you transform yourself so perfectly. Just beautiful. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
More than 100 people were injured in the Las Ramblas attack, many of them foreign tourists visiting Barcelona during the peak of the summer season.
Spanish police were on Saturday searching for the driver of a van that ploughed into a crowd in Barcelona, killing 13 people, in one of two deadly attacks in Catalonia carried out by a network of suspected Islamist militants.
The van driver has yet to be identified, police in the northeastern Spanish region said late on Friday, but said it seemed increasingly unlikely that he was one of five suspects shot dead in a Catalan seaside resort.
The driver abandoned the van and fled on Thursday after speeding along a section of Las Ramblas, the most famous boulevard in Barcelona, leaving a trail of dead and injured among the crowds of tourists and local residents.
Another woman died after a car rammed passersby in the resort town of Cambrils in the early hours of Friday, before police shot dead five attackers who were wearing fake explosive belts and had an axe and knives in the vehicle.
Police have arrested four people in connection with the attacks - three Moroccans and a citizen of Spain's North African enclave of Melilla.
Another three people have been identified but are still at large. Spanish media said two of them may have been killed in Alcanar, where a house was razed by an explosion shortly before midnight on Wednesday, while one suspect, named by El Pais newspaper as Younes Abouyaaqoub, was still sought by police.
Spanish police declined to confirm his identity. They believe the house in Alcanar was being used to plan one or several large-scale attacks in Barcelona, possibly using a large number of butane gas canisters stored there.
More than 100 people were injured in the Las Ramblas attack, many of them foreign tourists visiting Barcelona during the peak of the summer season.
In the past 13 months, militants have used vehicles as weapons to kill nearly 130 people in France, Germany, Britain, Sweden and Spain.
The Spanish government will decide on Saturday whether to raise its security alert one notch to the maximum level, which could involve armed forces being deployed to help patrol cities and vulnerable areas.
The Mediterranean region of Catalonian is thronged in the summer months with tourists drawn to its beaches and the port city of Barcelona's museums and tree-lined boulevards.
Of the 14 dead in the two attacks, five are Spanish, two are Italians and there is one Portuguese, one Belgian, one Canadian and one U.S. citizen, emergency services and authorities from those countries have confirmed so far.
Spain's King Felipe and Queen Letizia were due to visit the injured - who are of many different nationalities ranging from France and Germany to Pakistan and the Philippines and are in various Barcelona hospitals - on Saturday. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford took to Twitter today to chime in on the still hot topic of loot boxes, monetization in games and its relation to grinding.
It's a huge thread, even more so considering that Twitter recently doubled the maximum character count, so we've copied the text below.
Risk of Rain 2 To Leave Steam Early Access On August 11th: New Survivor, Stage, and Final Boss
I am generally very much against predatory monetization schemes in F2P games for consumable goods and even more so against them in premium games. I tend to oppose such techniques both as an artist and creator and also as a customer and a gamer.
Evidence of my position is that we never sold Golden Keys (an arguably consumable good) in the Borderlands game. We had non-trivial levels of demand from customers to do so, but we did not relent. We chose to only give Golden Keys away via social media and partner relations.
Contrarily, I tend to be very supportive of post-launch monetization of durable goods as DLC in *almost* any form. Again, as a customer and as a creator, I think that new, discrete content that took energy to create deserves to have the effort compensated.
I do, however, object to some of the arguments and language being used to fight against the predatory monetization schemes I have just derided in the first post in this thread.
As an artist and creator who very much *loves* the nature of the "loot box" as it appears in our Borderlands games, I'm concerned that the words "loot box" are being used as shorthand for a practice I am not in favor of. Can we find another term for what we object to?
Also, I have seen arguments against consumable goods that are for customers who want to speed up progress along these lines: "Grinding sucks, I shouldn't have to pay to avoid grinding." I have an issue with this kind of argument...
In the case where "grinding" is, well, playing the game and in the case where the player does not want to, well, play the game but doesn't want to pay cash to skip playing the game, I recommend considering another choice: don't play the game.
If the "grinding" is the game and the game is not fun, the rational choice is to play other games that are fun. If playing the game is fun, it should be a reward, not an obstacle to play the damn thing.
If playing the game is not fun and the desire is to skip it, well, that's a game that should be skipped and passed upon.
I realize that there are some people who want the status of having beaten a game or having achieved a certain degree of progress in a game and are willing to pay in order to achieve that. Those are precisely the sorts of minds those kinds of games are for.
But if you are the kind of mind who does not want to pay for progress and is not actually enjoying the "grinding" of playing the game, then, well, frankly, you should take it upon yourself to vote with your attention and just stop playing that game and move to something else.
I love games. I love playing them. I love creating them. As a customer, I am very happy making sure that I am helping to finance the efforts of artists who entertainment. As a customer, I can make free choices about where my time and money goes. So should you! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Ten years after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and the New Orleans levees failed, we still don’t know how many people died in the storm and its aftermath.
The uncertainty about the death toll is evident in the variety of numbers being reported by the media. A local news station in Georgia: 1,200. AccuWeather: 1,800. Insurance Journal: more than 1,800. The New Orleans Times-Picayune: 1,833. A local news station in western Michigan: 1,836.
There is still no memorial listing the names of Katrina victims, still no way to know how many remain uncounted or unidentified, and still no agreement on how to count victims if a storm of Katrina’s impact hits the U.S. again. Ten years on, we’re still in the dark.
Katrina killed 14 people in Florida before sweeping through the Gulf of Mexico and slamming into southeastern Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. The storm was eventually blamed for deaths in seven states, including as far north as Ohio. New Orleans took the biggest hit; wind, rain and the rising Gulf waters breached structurally flawed levees in Lake Pontchartrain, submerging 80 percent of the city by Aug. 31. The reason we don’t know how many people died as a result of Katrina is almost entirely because we don’t know how many people died in Louisiana.
In the days after floodwaters poured into parts of New Orleans, it seemed as though the loss of life could number in the tens of thousands. Ray Nagin, the mayor at the time, said the death toll in the city could be as high as 10,000. A FEMA simulation of what would happen if a similar hurricane struck the area had put the number at more than 60,000. FEMA ordered 25,000 body bags for the New Orleans area.
Although the losses never reached those levels, death in New Orleans was inescapable in the weeks after the levees failed — for its residents, for responders and for a horrified nation. News outlets headlined the latest counts of the dead and occasionally showed grisly images of bodies floating in flooded neighborhoods.
Like many post-Katrina efforts, the project to count the dead was hampered by natural and institutional obstacles. Robert A. Jensen arrived about a week after the storm. He is the CEO of Kenyon International Emergency Services, which helps track deaths after disasters worldwide. He’d previously sent around 10 workers to Louisiana to help recover bodies, but they’d been sitting idle in their temporary residence at a Baton Rouge funeral home for a week. “That week was critical, and it was wasted on bureaucracy,” Jensen said in a telephone interview.
The official effort to recover bodies had stalled as local and federal agencies decided who would do so — and how. Eventually, procedures were set, with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals taking the lead and Jensen’s company receiving a contract to coordinate the work in the heaviest-hit parishes.
Collecting, identifying and counting the dead was an emotionally wrenching, often gruesome, sometimes thankless job. Kenyon workers had to walk through hospitals where the power had been knocked out. Extreme heat decomposed bodies. The sheer size of the affected areas meant each body might have to go through several checkpoints on its way to the morgue. And each stop could mean the loss of valuable information.
Nearly every day, Bob Johannessen, a spokesman for the state health department, updated the death toll for Louisiana based on the latest data and shared it with the press, taking care never to extrapolate. That meant many people weren’t counted until long after they’d died.
Arriving at accurate numbers was difficult. Lt. Don Kelly of the Baton Rouge Police Department had joined a local Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team a month before Katrina. After the storm, he worked as a public information officer at DMort’s temporary morgue in St. Gabriel, 60 miles from New Orleans. That’s where most of the bodies of the victims were taken to be identified. “There was a lot of duplication, a lot of poor reporting from the field,” Kelly said in a telephone interview.
It was only after two and a half months had passed that St. Gabriel reached a sad milestone: It had released more bodies to victims’ families than the number of bodies it still needed to identify.
By its own admission, Louisiana never finished counting the dead. Its last news release on the topic, from February 2006, put the statewide toll at 1,103. Three months later, it added hundreds of state residents who’d died in other states. Three months after that, in August 2006, Louisiana counted 1,464 victims, with 135 people still missing. Today, when asked about the Louisiana death total, the health department cites a 2008 study that reviewed death certificates and concluded that there were 986 victims. But that study said the total could be nearly 50 percent higher if deaths possibly linked to the storm were included.
One year after Katrina, the state’s medical examiner pledged to keep working until every victim was identified. Four years after that, he told the Houston Chronicle that he didn’t get the time or resources to finish the job.
Among federal agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been the primary one focused on determining how many people died because of Katrina regionwide. It reported 1,833 deaths in 2006 but has continually revised the number downward, to 1,100 at last count. Yet the 1,833 number has made it into news articles and the congressional record in the past month. The agency’s count remains as uncertain as it was in 2005, when NOAA researchers wrote that “the true number will probably not ever be known.”
John Mutter, a geophysicist at Columbia University, was more familiar with earthquakes than hurricanes before Katrina. After the levees failed and the official death counts kept rising, Mutter began looking into it. There had not been a storm with a comparable death toll since 1928, when a hurricane pushed the waters of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee up and over the levees at its southern end, drowning thousands. Mutter was interested in what standards existed for counting how many people were killed by a hurricane. He discovered that there aren’t any. “They made their own,” he said in a telephone interview.
Standards are extremely important for the grim task of counting the dead. They settle questions with no obvious right answer — for example, whether to include deaths that occurred immediately before a storm hit (such as someone who died in a fall while cutting down tree branches to mitigate anticipated damage).
What are known as indirect deaths are the most confounding to the count. Direct deaths are those that occur from drowning or an injury sustained during the storm or post-storm flooding, while indirect deaths occur from some other cause that might be linked to the storm, such as an inability to access medical care to treat an illness.
After Katrina, government counters in Louisiana chose to include indirect deaths based on an arbitrary time cutoff — people who were evacuated from New Orleans and died after Oct. 1 were not included, while those who died before were. The authors of the 2008 study that counted 986 Louisiana deaths took a different approach, counting only deaths that could be directly attributed to the storm. “I do think we’re likely an underestimate,” said Joan Brunkard, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the study’s lead author. NOAA, meanwhile, has reviewed death reports and removed indirect deaths from its count, a major reason that its total went down.
Here are NOAA’s estimates of the number of people who were killed directly by the 10 deadliest U.S. storms, from a 2011 report. (Most of the storms are listed by where they made landfall because they occurred before hurricanes were named.)
HURRICANE YEAR DEATHS Galveston, Texas 1900 8,000-12,000 Lake Okeechobee, Florida 1928 2,500-3,000 Katrina (Louisiana, Mississippi) 2005 1,200 Cheniere Caminanda, Louisiana 1893 1,100-1,400 Sea Islands, S. Carolina/Georgia 1893 1,000-2,000 Georgia/South Carolina 1881 700 Audrey (Louisiana, Texas) 1957 416 Florida Keys 1935 408 Last Island, Louisiana 1856 400 Florida/Mississippi/Alabama 1926 372
“The U.N. doesn’t say, ‘This is how you do it,’ ” Mutter said. It has no “best practices” for how to count disaster deaths. Neither does the U.S. “Trained as a scientist, I found this unusual,” Mutter said. “We measure things, know what sizes of error there are, the probability distribution, the uncertainties. It just struck me as odd we didn’t know this for natural disasters.”
Mutter decided to try to improve on the existing counts for Katrina, seeking to include indirect deaths that had never before been linked to the storm. With the help of a grant of around $20,000 from Columbia’s Earth Institute, where he works, Mutter started a website to solicit information about victims. Some of the responses were helpful. But Mutter worried that his site wasn’t reaching the people who were hardest to find: Poorer people who weren’t Internet-savvy and might be suspicious of people asking questions.
Mutter is sure the true death toll is higher than the official figures. But he’s not sure of the best way to figure out what it is. He once believed that it was more than 3,500; he now says it likely isn’t above 2,500. That still isn’t the highest estimate. Another effort arrived at a total of more than 4,000 with a method that researchers use to estimate civilian deaths in conflict zones.
Mutter ran out of funding in 2010, and his work largely stopped then. But people still send him new names for his count, especially around the time of year that Katrina struck.
NOAA’s work on the death toll hasn’t ended. Using newly available information from Louisiana’s epidemiology office and a database of historical mass casualty events in the U.S., NOAA researchers have completed a count of indirect deaths for Katrina and other storms from the last half-century. The database — which includes all events since colonial times in which 10 or more people died — was compiled by Wayne Blanchard, a retired manager of emergency management instruction at FEMA. The findings — estimates of the total number of deaths for Katrina and the other storms, broken down by direct and indirect causes — are expected to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
The project has taken an emotional toll on the NOAA employees who have been involved. Reviewing death records is very different from forecasting storms. “There are times when you have to put things aside and think,” said Ed Rappaport, deputy director of NOAA’s National Hurricane Center and a leader of the count. “When you read some of the accounts of individuals, it becomes far more than a statistical exercise.”
Other federal agencies treat the keeping of official death counts as a core job, done by specialists, rather than the side project of people who are trained for other work. It’s a government mission to identify and count Americans who go missing in war or in terrorist attacks. The U.S. military has a unit — the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency — whose duty is to do that and only that for missing and captured soldiers.
Katrina flooded New Orleans less than four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The death toll of victims from that day — 2,977 — is well-documented. The names of the victims are inscribed in bronze at a New York City memorial. And as we’ve seen with the Vietnam memorial in Washington, D.C, the draw and effect of thousands of names can be powerful.
Mutter thinks deaths stemming from disasters deserve the same respect as those caused by terrorism or war. “These are innocent victims,” he said.
Mutter also wants a national accounting standard for recording deaths to be developed for future disasters.
Stacy Parker Le Melle, an oral historian who interviewed at least 150 people in Katrina’s aftermath and collaborated with Mutter, said in an email interview that “without infusions of dedicated money and resources, getting an accurate accounting of the dead may never reach the top of the triage list” for governments responding to a disaster.
While this impulse is understandable, Le Melle said, the result is devastating to survivors, for whom it is crucial to have the losses counted. Otherwise, “you and your memory will be erased from the official story,” she said.
To finish the work for Katrina and arrive at a final number will take not only resources, but also courage, Le Melle said. “I believe we fear responsibility,” she said. “When we declare the reasons of death, then suddenly, someone may be liable. … So I understand a resistance to a broad definition of Katrina death. But I think most victims, and families of victims, want to be acknowledged. They want the truth. They don’t want to feel ignored. They don’t want to feel swept out to sea.”
Read more: “Katrina Washed Away New Orleans’s Black Middle Class”
“Test Scores Don’t Tell Us Everything About New Orleans School Reform” | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The footage shows the man in a compromising position with the donkey.
Mumbai: One can get really lonely in the hills, which might compel them to try different things. Well, this man seems to have found company.
An active coalition drone in Syria has reportedly captured images of an ISIS militant having sex with a donkey.
The footage shows the man in a compromising position with the animal.
The video, first reported in liveleaks.com, may be an elaborate hoax, it has now emerged.
Watch it nevertheless:
However the video was removed by Google for explicit content.
Watch Video: ISIS Terrorist Caught Having Sex With a Donkey, courtesy TheLipTV
Earlier, in another footage, a US military drone caught Taliban fighters having sex with a goat. Is this a hoax too? | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Ford is facing the threat of widespread industrial action after the Unite trade union served notice of a strike ballot at the car manufacturer.
Unite will ballot 2,500 members at Ford UK, whose sites include the east London engine plant that was the recently the subject of the Britcom film Made in Dagenham. In a dispute reminiscent of last year's clash between Unite and Unilever. The union is objecting to Ford's plans to close its final salary pension scheme to newcomers, as well as lowering starter pay rates.
A Unite official said the union "fiercely" opposed the move and warned that the company was close to industrial action. "Ford faces the very real prospect of a strike. Unite will not stand by and allow Ford to create a two tier workforce on pay and pensions. We urge Ford to return to the negotiating table if it wants to avoid this dispute," said Roger Maddison, Unite's national officer. Unite fears that the move will lead, as at Unilever, to the ultimate closure of the final salary scheme.
Ford employs 15,000 staff across the UK. There was a major strike at the company in 1988, when workers at all of Ford's UK plants walked out, and 10 years before that Ford employees went on strike in a dispute over pay that became the first in a wave of union walkouts later termed the winter of discontent. The Transport and General Workers Union, the forebear of Unite, was a key player in the strike. As well as Dagenham, Unite is also balloting a number of sites including Southampton, Halewood in Merseyside and Ford's UK headquarters in Basildon, Essex. Made in Dagenham, starring Sally Hawkins and Bob Hoskins, was based on an industrial dispute led by female machinists at the plant demanding equal pay.
Ford said it remained "willing and available" to hold talks with Unite. "The Company has sought to discuss with the Union the financial challenges of its defined benefit pension funds, which are significantly in deficit. Around 80% of all private sector firms have now closed their defined benefit pension funds to new hires. The Company has categorically confirmed that it has no plans to close its pension funds to existing members and that the funds remain open to existing members," the company said in a statement.
• This article was corrected on 26 April 2012. The original said that the current threatened strike at Ford would be the first since 1978, and quoted Roger Maddison, Unite's national officer, saying: "Ford faces the very real prospect of the first strike since the 1970s." The headline also suggested that the currently mooted industrial action would be the first strike at Ford since the 1970s. These errors have been corrected. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
From running on donations to becoming an international holding company, the Catholic Church's financial past is littered with secrets.
So much that author Gerald Posner wrote hundreds of pages chronicling the institution's financial scandals in his new book, God's Bankers.
A little history:Years ago, the Vatican financed its operations with donations and indulgences, free passes for sins in exchange for money. In the early days, the Vatican made little effort to keep track of finances, which meant the institution was rife with extravagant spending and embezzlement.
After teetering on the edge of bankruptcy several times, the Vatican appointed Bernardino Nogara as its new financial advisor in 1929, who straightened out the church's finances and grew a $92 million investment from Benito Mussolini into almost $1 billion.
World War II also played a huge role in the creation of the Vatican Bank, as well as the unique power it held. As the Allies imposed restrictions on bank accounts, it became harder to move money around.
Nogara created the bank, called the Institute for Religious Works, in 1942 t
o avoid having financial transactions tracked through Western Banks. Because it resided in Vatican City, it was exempt from all wartime restrictions and became "the world's best offshore bank."
The quest to hold onto the money and power that followed resulted in shady deals, cover-ups, and scandals within the Vatican.
1. Making money directly off the murder of Jews during the Holocaust
A German officer admitted to having many war-time spies in the Vatican, one of them potentially being Nogara, the acclaimed and able financial advisor.
During the war, Nogara began investing in Italian insurance companies
which "developed into stakes that profited from the ongoing murder of Europe's Jews," Posner wrote.
Among them, here are some of the craziest schemes revealed in Posner's book.
These companies made money by keeping all financial assets from life insurance policies of deceased Jewish policyholders, and refusing to pay for those still living. But because the Vatican was not a direct insurer, it was never required to pay restitution after the war.
Many financial records were destroyed during the war, and the Vatican refused access to its own records. Therefore, the full scope of the scheme remains unclear.
Meanwhile, the pope at the time refused to publicly denounce anything the Third Reich was doing, even though the Vatican was one of the most informed institutions on the mass killings, long before the Allies discovered anything.
The Vatican Bank was the perfect place to hide billions in stolen wartime loot. The church also aided and saved many Nazi war criminals after the war.
2. Trying to buy fake securities from a Mafia-linked counterfeit ring
In 1973, the U.S Justice Department began looking into a potential role the Vatican Bank played in a counterfeit and stolen securities operation.
According to an 18-month FBI investigation, New York mobsters were planning to sell counterfeit corporate bonds and stock certificates to the Vatican, a $900 million payment in five installments over several months.
A Vatican cardinal planned to use the faked securities as collateral in order to obtain financing. The counterfeit bonds would be undetectable unless the Vatican Bank lost money on its investments and was unable to pay back the loans, at which point the Vatican could claim ignorance of an outside scam.
When confronted with the accusation in a secret meeting in New York, representatives of the Vatican refused to answer any questions. The then-president of the Vatican Bank, Paul Marcinkus, denied any wrongdoing. The investigation could not come up with enough information to charge Marcinkus or anyone in the Vatican.
3. Using $5 million to cover up monks who were squandering donations
After hearing reports that a group of Pauline monks in Philadelphia were involved in a financial scandal, church officials discovered that the monks in question had spent almost $20 million in charitable donations on a life of luxury.
The monks would raise funds for religious projects, yet would spend the money on cars and personal expenses. Despite their high lifestyle, they also defaulted on $4.3 million worth of church bonds. The vicar-general kept a mistress with church money, and took half the salary of friends appointed to monastery jobs.
Half the monks left the order when t
4. Smugging gold into Poland to overthrow the communist regime
he Vatican ordered them to turn over their televisions, stereos, cars and credit cars. To hide the scandal, the Vatican Bank sent more than $5 million to cover the cost of the monks' defaults and pay back creditors. The hush money also helped to avoid being sued or facing criminal charges.
In an effort to fight communism in the 1980s, the Pope authorized the sending of millions in funds to help the Polish resistance, a ten million member organization in Poland called Solidarity.
Marcinkus had an Italian intelligence agent convert $3.5 million in cash into pure gold ingots, then smuggle them into Poland hidden in an SUV. The gold was placed in custom-built double bottoms and on the inside of the SUV doors.
5. Laundering money for the Mafia and other Italian elite
Roberto Calvi, an Italian banker close to the Vatican Bank, said if the church's role ever came to light, it could lead to another world war and the collapse of the Vatican. "If it comes out that you're giving money to Solidarity, there won't be a stone left of St. Peters," Calvi told Marcinkus.
Because of its sovereignty, the Vatican Bank has the ability to withhold account information from regulators and authorities. This secrecy has provided an excellent cover throughout history, as the Vatican moved money here and there to gain illegal profits and power.
"It was not much of a secret that for decades Italy's elite had used the IOR to hide their money," Posner wrote. "One internal review estimated there were approximately 9,300 accounts belonging to 'privileged citizens of Italy,' compared to only 2,500 that met the bank's strict rules. Some accounts were rumored to be proxies for the Spatola and Inzerillo crime families."
In the 1970s, the bank bought a stake in the Italian bank Ambrosiano, which was led by the banker Calvi. For two years, the Vatican Bank moved money around Ambrosiano's accounts, to allow banks and companies to pass financial inspection. Then they'd withdraw the money right after inspection, and keep a cut of the sum.
Ambrosiano later crashed in a massive scandal, and the Vatican paid a $244 million settlement without admitting to any wrongdoing. Calvi faced criminal charges, then died in a murder made to look like a suicide. Rumors swirled around who was responsible for Calvi's death - whispered possibilities including the Mafia and the Vatican.
In 2009, an Italian journalist published a book based on hundreds of internal documents smuggled out of the Vatican Bank that proved fake charity accounts were created and instead used for political donations, laundering, and embezzlement. Even donations to real charity accounts fell into the mix and ended up disappearing.
In 2012, four priests came under investigation for operating bank accounts for the Mafia to launder money.
You can find the full story of money, scandal, and power at the Vatican in Posner's book, God's Bankers. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ:AMZN)—Amazon today announced plans to create more than 5,000 new part-time roles over the next year in Virtual Customer Service, a program in the company’s award-winning customer service organization that offers employees the flexibility to work from home as a customer service agent. In addition to competitive wages, virtually-located employees who work 20 hours per week or more receive benefits, including the company’s innovative Career Choice program that pre-pays 95 percent of tuition for courses related to in-demand fields, regardless of whether those skills are relevant to jobs at Amazon. These new Virtual Customer Service jobs are part of Amazon’s plans to hire more than 30,000 part-time roles over the next year, on top of more than 100,000 full-time, full-benefit jobs the company is creating in the U.S. over the next 18 months. See the experience of a military spouse and Amazonian working in Virtual Customer Service here.
“There are lots of people who want or need a flexible job—whether they’re a military spouse, a college student, or a parent—and we’re happy to empower these talented people no matter where they happen to live,” said Tom Weiland, Amazon Vice President for Worldwide Customer Service. “We’re finding that roles with Virtual Customer Service are particularly attractive to military spouses who want to continue working and parenting, even if their spouse is deployed or the family is relocated, as often happens with military families. Wounded, injured or ill military veterans and others with mobility challenges are also enjoying these opportunities to work from home with Amazon. Both active duty and retired service men and women support our country and we are happy to support them.”
Amazon Virtual Customer Service employee Sabrina Tierce relocated six years ago from central California to Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State where her husband is stationed as an Army medic. “It’s amazing to have a job that offers me the flexibility to care for my child when needed and even to move around the country if we are relocated,” said Tierce. “My commute is about 15 paces. The worst part of my day is if there’s a Lego on the stairway, because that’s a rough commute to work.”
Amazon currently employs more than 10,000 military veterans, and last year pledged to hire an additional 25,000 veterans and military spouses during the next five years.
“Amazon’s commitment and taking an intentional step around military spouse employment truly shows that they do understand the challenges that the community faces and that they can be a part of the solution,” said Kylee Durant, USO Vice President for Transition Technology and Innovation Programs as well as a military spouse. “To have an innovator like Amazon recognize the need – the deep need – that military spouses have for employment says to me they are a catalyst for greater societal change in this country.”
Part-Time Opportunities in Amazon Customer Fulfillment
In addition to Virtual Customer Service roles, Amazon will create more than 25,000 part-time roles over the next year across its network of sortation and fulfillment centers where employees sort and consolidate customer packages. Amazon has nearly 40,000 part-time employees across the U.S. and has found the roles are especially appealing to students and stay-at-home parents looking to earn money during windows of availability in their schedules.
Part-Time Employment with Benefits
Over 70 percent of part-time employees in Amazon’s Virtual Customer Service and Customer Fulfillment work more than 20 hours per week, which means they receive benefits, including life and disability insurance, dental and vision insurance with premiums paid in full by Amazon, and funding towards medical insurance. These part-time employees can also take advantage of the company’s Career Choice program, an innovative benefit that helps train employees for in-demand jobs at Amazon or elsewhere so that they can take full advantage of the nation’s innovation economy. The program pre-pays 95 percent of tuition for courses related to in-demand fields, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a future career at Amazon. More than 9,000 employees have participated in Career Choice and more are signing up every day. Amazon has open-sourced the program and is reaching out to companies to help them copy and adopt their own Career Choice programs.
To learn more about working at Amazon, visit http://www.amazondelivers.jobs/.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.
Forward Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements are inherently difficult to predict. Actual results could differ materially for a variety of reasons, including, in addition to the factors discussed above, the amount that Amazon.com invests in new business opportunities and the timing of those investments, the mix of products and services sold to customers, the mix of net sales derived from products as compared with services, the extent to which we owe income taxes, competition, management of growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, international growth and expansion, the outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment, sortation, delivery, and data center optimization, risks of inventory management, seasonality, the degree to which the Company enters into, maintains, and develops commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, payments risks, and risks of fulfillment throughput and productivity. Other risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to new products, services, and technologies, system interruptions, government regulation and taxation, and fraud. In addition, the current global economic climate amplifies many of these risks. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com’s financial results is included in Amazon.com’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
This app is temporarily off the Apple store. Please come back in late summer 2020 for updates. Thank you!
Was today Romantic, Happy, Flat, Sad, or Angry? What about last week, or the month before that? See your romance at a glance. Through daily reflection and a personalized, color-coded calendar, The Boyfriend Log illuminates positive and negative patterns and makes having a meaningful relationship—or moving on—easier.
"The Boyfriend Log app is simple and practical, yet I've never seen anything like it and can't believe it's never been done before—a mark of something that could very well change the world. I wish I'd thought of it!" Evan Marc Katz, author of Why He Disappeared “Is he the one for you? Take the guesswork out of your love life with the remarkable new Boyfriend App which quickly and easily shows you how to sift out the losers and choose the love of your life by tracking your own heart’s desire!” Arielle Ford, bestselling author of The Soulmate Secret | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Equestrian Technology rough concepts By Earthsong9405 Watch
544 Favourites 87 Comments 11K Views
So this is just a quick sketchdump to better illustrate some of my thoughts on Equestrian technology. There's a LOT I want to explore as far as how their technology works and what it consists of, but for the moment these sketches will have to do. Have some headcanon with that side of drawings! c:
------
As far as my own headcanon goes, Equestrian technology is a unique mixture of primarily magitech, steampunk, medieval tech, and modern tech all wrapped into one. While their technology may not seem to be as polished as our own and, in some aspects, they are dated, in many ways their technology is just as advanced (if not moreso) as our modern tech.
To briefly touch on power, Equestria's primary power sources for their tech include Solar and Moon power, hydropower, wind power, natural magic gems (crystallized magic), magic power, and steam power. They do not use fossil fuel as a source of power.
Now, on to some aspects of their technology: some tech isn't as evolved as others, or simply not as available to the public, based on necessity. For example, while electricity is an available source, indoor lighting for the typical home is often limited to just the main room and kitchen while the rest of the home is lit by candles or gas-based lamps. On the opposite end, indoor plumbing, gas or electric-powered stoves and ovens, and electric-powered fridges are standard editions to the average home.
Then there's of course technology primarily used by those in the workforce, which is the primary focus of this sketchdump. Most of the tech seen here is used by workers who are in need of precision work, heavy work, or to simply have easier grasps on an item as it is worked on, but regardless the function of these gadgets is to make the work environment safer and easier on the worker. Here's some info on each gadget seen:
Saddle Pliers:
Exactly as it sounds like, this gadget is basically a tricked-out metal saddle with fully mobile and rotating arms and "claws" extending from it. The arms are flexible and were invented with wings in mind in terms of its range of motion and overall "anatomy". This contraption's purpose is primarily to aid the user with precision and heavy work, such as blacksmithing, construction, and medical usage. The Claws of the arms tend to have different functions and overall build, depending on the purpose and brand (for example, medical claws are slimmer and build for better precision, while blacksmith claws are often wide, flat, and meant to simply hold items steady or in place as the pony works). This gadget is controlled via an enchanted hardhat or an enchanted headband, which allows the pony to manipulate it through the use of massive magic (no, you don't have to be a unicorn for this to work. Every breed knows how to use magic)
Rectractable fingers horseshoe:
A horseshoe built with the same mechanics of a clawed gauntlet in mind, this show is literally what it says on the tin. The "finges" feathered in the show are three; two primary fingers and a thumb of sorts. When not in use, the fingers are folded and hidden beneath the primary "pad" of its finger. When in use, the fingers extends and is flexable and, when prompted, able to form a makeshift "fist" to grab items. These shoes were made primarily for construction workers, repair workers, computer techs, however it's usefulness can be seen in a wide variety of jobs and activities. It is controlled similarly to the clawed gauntlets: the pony manipulates it using the magic that resides within their hooves.
Camera:
This one is simply a closeup on Featherweight's camera (PS that fullbody pony is indeed a teenaged Featherweight). The sketch is to simply show the overall design of the camera and some of its functions, as well show how a hoofed animal will be able to use it with no problem.
---------
It's a little short at the moment, but I have to get ready for class and leave soon so this should do for now I think. o3o Also ignore my shitty writing. >.>
But as always, if you have questions feel more than free to ask. And thanks for stopping by. ^.^
IMAGE DETAILS Image size 7160x4936px 5.11 MB Show More
Published : Apr 8, 2015 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The CIA is watching over social media, according to a new article from the AP which reveals that the US government pores over 5 million tweets sent on Twitter every day.
Given the rise of social media across the world, news that US intelligence agencies are tapping into the medium to stay informed of conversations across the world is not unexpected. Although its use of the content may surprise you.
With more than 800 million using Facebook and Twitter seeing more than 400 million tweets sent across its service, the CIA’s surveillance team has a lot of noise to short through to garner useful information.
The AP feature explains how the staff at its Open Source Center, referred to as the “vengeful librarians” internally, sort through the clutter of cyberspace to build intelligence reports that analyse international opinion and responses to US activities, amongst other things.
From Arabic to Mandarin Chinese, from an angry tweet to a thoughtful blog, the analysts gather the information, often in native tongue. They cross-reference it with the local newspaper or a clandestinely intercepted phone conversation. From there, they build a picture sought by the highest levels at the White House.
The system apparently enabled the agency to foresee the Egyptian uprising although it was unable to predict exactly when it would hit so said Doug Naquin, the center’s director, to AP in what the news wire says is the first ever media visit to the operations.
A example of the work that the centre carries out came when the US killed Osama Bin Laden earlier this year. The CIA turned to social media to build a report that gave the White House a snapshot of the world’s opinion and reaction to the incident.
Since tweets can’t necessarily be pegged to a geographic location, the analysts broke down reaction by languages. The result: The majority of Urdu tweets, the language of Pakistan, and Chinese tweets, were negative. China is a close ally of Pakistan’s. Pakistani officials protested the raid as an affront to their nation’s sovereignty, a sore point that continues to complicate U.S.-Pakistani relations. When the president gave his speech addressing Mideast issues a few weeks after the raid, the tweet response over the next 24 hours came in negative from Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, the Persian Gulf and Israel, too, with speakers of Arabic and Turkic tweets charging that Obama favored Israel, and Hebrew tweets denouncing the speech as pro-Arab.
So the next time you care to pass comment on US foreign policy, President Obama or the tasty sandwich you just ate, think twice as the CIA and Barack might just be listening.
Find all the latest social media news every day at TNW Social Media.
Read next: Google shows off 1,500 Indian films with redesigned YouTube Movies page | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Budskapet från Moderaternas och Kristdemokraternas väljare är tydligt – partierna borde förhandla eller samarbeta med Sverigedemokraterna i sakfrågor. Det visar en opinionsundersökning som Novus gjort på uppdrag av SVT.
Läs mer: SVT:s nya svar om Åkesson och Lööf
Både KD:s och M:s partiledningar har sagt nej till att förhandla med SD. Ute i landet har det bitvis varit annorlunda. Bland annat har både KD och M ingått i ett fullvärdigt samstyre med SD i Sölvesborg.
I Novus undersökning visar det sig att även en majoritet av KD:s och M:s väljare vill förhandla eller samarbeta med SD. Novus har ställt två frågor.
På den första frågan: ”Tycker du att de andra partierna ska prata politik med SD för att se om det finns någon samsyn i sakfrågorna?” har 83 procent KD-väljare och 85 procent Moderatväljare svarat ja. Som jämförelse svarar bara 29 procent Centerväljare ja.
Den andra frågan gäller om det parti man röstade på borde förhandla eller samarbeta med SD. Här är KD-väljarna mest entusiastiska med 74 procent ja-svar. 67 procent av Moderatväljarna säger också ja till förhandling eller samarbete. Centerväljarna är återigen betydligt mer skeptiska – tolv procent svarar ja.
Bland socialdemokratiska och vänsterpartistiska väljare finns en överväldigande majoritet för att nobba SD. Från Miljöpartiets och Liberalernas väljare kom det in för få svar för att de skulle räknas in i Novus opinionsundersökning.
Statsvetaren Jenny Madestam tycker att partierna misslyckats med att förklara varför man inte vill samtala med SD.
– Frågar man väljaren på gatan så tycker de att det är självklart att sätta sig i en regering eller föra samtal med Sverigedemokraterna. Men så ser det inte ut i partiledningen eftersom man har så många olika hänsyn att ta. Både internt i partiet där det finns olika åsikter och till olika samarbetspartners, säger Jenny Madestam till SVT.
Prova PLUS för 69 kronor i månaden. Köp nu! | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The United Kingdom is often held up as a successful example of gun control by those on the left. But a recent poll by the Daily Telegraph, one of England's most widely-read publications, shows Britons themselves are far from sold on the laws.
In a poll asking readers what laws they would like to see introduced or changed, an overwhelming number of voters chose "repeal the ban on hand guns and re-open shooting clubs."
"After all, why should only criminals be 'allowed' to possess guns and shoot unarmed, defenceless citizens and police officers?" reader Colliemum wrote. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The mystery surrounding Heath Ledger's death deepened yesterday, when it emerged that the actress Mary-Kate Olsen is refusing to co-operate with investigators trying to establish how the Dark Knight star got hold of the powerful painkillers that caused his accidental fatal overdose.
Olsen has twice told Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officers that she will only give evidence about Ledger's death if they grant her immunity from any future prosecution. Her lawyer, Michael C Miller, is refusing to grant access to his client without a guarantee of immunity that protects her "constitutional rights".
The actress was a close friend of Ledger, and remains a central figure in the DEA investigation because she was also the first person called by the masseuse who discovered Ledger's body at his apartment in New York's SoHo district. Her initial reaction to his death raised eyebrows. Instead of telephoning the emergency services, she sent her personal bodyguard to the scene; he arrived at Ledger's flat shortly after the first paramedics, at around 3pm on 22 January.
Download the new Independent Premium app Sharing the full story, not just the headlines
DEA officials now say that they need to question Olsen to conclude their investigation into Ledger's death.
Although her lawyer said in a statement this week that Olsen had "nothing whatsoever to do with the drugs found in Ledger's home or his body" and did not know where he had obtained them from, he did not elaborate on her reasons for refusing the interview.
"Regarding the government's investigation, at Ms Olsen's request, we have provided the government with relevant information including facts in the chronology of events surrounding Mr Ledger's death and the fact that Ms Olsen does not know the source of the drugs Mr. Ledger consumed," he said.
The revelation has provoked intense speculation about what, if anything, Olsen may be trying to hide. The actress, who with her twin sister Ashley became famous as a teenage star of the television show Full House, was rumoured to be involved in a relationship with Ledger, 28.
Shortly before Ledger's funeral, she released a statement through her publicist, saying: "Heath was a friend. His death is a tragic loss. My thoughts are with his family."
Everyone else connected with Ledger and his death, including his doctors, the masseuse, his housekeepers, and business associates, have voluntarily co-operated with the DEA investigation.
Michelle Williams, who appeared with Ledger in Brokeback Mountain and is the mother of his daughter Matilda, also agreed to be interviewed by officials, according to the New York Post, which revealed details of Olsen's refusal to co-operate. "Ms Williams was extremely nice and cooperative," a DEA source told the newspaper. Another added: "Everyone has been very eager to help, saying what a great guy Heath Ledger was, everyone except Mary-Kate, who has refused to speak."
The authorities have now obtained a subpoena that could force 22-year-old Olsen to appear before a grand jury, should further negotiations with her lawyer fail.
Ledger's death was caused by an accidental drug overdose, according to the official ruling of New York's medical examiner. DEA officials have discovered that all the drugs found in his body were legally obtained from two physicians, with the exception of two painkillers: OxyContin and Vicodin.
They are now "trying to identify the source," of those painkillers, to determine whether they came from a fake prescription or were illegally obtained by other means "Did they come from a dealer, from a friend?" an official asked in the Post. "If he had a bottle from a friend, was it taken by someone else before police responded? That is what is trying to be determined." | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Pirated movie release types are the different types of pirated movies that end up on the Internet. They vary wildly in rarity and quality due to the different sources and methods used for acquiring the video content, in addition to encoding formats. Pirated movie releases may be derived from cams, which have distinctly low quality; screener and workprint discs or digital distribution copies (DDC), telecine copies from analog reels, video on demand (VOD) or TV recordings, and DVD and Blu-ray rips.
History [ edit ]
Pirated movies are usually released in several formats and different versions as better sources become available. The versions are usually encoded in the popular formats at the time of encoding. The sources for pirated copies have often changed with time in response to technology or anti-piracy measures.
Cams [ edit ]
Cam releases were the early attempts at movie piracy which were implemented by recording the on-screen projection of a movie in a cinema. This enabled groups to pirate movies which were in their theatrical period (not released for personal entertainment). Alternative methods were sought, as these releases often suffered distinctly low quality and required undetected videotaping in movie theaters.
Beginning in 1998, feature films began to be released on the internet by warez groups prior to their theatrical release. These pirated versions usually came in the form of VCD or SVCD. A prime example was the release of American Pie.[1] This is notable for three reasons:
It was released in an uncensored workprint format. The later theatrical release was cut down by several minutes and had scenes reworked to avoid nudity to pass MPAA guidelines. It was released nearly two months prior to its release in theaters (CNN Headline News reported on its early release).[ citation needed ] It was listed by the movie company as one of the reasons it released an unrated DVD edition.[ citation needed ]
DVD and VOD ripping [ edit ]
DivX [ edit ]
In October 1999, DeCSS was released. This program allowed anyone to remove the CSS encryption on a DVD. Although its authors only intended the software to be used for playback purposes,[citation needed] it also meant that one could decode the content perfectly for ripping; combined with the DivX 3.11 Alpha codec released shortly after, the new codec increased video quality from near VHS to almost DVD quality when encoding from a DVD source.
Xvid [ edit ]
The early DivX releases were mostly internal for group use, but once the codec spread, it became accepted as a standard and quickly became the most widely used format for the scene. With help from associates who either worked for a movie theater, movie production company, or video rental company, groups were supplied with massive amounts of material, and new releases began appearing at a very fast pace. When version 4.0 of DivX was released, the codec went commercial and the need for a free codec, Xvid (then called "XviD", "DivX" backwards), was created. Later, Xvid replaced DivX entirely. Although the DivX codec has evolved from version 4 to 10.6 during this time, it is banned[2] in the warez scene due to its commercial nature.
x264 [ edit ]
In February 2012, a consortium of popular piracy groups officially announced x264, the free H.264 codec, as the new standard for releases,[3] replacing the previous format, which was Xvid wrapped in an AVI container. The move to H.264 also obsoletes AVI in favor of MP4 and Matroska that most commonly uses .MKV file name extension
x265 (HEVC) [ edit ]
With the increasing popularity of online movie-streaming sites like Netflix, some movies are being ripped from such websites now and are being encoded in HEVC wrapped in Matroska containers. This codec allows a high-quality movie to be stored in a relatively smaller file size.
Release formats [ edit ]
Below is a table of pirated movie release types along with respective sources, ranging from the lowest quality to the highest. Scene rules define in which format and way each release type is to be packaged and distributed.[4]
Type Label Popularity Cam[5] CAM-Rip
CAM
HDCAM Common; low quality video and sound Telesync[6] TS
HDTS
TELESYNC
PDVD
PreDVDRip Uncommon Workprint[5] WP [7]
WORKPRINT Extremely rare Telecine[5] TC
HDTC
TELECINE Very rare Pay-Per-View Rip[8] PPV
PPVRip Very rare, WEB-DL is preferred Screener[5] SCR
SCREENER
DVDSCR
DVDSCREENER
BDSCR Uncommon Digital Distribution Copy or
Downloadable/Direct Digital Content[9] DDC Rare R5[10] R5
R5.LINE
R5.AC3.5.1.HQ Rare DVD-Rip DVDRip
DVDMux Rare, BD/Bluray is preferred DVD-R DVDR
DVD-Full
Full-Rip
ISO rip
lossless rip
untouched rip
DVD-5
DVD-9 Common HDTV, PDTV or DSRip[11] DSR
DSRip
SATRip
DTHRip
DVBRip
HDTV
PDTV
DTVRip
TVRip
HDTVRip Common VODRip VODRip
VODR Very rare, WEBCap is preferred WEB-DL (P2P) WEBDL
WEB DL
WEB-DL
HDRip
WEB-DLRip Extremely common WEBRip WEBRip (P2P)
WEB Rip (P2P)
WEB-Rip (P2P)
WEB (Scene) Common, WEB-DL is preferred WEBCap WEB-Cap
WEBCAP
WEB Cap Common, WEB-DL is preferred HC HD-Rip HC
HD-Rip Common, WEB-DL is preferred Blu-ray/BD/BRRip Blu-Ray
BluRay
BLURAY
BDRip
BRip
BRRip
BDMV
BDR [12]
BD25
BD50
BD5
BD9 Extremely Common
A Cam is a copy made in a cinema using a camcorder or mobile phone. The sound source is the camera microphone. Cam rips can quickly appear online after the first preview or premiere of the film. The quality ranges from subpar to adequate, depending on the group of persons performing the recording and the resolution of the camera used. The main disadvantage of this is the sound quality. The microphone does not only record the sound from the movie, but also the background sound in the cinema. The camera can also record movements and audio of the audience in the theater, for instance, when someone stands up in front of the screen, or when the audience laughs at a funny moment in the film.
Telesync [ edit ]
A telesync (TS) is a bootleg recording of a film recorded in a movie theater, sometimes filmed using a professional camera on a tripod in the projection booth. The main difference between a CAM and TS copy is that the audio of a TS is captured with a direct connection to the sound source (often an FM microbroadcast provided for the hearing-impaired, or from a drive-in theater). Often, a cam is mislabeled as a telesync. HDTS is used to label a High-definition video recording.
Workprint [ edit ]
A Workprint is a copy made from an unfinished version of a film produced by the studio. Typically a workprint has missing effects and overlays, and differs from its theatrical release. Some workprints have a time index marker running in a corner or on the top edge; some may also include a watermark. A workprint might be an uncut version, and missing some material that would appear in the final movie (or including scenes later cut).
Telecine [ edit ]
A Telecine is a copy captured from a film print using a machine that transfers the movie from its analog reel to digital format. These were rare because telecine machines for making these prints were very costly and very large. However, they have recently become much more common. Telecine has basically the same quality as DVD, since the technique is the same as digitizing the actual film to DVD. However, the result is inferior since the source material is usually a lower quality copy reel. Telecine machines usually cause a slight left-right jitter in the picture and have inferior color levels compared to DVD. HDTC is used to label a High-definition video recording.
PPV Rip [ edit ]
PPVRips come from Pay-Per-View sources. All the PPVRip releases are brand new movies which have not yet been released to Screener or DVD, but are available for viewing by customers with high-end TV package deals.
Screener [ edit ]
Screeners are early DVD or BD releases of the theatrical version of a film, typically sent to movie reviewers, Academy members, and executives for review purposes. A screener normally has a message overlaid on its picture, with wording similar to: "The film you are watching is a promotional copy. If you purchased this film at a retail store, please contact 1-800-NO-COPIES to report it." or more commonly if released for awards consideration simply, "FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION." Apart from this, some movie studios release their screeners with a number of scenes of varying duration shown in black-and-white. Aside from this message, and the occasional B&W scenes, screeners are normally of only slightly lower quality than a retail DVD-Rip, due to the smaller investment in DVD mastering for the limited run. Some screener rips with the overlay message get cropped to remove the message and get released mislabeled as DVD-Rips.
Note: Screeners make a small exception here—since the content may differ from a retail version, it can be considered as lower quality than a DVD-Rip (even if the screener in question was sourced from a DVD).
DDC [ edit ]
A digital distribution copy (DDC) is basically the same as a Screener, but sent digitally (FTP, HTTP, etc.) to companies instead of via the postal system. This makes distribution cheaper. Its quality is lower than one of a R5, but higher than a Cam or Telesync.
In the warez scene DDC refers to Downloadable/Direct Digital Content which is not freely available.
R5 [ edit ]
What is known as an R5 is a studio produced unmastered telecine put out quickly and cheaply to compete against telecine piracy in Russia. The R5 tag refers to the DVD region 5 which consists of Russia, the Indian subcontinent, most of Africa, North Korea, and Mongolia. R5 releases differ from normal releases in that they are a direct Telecine transfer of the film without any of the image processing. If the DVD does not contain an English-language audio track, the R5 video is synced to a previously released English audio track. Then a LiNE tag is added.[13] This means that the sound often is not as good as DVD-Rips. To account for the lesser audio quality typically present in R5 releases, some release groups take the high quality Russian or Ukrainian 5.1 channel audio track included with the R5 DVD and modify it with audio editing software. They remove the non-English spoken portion of the audio and sync the remaining portion, which contains high quality sound effects and music with a previously recorded source of English vocals usually taken from a LiNE tagged release. The result of this process is an almost retail DVD quality surround sound audio track which is included in the movie release. Releases of this type are normally tagged AC3.5.1.HQ and details about what was done to the audio track as well as the video are present in the release notes accompanying the pirated movie.[14]
DVD Rip [ edit ]
A DVD-Rip is a final retail version of a film, typically released before it is available outside its originating region. Often after one group of pirates releases a high-quality DVD-Rip, the "race" to release that film will stop. The release is an AVI file and uses the XviD codec (some in DivX) for video, and commonly mp3 or AC3 for audio. Because of their high quality, DVD-Rips generally replace any earlier copies that may already have been circulating. Widescreen DVDs used to be indicated as WS.DVDRip. DVDMux differs from DVDRips as they tend to use the x264 codec for video, AAC or AC3 codec for audio and multiplex it on a .mp4/.mkv file.
DVD-R refers to a final retail version of a film in DVD format, generally a complete copy from the original DVD. If the original DVD is released in the DVD-9 format, however, extras might be removed and/or the video reencoded to make the image fit the less expensive for burning and quicker to download DVD-5 format. DVD-R releases often accompany DVD-Rips. DVD-R rips are larger in size, generally filling up the 4.37 or 7.95 GiB provided by DVD-5 and DVD-9 respectively. Untouched or lossless rips in the strictest sense are 1:1 rips of the source, with nothing removed or changed, though often the definition is lightened to include DVDs which have not been transcoded, and no features were removed from the user's perspective, removing only restrictions and possible nuisances such as copyright warnings and movie previews.
TV Rip [ edit ]
TVRip is a capture source from an analog capture card (coaxial/composite/s-video connection). Digital satellite rip (DSR, also called SATRip or DTH) is a rip that is captured from a non-standard definition digital source like satellite. HDTV stands for captured source from HD television, while PDTV (Pure Digital TV) stands for any SDTV rip captured using solely digital methods from the original transport stream, not from HDMI or other outputs from a decoder, it can also refer to any standard definition content broadcast on a HD channel. DVB rips often come from free-the-air transmissions (such as digital terrestrial television). With an HDTV source, the quality can sometimes even surpass DVD. Movies in this format are starting to grow in popularity. Some advertisement and commercial banner can be seen on some releases during playback.
Analog, DSR, and PDTV sources used to be often reencoded to 512×384 if fullscreen, currently to 640x480 if fullscreen and 720x404 if widescreen. HDTV sources are reencoded to multiple resolutions such as 720x404 (360p), 960×540 (540p), 1280×720 (720p), and 1920x1080 (1080p) at various file sizes for pirated releases. They can be progressive scan captured or not (480i digital transmission or 1080i broadcast for HD caps).
VOD Rip [ edit ]
VODRip stands for Video-On-Demand Rip. This can be done by recording or capturing a video/movie from an On-Demand service such as through a cable or satellite TV service. Most services will state that ripping or capturing films is a breach of their use policy, but it is becoming more and more popular as it requires little technology or setup. There are many online On-Demand services that would not require one to connect their TV and computer. It can be done by using software to identify the video source address and downloading it as a video file which is often the method that bears the best quality end result. However, some people have used screen cams which effectively record, like a video camera, what is on a certain part of the computer screen, but does so internally, making the quality not of HD quality, but nevertheless significantly better than a Cam or Telesync version filmed from a cinema, TV or computer screen.
Web Download [ edit ]
WEB-DL (P2P) refers to a file losslessly ripped from a streaming service, such as Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, Crunchyroll, Discovery GO, BBC iPlayer, etc., or downloaded via an online distribution website such as iTunes. The quality is quite good, since they are not reencoded. The video (H.264 or H.265) and audio (AC3/AAC) streams are usually extracted from the iTunes or Amazon Video and remuxed into a MKV container without sacrificing quality. An advantage with these releases is that, like BD/DVDRips, they usually have no onscreen network logos. HDRips are typically transcoded versions of HDTV or WEB-DL source files, but may be any type of HD transcode.
Web Rip [ edit ]
In a WEB-Rip (P2P), the file is often extracted using the HLS or RTMP/E protocols and remuxed from a TS, MP4 or FLV container to MKV.
Web Capture [ edit ]
A WEBCap is a rip created by capturing video from a DRM-enabled streaming service, such as Amazon Prime Video or Netflix. Quality can range from mediocre (comparable with low quality XVID encodes) to excellent (comparable with high quality BR encodes). Essentially, the quality of the image obtained depends on internet connection speed and the specifications of the recording machine. WEBCaps are often labeled as WEBRips, with a note attached by the encoder to let others know it was capped & encoded instead of losslessly remuxed.
HC HD Rip [ edit ]
In a HC HDRip, HC stands for hard-coded subtitles. This format is released shortly after the movie leaves theaters. Usually sourced from Korean VOD services like Naver. The quality is lower than a WEB as it is screen recorded. The reason as this is a less preferred option Is because of the subtitles being baked into the video, and cannot be removed. P2P groups have released blurred copies, which have the subtitles blurred or blocked.
BD Rip [ edit ]
Blu-ray or Bluray rips are encoded directly from the Blu-ray disc to 1080p or 720p (depending on disc source), and use the x264 or x265 codec. They can be ripped from BD25 or BD50 discs (or UHD Blu-ray at higher resolutions). BDRips are from a Blu-ray disc and encoded to a lower resolution from its source (i.e. 1080p to 720p/576p/480p). BRRips are an already encoded video at HD resolution that is then transcoded to an SD resolution. BRRips are only from an HD resolution to a SD resolution whereas BDRips can go from 2160p to 1080p, etc as long as they go downward in resolution of the source disc. BDRips are not a transcode, but BRRips are. BD/BRRips in DVDRip resolutions can vary between XviD/x264/x265 codecs (commonly 700 MB and 1.5 GB in size as well as larger DVD5 or DVD9: 4.5 GB or 8.4GB). Size fluctuates depending on length and quality of releases, but the higher the size the more likely they use the x264/x265 codecs. A BD/BRRip to DVDRip resolution looks better, regardless, because the encode is from a higher quality source. BDRips and BRRips are often confused with each other, but have followed the above guideline after Blu-ray replaced BDRip title structure in scene releases.
Full BD25/BD50 data rips also exist, and are similar to their counterpart DVD5/DVD9 full data releases. They are AVCHD compatible using the BD folder structure (sometimes called Bluray RAW/m2ts/iso), and are usually intended to be burnt back to disk for play in AVCHD-compatible Blu-ray players. BD25/BD50 data rips may or may not be remuxed and are never transcoded.
BD and BR Rips come in various (now possibly outdated) versions:
m-720p (or mini 720p) a compressed version of a 720p and usually sized at around 2–3 GB. 720p usually around 4–7 GB and is the most downloaded form of BDRip. m-1080p (or mini 1080p) usually a little bit larger than 720p. 1080p can be anywhere from 8 GB to as large as 40–60 GB. mHD (or mini HD) encoded in the same resolution but at a lower bitrate and are smaller in size. µHD (or micro HD) fine-tuned AVC+AC3 encoding in an MP4 container aimed at 1 to 3 GB per feature movie, keeping 1920 pixels of horizontal resolution with a 2 to 2.5 Mbit/s.
Common abbreviations [ edit ] | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Heroic Hollywood's super-scooper El Mayimbe dropped by the Shanilan On Batman podcast and discussed the villains of Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
He explains that Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) is going to be the primary antagonist, like Grand Moff Tarkin was in Star Wars. Many people would say Darth Vader was the main villain of Star Wars, but he was actually more like the muscle. Batman v Superman has its own muscle, and that is Doomsday's role in the film.
This is not the first time we have heard that Doomsday will be in the film. We, ComicBook.com, actually reported on this back in January and have some major spoilers regarding how he appears in the film, which is very different from his comic origin. You can read that by clicking here.
My own sources have informed me that Doomsday will be a blend of practical and computer-generated effects.
El Mayimbe then goes on to say the "Tell me... do you bleed?" portion of the Batman v Superman footage is actually from a "dream sequence."
You can listen to it at the 38 minute mark.
Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is in theaters March 25, 2016. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
訴訟大国アメリカでは家族を訴えることも珍しくない。しかし、先日ある男性（40）が両親に対し提起した訴訟の理由があまりにも情けないと話題となっている。ミシガン州のニュースサイトWILX10が伝えた。
この男性は2016年、離婚をきっかけにミシガン州の実家に出戻り、家賃を払うかわりに家事をして暮らしていた。10カ月後には追い出されてインディアナ州に引っ越したが、その際に実家から私物を入れて送ってもらった箱がいくつか紛失していることに気が付いた。男性が両親にその旨を伝えると、ポルノビデオやアダルトグッズが詰まったダンボール箱14個を廃棄したと告げられたという。
男性は激怒し弁護士のもとへと駆け込み、両親を相手取って訴訟を起こした。訴状によると、捨てられたコレクションには28,000ドル（約313万円）以上の価値があり、買い戻すには40,000ドル（約447万円）はかかると主張。さらに損害賠償を上乗せして87,000ドル（約974万円）の支払いを求めている。
訴状にはその大切なコレクションの内訳も記載されており、400本を超えるVHSテープ、1,600枚以上のDVD、160枚以上のCD-ROM、さらに70個超のアダルトグッズが含まれていた。
男性はメールで「もし、父さんと母さんがが僕の持ち物に問題があると考えたのなら、その時に直接言うべきだった。そうすれば目の届かないところに隔離したはずだ。でも、あなたたちは黙って悪意のある行動に出た」と抗議。これに対して父親は「信じてくれないかもしれないが、私がお前のポルノを捨てたのは、お前自身の精神上の健康のためだった。もしクラックコカインを1キロ見つけていても同じようにしただろう。いつか、理解してくれることを願っている」と返信したという。
実は、この訴訟は犯罪性も事件性も皆無であることから、これまで二度にわたり検察に棄却されている。しかし男性は諦めず、つい先日三度目の訴訟提起を行った。
Twitterでは、「40,000ドル！ すごいコレクションなんだろうね（笑）」「どうしようもない負け犬だな」「誰か、インターネットというものがあるって彼に教えてあげて」と嘲笑の的になっている。 | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
The interior (gallery below) would have surprised them.
It’s unlike anything else you’ll see in Center City residential living, particularly for the time it was built. Some call the interior sterile, some call it beautiful. The architects thought of it as sculpture.
It has many attributes buyers are looking for in city homes but can’t often find: It’s flooded with light; it has off-street parking for multiple cars; it offers spaces to serve as rental units; it has a roof deck and a garden courtyard. Yet it’s very much in the middle of the action.
THE FINE PRINT
Beds: 3
Baths: 5
Square feet, indoor: 5,900
Square feet, outdoor: 2,000 (private courtyard garden)
Price: $4.4 million
Latimer House
•Listing: 241 S. 12th Street, Philadelphia | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
VLADIMIR NABOKOV famously demanded that interviewers supply him in advance with written questions to which he would reply in writing, dismissing or bending inquiries with the deftness of a good trial lawyer, indulging or patronizing interviewers as he pleased. Critics deemed him an autocrat imperiously stage-managing his image, as though literary interviews weren’t already understood as a species of theater. Nonetheless, in his final interview, months before his death, Nabokov explained his reasons for expecting written Q-and-As. When the interviewer from The Listener flatteringly notes, “this admirable method ensures there will be no dull patches,” Nabokov replies:
I’m not a dull speaker, I’m a bad speaker, I’m a wretched speaker. The tape of my unprepared speech differs from my written prose as much as the worm differs from the perfect insect — or, as I once put it, I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.
Old Nabokov hands will recognize in the reply the distinctive Nabokovian charm, that mingling of hauteur and feigned self-deprecation that drives some readers and critics mad, while the rest of us can’t get enough. In Conversations with Vladimir Nabokov, Robert Golla collects 28 interviews and profiles of the author written between 1958, when Lolita was first published in the United States, and 1977, the year of Nabokov’s death at age 78. Five of the interviews previously appeared in Nabokov’s own miscellany, Strong Opinions (1973). One longs for a similar set of conversations from Nabokov’s younger days in Germany, France, and, after 1940, his adopted home, the United States. It was “Hurricane Lolita,” as John Shade refers to his creator’s novel in Pale Fire, that turned the middle-aged, Russian-born academic, lepidopterist, husband, father, and novelist of genius into a media sensation. Early interviewers, most of them journalists, didn’t know what to make of Nabokov. The émigré aesthete was taken by some to be a pornographer or pedophile. In a 1958 television interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (available on YouTube), Nabokov makes it clear he inhabited none of the conventional pigeonholes: “First of all, I do not wish to touch hearts and I don’t want to affect minds very much. What I want to produce is really that little sob in the spine of the artist-reader.”
The best-written profile in Conversations dates from 1959 and was published in an unlikely venue, Sports Illustrated. “An Absence of Wood Nymphs” (available at the Sports Illustrated website) was written by Robert H. Boyle, and it stands on its own as a perfect little gem of an essay. Boyle, who died in May of this year at age 88, accompanied Nabokov and his wife on a butterfly collecting trip to Arizona. He prepared himself by reading his subject’s books and researching the butterflies of the Southwest, and then wove what he learned into a Nabokovian narrative for the readers of an American sports magazine. Boyle builds a nicely ironical sense of suspense into his story: will Nabokov capture Nabokov’s wood nymph, the species he discovered in the Grand Canyon in 1941 and to which he gave his name? At the conclusion of his story Boyle writes:
He walked up a dirt road alone. Mrs. Nabokov lent her net to their visitor. With a whoop of joy, the visitor snared a white-winged beauty. Cupping it in his hands, he showed it to Nabokov who dismissed it airily. “A winged cliché.” It had been a poor day for hunting. There would be other days to come, but the visitor wouldn’t be there. As the car swung out for the journey home, Nabokov spread his arms and said sadly, “What can I say? What is there to say? I am ashamed for the butterflies. I apologize for the butterflies.”
The apology was, of course, gracefully rejected.
Speaking of “winged clichés,” it’s amusing to watch as interviewers and writers over the decades ask identical questions and note identical scene-setting details in the narrative filler between scraps of conversation. Invariably, reference is made to the novelist’s Russian-by-way-of-Cambridge accent and to the whiteness of Véra Nabokov’s hair. Even Boyle, the best writer in the bunch, calls her “snow-haired.”
Conversations includes two pieces by the late Alfred J. Appel Jr., who for some of us in the ’60s and ’70s served as Nabokov’s St. Paul. He had been a student of the novelist at Cornell, co-edited a collection of essays about him, and published Nabokov’s Dark Cinema and The Annotated Lolita. In the latter, he rivals Charles Kinbote in feats of manic pedantry. (Joseph Epstein said of Appel: “He is the only person I know who it is possible to imagine might have begun a composition with a parenthesis.”) In his 1967 interview, Appel’s questions are consistently longer than Nabokov’s answers.
In contrast to Appel is the more laconic, less sycophantic approach of James Mossman. Here is the concluding exchange in his Listener interview from 1969:
JM: Which is the worst thing men do?
VN: To stink, to cheat, to torture.
JM: Which is the best?
VN: To be kind, to be proud, to be fearless.
Some readers, confusing writing with writer, will be surprised by Nabokov’s conservatism and traditional moral sense. He was a proud American, stalwart anticommunist, friend of William F. Buckley (who once gave a delighted Nabokov a button saying “Fuck Communism”), and dutiful husband and father who wrote a great book about a pedophile’s criminal passion for a little girl. Nabokov’s politics, or their absence, should not surprise us. Politics claimed his father, brother, and homeland. He jealously guarded the autonomy of his art from alien incursions, whether by Stalinists, Nazis, or other thugs and schemers. Nabokov told Alvin Toffler in his 1964 interview with Playboy:
Since my youth — I was 19 when I left Russia — my political creed has remained as bleak and changeless as an old gray rock. It is classical to the point of triteness. Freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of art. The social or economic structure of the ideal state is of little concern to me. My desires are modest. Portraits of the head of the government should not exceed a postage stamp in size. No torture and no executions.
Almost uniquely, Nabokov mingles tenderness with a ferocious sense of comedy. At the chromosomal level, Nabokov eschews the vulgarity of naïve realism, the didactic, and engagé. He casually dismisses Freud, Dostoyevsky, Sartre, and other stalwarts of midcentury enlightened taste. With Alvin Toffler, he plays his familiar role as agent provocateur: “A work of art has no importance whatever to society. It is only important to the individual, and only the individual reader is important to me. I don’t give a damn for the group, the community, the masses, and so forth.” And after one of Appel’s windy windups (focusing on the persistence of ideology among Russian writers), he gets Nabokov to say: “My aversion to groups is rather a matter of temperament than the fruit of information and thought. I was born that way and have despised ideological coercion instinctively all my life.”
Nabokov died 40 years ago. His work has spawned a thriving academic industry. More importantly, he still attracts uncommon common readers. Their likely reason for picking up his books, apart from whatever titillation may still adhere to 62-year-old Lolita, is the pleasure (literary, not salacious) he reliably supplies to the thoughtful and persistent. Nabokov called it “aesthetic bliss.” “Remarks are not literature,” remarked Gertrude Stein, a writer Nabokov no doubt detested. A collection of conversations, even those as playfully impudent as Nabokov’s, are no substitute for reading The Gift, “Signs and Symbols,” Pnin, Pale Fire, and Speak, Memory. I suspect Conversations will find its ideal “artist-readers” among two divergent groups. First, those like this writer who have been reading Nabokov’s prose for half a century and remain hungry for more. The other group, arguably, is more important: fledgling readers for whom Nabokov is a dirty rumor or, worse, required reading in an English Lit class. Nabokov expects much of his readers, and he rewards them. As he told The Spectator in 1959:
There seem to be three levels of readership: at the bottom, those who go after “human interest”; in the middle, the people who want ideas, packaged thought about Life and Truth; at the top, the proper readers, who go for style.
¤
Patrick Kurp is a writer living in Houston, and the author of the literary blog Anecdotal Evidence. | {
"pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2"
} |
Subsets and Splits